Alienware M17x

Review
Reviewed by: John R. Delaney
Review Date: July 2009



Long known for its high-end, high-performance systems, Alienware continues to impress with its new M17x gaming notebook. Sporting a refreshed case design and a dizzying array of features and performance parts, the M17x sets the bar for DirectX 10 3D-gaming performance in a notebook. Prices start at $1,799, and our test system came in at a staggering $4,849, so be prepared to pony up big bucks for a fully equipped rig. But gamers with ample funds to indulge their habit will not be disappointed.





The M17x has a smooth aluminum case, sporting a subtler-than-usual alien head.

With the M17x, Alienware has moved away from the familiar finned Skullcap design found on earlier models such as the Alienware M17 and instead wraps the system in an anodized aluminum shell. Our review system came in Lunar Silver, but you can order it in Space Black as well. The smooth aluminum lid sports the always-present alien-head logo and has a look that conveys extreme speed. Similar to the lines of a mid-’70s Corvette, the case comes to a slight point at the front and is beveled in the back. A pair of black speaker grilles on the lower front part of the chassis completes the look. The M17x measures 2.1x16x12.7 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 12.7 pounds. The chunky AC adapter adds another 2.2 pounds, so you’ll need a strong back—or a bag on wheels—to haul it to and from LAN parties.

Under the lid sits a striking 17-inch display with edge-to-edge glass over a black frame. With a maximum resolution of 1,920x1,200 (a 1,440x900 screen is available for $150 less) and dual CCFL backlighting, the panel delivers rich colors and a remarkably crisp image. It’s ideal for gaming or viewing HD content. We fragged our way through a few rounds of Far Cry 2 with the visual effects set to high, and we came away impressed with the panel’s motion-handling prowess. The action was fluid, and ghosting was not an issue. The BBC’s Planet Earth series on Blu-ray Disc looked awesome on the big screen, as well, and showed no signs of smearing or motion artifacts. The level of detail was outstanding, and viewing angles were nice and wide. As with any glossy-finish screen, however, the panel’s reflective characteristics can be distracting under certain lighting conditions. A 2-megapixel Webcam is embedded into the top of the display, and a backlit Alienware badge is at the bottom.




You can light up the M17x's keyboard in a choice of 20 colors.



The full-size keyboard has a dedicated number pad and is a pleasure to type on. The keys have a good tactile feel and are responsive and quiet, while the two-button touch pad provides smooth, effortless cursor control. The keyboard deck is all black, save for white translucent key lettering and borders around the keys and touch pad, which light up when the AlienFX feature is enabled. With a palette containing 20 color choices, AlienFX lets you add mood lighting to four separate zones on the keyboard, as well as the touch pad, the speaker grilles, the alien-head logo and Alienware badge, and the power switch (which is also in the shape of an alien head). You can light up each zone with different colors or opt for a more subtle, uniform lighting scheme. (Alternately, you can disable the lights altogether.) Although the M17x doesn’t provide special labeling for the WASD buttons, gamers who rely on those keys to control the action can light up that quadrant of the keyboard in a unique color, making them easily identifiable while playing in the dark.

The AlienFX applet is part of the Command Center, where you go to adjust the AlienSense face-recognition settings (which work with the Webcam as an added measure of security) as well as the AlienTouch settings, which control touch-pad properties, including tapping, sensitivity, and scrolling. There’s also an AlienFusion utility that lets you select and edit power plans. Above the keyboard is a row of touch-sensitive controls, including DVD/CD player controls, a Wi-Fi switch, a Command Center launcher, and a stealth-mode button that disables the system’s discrete graphics to conserve battery life. There are also two volume controls for the integrated 5-watt speakers, which are loud and powerful but could use a subwoofer, like the one used on the competing Asus W90Vp-X1 gaming laptop. You need a good amount of bass response to appreciate the rumbling explosions in games like Far Cry 2 and Crysis, and the M17x comes up short in this area.

Connectivity options are abundant, with ports and slots conveniently positioned along the sides of the M17x. On the left, VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort connectors offer a variety of video-output choices and are joined by two USB ports, a USB/eSATA combo port, a FireWire port, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Two additional USB ports are on the right side, along with an ExpressCard/54 slot, a flash-card reader supporting eight formats, and four audio jacks for connecting to a six-channel surround-sound speaker system. (Two of these jacks double as headphone and microphone jacks.) A slot-loading Blu-ray-reader/DVD-burner combo drive rounds out the feature set.




The M17x has sleek lines, glowing red accents, and an abundance of ports.



The M17x gets its muscle from Intel’s top-of-the-line Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300 processor, which runs at 2.53GHz and has a whopping 12MB of cache. It also uses 8GB of DDR3 memory and has two Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M graphics cards running in SLI mode. For those times when you’re not gaming and don’t require that much 3D horsepower, you can switch over to an integrated GeForce 9400 graphics engine that's also in the system to conserve power. Two 500GB hard drives configured for RAID 0 help give the M17x an added performance boost without sacrificing storage space.

The M17x took top honors on several of our performance tests, including PCMark Vantage 64, where its score of 5,819 unseated our previous gaming-laptop champ, the Asus W90Vp-X1. Its Windows Media (3 minutes and 48 seconds) and iTunes (3 minutes and 28 seconds) encoding times were significantly faster than the average desktop-replacement laptop but not quite as fast as two workstation-class notebooks we tested not long ago, the HP EliteBook 8730w and Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds. On the CPU-intensive Cinebench 10 (32-bit) test, the M17x’s score of 9,375 was nearly 3,000 points above the average and beat the Asus W90Vp-X1 handily by 3,513 points. Not surprisingly, the quad-core CPU handled our multitasking test with aplomb, requiring just 16 seconds longer to finish the Windows Media Encoder test with a full Windows Defender scan running in the background.

DirectX 10 3D performance is key for the hard-core gaming crowd, and the M17x did not disappoint, posting a class-leading score of 61.7 frames per second (fps) on our Company of Heroes DirectX 10 gaming test while running at its native 1,920x1,200 resolution. It did very well on the DirectX 9 version of the same test, too, scoring 146.5fps, and it aced the 3DMark Vantage test with a score of 12,037, more than double what its predecessor, the Alienware M17, managed.

Our battery-life test results were disappointing, but not surprising. This class of notebook typically doesn’t last very long on our DVD battery-rundown test, in which we play back a DVD on a loop until the battery gives up the ghost. The M17x was no exception, lasting a scant 1 hour and 15 minutes. You can't expect to range far from a power plug with this behemoth.

Clearly, the Alienware M17x is not for everyone. The super-size price alone will have some gamers seeking inexpensive alternatives, such as the Asus W90Vp-X1, but they’ll have to sacrifice some DirectX 10 gaming performance, as well as the Alienware mystique: all of the design and lighting eye candy that makes Alienware systems so special. But if price is no obstacle, when it comes to bleeding-edge performance and the latest in portable CPU and GPU technology, the M17x is the gamer's dreamboat machine to beat.

Pros
Outstanding performance; cool new design; features galore

Cons
Very expensive; heavy; short battery life

Editors' Take
The fastest gaming laptop we've ever tested, Alienware’s M17x packs top-shelf components in its 17-inch frame. But dedicated gamers will have to dig very deep to afford this field-dominating PC.

Key Specs
Processor: 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300
Memory: 8GB RAM
Storage: Two 500GB drives
Optical Drive: BD-ROM/DVD±RW combo
Screen : 17 inches (1,920x1,200 native resolution)
Graphics: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M (2GB)
Weight: 12.7 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 2.1x16x12.7 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)