The last 'new' Area-51 m15x owner

I received my new Area-51 m15x yesterday. My friend bought it on behalf of me in the US 2 months back. This is my first gaming laptop Now I am 'really' a member of this forum! I haven't spent much time with it so far, but I have a mixed bag of initial impressions. Just thought i will share it here, though it wont be useful for any potiential buyers since this model is discontinued.

The notebook is not as heavy as many said, but definitely heavier than a normal laptop. The very first thing i noticed is ofcourse the 'squeak' noice when i touch the lid anywhere, especially while opening and closing it. I thought Alienware must have found a solution for this, which will be implemented in the final pieces sold by them, but they proved me wrong. They have just sold out the final pieces to empty the stock, rather than trying to rectify the problem and salvage some pride in m15x. Anyway, i was half prepared for it . So never mind, should be careful when handling the notebook.

After switching on the laptop I was like 'what the hell!? ' since I could not find the light pipe, instead a 'light gap' between the grey and black plastic parts on the lid. I thought they sold me a model without light pipe, but after some research in the forums here, i figured that the light pipe indeed is the 'light gap'. It also changes color when i try with the AlienFX controller. I was mislead by the pictures in Alienware site and also some (early) pics posted by some members here (possibly photos of light bleeding).

I haven't done any benchmarks yet, but the stock 3DMark score says 9826 which I consider pretty impressive for HD 3870 ( Though I ordered a T9300, I got a T9500 in my notebook, which makes me happy). My desktop PC with 8600GTS 256 MB DDR3, AMD Athlon 2400+, 2 GB DDR2 gives 5500 3DMarks and it can handle games pretty decently. I did not install and test any game since i need to partition the disk first. I think I shall post some pictures and scores here (just to show off my new notebook) after I am done with the SW setup.

I have a problem at the moment - I use Vista 64 bit OS and command center v1.0.33. My ALIENWARE logo didnt light up when I received the notebook. I tried to apply the light pipe patch (since everything else was latest version), but the patching failed. I changed the logo to dark and then back to red and all, but nothing worked. Anyway, after sometime I noticed a faint glow of red on the logo. It is barely visible even in total darkness. The color changes according to the choice I make in command center, but it is so dull. I cannot post a pic at the moment but i am sure this is not the way it is supposed to be. Is there any way to solve this problem? Also, i do not have the command center setup and hence did not try re-installing it. OSD is installed.

 

You should have asked your friend to buy some spare hinges for your system (pun intended).

There is a small board of LED's behind the alien head logo. Try ticking on it with your finger. If there is a loose connection, it might work out, else you might need to investigate a lot.

 

I think I'll steer clear from AW now! If you pay a premium, you should get premium. Thanks for ruining AW Dell