Alienware's M17x R3: An Antidote to Clevo
by Dustin Sklavos on June 20, 2011 9:06 AM ESTConclusion: Nearly as Good as it Gets
After using the Alienware M17x R3, I'm actually sorry I'll have to send it back. Usually with most of the notebooks I've reviewed there's some kind of fatal flaw, or something that makes it less than ideal for my purposes. But the M17x R3 is mostly bulletproof. It's bulky and heavy, yes, but it's also a gaming notebook running high-performance kit.
The M17x R3's biggest problems aren't even necessarily issues with the notebook itself. The aesthetic may not be for everyone, but the build quality is fantastic (outside of minor flex in the keyboard.) And while the glossy screen is going to be a dealbreaker for some people, the implementation is sound. No, the real issues lie in the configuration options that Dell offers with it. Only offering quad core processors and eschewing the extreme i7-2920XM isn't a problem, but none of the storage configurations offered are anything resembling ideal. Defaulting to RAID 0 is a great way to get the notebook sent back in for service. Most of the media seems to have drawn the same conclusion here: an SSD for a system drive and an HDD for a storage drive is the way to go. That this option isn't available on their site is downright bizarre.
The other issue is a smaller one: the graphics configuration options. I'm not sure entirely where blame needs to be placed here, either. AMD users are going to be set: the HD 6970M is tied for the fastest mobile GPU available, and the HD 6870M is a capable alternative for users who want to keep costs down. But if you need NVIDIA kit, the GTX 460M just isn't going to cut it. It's not a bad GPU, but it can barely compete with the 6870M that it's offered as an upgrade from, and Alienware doesn't offer Optimus technology with that GPU. Really, what we need are either the rarefied GeForce GTX 470M as a halfway point or at least the GeForce GTX 560M, which will hopefully become available as an upgrade option. In a perfect world we could choose between the GeForce GTX 485M and the HD 6970M, but one of these is in great supply from multiple vendors and the other is not. (By the way, kudos to AMD for finally getting top-end mobile GPUs out in force for two generations in a row.)
With all that said, though, the M17x R3 has an awful lot to offer any consumer looking for a gaming notebook. It's definitely pricier than ASUS's offering, but it's also faster, more comfortable to use, flashier, and has both better battery life and a better overall design. Clevo notebooks can't really compete on cost here, either. The M17x R3 is just fun to use, with a great screen, comfortable keyboard, minimal gloss, and a solid build. Fix the flex in the keyboard, find some way to keep the bottom from getting so hot, and offer just a bit better configuration options from the Dell website and Alienware will have a gold Editor's Choice on their hands. As it stands, we think the M17x R3 is more than worthy of the bronze.
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JarredWalton - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
I can add quite a few more concerns. All that weight in the screen would make it top-heavy. Also, the screen would now need to be an inch thick with a quarter inch thick keyboard. Yay? Maybe they should just make the whole bottom of the laptop aluminum and then use it as part of the heat sink, and then they could somehow make the whole laptop a lot thinner. Wait... Apple tried this with the MBP 17 and while it's thin, it also runs extremely hot and it has a GPU that's 1/3 as potent as the 6970M. Incidentally, the 6970M can draw up to 100W, give or take, so you're going to need a lot of airflow and heatsink to dissipate all that heat.If you want a thin, light, and inexpensive gaming laptop, you're right: they don't exist. Given current technology and the laws of physics, such a laptop simply can't exist. In ten years when CPUs and GPUs are a lot more powerful, software will be more demanding as well and such a design will continue to not exist.
If you still don't think that's correct, take tablets as an example: the Tegra 2 stuff puts all of that performance into a package that's less than a centimeter thick, and the iPad 2 is similar and it's even faster! But how much performance are we really talking about? The CPUs in these tablets are slower than a dual-core Atom. Looking at the iPad 2 for instance, in Geekbench an i7-2720QM is generally anywhere from 5-10X faster on single-threaded tests, and 15-40X faster on multi-threaded tests. In general, it's easily more than an order of magnitude faster.
The GPU is a similar story: 8 "shader cores" is basically what you get -- never mind that these are DX9 cores compared to modern DX11 cores on the PC stuff. Peak performance, the 543MP2 at 300MHz is capable of around 19.2GFLOPS. By comparison, NVIDIA's GTX 460M is capable of 518.4GFLOPS (27 times faster!), and the 6970M tested here can hit a whopping 1305.6GFLOPS.
So yes, power requirements are higher, and thus size requirements are higher, but we're looking at roughly 20 times the CPU performance in multi-threaded workloads and over 50 times the GPU performance. What does this have to do with your "put the hot components in the screen" idea? Mostly I'm hoping to show you that just because you can get a lot of "stuff" into a tablet like the iPad 2, there's a reason the cooling system in a notebook like the M17x weighs a couple pounds and has a large fan: it's because it has to have it.
GeorgeH - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
I've had the same idea, except I wouldn't put the GPU/CPU behind the lid, I'd just run a couple of flexible heatpipes through the hinges to a passive radiator built into the LCD cover. The point wouldn't be to create a significant amount of additional cooling, though. The surface area of a lid with reasonable physical properties (i.e. not too heavy and without lots of delicate fins) would only be a small fraction of the cooling capability of a typical fan driven cooling system. The point of such a system would instead be to allow the laptop to run completely silent at light to moderate loads, then spin up a typical fan cooling setup when stressed.Thale - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Hold S, D, and then press the space bar on an M17x R3. You won't jump/roll/ do whatever else the combination would usually do. It's mildly annoying for FPS style games or WoW, and an absolute killer for overhead style games that use WASD controls.For a quick example off the top of my head, it makes some sections of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light unplayable (anywhere where you need to make a jump while running down+right).
Dell's priorities seem to lie more with charging a lot for silly lights than making a real game machine if they can't even be bothered to pay extra attention to rollover for the usual 'gaming cluster' of keys.
colinw - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
I'd love to see how this thing stacks up against a Dell Precision M6600. The prices are similar for high-spec machines, but I do love the aesthetics of the Precision line, as well as their general high quality. They make surprisingly able gaming machines.JarredWalton - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
We reviewed the M6500 a while back; the M6600 is mostly the same design with a few upgrades on the hardware. We won't get into upgrade pricing on the RAM and HDDs, because Dell really rips you off there ($330 to upgrade to 8GB RAM, and another $420 to go from a single 250GB HDD to two 500GB HDDs!). If you grab an M6600 with the current sale, though, you can get the FirePro M8900 (basically a workstation version of the 6970M), 2GB RAM, and a single HDD with the anti-glare 1080p LCD for $1924. That includes a 3-year warranty as well.Add in your own RAM for $73 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... a high-performance SSD for $470 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... and even a single large HDD for $90 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... That would bring the total up to around $2600, with a much higher performance SSD + HDD setup.
colinw - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Yeah, when I was looking at the configurations I definitely counted on buying a few after-market upgrades from newegg. Rather ridiculous upgrade prices.As you spec'd it, it's a pretty good system for $2600!
But as far as I can tell they don't feature switchable graphics? I haven't seen any reviews of the SNB M6600 yet, so I'm not sure. Battery life won't be quite so happy with the M8900 in use all the time.
The0ne - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Yes, Dell does charge a bit for the M line workstations. These are, however, workstations and not gaming laptops. As you've suggested buying the minimum and upgrading it yourself, if you're up to the task, is far far less expensive. Although I'm an Engineer and not an IT person, I upgrade the PCs and laptops to save our department money all the time hahaha Can use the savings for a free lunch, all win-win :Dggathagan - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Not sure if it's universal, but everything I've ever owned with that "incredibly comfortable rubberized plastic surface" turned into "incredibly sticky dirt/dust magnet surface" in a year or so.Given the heat this can put out, I wouldn't be surprised if it starts feeling tacky in 6 months or so.
The0ne - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Yea, I know what you're thinking hehe. I have my R2 for about a year now and it runs pretty much 24/7. Aside from the accumulated dust balls and water/soda spilling it still looks like brand new. I am assuming the R3 differes little btw. Plus, taking it apart isn't that difficult which makes cleaning easier than on a desktop.Brad4 - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
Two reasons why I won't buy this laptop.1. The most important reason is the resolution. 10x9 resolution laptops are horrible and are only good for watching movies.
2. The laptop looks like it is marketed for young teenagers. How about a nice laptop without the silly lights?