Will be at Starbucks KL Sentral with the iPhone guys, the gathering's today at 2030.

My camcorder is fine, just the "Web quality" setting basically reduces everything to a smear.

Texas Hold Em king is here!

Thanks , CoolerThings! Next iPhone TT , if it matches my roster, I'll cordon off the Alienware, only you can molest her.

Beauty in the looks, beastly in the specs. Yup, I need this because I move around a lot, at work and while back at base. Can't carry a desktop around, unless I want that Quasimodo look.

Tomorrow, can boss? My house lighting a bit the "romantic" side, and cannot capture the full beauty of it. Tomorrow, I'll bring it over to KLCC and snap its pics there.

That alienhead colors can be change, 12 colors. Also set to pulsate if you want to. It's ALLLLLIIIIIVEEEEEE! *Cue X-files theme song*

I know, I've been quietly keeping up with your Alienware related threads, and I like your no-bullshit style of only accepting the hard truth and not insinuations and guesswork. I operate that way too. Well met, fellow Roswell dweller!

It has been available about 2 days after I received my m15x. Don't worry it's no buzzkill, the 9800M GT is a rebadged 8800M GTX, Nvidia has a weird way of selling old stocks and rebranding it as new. The guys at Notebookreview had proof of that, and benchmark results supports that finding. The next step up, the 9800M GTX, is the one to look for, but from the guys at Sager/Xoticpc, they've confirmed that even putting that into a thicker Sager 15 inch chassis is not possible, due to its demanding thermal envelope, meaning your laptop may melt on your lap if you do so.

So, as far as the current technology goes, the 8800M GTX(and its rebranded 9800M GT) is still the only available, most powerful single graphic card solution for a 15 inch chassis of any laptop. Unless you want the 15 inch chassis to look like layers of stacked up sandwich, SLI configurations are not possible on a 15 incher. Plus, I do like the form factor as it is , with the single graphic card config.



This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 12 2008, 05:20 PM

Benchmarks for Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Crysis and Red Alert 3 is in, for my Alienware at this link.

How about a tour of the Alienware Command Center? All Alienware notebooks talk to their Mothership via these configurators, and the "Mothership" had see it fit to add two more features from the previous AlienFX and AlienFusion. They are named AlienSense and AlienTouch, respectively. Let's take a look!



Screen turns black, alien language permeates the splash screen, before deciphered by each individual Alienware into legible human language. Access is then granted, and destinations are selected as per the 4 options.



Here's where the fun begins! Remember the movie Close Encounter of the Third Kind? Those blinking multicolored lights? AlienFX simulates that, by allowing customisation of colors onto the the Alienhead at the front of the laptop, the LightPipe surround the edge of the lid, the Alienware writing logo, the Quick Launch buttons (pressure-sensitive volume slider, Bluetooth, Wireless, Command Center and Stealth Mode buttons), the Alienhead power button, the AlienFX illuminated keyboard, and the outlinings of the touchpad. There are 12 different colors assignable to these individual "zones", you can go crazy and assign different colors to different zones mentioned, or set them as themes. Different schemes are also available when it is on battery power. What is good about the AlienFX lighting system, (besides being an Alienware identifier, of course ), is that you can set these AlienFX lightings to many different actions happening on your Alienware. For example, incoming mails can set off the AlienFX illuminated keyboard to pulsate yellow, to signify that you have new mails in your mailbox. On supported games, the AlienFX illuminated keyboard can also be set to flash Red every single time you get hit by bullets during gunfights. Alienware is continuously pursuing many different means to make use of the AlienFX lighting system.



AlienFusion basically manages your power consumption on your Alienware. Three power plans are available as presets on your Alienware, the High Performance Mode, Balanced Mode and the Power Saver Mode. High Performance mode is only available when your Alienware is running on AC power, with processor running full speed as well as graphic card frequencies. Blanaced mode is available on battery power, without any downthrotttling of the processor and graphic card, but battery life would not be long, on my unit, it ran close to 1:35. Power Saver mode ties with the Stealth Mode Quick Launch key that automatically throttles down the processor to 1.6GHz, as well as running the integrated graphic card on the laptop motherboard to prolong battery life. This process is called BinaryGFX by Alienware. On this mode, battery life can reach 3:15 with brightness on 50% and Wifi ON.

In addition to these modes, you can set custom modes to run whenever a particular session or application runs on your Alienware. You can set a custom mode running, for example, on Photoshop CS while editin large RAW files, or while editing high definition videoclips. you can even choose to run the processor full-speed, while downthrottling the graphic card, or use the integrated graphic card onboard, for example, during video encoding process, where the larger extent of the resources consumes in video encoding comes from the processor itself.



Welcome to AlienSense! Logging in using passwords or thumbprint biometric scanners is so yesterday! With the AlienSense, your face is your biometric, and this happens during first login into Windows Vista. A blue outline of an Alien face appears and you are required to adjust your face distance to the webcam to fill the blue outline,for facial recognition. First time users are required to enroll their faces with the appropriate passwords, and subsequent logins thereafter will only require their facial feature recognitions.

The Command Center settings further details the methods of how detailed the facial recognition should be performed. You can:-

1 - Choose to disable it, login is via normal password only.
2 - Face Login mode, a facial recognition is required to log in, or if the lightings around your face is bad, you have the option of logging in via password.
3 - Auto User Switching allows the Alienware to be locked via screensaver when the first user is away (under a preset time), and if a second user approaches the Alienware and have enrolled his/her facial recognition into the database, will allow automatic user switching against her preferences(desktops, settings, etc) ,away from the first user settings.
4 - Continuous Security, is not for the paranoid, or the faint hearted. The AlienCam is always on, and monitors your facial features, and as you step away from the AlienCam, the system goes into automatic lockout, and requires a facial recognition again when the AlienCam detects the presence of a face. It also allows Auto User Switching when a different user if present compared to the first user. This mode uses a lot of battery power, due to continuous monitoring from the AlienCam.

You can also train the AlienCam to better recognize your facial features in the Advanced setting as well. Once properly trained, the AlienCam will come out nearly flawless on recognizing you as its master. Bear in mind that for better facial recognition, it would be best that the AlienCam only recognizes you within its frame, and not another face. It also helps when you have a fairly static background against your face to assist in better recognition.

Me? I'm happy with Mode #2.



AlienTouch basically allows more advanced setup of the touchpad like tapping , sensitivity adjustments and virtual scrolling. Sensitivity adjustments basically corrects for accidental contact when your palm moves over the touchpad, and also adjusts finger pressure detection on the touchpad as well. Virtual scrolling adds horizontal and vertical virtual scrollers on the appropriate section on the touchpad. This is the least used Command Center section to me, as I am always gaming and using my G5 mouse for this, therefore disabling the touchpad.

There we have it, the "Spaceship" is now ready to dock with the Mothership. See ya guys later, Roswell beckons!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 13 2008, 12:24 AM

I wish I could afford time and luxury of having a gaming desktop, but those luxuries eludes me these days, thanks to work.

No bro, I don't blog or make my own website. Nor do I IM these days, but if I'm on, you can catch me on YM, my username is "scphsega", scphsega@yahoo.com if you're adding from MSN.

Yup, Crysis is eating my Alienware alive. Even after a year of its release, you'd need SLI power to properly pay this at higher resolution and max detail.

Thanks bro! You ever drop by KL, we do lunch and I'll take you on a private tour of the "Spaceship"

I'll be out and about in KLCC today, getting COD5 and installing/playing it while I'm there. Drop by if you like.

Yup, I got that T-shirt shipped together with my Alienware. To make long story short, I emailed Alienware CS, and Roswell US as well regarding the clarification of the hinge problem, specifically the hinge breaking apart after a while, due to the hot air blowing out of the vents at the back loosening the joints at the hinge. Roswell responded promptly and had Alienware CS in Dublin to follow up. They gave their word that the problem had been rectified with the new chassis (previous problems is with the Ripley chassis, not the Skullcap which I have), and told me I should look forward to my package soon. To my surprise, what they meant by "look forward to your package" is, they speed up the Phases by putting my order under Priority, and gave the T-Shirt for free! I got XL size for that shirt, it has that Alienware head on the front and sentences saying "Alienware EU: High Performance Mobile System" at the back, together with the free mesh cap with the Alienware head as well. They sped up the component acquiring phase,but did not blow past the 72 hour burn-in phase or the 200-point QC check, otherwise I would have been pissed off if they skip on the QC.

Yup, got myself COD5 as well. As expected, 1920x1200 at the highest setting, FRAPS hovering around 31-37fps.

I just bought myself the Xbox 360 wired controller for PC, and was planning to use it for Need for Speed Undercover, but based on the reviews, I'm not buying that game. Are there any other nice racing game on PC? Is Grid any good?

So would you recommend Grid, even with its small selection of cars/tracks?

It is settled then, I'm getting GRID tomorrow. This better be good.

Okay, looked around two Bukit Bintang sources, no more Grid. Other than going to Software Boutique, which is far away from my place, it looks like I'm skipping this game.

I looked into that game, not my cup of tea. I'll keep looking for Grid tomorrow. Otherwise the controller lies there wasted.

I did go to Lowyat Plaza. AllIT don't have it, TechAsia is under renovation at the games section. What other stores around that area sells original games?

Okay, just got Grid, installing now.

Benchmarks and FRAPS screenshot coming up.



This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 24 2008, 06:23 PM

GRID running at 1920x1200, everything high/ultra with motion blurs, and 4XFSAA, V-Sync enabled.



The 4 dfferent views available in GRID. FRAPS framerates hovering between 31-38fps, with the drop to 27fps at one time during many cars on screen while in the cockpit view mode. Other than that, it is GORGEOUS! Great presentation too!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 24 2008, 06:25 PM

That Sg.Wang shop at IT floor. They got their stock from distributor today. The game does look gorgeous.

I literally get all my info before I proceed with my purchase there.

The "horror" stories are associated with the Ripley design, not the Skullcap design. And come August, the issues about the hinge have been addressed and rectified, so those wanting to get the Ripley chassis instead of Skullcap can continue to purchase their Alienware laptops without worry.

I am not going to overclock my system. Eeking out a few more frames per second at the expense of destroying your laptop is not a smart move to me.

The 9800M GT is a rebranded 8800M GTX, so no point upgrading to it.

Also, I've just placed an order for the M15X Smart Bay Battery and M15X Hard Drive Kit. The Smart Bay on the M15X is hot-swappable, meaning I can simply disengage the BD-Writer Smart Bay drive , and slot in the Smart Battery or a 500GB Smart Bay HDD, and watch the system expands its battery endurance(or hard drive capacity). In the case of the Smart Bay battery, reports on NotebookReview.com have indicated up to 7(yes, SEVEN!) hours of battery life! Should arrive in a week.

This was my first time ordering from Alienware UK, so I don't want to keep all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. I needed to make sure that their quality of service is in place before I go ahead with the additional accessories.

From the way he posted, I see Tyronne as someone who has his expectation waaaayyy beyond what a 15 inch gaming notebook can do. Look at what he opted for instead. An Alienware desktop? From there alone, you can see he has too high an expectation, meaning he wants a desktop-like performance on a portable form, without compromises. You simply cannot have that in the current form factor.

Yup, that 500GB will be basically for select content of my current iTunes library, already beyond 1TB. The fact that it stays within the form factor is a bonus.

As for the upgrade question, it will be either you send your laptop back to them, or if the specs allows, they can ship you with the upgrade component for you to install yourself. I believe the M15x uses a modular MXM-III socket, so user replacement of the upgrade item is definitely allowable. A couple of the guys from Notebookreview.com have opted for this, upgrading their previous M15X specs (8600M/8700M) to the top-of-the-line 8800M GTX/9800M GT.

Yup, Blu-ray was the sole reason I got into the "Pro" lineup of my choice of laptop. I was initially wanted to stick with Macbook Pros, as I am a big proponent for Apple and their line of notebooks, but after their October announcement and the lack of Blu-ray support, I spent my money somewhere else. Apple's loss is Alienware's gain, although they stick to the same alphabetical family. I went one step further, with the BD-Writer drive instead of just a BD-Reader, seeing how I may need to archive my stuff later onto BD discs. Or maybe burn all the games I have onto a single BD and carry just that, instead of the CD folder I'm carrying around right now.