Alienware M18x

amazon Alienware M18x reviews

Design

Alienware laptops always knew how to make a difference with shell design and sleek elegance. Alienware M18x has two user-selectable color to red and black.

Shell is made of aluminum in the region so that users can lay hands are coated with soft rubber to improve comfort when used. Overall, the chassis very good quality.

Only the glossy screen is easy to leave fingerprints and dust. The chassis of the machine so sure but the hinges open a little bit difficult.

Alienware laptops always use lighting effects to impress users and M18x also not an exception. Keyboard, touchpad and other areas of the case are that glow with different colors. Therefore, there will not be a problem if used M18x in the dark. The move regularly with M18x will be difficult because it has good size (43.6 x 32.2 x 5.4 cm).

Ports

Alienware M18x is full of alternative connectivity for desktops. The left side of the machine includes four audio jacks, three ports for monitors (VGA, HDMI and Mini-DisplayPort), a Kensington lock, a RJ-45 GigabitLAN port and two USB 3.0 ports.

Right side has two USB 2.0 ports eSATA / USB 2.0 and an HDMI port. Alienware has designed the Express Card slot 54 mm and a multi-format card slot above the optical drive. No port front and rear connection socket only charging machine. It would be better if the product has additional FireWire port, but in general, the connection ports on the M18x is designed quite well.

Keyboard and touchpad

For gamers, the keyboard is the most important factor when play. Which is the “boss” of the gaming laptop line, there is no reason to have any problems or any omissions. M18x’s keyboard has very good bounce, clung to the surface quite smoothly. In addition to 19-inch sizes, the size and spacing between keys also approved no less regular keypad.

Alienware M18x’s keyboard is added 5 macro keys on the left side. Users will take time to become familiar with the layout of this keypad. Maybe at first, the typos are inevitable, but users will quickly familiar with this keyboard.

M18x’s touchpad is also very well designed for large size and smooth surface in order to create comfort and ease of use.

This touchpad for precision. By default, multi-touch is not enabled so your users to manually activate the touchpad functions via the system control features. The two mouse buttons should be remade because the feeling is not really click clear.

Screen

The display of the M18x is the mirror type WLED 18.4 inch screen with 16: 9. The resolution of this screen up to 1920 x 1080 in order to cater to the entertainment needs Full-HD. Large screen helps M18x is capable of showing movies and games more realistic.

Although the screen is capable of showing examples of good color, but it makes the user caused glare distracting when used. To resolve this issue, users should use in low-light environments. It would be better if the Alienware M18x fuzzy screen.

Performance

When producing notebooks, Alienware has always sought to achieve its products the highest possible performance. For that reason, the company has equipped all the hardware components for the M18x’s most advanced. Dual-core CPU no longer being used, but instead the CPU Sandy Bridge 4 core of Intel. M18x is designed with 4 processor Core i7-2630QM and Core i7-2720QM for high performance in most applications.

Core i7-2630QM processor is manufactured with 32 nm technology. As there are up to 8 MB L3 cache Core i7-2630QM should give very high efficiency compared to the normal CPU only 3 to 6 MB of L3 cache. In addition, it is also equipped with HyperThreading technology for hyper-threading capable of handling up to eight data streams simultaneously.

Core i7-2630QM running clock 2.5 Ghz. During heavy load conditions and temperature to levels allowing it to run at speeds of 3.5GHz. On the other hand, the Core i7-2630QM can be overclocked at 4.1 GHz speed thanks to the features in the BIOS.

Alienware has not abandoned the integrated graphics card HD Graphics 3000 while allowing users to switch to graphics card to run this through the use of the Fn key to saving power consumption and increase battery life. However, the conversion process must restart the computer.

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6970M X 2

As mentioned above, the M18x is equipped with the most powerful graphics card from Nvidia and AMD run at SLI and Crossfire mode to provide the highest graphics performance.

Radeon HD 6970M CF running very fast, its speed just behind the GeForce GTX 485M. This AMD GPU code-named “Blackcomb XT”, which are manufactured on 40 nm technology with 680 MHz core frequency is 2GB GDDR5-VRAM and speed of 900 MHz.

Uses two GPU configuration has many advantages including most notably high performance. However, it also has some weaknesses, such as the phenomenon of “micro stutters” caused by the difference between the two images. According to the subjective, the error is not easily noticed on M18x because Radeon HD 6970M CrosFire very fast image processing. Users will only see the phenomenon of “micro stutters” when the most obvious way that the number of frames per second falls below 30.

Another limitation of the system that is SLI and CrosFire they are heavily dependent on the driver. When running the new game, the performance was not only increased but sometimes dropped due to lack of proper driver. So users will have to update the drivers on a regular basis in order to play a stable game. Another issue that is 2 graphics card will radiate more heat and noise.

where can you get a Alienware M18x online

Alienware M18x Space Black Anodized Aluminum Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2 GHz (3.1 GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)8 GB RAM 1866 MHz,Duel 1.5GB GDDR5 NIVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M NIVIDIA SLI Enabled: Buy it now

Alienware 18 ALW18-3007sLV 18-Inch Laptop (Silver Anodized Aluminum) [Discontinued By Manufacturer]: Buy it now

Alienware ALW18-7501sLV 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i7-4710MQ Processor, 8GB DDR3L, 1TB HDD, 80GB SSD, Dual AMD Radeon R9 M290X, Windows 7 Home Premium) [Discontinued By Manufacturer]: Buy it now

Dell Alienware 18.4″ Laptop ALW18-34490sLV (Intel Core i7-4940MX 3.2GHz, 32GB RAM, 4x256GB SSD’s, Dual NVIDIA GTX 880M, Windows 7 Home Premium): Buy it now

GPU performance

M18x truly remarkable compared to other laptops, the Radeon HD 6970M CrossFire systems for performance are astounding and only GeForce GTX 485M SLI succumb. In 3DMark Vantage at 1280 x 1024, CrossFire system scored 20162 points while solutions nVidia SLI graphics to 23082 points.

Configuration ownership “great” with 4 cores processor and two high-end graphics card should M18x performance at the “top”. Although not yet used up its full power but still be able to handle intensive tasks in a smooth manner. Not only that the use of SSD also makes the system run faster. 18908 score on PCMark Vantage benchmark reflects the true value of this laptop. It can be said that the M18x is a perfect substitute for a desktop system.

Noise level

This is one of the limitations of the M18x, when running in idle mode, the M18x was relatively quiet, but when playing video games or running 3D applications, the extremely noisy machine. Noise level measured when running in this mode is 54 dB at a distance of 15 cm. For those who do not like noise, this is a minus point of the machine.

Temperature

Overall, the M18x works pretty cool. When running at full capacity of the machine temperature is in the placement of the hands is only about 32 degrees so that will not make much impact on the game in the long run.

Speakers

Alienware has designed 2.1 speaker system includes two speakers for the M18x is located at the front and a subwoofer on the bottom. Compared to other laptops, the M18x sound quality is pretty good, the sound louder and clear, bass is also good. The potential volume would make you enjoy more fully the Audio. If you want to improve the sound quality further, users can connect a laptop to the loudspeaker system.

Battery life

Gaming laptops usually have lower battery life but the M18x can operate in an extended period of time thanks to the 12-cell battery and switchable graphics technology, at low light mode and turn the savings function then this laptop battery can withstand up to 6 hours 16 minutes. In terms of web surfing via WLAN at maximum display brightness, then this time is only 3.75 hours. When CrossFire is enabled and the screen at maximum brightness, M18x only withstand 57 minutes. So users do not have a large demand for the game should switch to integrated graphics to increase the duration of use for the machine.

Overview

M18x can not quite fit most users and trend current computer but it really is a laptop has potential.

Because of the size and the large volume (5 kg) therefore M18x can not meet the needs of mobile gaming. Thanks to the processor equipped with Intel’s Sandy Bridge graphics and CrossFire system Radeon HD 6970M. Alienware laptops with exceptional performance, M18x can handle multiple tasks smoothly heavy and gamers can completely comfortable when playing games on the M18x with the highest level of detail.

Not only high performance but M18x screen and speakers are also of good quality. Cases also quite sure and bring comfort to the user. Furthermore the machine’s battery life is also impressive thanks to the flexible switch between graphics modes.

But M18x has its drawbacks, such as large size, heavy weight and high noise levels, but with his outstanding strength it deserves the perfect substitute for a desktop system.