Review from owners with a m17 or m17x

Hey guys my name is jay and im pretty new to this forum. I am looking to by the alienware m17 or a m17x with just the basic setup . Not really a big time gamer but just want decent graphics and i loved the design for the laptop. I was wandering if i can get some reviews from owners that own a m17x laptop and how long u have had it for ? Did u have and major problems with the laptop? Basically i want to no if i should get a alienware m17x because my friend got a m17 around march but he has been going through a lot of problems with customer service and his laptop has came in very crappy from the start . And he just got it back today . So should i get an alienware or a different laptop all together ?

 

if you want AW for the look then that is your choice

but i can tell you there are equal computers for less out there.....

AW is great i owned a m17 and i had nothing but great things to say, that being said i would reccomend AW but it is your choice wether you want to pay for the name and looks

i got the base M17x and i will be using it to game. The single 260m GTX will play any game out so i am not worried about that.

The M17x has no real issues ... i am on here alot and other then driver acting funny which is normal btw it is a solid laptop with great looks and specs.

If you do want to get a different laptop just let me know and i can help find you one .... or if you choose to get a AW i'll still help

 

Hey thanks a lot for your review! Yeah i just liked the way it lit up as i do game sometimes at night. Im also thinking of maybe getting a blueray player and burner as a add on to the laptop? I was wandering how well it plays and is it worth getting it for 300?

 

oh and yes please recommend similar laptops

 

similar components or similar sizes or similar prices?

i reccomend getting everythign base then upgrade the screen.

Bluray players are only 128$ at walmart and only getting cheaper

so i say no on getting the blu ray ... just upgrade the screen

 

The M17x is definatly an extremly high-end gaming notebook. But as its been said before, you can probably find something for what you need for less.

what all are you going to be using it for?
and what games are you going to be playing?

 

similar components and same size screen . My price range is around 2,000 $

 

do you really want back light keyboard ?

 

well i want to play Wow with decent graphics. Counterstrike 1.6 and source. The new battlefield. Also i like watching movies so just good screen to watch netflix. And of course since im just starting 1st year in community college just something i cant put my hw and stuff on it . I am sure getting destop is better but i just wanted to take my gaming to places instead of just gaming at home. Just need a laptop that will play games for a couple of years and a laptop that wont crash

 

im pretty sure i can live without the lighting .

 

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5797-custom-sager-notebook-built-clevo-m570etu-p-2540.html

sager

Will play WoW very nicely

also any other game out


The M17 is still a good deal though
i have owned one and they will rock WoW

http://www.xoticpc.com/force-extreme-built-flextronics-arima-w840-ocznbim17a-w840di-p-2495.html

that is a M17 but from a different seller, EXACT same laptop AW just paints it and adds a Lid. You can get the lid off ebay and i wrote a guide on how to install it

 

Oh and i am really worried about laptops burning up . like my friend has a sony viao and a hp laptop and they both burned out . So it has to be a laptop that wont be burning up much. only using it for about 2-3 hours a day.

 

none of the laptops i have reccomended have overheating issues

 

hey okay sorry but i just looked at the sager . Pretty nice computer. I came across it saying that the video card was upgradable ? does that mean that i can change the graphic card If say a new one thats better later? Is this possible for the m17x ?

 

yes the M17x can be upgraded to better cards then the sager because it is MXM3.0 which is newer then the Sager.

The Sager has not more cards to upgrade to.

 

Okay thanks alot ! Im really dont no anything bout computers. I mite go with the m17x just seing the price with the other laptops are pretty similar and the design for the AW just kicks . I just want to here from a couple more owners make sure they didnt have any bad experience with the laptop of the customer service

 

The M17x has Dell customer service not AW so don't worry about that

and if you do get it then good luck and hope you come back

 

The Sager laptop has a $145 Bluray drive though. I sit in the middle, I recently had purchased a horribly assembled m15x and then was slapped with a 15% restocking fee because nothing really worked on it and Windows kept crashing when starting. However, before that I purchased my desktop (in signature) and have to say I've never really had any problems with it. So I've had one bad, and one good experience with Alienware. Sager on the other hand is cheaper with just as good of quality (from what I hear). Alienware however is more or less the same hardware but your paying for the sweet name and casing.

I went with the 15" unibody Macbook Pro after my horrible experience with Alienware this last time. $500 dollars in restocking fees, and over $100 to ship the laptop back. The great news is that I'm a college student and received $200 off the Macbook Pro, received a free iPod touch (I had to buy upfront but received a rebate shortly after), and then sold the iPod touch on eBay making an additional $200 bucks. So I saved $200 bucks on my configured laptop which turned out to be around $2,400; and then made $400 bucks from the rebate and selling the iPod touch. I only play World of Warcraft so I didn't really need a high end gaming laptop when it boiled down to searching for something else to fill the void the m15x left. /cries, the MBP is great though can't complain at all. Good luck, keep us informed with what you decide friend!

 

The customer service I had at Dell for this laptop was great, easily the best customer service I've had at a computer company in the last 3-4 years. I cannot say the same thing for the laptop itself (on the laptop they sent me, screen was really bad), but service-wise Dell is great.

 

I love my m17 to bits, i think that buying the quad from eBay was an excellent decision (thanks to NBR anyway)

for the bang for the buck i think the m17 is excellent, and i would rather have Xfired 3870's over a single 280 and prob over sli'd 260's

 

My M17 has so far really impressed me, and it's an incredible machine, destroying every game I've thrown at it. Even with a lower end duo (2.66GHz), the dual cards and the nice screen with a good hard drive it should be less than $2000 and rock anything you throw at it.

It's very nicely made and I love the matte finish, the only grease on it is on the glossy screen border. The keyboard backlighting sadly isn't brilliant, quite uneven and red is really dim, but it's better than most normal keyboards. The laptop isn't too thick and heavy compared to other gaming notebooks and the 12-cell battery is good for two hours or more if you're doing low power work on it (a little under an hour under full load ).

And it will keep the components plenty cool enough.

 

i highly recommend crossfire
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4547676&postcount=64

gives you the egde in games.

 

Aren't some of the W90 owners complaining right now about ATI drivers? or am I confusing it with another system.

 

nope the 4870's on the w90 only uses 8.12 unless you go threw all the hassle of flashing. it is becuase of the way asus made it.

vicuos(i can't spell his name) made a guide of how to do it. but for the whitebook, m17, msi gt725(3870, 3870x2, 4850) are fine. as long as the device id's are in them which ati started to include in 9.4 and on. it will install.

but that's installing. what other complaints are they having????

 

I see, thanks. There are still a bunch of games that start off saying "plays best with Nvidia" or something like that. Anyway the good thing about the M17x is you'll eventually have a choice on which GPU vendor to go with.

 

i know. but i won't be to happy unless i see it happen. the same thing was said about the whitebook.

but i would maybe choose the 4870 gddr5 over the 280m. i would have to see how the 280m can overclock and if we can flash the bios on the 4870's.

 

Or even if we need to on yhe ddr5 4870's we don't know we would need too

 

need to what i'm confused???

i know how the 4850/4870 overclocks on the core. i have seen it in the msi gt725 and the asus w90.


but the asus uses cheaper memory so it's hard to break 950. the highest i have seen was 990 but it was only one person so it doesn't count in my book unless he is willing to share what he did or if he didn't do anything and it is just plain luck then more power to him.

as for the msi. many people broke 1000 on the memory and some 1100. but 1100 that's with a bios flash and extreme overclocking. and this is all gddr3

as for gddr5 it only gives you a 10percent increase over gddr3 on the same clocks. this info was provided by ichime. with links on the desktop 4850 vs the 4870

BUT. the 4850 was very highly overclocked in order to achieve this and the 4870 core was the same but the memory wasn't no where close to it's max.


don't forget gddr5 (highly depending on the manufature) uses less power, highly more effecint, overclocks like nothing, and just nothing but postives.


according to intel the 260m GTS. will b stock at 1,800. and they claim 2000 on the memory. add that to a 256bit interface and your golden
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_260m_us.html
right now i am at 500/1250/800 stock and i brought it up to 660/1660/950 or 960 and my scores were
fc2 average 30fps stock
fc2 average 41fps overclocked

3dmark06 stock 10500
3dmark06 over 12,500

vantage stocked 4,480 gpu
vantage overclock 5,5?? gpu

i know it wasn't a good comparsion because of the core and the shader overclock. but the memory makes a hugh difference. when i have time and i remember i will show you just memory. then add 10 percent and bring it to 2000 hehehehehehehehe.

point is, if ati does has a high clock speed on the memory, then, if we can flash to higher voltages for more clocks, then if the notebook cooling is right(i really want to see the inside of the m17x) we can see numbers that people won't believe.

plus nvidia is now going to add dx10.1 after 2 years of ati already doing it. so i'll be set since ati has had it since there 2xxx series i believe.

my reasoning for choosing the 4870 gddr5 over the 280m is above plus right now the 280m vs the 4850(really 4870 called be asus but according to ati it is the 4850). the 4850 is losing be some numbers. i can't comfirm by how much since we are now starting to see the the 280m pump. but again add gddr5 and you will see how will win. (if the 280m overvolted doesn't suprise me)

 

Um I meant flash the bios mate

we might not need to flash to get uber scores

 

true but it's still nice to have the option.

 

Agreed

oh c'mon aw give us 4850's

give the 17x the 4870's I don't care but gimme something!

 

lol. sell it and get the m17x then.

 

bleh in the uk i would pay £2000 on top of what i would get for my AW to get the equivilent spec

sod that

 

Was thinking about selling my M17 but M17X is not a big enough advantage. Will enjoy the 17 and wait until the next major upgrade.

 

yup same here with the 5 series cards and possible mobile i7

the potential upgrade compared to expense is a bad ratio

 

Hey Thanks for everyones opinion! I just got a order on the M17x today . Just the basic setup but just the upgraded screen! Estimated ship date is 8/03 ~~~~! Wow does it usualy take this long to get it?

 

from alienware, yes

 

You will probably get it a week before .... usual ship date is 2 weeks after you order it

 

just got my m17x in, check the specs in my sig. the setup i have (which is a pretty low end setup compared to what you can get on an m17x) runs AMAZING. im playing crysis on maxed out settings and it runs perfect. i've only had mine for a day but i can tell you that this is the most well built computer i've ever layed my hands on. everything about it is perfect. imo, although i haven't had it long enough to tell, when you buy alienware you pay for alienware quality as well. i love my m17x and i'd definetly recommend you get one even if you get pretty low specs it'll still probably whoop any of your friends computers lol

 

just know that it's not a very mobile computer so it needs to be treated more like a desktop than a laptop. if you're looking for a gaming laptop to bust out on the train or in class if you're in college (bad idea) lol, then i'd get a smaller laptop for a cheaper price with the same specs, like a gateway fx or something

 

the msi gt725-74 or 74 is the price/performance ratio right now. it will kill the gateway by way to much.

 

how can you play crysis maxed out flawlessly when people with 280m SLI have FPS problems?

Im confuzzled

 

well with motion blur you can play 15fps and it looks like there is no issues. run fraps or a benchmark and you will see your true fps.

 

I agree it's impossible for you to be running everything maxed out, people with fully kitted out 17x's have problems so with a single 260? No chance

my system has higher performance then that I still run on high can't run very high as combat sucks

 

and probably @ 1440 res

 

I am not sure if any ask this yet but, how easy is it to take the new m17x apart to clean. If I am not mistaken they say it does not have any screws on the bottom. Does this mean the gpu and cpu is under the keyboard?

 

ok

CPU is uner the keyboard but the Fan you need to clean out is on the bottom

GPU is under the top right and top left, But the fan you need to blow out is on the bottom left and bottom right


You just need to keep the heatsinks in the back clean and the Fans clean which means you don't have to take it apart

 

obviously it's not, have all the settings on very high, runs completely perfect, no lag, no anything.

 

WHAT resolution ?

 

yea you're right im at 1440x900

i ran fraps it says im getting about 20-35 fps