m15x user review by shima

[shima]

UPDATE 03/26/2008: 2 month long-term impressions
UPDATE 03/07/2008: Penryn installed! Updated 3DM06 score.

What was supposed to have been just a picture thread has turned into a full-blown review.

1. Overview and Introduction:

I already have 2 laptops, the Dell E1505 and E1705. Why do I need another? Well, the E1505 was a good travelling laptop, but I really couldn’t game on the 128mb Mobility Radeon. The E1705 with 7950GTX upgrade was a decent gamer, but it was starting to show its age. Plus, the weight of the laptop + 130w power brick was starting to “weigh” on me. I hated having to tow a huge backpack with the 17” laptop whenever I went on international business trips, and the fact that I couldn’t use it on planes because the battery lasted, oh about an hour and a half, not to mention it was too huge for Economy Plus on United. Enter the Alienware Area-51 m15x and m17x. I followed their progress from its introduction in November to the m15x release in late January. I planned my purchase thoroughly, having come across a fellow in my industry that was selling a $3200 AW gift card, which I bought at a discount. I was originally planning on waiting for the m17x to come out as well as the black case versions (I loved the black design)….alas, patience is never one of my virtues, so I splurged on the m15x.

Area-51® m15x

Display: 15.4" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - White
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz (4MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 1024MB
Turbo Cache Memory: Intel® Turbo Memory (1GB) – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium
System Drive: 200GB 7200RPM (16MB Cache)
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Keyboard Options: AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard
Warranty: 2-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
Power: Additional Battery – 6-cell Smart Bay Battery
Power: Additional AC Adapter – 120 Watt Auto-switch AC Adapter

The m15x is a 15.4” gaming laptop, much hyped as the first 15.4” with the Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU and Nvidia 8800M GTX. The former wasn’t really sensible to me as far as cost vs performance, but the latter was, as I game on occasion.


2. Reasons for Buying:

8800M GTX in a 15.4" form factor. I was looking at a variety of laptops, ranging from the Sager 17” models with the GTX, the Dell M1730 with the eventual GTX, among others. However, the size of the m15x coupled with the Smartbay swappable interface was what really made me zero in on the new Alienware. Getting another 17” felt kind of redundant, and I needed something smaller and lighter than my E1705. Plus, I loved the sleek Ripley design. I didn’t care much for the bling factor as I did for the potential versatility.


3. Where and How Purchased:

www.alienware.com the only authorized place you can buy this. I placed the order on January 28th and started the Phase Game™. To my amazement, the laptop shipped on February 2nd, a whopping 4 days after ordering! And this was after 2 days of billing issues due to my use of a gift card authorized for someone else! While I was happy, I was a bit concerned that the Alienware 200-point inspection was trimmed to 2-points. My concerns were unwarranted.


4. Build & Design:

Build quality seems excellent, the body of the laptop has a glossy silver paint finish all around, the hinge is sturdy albeit slightly wobbly when opened.

Build Quality UPDATE 03/07: Overall it's above average, but there are some squeaky/creaking areas around the LCD, especially when you open/close the lid - you'll hear it. It doesn't bother me too much. Screen wobble hasn't bothered me or gotten worse since a month ago, either. I feel things could be tighter all around, but it's not a cause of concern for me.

Some pictures of the giddy unboxing:



Black colored protective sleeve (flash made it look gray):


Strange overlay that outlines all the ports and such:


AC Adapter size compared to a standard tissue box & Dell 130w AC adapter:




Size comparison vs E1705 17.1" laptop (slightly smaller than the 17", slightly thinner):




Size comparison vs E1505 15.4" laptop (slightly bigger, slightly thicker):




Size comparison vs 16.9oz bottle of water:

m15x on Zalman NC-1000 cooler:


Smartbay battery on left, optical drive on right:



5. Screen:

My m15x was shipped with the 15.4” 1440 x 900 LG LPLDF00. This panel was one of the most highly sought after by XPS M1530 owners/buyers (for 1440 x 900 resolutions), as this was considered the best out of the 2 or 3 LCD manufs being used. It is very bright and its colors vibrant. Very slight light leakage at the very bottom of the screen, but it won’t bother anyone. My Dell E1705 has the LG screen as well, and that was considered the best out of the 1920 x 1200 LCD options at the time. There were no dead pixels when I ran the test. It has a glossy “Clearview” screen.



6. Speakers:

This seems to be a point of contention. Some are satisfied, others aren’t. I think the speakers are more than adequate, and sound better than the speakers w/"subwoofer" on my E1705. Great clarity, volume level may be low according to other users, but it's fine for me.


7. Processor and Performance:

Out of all the choices (only 3 available at the time I purchased), I went for the lowest priced Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4ghz, 4mb cache. I couldn’t justify spending another $250 on the 2.6ghz T7800, and I really couldn’t justify spending another $650 for the Extreme CPU for my needs. I consider myself a casual gamer, and don’t use 3D rendering software or anything hardcore like that. Had I the choice, I think I would have gone for the 2.2ghz T7500 CPU. Sorry, I don’t have any CPU benchmarking software, but I’m sure there’s plenty of benchmarks on the web for this particular CPU.
For my use, the overall performance of the m15x is great. My E1705 was fast running WinXP with an older T2500 2.0 Core Duo, 2GB of 667mhz memory, 160GB 7200rpm hard drive and the 7950 Go GTX. The m15x feels faster, even loading Vista with only 2GB of memory (will upgrade to 3GB when it arrives). Gaming performance is incredible, getting framerates my E1705 couldn’t touch (especially in Neverwinter Nights 2).

UPDATE: About a week or two after purchasing this m15x, the Penryn line of CPUs were added to the lineup. I emailed Alienware Tech Support about a CPU upgrade, and had them send the CPU to me as well as a technician to install it. Overall the process was easier than I expected. In fact I didn't expect that this upgrade was even possible yet.


8. Benchmarks:

Normally the first thing I do upon receiving a new computer is to reinstall the OS (see Dell). However, as the m15x didn’t come with much bloatware, I decided to leave the OS as-is.
I haven't installed many games or benchmarking programs on it yet, but here's the benchmark info straight from AW on this computer:

Burn-In/Benchmarks

Doom 3
Doom 3: 135.8 fps
3DMark 2006
Customer Information:
3DMark Score: 9,835.00 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score: 4,607.00
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 4,664.00
CPU Score: 2,118.00
Game Score: 0.00 Points
SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon: 37.91 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest: 38.87 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley: 0.67 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley: 1.08 FPS
HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR1 - Canyon Flight: 44.66 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze: 48.61 FPS

*According to AW, they run these burn-in tests at native resolution. In my case, 1440 x 900. My own 3dMark06 score made me doubt the validity of the “native resolution” bit.

My own 3DMark06 at 1280 x 720 (default, free version): 9701
Not too shabby, I’ll run this again after my 2GB stick comes in and I do some more optimizations (such as disabling Aero) and defrag. By comparison, my 7950Go GTX’d Dell scored 5100-ish 3dMark06.

UPDATE: 3DMark06 at 1280 x 720 with Penryn: 10056


In-game benchmarks using Fraps:

World of Warcraft, well this isn't much of a benchmark because just about any computer can run this game.
Avg: 54.539 - Min: 40 - Max: 61

Neverwinter Nights 2, all settings maxed / Bloom on / no AA / 1440 x 900 resolution
In a heavy area with alot of action, where my E1705 w/7950 Go GTX would drop framerates severely:
Avg: 60.738 - Min: 22 - Max: 84

UPDATE 02/18: Crysis, with latest patch in DX10 mode

Crysis, 1440 x 900, settings all on High / no AA
Frames: 1862 - Time: 101052ms - Avg: 18.426 - Min: 10 - Max: 32
This game also made my GPU run hot, reached up to 85 deg C.

Crysis, 1024 x 760, settings all on High / no AA
Frames: 1969 - Time: 69636ms - Avg: 28.276 - Min: 19 - Max: 50


9. Heat and Noise:

Under load (gaming), the right side of the keyboard gets a little warm as the graphics card is located just under that. The bottom of the laptop gets slightly warm, but not scorching hot like my Dell. As all other laptops, when the fans kick in full blast, they are audible. Not nearly as loud as my E1705 gets, however. When idle, the system is very quiet.
Under a 3 hour gaming session with NWN2, Everest showed GPU temps reaching upwards of 86 deg C in a large outdoor area with a lot of buildings, scripts and moving people. This was alarming, but the bottom of the laptop never got close to scorching hot. Keep in mind NWN2 for some reason makes GPUs run really hot. Same was the case in this game for my E1705, where temps reached 90+ C. When playing WoW, GPU temps were stable in the mid 60’s.

Heat & Noise UPDATE 03/07: In a month's use, I haven't seen GPU temps exceed the 86 deg C I saw initially, which is encouraging.


10. Keyboard and Touchpad:

The keyboard looks great, especially while lit, with no keyboard flex to note of.

However, I have a minor gripe with this keyboard, though it may rectify itself as I “break it in”. Keyboard response feels a bit sluggish, probably due to the keyboard being pretty stiff. I’m used to light touch keyboards, where soft inputs will produce letters. You kind of need to press a little more firmly to type properly. I had difficulty inputting the same letter twice in a row. The Backspace response feels sluggish to me as well, as pressing and holding to rapidly delete has a slightly longer delay than I’m used to. It may very well be that I’m just not used to this keyboard yet, as I mainly use a G15 Logitech connected to the m15x.
The touchpad was frustrating. As the touchpad area is of the same finish as the rest of the laptop (glossy), touchpad input was weird. I felt like I was pulling my skin trying to drag the touchpad around with my finger. I opted to stick the AW-provided touchpad overlay sticker on it, and the results were much better. Felt like a normal laptop touchpad again. The touchpad clicker was another frustrating juggernaut. One long button, with two inputs on the left and right sides, positioned what felt like a see-saw. It took a little more effort to click than I was used to. Again, this is probably all a matter of getting used to it. I use external mice exclusively anyhow, so this wasn’t such a big deal to me.
The power button, volume control UP/DOWN, and 4 touch shortcut controls are seamlessly a part of the case, and are all touch-sensitive. There are no buttons to “press” (even the power button). I found the touch sensitive controls to be very convenient, as they control the Bluetooth ON/OFF, WiFi ON/OFF, Command Center, and Stealth Mode ON/OFF. Just place your finger on their respective logos and hold it there for a little less than a second. The volume dial is a little frustrating, because the volume UP/DOWN seems a bit quirky. You drag your finger towards the + sign, but volume ends up going down instead? I end up using the volume control on the OS instead. Overall, I like this feature, and Alienware did a good job of integrating the most common items you’d turn ON/OFF. They just need to work on the volume control.
The touch controls seem to be inoperable after the system goes into and comes out of Sleep mode. However, the controls work after Hibernate. Appropriately, I’ve set all my Power Options to go into Hibernate instead of Sleep.


11. Input and Output Ports:

The m15x kind of reminds me of a Macbook, in that there are no ports in the back of the laptop. The left side of the laptop has the Smartbay optical drive (with no manual eject button, Fn + F8 for that), headphone and mic inputs, 2 USB ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and the AC plug. The right side houses the Express Card slot, flash card reader, HDMI out, USB port, and Firewire port.
I kind of wish there was one more USB port, but that’s just because I’m a USB junkie (and my E1705 had a whopping 6 USB ports)


12. Wireless:

My m15x had the Intel 4965 Wireless B/G/Draft-N card. My Dell had the 3965 version (up to G only). The 3965 had pretty horrible range, whereas the 4965 has excellent range, even in G. I can acquire signals 200-250 feet away through 3 or 4 walls. This is probably due to the extra antenna (3) vs the Dell’s 2.


13. Battery:

This is where the m15x really shines. The m15x has a myriad of battery life increasing features: Smartbay extra battery, Stealth Mode and BinaryGFX mode.

CORRECTED 8800M GTX Normal vs Stealth Mode (Notice the clock speed difference)
*Everest version 4.20.1299 beta will show correct clock speeds. Previous versions were showing incorrect (higher) speeds.

Normal:


In Stealth Mode:


In short, Stealth Mode underclocks the GPU Core & Shader clocks to boost battery life. Battery life test results under Stealth Mode with dual batteries (incl Smartbay): 4 hours, give or take 5 mins. Activating BinaryGFX mode gives you more battery life, but Stealth Mode does not require a reboot, whereas BinaryGFX does.

BinaryGFX:

Enabled by hitting FN + F7 (U/D GFX), the system will prompt a reboot.



Battery life: I didn't have time to do an actual test, but here's an estimate with dual batteries (Smartbay):



5 hours!


14. Operating System and Software:

Vista. Meh.
The m15x came installed with minimal software/bloatware. It came installed with the Alienware Command Center, which controls AlienFX (for lights) and AlienFusion (power settings). The Command Center runs in the OS background, taking up 3 processes. The only other programs that Alienware pre-installed were Nero 7 Essentials and Cyberlink’s PowerDVD and YouCam (for the integrated webcam). That seems to be it. No AOL, no McAfee, no Norton, etc.


15. Customer Support:

I found customer support to be pretty helpful, they even called me to inform me that my Smartbay battery was backordered, and told me when my system would ship, which actually happened the way the representative said. Only issue was that I was missing an extra AC Adapter and Hat, but that was backordered and should ship “soon”. Overall, no problems.

Customer Support UPDATE 03/07: I have dealt with AW's Roswell Tech Support division, and they authorized my CPU upgrade. The young lady that helped me out was very friendly and a pleasure to deal with; but the important thing was she got the result I was looking for. So a rare +1 for AW support.


Conclusion:

Hands down the best laptop I have ever owned. And it’s not about the flashy lights and Alienware logo. It's the sheer flexibility of this machine. Not only is it blazing fast, but it has the option of holding its own battery-wise against the 14" and below ultraportables with the Smartbay battery option. I do alot of business travelling, with long 10 hour flights. I can now burn 5 hours of the boring flights on my computer.
When you can combine awesome 8800M GTX graphics performance with great battery life, you have a winner on your hands. All the light fluff is just icing on the cake to me.

Pros (in order):
1a) Power. This thing is a monster in terms of graphics. It really does seem to perform on par with a desktop 8800GTS (pre-G92). Completely blew away my 7950 Go GTX'd Dell, which is now relegated to closet duty.
1b) Battery life: with Smartbay battery installed, I was able to get approx. 4 hours of battery life before the 10% warning came on. Enable BinaryGFX for an additional hour or so!
2) LCD. I <3 LG.
3) Design – borderline professional-looking (if you shut down AlienFX).
4) Heat (or lack thereof): only gets warm, not hot.
5) AlienFX controls are a blast to play with. Like its been said, you can spend an hour or more playing around with this interface.
6) Convenient touch controls (Bluetooth, WiFi, Command Center, Stealth Mode) - well thought out, as I'd use 3 out of the 4 quite often.

On the downside (in order):
1) Keyboard input can take some getting used to.
2) Touch-sensitive controls (including the touchpad) can be flaky.
3) Slightly larger than standard 15.4" laptops, but thankfully not much thicker.
4) Vista.
5) Fingerprints could be an issue - prepare to wipe this thing down alot.

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

2-Months into owning an m15x:

Well, I'm gonna try to give as honest a "review" as I can regarding the m15x. It's been nearly two months, and I've somewhat gotten past my initial "WOW" stage and can give a better impression. I'm gonna exclude all AW support related stuff other than standard driver support from this...these are my scores for the laptop itself.

Case Design: 9/10 - Subjective, but I love the look of it, though I'd prefer the black. If it was black, 10/10. The chassis lights mean little to me, so I didn't take them into consideration here.

Case Size/Weight/Portability: 8/10 - smaller & lighter than most if not all 17" laptops, but larger and heavier than some 15.4" laptops. A fair compromise if you ask me for all that you get. You can't expect to get a GTX in a M1530-sized laptop anytime soon. This is portable enough for most people. If it's not, get the aforementioned M1530. People's expectations vs realistic feasibility vs performance, you've got to make a compromise somewhere.

Case Durability: 4-5/10 - At best a 5. This thing doesn't feel nearly as durable as my E1705 or 1505. Case creaks when you hold it, and what I feel may be an impending crack on the top left corner (where others have been experiencing the cracks). LCD bezel wobbles, and you can twist it (scary). My E1705 with a bigger screen feels MUCH sturdier and rigid. If you're taking this around, get a sleeve and case/backpack. I currently use the AW-provided sleeve, but I'm looking to get a proper sleeve soon.

Performance: 9/10 - T9300 & 8800M GTX, nuff said. 10,056 3DM06 is quite powerful. If it had the X9000 and better graphics drivers, it'd probably be 10/10 but that's neither here or now.

Driver Support: 7/10 - Can't really fault Alienware for Nvidia's driver issues with the 8800M GTX. Clevos are also having the downclock issues related to drivers; the only GTX that isn't having this issue I think is the M1730. I can confirm 167.59 from LTV2G runs the GPU at the default clock speeds. Other than that, the rest of the drivers are easy to get to, and seem to be updated. Knowledge base provides clear driver install order directions as well.

Heat: 5/10 - Even with the BIOS, the GTX still gets pretty hot (mid-80's before the fans bring it down to high 70's, but it will immediately go back up to the mid-80's while gaming). Still could use a better heatsink design, or allow software fan control to better regulate this - I'd like to have the fans run on high at around 82 C instead of 86 or 87.

LCD: 10/10 - I still love the LG 1440x900 screen. Bright colors, sharp picture. 1440 resolution is just right for my uses.

Battery Life: 10/10 - 5+ hours with dual batteries and BinaryGFX enabled. This should be the secondary selling point of the m15x IMO to its GPU/CPU.

Keyboard: 8/10 - I've gotten used to the keys now, and it's a pleasure to type on. The AlienFX-lit keyboard is a joy, and the keys resist finger oil glossiness that plagued my Dells. If it didn't have the bottom right hand flex, 10/10.

Alienware "Gimmicks": 7/10 - this includes the touch controls, Command Center (with lights) and other software. Aside from the volume control, no real issue with the other touch controls. Only problem is, the volume control is pretty damn huge. No problem bloatware pre-installed is a plus.

Am I happy with this laptop? Yeah, still am.

Could it have been SO much better? Yeah, a bit frustrating as it could have been PERFECT with better case & LCD bezel rigidity, more responsive touch controls, and a better cooling solution for the GPU.

[Paendrag]

Nice Pics. It would be interesting to see, wheather the smart-bay battery discharges before the main battery during usage off the plug.
Have fun with your new toy

Paendrag

Edit: On one of the pics you have a zalman device under the m15x. Is that a NB-Cooler? does it work with the m15x? It seems to be too small....

[shima]

Yeah, that's the Zalman NC1000. Its a little small, but it "fits" - the rubber feet of the m15x aren't sticking out of the Zalman. In hindsight, I maybe should have got the NC2000.

[Bo@LynboTech]

thanks for the comparison pictures
so its going to be very slightly bigger than my acer 5672 by the looks of things
perfect as it has to sit on my cooler and fit in my 15.4" carry bag......just eh?

[bmwrob]

shima, I know virtually nothing about AW machines other than what I've read online, but that sure is a good-looking beast! Congrats to you.

[WLF46WLF]

what res do you play 3dmark06 at?

nice pics, thank you!

what do you think about the size? it seems larger than your 15" inspiron! is that so big?? what do you think if compared to other thin and light 15"?

[Paendrag]

I know it offtopic, but can you reccomend a nb-cooler? And Zalman is a reknown company for sure, but is this cooling device good? Did you have already a chance to test a NB-cooler? I live on a small tropical island and it can get quite hot at times and humid as well. I am thinking about getting a cooler for my m15x as well...
Thanks for the help...
Paendrag

P.S> I know its much to be asked, but could you make a screenshot of the powerbricks data-sticker? I`need to check, wheather both 230/110 volts are supported. I know it should be no problem like with desktop powerunits (which have a switch for both voltages), but like to be sure. Alternatively you could just tell me what i stated on the sticker.. Thanks again!

[Fade To Black]

It's not the standard 3DMark 06 rezolution (which is 1280*1024), and therefore the score is higher than many Sager results.

[WLF46WLF]

yes, I'd like to know the standard res score

[Fade To Black]

I bet it was 1280*800.