Related Sections: Game Diaries
Alienware M17: What size bullets does it take?
So I was contacted by a PR representative for some company who asked me if I wanted to test an M17. I didn't let on at the time, but I had no idea what exactly an M17 was. I knew what an M16 was.
And I knew what an M18 Hellcat was.
So I figured an M17 was something between the two. Perhaps a massive bazooka or maybe a fixed gun emplacement. It sounded fun either way. I enthusiastically agreed. Imagine my disappointment when it showed up and it was only a laptop computer.
After the jump, I begin my week-long fling with Alienware's high-end gaming laptop.
As you may have figured, I'm not your normal hardware reviewer. I wouldn't know a benchmark from a burn-in test. But I know PCs because I know PC games. For well over ten years, I've been building my own computers so they can run the latest games. It's a never ending process. Swap out the videocard, get new memory, upgrade the CPU, and then finally get a new motherboard, at which point you do it all over again because all your other components are outdated. Somewhere along the line a hard drive fails and three or four power supplies burn out.
So when the Alienware M17 arrived, I basically blew an entire day just installing stuff. And not in that "oh, jeeze, this is something I have to do" way. It's like buying a new car and looking forward to your commute. With a new computer, every install routine is a delight. Every new icon on your desktop is the promise of a game that might run better than it's ever run before! Every visit to a game's video options screen is a treat. Bump those sliders up! Let's see what this baby can take!
Alienware's angle is high-end components. When the M17 arrived, it was the eighth computer in my house. It easily outclassed everything else I've got. That's not sayibng much, since even my newest systems are a year and a half old. But what a delight to jack up the graphics for Dawn of War II, The Sims 3, and Left 4 Dead.
The M17 comes standard with an ATI Radeon Mobility 3870. But this one, tricked out because it was being sent to a reviewer, had dual cards in ATI's CrossfireX configuration. It's the equivalent of nVidia's SLI configuration, whereby you plug two videocards into a computer and they work double duty to run the graphics. It's like putting two hamsters in a wheel. They may not make the wheel run exactly twice as fast, but they'll give it some extra kick. So I'm sure if I were running benchmarks, I could point out how much faster The Sims 3 runs thanks to the dual cards. As it is, I just know I can max out everything and I'm still happy with the framerate. It'll be a couple more days before I throw something at the computer that it can't take. Oh, and there's the driver situation to keep in mind.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now, we're on day one. This is a week-long game diary about my first seven days with a high-end laptop. Tomorrow, I take her out into the wild. I know she's sexy enough for me. What will other people think?
Up next: The M17 in the wild
By obonicus at 1:48 PM ON 06/23/09
Please, Tom, we hope you elaborate on how this $6000 laptop runs the Sims 3. Maybe you could log into Free Realms as well, or head over to GoG and pick up X-Com and Jagged Alliance 2. Inquiring minds want to know!
By Smash Atoms at 1:51 PM ON 06/23/09
Sexy? What kind of tests are you doing to that thing!
By Old Man Dotes at 1:55 PM ON 06/23/09
Running *The Sims* on this machine is like commuting in the city in a Lamborghini. Sure, it looks great, but 5 mph traffic isn't going to impress many people, and there really isn't anything going on that justifies the hardware. Unless you just want to say, "Look at me! See how much I can afford to spend on a pointless piece of bling?"
Let's see how it performs on *Crysis* and then we'll have an idea what it can do.
By Marcin at 2:01 PM ON 06/23/09
Hunh. Alienware's site pegs this thing at a mere $1,300. Even with RAM you have to buy yourself, what am I missing?
By Schultz at 2:19 PM ON 06/23/09
$1299 or £1099 you can't beat being gouged by dell
By Pedobear at 2:36 PM ON 06/23/09
Might as well log into World of Warcraft while you are at it....... sad.......
By nilus at 2:42 PM ON 06/23/09
Just an FYI. I have owned two gamer laptops(one Alienware) and a friend has had one two. Don't waste your money. Alienware Desktops are awesome but super high performance and laptop don't mix. They are delicate and prone to excessive overheating(which causes even more damage). My first one had the bottom fans go out and by the time I realized it, the video card got fried. My buddy had to replace his CPU after a criticial overheat.
Note neither of us were doing any overclocking or blocking vents or doing anything. This was from normal wear and tear. You want high powered gaming, stick to a desktop.
By Balasarius at 4:46 PM ON 06/23/09
Re: Marcin
By clicking a few radio buttons I can get the thing up to $3,000 pretty easily.
Which is insane. Thing must weigh 12lbs. with a 30 minute battery life.
By Doogiedh at 5:32 PM ON 06/23/09
Alienware is owned by Dell. Your paying the evil Overlords either way you go.
By checkers at 10:40 PM ON 06/23/09
I'm most interested in finding out how got the laptop gets after an hour of gaming.
As well as that, how long does the battery last when you're sitting outside reading Fidgit and sipping a Pina Colada?
By bobisimo at 1:19 AM ON 06/24/09
What kind of frame rates are you getting when you run at the highest settings in these games? Do you run fraps or something to gauge the performance?
By intruder at 3:51 AM ON 06/24/09
Yup running Sims 3 on that beast is just like running WoW on it!
Oh wait a minute...
*Checks under desks*
*Looks at level 80 char*
*whistles and goes away*
Have fun with it Tom! :)
Pro-Tip: Use Arma II fully cranked up on it to make it melt!
By Josh at 4:51 AM ON 06/24/09
These high end laptops are more correctly referred to as desktop replacements these days. Battery life isn't important. I've got a Toshiba X300. The thing works like a dream, and firstly, I've experienced no heating problems at all that I can tell. I don't sit with it on my lap because weighing in at 4.2kg with a 17' screen becomes a little uncomfortable. Instead, it sits on a desk, attached to mains power. While the high end laptops do come at a premium price (I paid AUD$4000, equivalent to US$~1800-2200) for mine, they do come with the ultimate advantage, something I can take with me anywhere, which, given my job and the frequent flying I do, is necessary.
I can sit in my motel room 2000km from home, fire up something like Fallout 3 with graphics set to, or as close as possible to max, and have no framerate issues. 4 speakers and a sub woofer below means I'm also being spoilt with some above average sound quality.
These sorts of laptops are a niche market, they might be easy to ridicule, however, for some people in paticular situations, they are a blessing to have.
By RG at 6:55 AM ON 06/24/09
The m17x is much better with dual Nvidia GTX 280m gpus.
By Pointer Obvious at 12:16 PM ON 06/24/09
A couple of years back I heard Alienware's laptop program was kind of a charade. While they do make awesome custom built gaming desktops, their laptops were actually assembled by a company in China and weren't all that distinguishable from the rest of the PC mfr world who do the same thing. Is this a verifiably different product?
My first Alienware system was great but that was back in '01. Since then, I gathered, at least the last time I was looking, they're customer service and all around product quality declined with its growth in market penetration. Would be nice to see Alienware back in the game though.
By RG at 7:16 AM ON 06/25/09
@Pointer Obvious
Alienware currently belongs to Dell, and for the latest series of notebooks were developed via a collaboration of the alienware and dell xps teams.
I've never heard complaints about Dell's customer service so it appears they are good at it.
Furthermore alienware have always had a very high standard of product quality, furthermore their notebooks are the only ones on the market to which any component can be easily upgraded.
By Wulf at 10:28 AM ON 06/25/09
Hope they fixed things since I bought a laptop from them. The one I bought burns through a hard drive about ever 3 months.
By authorx at 3:43 PM ON 06/25/09
How do you guys get lucky enough for companies to ask you to test their new computers and consoles? Then after you test them you get to keep them. And what kind of job must I study for where I can do the same thing?
By Tom Chick at 3:50 PM ON 06/25/09
Unfortunately, authorx, we do not get to keep the M17. You might want to stick with whatever other job you've got going.
By BBane at 9:00 PM ON 06/25/09
Bah, a person can build their own hot gaming comp/laptop for a lot less. All your doing for Alienware is paying for the brand name and cool looking tower/case.
By rbhall at 11:14 AM ON 06/26/09
More importantly I'd be interested in seeing what type of computer you build...
By Mihos at 11:00 AM ON 06/27/09
As much as I travel and as much as I game... I could possibly be interested. The biggest problems I have had gaming on a laptop while on the road is usually network related. Most hotels think a DSL line into a $39 netgear router for the whole building counts as "Free Highspeed Internet". I would never buy this just for home use, but if the specs are just right and the networking is good.. I would concider it. I am a very niche consumer though.
By otaku at 8:14 PM ON 06/28/09
I have an m17 and love it-really is a sexy machine and for the money was actually a decent deal. I didn't max out the CPU but did the graphics as this is for gaming and I have to say its pretty damn great for gaming sure its big but not to bad for mobile gaming
otaku:
I have an m17 and love it-really is a sexy machine and for the money was actually a decent deal. I didn't max out t...More »