M14x Pre-Order Configuration Questions... Ask HERE

[bigtonyman]

Thank you so much for the information!!!
I was wondering does a ssd really help or 7200rpm HD at 3gb/s is good enough. Please gimme your input on that.

Thanks

well if you get an SSD, your boot times will be a lot quicker and loading times/launching of applications will be a breeze as well. I'd go with the SSD if you have the money to spare and you don't need more than the amount of space on the SSD that you can afford. If you need lots of storage space and you don't care about speed or can't afford one, just go with a regular Hard Drive.

[Punisher_67]

Just out of curiosity when you guys say the Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2
is a piece of crap what do you mean by that , its no good for video & gaming over a wifi system but adequate for regular Internet use or its just a piece of crap regardless .

I ordered my system last Friday over the net but am kicking myself in the a$$ for not ordering the Killer system wifi now and am debating if I should cancel and reorder with that option . I am not a Internet gamer but like running flight Sim none the less and will be streaming video also .

My build below

I will be using mine mostly for CNC machining and design apps - BUT will also game with it .

-System Color Alienware M14X - Soft Touch Stealth Black
-Processor Intel® Core™ i7 2670QM 2.2GHz (3.1GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
-Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
-A/C Adapter Alienware M14X 150W A/C Adapter
-Display Panel 14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
-Video Card 3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology
-Hard Drive 256GB Solid State Drive SATA 3Gb/s
-AlienFX Quasar Blue
-Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
-Hinge Up Hinge Up WLAN + DMC - BLACK
-Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat X Reader
-Optical Drive 8x SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Slot Load Optical Drive
-Audio Soundblaster® X-Fi™ Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled
-Wireless Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2
-Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
-Hardware Support Services 1 Year Basic Service Plan
-Misc 5 3 Months Sympatico Performance Internet Included (ON&QC)
-WirelessHD Internal 60GHz WirelessHD Transmitter
-Nameplate Standard Nameplate

Thank you for any input...................

[Sherms24]

Hi all, so it is about a week or so until i order my m14x, but i wanted to run the config by everyone.

Processor Intel® Core™ i5 2430M 2.4GHz (3.0GHz with Turbo Boost, 3MB Cache)
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
A/C Adapter Alienware M14X 150W A/C Adapter
Display Panel 14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
Video Card 1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology
Hard Drive 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

It will be used mostly for college, and mmos and counter strike. If this looks good, then i will order it next wednesday. The total for it comes to $1400 with a 1 year advanced warranty and the AW mouse.

I was looking at the i7 but $1500 is a little much. If i can somehow get a discount or a coupon, that is about all i would want to change!

Thanks!

[bigtonyman]

Hi all, so it is about a week or so until i order my m14x, but i wanted to run the config by everyone.

Processor Intel® Core™ i5 2430M 2.4GHz (3.0GHz with Turbo Boost, 3MB Cache)
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
A/C Adapter Alienware M14X 150W A/C Adapter
Display Panel 14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
Video Card 1.5GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology
Hard Drive 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

It will be used mostly for college, and mmos and counter strike. If this looks good, then i will order it next wednesday. The total for it comes to $1400 with a 1 year advanced warranty and the AW mouse.

I was looking at the i7 but $1500 is a little much. If i can somehow get a discount or a coupon, that is about all i would want to change!

Thanks!

looks like a pretty decent config, you could always buy an i-7 aftermarket if you want one down the road I believe, not to hard to install

[Aiboh]

Thinking about getting an M14x... How does this look?

Alienware Arena - Gamers Wanted

It seems like a deal or something they are running. How does that config look as is?

Also, off topic, can someone parallel the GeForce 460M vs the one in the M14x?

[bigtonyman]

Thinking about getting an M14x... How does this look?

Alienware Arena - Gamers Wanted

It seems like a deal or something they are running. How does that config look as is?

Also, off topic, can someone parallel the GeForce 460M vs the one in the M14x?

not a bad m14x config, the i-5 isn't a bad processor and does almost as good in games as the i-7's due to games not using all the available cores.

as to your second question, the 460m is faster. Just look at my benchmark scores vs somebody with an m14x. I haven't crunched the numbers to figure out how much faster though.

[Wagnbat]

Ordered a refurb Jan 6th, and supposedly there is a problem because I live in a US territory and used Paypal. Was on the phone with Dell for 2 hours and they couldn't figure it out. Recommended I call the Outlet guys directly on Monday or order a new lappy. So now I'm in limbo again and have some questions. Here is a brief of the system I ordered:

-- Alienware M14x
-- Processor: Intel Core i7-2670 QM Processor (2.2 GHz)
-- 256 GB Solid State Drive Ultra Performance
-- 8X DVD +/- RW Drive
-- 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
-- NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 1.5 GB graphics with Optimus
-- 14.0 inch HD (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
-- 8 Cell Primary Battery
-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
-- Intel Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2
-- Alienware M14X: 1 Yr Ltd Warranty, Basic Service after Remote Diagnosis (Included In Price)
Total Amount: $1,239.00

Primary usage will be for everyday browsing/mobility around the house as I have a gaming rig for gaming. But I am military and travel occasionally and want my lappy to support my gaming habit abroad. Reasonable mobility + performance is the reason I chose the 14x and not the 17, and the 11 is too small.

So on to the questions. If I have to order again, should I consider:
1. Dell 256GB SSD vs 7200 rpm drive? For the above price, I think it is well worth it. There was 1 confg this morning that had the ssd, killer 1103, and win ult for $150 more. Was tempted, but preferred to stay closer to 1200 and Win7 Ultimate doesn't do anything for me. I think the Sata II SSD from the factory should be good enough, especially considering the generous amount of space, but I'm open to opinions.
2. Killer Nic 1103? Any issues in the 14x? Are 3 antennas installed by default? 6250 good enough?
3. 6 vs 8GB of RAM? I've been running 6GB on my desktop i7 920 for 3 years with no issue, so I cant see why I would need 8, but also open to suggestion on this.

Thoughts?

[bigtonyman]

Ordered a refurb Jan 6th, and supposedly there is a problem because I live in a US territory and used Paypal. Was on the phone with Dell for 2 hours and they couldn't figure it out. Recommended I call the Outlet guys directly on Monday or order a new lappy. So now I'm in limbo again and have some questions. Here is a brief of the system I ordered:

-- Alienware M14x
-- Processor: Intel Core i7-2670 QM Processor (2.2 GHz)
-- 256 GB Solid State Drive Ultra Performance
-- 8X DVD +/- RW Drive
-- 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
-- NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 1.5 GB graphics with Optimus
-- 14.0 inch HD (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
-- 8 Cell Primary Battery
-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
-- Intel Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2
-- Alienware M14X: 1 Yr Ltd Warranty, Basic Service after Remote Diagnosis (Included In Price)
Total Amount: $1,239.00

Primary usage will be for everyday browsing/mobility around the house as I have a gaming rig for gaming. But I am military and travel occasionally and want my lappy to support my gaming habit abroad. Reasonable mobility + performance is the reason I chose the 14x and not the 17, and the 11 is too small.

So on to the questions. If I have to order again, should I consider:
1. Dell 256GB SSD vs 7200 rpm drive? For the above price, I think it is well worth it. There was 1 confg this morning that had the ssd, killer 1103, and win ult for $150 more. Was tempted, but preferred to stay closer to 1200 and Win7 Ultimate doesn't do anything for me. I think the Sata II SSD from the factory should be good enough, especially considering the generous amount of space, but I'm open to opinions.
2. Killer Nic 1103? Any issues in the 14x? Are 3 antennas installed by default? 6250 good enough?
3. 6 vs 8GB of RAM? I've been running 6GB on my desktop i7 920 for 3 years with no issue, so I cant see why I would need 8, but also open to suggestion on this.

Thoughts?

thats a killer deal with the SSD that comes with it. Don't really know how much better the killer card is since I haven't ever used one, but 6 gig of ram should be more than enough for what you plan to do. I don't even use most of my 4 gigs most of the time, so 6gig should be more than enough. Thats a good deal on a system like that.

[Azakelin]

delete this.

[c0mplex]

I'm currently considering getting an Alienware m14x, but had a few questions before I take the plunge:

• Is it a good idea to buy now, or should I wait for the new nVidia 600 series graphics cards to come out? I think a laptop has just been announced at CES with a 6XXm card, so I was just worried about getting the m14x now and finding out a month later that a refresh was happening with a better GPU.
• How is the color reproduction on the display? If I do get this laptop, I will be returning the HP Envy 15 that I have (which has an IPS display with a shifted color reproduction problem). I remember reading months ago that the m14x had an issue with the color purple, but I'm hoping that there is a way to adjust the settings to fix this issue.

These are the only questions off the top of my head. I'll post more if I have them, and thanks in advance for any answers.