Enjoy in 1080p glory 🙂
All posts by Smooth_J
*Update* My new baby – computer wise anyway… Alienware M18x
Current Production Status:
SHIPPED!!
EDD: 6/01/2011
Current Status:
5/9/2011 – Ordered/In Production
…
5/20/2011 – In Production – Build Stage
…
5/21/2011 – In Production – Boxing Stage
…
5/24/2011 – Shipped!!!!
Dell Order Time:
12 days (used to be 15 days)
Forums I Follow:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/
Quick update(s):
5/18/2011…
Emailed Rep and he stated everything is a-ok so far – no concerns.
5/19/2011…
Emailed Corp Rep and he stated its likely to ship in a few days +/-. However nothing is certain…
5/21/2011…
Emailed reps, but no reply. Guess they could be busy so no worries. Called and found out that its in the boxing stage right now and it should hopefully ship soon!
5/21/2011…
It shipped!!!
My new baby – computer wise anyway… Alienware M18x
Well, as you can see I tried the XPS 17, however being a gamer I needed something more powerful. So after talking to my Dell account rep, I was convinced to go with the Alienware M18x. Yes it was more expensive, however I believe it was worth it in the end.
EDD: 6/1/2011 with Next Business Day Shipping
225-0887 Alienware M18x Space Black Anodized Aluminum
317-6854 Intel Core i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
317-6851 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
331-2428 Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter
320-2269 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED
320-2271 Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M – AMD CrossFireX
342-2626 320GB 7,200RPM HDD
330-6106 Personalized Nameplate Trigger
331-2426 Custom Nameplate
313-8791 AlienFX Color, Mars Red
421-5099 Alienware Command Center, M18X
421-1400 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp
420-9956 Vista PC Restore
421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
410-0548 Adobe Acrobat Reader
318-0843 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader, BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
421-1305 Roxio Creator Starter
318-0770 Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
430-4150 Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n 3×3 MIMO Technology
469-0549 Bluetooth 3.0
330-6350 Automatic Updates: Critical Updates Only
953-9080 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
953-9100 Third Party At Home Service, 24×7 Technical Support, Initial Year
994-3700 Accidental Damage Service, 1 Year
950-9797 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
421-1719 Soft Contracts Consumer Accidental Damage Agreement for Alienware
421-1723 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
994-3730 Warranty Support, Initial Year
421-1586 Alienhead Chrome Red
421-1596 Alienhead Chrome Red
421-1360 Steam and Portal Factory Installed
421-2965 EVE-Online, English, German, Russian
330-5090 Thank You for Purchasing AlienWare
466-8200 Plant A Tree – Notebook, Netbook, Laser and Inkjet Printers, LCD Monitor Offset
462-3235 Thank you for choosing Dell
XPS 17…sad good bye
Well, I had the XPS 17 for a few weeks, however I must say good bye to a very nice performing laptop.
Why am I returning it? Well here are few reasons:
1) Being a gamer, I wanted something nice, fast, but cheap. The XPS 17 fit the bill nicely, so I tried it. It played well, but when it came to FPS, I felt it was lacking. Granted there are ways to overclock it, but stock wise IMHO it didn’t do well.
2) I didn’t like the screen too much. Granted you will have different opinions all over, but to me I felt like it was a bit washed out. I possibly could of corrected it via a ICC profile, but I didn’t have experience making them nor could I find any for the 3D screen at the time.
So there are my reasons. The main reason, for gaming, was the biggest overall reason.
Other than that, it was solid built laptop and it would work well for many people. However, sadly, it wasn’t for me.
Dell XPS 17 Mini Video
Well, I finally got it – and here is a short video 🙂
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIfZ2L_rlrM]YouTube – XPS 17 Box Opening[/url]
All and all, I am pretty happy with this laptop. I made a few mistakes in the video though. IMHO, the top and the palm rest seem to be made of a metal of some sort. Not sure if its aluminum, but its something like it.
The keyboard is interesting to type on. The keys are nice, kind of reminds me of the MBP. However the space bar is kind of hard, like a older style KB. Guess since the KB takes the most abuse, so its probably better that way.
The mouse pad is decently responsive. It has two finger scrolling and etc which I kind of miss when I gave my older MBP a few weeks back to my one of my family members.
The fan is not bad. It is loud when at full blast (prime95, picture at the bottom), but if you have a pair of headphones or maybe watching a movie, you shouldn’t be able to hear it that much, if any.
The sound I find to be pretty darn nice coming from a laptop. I’m no audio expert, but it sounds more than decent enough for pretty much anything 🙂
The LCD is nice, and more than enough area. However I have a slight issue… it seems the LCD is a bit washed out. Maybe it could be me, or my lighting (CFL 500K daylight), but I don’t see why a color profile or some adjusting won’t fix it. The LCD model for me is LGD02C5 – I think thats the same one they used in the M17XR3 as well.
The design is nice, easy on the eyes and is pretty solid. However we have one slight exception, the LCD lid. Its solid, don’t get me wrong, but its feel a bit if’y especially when you grab both sides at the top (while open) and try to push one side and pull the other. I know people will say, well its a 17 – and yes I know – but it feels a bit too easy in my opinion.
Any questions – let me know!
Nvidia Glasses
Fedex made a nice delivery this morning. Although I wish it was the computer – it was the glasses instead 😀