Alienware is the extreme gaming laptop manufacturer known for solid build, performer and lights of their laptops.Alienware recently updated their Bronze Editor's Choice award-winning M17x R4 gaming notebook to include Intel's Ivy Bridge processors and optional AMD Radeon HD 7900M series graphics or NVIDIA's new top end GK104-based GeForce GTX 680M GPU. With the move we also get mSATA support inside the chassis. The big draw with our review unit is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M, which promises a substantial performance improvement over last generation's top end GTX 580M/675M, the kind of generational jump we haven't seen on the mobile side in some time.At the same time, Alienware's M17x R4 remains largely unchanged while Clevo, MSI, and ASUS have all continued to incrementally update their gaming notebook designs. I've also had the privilege of owning my own M17x R3 over the past year and have new insights to offer on what it's like to live with this chassis design after an extended period of time.The company has consistently used the same muscular matte-black exterior on all of its laptops, regardless of size, and the new model is no exception. Slightly slimming the profile of the new version does flatter its appearance, but the basics have not changed. If you liked the looks of previous laptops from the company, you’ll like this one, and vice-versa.While the aesthetics are similar to its predecessors the new model does improve touch points. The lid is now a soft-touch material that feels more luxurious and expensive than the hard plastic previously used. This treatment continues along the interior.It’s hard to say if build quality has improved without a side-by-side comparison to the old model, but our impressions are positive. The gaps between chassis panels are tight and difficult to notice because of the way the laptop is designed. Handling the laptop roughly does illicit a few groans of protest from the laptop’s plastics, but nothing out of the ordinary for a large gaming laptop.Connectivity is excellent. There’s four USB 3.0 ports, eSATA, HDMI-In and HDMI-out, DisplayPort, and VGA. Audio hook-ups include not only headphone and microphone jacks but also line-in and S/PDIF. The ports are in the right locations, as well. The video ports are near the rear of the laptop while the headphone and microphone jacks are near the front.The two stereo speakers located under the palm rest are made by Klipsch and sound much bigger than their physical size suggests. A full-sounding audio system is certainly appreciated on a high-end multimedia notebook like the M17x.
Good news then is that this laptop from Alienware has one of the best keyboards we have ever used on a computer. We put it up there with the likes of the MacBook Pro for sheer key bashing satisfaction.Finally there is the interesting-looking arrangement of buttons sitting above the keyboard for controlling volume, wireless and song skipping. These are nowhere near as good. Rather than being proper keys they are more just points where the plastic flexes and pushes on to buttons below. It doesn’t really work and makes them irritating to use, even more so when you really that in game volume can’t be controlled via the function key and numbers on the keyboard.While we had a moan earlier about the disco-style keyboard and the customisable colours the Alienware is capable of, we have to say it is impressive. Those who like to make things their own will particularly like it. For example our M17X right now has a pink set of letter keys, blue numbers and yellow Alienware logo, you can however change this from a huge range of options in the Alienware FX controller.Every button on the M17X is raised up enough from the bottom of the keyboard bezel that you get a really satisfying push out of it. They aren’t squidy key presses either, more responsive and absolutely ideal for gaming. This is where Alienware’s pedigree becomes very apparent.Speaking of NVIDIA technology, the big draw with the M17x R4 is the GeForce GTX 680M. Unlike last generation's GF1x4 derivative GPU, the GTX 680M is based on NVIDIA's current top end silicon. The GK104 in the GTX 680M is the same chip that powers the GTX 680, although here the 1536 CUDA cores have been cut down to 1344. That's about the only cut made, meaning this is basically the same silicon in the very impressive GTX 670, just run at substantially reduced clocks. The core clock now runs at only 719MHz with a boost clock of 758MHz, but the most painful cut is the GDDR5 clock. Where NVIDIA was able to hit a staggering 6GHz on the desktop (and their memory controller allows you to pretty much push the GDDR5 chips to their limits; my GTX 680 is at 6.7GHz on the memory), the GDDR5 on the GTX 680M is running at a paltry 3.6GHz. That means that while generationally shader and texturing power have increased tremendously, the memory bandwidth increase has been much more modest, and that's on a chip that's already throttled largely by memory bandwidth. Interestingly, the GTX 680M in the M17x R4 sports 2GB of GDDR5 while the GTX 680Ms offered by other vendors have 4GB, but this shouldn't be counted against it as even desktop GTX 680s with 4GB of GDDR5 haven't proven to need the extra video memory.Of course, Alienware offers alternatives to the GTX 680M, which is a hefty $550 upgrade. The default GTX 660M is a glorified desktop GTX 650, built on the Kepler architecture and sporting 384 CUDA cores, a healthy 835MHz core clock, and 4GHz on the GDDR5. That chip really is a fine starting point for gamers, but leave it to AMD to offer what's probably going to wind up being the best price/performance option (just as they tended to last year), the Radeon HD 7970M. That's $200 for an upgrade to a fully enabled Pitcairn GPU that offers a notable improvement in performance over the $250 GTX 675M upgrade, which is just a rebranded GeForce GTX 580M. We have a review of the 7970M in the works right now, but there's really no reason to shell out an extra $50 for worse performance with the GTX 675M unless you absolutely have to stay in NVIDIA's ecosystem and don't want to spend up on the GTX 680M.The M17x seems to take the former path. Although the system fan can be a bit loud while playing intense games, it is quiet at idle and at low to moderate load. This results in idle exterior temperatures that top out at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit. While not annoying, you’ll notice the warmth on your palms as you use the keyboard.Heavy load turns up the heat considerably. We measured temperatures in the mid-90s along the keyboard’s surface and temperatures as high as 102 degrees on the laptop’s underside. If the size of this computer hadn’t made it clear to you that the “lap” in “laptop” is in this case rhetorical, the temperatures should.Alienware’s shortcomings in the screen department, there is thankfully a full HDMI output on the side, meaning you can transfer those beautiful graphics easily on to the big screen.On top of this there is also Ethernet, VGA, eSata, 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 line outs, a mini display port, a microphone input and finally a 9 in 1 media card reader.Really this laptop is set-up so you can use it as a full desktop PC at home and then move it about. There are easily enough ports to justify even the most accessory-obsessed and as we said earlier, all are robust enough to withstand even the most heavy handed of accessories usage.Overall its a good gaming laptop from Alienware.
Let run some BenchMarks on this bad boy....
- Nice Color.
- Excellent Performance.
- Nice Audio Quality.
- Connectivity.
- Good 1080p Display.
- Blu-ray Drive included.
- Keyboard.
- Nice lighting Effects.
- Heavy.
- Expensive.
