M11x R3 Review by Yiddo

I decided my credit card was looking a little empty and as I was fed up of the loading times of Football Manager on my Eee Pc I decided it was time to live the dream and cough up the funds for an Alienware. I am extremely pleased with my Clevo for high end and would not pay out for the high end Alienware but the M14X always cought my eye and so did the M11. I needed something to be able to sit in front of tv and game and so the M11 was the one for me.

The Purchase:

Alienware M11xR3
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Alienware M11x Stealth Black
Memory 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
1GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M
Hard Drive 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Integrated High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio
Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - EUR
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module - European
Primary Battery 8-cell 63Whr Lithium Ion battery
Processor Intel® Core™ i5 2467M 1.6GHz (3MB Cache)
Camera Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel HD Camera
Color Choice Alienware M11x Stealth Black Cover
11.6" (29 cm) Widescreen High Definition (1366x768) WLED with TrueLife

Standard Warranty 1 year Next Business Day
Enhanced Service Packs 1 year Next Business Day hardware Support

Sub-total(s): £ 679.00
Delivery Charge: £ 19.99
Total Price: £698.99


I decided to cough up an extra £20 and buy myself 8GB of RAM and if you are considering this stay well away from Dell upgrade options they price their RAM at the most stupid of prices. I also spent an extra £119.99 on a M4 128GB SATA III SSD which is super fast and sold my HDD in my netbook when it went.

The Build:

I ordered on the Tuesday and it was on its way by the Friday the build time only took two working days which I was very pleased with and the delivery was made on the following Monday even with the item coming all the way from China!! Halfway around the world later I had my beloved M11 in only 6 days and 4 working days, very very impressive turnaround.

The Route:

Castle Donnington, United Kingdom 26/03/2012
Castle Donnington, United Kingdom 25/03/2012
Barking, United Kingdom 25/03/2012
Koeln, Germany 24/03/2012 8:38
Koeln, Germany 23/03/2012 22:49
Warsaw, Poland 23/03/2012 21:12
Almaty, Kazakhstan 23/03/2012 17:47
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 23/03/2012 10:31
Shanghai, China 23/03/2012 6:05 Departure Scan
Shanghai, China 22/03/2012 23:13 Export Scan

The Laptop's Arrival:

It arrived in an Alienware external box with the actual Alienware box inside very well packed and solid. Inside the laptop was held by a ton of foam and the box with all the goodies again very well packed and free from movement. The build quality is next to none for a netbook you expect flex in the casing and for it to be made of plastic but not with the M11 it is made from firm, tough and hard plastic and they spared no materials when making it which is what you are paying for at the end of the day.

First Impressions:

When I fired it up it worked perfectly first time and no problems at all, temps are very good and although the fan is a knightmare they do not go anywhere above 73oC on the GPU or CPU under a stress test. The fan really only has 3 modes off Low and high and it really is loud when it hits 70oC and goes flat out at 7100RPM. Hairdryer is an understatement and hopefully this will be fixed. I did some testing with the HWINFO Fan but it really needs the fans to be flat out when you are gaming I began to throttle at one point and my temps hit 97oC because the fan speed I had set to (6000RPM) was not enough to cool my overclocks and the load it was under. I did disassemble and repaste with my own compound and this has helped the temps a bit but the stock compound job was very well done and really was not needed. Raising the laptop helps a lot and I have placed mine on a small laptop pad to give it the best airflow.

The fancy bits such as the command centre, facial recognition and the general Alienware fanatic settings all work very well and everything glows and is customisable as you like it be, I normally dont go for the flashy look but having it all glowing white is very smart and I like the way it looks a lot. The keyboard glows very nicely the best I have seen however it is not the best as a keyboard and shows the difference from a chiclet because the keys are slightly too close together and there is some flex in it and you can see why when you disassemble it really is basic. The mouse/touchpad is perfectly fine and with synaptics works well but it is nothing special and does not have a great speed to it when gaming and you will need to max out the sensitivity if you intend to play shooters.

The screen is going to be a love and hate relationship as I am now sitting in my armchair at night watching tv but in the corner of the room I adore the screen, the brightness and colour are good for a netbook and there is 0 glare at the moment. Switch that to my office with a sun direct window and horrible yellow lighting inside and the problems appear the reflection is extreme and you will be looking at yourself clearer than a mirror, it is acceptable but not considering it is a netbook for use outside.

The sound quality is very good and loud enough although if pushed a slight distortion can be heard, it comes with a simple Audio system that you can control the frequency and equalizer and also some 3D features but as it is a two speaker setup you cannot expect the same results from its bigger counterparts. I was slightly worried also about the positioning of the two speakers as I assumed they would clearly cause problems with the fact they are not on either side equally but rest assured this is not the case and the sound does not appear any different than if it was.

​

The Performance:

I do not see why people are coughing up an extra £300 for the I7 when it is no different to the I5 apart from higher clocks and an extra 1mb of cache the cores and threads are the same and the extra 1GB Video Memory is as useful as a chocolate teapot so I went naturally for the I5 and I am very glad I did. It runs very well and performs better than I expected, the turbo boost keeps it running smooth and games and programs have no problem at all with it. If you consider a 720QM quad only hit around 3000pts in 3DMark06 and this is only 5-600 off that in a vastly smaller netbook with half the cores and threads at only 17watts you understand how amazing these Sandy Bridge CPU's are.

The 540M GT is superb and all my worries went away when testing it out, I ran my overclocks right up to 800 core 1600 shader and 1000 memory and this is the GPU-z Results that I achieved and it smashes any other small laptop I have had in the past. I am playing games at high settings with the resolution of 1366x768 and I have not yet seen a problem, even with AA and AF enabled games like Skyrim/Battlefield 3/Anno/Mass Effect 3 all perform above 30fps and some even push the 40-60 boundaries which I was totally not expecting. Nvidia for once you have won my heart, bravo.

When not gaming the Integrated HD card kicks in and performs again very well, even in some games it can handle itself without the need for the 540M for instance Orcs Must Die at high and full resolution was running at 35fps smooth?!! Great job. Also setting which card you want to run under which program is very easy in Nvidia control panel and it works every time.

3DMark results are freely accessable so I will just post my 3DMark11 result with my overclocks.

3Dmark11 - 1249

Windows Experience Score

Conclusion:

I am very pleased, sadly my pocket could not say the same these models do not come cheap and you do ponder for a long time as to if you can afford to cough up for one. I have been wanting an Alienware since the day they arrived on the seen back in 1999 and it took me 13 years to finally get one. I do not believe that I would ever pay out for high end when clevo/sager can produce the same hardware for a lot lower price but when it comes to mobility the M11 and also the M14 win my heart and they are without doubt the best mobile gaming models on the market and my M11 does exactly what I need portable and mobile gaming at work on my lunch and while chilling at home on the sofa. It fits in a string draw bag for those that want to know and you can easily carry it around with you in the neo bag that goes for a tenner on Amazon and is perfect for it.

The performance is without doubt a great thing in this model and I am glad i did not wait for the Ivy to show because the I5 and 540M perform as well as you could want from such a small laptop, I find it a struggle to play games like Battlefield on such a small keyboard but other games like Mass Effect and Anno or strategy games are so perfect it means that my Clevo will not be ignored but shared because I have loaded on my relaxing games and RPG's onto the M11 and the shooters will continue to be played in 1080p.

Dell I have no quarrel with and I am glad I ignored the bad reviews about them, I rarely use technical support or RMA and so I had no need for their help I just needed them to produce the goods in the best quality and speed and they did so without a hitch, well done Dell.

PROS:

- Excellent options, customisation and features available
- Excellent Performance and capabilities, more than enough input/outputs
- Easy to read and understand website with plenty of information
- The Quality is the best I have seen in a laptop
- The cooling for powerful components in such a small place with one fan is top notch
- No warranty Stickers

CONS:

- Still have to say the price is too high Dell needs to up its game
- The keyboard feels a little cheap and gives some flex especially after a disassembly
- The screen is awful and should have been matte terrible for reflections
- The hairdryer fan noise is totally unacceptable and needs sorting with a BIOS update

Dell/Alienware I am very impressed by the performance and the build and if only it came with a better screen and without the hairdryer noise I would have given full marks. The R3 is the best gaming netbook around you will not regret the purchase even with the hefty price.

9/10

 

Nice write-up. I got pretty much the exact same setup as you (without killer wireless) and after my 8GB Hyper-X and 128GB M4 upgrades i was only into this laptop $750.

Mine sits on my table 24/7 connected to my 42" plasma as a desktop replacement, it doesn't slow down at all or show that it's using an ULV CPU which is excellent.

 

Ew, why such weird speaker placement? They look pretty big and I know the klipsch audio is nice on the current lineup, but does the audio sound muffled or anything?

 

That's my only gripe about the M11x is the speaker position. They do sound a little soft to me, but if you raise the M11x up at all they sound fine to me.

On the other hand they do sound fuller than the speakers on my 1537.

 

I'm one of the people that spent the extra money on the i-7 and I did for the following reason.

I'm a part-time photographer and when I have over 500 pictures to edit while I'm on the road every second counts or even when I'm at the location the model may want to see the pictures on the spot and no way can you see anything halfway descent on the little screen of the D700. Again every second counts for me as time is money.

Thanks again for the afterburner program you suggested. It works great.

 

The clock rates are within 100MHz of eachother, the i5 is 100MHz higher by stock, the i5 has a faster optimus GPU, and the i7 has from memory 1 or 2MB more cache. They both are dual-cores with hyperthreading and benchmarks show the i7 has roughly a 2% performance increase about 50% of the time.

Of all the possible upgrades you could do to your M11x, sinking $200 (or in Australia $300) into getting an i7 over the i5 simply is simply bad judgement. If you are in a situation where you actually DO need that extra 2% of performance then maybe a laptop with a ULV CPU isn't what you need. That $300 could easily go into getting a proper quad-core in a M14x.

 

I was thinking about the M14x, but needed the extra battey life and portability being the main one.

Where did you get the 2% performance increase from? Also I know your correct about the 100MHz, but I was also looking at the turbo speed which equals about 500MHz.

I'll admit that I'm new to all this Sandy Bridge cores as the last computers I bought was a Dell 13 studio and my current Dell 1537.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys I have updated a section about the sound quality and again for a netbook sized model I find it very good for output noise however it can become tinney if you push it up too high with some settings on.

The speaker positioning is the strangest i have seen and was as worried as the screen but you do not notice it and if you had not seen it you would not know that they were positioned either side or any differently.

In regards to the I5 vs I7 and every second counts sorry to say that I have been through so many CPU's that I have lost count and the comparison is going to be milli seconds not seconds. If you were say processing 3D artwork or video editing then you may notice a slight increase in general processing time but in regards to general usage and load times you would see I would say a 500% increase by upgrading your platter drive to an SSD rather than an I5 to an I7. I say this with no hard feelings I always love a faster CPU please have a read through my 920XM purchase a year ago when I was a CPU noob and see for yourself but in this case clock speed will not be outdone by slightly higher clocks although if by cores/threads which would have made the I7 a beast should it have had 4/8 that would be a different matter.

The M14x is a great deal and the battery life is pretty much the same as the M11 for some damn strange reason. If i did not have my Clevo I would have gone for it to be the best of both worlds and Alienware without doubt will continue to market it because it sits right in that space which is needed.

But still for its portability and cool looks the M11 wins the day

 

Sometimes, for numerical processing, cache makes a difference. However, benchmarks show that the difference between this i5 and i7 is REALLY small.

The VRAM of the graphics card could make a difference in a high-end card, but not on this middle-league one.

I suggest you max out every other component in the M11x before you spend money on that upgrade. In particular, buying an SSD in the aftermarket is a much wiser choice.

 

Let this be a lesson for everyone to save their money between the i5 and i7 processor than, but considering I only paid $975 for my setup I'm going to stick with it. Granted I could return and save $150, but to me that would be just to much trouble.

 

Do consider an SSD though

 

That is on my list for sure. I plan to getting two, one for the M11x and the M18x. I just have to decide what size to get...

 

Alienware won't do anything about the hairdryer noise from the fan. It's been like this from the beginning. Apparently they think it's acceptable.

Maybe they will try to have better fan profiles and cooling design for the updated revisions with Ivy Bridge, but I doubt it.

 

True the problem being when I tested with HWINFO and ran battlefield 3 if the fan runs at 7100RPM flat out the temps wont go above 75oC if I drop it by just a 1000 to 6000 the temps skyrocket and it cannot handle it so most likely the reason why they wont change it is because of the cooling which is not suprising considering the CPU and GPU are on one fan.

 

Give the guy a break. He wants an i7? He can have an i7. With the extra turbo, and if the i7 has different capabilities, and if he can afford it, and if he has noticed a difference, it's a good call.
But from everything I've ever read, for most of us the i5 is going to be plenty.

I'm totally jealous of your delivery time. Mine is taking a full week (Friday to Friday) to get here. And yours went from China to the UK, mine is only going from Tennessee to Utah.

Edit: Excellent review. Is that something people do here? Review and re-review? Cause that's cool.

 

The M4 seems to be the best bang for buck on the market at the moment depending what size you are looking for. I received mine and my Read and Writes sequentially are much higher than advertised and it is blow you away fast. A really good buy.

 

In regards to the i7, i initially thought it would be faster as well, and didnt doo enough research, so i picked it up. However there was a deal going on when i bought my r3, and the i7 model was just 50$ more! Around last year december Dell had the m11x r3 with i7 and 500gb hdd for 1099$, and i had another 100$ off coupon, so i got it for ~ 999!

 

In the US personally I may have opted for the I7 just for the higher clocks but that is because your prices are a lot lower than our VAT extra prices in the UK.

The difference here is £300 which equates to around $479 so you can understand why it really is not worth going for the I7 here. The jump from the I3 to the I5 is only £80 or $125 so that is why most go for it.

 

For $50, it would be hard to say no.

 

That and processor options have varied by time and by market... some even being bundled so that you WILL get a certain processor in order to get some other thing you want.

When the R2 came out the R1 crowd was making the same arguments. If one does not have to rationalize the purchase and has the money and likes front edge tech - then buy the most you can. If trying bang for buck and have choices (US market) then i5 certainly seems the better bargain.

 

That's disgusting!

A few months ago someone linked a bulk purchase order for ULV i5 and i7's and the difference was only 25-30$ USD Dell is making big profit from this.

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Great review! I always enjoy reading M11X/M14X reviews since they're both my favourite laptops of all time.

 

Punishable by death in the UK fella we gamers suffer badly.

I saw someone from Asus on NBR try and justify why actually the pricing is no different to the US even with our tax laws when I kept on and on annoying him

He added it all up and even with our 17.5% VAT and shipping the pricing was still a good 20% higher for no reason at all! All of my notebooks until now I have had shipped to a private delivery company in the US to avoid tax but its not worth it anymore as if you get caught you get a hefty fine. Ripped off is an understatement. The same model here with the I7 is £1100 if you want 4GB RAM and a 750GB HDD. So that is $1750..Face.Palm.

 

Dell/Alienware sets the price to whatever they think customers in the specific country are prepared to pay. Exception is the U.S. I actually think we in other countries subsidizes the U.S prices.

And have a hard thought on this mind boggling thing: Asus, which is a Taiwanese company, sells some of their laptops cheaper in the U.S than in Taiwan. I know, because I am currently working in Taiwan.

I also remember when Alienware were selling their laptops in Taiwan for the double U.S price.

Madness.

 

I got the i7 just because it wasn't too big of a cost increase.

Does the upgraded wireless card make a huge difference?

Intel® Centrino® Advanced–N + WiMAX 6250 a/g/n 2x2
vs
Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO for Gaming & Video

 

Almost true. On a global approach you have to price things to prevent underground exporting. MS Windows & Office are good examples. They were priced according to exchange rate over here for the longest time.

This means proper licensing was really really expensive... but it was done NOT because folks were willing to pay. They don't! lol. Illegal software is a big thing here.

 

Compared to a standard wireless card very much so it can run at much higher speeds and the connectivity is superb. For me I like to game in my bedroom while watching the tv on my Clevo wireless card before I upgraded I could only get 3 bars from the hub now with killer's i get 100% all the time.

For gaming it is a matter of life or death in a shooter lag is a killer, literally.

 

Damn, that is one upgrade i didnt get, and am regretting. Is there anyway i can buy this wireless card and throw it in the laptop? If i did that, would it void the warranty?

 

No chance how are they gonna know? it is also the easiest upgrade of them all. If your worried keep the stock one so that if it blows up you can just put it back in before RMA'ing it.

Open the cover, remove the white and black cables, remove one screw pop it out and put the new one in, repeat in reverse.

I picked up one off ebay for twenty quid for my clevo. Bargain upgrade if you game online wirelessly.

 

I haven't experienced any slowness with my Intel 6250. Then again I'm only 20 ft away from my wireless router. It's always been at full signal.

Maybe once Diablo 3 comes out and I'm experiencing lag then I'll upgrade. The Bigfoot is $60 online. Not sure if its worth the upgrade.

 

If you are near the hub then no a standard adapter will be fine but its mostly shooters that it is a requirement for depending how hardcore you are, we are talking m/s and pings here and if you want an instant response to the trigger finger that is why people like to have them. It was a must for me the adapter that came with my clevo was diabolical I have a Grade A Broadband service and I was hanging around 100 ping. With the killer, 8.

 

Hey,
nice review. You got yours at the same time I got mine.
Basically the wsame setup, however I got the stock 4GB RAM because i purchased 16GB for my M15X, so I put the M15X's stock 8GB into the M11X... It was a saving...

Overall, I'm happy with the overall purchase, I didn't see the need for the i7 because I didn't see much of a difference.
The screen is a pain at times, altough 70% of the time it's fantastic, however I purchased a matte screen protector from GreenOnlions Supply for the hell of it..
I also got a sweet looking neoprene bag off Amazon for it. Fits like a treat.

I see a BIG difference with the Killer Wireless!!! In my room with the M15X, I usually get 3 bars, but with the Killer, it's usually full, however I find that stormy weather messess with the wireless in my house, but I'm still happy.

I bought mine for on-the-go After Effects/Maya/Photoshop work... True, i could of gotten more bang for my much with a full on 15-inch lappy with i7 3.5Ghz and 16GB RAM... But size was my need, small with a bit of grunt... I am out and about a lot for photography, lectures (another win, something that ACTUALLy fits on the desks in the lecture hall), on the train and in a cafe...
Anyway... I've managed to lose some weight and made space in my bag now because of this... It handes what I want easily, mainly AE and PS... and the extre ram i put in has made a difference... Now just waiting until I can do tax-return so I can get m yself an SSD... A little low on the moolah now...

Cost me $1420 at the end after haggaling on the phone... They managed to cut $100 off the price... With free Bose Companion speakers, so that was also a win...
But seriously, here in Aus, it is also a rip for the price they charge!

Took 9 days to get to me.

+1 for a thorough review.

 

Still not a bad deal to ship it to Oz I think you guys face a similiar problem to us as to if its best to pay the price at home or ship it in. Definetely this setup is top and although the I7 would have been nice my only worry was that for a ULV it would perform similiar to an Atom and by god how wrong was I this things runs as well as my 740QM did with the only difference being half the threads. The 540M is top as well I managed to overclock mine very well and it is completely stable with a extra 200mhz on the memory giving me a respectable 36gb/s for such a small chip it performs superb.

The screen is a 50/50 really when I am at home on the sofa at night it is perfect brightness and nice clarity for a netbook screen but at work in the daylight and office lighting it turns into the best mirror I have ever seen like a HD Mirror in fact

The size is mint too again I was slightly worried how it was drop into my string draw bag as my old Eee Pc did at only 1kg but it fits perfectly and needs a little more man power to lug it around. SSD is a must for you though I do not even consider mechanical drives anymore let alone that they are not punch proof just so use to SSD speeds its a drag.

 

Actually, the Intel 6250 is only the stock in Australia and maybe UK, in the US the stock is the Intel 6000 and THAT is the one everyone compares the Killer to. The 6250 is actually very good, i upgraded mine TO the 6250 and i'm very happy. It had 2 antennas and the ability to turn your laptop into a wireless hotspot. From the issues i've heard about the killer cards though, i'm glad i stayed with Intel.

 

Intel cards are full of issues for folks also. Don't fall into the trap of "just install this brand/model and everything is great" as there are too many exceptions.

Be careful with removing the ant leads. My orig wifi card was damaged by clips that fit too tightly.... nearly killing TWO cards.

 

what is the battery life of this m11x R3? also is the cpu a quad core or only dual core?

 

CPU's are duo-cores and the battery life with tweaks can run around 6.5 hours.

Note that an SSD will also improve battery life by about 30-45 minutes.

 

what kind of tweaks?

 

dual core is too limiting and can't play a 64 player BF3 match. i was expecting an entry level quad core for a gaming system.

 

Like power saving mode and turning off lights and wifi off with dimness all the way down.

Well at 11.6" the M11x is essentially a netbook, and all of its hardware is very good for its capabilities. Portability > performance is the aim of the M11x, if you want something more powerful then you want the M14x.

 

Ive once tried power saving mode with brightness all the way down no keyboard lighting and the max i get is 4.5 hours :s

 

Perhaps you have a great deal of background applications running?

You can also underclock your system and set up profiles

That, combined with no-fx, low brightness and a couple chrome tabs should get 6.5 hours~

I get more than 4.5hrs (around 5.5hrs) on my M14X, so it's definitely something on your end

 

I really appreciate this thread Yiddo. It's given me the heart to purchase this machine, and I know I won't have any doubts. Now if I can just go through the wait without killing myself... Errr too impatient..

 

Take the time to get everything ready to move it across to the new model I was very anxious as my M11 arrived and my SSD had not so I had to wait 2 more days was pulling my hair out Enjoy your purchase!

 

Hey Yiddo, I love Your post. You should work for Alienvare as a salesman because You have made another guy to purchase their product I appologize for my bad english but Im an foreigner . Well You have an M11 and I've seen peoples were talking about M14, well Im thinking about M17. Im a fan of bigger screen so I want to ask You if there would be an huge difference with system from Your M11 to M17. I want to run MMO games like WoW and Im waiting for Guild Wars 2, I want to run this games on high performance so I think Alienvare computers are the best for that. Plz Dude give me an advice how should I customize my M17 and if its worth to do that ! Thanks Dude

 

My opinion here, skip the M17x and get the M18x...

 

I agree with Homonk if you are going for the big boys and do not want to consider a clevo/sager for high end then bypass M17 and go for the 18 inch display.

I will only personally recommend the M14 and M11 not only because I have seen and played with both but because they are the best of all worlds because they do what many others dont and allow the portability and long lasting battery features in something that can game to full potential, others are looking into it now but Alienware have proven it works.

I would still say you would be fine with the M14x if you could hold out for the R2 because the 6 series models are showing great results so far. It is a perfect size in my opinion and would do what you are asking of it (to play my beloved world of warcraft that I miss so dearly haha ) if you are really looking for high end but also want portability as well then consider what I did for the same price as an M18x and go for a clevo/sager tank and then pick up an M11x. Win win.

Haha I do not try to sell Alienware but my recent experience with them and their support has put them very highly in my books I even emailed a manager there to say how good the support was. My Keyboard stopped working on the monday and by the wednesday I had a new keyboard on my doorstep for me to fit, that is what you call service.

At the end of the day we all deep down want an Alienware we just need to justify that the purchase is worthwhile and when you want something enough and it produces the results you are after the price does not matter.

------------------------------

On another note very distrubingly my M11x decided to blow up my Crucial M4 lol it was running fine till last night until boom Kernal errors like crazy and when I ran a health check a ton of bad sectors showed up. Had it less than a month from amazon and its on its way back. Put back in my 2 year old Kingston SSDNow SATA II and its running smooth again, going to stick with the old skool SSD me thinks

 

Right now I own an HP Pavilion dv7 17" with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 and I must say that everything works fine but not games. I paid a 700$ a year ago for that crapp and it wasn't worth that much of money at all. Now Im thinking about something serious and thats how I found this really usefull forum (Thanks to ppls like You Yiddo and homank76). Im just kinda afraid that change from 17" to 14" its not what Im really looking for, but if the performance of M14 is way better than M17 there is no daubt that M14 is better. Im still also confused Yiddo which of Your machines You can recomand as a better one, Your clevo or Your M14? What is the difference between these two? Im trying to fit in 1400-1700$ and Im looking for something that I can get in USA. Thanks a lot for Your answers Guys and Your time!

 

Will try to explain this without confusing you as I do ramble

I only have two models the Clevo in my sig and the M11x in my sig the M14 is my friends and I have borrowed it so I know how it performs and it really is superb even on a GDDR3 GPU it runs very well for its size.

The M17 will of course beat the M14 as would the M18 but they are also near double the price of the M14, it is made for portability and battery life as much as gaming which the M17/M18 are not they are desktop replacements.

Clevo make high end laptops in very smart unlabeled alluminium casing, they also build the laptops so that you have full access to the components and can change and mod to your hearts content, see my review in my sig for pics.

Because most want the flash for the cash I understand the need for an Alienware but if you considering spending out for a high end model you would do better to spend less on a high end Clevo which will house the same hardware without the fancy looks although the newer model is going to have a backlit keyboard and put the rest of the money towards an M11x.

The M14x sits in between so you could also consider that and although you mention the screen size difference being an issue at the moment you cannot even game and what is more important is the resolution because a higher resolution on a smaller screen will make the visuals so much better.

The choice is yours and if you go for the M14x you wont regret it, it will happily display an output in Full HD on an external screen as well and you will have gaming and portability in one. If you would rather go high end then you have the M17x or M18x and can also consider the Clevo or Sager. If you want tiny gaming the M11x is sitting there looking pretty and waiting to impress

 

Its always about service and warranty vs impact of downtime. No slams on Clevo etc but check the service options for your location as this could be your tie breaker

 

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 2760QM (2.4GHz,3.5GHz,w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit
MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS) edit
HARD DRIVE 750GB 7,200RPM HDD edit
VIDEO CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M edit
WIRELESS CARD Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) edit
My Software & Accessories
SYSTEM COLOR Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black edit
ALIENFX COLOR Astral Aqua edit
PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed edit
PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE World of Warcraft Preinstall Edition edit
GEAR STORE Orion Alienware Messenger Bag - Fits Laptops with Screen Sizes Up to 17-inch - Black edit
GEAR STORE AG2 Anti-Glare Screen Protector for Dell Alienware M17x R3 Laptop edit



So what do You think Yiddo? Would that be close to Your friend M14 ? Would You change something ?