Alienware M14x Rumors & Discussion Thread

[Partizan]

I'm quite surprised with the release of the m14x, I expected AW would first update their m15x (make it thinner and lighter like the m17x r-3). And tbh, after the revision of the m15x (which didn't happen) i'd expect a 13" model, not 14". It doesn't make any sense to me, unless AW is planning to replace the m15x with the m14x.

[Michael]

unless AW is planning to replace the m15x with the m14x.

I think this is what'll happen

[Partizan]

I think this is what'll happen

This is my new theory:

One the one hand, Alienware is no longer really worthy of its own name since Clevo has 15" and 17" laptops which are way more powerfull (with nvidia gtx485m gpu's) than what AW currently offers (especially in the 15" segment).

[note: we'll see how the m17x r3 will fare with its amd 6970]

Yet AW has its m11x, which is something other manufacturers don't offer. (Aside from the fact that an asus 3820t with an ati hd5650 performs about the same, is not as thick, has a 13" display while the laptop is smaller than the 11" AW, and that the m11x has one of the worst design flaws ever with their crappy hinges. Luckely for AW the marketing makes up for all those things and people don't realise this). And with the m18x comming, it seems AW is trying to offer products that other companies don't: 11", 14" and 18" gaming laptops.

IMO, a 15" screen is the absolute minimum if you want to enjoy your games. Making a 14" just to be able to clame to have the most powerfull 14" gaming laptop doesn't convince me to buy their product. It also seems more like a failure of making a slimmer 15" model that will actually fit normal backpacks.

Just to be clear here, i'm not an AW hater (on the contrary), i'd just prefer if they would make their current line up better instead of replacing/adding it with stuff that imo seems to offer no advantages compared to its current line up, nor to the line up of other manufacturers.

[DaneGRClose]

Yup gotta agree here, M15x=M17xR3, M17xR2=M18x. I doubt they're planning on cutting the 11x so the 14x is just an addition.

[vikingrinn]

14" is the best size for any type of laptop. Fits every backpack I can think of

I sure hope this comes out. Hopefully with SB cpu and hopefully with a gaming-tier GPU (ATI 68xx or at least a Nvidia 460M). Don't care how much it weighs either.

Oh yeah, shoutout to my boiz: Vikingrinn & Dane!

hey there dookie - glad to see you and all the others joining the thread here!

@partizan & dane: spot on - the new 'laptop' portfolio for alienware definitely looks to be M11x/M14x/M17x/M18x, which seems to be the perfect lineup imo...

Edited March 13, 2011 by vikingrinn

[dookieoneone]

hey there dookie - glad to see you and all the others joining the thread here!

@partizan & dane: spot on - the new 'laptop' portfolio for alienware definitely looks to be M11x/M14x/M17x/M18x, which seems to be the perfect lineup imo...

No doubt. So what's the most powerful 14inch out there? Is it the 4820TG thus far?

[Iryxian]

If the 14 is the new 15, why wouldn't the 18 replace the 17?

[Brian]

This is my new theory:

One the one hand, Alienware is no longer really worthy of its own name since Clevo has 15" and 17" laptops which are way more powerfull (with nvidia gtx485m gpu's) than what AW currently offers (especially in the 15" segment).

[note: we'll see how the m17x r3 will fare with its amd 6970]

Yet AW has its m11x, which is something other manufacturers don't offer. (Aside from the fact that an asus 3820t with an ati hd5650 performs about the same, is not as thick, has a 13" display while the laptop is smaller than the 11" AW, and that the m11x has one of the worst design flaws ever with their crappy hinges. Luckely for AW the marketing makes up for all those things and people don't realise this). And with the m18x comming, it seems AW is trying to offer products that other companies don't: 11", 14" and 18" gaming laptops.

IMO, a 15" screen is the absolute minimum if you want to enjoy your games. Making a 14" just to be able to clame to have the most powerfull 14" gaming laptop doesn't convince me to buy their product. It also seems more like a failure of making a slimmer 15" model that will actually fit normal backpacks.

Just to be clear here, i'm not an AW hater (on the contrary), i'd just prefer if they would make their current line up better instead of replacing/adding it with stuff that imo seems to offer no advantages compared to its current line up, nor to the line up of other manufacturers.

First, welcome to Tech|Inferno!

Now I'll have to disagree with your assertion that Clevo has AW beat in sheer performance because as it stands right now, the 6970M numbers we are seeing are about as fast as the 485M with the latest 11.4 Catalyst drivers. Thus the M17x-R3 is every bit as fast as the Clevo 8170 while offering Dell's superior at home warranty, better looking design, backlit keyboard + fx, hdmi input, wireless hdmi etc. Clevo are boring lunchbox systems that haven't seen a design change in years. They remind me of Chrysler--they milk their designs dry and are always 10 steps behind the competition in looks although they got their "Hemi".

The M14x makes sense because the market trend is shifting in two directions: 1. small tablet sized notebooks like a 11" or 14" would provide (assuming the 14" form factor is also thin which it should be) and larger gaming DTRs that are 17"+ which is exactly what AW is doing. The M18x will fill the performance void by offering a large display coupled with dual 6970Ms that should be as fast as any notebook on the market, including the Clevo x7200 while consuming substantially less power (no need for notebook sized PSUs running in parallel). Brute CPU power won't match X7200 but Sandy Bridge 2920xm should push the M18x to X7200 gaming levels (or may even beat it in some circumstances thanks to a newer CPU architecture).

On the 15" front Clevo has no competition so I'll give you that one but it's not as if Dell couldn't engineer a 15" to match Clevo, they chose not to probably because its not profitable.

[Partizan]

First, welcome to Tech|Inferno!

Now I'll have to disagree with your assertion that Clevo has AW beat in sheer performance because as it stands right now, the 6970M numbers we are seeing are about as fast as the 485M with the latest 11.4 Catalyst drivers. Thus the M17x-R3 is every bit as fast as the Clevo 8170 while offering Dell's superior at home warranty, better looking design, backlit keyboard + fx, hdmi input, wireless hdmi etc. Clevo are boring lunchbox systems that haven't seen a design change in years. They remind me of Chrysler--they milk their designs dry and are always 10 steps behind the competition in looks although they got their "Hemi".

The M14x makes sense because the market trend is shifting in two directions: 1. small tablet sized notebooks like a 11" or 14" would provide (assuming the 14" form factor is also thin which it should be) and larger gaming DTRs that are 17"+ which is exactly what AW is doing. The M18x will fill the performance void by offering a large display coupled with dual 6970Ms that should be as fast as any notebook on the market, including the Clevo x7200 while consuming substantially less power (no need for notebook sized PSUs running in parallel). Brute CPU power won't match X7200 but Sandy Bridge 2920xm should push the M18x to X7200 gaming levels (or may even beat it in some circumstances thanks to a newer CPU architecture).

On the 15" front Clevo has no competition so I'll give you that one but it's not as if Dell couldn't engineer a 15" to match Clevo, they chose not to probably because its not profitable.

Thx for the warm welcome ^^ I also moved here from NBR becuz most of the AW threads get closed there.

I agree with you on the fact that the m17x r3 is an overal better laptop (with the hdmi input, the longer battery life, and probably a lower cost than the clevo 8170 and ofc the warranty), the only thing that I don't like about it are its looks (yes, I prefer the clevo looks).

But your argument for the m14x making sense (the trend towards extreme portability with the current netbooks) doesn't convince me. AW already has an 11" for this area, and if they would supplement it with another model a 13" would still seem more beneficial for consumers (exept maybe for the marketing arguments on the previous page: replacing the m15x, or maybe they also don't want to cut into the m11x sales, because tbh, how many people weren't dissapointed with the small and low quality screen in the m11x? and they could have fitted a 13" screen in that laptop, but ofc then they couldn't brag about having the most powerfull 11" laptop).

And regarding your last argument, where you mention that a 485m would not be profitable in a m15x kinda surprises me aswell. AW always used to offer the biggest upgrade options, thats what the brand is (or maybe we should say 'was') all about. So when you configure a m15x or m17x with an extreme cpu you have to pay like 1000€ more for it, while the price difference between a gtx460m and a gtx485m is around 450-500€ (I think kobalt uk charge slike 380+-pounds for the upgrade). I don't see how offering the strongest gpu would not be profitable, since it doesn't near as much as the most expensive cpu. And in fact, being a gaming brand, it should actually be the other way around, the GPU should be more important than the CPU. And I doubt that a redesign of the heatsink (like the one on the clevo 8150) would cost that much more for production.

Personnaly I don't understand why gaming enthousiasts would buy a current m15x or m17x r3 with the gtx460m. Ok the gtx460m offers 3D, but have you guys tried playing 3D on a high resolution with that card? Exactly, we need way more powerfull gpu's to be able to enjoy 3D in decent resolutions and good fps. Not that i'm into 3D gaming, but if I was, I wouldn't go for anything less than a 485m.

[Brian]

Right now the 485M has not been ruled out for the M17x-R3. It's just not available at the moment but that could change since the 485M was mentioned on it's product page in the past. However, I was speaking strictly from a performance sense, the 485M isn't necessarily faster than a 6970M with the recent Catalyst 11.4 release.

[freedomofthedarkendheart]

This thread is awesome and Brian very very good points and that means 13-14 inch notebooks will be getting a lot more powerful in this year with Ivy Bridge and way better graphic cards!

[WaR]

So, at NBR it seems someone posted a complete spec-sheet of the M14x. It was obviously removed (by the poster), but did anyone here get a chance to read it? I was late to the party...

Edit: They are back up, but in case someone deletes them, let's have them here:

Ok, I can't post the pics of what appear to be the official documents of M14x just yet but I can iterate some of the specs.

This is for the Alienware M14x:

Display:

14 inch HD WLED with Truelife 1366x768 (HD)

14 inch HD+ WLED with Truelife 1600x900 (HD+)

Audio:

Realtek ALC665-GR

Dual 8-ohm speakers (left and right speaker assembly)

1 subwoofer up to 3W average

HDD:

2.5 inch SATA 2.0 or SATA 3.0

Supports one HDD or SSD (just one slot)

Video:

Intel HD Graphics 3000

Nvidia Geforce GT555M

It lists 1.5GB or 3.0GB discrete video memory and 512 MB integrated

Memory (RAM):

2 slots up to 8GM (1, 2, 4GB modules)

up to 1600 MHz Dual channel DD3

USB:

One USB 2.0

Two USB 3.0

Ports:

HDMI

Display port (mini)

VGA

Also it has intel wireless display for wirelessHD

Also note that there is some mention of a touch screen

CPU:

SB i5 or i7

HM67 Express Chipset

Optical Drive:

Slot load optical drive

Edited March 17, 2011 by WaR

[DaneGRClose]

Look like promising specs for a 14". The 17" XPS 3D only has the GT 555m as the top offering, looks like a good step up in specs for not much added size over the 11x. Now let's hope they can achieve battery life like the M11xR1 or better

[Brian]

Those specs are probably very close to what the production M14x will have. I also have to take back what I said earlier about the 6970M being as fast as the 485M because I was basing it off ichime's card which is apparently an unlocked one with extra shaders. Nonetheless, with the 11.4 catalysts, the 6970M DOES close the gap considerably with the 485M.

[Brian]

So here's an update I received: The M14x was supposed to be shown off at the CES this past January but was not because of unforeseen problems and was pushed back. It should be released in the near future along with it's bigger brother M18x. Time frame for release wasn't given but soon must mean within the next few months.

[Michael]

Good news everyone, i just got a confirmation from a source directly at Dell that both the m18x and m14x are a go.

He has an internal document with part numbers and descriptions for both the m14x and the m18x.

(yes yes, working on getting my hands on it )

[freedomofthedarkendheart]

Awesome i am so happy that both of these models are a go! Having a M14x is going to be so awesome and so powerful and again changing the market again which all else follows.

[Brian]

Spotted this on another forum: Type in "Alienware" (without the quotes) and you will see the M14x pop up with it's codename "Specter".

[Michael]

Some new info : New Info for Alienware m14x | Tech|Inferno

[Ashtefere]

Oh my...

If that thing has an MXM 3.0b slot, and a decent PSU... o.O

I am actually a little excited now.

Getting one of these with a 6970m and a DIY vidock would be just totally jawesome!

Here's hoping!

-Ash

[Michael]

What's a vidock ash?

[Ashtefere]

External PCIE dock with a desktop videocard in it (e.g. geforce gtx 580 or something).

You need a PCIE 2.0 expresscard port to get the most out of it, and you need to use an external display for the best performance.

Essentially, run the 485m or 6970m on the go, and plug it into your 580 or 6970 when you get home.

-Ash

[Brian]

AMD tried pushing their own version of a vidock but it failed.

[unreal25]

So, at NBR it seems someone posted a complete spec-sheet of the M14x. It was obviously removed (by the poster), but did anyone here get a chance to read it? I was late to the party...

Edit: They are back up, but in case someone deletes them, let's have them here:

This is for the Alienware M14x:

Display:

14 inch HD WLED with Truelife 1366x768 (HD)

14 inch HD+ WLED with Truelife 1600x900 (HD+)

Presumably because "the human eye cannot make a difference between WLED and RGB LED" ... I suppose it cannot make a difference between these and IPS either. Oh wait...

I guess there is a chance that these still might be decent screens but.... meh. If it can be powerful performance wise, I could just grab an external IPS screen I guess.

Edited April 1, 2011 by unreal25

[vzachari]

I posted this on another forum but I was wondering what you guys think too.

Picture: Service guide on how to remove the display assembly of the m14x.

What do you guys think the " touch-screen board cable" refers to? Could we see a touch screen on the M14x or is this the touch-pad cable. Then again why would the touch pad cable be on the how to remove the display assembly info?