- Joined
- Jun 21, 2008
- Messages
- 6,201
First off, this will be a long post, but there will be plenty of pictures, so bear with me. Also, I will start with a little story, going
into a laptop review at the end, so those of you who are looking into buying gaming laptops can benefit from my experience.
Now, some of you might ask, "why would Blue need a new laptop? Didn't he buy one of those fancy schmancy alienware
laptops? I did indeed buy an Alineware M17x back in August of 2009. I will include the specs of that laptop later on in this
post. Well I have been dealing with Dell and Alienware support for just under 4 weeks now, and I felt like sharing my
experiences with you guys.
It all started last month during the week of May 23rd. I started to have problems with my laptop power. I had been having
problems with the AC cord connectors for a couple months, and once I was away from school and started using it again, it
became harder and harder to get a solid connection. It got to the point during that week where I was unable to get a
connection at all. After trying to retool the connection on the laptop end and on the cord itself, I gave up and contacted Dell
tech support since my machine was under warranty. Once on the phone with Dell, they had me troubleshoot the power issue
and had me follow the typical "do you have the machine plugged in" sort of kindergarten-level questions. The dell technician
then told me to update the BIOS. I told him I already had the latest version of the BIOS and that I had been experiencing
early signs of a power problem with earlier versions, so it could not be the BIOS. He insisted that I flash it anyway. But wait!
You can't flash a BIOS without a power source! And that's exactly what I told him. He still insisted, and I figured since the
problem was with either my motherboard or AC adapter cord, they would have to come on location and replace it whether the
flashing bricked my motherboard or not. Keep in mind I could not use the laptop at all, so at that point I stopped caring. I
continued to flash my motherboard with what little battery power remained, despite the harm it would cause, and sure
enough the process hung up and bricked my motherboard.
2 days later a technician had received my new motherboard and AC adapter, and replaced both without too much trouble. At that
point I was happy because I could use the laptop again. But something was still wrong. The current Alienware laptops all have
tons of lights on them. Backlit powers buttons, speakers, keyboards, and I/O panels. None of these lights worked whatsoever.
In fact, they only light that worked was the power indicator on the back of my battery. So after a couple days of trying to reinstall
the firmware and reflash the AlienFX chip, which was the chip integrated on the motherboard that controlled the lights, I gave up
because I had to travel. So once I got done with some of my traveling I was able to phone up Dell support again. Unfortunately,
they walked me through the same baby steps as before, and finally came to the conclusion that I gave them at the beginning of
the phone call, that the motherboard was dead. So on June 16th another technician came out to replace the motherboard. It
worked great except for the fact that it was DOA :angry: . The technician took my half-functioning motherboard with him and left
me the dead one, so I was left with a nice paperweight over the weekend until they could attempt a third and final replacement.
On June 21st they came out again to replace my motherboard, both video cards, and the case fans. It was a success! I turned
my laptop on the next morning and played some DoD:S. After about 2 hours of playing I started to see artifacting. I panicked and
shut everything down thinking that the cards were too warm. After 30 minutes of letting them cool off I tried again, and this time
the computer just completely crashed. So long story short, after re-installing many different gpu driver versions, rolling back and
such, I decided to reformat in case the registry was corrupt. This did not work, the problem was caused by hardware failure.
For the third time I got on the phone with Dell, pretty pissed and short on patience. I didn't tell the guy who answered this, but
this call was going to decide whether or not I ever bought from Dell/Alienware again. I started off telling him my situation, how I
had gone through three unsuccessful replacements, and how I was getting frustrated and how I expected a laptop exchange.
Right away he was apologetic, offering to see what he could do for an exchange. Now, for those of you who don't know how Dell
exchanges work, let me explain. They go by performance, not price first off. Secondly, if they find a configuration that is equal or
better, they will offer it to you. But if there is a single downgrade, so to speak, the Alienware technician will not accept the
configuration from the exchanges department. In the case that no better configuration can be found, I would guess they would
build you a new one with some of the latest parts, but I do not know for sure. Anyways, after receiving about 3 different possible
configurations from him, I spotted at least one downgrade with each one. And after allowing him to confirm these downgrades, he
offered to wait until the next day so he could call the exchange department again and get a different agent to offer him
configurations. He was really trying to help me out since I think he realized I was about done with Dell for good. I took him up on
his offer and received two emails from him the next day. The first stated that he had no luck, and the second stated that he would
work over the weekend from his house to get me a better configuration. I had told him I wanted an R3 (generation 3) configuration
and he was trying his best to get me one.
Sure enough, on Sunday June 19th I got an email from him with some awesome news. He had found an R3 configuration for me.
Unfortunately it was a refurbished machine but I knew that the R3 had been released a month ago, so it couldn't be in that bad of
shape. Additionally, my warranty still had two full years on it and would cover the replacement laptop. I called Dell up the next day
and got the confirmation that the laptop had been shipped to me, and that it would take 3-5 business days. Then the day after,
Tuesday June 21st the laptop arrived, way ahead of schedule. It turns out that they FedEx standard overnighted it rather than the
3-5 days I had been told.
Well, that wraps up part 1 of my little story, now for the laptop review. I hope you guys who are considering purchasing Dell or
Alienware computers realize how stellar this last bit of service I received was. I know in the past Dell support has been sub-par or
worse, but in the recent weeks they have really improved in my opinion.
Now, here are the specifications of my M17x R1 which was purchased in August of 2009:
-Intel Core2 Quad Q9100 2.26GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
-4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz 2 x 2048MB
-17.0in. WXGA+,LCD,ANW,M17X (Standard 17in wide monitor, no HD)
-SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (GTX280M) (2GB GDDR3 RAM total)
-320GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
-Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
-Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO
-Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
And the specifications of the M17x R3:
-Intel i7 2820QM 2.3Ghz (3.4Ghz with turbo mode)
-16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz 2 x 8192MB
-17.3 Inch Wide Full High Definition 1920x1080p 120Hz WLED
-Nvidia GTX 460m 1.5GB GDDR5
-320GB Hard drive at 5400RPM. (A downgrade, yes. Who cares with this setup though)
-Blu-Ray Combo drive
-Dell Wireless 1501-N Technology
-Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth
So you can imagine how excited I was to get this machine. the following images are slightly resized for those of you with
smaller monitors. If you want higher res pics, let me know.
First off, some size comparisons...
At first glance, you can see that the R3 is a good deal smaller in size than the R1, about an inch shorter from front to back.
Also, the top of the panel has some nicer styling than the R1 with those nice contour lines. On top of that, you will notice
that the R3 has a lighter finish on it compared to the R1, making fingerprints and smudges less visible. You can see that the
dust collection on the pure black finish of the R1 is much more visible. The last thing to mention in this picture is the
rubberized cover that is visible on the R1. Due to wear and tear, that polymer cover had began to shift. It was not loose
or about to fall off, but it exposed some of the monitor components, which could cause problems if not careful.
Another size comparison, this time the top panels open on each machine. The first thing I will point out is that because of
the glass table the laptops were sitting on, the reflection makes it look as if about 1/3 of the way up the monitor back, the
panel is curved or dented. This is not the case. the top panels are very flat as they should be. Again pointing out the size
difference of about an inch from front to back, you can more clearly see the difference in this picture, paying attention to
the tops of both monitor panels. the final thing to point out here is that the AC plug is located on the right right of the back
in the R1, and on the left side with the R3. This suits me fine because I am left-handed, but would most likely be less
desirable for right-handed individuals.
Now we get a look at the monitors. There are two differences that might jump out at you. Firstly, you might notice that the
R3 monitor is slightly shorter than the R1. My R1 monitor did not support a 1920 x 1200 because it did not support HD or
1080p, but that would have been the standard resolution had it supported HD. The R3 monitor did support 1080p resolution,
but loses 120 pixels to be exact, off the heigth, so the R3's resolution turns out a default 1920 x 1080. The second difference
that a trained eye will see is the brightness levels of each monitor. If you look close enough you will notice that the R3's
screen is a bit brighter than the R1's. This difference is diminished since the camera's aperture settings were not perfect, and
would appear even greater up close and personal, if you will. The final bit to point out is that the lighting distribution among
each screen differs greatly. When looking at the R1 on the right side, you can see that the monitor is poorly lit around the
edges when compared to the center. This is shown by the darker shades of blue around the edges. You can see quite a bit
of that discoloration on the R1 screen, but relatively little on the R3 screen. Its hard to tell from the picture, but the R3 screen
is much much sharper than the R1 screen. Of course, HD is much sharper than SD.
Here is a look at another important part of the laptop, and another large improvement over the R1 model. The I/O control
panel on the M17x R1 left something to be desired. While it was cool when I got it back in 2009, over time I realized that it
took more effort to make sure I was pressing the correct "tap area" of the R1's touchscreen. My fingers would sometimes,
if enough pressure applied, extend into the other buttons' areas, having the undesired effect of activating the wrong button
or more than 1. Also, from a regular sitting angle while looking at the screen, the lighting effect seen in the first picture below
was not quite as clear as you might expect. So I found myself having to lean forward to take a good look at the buttons each
time I needed to press one, despite being back-lit. The vastly improved panel on the R3 got rid of the touchscreen I/O panel
and replaced it with a regular button system. While this might have decreased the "cool factor" it increased the functionality
and practicability of the buttons, making them much easier to see from an angle, and much easier to use. An added plus is
that the panel which surrounds the R3's I/O panel has a nice brushed metal finish to it, making it look quite slick. Which brings
me to one of the two problems I found with the R3's I/O panel. The first being that the brushed metal panel which I just
mentioned is quite fragile for a laptop and caves in a little more than I would like when pressure is applied to hit the buttons.
The same goes for the bottom border of the keyboard, which is the same material with a solid black finish instead of a brushed
metal. I do not find myself naturally putting pressure on this section below the keyboard, but it is relatively fragile, along with
the keyboard itself. The R3's keyboard build quality is not as stable as the R1's. For example, when I press the keys towards
the center of the keyboard on the R3 without exerting much pressure beyond normal typing pressures, the keyboard around
that key will often start to cave in, as if there was nothing under the keyboard to stop this. The R1 model had a keyboard
back-plate, which prevented this caving in feeling altogether. I am not sure why the R3 model does not include a similar
back-plate.
Moving on to the touch pad, this is one area where the R3 excels with flying colors over the R1. Not that it matters much if you
use a mouse most of the time, but if you travel a lot like I do and you prefer to use the touch pad rather than carry a mouse
around with you, make sure you read this section through. You can see from the first picture that the R1's touch pad has a rough,
bumpy texture to the pad itself. I am not sure who had the genius idea to make it that way, but I absolutely hate using it because
it makes it much harder to move the mouse longer distances. While you might have better control with the bumpy texture, I found
myself having to take up my hand and re-position my finger when scrolling and such, way more often than I wanted to because the
bumps actively prevented me from getting enough distance out of a single stroke along the pad. Another point to make is with the
click buttons located directly below the touch pads. On the R1 model, the buttons were barely separated, making it difficult at times
(especially in the dark) to determine where the left and right click buttons were. Another disadvantage is that the R1's buttons did
not depress deep enough when you pressed down on the button, resulting in non-clicks or accidental multiple clicks. This gets
frustrating after two years of use. Now focusing on the R3, you will notice first off that the touch pad itself is much wider than on the
R1. The height is the same, but the width of the R3's touch pad was increased from the R1's by about 3/4 of an inch, making a large
difference if the sensitivity is set high enough. Also, the two click buttons are physically separated, depress further into the laptop,
and are "springier", making button clicking all the more easy and satisfying. Also, illuminated ring around the R3's touch pad is
brighter than the R1's.
Now for the fronts of the two laptops. The R1 is the above picture, and the R3 is below. Not too much has changed here in
terms of the front side of the M17x. But there are a couple small changes that make usage much more comfortable. The first
thing to mention is the lip on the R3 is deeper than on the R1. This makes it much easier to open the top lid compared to the R1.
On top of that, the top lid on the R3 has less resistance at the hinges, but not too little, making it easier to open up without it
falling down unintentionally. Another nice touch (no pun intended) is the paint finish that was used on the wrist-plate, where the
touchpad is. As you might be able to see from the pictures, the finish on the R1's wrist-plate is textured and slick, with a plastic
feel to it. The R3 however, has almost a reduced-friction rubberized feeling, making the wrist-plate soft to the touch, making
typing much more comfortable. Additionally, as you might have noticed by now, the R3 is a good half-inch thinner from top to
bottom, meaning your wrists are not as elevated and at a more natural angle when typing on the R3, adding further to the
comfort factor.
Now we focus on the side ports and connections of the two laptops. In the picture directly below the M17xR1 is on top and the
M17xR3 on the bottom, showing the right side if facing the screen. Much of the design is the same on both laptops, but you can
see that the R3 does not have any exhaust vents on the side, and the same goes for the left side of the R3. All the R3's exhaust
vents are located in the back of the laptop, with two intake vents on the undercarriage, which is located further down in this post.
Because the R3 has no vents on the sides, the ports are more evenly and widely separated, allowing for much easier connecting
and disconnecting of accessories, such as external hard drives, etc. You will notice that I did not get the expansion bay on the R3,
and the audio connectors are located on the left side of the R3, which is somewhat unorthodox for laptops in my experiences. Again,
this suits me fine because I am left-handed, but I would guess right-handed persons would prefer for the audio ports on the right
side. The R1 has four audio ports, 2 USB 2.0, 1 expansion bay, 1 multi card-reader, and the slot-load optical drive. The R3 has an
eSATA port and an HDMI port as you can see. The R1 also has these two ports, but located on the other side of the laptop.
Here is the right side and the ports. Again, the R1 is sitting on top and the R3 on the bottom. You can see the R1's HDMI and eSATA
ports as mentioned above, along with the R1's 4 audio ports. Both laptops have a Kensington lock slot, an ehternet port, a VGA port,
and a display port. A couple minor changes, however. The R1's display port is standard, while the R3's display port is the mini version.
Additionally, the ethernet port on the R1 is upside down, making it hard to disconnect ethernet cords. It is definitely an advantage that
they rotated it in the R3. Now for the major differences. Firstly, the R3 has no firewire port, while the R1 has 1. Also, you will notice
the designation SS USB on the R3. This means super speed, and those two USB ports utilize USB 3.0 high speed protocol. I use those
for my external drives, and they are much faster than the 2.0 ports on the other side. Not too many differences between the ports on
the two laptops, but I could not find a single thing wrong with the R3's ports.
Now lastly, we take a look at the bottom of each laptop. While most of you might not realize it, the bottom of a laptop, and especially
laptops used for heavy gaming, are one of the more important aspects of the chassis. Not only does the bottom store the battery, the
RAM, and the HDD's, the bottom of the laptop contains intake and sometimes exhaust vents and fans, which direct the heatflow of your
laptop. If the heat expulsion from the laptop is not designed correctly, you will end up with a laptop with a melted motherboard or video
card, much like my old XPS M1210. First off, you might notice that one of the rubber feet on my R1 is missing. Please pay no attention to
that, I just want people to know that's why there are two holes in the underside. Now looking at the aspect of the undercarriage, you
see three case fans. The center fan being for the CPU heat-sink, and the other two fans for the GPU heat-sinks. The casing around these
two GPU fans protrude from the case, meaning the M17xR1 will rest on those when on a table, etc. This creates an arch under the laptop,
giving pretty good airflow under the chassis. Airflow that was much needed with two GTX280M's under a load. In the picture below of the
R3, the exact opposite occurs. Instead of the fans protruding out, they sink into the undercarriage. While this does not allow for as good
of airflow under the machine, the R3 with a single GTX 460M does not need as much airflow, and the laptop sits flatter on a flat surfact,
making it more stable. Besides that major difference there are no real differences worth pointing out. I guess the battery was easier to
take out on the R1, but that is a relatively minor issue.
Here is a nice close-up of the vents. I will just add briefly that the dust guards on the R3's vents are much finer than on the R1, meaning
the R3 probably collects less dust overtime.
And finally we have the backs of the laptops. As you can see, the R1 has vents basically across the entire back side of the laptop, as it
can get quite toasty. I don't have any numbers for you unfortunately, but from simply touching the back vents and putting my hand up to
them after gaming for an hour or two, the R3 model is much cooler than the R1. Also, the AC plug on the R3 is a much more sturdy build
quality, hopefully preventing the over time wear and tear that I saw in the R1.
And now for a little surprise. I mentioned before that I received a relatively slow 5400RPM hard drive with this computer. Well, I decided
that was not quite enough and bottle-necked my speed more than I could deal with, so I went out to Newegg.com and picked up this bad
boy.
Overall Score M17xR1:
Workmanship 88%
Keyboard & Touchpad 82%
Connectivity & Ports 83%
Display 60%
Games Performance 88%
Application Performance 85%
Temperature 70%
Noise 82%
Mobility 50%
Impression 85%
Average 77.3%
Overall Score M17xR3:
Workmanship 100%
Keyboard & Touchpad 75%
Connectivity & Ports 90%
Display 95%
Games Performance 85%
Application Performance 95%
Temperature 92%
Noise 88%
Mobility 65%
Impression 94%
Average 87.9%
To explain my scoring a little bit, you guys may be surprised that I listed the R1 as having slightly better gaming performance. That is
because the 280M's in SLI give a 30-40% performance increase as opposed to having a single GTX280M. This puts the gaming performance
slightly over a single GTX 460M. However, as often as I game in windowed mode, which cannot really utilize SLI technology, the GTX 460M
gets some bonus points. The 460M also supports directx11 and tessellation, but I rated gaming performance strictly by frames per second at
similar resolutions. In terms of application performance, however, the R3 blows away the R1 because of the R3's sandy bridge processor, and
i7 vs regular quad. Now for mobility, the R1 was about 12.5lbs, while the R3 was about 9.5lbs. This is because of the SSD, 1 GPU instead of 2,
the fact that the R3 is physically smaller, and the use of lighter alloys in the construction on the R3 chassis.
There, phew. Finally done. I hope you all enjoyed my little story of my encounter with Alienware and Dell tech support. I also hope that
those of you who are in the market for laptops or will be in the near future, take a look into Alienware. I know there is a lot of hate for
Alienware out there, and some of it is justified. I hope this little review/slideshow will convince some of you to take a second look at them.
I also ask that you guys not bash Alienware if you post in this thread. It was my personal choice to buy one, and yes, I know how to build
computers. and bought one anyway. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed typing it up. If you guys have questions
or comments please post in the thread, or private message me. Constructive criticism is also appreciated in terms of the laptop review. If you
find any errors please let me know so I can fix them.
Regards,
Blue
into a laptop review at the end, so those of you who are looking into buying gaming laptops can benefit from my experience.
Now, some of you might ask, "why would Blue need a new laptop? Didn't he buy one of those fancy schmancy alienware
laptops? I did indeed buy an Alineware M17x back in August of 2009. I will include the specs of that laptop later on in this
post. Well I have been dealing with Dell and Alienware support for just under 4 weeks now, and I felt like sharing my
experiences with you guys.
It all started last month during the week of May 23rd. I started to have problems with my laptop power. I had been having
problems with the AC cord connectors for a couple months, and once I was away from school and started using it again, it
became harder and harder to get a solid connection. It got to the point during that week where I was unable to get a
connection at all. After trying to retool the connection on the laptop end and on the cord itself, I gave up and contacted Dell
tech support since my machine was under warranty. Once on the phone with Dell, they had me troubleshoot the power issue
and had me follow the typical "do you have the machine plugged in" sort of kindergarten-level questions. The dell technician
then told me to update the BIOS. I told him I already had the latest version of the BIOS and that I had been experiencing
early signs of a power problem with earlier versions, so it could not be the BIOS. He insisted that I flash it anyway. But wait!
You can't flash a BIOS without a power source! And that's exactly what I told him. He still insisted, and I figured since the
problem was with either my motherboard or AC adapter cord, they would have to come on location and replace it whether the
flashing bricked my motherboard or not. Keep in mind I could not use the laptop at all, so at that point I stopped caring. I
continued to flash my motherboard with what little battery power remained, despite the harm it would cause, and sure
enough the process hung up and bricked my motherboard.
2 days later a technician had received my new motherboard and AC adapter, and replaced both without too much trouble. At that
point I was happy because I could use the laptop again. But something was still wrong. The current Alienware laptops all have
tons of lights on them. Backlit powers buttons, speakers, keyboards, and I/O panels. None of these lights worked whatsoever.
In fact, they only light that worked was the power indicator on the back of my battery. So after a couple days of trying to reinstall
the firmware and reflash the AlienFX chip, which was the chip integrated on the motherboard that controlled the lights, I gave up
because I had to travel. So once I got done with some of my traveling I was able to phone up Dell support again. Unfortunately,
they walked me through the same baby steps as before, and finally came to the conclusion that I gave them at the beginning of
the phone call, that the motherboard was dead. So on June 16th another technician came out to replace the motherboard. It
worked great except for the fact that it was DOA :angry: . The technician took my half-functioning motherboard with him and left
me the dead one, so I was left with a nice paperweight over the weekend until they could attempt a third and final replacement.
On June 21st they came out again to replace my motherboard, both video cards, and the case fans. It was a success! I turned
my laptop on the next morning and played some DoD:S. After about 2 hours of playing I started to see artifacting. I panicked and
shut everything down thinking that the cards were too warm. After 30 minutes of letting them cool off I tried again, and this time
the computer just completely crashed. So long story short, after re-installing many different gpu driver versions, rolling back and
such, I decided to reformat in case the registry was corrupt. This did not work, the problem was caused by hardware failure.
For the third time I got on the phone with Dell, pretty pissed and short on patience. I didn't tell the guy who answered this, but
this call was going to decide whether or not I ever bought from Dell/Alienware again. I started off telling him my situation, how I
had gone through three unsuccessful replacements, and how I was getting frustrated and how I expected a laptop exchange.
Right away he was apologetic, offering to see what he could do for an exchange. Now, for those of you who don't know how Dell
exchanges work, let me explain. They go by performance, not price first off. Secondly, if they find a configuration that is equal or
better, they will offer it to you. But if there is a single downgrade, so to speak, the Alienware technician will not accept the
configuration from the exchanges department. In the case that no better configuration can be found, I would guess they would
build you a new one with some of the latest parts, but I do not know for sure. Anyways, after receiving about 3 different possible
configurations from him, I spotted at least one downgrade with each one. And after allowing him to confirm these downgrades, he
offered to wait until the next day so he could call the exchange department again and get a different agent to offer him
configurations. He was really trying to help me out since I think he realized I was about done with Dell for good. I took him up on
his offer and received two emails from him the next day. The first stated that he had no luck, and the second stated that he would
work over the weekend from his house to get me a better configuration. I had told him I wanted an R3 (generation 3) configuration
and he was trying his best to get me one.
Sure enough, on Sunday June 19th I got an email from him with some awesome news. He had found an R3 configuration for me.
Unfortunately it was a refurbished machine but I knew that the R3 had been released a month ago, so it couldn't be in that bad of
shape. Additionally, my warranty still had two full years on it and would cover the replacement laptop. I called Dell up the next day
and got the confirmation that the laptop had been shipped to me, and that it would take 3-5 business days. Then the day after,
Tuesday June 21st the laptop arrived, way ahead of schedule. It turns out that they FedEx standard overnighted it rather than the
3-5 days I had been told.
Well, that wraps up part 1 of my little story, now for the laptop review. I hope you guys who are considering purchasing Dell or
Alienware computers realize how stellar this last bit of service I received was. I know in the past Dell support has been sub-par or
worse, but in the recent weeks they have really improved in my opinion.
Now, here are the specifications of my M17x R1 which was purchased in August of 2009:
-Intel Core2 Quad Q9100 2.26GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
-4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz 2 x 2048MB
-17.0in. WXGA+,LCD,ANW,M17X (Standard 17in wide monitor, no HD)
-SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (GTX280M) (2GB GDDR3 RAM total)
-320GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
-Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
-Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO
-Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
And the specifications of the M17x R3:
-Intel i7 2820QM 2.3Ghz (3.4Ghz with turbo mode)
-16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz 2 x 8192MB
-17.3 Inch Wide Full High Definition 1920x1080p 120Hz WLED
-Nvidia GTX 460m 1.5GB GDDR5
-320GB Hard drive at 5400RPM. (A downgrade, yes. Who cares with this setup though)
-Blu-Ray Combo drive
-Dell Wireless 1501-N Technology
-Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth
So you can imagine how excited I was to get this machine. the following images are slightly resized for those of you with
smaller monitors. If you want higher res pics, let me know.
First off, some size comparisons...
At first glance, you can see that the R3 is a good deal smaller in size than the R1, about an inch shorter from front to back.
Also, the top of the panel has some nicer styling than the R1 with those nice contour lines. On top of that, you will notice
that the R3 has a lighter finish on it compared to the R1, making fingerprints and smudges less visible. You can see that the
dust collection on the pure black finish of the R1 is much more visible. The last thing to mention in this picture is the
rubberized cover that is visible on the R1. Due to wear and tear, that polymer cover had began to shift. It was not loose
or about to fall off, but it exposed some of the monitor components, which could cause problems if not careful.
Another size comparison, this time the top panels open on each machine. The first thing I will point out is that because of
the glass table the laptops were sitting on, the reflection makes it look as if about 1/3 of the way up the monitor back, the
panel is curved or dented. This is not the case. the top panels are very flat as they should be. Again pointing out the size
difference of about an inch from front to back, you can more clearly see the difference in this picture, paying attention to
the tops of both monitor panels. the final thing to point out here is that the AC plug is located on the right right of the back
in the R1, and on the left side with the R3. This suits me fine because I am left-handed, but would most likely be less
desirable for right-handed individuals.
Now we get a look at the monitors. There are two differences that might jump out at you. Firstly, you might notice that the
R3 monitor is slightly shorter than the R1. My R1 monitor did not support a 1920 x 1200 because it did not support HD or
1080p, but that would have been the standard resolution had it supported HD. The R3 monitor did support 1080p resolution,
but loses 120 pixels to be exact, off the heigth, so the R3's resolution turns out a default 1920 x 1080. The second difference
that a trained eye will see is the brightness levels of each monitor. If you look close enough you will notice that the R3's
screen is a bit brighter than the R1's. This difference is diminished since the camera's aperture settings were not perfect, and
would appear even greater up close and personal, if you will. The final bit to point out is that the lighting distribution among
each screen differs greatly. When looking at the R1 on the right side, you can see that the monitor is poorly lit around the
edges when compared to the center. This is shown by the darker shades of blue around the edges. You can see quite a bit
of that discoloration on the R1 screen, but relatively little on the R3 screen. Its hard to tell from the picture, but the R3 screen
is much much sharper than the R1 screen. Of course, HD is much sharper than SD.
Here is a look at another important part of the laptop, and another large improvement over the R1 model. The I/O control
panel on the M17x R1 left something to be desired. While it was cool when I got it back in 2009, over time I realized that it
took more effort to make sure I was pressing the correct "tap area" of the R1's touchscreen. My fingers would sometimes,
if enough pressure applied, extend into the other buttons' areas, having the undesired effect of activating the wrong button
or more than 1. Also, from a regular sitting angle while looking at the screen, the lighting effect seen in the first picture below
was not quite as clear as you might expect. So I found myself having to lean forward to take a good look at the buttons each
time I needed to press one, despite being back-lit. The vastly improved panel on the R3 got rid of the touchscreen I/O panel
and replaced it with a regular button system. While this might have decreased the "cool factor" it increased the functionality
and practicability of the buttons, making them much easier to see from an angle, and much easier to use. An added plus is
that the panel which surrounds the R3's I/O panel has a nice brushed metal finish to it, making it look quite slick. Which brings
me to one of the two problems I found with the R3's I/O panel. The first being that the brushed metal panel which I just
mentioned is quite fragile for a laptop and caves in a little more than I would like when pressure is applied to hit the buttons.
The same goes for the bottom border of the keyboard, which is the same material with a solid black finish instead of a brushed
metal. I do not find myself naturally putting pressure on this section below the keyboard, but it is relatively fragile, along with
the keyboard itself. The R3's keyboard build quality is not as stable as the R1's. For example, when I press the keys towards
the center of the keyboard on the R3 without exerting much pressure beyond normal typing pressures, the keyboard around
that key will often start to cave in, as if there was nothing under the keyboard to stop this. The R1 model had a keyboard
back-plate, which prevented this caving in feeling altogether. I am not sure why the R3 model does not include a similar
back-plate.
Moving on to the touch pad, this is one area where the R3 excels with flying colors over the R1. Not that it matters much if you
use a mouse most of the time, but if you travel a lot like I do and you prefer to use the touch pad rather than carry a mouse
around with you, make sure you read this section through. You can see from the first picture that the R1's touch pad has a rough,
bumpy texture to the pad itself. I am not sure who had the genius idea to make it that way, but I absolutely hate using it because
it makes it much harder to move the mouse longer distances. While you might have better control with the bumpy texture, I found
myself having to take up my hand and re-position my finger when scrolling and such, way more often than I wanted to because the
bumps actively prevented me from getting enough distance out of a single stroke along the pad. Another point to make is with the
click buttons located directly below the touch pads. On the R1 model, the buttons were barely separated, making it difficult at times
(especially in the dark) to determine where the left and right click buttons were. Another disadvantage is that the R1's buttons did
not depress deep enough when you pressed down on the button, resulting in non-clicks or accidental multiple clicks. This gets
frustrating after two years of use. Now focusing on the R3, you will notice first off that the touch pad itself is much wider than on the
R1. The height is the same, but the width of the R3's touch pad was increased from the R1's by about 3/4 of an inch, making a large
difference if the sensitivity is set high enough. Also, the two click buttons are physically separated, depress further into the laptop,
and are "springier", making button clicking all the more easy and satisfying. Also, illuminated ring around the R3's touch pad is
brighter than the R1's.
Now for the fronts of the two laptops. The R1 is the above picture, and the R3 is below. Not too much has changed here in
terms of the front side of the M17x. But there are a couple small changes that make usage much more comfortable. The first
thing to mention is the lip on the R3 is deeper than on the R1. This makes it much easier to open the top lid compared to the R1.
On top of that, the top lid on the R3 has less resistance at the hinges, but not too little, making it easier to open up without it
falling down unintentionally. Another nice touch (no pun intended) is the paint finish that was used on the wrist-plate, where the
touchpad is. As you might be able to see from the pictures, the finish on the R1's wrist-plate is textured and slick, with a plastic
feel to it. The R3 however, has almost a reduced-friction rubberized feeling, making the wrist-plate soft to the touch, making
typing much more comfortable. Additionally, as you might have noticed by now, the R3 is a good half-inch thinner from top to
bottom, meaning your wrists are not as elevated and at a more natural angle when typing on the R3, adding further to the
comfort factor.
Now we focus on the side ports and connections of the two laptops. In the picture directly below the M17xR1 is on top and the
M17xR3 on the bottom, showing the right side if facing the screen. Much of the design is the same on both laptops, but you can
see that the R3 does not have any exhaust vents on the side, and the same goes for the left side of the R3. All the R3's exhaust
vents are located in the back of the laptop, with two intake vents on the undercarriage, which is located further down in this post.
Because the R3 has no vents on the sides, the ports are more evenly and widely separated, allowing for much easier connecting
and disconnecting of accessories, such as external hard drives, etc. You will notice that I did not get the expansion bay on the R3,
and the audio connectors are located on the left side of the R3, which is somewhat unorthodox for laptops in my experiences. Again,
this suits me fine because I am left-handed, but I would guess right-handed persons would prefer for the audio ports on the right
side. The R1 has four audio ports, 2 USB 2.0, 1 expansion bay, 1 multi card-reader, and the slot-load optical drive. The R3 has an
eSATA port and an HDMI port as you can see. The R1 also has these two ports, but located on the other side of the laptop.
Here is the right side and the ports. Again, the R1 is sitting on top and the R3 on the bottom. You can see the R1's HDMI and eSATA
ports as mentioned above, along with the R1's 4 audio ports. Both laptops have a Kensington lock slot, an ehternet port, a VGA port,
and a display port. A couple minor changes, however. The R1's display port is standard, while the R3's display port is the mini version.
Additionally, the ethernet port on the R1 is upside down, making it hard to disconnect ethernet cords. It is definitely an advantage that
they rotated it in the R3. Now for the major differences. Firstly, the R3 has no firewire port, while the R1 has 1. Also, you will notice
the designation SS USB on the R3. This means super speed, and those two USB ports utilize USB 3.0 high speed protocol. I use those
for my external drives, and they are much faster than the 2.0 ports on the other side. Not too many differences between the ports on
the two laptops, but I could not find a single thing wrong with the R3's ports.
Now lastly, we take a look at the bottom of each laptop. While most of you might not realize it, the bottom of a laptop, and especially
laptops used for heavy gaming, are one of the more important aspects of the chassis. Not only does the bottom store the battery, the
RAM, and the HDD's, the bottom of the laptop contains intake and sometimes exhaust vents and fans, which direct the heatflow of your
laptop. If the heat expulsion from the laptop is not designed correctly, you will end up with a laptop with a melted motherboard or video
card, much like my old XPS M1210. First off, you might notice that one of the rubber feet on my R1 is missing. Please pay no attention to
that, I just want people to know that's why there are two holes in the underside. Now looking at the aspect of the undercarriage, you
see three case fans. The center fan being for the CPU heat-sink, and the other two fans for the GPU heat-sinks. The casing around these
two GPU fans protrude from the case, meaning the M17xR1 will rest on those when on a table, etc. This creates an arch under the laptop,
giving pretty good airflow under the chassis. Airflow that was much needed with two GTX280M's under a load. In the picture below of the
R3, the exact opposite occurs. Instead of the fans protruding out, they sink into the undercarriage. While this does not allow for as good
of airflow under the machine, the R3 with a single GTX 460M does not need as much airflow, and the laptop sits flatter on a flat surfact,
making it more stable. Besides that major difference there are no real differences worth pointing out. I guess the battery was easier to
take out on the R1, but that is a relatively minor issue.
Here is a nice close-up of the vents. I will just add briefly that the dust guards on the R3's vents are much finer than on the R1, meaning
the R3 probably collects less dust overtime.
And finally we have the backs of the laptops. As you can see, the R1 has vents basically across the entire back side of the laptop, as it
can get quite toasty. I don't have any numbers for you unfortunately, but from simply touching the back vents and putting my hand up to
them after gaming for an hour or two, the R3 model is much cooler than the R1. Also, the AC plug on the R3 is a much more sturdy build
quality, hopefully preventing the over time wear and tear that I saw in the R1.
And now for a little surprise. I mentioned before that I received a relatively slow 5400RPM hard drive with this computer. Well, I decided
that was not quite enough and bottle-necked my speed more than I could deal with, so I went out to Newegg.com and picked up this bad
boy.
Overall Score M17xR1:
Workmanship 88%
Keyboard & Touchpad 82%
Connectivity & Ports 83%
Display 60%
Games Performance 88%
Application Performance 85%
Temperature 70%
Noise 82%
Mobility 50%
Impression 85%
Average 77.3%
Overall Score M17xR3:
Workmanship 100%
Keyboard & Touchpad 75%
Connectivity & Ports 90%
Display 95%
Games Performance 85%
Application Performance 95%
Temperature 92%
Noise 88%
Mobility 65%
Impression 94%
Average 87.9%
To explain my scoring a little bit, you guys may be surprised that I listed the R1 as having slightly better gaming performance. That is
because the 280M's in SLI give a 30-40% performance increase as opposed to having a single GTX280M. This puts the gaming performance
slightly over a single GTX 460M. However, as often as I game in windowed mode, which cannot really utilize SLI technology, the GTX 460M
gets some bonus points. The 460M also supports directx11 and tessellation, but I rated gaming performance strictly by frames per second at
similar resolutions. In terms of application performance, however, the R3 blows away the R1 because of the R3's sandy bridge processor, and
i7 vs regular quad. Now for mobility, the R1 was about 12.5lbs, while the R3 was about 9.5lbs. This is because of the SSD, 1 GPU instead of 2,
the fact that the R3 is physically smaller, and the use of lighter alloys in the construction on the R3 chassis.
There, phew. Finally done. I hope you all enjoyed my little story of my encounter with Alienware and Dell tech support. I also hope that
those of you who are in the market for laptops or will be in the near future, take a look into Alienware. I know there is a lot of hate for
Alienware out there, and some of it is justified. I hope this little review/slideshow will convince some of you to take a second look at them.
I also ask that you guys not bash Alienware if you post in this thread. It was my personal choice to buy one, and yes, I know how to build
computers. and bought one anyway. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed typing it up. If you guys have questions
or comments please post in the thread, or private message me. Constructive criticism is also appreciated in terms of the laptop review. If you
find any errors please let me know so I can fix them.
Regards,
Blue
Last edited:
