Alienware M14X FULL REVIEW!!

Hello everyone!! I just got my alienware m14x yesterday fresh out of the box! (after a lot of thoughts and comparisons)
i got these specs:

i7-2630QM
8GB 1600MHZ
GT 555M 3GB
750GB 7200RPM
1600*900 screen
Intel wireless HD built in
Windows 7 ultimate edition
3 year warranty

i'v decided that i want to share a few thoughts with you guys, so maybe people who are thinking about buying this laptop would have some help deciding.
i'v been using it for one day only, but i'v managed to already see my alien in complicated action. i'm gonna devide my review into sections in order to make it more comfortable to read.

1) Build Quality [10]: In this section i give this laptop a solid 10. I work in electronics store and i sell computers all the time, starting from mini laptops and reaching the hp envy and dell XPS. i have never seen a laptop built like this, the build quality is absolutely phenomenal and superb, it feels like a solid rock in hands and the touch of it is just amazing. u have to hold one of these to understand.

2) Design [10]: simply, amazing! even the box is designed in an outstanding freakin way! when i unboxed it i was amazed even that i knew what was waiting for me after watching tens of unboxing videos.
the laptop itself is designed superbly, it sets on your desk and u just wanna keep watching it setting there!! upsolutely superb design. a solid 10

3) Display [7]: i'm gonna say the truth here, i'm not a photo or video editor and i don't really need a high quality display, but the 1600*900 display isn't the best quality display out there. u can feel that the image isn't that vivid and crisp, but overall it fits my needs, as i need it only for programming and gaming, so nothing really critical for me. i'v also bought a VGA so i can hook it up to my samsung B2030 display anytime i want.

4) Performance [10]: Coming from a powerful desktop (Q8200, Nvidia 9600 GT 1GB) i can say that this laptop is astonishingly fast!! it ate anything i throw at it, and still i'm gonna run more speed tests. pretty much it handled the multi-tasting superbly and without any problem. The laptop wakes up almost instantly, and it took 45 to boot up until i had full control of my desktop.
I will post games benchmarks soon.

5) Temps and Fan[7]: Yesterday I created a system backup disc, and i can say that during this process, which is known to eat some resources, the hard disk got rally warm and the right side of the touch pad heated up significantly, and the fan kicked in and was a little bit loud. But i'm not really concerned, since the laptop heated only in the hard drive area, and i know i'm gonna upgrade to SSD soon when i have the cash for it. The fan is really loud though, but when u do normal work like surfing the web and editing office documents u can't hear the fan, but when you run somethin heavy it kicks in hard, but that isn't really an issue. after all, alienware m14x is a real beast, and the hardware needs to stay cool.

6) Keyboard and touchpad [9]: The Alienware M14X keyboard is a unique experience. it feels really nice to type on and there is enough space between the keys to make it feel comfortable, really nice keyboard. the touch pad is great too with great reactions, if only it was a little bit bigger i would had given this section a 10, but instead it gets only 9. (haha!)

Another small thing i want to note is that this laptop is a bit heavy for the size. but it's dimensions is really suitable for me, the laptop isn't too big which makes it portable and it can fit in any back pack. the 14" isn't too small and isn't too big.

Overall, i can say that i made the right decision buying the new alienware. i'm taking this beast to university, where i'm gonna study computers. If you are looking for a portable beast, the alienware m14x is for you, but if you don't need the extra performance and you don't do gaming, maybe you should look at somethin more portable like the Vaio SA or the Macbook Air.

Soon i'm gonna post more thoughts and photos

 

Nice review, you hit the nail on the head. We all feel pretty much the same about the m14x.

 

oh i want it so badly lol....

ahhaaaa

 

Nice review.
I would've bought one if the display wasn't so bad.

 

well guys for the display.. use the intel control panels to set the RGB levels by yourself and also use windows display calibration.. your display will look much nicer!! made a damn good difference to mine

 

it's not THAT bad. it's not somethin that would prevent you from buying this machine, unless you are a professional designer and need the quality display.
i read across the forum here someone who said that if you perform a few tweaks on gamma level you can get better results from the display, but i still can't find that link.

 

display really isnt that bad. im happy with it.

great review. spot on in fact. im well pleased with my m14x

 

It's not as good as the m17x R2 is but it's a lot nicer than the m11x. I think it is very bright and crisp. Shak541 tried that and it did make it more vivid thanks + rep to you.

 

I bought a MBP with 6750m instead of the m14x because they were similar in weight and the MBP was only 8-10% slower in GPU terms.

The build quality of both is great, Dell XPS series a very far off from either of the two "Even the new 15z"

You all were talking about the screen resolution, mine only has 1440x900 that also on an 15inch. With 1600*900 the m14x is better in terms of resolution but still MBP's display is one of the most pleasurable to use.

Overall i found MBP with 6750m a more balanced laptop it has everything but not ace at anything but m14x still haunts me in my dreams The annoying thing is that i cant find out how to run switchable graphics in windows 7 "Dont like Mac OS much so bought Win7 instead"

 

If you are not a Mac OS fan...why did you buy the MBP in the first place....am just curious

 

by the way, be sure that with the alienware your gonna amaze people! anywhere i take this laptop i hear people saying "ALIENWAR ?!" like it's somethin coming from the moon hehe

two things i didn't write in my previous post.

1) Speakers: i just tried the speakers and it really sounds good and loud enough to watch a movie and enjoy music! the bass isn't so strong but still you get decent stuff from the speakers. Definitely it gets a 9.

2) battery: with "power saving" powered on, i managed to get around 4:15 out from the battery, just surfing the web and listening to random music.
i give the battery a score of 8. It's really unique to get this kind of time out of such a strong machine, but the fact that the battery isn't user replaceable reduced 2 points from the score.

Expect more to follow.. the more i use this machine the more details i can give you guys about it

 

Well i can take it anywhere without standing out. I plan on doing a internship at a firm and a MBP would seem a better choice for the future. Taking the m14x in my hand would seem quite out of the norm.

The build quality of both is good but i was not sure about m14x being rough used. Since the laptop will have to my main PC all the time i needed something that can take abuse from pens and usb drives in my backpack.

Lastly the cost the m14x is only avalible in two models here "India" they are as follow:

Alienware M14x Laptop Details | Dell India

Since the 2630QM in the cheaper one is slower comapred to the 2.2Ghz found in the Macbook Pro not to mention the HDD space. The top end 15inch MBP had to be compared with the top end m14x and the following are the difference in m14x top end vs MBP top end:

Macbook Pro/ m14x
2720QM 2.2Ghz/ 2820QM 2.3Ghz "Min difference"
4GB 1333/8GB 1600 "Med difference"
1GB 6750M/3GB 555GT "Min difference"

INR 1,25,000 ($2750)/ INR 1,20,000 ($2650)


Now since RAM is cheap i can upgrade them in MBP with ease. The CPU speeds are not hugely different and will not impact performance a lot.

That leaves the GT555 which has a DDR3 memory and i have noted that the added 1.5GB over the stock 1.5GB does not matter a lot. So to verify this i saw the bench's on notebookcheck:

CRYSIS 2:
40.8
[X] M14x
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2GHz
GeForce GT 555M (590MHz), 3072MB (900MHz) Shadertakt: 1180 MHz, DDR3-VRAM, ForceWare 267.21
4096MB RAM

38
[X] Macbook Pro 15 inch 2011-02 MC723LL/A
Intel Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz
Radeon HD 6750M (600MHz), 1024MB (794MHz) GDDR5, 8.812.0.0
4096MB RAM

StarCraft 2 (2010) :
23.9
[X] M14x
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2GHz
GeForce GT 555M (590MHz), 3072MB (900MHz) Shadertakt: 1180 MHz, DDR3-VRAM, ForceWare 267.21
4096MB RAM

24
[X] MacBook Pro 17 inch 2011-02 MC725D/A
Intel Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz
Radeon HD 6750M (600MHz), 1 GBMB (794MHz) + Intel HD Graphics 3000, atiumdag8.812.0.0 Win7/64
4096MB RAM

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010) :
41
[X] M14x
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2GHz
GeForce GT 555M (590MHz), 3072MB (900MHz) Shadertakt: 1180 MHz, DDR3-VRAM, ForceWare 267.21
4096MB RAM

39
[X] Macbook Pro 15 inch 2011-02 MC723LL/A
Intel Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz
Radeon HD 6750M (600MHz), 1024MB (794MHz) GDDR5, 8.812.0.0
4096MB RAM

I wanted to see the overclock performances for both but m14x had variances and could not find a good source of overclocked performance figures. For the MBP the 6750m seemed to settle around 800-830Mhz and 850-900Mhz memory. So i bought the MBP with 6750M and have also been able to overclock the 6750m to 840/910 but settled at 800/850Mhz as the best combo.

 

Pretty good review. I would agree with you on all but two things. And even there I am pretty close to your opinion.

Video/Display: I actually liked how the video display looks for a screen that size. I would give it a 9 there.

Fan/Noise: The fan and sound I would probably give it a 6. It does not bother me that the fan gets loud during gaming but it kicks on and off intermittently even when I do simple tasks like browsing the web .. use outlook etc. To be completely honest I am not sure if this is normal for gaming laptops or not (this is my first, my last laptop was an xps m1530).

Is it?