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is alienware m14x worth buying or not?


spr193

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I'm the proud owner of my first Alienware, it's M14x R2 and I'm loving it. The screen is small and shiny :-( and it weighs a tonne but the performance is exceptional. It's only a week old and I'm still building it up on a Win8 platform...pure gaming and media device. I have a Dell XPS 15 for business and love that too.

I'm hoping to overclock as soon as I have five posts on the board so I can download from this site!

Go buy one!

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Recently got the M14x R2 and I'm loving it so far. Not very portable, but still more quite more powerfull than my desktop, which is i5 2300. Now I'm tinkering with it to see how far I can get with overclocking. I have found that setting an FSB to 103-104 makes a big difference in performance and doesn't overheat the laptop so much (temps were about 90C while testing with OCCT, which maybe is a bit hot)

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If you can wait for some time may be an year go for m14x-r3

else you can go and get m14x-r2

i am using m14x-r1 and my roommate has m14x-r2 loving it

but the problem with m14x OR any alien-ware laptop is the screen (you should take care of) because many scratches you should clean it at-least 2 days once

and when ever you close the lid keep a smooth lean cloth in between and close it

The fan makes some noise but not much issue .

:P

after buying post your experience here so we can know .:P

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If you can wait for some time may be an year go for m14x-r3

Not worth waiting. Intel's Haswell chips won't be noticeably faster than today's Ivy Bridge chips. nVidia's Maxwell GPUs are focused more on large scale applications (supercomputers) than gaming. That's assuming you get Haswell + Maxwell in the hypothetical R3 for 2014.

I use a leather keyboard cover that I got from OWC. Better than fabric or microfiber as it's effectively impervious to oil seepage from the key caps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

imo the m14x-r2 is the best gaming laptop in matter of it's size / weight / performance ratio. i got the m18x-r2 as well, of course it beats the hell out of the smaller brother, but still, everywhere i go gaming, i have the m14x with me, since i don't want to haul a tank around - the 14x's performance is (for the things we play in multiplayer) more than enough :) i love it!

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So. Razer just announced their Blade 14. It is precisely the Haswell + Kepler combination that I described earlier in this topic. Gaming performance is a little better than the late last year M14xR2, as expected. It's notably thinner and lighter than the M14x at 4.3lbs vs the 6+lbs of the M14xR2. Note the lack of an optical drive bay. Note the single SSD; there's no option for a second SSD or a HDD+SSD cache configuration. Note the lack of wired Ethernet and the lack of SD card slot. And note the price: Blade 14 starts at $1800, a good $300-400 more than my mid-level configuration M14xR2.

Almost a year later and the M14xR2 is still a better buy.

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Yeah... I don't know what the target market for the Blade 14 really is. No wired Ethernet is problematic for gamers, as is the relatively meager 120GB SSD in the default configuration. The screen is fine for gaming but is sub-par for professional use. It's too expensive for mass-market consumers, and it's too big and heavy to compete with ultrabooks for the business traveler.

I suppose that gamers who want to pay an extra $400 to save 2 pounds might go for it instead of a M14x.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd say the answer to that question largely depends on your definition of the term 'good'... I love mine, but I also hate it sometimes. It's small an sleek, but it can feel clunky and slow sometimes - both physically and in terms of performance. It has heating issues (mainly cooling noise concerns to me), but anything with it's specs and age will... however if you can look past it and you can't get something faster within your budget, I'd still recommend it. I had mine for almost 2 years now and it's served me well... hiccups and all.

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So. Razer just announced their Blade 14. It is precisely the Haswell + Kepler combination that I described earlier in this topic. Gaming performance is a little better than the late last year M14xR2, as expected. It's notably thinner and lighter than the M14x at 4.3lbs vs the 6+lbs of the M14xR2. Note the lack of an optical drive bay. Note the single SSD; there's no option for a second SSD or a HDD+SSD cache configuration. Note the lack of wired Ethernet and the lack of SD card slot. And note the price: Blade 14 starts at $1800, a good $300-400 more than my mid-level configuration M14xR2.

Almost a year later and the M14xR2 is still a better buy.

I disagree, at least on paper. You can choose between an Alienware 14 @ $1500 (with the display and GPU upgrades) and a Razer Blade @ $1800, the main differences being that the Alienware has a higher res screen while the Razer lacks an optical bay, wired ethernet, and ability to have a second hard drive, while being thinner and lighter. I have never used my ethernet port, rarely use the optical drive, and just bought a 500GB SSD so I don't need two hard drives, so really it comes down to one being much thinner and lighter while the other has a higher res screen. I really like high res displays, but the Alienware 14 is even larger than the m14x and the Blade is much thinner and lighter than both. If we're talking about the m14x though, it of course has inferior specs in CPU and GPU. I don't, however, know how good the Razer Blade is in terms of dependability and durability, driver updates, and real world problems.

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I disagree, at least on paper. You can choose between an Alienware 14 @ $1500 (with the display and GPU upgrades) and a Razer Blade @ $1800, the main differences being that the Alienware has a higher res screen while the Razer lacks an optical bay, wired ethernet, and ability to have a second hard drive, while being thinner and lighter.
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I guess it really depends on what you find important then. For someone that doesn't use the ethernet and optical drive, $300 for a much thinner and lighter system doesn't seem terrible, and I wonder why Alienware is unable to get their systems down in size. Of course if those features are very important to you, the Blade wouldn't be very good. As for the MSI, I just heard about the line up of gaming laptops and they seem good, though I don't know anyone that has one of their laptops and have no personal experience with them.

Another thing I just remembered is that you can get a USB adapter to add ethernet like Apple provides, and if you get a USB 3.0 one it can be gigabit ethernet. Also, gigabit wifi should soon be widely available. I've never had latency problems in multiplayer games and wifi adapters are usually faster than ISP speeds, unless you have Google Fiber.

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I guess it really depends on what you find important then. For someone that doesn't use the ethernet and optical drive, $300 for a much thinner and lighter system doesn't seem terrible,

Paying a $300 premium to get less computer isn't a bargain. This is the point I made: that M14xR2 is a better buy. You get more for your money with M14xR2 than you get with Blade 14. Of course, you can get more for you money with a mid-sized tower kit but it's that much less portable.

and I wonder why Alienware is unable to get their systems down in size.

Because you need a minimum volume of airflow to keep a given CPU and GPU and other electronics within operating temperatures. The rest is solid geometry.

Of course if those features are very important to you, the Blade wouldn't be very good. As for the MSI, I just heard about the line up of gaming laptops and they seem good, though I don't know anyone that has one of their laptops and have no personal experience with them.

MSI has a solid reputation in portable kit. They're one of the go-to companies when making cost and performance comparisons with Alienware.

Another thing I just remembered is that you can get a USB adapter to add ethernet like Apple provides, and if you get a USB 3.0 one it can be gigabit ethernet.

Yes, I know. I have several different models since I also have a Yoga 13 ultrabook. They're... inconsistently dodgy. Most of the time they work but when they don't it requires a full shut down and cold start to reset the bus. This, in my opinion, is unsuitable for gaming or large file transfers like backups.

Also, gigabit wifi should soon be widely available. I've never had latency problems in multiplayer games and wifi adapters are usually faster than ISP speeds, unless you have Google Fiber.

802.11ac won't match GigE performance. WiFi has higher latency than wired connections. It's the nature of the beast. Also, it isn't really gigabit. It's bonded channels. I leave it to the reader to read up on Ethernet bonding techniques.

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Paying a $300 premium to get less computer isn't a bargain.

I guess this is the same as the argument for attraction to large people. But I like my computers like I like my women: slim.

As for the airflow issue, I don't see how the Blade could possibly get hotter than the m14x, as it pretty much gets up to the upper limit before things start melting.

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My m14x has been a great laptop for me. Though I mainly use it for non-FPS type games like Eve, RTSes, etc. and sequencing midi drums in cubase. I think it was a solid deal at the time (~2011) from the Dell Outlet and recently upgraded the HD to SSD and was hoping the SLV7 BIOS mod will help push it to sata 3. Still love the display on it.

Yes, you can probably get a laptop with better specs but everything works and looks (subjective) great. If you think the m14x doesn't look good / don't care and are going for most spec for buck you probably can find something better.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I would recommend the m14x. Its a great laptop for its form factor. It may look huge but its sharp design help take away from its slightly large foot print. It also has some good performance for a 14 in laptop. I can play most games on medium settings which is more than enough for something that doesnt weigh 12 lbs and needs a special bag. A few gripes though. If you plan on going SSD be prepared for not SATA 3 speeds unless you plan on working for it. Also the power port is poorly placed. If you are not careful and dont give the power cord slack while charging it WILL spilt it at the plug (happened to me). It worked for a bit but eventually the computer stopped recognizing the power cord as a genuine one. If you ignore the message the computer is painfully slow, but if you take head you cant use your computer! Found a replacement for $12 on amazon so no biggy. In all, its an awesome laptop with a good form factor. Its not super slim like the blade or macbook pro but it does look nice with its flash lights and alien head =). If youre worried about sata 3 speeds maybe opt for r2 because I believed they fixed the bios.

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I was just given an M14xr1. It was allegedly in rough shape and running like crap. Updated the BIOS from A03 to A08, reinstalled windows and it runs like a champ. I don't do an intense amount of gaming but it plays the Neverwinter MMO maxed out just fine. Still one of my favorite laptop designs and I like it more than the new 14.

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Im also having a m14x r1 until now and the only problem i had so far is a broken Hdd, but well since i planned on buying an ssd from the start it wasnt much of an issue for me.

It still runs all games i throw at it just fine, even if some of them arent at their max settings and if i look at the portability of this thing i think its well worth the price. My second notebook is an alienware m17x r3 and its fantastic too, but i end up playing a lot more with my m14x just because m17x is so much more heavy.

greets Caro0

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