m15x: To all the non-beleivers

ok with all the negetive news being generated here, I wanted to give all those undecided people something to think about..

I've played around with my m15x for a week now... to summarize everything in one word: amazing !

Creaking: There is almost no creak, a little, but there isnt a laptop I've used which is absolutely, completely silent in that regards, nothing that anyone even notices on my m15x..

Wobble: minimal wobble... I have to have one of my legs moving when I'm doing my coding, the screen moves, but nothing that annoys me... it sits completely still on a table even if I'm causing the table to vibrate... nothing to worry about!

Screen: Amazing crisp screen... something to rival the macbooks... Physically, its strong enough. Most of the times I even feel comfortable opening the lid from just one of the corners. That does produce a little bit of slanting shift, but nothing that has me worried at this time

Temps: No problem with the CPU temps... the GPU temps do peak at around ~89 during heavy gaming (i.e. crysis) From what I've heard, this might just be within the acceptable range...

Other Stuff: No cracks, around 2 mm flex near the arrow keys... again: I wouldn't even have bothered to notice if a lot of other people hadn't mentioned the flex... alien head looks perfect, no light bleeds or any scratches .... webcam is decent qaulity, no blurs or anything....


That being said, there are a couple of downsides:
The price !!! A couple of days after I got this, I was hit with severe buyers remorse... especially when you tell stupid ignorant friends the price tag on the baby, and then see their reaction.... I've come to accept that something like this is, though a little expensive, in that price range...

Lock!!!! This was absolutely a blunder from AW... you just cant do without a lock on something as sexy as the m15x... now everytime i have to pee while working at school i have to pack it up and take it with me.. something a could do without

Weight !!! on the heavier and larger side... even the power brick is a little large, but I'm 6" so I can live with it most of the times....


In conclusion, as one of the guys pointed out before I took the plunge, this forum no doubt, attracts people who's machines have had problems... I havent visited the place for a week since I got my m15x and I suspect most of the happy users are doing the same.... so it makes sense to conclude that the number of people having problems with their m15x's are a smaller percentage than what appears on the forums....

btw:

my specs...
2.5 ghz
upgraded to 4gb ram
1 gb turbo memory
8800m gtx
320 gb HD

So, all those still undecided who think EVERYONE has problems with their m15x's .... think again .... its not all that bad !





EDIT: 1 month since I've had the m15x ... I still stand by my original statements... its performing great !!!

 

Sounds good, thanks for the hope haha
My m15x is set to arrive this Friday, I already bought a Targus Defcon CL lock on ebay (around 13 bucks) because someone on this forum confirmed it worked.

 

I always tell people that Kia Rio is as good as Ferrari, or even better, they just won't believe me.

 

.....you

 

LOL to both posts!!

 

I hope you meant 6' =p.

 

Good show extra, i wanted to generate some positive buzz for the m15x recently as well but alienware doesn't want me to with their terrible support.

DESPITE alienware's best efforts to make me never shop there again, i still LOVE my m15x. Just got done with a 3 hour gaming session (unreal 3) and my temps are just fine.

This is a great machine, no doubt about it. unfortunately the price tag is not good enough to warrent another purchase from me. I'm switching to Sager after this baby, but that's in a few years.

 

I'm glad there are some good stories coming out of the m15x. I must say when I first started reading here, I was scared away from that machine and just went with the m17x instead.

 

YAY! for the good stuff.....

 

m15x: To all the non-believers...we will burn you at the stake.

Seems like you won the lottery, man.

 

I dont have any problems with my m15x either. Camera could be better, my speakers are good but i rarely use them cause of headset so i wouldnt have been to fuzzed either way (even though better is ofcourse always better!)

Temps are fine, GPU hasnt gone above 55 degrees, and GPU not over 88, even while playing crysis for 2 hours.

I am very happy and relieved about my m15x, but now when i think about it, the wave of anti-AWinism was caused by a limited amount of people posting an extreme amount of posts (repeating themselves even) while the people pro-AWinism just posted once and then couldnt be bothered. So that skewed the whole situation a bit, still some of the horror stories are just awful!

 

well spoken. additionally, don't forget that those who don't have any problems with their m15x don't come here, because they don't have any reason to...

 

here here....or however one would say/spell that on the web...
(if one even knows what i am trying to convey...)

 

"hear, hear" is what you're looking for...

and yes we do know you're trying to communicate that you agree with the statements above.

 

Chalk up another positive review for the m15x from me.
Overall I'm extremely happy with my m15x and the only possible shortcomings I can think of are :

1] The price : I paid almost £ 1700 for the 2.5 penryn, 2gigs ram, 200gig 7200 hdd and 8800M gtx, extended warranty. Not thaaat bad considering other gaming laptops + the brand name but I feel it should have been £300-500 cheaper.

2] Build quality : Its decent overall but it slightly flimsy and prone to damage but its isnt too bad. I have travelled with it a few times and its held up with just a minor scratch on it. The keyboard keys are a little flimsy and I needed to get mine replaced. For such a large laptop it should have been a bit more sturdy.

3] Speakers : Ok sound clarity but needs more loudnessity (whatever) and some bass.

4] Support : It took me 2 months to get my laptop after I ordered it in the UK , I was probably one of the first 100 customers. It got delayed a while and I was told differing and retarded storys by CS. However I do feel that they made up for it a bit by sending me a replacement keyboard 5 days after I mentioned it on this forum.

5] FEAR (not the game) : I just cant help ****ting myself when I have to leave it alone or travel with it by public transport. It is a real thief magnet and after paying so much I really dont want it stolen.

Cant think of anything else to say right now except that the m15x still gets a thumbs up from me with an overall positive experience with it so far. I would give it my stamp of ultimate awesomeness if it was a bit cheaper, got it earlier after ordering and it was a bit sturdier.

 

I'd have to agree with most of the downsides around here, Cost is definitely one, build quality, could've been better... speakers like these will always kinda suck at high volume, and the fear of losing this baby is constant in my mind. I'm gonna pick up a lock for it come september, so I don't have to pack it up when I need to pee.

other than the minor stuff, this laptop on the whole is AWESOME!!!!! absolutely love my m15x. when everyone talks about the "downsides" i think to myself "what downsides?" ... the minor stuff you're gonna hit with every laptop, doesn't matter who made it or how much you paid... the good/bad areas of the minor stuff may change (better speakers, better built... who knows?), but there will always be good and bad.

The m15x has too much good to really concern about the bad. imo.

 

good to hear some more positive reviews coming out !!!

 

Huh? My laptop is a cheapo compared to an Alienware and I don't have any funny noises like creaks. Whats flex again?

 

what are you trying to establish with this obnoxious post? that your laptop is built like a rock? whoop-di-doo... can it play Crysis at all high with sufficient fps? can it run on batteries for six straight hours? no? huh... i guess that means that...

everyone has different expectations from a laptop. we want gaming performance while not sacrificing mobility. you want a rock-solid system. we both sacrifice a little something. but there's really no need to come to the AW board just to gloat. you won't see any m15x owners on the dell board, mocking you because your little vostros and latitudes can barely run Far Cry. each to his own, mate.

 

you see for me its not the minor physical problems that the m15x might have when you order, its simply the price. i was contemplating at one point to get the m17x because i really wanted an 17inch notebook, but with all the specs i wanted, it came out to roughly 5+grand, and i mean, i have a good budget, but for 5100$ i'd expect this laptop to transform into optimus prime and fly me out of here, and when i hear the minor issues, it just adds salt to the wounds, but that's just me

 

I'm a big gamer and all just not the same kind as you so I don't play FPS games like crysis, if I did I sure wouldn't play it on a laptop let alone my vostro. As for the obnoxious reference I was a little confused at why a rig that's so expensive would have creaks or anything like that going on.

Basically what Im saying is since I research what laptop Im going to buy way in advance I started looking at AW because I was thinking about stepping my graphics in the laptop up and ditching the desktop that I never use. So I search their site and came here like I always do, and I did not post to brag about how awesome my rig is. Rather I was surprised at creaking on a top end rig that's all. Al ot of attitude and tone are lost in typing, and I think you took my post out of context. So to set things straight that was not my intention, more or less just surprised is all.

edit: for the "little vostro..." comment, youd be suprised what tweaking and drivers can do for our "little" machines. With knowledge and experience you can do a lot more then elitists like you think. Nice rig and all but could have done without the "little" comment.

 

elitist? not me... before i bought my m15x, i was using an old dell desktop... P4, 512mb RAM, Ati Radeon x300, 80gb HDD, the works... i'm not a millionaire or something, i worked hard to get the money together for my m15x. sure i'm a bit bothered that the lid creaks a bit when i open it, but i'm willing to pay that "price" for desktop gaming power in a portable form factor.

i apologize for the "little", but i was a bit pissed off by what appeared to me like someone who just came to the AW board to gloat and mock. if that wasn't your attention, i'm sorry.

 

ok, as I said before... i dont think theres ANY laptop or ANY keyboard where there is ZERO flex .... just out of curiosity .... i tried my logitech external keyboard near the arrow keys ... same flex ~2mm ... tried my bros microsoft keyboard .... same kind of flex ...

I have no idea who even went ahead and made a big deal out of that amount of flex ... its plastic people, its bound to bend in a little if you apply pressure...

P.S i even checked my co-workers dell 17" laptop .. same thing ... this shouldnt even be considered "a problem"....

 

my ibm t42 don't have flex I can throw it on a chair, I have dropped it etc etc- heavy hands will make the m15x tremble and wobble like a fat naked woman running towards a willing man ( sorry for that picture)

a small ps here: Panasonic,Sony,Apple, to some degree Lenovo DOES not have this problem in most of their range, I think it's called quality

 

As I apologize for my comments and such as I know what its like to get comments about your rig, either way that was not my intention. To turn over a new leaf how do you like your alienware? Im still doing research since I just bought my dell early 2008 late 2007. Im still contemplating building a desktop since I love making my own rigs and such, but the ability to have a gaming powerhouse on the go (my big bulky 17in is still mobile in my eyes).

My keyboard is quite solid, tbh I thought you guys were refering to LCD flex. Im really picky when it comes to certain things but theres alot I just let float under the bridge, and Im sure what your refering to is one of those things I overlook.

 

Liquid... welcome to the "I love AW forum"!

And one thing you should learn by now is that if you make any anti-AW comment, you will have lots of people at your door.
Just don't mind them... Last time I checked, we still live in a free world and we are all entitled to express our views and opinions.

 

Last i checked, the fanboy forum was the sager one being flooded with "Sager is amazing and everyone who doesnt think so or complains get out!", and thanks to you and a few other people AW forums is all threads about "AW is awful blablabla" and then whenever there is a good thread, one of the "chosen ones who can see the truth" comes in with a sly comment saying: "oh well see you back in 6 months" or "m15x is a piece of crap" or my personal favourite: "keep your voices high and expose AW to the world for the piece of crap they are".

 

Dear Svarto

Everyone has their role in the world... We should all be very happy we are not all the same. It would be dull if everyone was gray as you!
On another note, even though I personally have something against AW, I try really hard (I can't say I always succeed) on not commenting on people's positive threads. Unlike you and some other enlighthned ones, that completely destroy people that come to this forum, angry and frustrated, complaining about their experience. My personal favourite is someone saying that it was a baby the responsible for breaking Jay's LCD lid. Anyway...

Let's be honest... I will never change your opinion, you will never change mine. So we have to learn how to live with each other. If we don't get to "like" each other, we will have to tolerate each other. Thus, I will make an effort not to make any personal comments on anyone's attitude or personalities. I think we should all do the same.

I would still like to ask you, why did you go and post on Sager forum regarding the ATI? Because I can really only see a provocative attitude there. The exact same attitude you so well criticize on these "chosen ones" as you so trendly call them. Or is it OK to have this attitudes in the Sager forum because it's not AW?

Appart from that... I just wish you good luck and a happy future. I hope time won't prove all of the "choosen ones" right (well... I actually do! ).

Take care, lighten up and keep smilling. Afterall, it's only a piece of overheating plastic with a CPU and a GPU inside! In the end of the day, it's a computer. We don't have to fight their wars. We are not here for brands or companies. We are here for people and for trying to help each other out.

I am glad we have the Yin and the Yang.

Cheers,
M.

 

I am checking out the Sager and Clevo forum constantly as I am interested in how the m860TU will do and what is happening about it. Came across that thread and thought it was interesting so i started reading all the responses.

I realize it wasnt my fight to take, and I should probably have stayed out of it but all the people with enough money (or their parents money? ) sitting and saying that this wasnt a loss for the people buying the 9800GT, myself as an economist just tried to explain to them why they were wrong.

I was also baffled by the retailers calling people childish and immature which is rude, and since they are representatives of their respective company I expected them to be more proffessional than that. Hence my arguments explaining why it was unfair for certain people. (As you can see I am still quiet new to the forums so I didnt know what attitude the different retailers have (not implying that they are bad, just stating that i didnt know) so that is why i was a bit surprised i guess).

I am not perfect and I realize after I wrote the posts that it would probably just stir up trouble as I am not a Clevo customer and putting in well structured arguments when the retailers just want to put a lid on the discussion wasnt the best approach Wont do that mistake again!

And by the way, even if I dont agree with your opinions i have read all your threads and you have for sure helped me inform myself before I purchased my m15x. Thanks for that!

 

the flex problem is really minimal. it just got blown out of proportion like the creaking problem. its not really that big of a deal. even my Razer Lycosa keyboard has some flex around the arrow keys. You wont notice it unless you purposely try to find the flex. if you are pressing that hard while using the arrow keys to create flex you must be one angry gamer

 

Lol you summarized me in one post

yes I can be a bit like that..sorry

 

well said !

 

I think this tread is great for the Non beleivers.

 

Yeah, the fact that someone is happy with their m15x after having owned it for a week is very reminiscent of my experience. I was even wearing around the fanboy hat they give you with it. Give it a few months of normal use and let us know how its holding up then.

 

well, buzzin, despite your issues as well as many others... i do hope that everyone else does NOT experience what you had to...

i know you are quite stressed... but again... just dont think it's right to cast a dark cloud over everybody...

 

Yeah I feel somewhat like the prophet no one would listen to. He's crazy, just a random experience, etc, etc. However, I have actually investigated the design in depth and unless they changed the design somewhere along the way, it is an issue that will hit everyone sooner or later. So hopefully they did fix the design somewhere after the first month or so after launch and no one will have the issue me and others had with the plastic hinge. I don't wish the experience I've had in the last couple months on *anyone*, trust me.

 

care to elaborate on those investigations of yours?

 

um... care to elaborate on those investigations without affecting your warranty? j/k

buzzin, that's quite a statement there...
see, voicing out your issues is fine... and making your case heard, great... but i think it bugs some, i for one for sure, when hearing statements like that... unless i see a more convincing factual proof of the"investigations..." hear what i mean?

 

It is also the fact that, informing is thing, preaching and repeating yourself with the same thing in every single thread is another thing.

What you fail to understand i think buzzin and some other people, is that you are not informing us about a problem, you did that the first time you posted and with the extensive (very well made too) "Why you shouldnt buy the m15x" thread. What your informing has turned into is something close to a mob thing, with every single thread in this forum with the same message and never objective messages either, they are so drenched in subjectivity that you can barely see what the problem you had was from the beginning.

Everyone havent had the problem with CS that everyone screams about, everyone havent had the hinge snap and everyone wont have a hinge snapping. All those prophecy stuff is just childish behaviour and is no where near a mature discussion/exchange of information. And for your information, I can almost see a sort of "pride" with your statement that you are "the crazy prophet", trust me it is nothing to be proud over.

End line is, it is becoming to much with the repetitive posting and the same people complaining about the same thing over and over again, blowing things completely out of proportion. I think it is funny to see that the minority in this forum are the ones shouting the loudest by far.

I know some of you will jump of joy when i say this, but I will leave this forum for awhile now as I think it has lost its purpose of helping people, lately it has just been one big whining fest from a few people. And then we have the beloved Sager people coming into this forum "bragging" and "bostering" about their soon to be released m860TU and trying to prove to themselves that it is "so much better than the m15x" by trolling and creating threads like "Why did you chose AW over Sager" (Just having to justify why you chose one company over another is one thing, but then when you justify it people come and tell you that, "oh well that is not a good enough reason". Behaviour like that is just pathetic.) Lets not start talking about all the new people coming in here starting threads asking for help chosing good specs for their soon to be AW computer getting flooded by "AW sucks look at Sager NP8660 which isnt even out yet instead! If you chose AW u are an idiot fooled by the lights!".

I will be back, and I hope the people that have troubles with the m15x will have their problems solved and moved on so they will stop flooding the AW forum with unhelpful posts. I also hope even more that the people in this forum that are helping, decent and are able to control their emotions stay so that I can get help from them whenever I get any problems

 

Svarto... your leave of absence is a loss to the community...

bro... all i say in many day to day encounters of my life is that... "it adds color to my life..."

hang a bit more and put in your words of wisdom and common sense...

 

Sure, I've mentioned this before but here goes (and it does not invalidate your warranty).

1) If you have an m15x, you'll notice 6 rubber bumps around the screen. With a flat head screwdriver you can gently lift those off (they have some sticky that holds them on). What you'll then see is 6 philip type screws holding the black paneling onto the lid around the screen.

2) Unscrew the 6 screws and set aside.

3) Gently remove the plastic black paneling from the LCD screen housing. It kind of snaps in and out of place quite easily.

4) Once the black paneling is off, you'll see the full LCD screen and the hinge system that the paneling was hiding. If your hinge has damage at this point it is very easy to see, you'll notice little bits of plastic and obvious signs of stress.

5) If your system does not have obvious signs yet, that's good. But take a close look at how the hinge is attached to the chassis. What you'll see is 3 or so philip screws that screw into gold nuts. That's all well and good until you look a bit closer. What you then see (and you may need to take a flashlight and angle it from the side to look "under" the hinge) is the gold nuts are secured in place by sitting in round plastic "anchors" that are attached to the plastic chassis. The problem is these plastic anchors are prone to become brittle after a few months of normal use. The anchors crack and give way and before you know it you have the gold nut coming loose from the anchor, thus negating any solidarity they provided. The result is as the pictures show: the screen pops off in that corner, gold nuts and silver screws fall out, little pieces of the brittle silver plastic fall out, etc. As more and more of the anchors fail (I believe there are three) the damage gets worse. When all three fail, you will be unable to open or close your laptop.

Thus, the fact that the hinge is anchored in plastic is the inherent design flaw in the system that has caused the failures myself and others are reporting.

As I have stated before, I have worked in the IT industry for 14 years and manage thousands of systems for businesses. We take apart our own systems here and repair them with parts from the vendor to decrease downtime of our customers (not having to wait to ship back to the vendor, etc). So I know what I'm doing when it comes to dismantling a computer. And like I said, I have never, ever, ever seen a hinge that was anchored in plastic. Its always a solid piece of steel or a high quality aluminum/magnesium alloy.

The right hinge seems to fail first, possibly due to the added stress of the video card generated heat.

I'd be happy to post pictures and show you guys each step of this procedure and the plastic hinges, but in less than 5 minutes you can take a look at your own m15x and discover the issue yourself.

Glad it's Friday!!

 

buzzin...
didn't you just void your warranty with that procedure?
just askin bro...

 

No, its a non-invasive procedure. Akin to replacing the hard drive or upgrading the memory.

 

It's nice to see both sides of the m15x story. I just ordered mine this past Monday. Given that I've been living with a dell 5150 that has to stay attached to a chill mat and frequently requires XP re-installations, I figure the m15x will be an improvement on many different levels.

 

I would like to check the hinge system of the m17x. But I can't find anywhere on the alienware website if removing the cover does void the warranty.

 

call them and ask. and be sure to post pictures.

 

before people take stuff off there laptop it best to call alienware. Why have it voided when it something stupid.

 

The guys at alienware can only tell you've hacked into your laptop if you break a seal. Evidently, this procedure doesn't break any seals so its perfectly fine.

 

are you willing to bet the guarantee of your 3000 dollar laptop on that? i'm not...

 

Those of you paranoid about your warranty should definitely call Alienware first, but these guys are right: removing your monitor lid is a non-invasive procedure that does not affect your warranty, much like removing the bottom lids to change out your RAM or hard drive.