Alienware m17x Review Discussion

The M17x is Alienware's flagship gaming notebook. It features a stealthy design, aluminum chassis, and a customizable lighting system. Our review unit is packed to the gills with dual Nvidia graphics cards, an Intel Extreme processor, and 8GB of RAM. Does the M17x live up to Alienware's claim of being the fastest gaming notebook on the market? Read our review to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: Alienware m17x Review

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VERY VERY GOOD !!!!

beats my review

+ rep chaz for another great job



EDIT : i HATE they used a sub par screen (but i am not reliant on it so meh ...)

ALso ill rep you tommorw

 

Very good review, a little disappointed about the screen quality. Were you able to test Blu-Ray playback at all with SLI an on-board? any comments on this?

Thx Chaz.

 

Woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Best review I've read thus far :]

 

Thanks for the compliments.

I did test the Blu-ray playback - as a matter of fact, I'm watching Oceans Thirteen now and it is running flawlessly in PowerDVD 8. Do you have any specific questions?

 

If i compare my M17x to my old notebook i can really see a difference in lighting and it is far more vivid then my old one. Great review.

 

Excellent review Chaz! More or less answered every question I had before purchasing the M17x, great quality pictures as well. +Rep for you my man!

One thing though, I don't know how you don't see it, but I notice a huge difference in RAID 0 in this vs. 1 drive, guess that is all personal experience/opinion though.

 

First thing I thought of for some reason when I saw this, was the 'Monolith' from 2001 lol

Very good review.....if I ever needed to ditch my desktop, this would be a top prospect

 

Great review!

Really sad that they used cheap screens! Kinda like what apple did on their macbooks! This is a great machine but screen is VERY important to lots of people... 1730 had great screen, hope they ll put good one on m17x too!

 

Nice review!

Thought 3dmark would be a little higher, but I love the charts against the other leading laptops.
Any pictures of the slim power brick?

 

Great review! Thanks Chaz!
one question, does the W90 with dual 4870HD really beat the dual 280M?

HA! Way the go ATI!

 

I would think that most people who get that would get the SSD's and that would make it even faster. And if you turn the M17x on its side you could use it as a fan for your room

 

Great!!

1) How's the Playback with the SLI?
2) Can the on board video handle the playback?
3) How does it handle HD? will it do it in its native resolution or switch to 1080?
4) How are the Black levels in this screen? did you have to tweak the settings or works fine out of the box?

Thank you Chaz

 

The pcmark vantage score seems very low for a qx9300 and dual 280m's, did you run all suites or just pcmark vantage suite? Would an SSD make a big difference?

 

Is it me, or is 2:15 on the 9400M mode a little bit short? According to the 8730w review (I've yet to drain my battery), the machine lasted nearly 3.5 hours on the standard 8 cell. Keep in mind it has the same QX9300, 8GB of DDR2 (more power hungry IIRC), a 7200RPM drive (admittedly only one), and only the dedicated FX3700M (instead of the integrated 9400M mode used in this review), and the brightness was at 60%.

I was expecting a bit more for the 9400 mode. If the battery life was for the dedicated graphics mode, I'd say it's phenomenal.

 

1) I tested with SLI on and it works fine
2) Yes
3) It does 1080p with no issues
4) The black levels are good, I did not tweak any settings

The display is not literally bad - I have tested quite a few notebooks with 17 inch screens before and the M17x's isn't up to snuff with them. Users coming from a standard 15.4" laptop in Best Buy will think it's good though.

The results are accurate . . . I ran the default suite. Looking back at the Toshiba X305-Q708, which has DDR3 memory, a QX9300 processor, and SLI graphics cards got a slightly lower score:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsId=4712

I had the AlienFX LED lighting system on while running the battery test so that probably took a good half hour off the times, and as I noted the RAID 0 hard drive array didn't help much.

 

My ssd score was low when I installed it because the Nvidia SATA interface was bottlenecking it which may account for the poor HDD performance of your 708 unit and may be relevant to m17x as it also has Nvidia chipset.

Had to right click on Nvidia SATA controller in device manager>check box delete drivers for this device. After a couple reboots the default microsoft SATA interface installed and was getting good scores.

 

Awesome review chaz and can't wait until the M15x refresh!!!!!

 

Let's start the the build materials. The M17x is constructed of high-strength aluminum that is rock solid;


3rd paragraph mistake, best review I have read so far.

 

Finally!!! Been waiting for review since the machine became available a couple months ago!

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond and for the great Review +rep for you sir.

 

I've very interested in this system.....until I actually went out and did repair work on one (I'm a Dell Tech.) Holy crap. The thing is as heavy as some small desktop cases. And beyond thick.

 

What happened to be wrong with it?

 

Honestly I would be embarrassed to own this thing. Whats the point anyway? Just get a desktop. This thing is so big and heavy that its not like your going to take it anywhere with you anyway....

 

It might be a little heavier than a small desktop but to be fair you should remove the battery and screen from the M17x...
I ve got a micro atx Qv2 case with Crossfirex setup, definitely heavier by a lot.

 

You won't bring it for your morning starbuck coffee (neither a 15inch to be honnest, hell even 14/13inch is kind of weird).

However for people doing business and often away from home, it's very light in a samsonite tiny wheel bag. You won't notice the weight.

Good luck to fit a desktop with screen in your luggage (withouth mentionning the funny time with custom guy).

Also even if it stays at home, it takes a minimum a space for solid perf. As a teenager it's ok to get a big desktop with cables everywhere. Not sure all wives will accept this in a living room. The M17x is sleek and beautiful.

Now if you have space and never plan to move...well it's better to go for a desktop I agree...

 

I agree wholeheartedly regarding the screen quality, completely sub par for such an exquisite notebook.

 

lol every day I take it to school and carry it from class to class..

Also every time I want to go play games I. Carry it to the store so I can get on dsl


So I carry mine evey single day and I even use it on my lap

 

Wow, I hope they have big desks if you're using this thing in class.

I'm not the target market for a "laptop" like this, all the same the m17x design is impressive and it's always interesting to see what Alienware product designers will come up with. When cost is no concern you can get something that's far more powerful and interesting than a run-of-the-mill $800 laptop.

Thanks for the review Chaz, don't be so sure you won't get to outer space some day.

 

Can everyone fan boy a little more please?

A Sager that costs at least $1000 less is beating the Alienware in every benchmark. The Asus W90 is faster and cheaper. If you really want to spend the extra money for a slower machine, by all means go for it. With the Sager you can get everything the Alienware has, and probably faster to boot.

But I guess, buy it it for the looks and the cheesy lightup keyboard...

 

your ignorance is amazing ...... the sager only beats it in CPU intensive bench marks like pcmark and older 3dmark06. Why??? because it has a core i7..... Load up a game and prepared to get smoked (unless your refering to the 9850

right now the M17x hold the 3dmark06 and vantage recoreds....not your magical sager

The M17 and the M17x can beat the Asus since it just got 4850's
but what do i know im just a dumb fanboy because i bought a AW ....

 

Which make believe Sager would that be? Because it's not the Sager NP9850/Clevo M980NU which is running $350 less at Xotics and $250 less at AvaDirect when spec'ed as the M17x review unit sans the BluRay and 1333Mhz RAM since similar options are not offered from AVA or Xotics.

Facts are the M17x and M980nu are about equal in price and performance with the M17x ahead in benchmarks due to the currently locked BIOS on the M980nu.


As for the W90 it's a dead machine not even worth mentioning anymore. From what I understand it's been discontinued because of the many BIOS and driver issues owners had with that machine.

 

Very nice review!! My M17x screen is not Subpar at all, It's absolutely beautiful, I haven't seen better and I see a many of Lappys.

 

Wow, must have hit a nerve.

Lets step back a sec and really look at the benchmarks:

The Clevo 900F crushes everything in both PCMark05 and wPrime because of the i7. No brainer here. i7 is a power house compared to mobile CPUs.

It gets edged slightly by the m17x in 3DMark06. Well no kidding, SLIed 280s vs. a single 280. Whats remarkable is the fact the Clevo only comes in 81 points behind despite only having a single GPU.

We dont see any head to head comparisons, but I would be willing to bet the Clevo stands in there pretty well against the m17x in gaming benchmarks as well. The m17x may pull 80 fps in one game and the Clevo may only pull 65, but both are perfectly playable at those FPS.

Now lets compare the systems, Sager NP9280 vs. m17x

CPU: m17x QX9300 2.53GHz - Sager i1 975 3.33Ghz - Edge: Sager, no contest

RAM: m17x 8 gigs of RAM - Sager 6 gigs of RAM - Edge: Sager has a faster performing bus for the RAM with triple channel and can go up to 12 gig

GPU(S): m17x 2 280m's in SLI - Sager 280m - Edge: m17x, but keep in mind the mi17x only beat the Sager by 81 points in 3d Mark 06, certainly NOT sweeping. This is a complaint for Nvidia however, stop warming over and renaming the G92 chips. Build something new, please...

Screen: 17" screens @ 1920X1200 res. Ive never heard of a Sager having a bad screen, and Ive owned 2 Sagers with 17" screens and can vouch for that. Some say the older Alienware screens look nicer. Review says the screen is pretty average. No clear winner here as its purely subjective unless you do real testing beyond what most can do.

HD: I intentionally specced both machines with 500 GB SATA HDs as SSD's are ridiculously expensive and not large enough to be used as a single drive in a gaming machine. However in a RAID situation my money is on the Sager because of the LGA 1366 chipset and Intel ICH10R southbridge as well as being able to run 3 HDs.

Optical: Once again, just left them both as DVD burner for simplicity and cost reasons.

OS: Specced both with Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) with update to Win7 when available

Warranty: Im slightly confused by Dells warranty setup, but I do know that Sagers warranty is bulletproof, it breaks, they fix it, no questions asked, for 3 years. Ive seen friends have massive issues with Dell/Alienware support and getting them to honor the warranty, both were laptops.

Cost: m17x $5,101 - Sager $3511 before cash discount - Edge: Sager, even if I bump the Sager to 12 gigs of RAM, its still cheaper @ $4501 before cash discount.

The only area where the m17x is better than the Clevo is the video card and honestly not by much. The Clevo wins cost, CPU and RAM with ease. The rest is subjective, but I feel the Clevo has a better HD/RAID interface, probably a nicer display, and the warranty is probably less of a hassle if you have to use it.

You could also compare the Clevo M980NU/Sager NP9850 vs the m17x and it stack up probably about the same. You can actually spec the machines exactly identical, which should give similar performance even throwing OCing the m17x into the picture which didnt seem to make much of a difference anyway. The cost on the Sager in this case is a good deal cheaper @ $4326 before you figure in cash discount.

Guess Im not as ignorant as you thought, huh?

Sources: (go build it up yourself)
www.alienware.com
www.xoticpc.com

Edit: bad typing on my part leading to massive spelling errors

 

The m17x n sager are = in performance in every facet

Same eveything

aw does cost more ... Not argueing that ...

Edit

I'll let some one else tell u why

1 a i7 is useless when gaming
2 3dmark o6 is so close between the 9820 n M17x because I'm on my phone

Alienwareis more expensive wow every one knows that. You pay for style n design. Ex: lights aluminum and exclude software ...

I could care less what cost what it's a personal choice. I argue on the ground the sager is not superior

cheers

 

Say what? You obviously didn't read anything I wrote and obviously didn't bother reading the review which showed the actual benchmarks which didnt really flatter the m17x.

If you think the i7 is useless while gaming, you may want to actually go do some research.

And what does your phone have to do with 3d Mark 06?

Keep grasping at straws, but most people prefer not to spend an extra G on pretty lights and aluminum.

 

Did you read the part of Chaz's review where a faster CPU (via overclocking) produced minimal to zero gains in FPS in actual game testing?

SLI > Desktop CPU for gaming.

 

Kaldor please, respect others opinion on the matter...

Now, why has the overclocked W90 beated the M17x in bnechmarks? GPUs are better, no?

 

no the 4850 is = to the 260/280 with a mild overclock on the 4850's

ATI cards are no slouch and were in the 30's playing crysis on very high ...



The M17x Chaz had was nice but if you go to the AW section you will see the true M17x

12,002 in vantage

17 566 in 3dmark06

and any game being maxed out

 

quick Q---since sony screens are on dell and dell owns alienware...why are alienware screens still ahem..less than elite?

 

'

1 3dmark 06 is useless now due to the fact that it is wayyyy to cpu intensive. That's why the i7 score so much higher in 3dmarks..... ex: when i took my m17 from 2.53 ghz to 3.1 ghz the score jumped 1500 point just doing that




a m17 scored 17,100 in 3dmark 06 does that mean its more powerful ?



btw aluminum > plastic

 

Your looking at 2 entirely different CPUs when you compare a mobile Core2 vs a desktop i7. An i7 has MUCH more raw power than the mobile ever will.

81 points between mobile CPU and SLI vs deskstop CPU and single GPU in 3d Mark 06. Hardly a decisive > situation, lol. I guess the i7 wasnt a factor here or SLI is really broken on the m17x.

All Im saying is step back a sec, look at the bigger picture. The m17x is not that great for it price, features and most importantly performance. Look at my direct component vs. comparison.

 

they used a Samsung dual lamp panel


and i am wondering that to .....

 

God forbid they start to actually test the CPU as part of the 3d system? Last time I checked if you have a slow CPU your GPU will suffer. A faster CPU will help avoid that bottleneck allowing the GPU to run at full speed.

Any validation on that m17 @ 17k in 3d Mark 06? What settings, etc, or are you making things up on the fly?

The chassis probably cost extra to make out of aluminum, but $1k? Nope. Did you get lube with that?

 

ummm ORB verified scores

http://service.futuremark.com/resultComparison.action?compareResultId=9943019&compareResultType=14

@ high resolutions the GPU's bottleneck

@ low resolutions the cpu bottlenecks



no testing the CPU is not bad, just when the CPU affects the score so much is when it needs a overhual

because my p8600 @ 3.0 ghz is more then fast enough for any game out @ 1900 res ( it WILL NOT bottleneck) and the p8600 is pretty basic ....


btw i did get some

 

because they are TN displays most likely...they are standard and average. A good IPS should have been used instead...

 

Nice score on 3d mark 06. Ill give that. But it certainly isnt the machine in this review. Im not doubting you but its hard to say if its an m17 at all because it doesn't acknowledge it anywhere in the validation. The mobile 3870x2 was a freak in benchmarks, but was only average to game on.

BTW, what is your 3dmark score on your m17x? You running SLI? I should crank up 3dmark on my 5973 with a T5900 cpu and a 9800M GTS just to see how the old tech compares.

 

Kaldor, the M17x is the most powerful gaming notebook on the market, period. It was never meant to be compared to the D900f in terms of gaming in the first place. If you take the time to look around both the Sager and Alienware forums you'll see the gaming benchmarks between the D900f and M17x I.E. Crysis and DMC4 are easily won by the M17x, by quite a bit. You act as if the Notebookreview benchmark table is the standalone source for getting a feel for performance, many of these reviewers have the laptop for a very short time, and are not experienced in high end benchmarking and overclocking (no offense to Chaz). People with maxxed out M17x's that have taken the time and advice from some of the experienced benchmarkers to properly clean, install drivers and overclock properly have their rigs easily scoring 16-17k on 3dmark 06, and beating the D900f in 3dmark Vantage by quite a bit, by anywhere from 3-5k.

 

Does a desktop CPU have higher processing power than a mobile CPU? Yes, of course.

Does that increased processing power produce better performance gains in actual game play over a second GPU? No, it most definitely does not.


In actual gaming, gains from a faster CPU are diminishing because even the most CPU dependent games don't overwork the CPU as much as the GPU. (One or two bad console ports being an exception.)

Synthetic benchmarks don't represent that well...especially out dated (dead) synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark06. This is why the discerning gamers ask to see real game tests in reviews, and why the more enthusiastic benchrunners differentiate their GPU scores from their overall scores so that it more accurately stands out.

 

So m17x > Asus W90?