My m15x after 2 years

Well, it's been almost exactly 2 years since I bought my m15x. It's the old squarish silver design, and it had the best components Alienware was able to offer at the time.

I had taken it with me from England where I ordered it (manufactured in Ireland) back to the Czech republic where I live. For the past year and a half I had it with me BACKPACKING across New Zealand and Australia (I'm a freelance designer), recently brought it back home with me.

It has seen its share of harsh environments (dust and sand, extreme heat/sun exposure, high humidity) and I've never put it in the dust sleeve it came with. Over the years, it received one hot beverage (a friend spilt scalding sweet tea over one of the grills) and countless crumbs from food, not to mention avalanches of ash from smoking while working.

Today I had opened it to finally spray it with some compressed air, only TO FIND NO DUST WHATSOEVER! Virtually nothing on the CPU and GPU fans, no point even opening it, I thought. Needless to say, she runs exactly as the day I bought her, no overheating, no sign of wear-and-tear.

When I first saw the flimsy-looking backlit keyboard and the daring design (I call it 'futuristic-retro'), I though 'That's gonna break quick', but I can safely say it really exceeded my expectations. Hats off to Alienware for building a reliable rig.

Don't know why I'm writing this, I guess to say that if someone's interested in buying Alienware but hesitant about the investment - don't be, it's solid.

Also, to start a discussion - how do people feel about the latest design of Alienware laptops? Are they sturdy? One thing I don't like about the old m15x design is the flimsy 'touch-and-slide' volume control - has that been improved? It also looks like the screen is seamlessly integrated into the frame, how is that? Anyone own(ed) both the old and the 'new' (from June 09) designs?

 

wow an area 51 model lasting that long with no issues is truely incredible. i had the same exact model, everything was perfect except i had the hinge issue. now i have the newer model and must say the build is much better and much more sturdier than the last model. the touch button on new one is much better and now they got rid of the touch slider, now its just touch button for volume up and a separate one for volume down, which is much better imo.

 

My new M15x is the most solidly built laptop I've ever owned.

 

Those are good improvements for sure! The sliding volume was outdated as soon as they brought it out IMO

I'd like to switch to the newer design, but frankly my old m15x is (shockingly) still more than capable when it comes design/video editing, even gaming!

Wish Alienware would exchange my laptop for store credit - I don't really wanna sell it on ebay, and it's out of warranty now anyway...

 

It just goes to show how incredible Alienware really is...

 

If your old m15x ever needs a boost in performance then check out this program.

ThrottleStop 2.54
http://www.mediafire.com/?mnznfjoy2yy

Right click on ThrottleStop and check out the new CPU unlock feature. A reliable 25% increase in MHz is a typical increase and will allow your laptop to remain competitive for another year or two.

 

Well you are very lucky to have not had any issues with ur m15x. I wasn't so lucky lol. My hinge went and started cracking the bottom plastic of the lcd housing. Keyboard lighting stop working and ultimatly I als have overheating issues with it. I fixed most of the problems and manage to trade it for a m17 :-D

 

I must be one of the lucky ones as well.

I've had my area 51 m15x for over 2 years now. Still runs modern games like a dream. Haven't had any issues with it after I got the hinge issue figured out. Probably one of the most flexible laptops out there, with both switchable graphics and smart bay.

 

I did own the 17'' m9750 shortly before that, which had a lot of things wrong with it - the CD tray got fu*ked almost instantly, the button for opening the battery compartment just fell off (never screwed in properly!), drivers and power management were flimsy to say the least (I think Vista were still the new jazz back then)...

After ordering new parts, even sending the whole system back and forth a few times , only to still find it faulty, I made a bit deal about it on the phone, sent it back, and used the credit to buy the (then newly released) m15x.

m15x is a dream, I found the old 17'' m9750 far too bulky, heavy, and power-demanding (couldn't watch a whole movie without plugging it in half-way).