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:
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)
Synthetic/Gaming Benchmarks
Here is a list of tested synthetic and gaming benchmarks. All results are with stock hardware settings.
3DMark:
The 3Dmark Benchmarks are the most common benchmarks used to determine if the notebook is configured to play the latest games. More specifically, it is used to determine the direct X performance of the graphics cards. The higher the score, the more suited your notebook is to playing games. The number behind the 3dMark Benchmark (3dmark2001, 3dmark03 etc) is related to the year the test relates to technology, which is why the 2001 scores are always significantly higher than the 06 scores. You can compare the scores of this notebook to other notebooks by going here.
3DMark2001se:
31,967
3DMark03:
54,333
3DMark05:
16,531
3DMark06:
13,378
Vantage:
11895
Cinabench:
Cinabench runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances.
wPrime:
wPrime is an "application designed to use a highly multithreaded approach to calculating the square-roots of large amounts of numbers (up to 32 billion at this stage!)".
Windows Experience Index
The Alienware M17x is the first notebook tested on Notebookforums that maxes out all five category scores in the Windows Vista Experience Index Score. All five categories score a 5.9, assigning it a base score of 5.9. If the M17x was running Windows 7, the score would probably be in the mid 6.5-7.0 range.
Super Pi
Super Pi, is a synthetic benchmark that calculates Pi to a certain amount of digits you prescribe, and the faster it does it, the better your notebook performs. All of the benchmarks submitted in the NBF database are set to calculating Pi to the 2 million digits of accuracy.
HD Tune:
This next benchmark I ran is called HD Tune which measures raw performance of transfer rates, access times, CPU usage, burst rate and the overall health of your hard drive setup. A couple of obvious notes; the burst rate should always be higher than the maximum transfer rate of your score. In this case it is. The second number to look at is the Access Time. The bigger the number, the better the performance.
Alienware m15x ------ Sager NP6790 ------ Sager NP9260 ------
Every benchmark/screenshot in this section is run on the highest settings available, with AA off, unless otherwise noted. Every resolution is run at 1920x1200p (unless noted) on Vista with stock Alienware NVIDIA Graphics Driver _________.
World in Conflict: (steam)
World in Conflict is actually a bit more graphically challenging to the m17x, but the stress test shows that even during the most active battles, the game still manages great frames on the highest settings.
Settings
TBAed
Company of Heroes (steam):
Company of Heroes plays well and performs well during the stress test. The game actually gets higher frames per second during the DirectX10 test than the DirectX9 test. More confidence that using Vista is the correct decision on the M17x.
With Anti-Aliasing Off High Settings in DirectX10
TBAed
Half-Life 2/Counterstrike:Source (steam):
The regular Counterstrike/Half-Life 2 source engine runs very well on the m17x. Anything over 100 frames per second is considered a good score for the stress test and the m17x almost triples it. People may be wondering why sometimes tests like these get lower average frames when comparing it to the single GPU m15x, but SLI does not always increase the frames, especially in games optimized for Ati cards like Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike: Source. In this case, the m17x does get better frames in all of Valves games over the m15x.
254.19 @ 1920x1200
Half-Life 2: Lost Cost (steam):
You can see the difference in frames between the normal counterstrike source stress test and the Lost Coast stress test with full HDR enabled. Still top notch frames.
171.43 @ 1920x1200
Left 4 Dead (steam):
TBAed @ 1920x1200
Lost Planet (steam):
37.9 @ 1920x1200 DX9.0c
45.6 @ 1920x1200 DX10
Doom 3 (steam):
TBAed @ 800x600
Pros:
Cons:
Conclusion: TBAed
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)
Synthetic/Gaming Benchmarks
Here is a list of tested synthetic and gaming benchmarks. All results are with stock hardware settings.
Synthetic
Benchmarks
Benchmarks
3DMark:
The 3Dmark Benchmarks are the most common benchmarks used to determine if the notebook is configured to play the latest games. More specifically, it is used to determine the direct X performance of the graphics cards. The higher the score, the more suited your notebook is to playing games. The number behind the 3dMark Benchmark (3dmark2001, 3dmark03 etc) is related to the year the test relates to technology, which is why the 2001 scores are always significantly higher than the 06 scores. You can compare the scores of this notebook to other notebooks by going here.
3DMark2001se:
31,967
3DMark03:
54,333
3DMark05:
16,531
3DMark06:
13,378
Vantage:
11895
Cinabench:
Cinabench runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances.
wPrime:
wPrime is an "application designed to use a highly multithreaded approach to calculating the square-roots of large amounts of numbers (up to 32 billion at this stage!)".
Windows Experience Index
Quote:
|
The Windows Experience Index is a new feature built into Windows Vista that is designed to help you better understand how well Windows Vista and other software will perform on your PC. Your computer, running Windows Vista, is assigned a rating number called a "base score" that is achieved by measuring the capability of your computer's hardware configuration. This base score rating will help you to more confidently buy additional hardware, programs, and software that are matched to your computer's base score. The scale of the Windows Experience Index ranges from 1.0 to 5.9. A higher base score generally means that your computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score, especially when performing more advanced and resource-intensive tasks. |
Super Pi
Super Pi, is a synthetic benchmark that calculates Pi to a certain amount of digits you prescribe, and the faster it does it, the better your notebook performs. All of the benchmarks submitted in the NBF database are set to calculating Pi to the 2 million digits of accuracy.
HD Tune:
This next benchmark I ran is called HD Tune which measures raw performance of transfer rates, access times, CPU usage, burst rate and the overall health of your hard drive setup. A couple of obvious notes; the burst rate should always be higher than the maximum transfer rate of your score. In this case it is. The second number to look at is the Access Time. The bigger the number, the better the performance.
Alienware m15x ------ Sager NP6790 ------ Sager NP9260 ------
Gaming Benchmarks
Every benchmark/screenshot in this section is run on the highest settings available, with AA off, unless otherwise noted. Every resolution is run at 1920x1200p (unless noted) on Vista with stock Alienware NVIDIA Graphics Driver _________.
World in Conflict: (steam)
World in Conflict is actually a bit more graphically challenging to the m17x, but the stress test shows that even during the most active battles, the game still manages great frames on the highest settings.
Settings
TBAed
Company of Heroes (steam):
Company of Heroes plays well and performs well during the stress test. The game actually gets higher frames per second during the DirectX10 test than the DirectX9 test. More confidence that using Vista is the correct decision on the M17x.
With Anti-Aliasing Off High Settings in DirectX10
TBAed
Half-Life 2/Counterstrike:Source (steam):
The regular Counterstrike/Half-Life 2 source engine runs very well on the m17x. Anything over 100 frames per second is considered a good score for the stress test and the m17x almost triples it. People may be wondering why sometimes tests like these get lower average frames when comparing it to the single GPU m15x, but SLI does not always increase the frames, especially in games optimized for Ati cards like Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike: Source. In this case, the m17x does get better frames in all of Valves games over the m15x.
254.19 @ 1920x1200
Half-Life 2: Lost Cost (steam):
You can see the difference in frames between the normal counterstrike source stress test and the Lost Coast stress test with full HDR enabled. Still top notch frames.
171.43 @ 1920x1200
Left 4 Dead (steam):
TBAed @ 1920x1200
Lost Planet (steam):
37.9 @ 1920x1200 DX9.0c
45.6 @ 1920x1200 DX10
Doom 3 (steam):
TBAed @ 800x600
Pros:
- Cosmetics
- CPU Power
- Graphics Power
- AlienFX
Cons:
- Weight
- Touchpad
- Scrollpad
- Multimedia Keys
Conclusion: TBAed
