ULTIMATE m17 review

CASE/BODY

The m17/OCZ Whitebooks has a strong magnesium frame that does not feel soft to the touch like the cheap notebooks you find today. It has a matte finish that does not leave finger prints. The hinges are strong and sturdy with no creaking or exploding . They have loosened up a bit after 3 months of usage from me.
I use it every day for school opening and closing about 15 times a day. The bottom has a service panel that allows access to your major parts: CPU, GPU's, and PCI-e slots. The hard drive cages are located on the right side labeled 1 and 2 respectively. The battery is located on the left side with all SN and product keys under it.

10/10

Keyboard

The keyboard is amazing, I have used alot of keyboard, desktop and laptop and I like this one by far. It offers a click when you press a key. Most notebooks just press down and you can never tell if you clicked it. The keyboard come in 3 different illuminated colors RED, GREEN, BLUE. Our keyboard is different then the OCZ whitebook. The keyboard colors are not the brightest i will admit, the green is the brightest followed by blue and lastly red. All are able to be seen and usable i just wish they were a bit brighter. In a dark room they are fine

9/10

Inputs

optical audio
HDMI
VGA
DVI
SD....etc reader
3 USBS
LAN
firewire
Coaxial
( if you ordered the TV tuner)


Mouse pad
the mouse pad is a mouse pad. I occasionally use mine for gaming but only when i have no mouse and time to kill. The mouse pad is great for using on the computer it has a different surface then the rest of the laptop so you can tell if you slip off. The clickers are a rocker there are no separate clickers (its like a Mac book). It also has a scrolling pad on the right.

8/10

ODD (optical drive)

I have issues sometimes with it reading but I think it is software related.
I have burned over 100 dvds for my church and i burnt 50 in 5 hours all with no errors. Its a great drive and can burn very quickly. I am very satisfied with this optical drive.

8/10

Quick touch Buttons

They work, dvd opens Roxio dvd software
TV opens Media Center
MUSIC opens Media Center
Internet opens Internet Explorer
Mail opens Outlook

???/10 (they work)

Speakers

The speakers work great they play music and are quite loud. The subwoofer does help a little with the bass but it doesn't bump like my 2 12's
Best speakers on either of the 4 laptops i have owned.

8.5/10

Screen

I love my screen so much. I bought the 1440 screen and I am happy with it. I can max out any game except Crysis and all at native , sure i would love 1900 but i could not afford it due to being in HS and college and i had no job due to reconstructive knee surgery and was bed ridden for 1 month and therapy for 3 months but hey POO happens right?

9/10

CPU

I picked the t9400 option due to the clock speed and the cache. It was the best value due to the 6mb cache and the middle clock speed for the dual cores. I can max any game that I own and do it comfortably. Even with ATI cards being CPU dependent.

I have overclocked my CPU using setFSB and i am very happy with the results
2.5 stable
2.6 stable
2.7 stable
2.8 stable
2.9 stable
3.0 stable
3.1 unstable
3.2 crash

9.5/10

GPU's

I purchased with Dual ATI Radeon 3870's. I have OC'd the cards and I have ran every driver from 8.10 to 9.4 and on any one of them can play any game. They each offer a 512mb cache, this does no mean you have a total cache of 1024 mb though. Stock clocks are 650 for the core and 850 for the memory. Like I mentioned before they still rate towards the top in 3dmark 06 as well as games see HERE. They max out games, so if that is what you are looking for you will get it. You could not ask for better driver support then E-wrecked

9.5/10

WiFi

I have the standard realtek wifi b/g , it works great and if keeps me connected to NBR so its perfect... but the Intel 5300 does kill it once again i could not afford.

7.5/10

Design
Skullcap is a nice touch to the Whitebook IMO and the matte finish is awsome, now I don't have to go around cleaning . I like the AW keyboard alot more then the OCZ keyboard letters are bigger and the outline on the keys. The light up alien head is nice, I love turning it off and on at random times while people are watching just to freak them out. I do wish they let us change it to 3 different colors though

9/10

PICS coming soon battery have me chained

Fallout 3 @ 1440 8 AA and 16 AF i launched 6 nukes to test these ( if you have played you know its like crysis )
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2946, 60000, 0, 62, 49.100

Fallout 3 @ 1440 no AA no AF
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
3159, 60000, 33, 62, 52.650

Left 4 Dead@ 1440 8 AA AND 16 AF
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2993, 60000, 32, 85, 49.883

Left 4 Dead @ 1440 no AA and no AF
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
3728, 60000, 40, 111, 62.133

Half Life @ 1440 MAX
PWN

World of Warcraft @ 1440
PWN
Raid: SEMI-Pwn

 

It was only like $25? lol

 

Why the centering of the text, and why so wide? It's making the form overshadow the contents to the extent that I really don't feel like reading it.

 

nice rewiew moo

 

Nice review, waiting for benchies

 

Yikes!

The grammar makes my brain hurt.

Also, I am sorry about the WiFi. It would appear from my own personal investigations you have more expenses than the average kid around here.

More book time, less benchmarking and THAT OTHER THING.



-Hack

 

i moved it to the left now also i extremely suck at grammer im sorry

 

Thanks for moving it to the left, but I still have to scroll way too much since it's still way too wide because of your self-promoting banner advertisement making the text just as wide.

 

ill cut it down thanks and sorry my Fair acess policy is violated and it takes 35 sec to load this page gonna be a a pain

 

LOL, I don't even know what a "fair access policy" is

 

I don't know what's so "ultimate" abou it; it's still a second class laptop. For example, I need a laptop for editing and like the m17's quad core capability. However, I am disappointed that Alienware decided to make it a step child rather than a sibbling to the m17x. In addition to having no Smartbay (a definite necessity for video editing), it's limited to only 3 primary colors to the back lighting. I've read it has something to do with save money, but if I wanted to do that, I'd simply make less choices on my option list. Or even better, choose another lower brand computer company.

There's nothing I hate more than when companies limit my list of choices. At the premium level of laptops, ALL choices should be available! This is a no brainer folks.

 

Another no brainer is that companies would have all choices available if they could since it means more money for the customer to spend. If the laptop is designed that way it was made for a reason.

 

Then help me understand--what is that reason?

Unlike it's parent company, Alienware doesn't make entry level computers. At their level, you get the best the industry has to offer. The only choice should be in deciding what you need and what you don't. However, that choice should not be predetermined for you (ala budget model).

What video editor doesn't need extra storage capacity? This is the one thing you can never get too much of. It's like putting a ten gallon fuel tank in an 8 cylinder luxury car; it lacks forward thinking.

 

1 TB isnt enough for a laptop ? And you can always go for an external hdd to store the movies you edit etc.

As for reason i cant tell for sure since im not the one that designed the laptop but there are a lot of reason why not implement some features into a laptop, size, weight, heat and so on.

 

Yeah, 1TB internally and External storage as you need.

And as we all know, backlighting is important for video editing...

 

I don't think any of the A.W. models were intended to be a video editor. The intended function of an A.W laptop is gaming. They do excel at their intended purpose. I think the only reason you feel your choices are limited is because you've looked in the wrong place for a product that suits your needs. IMO

Out of curiosity, what made you think an A.W. would be your best choice for video editing?

 

Thanks moo, Respect the moo! +rep

or not

Must spread some rep around before giving it to moo again

 

Yeah, thanks for the review Moo.

Krane, I don't think that Moo was saying the M17 was the ultimate, he was saying his review of it is.

By flashing the BIOS, the QX9300 will gladly run at 3+Ghz. That coupled with 1TB RAID0...I'm not understanding the issue. What exactly is required for video editing that the M17 can't handle?

 

Nice job Mr.Moo + rep for ya.

You said ya tried the 8.10 -9.4 drivers. Did you notice any differences? Which one did you decide to use and why?

Glad you like your screen, but......if in the future you can scrape up the cash you would be amazed by the high-res screen.

Thanks for the great review Mr.Moo!

 

thanks mr moo.

yeah i am at 3.33ghz and if i use setfsb i could pump 3.5 buti will wait til i get better cooling. so i don't how krane could be complaining,

 

Yeah,
I used Setfsb yesterday for about three hours of game play and it was stable @3.5 the whole time. I'm not really going to make a habit of it though cause I'm very happy with how well it performs stock.

 

Let's see how long those OC's last running Prime 95 4-cores, max heat.

I could always get away with benchmarks and even gaming with super OC's, but Prime95 4-core max heat brings it all back to reality.

See if you can last 30 minutes.

 

I liked the review Moo.

 

thank you , i still dont have batterys so the pics will come tommorw

i have L4D and fallout 3 at 1440 min max average frames 8 aa 16 af and none

 

That doesn't mean it's not good for that purpose. It's not like computers do only one thing. Besides, it is advertised for such a purpose.

Initially but not solely

Nope! Again, refer to ad.

CPU and GPU! So they are both closely realted and each are critical for video editing

Under normal circumstances you'd have a point, but HD video is a hog; so for video editors 1 TB isn't as extraordinary as you might think.

Of course that's always an option. On the other hand, is more cumbersome hardware what the already heavy AW really needs?

The m17x has a Smartbay for an added 500GB, so I'm not seeing your logic.

 

Respect the Moo!

Two words........ Alienware.......... Gaming!

 

Thanks for another review Mr.Moo, always nice to read one of these always some good info. Although I love the keyboard did have an issue with the ole tape by the space bar, just cut it out of the way and no more sticking key.

Anyway, love my unit and it does not let me down when pushed, love the looks on faces when you pull it out, priceless...

 

You're taking the test too? You look more prepared then us over here.

 

NO IM ALREADY IN honors java/ ap java lol

 

So I thought I read this before, but it looks different. No centered text?

Anyways, I dont think I said good job, Great job!

 

Any chance of slimming down that banner, us 1280x800 users are having a hard time, lol.

 

The history of AW and who build what is irrelvant! The only thing pertinent to the consumer is the products ability meet their needs. In other words:

"I don't care why GM can't build a car that gets 35 mpg and is reliable. If they can't build one, I'll just buy from somone who can--like Toyota or Honda."

A "compromise," is possible with any laptop.

Only if you don't run out of space 5 minutes before your project is done.

Correction! A "desktop" replacement.

Incidentally, laptops now outsell desktops

 

So go buy elsewhere....

Mystery solved.

 

Yeah, what electrosoft said!

 

Does that mean I can't use my new Corvette to pick up the groceries?

ALL computers should be multipurpose devices; and if it can "game" it should be able to edit!

Petulant aren't we?

 

Confused?

 

Would have been nice if this could have stayed on topic instead of spiraling downward for no good reason. IMHO

 

Then why not go ahead and buy from someone else?

Also, desktop replacement, is still not a desktop. Also, while my compromise is very possible with many laptops, are there many laptops that offer the power to edit videos or 1 tb or more of storage?

Ok back on topic, Where are those PICS?!

 

Yeah Mr.Moo, you promised. lol

 

Mr.Moo, you've almost caught up to me on post count lol.

Keep up the non-stop helpful contributions / (cough)spamming.

 

sorry plasma i must be doing something right to get my rep , i post every where i dont care

im gonna get the pics my Grandma is in the hospital and i just got off work !!!

im deleteing my post in this section to clean it up , any one else wanna?

 

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to the pictures.

BTW it might help potential buyers if you add a Battery Life section to your review.

Duane

 

2-2:30 hours

 

I'll acquiesce, but only because it's not the topic. Still, your argument is irrational.

 

Thanks for the review Mr.Moo, even though I already have an M17.. It's nice to help others who are on the fence about whether to purchase or not.

And Krane the bottom line is, and I think most will agree with me here, Alienware computers are for gaming. They're advertised as such, their optimized as such, and it's why you see things like "Plays best on Alienware" in games! If you want something for video editing get a Mac! I use my Mac for things like school and soon software development but my M17 is for gaming and "studying" and since I'm going to school for Game and Simulation Programming I need something that was built for games.

 

But not exclusively as such.

Wrong! Regardless of it's specialty in gaming, it's still basically a computer! And I'd hope anyone, in their right mind who would buy one, would use it for more than just that one thing.

Incidentally, those capacities that make AW a computer good for gaming, are also the same requirements that make it an excellent choice (save storage) for video editing.

 

... You do understand that Alienware computers are marketed as gaming machines right? Of course we can use them for other things. I personally because my iMac does those other things but for school I needed something powerful enough to write and play games on. I understand that it could be used for video editing but if you had video editing in mind and an Alienware (which again is marketed as a gaming machine) didn't cut it for you, you shouldn't complain about it or say the laptop isn't good.

I'm not trying to argue with you here, your right. They can be used for other things BUT again they're marketed for gaming and thought of by most the people that use them or know what they are to be gaming machines.

I choose Alienware because I needed something for gaming, I choose Apple because I needed something powerful, flexible, and reliable. I got both those things by choosing brands that were synonymous with their most well known features.

 

Hey Krane,
could we get over this already??????

 

100% agree...

I really dont get the point of this "little war"... if I have an opinion I state it and period. Just that. What is the goal of going again and again to the same issue?

BTW, congrats Mr. Moo nice review +rep

I am looking forward to read more posts like this one with more information about our systems. After read your post I think I will overclock my GPUs...

 

Ok, moving on, hate to get this thread closed.

Have you tried Ubuntu recently Moo?