Travis' Alienware M15x Review

[Kill Bill]

Kill Bill, one thing I did when my laptop started to run hot was to simply prop up the back of the thing with a DVD case or one of those plastic computer game boxes (roughly 2 or 3 dvds thick), it allows better ventilation and is essentially free.

Wouldn't the laptop not burn the plastic on the games

 

[CPTMuller]

I didn't put it under the vent, the rear IO ports never got hot enough to do any damage, though if I had put it like IN a vent or something maybe.... I suppose macs vent through the back don't they? I suppose that might not work so well for you, regardless it was a very simple fix, and it certainly left my temps in check.

 

[speedyink]

Are you kidding me? DELL a reliable company? LMAO

Alright dude, lay off. If you don't like Dell, fine, all the power to you, but stop being a prick about it. I own a Dell laptop, and I've been extremely happy with it. It performs awesome, doesn't overheat, everything works awesome, and I still get quite a bit of battery life out of it. I can argue that Toshiba is crap too, but I don't, I keep it to myself, because it's relative to personal experience, which would mean nothing to people here.

 

[Washrag]

I've been looking at this with the T9300 and the 8800 GTX, but if those get really hot as you say, maybe an 8700 would be better.

 

[TFT]

Now then Travis
Keep on going with the review, you gotta lot of interested guys wanting your thread to continue. Just ignore the sarcastic immature comments, they aren't worthy of a reply.

 

[royalmarine]

Alright dude, lay off. If you don't like Dell, fine, all the power to you, but stop being a prick about it. I own a Dell laptop, and I've been extremely happy with it. It performs awesome, doesn't overheat, everything works awesome, and I still get quite a bit of battery life out of it. I can argue that Toshiba is crap too, but I don't, I keep it to myself, because it's relative to personal experience, which would mean nothing to people here.

+1 to you. i love my dell. its very reliable, tech support are great when i had a broken screen. arrived the next day and took 15 mins to replace it.
comp doesnt get too hot and its wicked fast and portable.

 

[funkysnair]

My laptop doesn't have FN, What does that mean? And it's not a fanboy comment its the truth. Do you need a rolling demo to set you straight.

FN is the "function button" there will be a serries of small pictures on some of the keys, when fn is pressed and one of the keys with the picture it does what the picture stands for....

well thats what it has on my past 3 laptops

 

[Sir Travis D]

sorry people I was at school lol

The heat is not noticeable. Earlier, the m15x got really hot until the bios update. I haven't used the update, but the 8700m does not get hot.

For the function keys. Fn+f8 does eject, fn+f7 switches between the integrated and dedicated graphics for the battery, fn+f4/5 toggles the screen brightness, fn+f11 brings up the light control thing, and fn+f12 lets the touchpad lightup even if alienfx+an external mouse is used.

The case itself, well, the monitor is wobbly. I knew that though.

Again, if you want graphics get the 8800. Alienware released a bios update about the fans malfunctioning. Now, it doesn't get that hot. But, the 8800 is a $500 update, this laptop would have costed us over $2400.

I'm going to play gta again --without cheats
BTW, it is running on very high detail, 2x anti, and the full 1440 res and getting over 50fps. It sounds like that is good, similar to my m9750 before it was returned.

 

[speedyink]

fn+f7 switches between the integrated and dedicated graphics for the battery

Wow, thats an awesome feature

 

[Sir Travis D]

Yes, 1.5hours versus 3hours of battery life at the click of a button.
Well, I installed new nvidia drivers, gotta restart and test

(400th post)

 

[Sir Travis D]

Okay, installed 173.90 drivers, and I will test them in gta:sa.

BTW, my windows experience rating is 4.5, with the ram the lowest. It is only 1gb atm.

 

[Sir Travis D]

As some of you probably know, the m15x has smartbay. The laptop has one video card, one hard drive, and one battery and dvd/blu-ray drive. If you take the bluray/dvd drive out, you can insert a 2nd battery or hard drive. I tried it to see how it looked. Here are some pics.

Here is the smartbay dvd burner.

Here is the inside of the m15x

now to gta tests

edit: ok, on the same settings, I'm getting about 10-15 fps higher, around 53-60fps driving, 60-70 walking at cj's culdesac. Also, I haven't seen any of that lagging like before.

 

[computeruler]

wow thats pretty cool

 

[Interested]

Here we go again! DELL, another known crap company!

dude, wtf? i built my own computer.....what, you want me to build a laptop too? please. heh, at least i paid $600 and i dont know about you, but i think for $600, my lappy is a steal.

travis, the integrated/dedicated switch is awesome. i think thats how every laptop might be in the future. And the smartbay stuff is kick ass too!

 

[computeruler]

dude, wtf? i built my own computer.....what, you want me to build a laptop too? please.

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=laptop+barebones&um=1&ie=UTF-8

 

[Interested]

/\/\/\/\/\ LOL. and im suppose to get the other parts where?

 

[CPTMuller]

Newegg and the like sell the parts that you would need to finish putting together most laptops granted you have the GPU MOBO and casings.

 

[Kill Bill]

As some of you probably know, the m15x has smartbay. The laptop has one video card, one hard drive, and one battery and dvd/blu-ray drive. If you take the bluray/dvd drive out, you can insert a 2nd battery or hard drive. I tried it to see how it looked. Here are some pics.

Here is the smartbay dvd burner.

Here is the inside of the m15x

now to gta tests

edit: ok, on the same settings, I'm getting about 10-15 fps higher, around 53-60fps driving, 60-70 walking at cj's culdesac. Also, I haven't seen any of that lagging like before.

The GPU thing and thats pretty impressive I guess the smart bay is IDE so the HDD can go in but what about battery 2 lol. So it has stuff like a thinkpad

 

[Sean89]

I've got the m9750, had it for a couple months I love it . Only thing that is annoying is that I still haven't upgraded the ram on it been lazy, 1gig of ram with vista is just a no go .

 

[Gogey]

Why is it that always the youngsters like dell's? Prob b/c they are cheap and everyone can afford them but they are not even worth the cheap price that you pay.

Here you are talking about how expensive his laptop is, then you criticize people for going with a cheaper computer. Yes, I built my computer. No, I most likely wouldn't buy a premade one. But that doesn't mean everyone shares our opinion. There are people that don't have any need for a 1337 rig. Those are generally the people that go with premades because they get the job done.

And don't talk about your computer owning his. Mine owns yours, and there are thousands of other computers out there that own mine. Deal with it. Its a laptop, last I checked, they weren't the best gaming machines.