Alienware Unveils m17x Gaming Notebook

[Xirurg]

Chaz,when will you "review" it?

[Gophn]

m9750 is Napa platform.... fell behind when it it was released

now m17x is Santa Rosa... and Montevina is out in Summer

[Xirurg]

yeap,i know that it is NAPA,i meant that AW didnt passed to Santa Rosa after its release...

[boypogi]

m17x looks good

[shoelace_510]

Yeah well they wouldn't have been able to have "passed to Santa Rosa after its release" unless they rebuilt it. So it really makes sense... But the m17x looks awesome and I'm glad that AW has pulled out all the stops again in terms of performance.

[toprpm]

BLACK IS NICE as usual. but 8800 SLI and they are next to each other?

Could this mean more heat from both, wouldn't it be better to leave them away from each other.

I believe this not a good design.

also it's way thick

[StormEffect]

It might be too little too late with the m17x... since its Santa Rosa platform is about to be phased out for Montevina.

Alienware has a tendency to be late on mobile platforms. And consumers have a tendency to assume Alienware systems must be the best and most current technology available due to brand recognition.

Heck, they were still selling 15 inchers with 7600m GT cards right up until the 15x came out. They were behind the curve by about half a year in that case and I'm sure they still made a killing on that model. They've been selling the m9750 in the same way. Many people assume that because it is the highest model number available from ALIENWARE it must be the best laptop EVAR. People are still buying them. People will buy the m17x. Only NBR readers and people uncommonly versed in mobile technology will think twice about the chipset age.

Even sites like Extreme Tech and magazines like Maximum PC barely understand mobile gaming, and they are 'hardware experts'. Mobile hardware is such a niche understanding, nobody outside of these forums even believes laptops can run games.

[Vedya]

Price comparision:

AW m17x - 5.9K

X9000
Dual 8800m
4GB Ram
1TB HDD
2yrs warranty

Sager 9262 - 3.7K

C2D 3.0 Ghz
4GB RAM
1.024TB HDD
SLi 8800
3yrs labor/1yr warranty

I could understand the hype with the m9750, cus it was 9 lbs, but this one is 10.5, and with batter the 9262 itself is 11.5. You can get a superior 9262 for 1.5K less. I dont think this will sell as well as the m9750 or the m15x....

[ViciousXUSMC]

Alienware somehow got themselves a pretty decent fanbase, so even if it is not a good deal and defies common sense it will sell. Still the user base for the 17" is going to be smaller than the 15" I think and since it is indeed pretty late in coming we will have to see how it fairs.

It does look rather thick in the pictures, definitely not my kind of machine. If you insist on high resolution high visual setting mobile gaming tho, this is definitely a solution.

The Sager is still way to rich for my blood even tho its 1.5K less, I personally look forward to the c90p with the 8700GT 3ghz C2D option. It wont have the dual HDD or the 8800 (sli) of the sager but it will be less than half the price of the Sager so I think its worth it. Plus supposedly it will be hosting some 9000 series options but thats just rumor right now.

[ClockedRodent]

Remember Alienware is not in direct competition with the Sager with the m17x (sounds stupid I know but hear me out).

The Sager is MUCH heavier, and MUCH bulkier almost eliminating it from extreme gamers who want to carry it around to LAN's or whatever, the styling is also not the best meaning again for most professional gamers it's stricken off. The sager is only really aimed at a desktop replacement that's going to be moved no further then a few rooms away, or small car journeys.

And let us not forget smart bay, the Alienware can have up to 1.5Tb of hard drive space, and much more then that because the Smart Bay HDD's are hot swap meaning no rebooting, so a person if so inclined could easily carry around 3TB+ making it fantastic for industry professionals who need to tote around a lot of data. And if the m17x performs as well as the m15x did in power saving features I wouldn't be surprised to see a 3 hour+ battery life with a smartbay battery included (so binaryGFX, stealthmode on) which doesn't make it oh so bad at short journeys and such (though fitting it on your lap may be a squeeze ^^)