*OFFICIAL* Alienware 14 Owner's Lounge Thread

Yeah same here Kevin. Some flooding in our main freeway I-75 northbound and it was all thunderstorms last night and today.

 

I just called FedEx and they insisted that since it is express it is out on one of the little vans. She was pretty adamant about that.

 

Received my Alienware 14 this morning. A few thoughts:

+ I played Tomb Raider, Crysis 2 and Civ 5, and the Alienware stayed relatively cool throughout both gaming sessions. The fan kicked in, and it was not nearly as loud as I was expecting. The review about high heat levels was either an exaggeration or he had a laptop without a finalized cooling setup.
+Excellent speakers. Easily the best I have ever heard on a smaller form laptop.
+Build quality is superb, and the system looks much better in person than in photos.
+IPS screen is plenty bright at about 85%.
+I though the gimmicky lighted trackpad would inhibit responsiveness, but it works quite well. BTW, by default it slowly fades to no color once you move your finger off the pad. Nice.
+Keyboard is very responsive.

-The keyboard, while solid, just feels very fragile. I feel like the keys are so thin that I could peel them away from the unit. Have you ever purchased Dentyne or Trident gum in those Chiclet plastic cases? Well, if you were to take the gum out of one of the plastic cells and press down on it, that is about how light and fragile the keys feel. I'm certain they are quite sturdy, but they do not feel that way.
-The bottom bezel is just laughably large. I have NO idea what Dell was thinking.
-The IPS panel is a good upgrade, but it is not top tier. It has a somewhat strange grainy/shimmering look to it, especially on white backgrounds.
-Because of the units height and angled edges, at times it feels like the laptop is digging into my wrists

Overal, many more good aspects than bad, and a DEFINITE step up from the previous model in terms of screen, appearance, and initial build quality.

 

Thanks for the write-up, Dante - sounds like the 14 is going to be exactly what I need. Surprised and glad to read that the speakers are worthwhile.

 

The shimmering is the matte finish on the screen.

Dell was thinking about the R1 and R2 heating issues with the Bezel.

 

They better ship it to your house today so we both get to enjoy it by tonight!!!

FedEx just delivered around 1:20pm ET and I had my sister sign for it so just a lil over 3 hours before I can get home.

 

I've driven to the Sort Facility before and picked up other packages. I'll do it again.

If i don't have it in 90 minutes I will be calling the sort facility like i did last time.

 

Good write up Dante. I have been hearing about the 'digging into the wrists' a lot lately. Maybe it is just me but I have yet to experience this. Granted I am playing on a flat surface with a U3 which elevates the system making it easier on the wrists. I would highly recommend it for extended hours of use

 

Speaking of hours of use... How's the battery life, Matt?

Also, can you game on the battery? Or must it be plugged in?

Thanks.

 

Just received my aw 14. The ips screen is unbelievable. Its just as goood as my shimian 1440p ips except lower res and has the sparkle from the matte cover.
Loading games etc now

Edit: At high performance and plugged in the i7 4700MQ doesn't go below 3200Mhz.

 

Battery life is to be expected. Depending on what mode you are on and what game you're playing. In "discrete" mode I can manage around 2.5 hours while gaming . However, in "switchable" mode I can go over 4 hours while gaming with less demanding games . This is all with AlienFX off and brightness on second notch.

Of course, if you are gaming it should be plugged in to avoid the dip in frame rate and the unexpected shut off while in the middle of match.

 

That's decent enough. So, for average use (word processing, web browsing, etc.) we're looking at 4+ hours of battery life.

Good to know.

 

What nvidia driver have you installed in your pc? i have 311.48 and it sees no uptade. If i go directly to nvidia website i can download the latest 320.49 but when i try install them system says there's no compatible hardware...

 

I get the same. I also have the feeling if it isn't broke. Don't fix it.

 

You guys using Windows 8?

 

2 AW 14's on the way, scary to read this just after ordering

 

No

Mine came just fine.

 

I just wanted to add a few more comments now that I've spent another 3 hours with the unit:

-After calibration the ips screen is now excellent! I placed it side-by-side with my 2012 MacBook Pro w/Retina and both achieve nearly the same level of brightness at 100%. I have no equipment to give any readings, but no one will be complaining about the brightness of this screen, despite one review which stated it was significantly below the industry standard. In fact, my GF could not really tell the difference between the two screens.
-I've very briefly tested the following games at 1080P, all with high settings: Crysis 2, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Ultimate, Civ 5, Anno 2070, and Far Cry 3. All ran above 30FPS, most well above that mark.
-I'm really preferring the more subdued lighting on this model. The front cover is absolutely beautiful.
-Tested a Blu-ray movie at full battery. I left it playing for am hour, at full speaker volume, and the battery was down to 71%. So it looks like about 3.5-4 hors of battery life while watching a Blu-ray title.
-While just cruising the Internet the laptop is dead silent.
-The interior matte "rubberized" finish that is high quality and does not attract fingerprints too easily. When it does, they easily wipe off. I believe this is the same finish seen on higher end Dell XPS laptops, but it is jet black instead of dark gray.

-In a previous post I mentioned getting a chance to sit down with my friend's new 14" Razer Blade. I love the design of the Razer, but the Alienware is clearly better built. It feels more solid, has less flex, and the screens are simply night-and-day. My Alienware also makes less use of the fan while gaming. I still wish Dell could have shaved about 1 pound off these new units.

 

Good info. Impressive for a 14" laptop. What were the temperatures?

 

I managed to get my 14 with 9% off the msrp which was about $125 and an additional $200 dell gift card.

 

Can you meet explain or post a guide on how you calibrated the screen? Thanks

 

Sharing the calibration file would be even better.

 

Hey guys. Can somone who already ownes the m14 do me a favour and test Heroes of Newearth for me? I need to know if the fans start kickin in at this game!
That would be so gr8

 

Weird, I ordered my 14 on July 2nd and it shipped yesterday from city of industry, CA. Arriving tomorrow and weighs 12lbs. Original Edd was July 22nd. so excited.

 

Congrats! Great to hear - I ordered mine on the 4th, hopefully that's good news for mine shipping early, as well.

 

I order mine too 2 of July still in production u_u

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Sorry. I'd love to, but My friend brought over his Spyder calibration hardware. He ran through everything for me after he completed using it on his Razer.

 

My 14 IPS FHD screen is very vivid but it is too warm and a little yellowish and unnatural. When viewing pics of people, the skin instead of having a natural look to it, it looks like it is oversaturated in yellow.

Did alienware change a setting somewhere where we can switch between color modes? I already checked color management and its icc profiles and everything is set to windows default so I know it is now Windows fault.

 

Need HELP!

I just received my Alienware 14! Looks great and everything however... 1st time boot I got a bsod... Looks like it tried to skip 1st time setup is my guess. Anyways yeah I have not received another bsod after I restarted and everything seems fine. Except in my device manager I do not see my geforce gtx 765m, tried installing the drivers on the resource cd but it just says nvidia hardware not found. I ordered the top model, and on the backplate it does say geforce gtx 765m and i7 4900. Someone please help I am starting to run out of answers.

 

Please Help!

I received my new alienware 14 and first time I turned it on I got a BSOD ... It looked like it tried to skip first time setup in windows for some weird reason, and after I rebooted it I have not gotten any other bsod. That's not my issue though, my issue is I am not able to install any drivers for the geforce gtx 765m because it's not detected. I am only running on intel onboard graphics. I checked device manager, no nvidia card is there, tried installing drivers says that there is no nvidia hardware detected. I looked at the bottom of my backplate and it says I have a geforce gtx 765m and an i7 4900 (I got the most expensive 14). Can anyone help me out? I am running out of solutions .

 

Probably the best thing i haven't heard on here is how loud these speakers can get for a laptop. They are really great speakers

 

Phew! Ran startup repair and restored to an earlier date. All good now!

 

So i have what sounds like a loose screw near my ODD. im assuming that this is the accelerometer, or free fall sensor. Does anyone else hear something clacking. Also has anyone found out how to keep the touchpad backlight on?

 

No loose screws hear. Take off the bottom plate and see whats going on. If you boot into the bios, there's a setting for the touchpad that you can switch from "auto" to "on" if you want the light on all the time.

 

Is there an option to turn off the track pad lighting in the bios as well?

 

Hi guys i recived my alienware 14 yesterday and i love it theres only one issue.. Bf3 is being weird i cant see my weapons in my hand or when i climb a later it goes straight from the bottom to the top without any animations. i also can not pick up weapons ive googled this and look for what seemed like forever any help? and if u guys are wondering u can run it on ultra with avrg 65 and min 56 atleast that was for me but i dont have a gun so what do i know

 

Try updating the drivers.

 

i did it says im up to date and im running windows 8.. what a mistake

 

I'm not sure what the problem is, but it's not likely to be Windows 8.

 

Did you try reinstalling the game?

 

New Review:
Alienware 14 gaming notebook (4th gen Core) - reviews - Notebooks - Performance - Good Gear Guide by PC World Australia

 

Try reinstalling the game. That is not likely to be a problem with Windows 8 or drivers.

 

How is everyone liking their system?

 

I was playing dayz today and only got 30 frames average, however my friend with a 650 m14x got 50. We were at the same resolution. Any ideas why mine was lower. I think my card might have some issues. Also I havent been aboe to benchmark it. 3d mark 11 wont initialize the test.

 

Are you sure you are using the discrete gfx card?30 frames seems to be around the threshold for intel card...I would double check this and manually restart the system to switch to discrete only and make sure Iam using nvidia card..hope this helps

 

Nope only Auto and Always On.

But if you want your touchpad lighting to be off, i'll let you in on a secret.

Right click your alienfx alienhead logo and then quick change to black color. Then open your Alienfx Editor and then just pick the lighting zones you want to be lit up and do not touch "Zone 8" which is the touchpad since it's already black color or off.

 

For the owners of a 14 a quick question, is there a way to disable charging the battery? I used to have a M14x,in the BIOS there is a feature that do that, in my M15x it was with fn + F2 I believe... And it disable the charge, what about these new models?


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It has arrived.

 

Thats what i was thinking because it was running cool, but i was in discrete mod

 

best vid showing the 14 to date. Makes the next week of waiting much better. I really dont like how the pad lights go out, if its plugged in can you make the light stay on or no?