*OFFICIAL* M14x Owner's Lounge Thread - READ BEFORE POSTING

[Jetbo]

Heads up for those reading that are soon to join the 'Owners Club'.

- Upgrading to SSD has reduced the heat I feel under the right wrist rest area, and also improved my windows experience for disk transfer from 5.9 to 7.5. Boot times went from 30-40 seconds to 8-10 seconds. Extracting files is a TON faster. Everything also seems much zippier (if there is such a word). It feels like i'm slowing the laptop down by taking so long to click on things.

- You can change the backlight colour for everything except the power brick ring and the alien logo on the back of the display.

- The fans can get loud. I mean, it rivals some desktops running full speed with fans. They can push a lot of air. Most tasks do not cause it to ramp up that much, but when you are in a hardcore game, expect noise levels to rise considerably.

- You do not need to back up your Alienware laptop if you are going to upgrade the HDD right away - just use the included windows 7 CD, and resource CD to load drivers, applications, etc. Also, take a screenshot of your device manager contents (expand the trees). This was useful when I couldn't find what driver I was missing when I reinstalled. Also, you don't need to write down the windows key before you start a reinstall. The alienware windows 7 disk seems to already know what your windows key is on the system during the installation.

- If you call Dell support, they can remotely view your screen, so if there is something that you have difficultly describing, you can show them so long as you have an internet connection. (I caledl them about a problem where I cannot find the x-fi software on the dell downloads page, and they are escalating the problem).

- The screen is really bright! Its hard to describe, but it rivals my recent Acer laptop purchase that has a larger screen. 1600x900 is a must! At full resolution it looks great and is still easy to read. After seeing 1600x900 and trying lower resolutions, i'm staying with the highest setting to allow me to see more while web browsing.

- The laptop has a good weight to it, but it doesn't seem unmanageable. My 15" Acer laptop is close to the same weight (but with a larger battery).

- On the left side is a powered USB port, that will keep powered even when the laptop is shut down (great for charging ipods, etc).

- I still can't tell if the screen has a glass front or its plastic. Its very sturdy regardless, and i'm not going to try to damage it to find out. Its very glossy, so it will be harder to read in bright light.

Screen is plastic is has a lot of flex to it if you press it

[ConfusedUK]

Heads up for those reading that are soon to join the 'Owners Club'.

- Upgrading to SSD has reduced the heat I feel under the right wrist rest area, and also improved my windows experience for disk transfer from 5.9 to 7.5. Boot times went from 30-40 seconds to 8-10 seconds. Extracting files is a TON faster. Everything also seems much zippier (if there is such a word). It feels like i'm slowing the laptop down by taking so long to click on things.

What SSD did you use? Is it easy to install?

I plan on getting one for when my M14X arrives. Going to use the SSD for Windows, the default HD for random stuff.

[mojorific]

What SSD did you use? Is it easy to install?

I got the Vertex 2 240GB. I could have spent more and got the Vertex 3, but the difference in performance would be minimal, as currently the m14x does not support SATA III speeds (although it will accept it and run at SATA II speeds).

SSD was very easy to install. Just remember that the cable that the optical drive is connected with has a little white tab that you need to pull up to extract the ribbon from. Everything else was minor with 2 screws to remove to slide open the back, 4 screws on the optical drive, and another 3 screws and a cable to remove the original HDD. The HDD is housed in a drive cage so you remove the cage (4 more screws on the sides) and install the SSD into it.

First time I booted I got some sort of error message about the controller, but when I booted with the Windows 7 factory disk, it saw it right away and began installing. Installation time was about 30 minutes.

Biggest time-sink was putting all the drivers back on, but the resource CD that comes with the system will help with that. Also note that if you get the bluetooth option, the resource CD i had did not come with the drivers for that (windows installs some sort of default). I had to google it (I took a screenshot of device manager before upgrading) and pull files from another system at dell. I also opted out of installing the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, as this caused me blue-screens and lockups.

Totally worth the time spent. The speed boost is very noticeable (windows boots in about 10-12 seconds), and the heat under the right wrist area has dropped significantly.

[BatBoy]

Parts list for the M14x is up. Link on page# 1 of the owners lounge and also linked in the Alienware General Info sticky in the main forum.

[jeremyshaw]

I got the Vertex 2 240GB. I could have spent more and got the Vertex 3, but the difference in performance would be minimal, as currently the m14x does not support SATA III speeds (although it will accept it and run at SATA II speeds).

SSD was very easy to install. Just remember that the cable that the optical drive is connected with has a little white tab that you need to pull up to extract the ribbon from. Everything else was minor with 2 screws to remove to slide open the back, 4 screws on the optical drive, and another 3 screws and a cable to remove the original HDD. The HDD is housed in a drive cage so you remove the cage (4 more screws on the sides) and install the SSD into it.

First time I booted I got some sort of error message about the controller, but when I booted with the Windows 7 factory disk, it saw it right away and began installing. Installation time was about 30 minutes.

Biggest time-sink was putting all the drivers back on, but the resource CD that comes with the system will help with that. Also note that if you get the bluetooth option, the resource CD i had did not come with the drivers for that (windows installs some sort of default). I had to google it (I took a screenshot of device manager before upgrading) and pull files from another system at dell. I also opted out of installing the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, as this caused me blue-screens and lockups.

Totally worth the time spent. The speed boost is very noticeable (windows boots in about 10-12 seconds), and the heat under the right wrist area has dropped significantly.

I thought the all the mobile Sandy Bridge's chipset had a SATA III controller

[BatBoy]

What SSD did you use? Is it easy to install?

Very easy to change drives. Welcome to the forum. Since you are new here, please take a moment and review the forum rules + this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...g-updated.html

The 14x service manual/documenation link will show the entire process on changing out the drive.

[mojorific]

I thought the all the mobile Sandy Bridge's chipset had a SATA III controller

It does, but they haven't enabled it. You will only get Sata II speeds with a Sata III drive.

[ConfusedUK]

Very easy to change drives. Welcome to the forum. Since you are new here, please take a moment and review the forum rules + this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...g-updated.html

The 14x service manual/documenation link will show the entire process on changing out the drive.

Thanks, I'll it out.

It does, but they haven't enabled it. You will only get Sata II speeds with a Sata III drive.

Do you know if it will be enabled in the future? Or is there any way for us to enable it ourselves?


I'm torn on whether to get an SSD or not. I checked out the Vertex 2 at 240GB you mentioned and the price I'm seeing is just over £300. It's a lot of money for not a lot of space.

I'm sort of tempted to take out the optical drive and keep both of them in there, but the slot load drive could come in handy. Does it void warranty taking out the optical drive and putting the default HDD in there? Probably a stupid question but, can you tell from the outside if there's no optical drive in?

[mojorific]

Do you know if it will be enabled in the future? Or is there any way for us to enable it ourselves?

Does it void warranty taking out the optical drive and putting the default HDD in there?

Don't know - Dell has not commented on it except to say that it is not enabled.

No it will not void your warranty to take out the optical drive, unless something broke as a result of your tinkering that they were able to detect.

[fred2028]

How much battery life are you actually getting from your M14x? Doing stuff that does not include gaming of course.