Hey All!
I just got back from Norway and I'm thinking about upgrading from my Dell Precision M70 Notebook to the *new AlienWare m15x (or m17x). Anyone have any thoughts on or experience with these? I'd like to continue using XP since I heard Vista's too darn buggy, and the m15x is the only one that supports it. It's supposedly the fastest notebook out there right now when customized with the best components, and I'd love to hear if anyone has any yay's or nay's since it would be quite the investment...
Bests, Rockefeller
I just got back from Norway and I'm thinking about upgrading from my Dell Precision M70 Notebook to the *new AlienWare m15x (or m17x). Anyone have any thoughts on or experience with these? I'd like to continue using XP since I heard Vista's too darn buggy, and the m15x is the only one that supports it. It's supposedly the fastest notebook out there right now when customized with the best components, and I'd love to hear if anyone has any yay's or nay's since it would be quite the investment...
Bests, Rockefeller
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
You went to Norway and didn't let me know? You fiend! We could've had beer!
Where'd ya go? How'd you like it?
-Fred
Where'd ya go? How'd you like it?
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Haha I've been living in Oslo for about a month now which is why I haven't been posting here much...spent some time down in Hvaler also. I'm sorry, I didn't think to contact you - oh well, now that I know maybe I'll get in touch next time - we'll have some Pils and Reker pa Akerbrygge 
Bests, Rockefeller
Bests, Rockefeller
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
Pils and Reker is the life. And yeah, next time, lemme know, eh? Have a good one!
-Fred
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
I bought an Alienware Area-51 M 5550 laptop a little over a year ago. It's a slightly older model than the ones you're considering, and not quite as powerful. I must say that it is everything I hoped it would be. Extremely fast, reliable, stylish and has many features that make it easy and comfortable to use.
I paid the extra bucks to have XP installed instead of Vista. At the time, I think that was a good decision. I'm not sure if that's the right decision now since Vista has improved somewhat.
I love my Alienware computer more than all my other computers put together, so DrPaul gives it two thumbs up! The Alienware guys seem to really know what they are doing and one thing they like is to push the technology further than anyone else.
Ok - the only complaint I have is that I wish the battery had more capacity. I think I only get 1 3/4 to 2 hours on the battery. Wish I could get three.
I paid the extra bucks to have XP installed instead of Vista. At the time, I think that was a good decision. I'm not sure if that's the right decision now since Vista has improved somewhat.
I love my Alienware computer more than all my other computers put together, so DrPaul gives it two thumbs up! The Alienware guys seem to really know what they are doing and one thing they like is to push the technology further than anyone else.
Ok - the only complaint I have is that I wish the battery had more capacity. I think I only get 1 3/4 to 2 hours on the battery. Wish I could get three.
I got an Alienware laptop about 4 years ago. About a year after I first got it, I started getting graphical glitches all over the screen from bootup - a sure sign of hardware failure. After sending the unit back for repair, it turned out the nVidia card inside was overheating.
Now bear in mind this was in 2004 and Alienware had just introduced these new 'modular' graphics units for their laptops that were interchangeable. One was the nVidia GeForce FX Go 5700, and the other was the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. Since the nVidia card was cooked, they supplied me with a replacement ATI card and all seemed OK again.
Fast forward another year, and now I'm out of warranty. I go to turn on the laptop one day and it doesn't start. Hmm... all hooked up to mains power, lock off etc... what's up? After about 5 minutes of trying the 'on' switch, it decides to turn on. After another month or so, I start seeing strange artifacts in my games - missing or wonky textures, strange exits to the desktop and so on. Now I'm worried. I can use the laptop for maybe between 1 and 2 hour periods before this starts happening. I try cleaning out the card's heatsink, check for dodgy thermal solution etc. No dice. Then the penny drops - the machine starts turning itself off after an hour or so's use and I feel the underside - burning hot.
So the whole laptop is now overheating. I take out the CPU heatsink and fan assembly and check the thermal compound application. Way too much of the stuff. I clean off about 2/3 off the stuff and put everything back together again. Now it runs for nearly 2 hours before collapsing with heat exhaustion. I discover I can get it to run for about an hour longer by raising the laptop off the table surface even further using 4 bottle tops.
Another year passes and I turn the laptop on. No POST whatsoever. No beeps, no video no nothing. I'm done with this. I take the HDD out and hope I can use the data again at some point in another notebook.
The bottom line here is I will never again consider buying another laptop until they become as modular as PCs are today. It's ridiculous getting a high-end desktop replacement and then finding you cannot repair it yourself when the warranty expires as EVERYTHING comes surface-mounted. It should be noted, however, that the CPU of that laptop was a DESKTOP Pentium 4 Northwood, a chip that ran notoriously hot and inefficiently and was no doubt unsuitable for this purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if it gradually simmered all components surrounding it (the video modules sat next door to it).
My advice? Go with Alienware if you want it to last the warranty, but good luck if anything happens to it after that.
Now bear in mind this was in 2004 and Alienware had just introduced these new 'modular' graphics units for their laptops that were interchangeable. One was the nVidia GeForce FX Go 5700, and the other was the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. Since the nVidia card was cooked, they supplied me with a replacement ATI card and all seemed OK again.
Fast forward another year, and now I'm out of warranty. I go to turn on the laptop one day and it doesn't start. Hmm... all hooked up to mains power, lock off etc... what's up? After about 5 minutes of trying the 'on' switch, it decides to turn on. After another month or so, I start seeing strange artifacts in my games - missing or wonky textures, strange exits to the desktop and so on. Now I'm worried. I can use the laptop for maybe between 1 and 2 hour periods before this starts happening. I try cleaning out the card's heatsink, check for dodgy thermal solution etc. No dice. Then the penny drops - the machine starts turning itself off after an hour or so's use and I feel the underside - burning hot.
So the whole laptop is now overheating. I take out the CPU heatsink and fan assembly and check the thermal compound application. Way too much of the stuff. I clean off about 2/3 off the stuff and put everything back together again. Now it runs for nearly 2 hours before collapsing with heat exhaustion. I discover I can get it to run for about an hour longer by raising the laptop off the table surface even further using 4 bottle tops.
Another year passes and I turn the laptop on. No POST whatsoever. No beeps, no video no nothing. I'm done with this. I take the HDD out and hope I can use the data again at some point in another notebook.
The bottom line here is I will never again consider buying another laptop until they become as modular as PCs are today. It's ridiculous getting a high-end desktop replacement and then finding you cannot repair it yourself when the warranty expires as EVERYTHING comes surface-mounted. It should be noted, however, that the CPU of that laptop was a DESKTOP Pentium 4 Northwood, a chip that ran notoriously hot and inefficiently and was no doubt unsuitable for this purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if it gradually simmered all components surrounding it (the video modules sat next door to it).
My advice? Go with Alienware if you want it to last the warranty, but good luck if anything happens to it after that.
Dr. Paul : I'm happy your AlienWare is trating you well, and thanks for the advice! Mainly my worry with Vista is compatibility, though I've never used it so I don't really know the details. For instance, I bought some video editing software that works perfectly on XP - what are the chances it'll no longer work on Vista? Also, I have Flash for XP - will it work on Vista? Are there cases where some software that works on XP won't work on Vista? Worst case scenario, maybe I'll get a dual boot with both XP and Vista...
I'm_melting_i'm_melting : Was this the experience that gave you your name? I'm sorry, that sounds like a sucky experience - I'll be sure to look for the extended warraty. If BTW in norway if you buy a product as a private consumer (from dell in my experience) you have a 5 year reparation-right on top of the warranty should anything go wrong, at the expense of dell.
Cub! : I've had a nice long look at dell's XPS's, but none of them seem to match the speed or performance of the m15x/m17x...mainly in comparing Graphics and CPU.
Bests, Rockefeller
I'm_melting_i'm_melting : Was this the experience that gave you your name? I'm sorry, that sounds like a sucky experience - I'll be sure to look for the extended warraty. If BTW in norway if you buy a product as a private consumer (from dell in my experience) you have a 5 year reparation-right on top of the warranty should anything go wrong, at the expense of dell.
Cub! : I've had a nice long look at dell's XPS's, but none of them seem to match the speed or performance of the m15x/m17x...mainly in comparing Graphics and CPU.
Bests, Rockefeller
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
"ERROR: Error Code Does Not Indicate An Error"
According to an article in Wikipedia, Dell has scaled back their XPS line in order to keep Alienware as their premier gaming brand.I've had a nice long look at dell's XPS's, but none of them seem to match the speed or performance of the m15x/m17x...mainly in comparing Graphics and CPU.
It sounds like I_am_melting's unfortunate experience was probably related to overheating most likely due to a poor design on Alienware's part. I'm guessing that they have learned their lesson, because I run pretty high CPU loads (lots of 3D graphics and number-crunching simulations) 12-15 hours a day with no problems.
I might worry about the M17x with a *Dual* GeForce 8800. Potential for overheating there. But their 9750 laptop is even available with Quad graphics! If they can do that, I guess they can handle dual GPUs. Unfortunately, I have no experience with any of their multi-GPU units. But I wish I had one.