Alienware M17x R4 (2012) review | play notebook reexamination
With the fourth installment in any series, be it books, movies or a TV show, its creator has to guard against reproducing more of the same. Fortunately, Alienware has avoided that sense of ennui with the M17x R4. While it looks the same as last year, Alienware's latest iteration of its 17-inch gaming notebook differentiates itself in a couple of big ways--namely with a third-generation Intel Ivy Bridge processor and Nvidia's newest and most powerful mobile GPU. The new components combine to produce a potent powerhouse able to handle any and all challengers. However, the road to gaming nirvana isn't cheap; will gamers pony up the $2,599 for the latest edition?
[Editors' eminence: The $1,699 price shown above reflects our selling partner's starting MSRP, not the starting cost of the system or the cost of our review unit.]
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Design chink to enlarge
It's easy to confuse last year's Alienware's M17x with the new version, since the rigs are cosmetically identical. Still, we immediately felt at home among the elegant lines and ridges of the M17x's matte soft-touch Stealth Black lid and sides. The trademark backlit glossy alien head insignia glows invitingly, beckoning us to open the lid. The front of the M17x greets gamers with two wicked-looking, but familiar grilles wrapped in glossy strips of black plastic. Similar to the alien head on the lid, the grilles are highlighted by a gentle, ethereal glow. Overall, we prefer the subtle swooping lines of the M17x to the strong angles presented by the beginning eon 17S
. The customizable backlit Alien head on the lid is also a step up over the Origin's blood red logo.
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We're perennial fans of the M17x's interior and its chunky keyboard that glows a myriad of (customizable) colors. An alien head power button sits above the keyboard, next to the row of command buttons for volume and Wi-Fi. A gigantic touchpad with matching discrete buttons are wrapped in a glowing blue band whose color we could also configure. We also love the large Stealth Black soft touch palm rest, where our hands nestled ready for a long night of gaming.
one of the good feature of an Alienware notebook is the insane measure of customization available via the backlighting. We had a bang choose the tinge of the eyelid logo, the Alienware insignia on the display bezel, keyboard, the two battlepresence grille and the measure about the touchpad. We create one color visibility use different shade of blue that would pulsate every few moment.
At
, the only place you'll be transporting this 16.1 x 11.9 x 1.75-inch beast is from one room to another. It easily outweighs other gaming rigs such as the 8.2-pound, 16.22 x 10.87 x 1.65-1.79 inch Origin Eon 17S, the 8.4-pound, 16.1 x 11.2 x 1.29 inch Samsung series 7 Gamer
and the 9.6-pound, 16.3 x 12.6 x 0.9-2.0 inch ASuracil
G75VW-DS71.
display
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It should be a crime for a display to be this pretty. As we gazed into the M17x's 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel screen, we marveled at the incredibly sharp text as we read articles on MadameNoire.com and CNN.com. The view only improved as we watched a 1080p YouTube trailer of "Django Unchained." We could see in disturbing detail the gore-caked wounds that crisscrossed Jamie Foxx's bronze skin. Blacks were nice and rich, accentuating the soft torchlight against Foxx's hair.
The generous blinding angle ensured that trey citizenry could well vigil the action ensuing on the filmdom. The one caveat is that the slick display is highly reflective and can be distracting.
At 282 lux, the M17x's display is matchless of the bright in the desktop substitute category, easily besting the 248 lux average. The G75VW-DS71 and eon 17S paled in comparison at 218 and 262 lux respectively. The series 7 Gamer however, outshone everything with an impressive mark of 325 lux.
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When playing "Max Payne 3," we became engrossed in the beauty of the lush greens of the jungle, the cloying pinks of a Brazilian nightclub and the dusty browns and grays of an old Hoboken bar. As we entered "Bullet Time," which slows the action to a John Woo-esque slow-motion shootout, we saw bright flashes of yellow and white muzzle fire and splashes of bright red as we aerated our foes.
audio
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audio
was loud on the M17x, and sound was rich and clear on movies, music and games. James Brown's plaintive wail on "The Big Payback" filled our ears as we watched the trailer for "Django Unchained." On Beyonce's "Love On Top," we heard crisp finger snaps along along with the rich swells of a keyboard that glided playfully along with the mezzo-sopranos' vocals. "Max Payne 3" was a symphony of gunshots accentuated with the delicate clink of shell casings and a gritty line of noir-drenched dialogue from the game's protagonist. The longer we played, the more it felt and sounded like we were fighting our way out of a Brazilian favela.
hotness
after run a full-screen henryulu television for 15 minute, the touchpad, space between the thousand and H key and underside measure 84, 86 and 92 degree Fahrenheit. angstrom little metal plate on the buttocks of the notebook measure 90 degree, well below our 95 degree consolation threshold.
We also spend some time patrolling the dangerous street of gramotham in "Batman: Arkham Asylum." subsequently 15 minute, the notebook measure 83 and 85 degree on the touchpad and distance between the gigabyte and H key respectively. however the underside and the alloy plate reach an uncomfortably affectionate 99 and 103 degree.
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Despite the 2-MP webcam on the M17x, we saw a noticeable amount of graininess throughout images. Colors were also washed out in florescent and natural lighting. However, we liked that we could snap stills and capture video in 1280 x 720 using the Live! Central software. Ports
adenine expect, the M17x arrive furnished with an insane numeral of port to lawcourtship just about all your peripheral need. deuce USB 3.0 port, a combination eSATA/USB 2.0 port, HDMI in, a 9-in-1 wag reviewer and a slot-loading Blu-ray
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reader line the notebook's right side. Another pair of USB 3.0 ports sit on the notebook's left along with a display
Port, HDMI out, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, a secure lock slot and jacks for a headphone, a microphone, a combination headphone/microphone and a S/PDIF jack. The AC adapter jack is hidden neatly away on the rear of the notebook.
Gaming and graphic
Gaming on the Alienware M17x is saturated, unbridled rejoice. This machine is capable of dizzying inning rate and breathtaking graphic thanks to its Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M GPU--currently the most potent in Nvidia's Mobile line--with 2GB of V
. We also prize having automatic switchable artwork that seamlessly toggle between the Nvidia GPU and the integrate Intel HD graphic 4000, depending on which task were run.
The M17x rise to the challenge of run "Max Payne 3" with facilitate, deliver politic animation and ultrarealistic blood spatter and water consequence. along the game's high setting (1920 x 1080p 60Hz, DX11 on, MSAA 4X), the notebook deliver an average ensnare rate of 55 fps. The star of the prove was the gunplay, specifically the slow-motion bullet meter that cover the universe in grey and slow enemy motion to a crawl, permit uranium to line up our shot and well-defined out a unharmed room of hostiles like our front-runner action hero.
The M17x blew through our graphics benchmarks, delivering a blistering 23,859 on 3DMark06. That's 10,000 points higher than the 13,859 desktop replacement average. However, it wasn't enough to topple the Origin Eon 17S (24,591), which has a Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M with 2GB of VRAM, but a more powerful CPU. On 3DMark11, the M17x led the pack with a score of 6,158, which is 3,775 points higher than the 2,383 category average. The Eon 17S, Series 7 Gamer and G75VW-DS71 scored 3,651, 3,502 and 2,533, respectively.
on the "universe of Warcraft" benchmark, the M17x average an incredible frame pace of 279 fps on good at its native settlement of 1920 x 1080, well above the 154 fps average. The origin eon 17S, by comparison, notch 232 fps while the ASUS G75VW-DS71 and Samsung series 7 Gamer score 158 and 167 fps, respectively. When we crank it to maximum, the M17x score 147 fps, shatter the 80 fps category average. The series 7 Gamer (135 fps) and the eon 17S (129 fps) register frown score.
The M17x continue its impressive performance on "Batman: Arkham city," rescue 52 fps with the setting on high and 1920 x 1080p, twice the 26 fps average. The serial 7 Gamer churned out 30 fps while the beginning eon 17S and the G75VW-DS71 score 44 and 23 fps, respectively.
Performance Powered by a 2.6-GHz Intel Core Intel Core i7-3720QM CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB 7,200 RPM hard drive with a 32GB mSATA SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M with 2GB of VRAM, the M17x turned in some of the highest benchmark scores we've seen. During PCMark 07, the M17x scored 4,610. That's 1,263 points above the desktop replacement average. The only notebook that beat the M17x was the Origin Eon 17S and its 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-3920XM CPU, which scored 5,602. Using its 32GB mSATA cache, the M17x loaded the 64-bit version of Windows 7
Premium in 34 seconds, much faster than the 0:58 category average.
It take the M17x 3 moment and 36 moment to extra 4.97GB of multimedia file, a transmit rate of 23.6 MBps. That's 21.4 MBps below the 45 MBps average. The G75VW-DS71 perform slightly good at 29.9 MBps while the series 7 Gamer notch 33.3 MBps. The eon 17S continue to predominate with a blister 254.5 MBps.
During the OpenOffice examination, the M17x match 20,000 name to their correspond address in 4 moment and 10 second, a small fast than the 4:20 desktop successor category average. The origin eon 17S dispatch the job in 3:17 while the G75VW-DS71 complete in 4:51.
battery life
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Another place where the M17x truly shines is battery life. During the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), the M17x lasted a whopping 5 hours and 19 minutes. That's 1 hour and 43 minutes longer than the 3:36 desktop replacement category average. The Series 7 Gamer and the G75VW-DS71 lasted 3:21 and 3:11 while the Eon 17S lasted a dismal 2:35. Software
The M17x is blissfully rid of bloatware, stay to broadcast that will conserve and help gaming efficiency. launching command center grant uraniumers entree to a helpful four of utility with alien-themed name. AlienFX, our hands-down front-runner utility, allow us to switch the color schema and cycle of the notebook's light arrangement.
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AlienFusion (pictured) lets users manage and create power plans while AlienTouch controls touchpad functionality. There's also AlienAdrenaline, which gave us the ability to create a desktop short that would automatically launch a set sequence of actions when launching a specific game.
indium lawsuit of a system crash, AlienAutopsy is there for any stand-in and recovery need as good as troubleshooting and run diagnostics check.
Configurations Our $2,599 review model features a 2.6-GHz Intel Core Intel Core i7-3720QM CPU with 8GB of RAM, a 500GB 7,200 RPM hard drive with a 32GB mSATA SSD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M graphics with 2GB of VRAM and Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. The $1,499 base model comes equipped with a 2.3-GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU with 6GB of RAM, a 500GB 7,200-rpm hard drive and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M GPU with 2GB of VRAM. The $1,849 version has identical specs to the base model with 8GB of RAM and a AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB of VRAM. Verdict pawl to enlarge
Although its $2,599 price is steep, the Alienware M17x R4 remains the ultimate gaming notebook. Although the chassis stays the same, we can overlook it due to the sheer power stuffed under the hood. Shoppers looking to save a few bucks can get an Origin Eon 17S with similar specs to our review unit for $2,100, but you'd be missing out on the always-awesome lighting features and battery life of the M17x. Gamers and those with heavy-duty multimedia needs will be hard-pressed to find a better notebook than the Alienware M17x.