Trade in Alienware m15x for Clevo m860tu?

Hey guys

I've been offered the possibility to trade in my Alienware m15x (specs in sig) for a notebook of my choice (for more or less the same price). Since I still want/need a portable gaming machine, the Clevo m860tu is the only notebook i'm considering trading for.

Now, in the German Alienware store, my m15x costs just over 2,400 euros. So my question is, what would be the best m860tu config for about this price from a European store? 9800m-gt is a must-have, as well as at least 200gb HDD and DDR3 RAM.

Also, can i get some (objective ) feedback from users of both systems (milcs, MrDJ, steveninspokane,...) on how both machines felt and performed?

Last but not least, does anyone know where/how i can get a Swiss German keyboard for the m860tu? THe only place i found so far who has them is Kobalt Computers.

Thanks in advance.

PS: does the m860tu have a backlit keyboard?

PPS: would you guys do this trade? just asking

 

In a heartbeat!

No Clevo models that I know of have backlit keyboards. If you're a touch typist, then why worry about it?

 

Hi there whizzo.
So, I will give you my objective analysis m15x vs M860tu.
The m15x was an interesting looking machine. I say interesting, as all those lights might lead some people to think you are cheesy and a geek (that's what everyone at work called me ).
The M860tu is plain, sober but, not ugly at all... It's quite professional looking and it doesn't stand out of the crowd. For me, this is a major advantage.

Pros of the M860TU:
- Much better cooling solution with one fan

- CPU never goes above 70ºC after hours of stress test
- GPU hit an high of 84ºC after hours of Mass Effect and Crysis gameplay​

- Globally, runs cooler (including surfaces)
- Regarding built quality... there's no comparison. It's really two worlds appart. The laptop is solid throughout and there's no creakiness, wobbliness, etc... Hinges look amazingly solid.
- Security lock works!
- Latency with drivers is not as bad as in the m15x.
- Silent Mode is identical to Stealth Mode. Only difference is that Silent Mode is really Silent and I am yet to hear the fan go on on Silent Mode.


Cons of the M860TU:
- Screen is not as good as the m15x. This is mainly due to the fact that you can't have the 1440x900 (or whatever) resolution with the m860tu. The screen is not bad, but it is not the best I have ever seen. Bottom line... I like it and doesn't upset me.
- HDD runs a bit on the high side (maximum I hit after the Intel Matrix Storage patch was 58-59ºC).
- Ports are not located on the best locations (two USB and the PCMIA (or whatever it's called) on the right side of the laptop, which can get in the way of your mouse)
- I think the CPU whining is a quite common problem

And that's about it... at least, what I can remember.
Bottom line, the M860TU delivers the same (or marginally better) performance in a better cooled pack. Most importantly, the M860TU inspires a sense of confidence that I never had with the m15x. I am quite sure that nothing wrong will come to my Nexus... (of course, sh*t happens now and then... ).

Regarding prices, I got my Nexus for €1800 (give or take) with:
- P9500
- 1x2GB DDR3
- 250GB 7200rpm HDD
- 9800m GT
- WSGA+

I would highly recommend Kobalt as well.

Hope this helps.
Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

Cheers,
M.

 

thanks milcs. how good is the cooling? what temps do you hit while gaming (maximum)?

 

Just updated the post above. Pressed the post button too quickly!

 

If you have no problems with your m15 so far I'd say stick with it. The difference in performance is minimal and you never know what you can get with a new laptop while you know your m15 so far is good .

PS unless you can trade it for the clevo with 2.8 processor, 9800GT, biggest SSD on the market 4 gigs of ram 4 gigs of turbo mem... Then I'd go for it

 

nice. few questions:

1) how solid does the m80tu feel compared to the m15x?

2) aren't those HDD temps mildly dangerous? (data loss etc)

3) is the m860tu notably smaller than the m15x?

 

1- As I said, there's not comparison between the M860TU and the m15x in terms of "solidity". The M860tu is properly solid and very well built. There's no feeling of cheap materials and as I said, I am completely confident this is a machine built to last.

2- My HDD is normally around 50ºC, which I don't consider that bad. Those are pretty similar temperatures to the ones I had on the m15x. Of course lower would be better, but when you have such a "monster" packed inside a 15'' laptop, you would expect things to get a bit warm.
Please, don't forget: Maximum for CPU I've seen is 70ºC and 84ºC for GPU during demanding gameplay.

3- I wouldn't say that the m860tu is smaller than the m15x. It's about the same size. But to me, it doesn't look as bulky. Maybe it's because the m15x was just a square box, whereas the m860tu has more soft angles, a edge design, etc etc... Oh, when I grab the M860Tu even with one hand... it doesn't feel its going to break appart.

Keep shooting your questions.

 

you asked for it

1) how bad is the "CPU whine"?

2) is the connectivity (especially number of USB ports, as well as general port placement) sufficient? or is something missing?

3) how is battery life?

4) how easy is maintainance? is the finish smudge-prone? does it scratch easily?

5) how loud are the internal components (HDD, fans, optical drive)?

6) does the lid wobble, or is the hinge more solid than the m15x's?

7) any drawbacks to going 64bit?

 

oi whizzo, never thought id see you on the other side welcome buddy.

theres not a lot more that i can add after milcs post.
ive said this before and ill say it again, this laptop is the dogs dangly bits.
my Nexus came to £1,781= 2,244.47 EUR
i almost went for top spec except for the processor.
P9500 2.5ghz
WSGA glossy screen
4gb ram
9800GT
320gb 7200 HD
x-fi sound card
3 years warranty
vista 32bit

ok,the m15x was a nice laptop with lots of flash lighting. once we got over the anitial wow factor you felt like everyone was taking the p cos of the lights. they are perfect for your techy youngster who likes to show of to his friends. also the very plastic feel to the whole thing was just very cheap.

the M860TU is nothing at all like that. it is very plain but in a good way.
the brushed alluminium makes it look and feel very proffesional when used for presentations for work perpouses. the build quality is one of the best i have ever felt. it is so solid it fels like you could drop it without the worry of it being broken (dont try this kids just in case)

the hottest ive mannaged to get the HD was 60c after 1 hour of TF2
this was before i loaded a patch to bring the temps down.

ignore the critical HD temp warning. it was set to 55c so anything above gave that warning.

all i can say is i would not hessitate in reccomending the M860TU/Nexus to all my friends and work colleagues.

heres a few pics of temps so far.

 

hey, i'm not completely sold yet

argh this is torture... stick with my (more or less proven) m15x or switch to the (slightly) more powerful m860tu with possibly/probably better build quality?

 

dont know, but lots of people have gone with 64bit and had no problems.

one more thing i would mention. if you defanately wanted the 9800GT i would get your order in quick as they are being superceided by the GTS card.

 

oh, is there any noticable performance difference between GTS and GT?

 

i think its 1 or 2% and the GTS is £58 cheaper but i still went for the GT

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303838

 

1- Mine is quite bad and it really makes my head explode. There's an easy workaround... switching on the bluetooth does it for me. I hope Clevo will come up with a true fix.

2- You have all the ports you need and more. Locations of some are not the best, but it's usable. Another bad location choice... the leds are ALL (including Caps lock, scrool lock and num lock) on the front of the laptop, and will sit underneath your right wrist.

3- Not great, not bad. Around 2 hours on Silent mode doing stuff like browsing the internet.

4- The M860tu is amazing. Therefore... it attracts lots of dust and fingerprint and smudges. So you better get some tissues around if you get one of this. I don't think it scratches easy. But have never tried to scratch it yet...

5- Very silent. Fan is amazingly silent. Its always on, but you can only hear the air being blown. On silent mode, you don't hear anything at all. It's that silent... I also can't hear HDD. The only thing I can hear is the freaking whine!!! (mind you, I'm quite sensitive... as you might suspect!)
Optical drive is as loud as any others I have used (meaning... is not silent).

6- As I said several times (are you reading my answers!? )... SOLID. Everything is solid compared to the m15x. Screen barely wobles, hinges are stiff and strong, no creacking, no weird noises. SOLID.

7- I stayed with 32bits. Don't really see the point of going 64bits now.

8- Difference between GTS and GT is very small (maybe less that 5 FPS during gameplay) and I would think it's not really noticeable.

 

course i'm reading your answers

thanks for the feedback so far guys... problem is, it's only making the decision harder

 

i say go for it.

 

but no backlit keyboard, and no 9800m-gt... major drawbacks right there

 

if you order from Kobalt they may still have some GT cards in stock.

 

yeah but the guy i wanna trade with is getting it from www.notebook-paradies.com, and they only have the 9800m-gts

 

No they don't ...

MultiBOOK Gamer M860TU
Core-2-Duo P8600 (2x2,4GHz/1066MHz), 15,4"TFT (WSXGA+), 2GB, 160GB HD,nVidia Geforce Go9800M GT (512MB DDR2), DVD DL,WLAN,2Megapixel WebCam,...

And in any case, the difference is really minimal. If you use 3DMark06, I get around 9300 and a GTS will get around 9000.

 

ahh, then thats not so good.
you can buy my 3 day old GT card for £1000

 

m8,it is good to try new things!

 

Why the hell are you complaining for a friggin GTS to GT? Its almost the same performance and runs much cooler. You aren't losing anything. What ever happened to buying a nice solid performance laptop built to last and that was the objective...not the bragging rights?

In fact, why get rid of your m15x? it sounds like one of the very few that actually function to satisfaction.

 

Exactly! Good points right here .

 

true, that is a good point. plus, i really like my m15x. however, no one knows how long it will hold together, seeing how there have been multiple cases of hinges snapping etc. that's why i'm considering the trade, because the m860tu is supposed to be of a much better build quality.

 

Final correction...
It's not "supposed" to be of a much better build quality... IT IS of a much better build quality. Trust me, I have had both (as you know very well) and it's not even possible to compare them. They are light-years away on what build quality is concearned (the m15x is still stone age... M860tu is a step into the future! ).

 

this is so tempting... and yet, my m15x is holding together just fine so far... hmm...

 

like you said, So far...

 

okay, few more questions:

1) how much worse is the screen? is it downright bad, or just not as good? also, is the WUXGA screen any better in regards to this?

2) which HDD would you guys recommend to get a good balance between capacity, speed and heat?

3) would you recommend going with a "fully loaded" config in regards to heat? that is 9800m-gt, 2.8ghz CPU, 4Gb DDR3, Tv tuner, large HDD, wifi, bt, (maybe) bluray?

4) is the TV tuner recommended? what kind of connection thingy would i need to get it to work?

5) is turbo memory recommended? i know it's worthless on santa rosa, so what about montevina?

6) how does the keyboard feel?

 

no question asked

 

To start... if you are happy with the m15x and confident it will hold, very honestly, I wouldn't bother. It's not a huge step forward in terms of performance and, if your laptop is making you happy, this one won't give you more reasons to be happy (unless you will be happy to feel you have a more solid computer in your hands).

To answer you:
1- It's not that the screen is bad. Read Chaz's review on the NP8660 (Sager's M860tu). But it has a bit too much of sparkle (it's too bright and the blacks are more like grays) and the contrast/colours change a bit if you tip your angle of view of the screen. Appart from that, the screen is quite OK. No graininess, no dead pixels, nothing... Bottom line, the screen does the job and it is good enough.

2- Both 320GB and 250GB WD Black 7200rpm HDD are working at around the same temperatures (mine and MrDJ's have quite similar temperature profiles). So just go for the one you would think it better suits your needs. The HDDs do get a bit hot, but not incredibly hot.

3- I would go for P9500 (25W processor, less energy, less heat) as the 2.8GHz is too expensive for the increase in performance it delivers. Also, I would only go for the bluray if you are going for the WXGA screen (which I've heard is quite good). The rest, go for it... Except...

4- TVTuner. I don't even think it is an internal TV Tuner. I would ditch that.

5- Can't comment on that. But I would stay away from it for now and get it in the future, when it gets properly troubleshooted and integrated (that's my plan).

6- It is good. Not as good as the m15x feel, I have to say. But it's good enough. Some keys make different noises (like the space when pressed on one side), but the tactile experience is satisfactory.


Voilá. As I said, if you are happy and enjoy your m15x, I don't think you have any particularly strong reasons to go and change it. There are very good things on the m15x that you won't have with the m860tu. Lights, Smartbay, the dual GPUs... oh, and no IR receiver!! I know it's not a biggie, but I was expecting to get a remote to control my media when plugged to a big HD television. But, the most important thing you won't have with the m860tu is... knowing your current laptop is working great and being happy with it.

Good luck,
M.

 

Does this site offer english keyboards and do they ship to other countries in europe?

 

only german keyboards as far as i know, as for the shipping, i'm sure they'd ship around europe. not sure though.

EDIT: on the debate over 2.8ghz/2.5ghz CPU: would it still be worth it if money didn't matter?

 

just read a quick comment on the screen:

my matte screen is perfect, I got the 1920 by 1200 res WUXGA.

I notice none of the sparkly stuff they mention, none of the lines people have been mentioning and my blacks, at least to me, are completely black, not grey at all.


Although the words are too small to read on most websites, I had to change the res to something lower.

 

Depends on what you'd be doing. If its gaming, won't be worth it. If its video editing, 3d modelling, graphic design, then yes, it would be worth it and safe. It would be a chip that natively works at 2.8 GHZ instead of an overclocked chip working at 2.7GHZ if you got the p9500.

 

Well, if money don't matter than we have no dilema go with the best .

 

yeh i have to change my res as well so thank god i didnt get the matte which was even smaller print.

i noticed while playing half life to that i was strugling to view the picture in dark areas where i had no problem on the m15

western digital are all good so its upto you which you go for.

turbo is ok but to sped thing up loading by maybe 5-10 seconds its not really a deal breaker.

ive also noticed with the keyboard its more springy and i do miss the odd letter here and there.

 

ioaniro, didn't you have an m15x at first as well?

 

I do, well bought it for the girlfriend. Works wonderful so far no problems (knocks on virtual wood). But since now I'm in the market for myself and there's a cheaper alternative... I'm going with the 9800GTS nexus from kobalt . Also they sound much nicer than AW as customer support. So if you wait till wednesday I'll try to put a picture side by side to help your decision .

PS I got the same m15 as you but only 2gb of memory and a bit bigger hdd...

 

that would be pretty sweet. please also try to compare the displays.

 

another convert welcome to the clan

 

what do you mean another? I ordered ages ago . And if kobalt and dhl would have a better relation I'd have had my laptop last week .

 

why'd you order from kobalt? because of the keyboard?

 

Because Kobalt rocks!
Well... It's a small family business and I like personalization. Being able to talk directly with the bosses is, in my opinion, an amazing advantage. Obviously, the fact that they are small, sometimes makes communication or speed of order processing a little bit slow. But in any case, I strongly recommend the Kobalt brothers.

Whizzo... you know you want it. Just get it!
If you are willing to lose the lights, I'm sure nothing else will dissapoint you.

 

Actually to be precise is the lights, batery life, integrated gfx and smart bay. You get a bit of increase in performance and (in my opinion) nicer design.

 

man, the trade-in is so tempting... but that 9800m-gts is bugging me... it just feels like i'd be making a step backwards...

is the 9800m-gt available on the commercial market?

 

the m860tus battery life sucks lets just say that it drops so fast even on powersaver that windows cant predict how long it has left... thats the only thing ive noticed about this laptop... every thing els is flawless..

 

As you can see in the link below it is atm,since nVidia stoped producing these cards then when resellers are out of stock you will be able to choose only 9800GTS.

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/acatalog/nexus.html

 

I'm sorry, but the m15x does not have a better performance than the m860tu. At least, not if you have the 9800m GT.
Regarding battery life... undeniable. You get a bit over 2 hours. I have to say, I don't think that is bad at all in such a powerful laptop such as this one.

And as Heath says (the biggest AW's lover of all times )... appart from battery, everything else is flawless.