Alienware M17x

Intro

Well I bought a DeLL XPS M1730 an had an accident so my replacement is an Alienware M17xR2 which I really like so far

Specs:

Space Black - Anodized Aluminum
Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
5.1 Channel Audio
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive,QuickSilver
Intel Core i5 520M 2.4GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 3MB Cache)
4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3)
1320-8856 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
1GB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M
S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forDHS Notebooks
Standard Nameplate
Automatic Updates: On
Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
128GB Solid State Drive & 320GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD'S
Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
MCAFEE Pearl MUI, 15mth,With Media
PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
DataSafe Local BackUp
DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
Nero 9 Media Burning Software
Steam and Portal Factory Installed
Genuine Windows 7 Professional, 64bit, English
Alienhead 3D
Alienhead 3D
Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
Alienware Command Center, M17x
Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini Card
Exchange

What's in the Box:

Laptop, AC Adapter, Mouse Pad, Cap, Alienware Head Sticker, Manual and Discs.

Design

Awesome!!!

Screen:

One of the best screens I have ever seen on a laptop. Very vivid, Clear. Nothing to complain about.

Keyboard

Well it lights up all over which is cool. I use an external keyboard.

Touchpad

It also lights up an can change colors.

Features:

Multimedia Keys

Nice Media Keys above the keyboard. They work nice.
LEDS

There's a real nice function/LED bar above the keyboard.

Wifi –

There is Wifi 130mps!

Speakers

Sounds Good. Not sure if it has a sub or not. I'll check later.

Input and Output Ports
Everything I would need.

Front:

Speakers which also can change the colors too.

Webcam Pictures

Seems nice.

Right Side:

Head phone outs(2), mic(4 ports total for audio in and out), 2 USB ports and a slot dvd+-rw drive


Left Side:

VGA, HDMI,Firewire, Ethernet, 2 USB's, E-sata, small firewire ports


Rear:

Power plug.


Bottom:

Easy to install HDD. Even has my name engraved on the face plate.

Benchmarks

Will add later.

Size and Weight

Huge, kinda heavy.

Heat and Noise

Seems good so far:P

Battery Life

Had it since 10:30am on the november 30th 2010 so haven't had time to really check much out.

Software

Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Accessories

Baseball Cap, Mouse Pad, Sticker, AC Adapter, User's Manual, 2 Discs.

Pros: Had for less than 3 days so I'll list later.
Cons: Had for less than 3 days so I'll list later.

Conclusion: I'll let you know when I've had it a month or so.

Intro

I previously had an m1710 which I purchased through ebay with a 3 year complete care warranty. My beloved m1710 was in an accident and was replaced with the odd looking m1730. 1 year after having this hideous, yet powerful machine, the 8800GTX decided to get burnt out.

I contacted Dell hoping to get a graphics card replacement but they offered me this gem instead. I have seen this beautiful machine on the Alienware website previously and always thought about selling my m1730 and getting the m17x, but as luck would have it, it wouldn't be necessary.

Specs:

1 224-5967 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-7711 Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0819 Intel Core2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-1000 1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-5063 Standard Nameplate
1 330-5414 Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeCoupon, W0, ENG,SPN,FRE,GER JPN
1 341-0011 250GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
1 410-0173 ADOBE ACROBAT READER - Eng
1 420-3251 Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0381 RSS Feeds,AW
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0399 Time Zone, CENTRAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0415 Mouse Pointers,STANDARD
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1724 Soft Contracts,Dell In Home,Alienware
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO



What's in the Box:

Open the box was truley a treat. For those who haven't had the pleasure of owning an Alienware, getting the big black box is a fantastic start to your up and coming 'obsessive' adventures with your computer. Opening the box I found a very durable and solid mouse pad with the Alienware logo, an Alienware Baseball cap, a very nicely bound Owner's Manual, the laptop charger, and an Alienware Sticker. All very nice I must say.

Design

What do you think of the aesthetics of the notebook?

Screen:

No dead pixels. I was very worried when opening the computer that I would have one, and I was very lucky not to. The screen itself is amazing. The edge to edge display is genius and I had always wished that my old laptops had this type of screen. Though some people find the 'auto dim' feature annoying, you start to not notice it after a few hours of use. The screen itself displays rich colors with no lack of brightness. Though there is some light leackage at the bottoms of the screen, this seems to be standard with all m17x computers, so no worries.

Keyboard

Keyboard itself is great. Nice lighting, though uneven is certain areas, again, common with the m17x. There is a slight un-eveness and some keys are noisier than others. I feel that they could do a better job on keyboard on future models.

Touchpad

Touchpad itseld is too far to the left in my opinion, but I cannot really comment here since I haven't used it. I use my Logitech G5 mouse which compliments the m17x quite niceley.

Features:

I don't feel that there are any special features that other brand laptops don't have. Every brand currently has about the same features so this particular topic doesn't need to be covered. The m17x has standard equipment like camera, IR port, HDMI, Slot Loaded DVD/RW, etc.

What does help the m17x stand out is the Hybrid graphics where you have 3 graphics cards. The nVidia 9400 running when on battery, and the dual 260m GTX in SLI when plugged in.

One other feature that I took advantage of right away was the power to OC (Overclock) the processor through the BIOS. My particular processor is the P8600 which comes clocked at 2.4Ghz. I was able to OC it to 3.0Ghz and run it stable for my day to day laptop functions.

Multimedia Keys

The command center strip is the primary control module for the m17x where you can quickly access the command center, volume control, and disc eject from the slot loaded player. Though it requires some finesse to actually make the keys work, I feel that its a good placement and it looks "cool".

Wifi –

The onboard WiFi is easy to use, and though some folks have had issues with getting a good signal strength, I have had no issues and have the same strength as previous laptops.

Speakers

Built in speakers are great. Have rich sound for laptop speakers and I find them to be of about the same quality as in the m1730 (even slightly better due to drivers). It would have been nice if they included a high quality subwoofer but then there wouldn't be any room for all the cooling.

Input and Output Ports

I have yet to explore these but I do notice pretty much everything in the book.

Webcam Pictures

The built in camera lacks luster and I find it to be of sub-par quality. The built in camera on my wife's $900 Asus is better and crisper, but then again, you don't pick up one of these machines for the performance of the camera. So the point is redundant.

Bottom:

The notebook is VERY well, and i mean VERY well cooled. I ran several processor and graphics card stress tests and the laptop stayed nice and cool. The aluminum build does help it stay this way which is another great feature that makes this machine stand out of the crowd.

Benchmarks

I couldnt download and run any of the 3d mark programs and honeslty I am not worried about running benchmarks. The laptop runs and blazing speeds, thats all I need to know.

Size and Weight

Laptop is VERY heavy and not recommended for lugging around all day. It truley is a desktop replacement and about the size of the m1730.

Heat and Noise

As I mentioned before, heat is almost non-existent and the cooling for this machine has been built great. Best cooling I have seen in a notebook. Fan noise only exists from the graphics cards when doing intense gaming or stress on the processor or graphics cards.

Battery Life

Haven't really used the laptop too much on battery but the Hybrid graphics cards really shine here. When on battery, the SLI cards are disabled and you only run the onboard nVidia 9400 to save battery power. The stealth mode also helps.

Software

None really. I did get Windows 7 Pro upgrade which I plan on installing after the first service pack.

Pros:
Great design
Aluminum build
Edge to Edge display
Overclockable processor
3 graphics cards
Customizable LEDs throughout

Cons:
Inconsistent build quality
Easily scratchable surface
Poor tech support from Alienware (up to 30 min wait for tech support)

Conclusion:

My opinion is that this is a great laptop for anyone who is in the market for a desktop replacement. The computer offers top of its class performance for a reasonable price tag. Its easily customizable and upgradable (At your discretion). If I didn't receive this laptop for free, I would probably STILL buy an Alienware M17X simply for the performance, style, design, and hey... its an Alienware afterall. Thank you for reading my review folks. I didn't post pictures because it would be the same pictures of the same laptop you can find all over the forums. Take care and feel free to ask me any questions or comments.

Intro

Well with Dell leaving the high end laptops to AW, and the apparent heat issues with the existing Dell line, I decided to make the jump from a long career of Dells into the New AW line. Sure we know Dell owns AW, but it seems the two lines have gone in different directions.

Of course the Dual GTX280 Video cards may have helped the decision, as there are few if any other laptops out there that can touch this option.

Another feature I like is when running on batteries, the laptop switched to the built in 9400 GPU to reduce the power drain on the battery.

Specs:

Nebula Red - Special Edition – Anodized Aluminum, Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) + Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon

Processor Intel Core2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz – 2 x 2048MB
Mouse Pointer Mouse Pointers, Standard
LCD 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
Video Card Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
Hard Drive 2 x 256GB Solid State Drive Raid 0
Name Plate Standard Nameplate (Alienware M17x)
AlienFX Color Mars Red
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) + Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon

Avatar Alienhead Glow
Wallpaper Alien Cyborg
Windows Style Windows Style, Default
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
CD ROM/DVD ROM Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Intel 5300 802.11n Wireless Mini PCI-E Card
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates ON
Power Plan Power Plan, Balanced
Time Zone (GMT - 5.00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Software - Antivirus McAfee® VirusScan Plus – 30-Day Free Trial (English)
Service 3 Yr Limited Warranty with 3 Yr NBD Onsite Service with Complete Care and 3 Yr Tech Support
AlienRespawn DVD AlienRespawn Image Recovery DVD
Bluetooth Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR


What's in the Box:

A double box design to protect the beast

Laptop with the cloth cover

Box with supplied accessories including AW Baseball cap. User manual. 240 watt Brick -slim line Vista Restore CD, Alien Spawn CD, System Drivers CD

Design

At first glance when i opened the box I went "WoW" the quality of the build is apparent as soon as you see this laptop, and pick it up. The second thing i said was this thing weighs a ton lol. The unit has been designed will Cooling in mind. The large air vents speak volumes to the effort put into the laptop to keep this baby cool.

The bottom access panel is the same design I saw on the M6400, which is removed by taking the battery out, and popping the two screws out to reveal the hard drives and a large fan for cooling the heat pipes. This will make cleaning a easy task.

The Red metal covers around the laptop look awesome, they look and feel high quality. Worth the extra $ 100.00 IMO

Screen:

The unit was supplied with the optional 17 inch Samsung WUXGA display. The screen is bright, and no dead pixels at this point, but I did notice a little leakage when viewing a dark screen.

Keyboard

The Keyboard is high quality, the back lighted keys look great, and of course you Can change the Color settings with the AW utility.

A separate number pad is included, along with the standard function keys, and the soft keys for the DVD drive controls, Wireless, Sound, and Multimedia Keys.

Touchpad

The touch pad works fine, but took a little getting used to, It seems almost Industrial quality, with a more rugged feel and look to it.

Features:

Multimedia Keys

there are several soft keys that control the DVD Drive, Sound, Wireless functions, and 2 programmable keys for tings like web browser and DVD player software.

LEDS

The Soft keys are all illuminated, along with the Alien head on both the top cover, and above the keyboard. The ALIENWARE name located at the bottom of the display bezel is also illuminated. Finally the front Air vents and the touch pad complete the LEDS lighting on this laptop.

Wifi –

laptop comes with built in 300 Mbit Wireless card. Windows identifies the card as a Broadcom Wireless N device.

The Wireless cards are located under the palm rest - acess can be had by removing the three screws located in the battery compartment.

The WiFi card is a half size card, the bluetooth is a full size card.

Signal levels seem good, but I will see how this does over the coming weeks in my travels.

I have upgraded thw wireless card to an Intel 5300 802.11n card, we'll see you it performs over the next few weeks

Speakers

The laptop has 2 built in speakers which are located in the front of the laptop.

Input and Output Ports

Front:

Front panel includes the latch to open up the display, and the two lighted speaker ports on each side.

Webcam Pictures

The 2.0-mega pixel web cam and digital microphone array lets you broadcast across the web, while wireless capabilities have you up and running anytime, anywhere.

Right Side:

The Slot load DVD drive is accessed from the right side. Also found are two USB ports, 8 - 1 Multimedia Card Slot, Express card slot, Headphone jack, Mic jack, and Front speaker jack, and Sub output.


Left Side:

2 USB ports, LAN port, 1394 port, E-Sata Port, HDMI Port, Display Adapter Port, Standard VGA Port.

Rear:

Power Jack. Also uses the same Brick as the Dell M6400


Bottom:

Battery, Hard Drive Access panel. and Several Vents for air flow. it should also be noted the in this design the vents have been raised so that when the bottom of the laptop is sitting on a flat surface the air flow can be maintained.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks coming soon

Size and Weight

This is the heaviest laptop I have seen, but all that sweet metal design comes with a price, Approximate weight is 12 pounds not including the 240 watt brick.


Heat and Noise

initial observations seem to reveal a quiet and cool operating laptop, Look at the pictures of te cooling solution the CPU and each GU have thier own dedicated heat Pipes and fans.

the design of the laptop has been done with cooloing requirements in mind, and it is very evident when you open this baby up and see just how well it is built.

Battery Life

Ran the laptop for over 2.5 hours before I recieved the message to plug it in. I was using a wired lan connection and browsing the internet.

Software

I installed Windows 7 - forget Vista Crap.

Accessories

Mouse Pad, Baseball Cap.


Pros:

A true gaming laptop
Excellent Cooling design.
Best Looking laptop I have ever seen
GPU Power that rivals a desktop
Support stays with AW - although M17 latops sold with the Dell Service tag will not have access to AW's Hive. Dells site is getting setup for support for the new AW laptops. I have had several "your Service Tag is not reconzied" issues aleady though.

Cons:

No RGB LED Display option.
Only 2 memory Card Slots. This Chipset supports 4.
No Blue Ray Burner option.
DVD Drive - I am not a big fan of Slot drives, and my Studio 15 been a pain with its slot drive, I though maybe a 4K laptop should be better, but a fews days old and my slot drive has crapped out. A new one is being arranged with AW hopefully # 2 is better.


Conclusion:

Over all I am very pleased with this laptop, It looks sleek, and performs like a desktop. The weight is going to be fun with all my travels, but thats a price I am ready to pay to have a Sweet gaming laptop.

Price was $$$$ but no worse than a nicely configured Precision M6400, but the GPU options put this laptop ahead of anything else.

upgraded to a QX9300

I now have two Samsung 256 Gb SSD drives installed and running in raid. will post new HDTune benchmarks shortly

When the 4 GB DIMMS drop to a more reasonable price, a 8 GB Config could be in the works.

I can confirm that the RGB LED display from the M6400 would not work on the M17x, the video cable arrangment is different. probably to include the secondary video feed from the built in 9400 GPU

Intro

Introducing the Alienware M17x! Not to be confused with the Alienware Area-51 m17x. Yes Alienware dropped the "Area-51" off the official title of the notebook and changed the "M" from lowercase to uppercase for reasons we don't really know. Maybe they just wanted an easier way to determine the difference between the two notebooks; because believe me, a lot has changed between the two versions, hardware and aesthetics included.

So what are the changes? And is this the correct direction for Alienware to go in?

From a hardware standpoint, of course. Consumers and gamers ALWAYS want the latest and greatest of technology in their machines. But why change the design already? It has not been long since the Alienware Area-51 m17x was released with a sleek, silver chassis that wowed us all. Did we really need a change already?

Specs:

• Specs of the M17x shipped:
• SYSTEM COLOR: Space Black – Anodized Aluminum
• PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)
• VIDEO CARD: Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled
• LCD PANEL: 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
• MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
• HARD DRIVE: 1TB - 2x 500GB 7,200RPM - RAID 0
• INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE: Slot-Load Dual Layer Blu-ray Combo (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
• WARRANTY AND SERVICE: 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty

MSRP: $3,898
Starting at: $1,799

What's in the Box:

Even the way the notebooks are packaged was changed. There are more layers to dig through protecting the M17x and like the previous design, customers still get the branded Alienware protective covering so transporting their Alienwares is easy and safe.

Design & Build

Alienware has taken the M17x in an entirely different direction.... yet again. Instead of sleek and beauty, The new Alienware line is now tough and rugged. The M17x build quality alone is much better and sturdier than the previous Alienware Area-51 m17x design. Looking at the front of the Alienware M17x, on the left and right side two LED areas that stare right into the eyes of any user that sits in front of it. Definitely a mean lookin' notebook.

AlienFX

The AlienFX can be found by clicking the icon on the desktop called, Alienware Command Center. Inside you have the option of selecting AlienFX. AlienFX can be used to change the color of different zones on the notebook without having to physically replace LEDs. The previous notebooks also had this feature, only in the new M17x, you now have the option of customizing the color scheme with much more precision than before. You can change multiple sections of certain zones to give a rainbow-like effect. The example below shows how you can change the colors of your keyboard.

Screen:

How is the picture quality of the screen? Viewing angle? Level of brightness? Adjust the level of brightness from the lowest to the brightest. Talk about how it reacts in daylight/nightlight. Are there any dead pixels?

Keyboard

Alienware kept the keyboard relatively the same from the Area-51 m15x and m17x. They also kept the function key naming conventions the same. For example, "suspend" is printed on the F1 key so it is obvious that pressing Fn+F1 will suspend the notebook. In addition, there is also a convenient function key F2, which brings up your battery level in the middle of the screen, F3, which mutes the sound, F4 and F5 which raise and lower the brightness on the LCD respectively, F6 toggles the output on the LCD screen or via the HDMI port, F8 which ejects the DVD tray, F9 which loads the Cyberlink YouCam software, F10 brings up Windows Mobility Center (where you can manage your battery life, wifi and other windows components, F11 loads the AlienFX software.

Of course the most impressive feature of the keyboard is the backlit functionality. Using the software AlienFX (discussed above) you can change the color of your keyboard to create any scheme your little heart desires.

Touchpad

Alienware gave me my wish when complaining about the touchpad on their previous Alienware Area-51 m17x model. Unfortunately, the touchpad is one of the few areas on the Alienware M17x that has not improved from the redesign. The new touchpad is indeed horribly designed. There is a new scaled textured touchpad that feels like your touching the back of snake. The touchpad is extremely jumpy and using it may cause much frustration, especially if you are trying to use the invisible scroll pad that has no markings or aesthetics to indicate it even exists.

Features:

Multimedia Keys

On the right side above the keyboard are a number of multimedia keys, that allow you to control the volume, play/pause and stop DVDs or CDs in the slot-loading player. These multimedia keys are very ineffective from Alienware's previous designs. Aside from the eject key, the volume buttons do not work on a consistent basis. I wish Alienware would have address this before finalizing the design. It would have been better if there was a knob on the side of the notebook to control the volume.

LEDS

The M17x is covered with a beautiful backlit keyboard and numerous LEDs over the entire chassis. From the front of the Alien eyes, to the multimedia keys to the the lit Alienware logo above the keyboard and on the back of the lid, all the lights look gorgeous.

The Alienware M17x comes equipped with an internal Wireless a/g/draft-n card. This card is an upgrade from the previous Area-51 m17x Intel Wireless 4965, but like most wireless cards today, the range and signal strength remains consistent and efficient. Connecting to a wifi network with Windows Vista is as easy as it gets.

Speakers

There is nothing unusual about the speakers on the M17x. They are of normal quality, nothing too fancy but definitely do not disappoint when watching videos or listening to music.

Input and Output Ports

Front:

Although there are no ports of any kind on the front of the notebook, Alienware added two LED vents on the left and right side that simulate an alien-like face and really adds character to the notebook chassis.


Right Side:

One of the nice features on the Alienware M17x is the slot loading CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive. Trays are so 1999! Every notebook made from this point out should come with slot loading drives. They are sleek, they are convenient and are easy to use.

The right side contains the Slot-loading DVD player, card reader, two USB ports, four audio jacks.


Left Side:

The left side of the notebook is packed with ports. From left to right, a Kingston notebook lock, exhaust vent, VGA (D-sub) output, HDMI output, display port, Eithernet port, two highspeed USB ports, eSATA port, and IEEE firewire port.

Rear:

AC power connection.


Size and Weight

Much like its predecessor, the M17x is heavy. It is actually 2 pounds heavier than the Area-51 m17x, clocking in at 12 pounds. The faster components are not to blame for the extra weight, but the solid build and extra cosmetic features that were added.


Heat and Noise

Image coming soon.

Battery Life

As expected, the M17x does not have very good battery life. Boasting two mobile graphics card and a powerful CPU, poor battery life is the price you pay. But battery life is not something gamers are looking for in a machine like this.

Each rating is measured when the 10% battery warning pops up in Windows Vista, with the exception of the Blu-Ray movie where the movie took up the whole screen and the m17x shut down completely.

1/8 – 33 minutes – Watching a Blu-ray movie (Balanced/)
8/8 – 57 minutes – Surfing the internet/youtube (Power Saver)
8/8 – 51 minutes – Surfing the internet/youtube (Power Saver)



Pros:

• Cosmetics
• CPU Power
• Graphics Power
• AlienFX

Cons:

• Weight
• Touchpad
• Scrollpad
• Multimedia Keys

Conclusion: TBAed

Intro

this M17x is Dell's warranty replacement for my defective M1730
my case started mid april 09 and got its resolution on september 21-09 " thank you dell for providing excellent customer service"

Specs:

Black Metallic

Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1)
17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
Name Plate Engraving
Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeCoupon
250GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Microsoft Office 2007 Basic-English
Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO


What's in the Box:

M17x - owners manual - power cord and brick - baseball cap - vista 64 installation cd - drivers cd - microsoft office 2007 installation cd

Design

this laptop was created with gamers in-mind , sleek design , custom lighting , black Anodized aluminum finish gives it a solid feel to it.

Screen:

the 17 " WUXGA,LCD screen makes playing 3D games and viewing movies a blast. I didn't feel the need to adjust the brightness i kept it at factory setting again the depends on preference.The screen has a glossy finish i've noticed some glare in daylight. as for nightime use all i can say is awesome.
no dead pixels for me

Keyboard

the keyboard is lite to the touch and well lit, stricking the keys in times of panic while in-game made minimal noise. so yes this can be used while the wife is sleeping. the num pad is an excellent addition it made doing the bills alot easier.

Touchpad

the touchpad has a different feel to it the texture is a little on the ruff side. the location is perfect but the right and left click
had a weird feel to it.

Features:

Multimedia Keys , standard Function Keys , Alien FX

Wifi –

Is there onboard wifi? - yes
Is it easy to use? - yes
Does it get strong signals? -yes

Speakers

speakers are mid range with no subs

Input and Output Ports

input and output are located on both sides with just the power in the rear.

Front:

none

Webcam Pictures

the built in webcam takes decent quality vids and pics i would give this a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10

Right Side:

Mic,Rear surround audio out,Subs audio out/Headphone, Front speaker audio out/Headphone out, x2 Usb2.0, Multimedia card reader, Slot load dvd/cd player


Left Side:

Vga,Hdmi,Display port,Rj45,2 X Usb 2.0, Usb 2.0/eSATA,1394 A


Rear:

power


Bottom:

name plate, memory access, fans, battery access

Benchmarks

coming soon

Size and Weight

this system measures 12x16 is about 15lbs i wouldn't recommended it for travel.


Heat and Noise

minimal heat and noise in-game use.

Battery Life

1 to 1/12 hour max. depending on applications.


Software

Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1 wit a free upgrade to windows 7, microsoft office 2007 basic edition

Accessories

to much to list


Pros: so far all pros
Cons: none yet

Conclusion:

have you ever gone on a test drive of a new car, as soon as you close that door and you get a feel of the Upholstery right there and then you already know if this car is for you. i've only own the M17x for 4 days and so far i feel like i'm sitting inside a luxury car that drives like a sports car.

that's all for sports

The M17x review by The_Moo



I ordered my laptop with the following specs
P8600 @ 2.4 ghz
4 gigs ddr3 1066mhz
250 gig HD
SINGLE GTX 260m
1900 res LCD


Size

Dimensions (WD) 16.0 x 12.7 inches
Height 2.0-2.1 inches
Screen size (diagonal) 17.0 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter 12.6 / 14.8 pounds

Ports

Video VGA-out, HDMI, DisplayPort
Audio 5.1 speakers, headphone/microphone jacks, surround sound audio outs. .
Data 5 USB 2.0 (1 USB/eSATA), FireWire, SD card reader
Expansion ExpressCard/54 ExpressCard/54
Networking Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive DVD burner/Blu-ray player


The Screen

The M17x's screen has had almost as much controversy as JFK....
But i have to Say its a great screen, I like it just as much as any other screen i have had...It's colors are amazing , and the Screen to me looks great with no issues...ITS BRIGHT !!!! With that being said the sharpeness in this screen is better then any other laptop screen i have had. The colors are very accurate and games look beautiful. The Edge 2 Edge Panel does add glare but IMO it isn't as bad as people have said. I have used this laptop everywhere and i never notice the glare. So i think the E2E only helps the screen in sharpness and in helping it to be easy to clean

8/10

The Chassis

It is solid..... like rock solid ....

NO squeak ....Everything works great. The touch controls are responsive, the lighting is amazing. The use of Almuminum insteadof cheap shiny black plastic sets it apart from other gaming machines with both quality and design. The laptops use of space and materials helps it feel like a very strong laptop and the Aluminum helps guve it the high end look while protecting it in a way. It feels cold to the touch every time you pick it up kinda like a alien . The touch controls are extremely responsive and well illuminated. It offers Eject, rewind, pause/play, fast forward, volume up/down, wifi on/off stealth mode. On the left of the computer you Num lock , Scroll lock and CAPS lock are all illuminated. The Powerbutton matches the dark chrome Alienhead on the lid. They used a hard plastic for the palm rest and made it textured. IMO its better then a flat glossy plastic so you don't sweat or stick to it.

The whole bottom of the computer is Aluminum except the central compartment which is hard plastic. The Sticks for your Vista licenses and Dell service tag are there as well. The bottom offers easy access to your HD, RAM and CPU fan for easy cleaning. There are GPU vents there as well for easy cleaning

The Anodized Aluminum looks great its a Deep Black and matchs the other parts of the laptops. Now that i have been inside the laptop i can see it is highly reinforced and well built.

9/10

The Touch Pad

Now that i have the touch pad broke in it isn't my least favorite any more. It does have a rough texture to it but i realize after breaking it in that it isn't bad to use at all. The texture helps you finges not stick or slip. The touch pad has no predetermined zones for scrolling. It is illuminated to show the extent if the Touchpad

7/10


The Speakers

They are LOUD and nice. They are just as good as my M17 which had a subwoofer
They have no crackling like other have complained about. I have listend to music on these and they are my favorite speakers I have ever had on a laptop. The illumination isn't as accurate as the Keyboard on some colors.

8/10

Alienfx

I have taken pictures of every alienFX color
easier to download and look

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahd4...x_pictures_zip

10/10 !!!!!

Battery life

I am getting 3 hours no problem on :

Medium bightness
Powersaver
9400m

1 hours and 45 minutes on

260m GTX
Medium brightness
Powersaver

CPU cooling



Speaks for its self

ORTHOS AND Wprime running running @ 1333 FSB and @3.01 ghz

The cooling in this laptop is amazing they really took time to Thermally desgin this notebook. Each GPU and the CPU all have separate fans and heatsinks helping the laptops overall cooling power. As of right now it does have the BEST cooling system in a laptop. The CPU i have never goes past 60c running @ 1333 FSB and on the 9400m ( on the CPU heatsink) @ 3.01 Ghz. That is pretty impressive to me. The GPU's in this laptop do not go above 70c i don't think ever in gaming which is amazing as well. The temps cane easily be lower by purchasing a Cryo NZXT at Newegg.com, it is the BEST cooler for this laptop and can help drop temps by 12c.






Benchmarks

So far i can only do CPU benchmarks and all of them will be running @ 3.01 GHZ and 1333mhz FSB.











Benchmarks YAY!!!!!

260 ONLY no hybrid SLI



OVERCLOCKED







260 with hybrid SLI





OVERCLOCKED







Overclocked to the following




Whats in

the Box





Cooling and OC'ing are coming ....