Guys, any advice given is very much appreciated. In term of overall performance in Alienware M15x laptop, which of these two graphic card is much better? 1GB GDDR5 ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5850 or 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M?

Thank you for your information.

Thank you for your reply. It is quite confusing to see some contradicting reviews.

Notebookcheck: GTX 260M is better.

Tomshardware: HD 5850 is better.

I really do not know which I should trust. I am hoping to have a more clear cut answer.

Pardon my ignorance, what do R1 and R2 mean?

Thanks for the tip. Just what is the specification of M15x R1 and of M15x R2? The one advertised in Dell Malaysia website is R1, right?

I have some questions regarding M15x. Pardon my lack of experience here. I hope to gain some advice from experts like you all.

1. Do most of M15x owners purchase keyboard protector, cooling pad and screen protector to be used with their laptop? I want to know the brand and price of these products with reasonable quality and price.

2. If laptop is plugged to a power source, is it advisable to remove the battery pack from the laptop? I know most people will do this, but the User Manual advises against this practice.

3. There is a transparent plastic sheet taped onto the laptop screen (I do not mean the plastic bag that originally wraps all around the screen). Can I just leave it as it is and treat it as screen protector? Or, should I remove it to prevent the screen from overheating?

4. Inside the smaller box containing the DVDs, mousepad, power adapter and so on, there is an Alienware cap. Under that cap is an Alienware avatar that sticks to a sticker. What is the use of this item?

5. What is WinRE software?

Thank you very much for your advice.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 7 2010, 11:34 AM

Okay, assuming that I have removed the battery from M15x and there is an unexpected power cutoff, at most it is just an improper shutdown to the laptop, similar to any desktop, right? I could get corrupted files here and there with missing documents, but for worst case scenario, I may just reinstall the Windows. For this, there should not be any damage to the laptop, right? I do not really understand how power cutoff can cause motherboard failure. I mean that if there is a possible risk of motherboard failure, why would still people remove the battery? Unless they have some sort of power backup connected.

Alienware experts here, please advice. Thanks.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 18 2010, 05:25 PM

Thanks for the explaination, guys. I will just leave the battery inside the laptop as it is, just to be on the safe side. Assuming the laptop is always being plugged to a power source, I should not leave the battery at full 100% charge, right? By logic, even if it is inside the notebook, it will discharge by itself. So, I will leave the battery at 50 % charge and disable the battery charging (using Fn + F2, I think), when the laptop is plugged to a power source.

Another question is about the slot-loading optical drive. If a DVD is jammed inside the drive, what should I do? Jammed means that nothing happens when I use right click the optical drive > eject, as well as tap the eject button (row of illuminated buttons on top of the keyboard). For optical drive in desktop, we can still use the physical eject button on the drive itself to eject the disc. Then again, optical drive in laptops does not have such button.


Mr.Docter, to enable 5.1 surround sound configuration in laptop, we only need to have external sound card (plugged to USB port), 4 input jacks on the laptop and also Roccat Kave headphone. External speaker and sub-woofer are not needed, right?

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 19 2010, 05:08 PM

For your Alienware laptops, do you remove / format the recovery partition, aka Alienware Respawn partition? So, you are saying that such recovery partition are useless for advanced computer users and removing it will free up hard disk space?

putochip123, can we say the same thing about the RAM itself? I mean that is it better to purchase RAM not from Dell? I want to know the best time to purchase 1 stick of 4 GB RAM in my M15x (the time when it is cheapest). Yeah, upgrading to 8 GB from 6 GB that I have will not make so much difference in laptop performance. However, I want to maximize the RAM I have when the time is right.

So, you are able to provide free computer part installation to us? Thanks, that is so sweet of you.

Thanks for the advice given.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 25 2010, 02:44 PM

I do have the same problem of having "invalid" service tag and am wondering when it will be activated. Well, to contact technical support via e-mail (I want to report my service tag problem), you need to input your service tag. Then again, with the "invalid" service tag, I can't do so. So, I am stuck with no way to contact Dell regarding this matter.

Plus, I need the service tag to download drivers relevant to my system.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 25 2010, 11:24 PM

Thanks, guys, for the advice. I will just have to wait patiently for it to be activated.

That is weird. Well, I have 2-year-old Dell desktop which its warranty has already expired. Then again, I can use its service tag to download relevant drivers and obtain its computer specification. Of course, I can even use it to contact Dell Technical Support. However, I would have to make payment first before I am eligible for any part replacement.

I would like to use Alienguise theme, but it disables, instead of enhancing, Aero Theme. I mean that with Alienguise theme enabled, some part of Aero theme, like taskbar preview (preview that pops up when you hover your mouse pointer over any program in Taskbar) is dsabled. If someone can suggest a workaround to this, i would probably use back Alienguise theme.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 26 2010, 09:21 AM

Thanks to goha01 from Notebook Review Forum, we now know that GTX 460M is available for M15x, as spotted on Dell Japan.

Proof

All credit goes to goha01 from Notebook Review Forum.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 26 2010, 05:37 PM

If you check Dell Malaysia website, GTX 460M is now available for M15x. You need to add in additional RM 274 if your original video card is Radeon HD 5850. Then again, some people claim that the card is too expensive and does not worth it.

Still, I have some regret that I should have delayed my purchase of laptop till now, so that I can choose Nvidia GTX 460M card. Sigh, what to do?

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Oct 29 2010, 02:19 PM

Okay, we now have M11x R2 and M17x R2, as well as potentally M17x R3. So, what about M15x? Are we not going to have M15x R2? Just newer graphic card, GTX 460M?

Thanks for the explaination, guys. I think that Dell Alienware is quite slow in adapting the newer graphic cards to their laptops, as compared to other manufacturer. Yeah, I know that it requires great effort in designing, testing and so on, but it is not an excuse for them to begin adaption much slower than their competitors.

I am beginning to wonder when Dell Alienware will start to include the potential GTX 5**M and AMD HD 6*** in their laptops in the future.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 2 2010, 02:43 PM

I have a link from Official Alienware Community Forum that roughly explains why Alienware computers bought not from USA are generally priced a lot more expensive. For more detail, you can click Alienware Forum.

The main point is what is said by DELL-Chris M: "Every country has the right to set it's own prices based on what they think users will pay."

I would say that price set by Dell Malaysia is slightly too high. Sigh, what to do?

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 3 2010, 02:21 PM

astria
I agree with your point. I feel that the pricing should also be based on:
a) material cost (how much is needed to pay for all components of the computer)

b) buying power of the citizen of the country.

The buying power of Malaysian is comparatively lower than of the developed country. Coupled with our inferior currency, we certainly cannot afford to pay a lot of money. This is my point.

riku2replica
I see your point, but I do not compare between Alienware and Acer as it is completely different matter. My intention is about comparison of US pricing and MY pricing of Alienware computers. I can accept that Alienware computers bought from Dell Malaysia is slightly more expensive. What I cannot understand is about why it has to be priced some 20 - 30 % higher (rough estimation). I know that it is premium product, but it is not an still excuse to charge outrageous price.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 3 2010, 02:51 PM

astria
+1 Thanks for your explaination which clears away my doubt.

Since I have bought an Alienware laptop, I am thinking that I want to save some money, so that I can buy an Alienware desktop in the future. Then again, if I want to have dual graphic card setup, I have to invest at least RM 10000. With just RM 6000, anyone can have dual graphic card setup in a custom-built desktop. Needless to say, if I were to say that I have bought an Alienware desktop , at least anyone from Hardware Q&A would condemn me for being stupid.

So, it is kind of saddening to see many Americans that can comfortably purchase Alienware desktops while we Malaysians do not share the same fate. Perhaps, I may not have a decent chance to purchase an Alienware desktop at all.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 3 2010, 03:07 PM

Thanks for highlighting the improvement. But, I did not understand why we need to pay 20 - 30 % more compared to Americans. I accept that I will pay 10 - 15 % more since it is a premium brand, but 30 % more? It is kind of unfair of Dell Malaysia to overchange Malaysian gamers like us, since they have the right to set their own prices based on what they think users will pay. It is just my opinion, though.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 3 2010, 10:12 PM

Sorry, my mistake there. If I configurate Dell USA M15x similar to Dell MY M15x (E-value code: T510140MY), the configuration is as following:


The price is USD 2117, which is about RM 6705 (1 USD = RM 3.08). The price of Dell MY M15x is RM 5999. Yeah, sorry for my mistake again.

So, is it also worth it to buy Alienware Area 51 ALX Desktop from Dell Malaysia? It is my intention in the future.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Nov 4 2010, 02:11 PM