Alienware M17X All Powerfull IS IT REALLY???

I would have to say that is a very powerfull laptop.

Have you done any driver updates on it?

Obviously quantity is more important that quality in this case.   Typical corporate greed.  Pity, because this could really backfire on them.  The guys who founded Alienware must be sick to their stomachs at seeing their good name being dragged down.

I hope you paid with a CC thats all I can say.

PS. Im a proud owner of 3 laptops, one is a 35-600 Qosmio =) the screen realy is the best.

Thank god, I did pay with CC.

I have several Qosmios, all with built in tuners, and to date the best media / gaming laptops I have had, each one was better than the previous. I love the screens, the colours and the brightness even on the most sunniest day, with all the glare you can see everything, I think they had two tubes lighting the LCD as opposed to one.

I thought the AW M17X was going to be the best I had so far, although it didnt have the built in tuner which I thought ok a USB or Express card thing from ebay will do, the sacrifice for having so much power. I was joking and making fun out of friends/work colleagues winding them up for weeks saying you are not going to believe the power on what I am getting next, check this ad, check this review etc, that cad thing your working on or that graphic thing or that game can be chewed and spat out with my new M17X............do I feel stupid or what...... I was joking at being able to run the national grid LOLOL, things you do when waiting in anticipation....

I am getting famous for having bought the most expensive LED desktop lightshow on the planet..........I am serious, it's even making me laugh at how true that statement has become, and the more I see people on you tube just showing the led lights on the keyboard........the more I am believing it.

Funny thing all the guys were waiting to see what my new mean machine was going to be like and I am pretty sure a few of them would have bought one too, maybe not as fully loaded, but they are now looking at Sager / Clevo and others as new replacements. I think a couple of them still have some faith in the AW brand but a very cautious one now and would prefer to buy a used one rather than new if they do buy AW but would be happy to buy new with other brands.

Freestylaruk

I am still like I used to be, ......Wishing.........for that seriously powerful dream machine......despite having purchased one!!!, I can tell you I have never in my life suffered so many problems with anything be it dirt cheap or most expensive, techy or non-techy, in such a short space of time after having made the purchase, this is a first.

I dont think many people realise the true inner workings of these types of machines until someone really begins to push boundaries. I have seen desktops and laptops like Sager / Clevo / even the new Qosmio doing things that so far my Alienware M17X cannot touch or compare too. Just check out you tube, type in FSX HD or NVidia SLI, ATI Crossfire, Clevo, Sager, Qosmio, there are others in there too. I have not come across a fully loaded M17X showing what it can do yet......I wonder why?, looks like us geeks out there are discovering what AW didnt know for them so that they can improve the design and hardware issues etc, what becomes of us is what worries me.

I am at a loss for words at how it feels. I have not changed my mind because of the money or credit crisis or anything like that, just want a fully working M17X laptop to replace my old and last Qosmio, simple. I think a replacement is due and if that, then a proper working one or I have no choice to request my money back and just go for the new ugly looking Qosmio and stick with Toshiba, I have the Toshiba Portege Tablet (Maxxed out with finger touch) several Qosmios to date. Maybe this is a punishment for leaving them and switching to Dell / AW. Dont get me wrong I am no fan of Toshiba or any other, would have loved to be on you tube showing what the M17X can do with maxxed out hardware........looks like so far everyone just showing off the lit keyboard whlst a few running Crysis etc.

I mean come on, what can this machine really do, give us some beef, Microsoft FSX with the acceleration Pack running DX10, what is the maximum fps the M17x can pump out, it doesnt get much stressfull than that. I have seen similar hardware machines push out 80-120 fps with all settings maxxed out on FSX. You should have heard the fans on my M17x as loud as the jets on the plane and not coping with 8-9 fps at times down to 5fps even with the single Geforce 280M it should have performed far better with 4 cores, twin 500GB 7200rpm HDD's in Raid each at 2.53Ghz should have been eating it...........my old Qosmio can hit 5-8 fps and thats with a decent integrated GPU a Centrino chip at 1.8ish Ghz with far quieter fans humming away on twin 250GB 5400 rpm internal HDD's in Raid !!!

I have been asked to do HDD tests by Dell / AW and report back to the rep, been trying for a couple days, cant run any diagnosis tests as yet due to Vista 64 and other unknown errors, incompatibility mainly. I have been asked to put the original AW disc into the machine and try to do a diagnosis of HDD under BIOS.......will be giving that a go shortly....

Freestylaruk

Latest status as of today, Dell / Alienware have confirmed to me that they shall arrange to replace both Geforce 280M GPU cards on my M17X, Both the 500GB 7200 rpm hard disc drives and a possible screen replacement, after reviewing the matter & seeing my minidump files from the blue screen of death crashes I suffered when trying to run demanding applications after Bios changes.

Will keep the info flowing as the matter progresses, a little alarming, as had I not raised my concerns and findings with Tech Support with some depth, had not known a little about stress tests/benchmarking on hardware, even I would not have known that there was a serious lack of performance from the machine with average daily use such as surfing or emailing and the odd spreadsheet or word doc. I would have thought it is me and my setup etc not the hardware if trying to run demanding apps. 

I found a good quick test tools for graphics from the Unigine website - The Tropics Demo V1.2........give it a try with the varying settings, also a Sanctuary Demo V2.2 from the same website, will raise a few eyebrows when you run benchmarks. I have scores and frames per second currently as the machine stands range from 12-13 fps under DX9, very poor, will see what it reads when the changes are done and hopefully the next time I can perform a proper DX10 benchtest run with the demo without the dark blank screen. So far DX9 is the only way to run any benchmark tests on my machine, despite dxdiag.exe showing my machine to be updated to DX10. 

In order to be fair customer support and primarily the rep on my case has proved to be very helpful, would love to give his name out here to give him due credit he is of  German origin I think, he has been steady, keeping in touch with me and has managed to progress matters, despite my worries. I am going to see what the overhaul of the M17X does 4 or so weeks into the purchase, just hope the machine is not damaged when being opened by the service tech and worked upon, i.e. clean unmarked edges, unmarked screws, hatches, clips, latches etc to remain as new, yep I am a little fussy on such things. If the changes resolve the problems I will be a cautious happy man, just hope the machine remains stable and reliable if the fixes work.

Watch this space..................................

Freestylaruk

Hi Freestylaruk

Just read this thread after posting a similar experience in another thread Re: New M17x Poor Video Performance
- Commiserations! - It sounds like the only answer Dell/Alienware have at this time is to replace GPUs.

Something I just tried which seemed to help to a degree (for me).

1) Install DirectX User Runtime (installs all updates to June 09)

-> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

2) Vista x64 SP2 - yes it is available here before AutoUpdate later this year!

-> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/dd262148.aspx

The drive knocking I get isn't as bad as yours but during surfing, I do get occasional loud clicks from HDD /freezes for 1-2 secs.

I've seen someone else talk about the light-bleed from the bottom of the screen - I have this on mine also - not so noticeable with WIndows Taskbar up, but when screen goes blank - it is quite visible then (I would have thought blank screen would make it disappear, but backlight remains)

Did your Nameplate come with the custom name you chose, or "M17x" default as appeared with mine?

Question for anyone else with M17x 280M / SLI - what kind of frame-rates/scores are you getting in 3D Vantage, Crysis etc? Not looking to compete/overclock - just to see if in the same ballpark - and whether SLI /Physx enabled etc. Ta 

Also not looking to be facetious - but anyone with an M17x that is running entirely without issues out of the box?

Cheers

Trelawney

Hi Trelawney,

Thanks for the tips, have had the GPU's changed, and also one HDD changed late last week, second HDD change happening in a couple days, however the Technician that came to do the change and I say this, as it wasnt his fault, had never worked on an M17X prior, I was a little worried in one of my last posts to ensure nothing was damaged in opening the machine, unfortunately despite his run through of a training session a day earlier from which he had some print outs, he followed the guide but in trying to prize off the upper power button trim with the touch sensitive buttons like eject and volume after undoing a few screws under the panel under the machine, he had trouble and pushed a screwdriver under the forced up trim panel several times, I was quietly thinking OUCH in the head, but it came off eventually with a sharp snap he expected it to lift off easily or at least thats what his print out guide suggested. It looked like the delicate thin plastic panel survived, it had a circuit board that runs the entire length under neath it, he proceeded to change the GPU's & HDD, then he left after putting it all back together. I noticed very tiny edge marks on the side trims left and right the keyboard where the screwdriver had been pushed across and under the upper trim but extremely faint and minor ;-( , however when carrying out a respawn, (knowing I still have a second HDD to be replaced the technician came with the wrong size second drive) i just wanted to test the new GPU's hoping for improvement. Believe it or not the lack of knocking on the HDD's was noticable and the HDD noise i.e. reading and writing also seemed far quieter, but I heard one knock again which is probably the second HDD which hopefully will be cured with the second HDD change. Looks like the original HDD's definitely had issues. My Toshiba Qosmio has never had a single knock in 2 and half yrs and is silent under drive access in raid 250GB x 2. Anyhow onto the GPU's......but one further new problem...

I ran a full respawn setup, installed fresh drivers as per the resource CD provided, but the disc kept ejecting in between and I kept thinking whats going on, only then I realised after a little playing around that at one point where the Technician had inserted the screwdriver under the top trim panel that the touch sensitive area for eject was acting as if continously pressed even after the cd had ejected, you can hear the drive going through the robotic sound of eject repeatedly, so once again after a few taps and pressing upon the back end of the panel I managed to get the laptop to keep the disc within the drive, finish the respawn and ran a previous quick demo of Unigine Tropics V1.2 to check on DX9 / DX10 Frames Per Second that is if it would run under DX10, it wasnt doing so before. I have sound in windows and on websites such as you tube, but no sound on the Demo now where as before It had nice music playing along with the nice tropics scenery, it only ran under DX9, I reinstalled the demo several times and ran the benchmark test with the odd eject of a cd happening here or there whilst keeping pressure on the trim panel despite there being no cd in the drive and at times without me even touching the laptop, the trim panel definitely needs a change, anyway the frames per second didnt appear improved under DX9 infact were lower than before, may be something to do with this lack of sound out of the blue and the possible ejects, cant tell yet.

I have been busy over the weekend and today in my own office, have already emailed Dell Rep to see what he can do with the top panel and the new problem of lost sound under DX9 on the graphics demo. He has suggested to me to do a fresh respawn again. I am awaiting the second new HDD and hopefully a new upper trim panel once the Dell Rep reads my last email as he has not responded yet. Will then try the fresh respawn, looks like it will be Wednesday now possibly later in the week, and in addition will update on the the tips you have provided to see where I get with the machine.

I had a winge last week, will run the course of all the changes and a few more whines before I totally give up. Personally for me the true test of this machine is running heavy on demand, one of which being Microsoft FSX with the Aceleration pack and a few add ons such as VFR London, Traffic X & a few Just Flight Airbus add ons and possibly REX. Under DX10 this machine should be capable of at least 40-60 frames per second if not more ( I would be happy with a constant above 30!!!), at maximum settings on everything, full resolution 1920x1200 with absolute smoothness i.e. no jerks on frames etc. The reason I say this, is simply because I have colleagues with Desktops running similar not as powerful but good hardware under dual SLI cards, quad cores and they are achieving blistering FPS, I mean 100+s. The M17X is supposed to be the equivalent of a near true almighty desktop. I want to go further, once I can get the machine working properly, I want to sensibly overclock the quad cores as well as the GPU's a tad, get some added large monitors using a Matrox Triplehead2go, to really use the M17X for something like it was designed for in heavy usage..........pure hardcore in everything, EYE OPENING & PLEASING performance and results, be it CAD, GRAPHICS or GAMES, not your average power laptop.............thats the whole point of this machine and the "ALL POWERFULL" branding status.

Lets say we ignore my friends, just check out FSX HD or FSX REX on you tube and see what FPS others are getting with less powerful GPU's in SLI some with better, with Quad Core Extreme processors some clocked some not, check out Nvidia SLi or Crysis, or Farcry, I mean you will always get variants, however the M17X on all round specs is better than most of what you can find on You tube and yet cannot hit anywhere near close the lowest FPS I have seen on some of the vids. Yes people tweak Anti Aliasing down, or off completely. I tried everything and matched the settings of many out there on FSX as an example but could not hit similar or close FPS in boost SLi mode, which caused me to pick up the phone and talk to the Support. My average fps under MS FSX with maxxed settings was 4-7 FPS in boost SLi mode, the integrated GPU was doing similar more jerky fps in save mode, where as with lower settings no AA etc and dropping the res down to gamer settings of 1680x1050 etc could not achieve more than 9-11 fps in boost mode. Thats when it seemed to me that there was something seriously wrong.

Once again watch this space.......it will be a shame after all the changes and the respawn and still no joy.......that I have to make that call to the credit card agent and confirm action to reclaim monies under faulty goods, which is on hold at the moment. In a way, deep down, I really want the machine to suddenly perform beyond expectations out of the blue, might make it worth the headache but thats the techy side speaking, in truth there should have been NO headaches whatsoever for such an expensive piece of kit. I will keep posting.....until it works or I have to abandon all hope, reclaim monies and go for something else instead. If i do go for something else, I will post the results in comparison to the M17X results so far. I am also keen to hear or see what someone with a maxxed out M17X has achieved as I cant seem to find much out there yet.

Cheers (Once again thanks for the tips, will give it a go once ready)

Freestylaruk

Hi again  Freestylaruk

Sorry to hear the trouble and pain you have been through. I found a proper solution to my problem which I posted yesterday but the Forum bot auto-deleted the post because it didn't like the initials for Read The Flipping Manual (apparently it falls under the category of "Your post contains language that we believe to be harassing, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable") lol go figure!

Anyhow, I've reposted again without the acronym, so please see if this helps you - and no more screwdrivers..!

Potential Solution for Slow M17x Graphics..

To set expectation, even at full performance, Crysis runs well at 1600x1200 Max Detail, but as the architecture of 280M is actually different to a 280 desktop (i.e. not just a shrink of a full sized board into 1/4 of the size) , as is the Quad Core mobile less capable than Quad Core Desktop - don't look to match the scores or unfortunately you will be disappointed - a desktop will win every time, but you should get a good score in any case!

Cheers

Trelawney

I just bought mine on 31 July and it will be deliver on the 1st of Sept.

I just hope mine isn't broken coz i bought mine in singapore and i dont think they can do refund or anything.

Not like in USA where you hav that some kind of customer protection law.

Hi Trelawney,

Been there, was one of the first things I did, definitely sure I am in full power not in stealth mode (although did double check after reading your post), also ensured Alien Fusion setting on maximum performance too not balanced, as well as tweaking the maximum performance settings when the default settings didnt appear to make much difference. Managed to do a respawn tonight, nothing on the machine now for the third time, as per factory defaults again, rechecked everything.....then ran the unigine demo again.....have sound with everything else but the demo, it is not playing sound under dx9, once again no image under dx10 tried all the low to high settings with all the variants no sound at all.......where as when i first got the machine and the first thing i did was install the unigine demo i had sound within it. Since the 280M GPU's and one HDD being changed.....I do not have sound within benchmarking apps causing heavy usage under dx9 or above loose the image too???.

With regards advise upon desktops and laptops hardware, I am not expecting desktop performance say if a desktop is managing 50+fps with similar hardware the M17X should be able to achieve 25-30fps in the least under a mobile shrunk hardware with the heat and power constraints. I did say I would be happy if i had a constant fluid 30fps in maxxed scenarios no jerks just smooth running and in full resolution. Now from what I know and from what I have seen......if the M17X ....£3500.00+ with maxxed hardware cannot achieve that!!!! then it is NOT worth anywhere near the price being tagged upon it at the moment. I have called Sager & Rock today and also spoken to Maingear reps, Rock & Sager for laptops and Maingear for Desktops, i.e. some other top end hardware wizards.

Rock have a very similar setup to the AW M17X if not the same where as Sager have an 18.4incher with the same setup too and triple HDD's......you get a little more but no fancy lit keyboard or the lambo grill,  most importantly I asked many questions and have requested further benchmark proofs, looks like they have working machines and they appeared to be able to answer the detail stuff that the Dell/AW reps cannot I mean the techy know how...... I believe from what I was told, these machines will outperfrom an alienware M17X and have far better brighter screens. With regards Maingear was to look at the other option and abandon a laptop scenario altogether and possibly go for a desktop (its been a while since I had one of them, but then portability is an issue!??).......but I mention this now more out of interest, basically from what I know, they make the best desktop setup's in the world and I mean pure hardcore watercooled, clocked to 4ghz on i7 extreme cores with triple SLi's, 6 DDR3 slots taking it to 12GB, 4 HDD's (options for 10,000rpm drives etc) all done for you so you just switch it on.....believe it or not, fully maxxed out with so many extras far outweighing anything out there to date was approximately what I paid for the M17X, possibly a tad lower if u catch the right exchange $ rate...........and you can bet your house it will work without any serious issues and most probably twice if not three times as fast as the Rock or Sager or a working M17X. That has made me think, now imagine how much you would save setting up your own best of the best rig......would be far cheaper and possibly even more powerful than the Maingear.........just a little something to think about although I wouldnt have time for a self build but the machine they can build and redline for you makes the M17X look like a top end netbook.

I have Empire Total War (the actual image shown on the M17X LCD screen on the AW website), have Crysis and many other demanding titles. Yes I agree dropping the resolution down improves FPS but lets get real..............with dual 280M's in SLi, Quad Core Extreme 2.53ghz, 4GB DDR3 Ram cant run full res to a bare minimum of at least 25fps constant without drops and jerks..........which I thought an M17X would and should be able to manage easily and anything above is a happy bonus..............then to a person like me it is useless. I think you will find most gamers and demanding users will pretty much agree, well lets put it this way, the ones I know agree totally.

I am going to give it as much patience as I can but so far it seems more and more likely I go for a complete refund and possibly look at something else since I have already started looking, there are a couple of laptop platforms that I am looking into due in a couple months time with i7 extreme chips,with dual 280M's in SLi & Phys X,..............hummmmm amazing when you start looking again and how only a couple months later there are now mobile platforms with the i7's getting into them.

I think I have been pretty fair, giving Dell / Alienware a fair chance to fix the problems with the M17X that I have, if yours is working and you are happy with it, thats what matters most. With the one I have, It is not working and I think its obvious I am not happy.

Freestylaruk

Latest update...........................

Spent well over 30 Hours on the phone to Tech Support over the past week, went through everything from Bios update to version A01, reloading new driver updates for GPU's (Several Versions), Disabling Hybrid SLi in Bios, forcing the dual 280M cards to operate at all times whilst disabling the integrated card, checking stealth and full power modes, loaded all the games one can imagine, Crysis Warhead, Farcry2, Empire Total War, Microsoft FSX Call Of Duty World At War, etc etc.

Tech support managed to also source a maxxed out M17X to run the same tests with the same hardware and even the same software over the phone with me. We tried everything and even on the machine they had achieved the same poor performance issues I am having. So I decided to call in an expert.......let him have a look, this is where it gets really interesting.

All M17X owners, check your CPU cover temperatures, data is out there for all CPU types and the maximum cover temperatures that they are supposed to be kept / operated under, i.e. the redline for the CPU you are using. 

After running over three hours of tests, it was found my motherboard is idling (No load) at an average of  74C, the Q9300 Core 2 Quad Extreme 2.53Ghz CPU at idle is 67C, Dual Nvidia Geforce 280M GPU's in SLi at idle were 46C, light loading i.e. web surfing and you tube Motherboard 76C, CPU 68C, GPU's 54C, whilst running Crysis Warhead under 1680x1050 res no AA & Gamer graphics settings the Motherboard under full load was 77C, CPU 76C & GPU's were 76C........................

Intel state the maximum covering temperature for my CPU Quad Core to be no more than 71.4C redline.

Even if my machine had decent cooling for the CPU, the motherboard is running far too hot to enable efficient cooling for anything within the unit. Secondly all the above were carried out at stock settings. Had things been better, the expert was going to overclock both the CPU & GPUs in stages and we were going to pull off some benchmarks with 3DMark to see if we could adjust voltages, fan spins etc to fine tune the best maxxed settings for the machine. The expert didnt even want to go down that route, i.e. didnt want to meddle with it beyond stock settings. The average temperatures should have been, Idle MBoard no more than 60C at most under all scenarios + or - 1-2C, CPU Idle max 35-40C, CPU Light Load max 40-50C, and CPU heavy load in his opinion no more than 65C at worst 68C but definitely below 70C.

I was told it wouldnt be too long before either the CPU, or Motherboard go. My AC adaptor decided to stop working and this was explained simply due to the power drain the M17X is demanding to run at such extreme's the adaptor couldnt handle it, overheated and switched off. Looks like its already on its way out. One could not handle it and touch it for more than a second, it was so hot.

Conclusion - I was told to return the machine without delay. I forwarded the detail data and results to Tech Support and asked for a full refund after nearly 7 weeks of nothing but headaches and trying everything in the universe to find a remedy, in principal has been verbally accepted and mentioned in writing, awaiting final review on the matter tomorrow.

I am not saying Alienware are a bad brand, the expert said it could be simply that AW assembly is utilising thermal pads with heatsinks rather than better efficient heatsink compounds such as silver based type to dissipate excess heat to the heatsinks better than currently etc. Anyhow I may now go for a competing brand, or re-purchase a working M17X in say 6-8 months by which time I hope they have found a proper solution for the problems faced at the moment.

Looks like the current machines need a little refining, and personally I dont believe should have been released onto the market as yet.

I rest my case.

Freestylaruk

Hi Freestylaruk

Looks like you've had a very disappointing adventure there, especially in that you had to go through all of this just to prove a point, that certainly should have been picked up during QA!

I've been running CPUID H/WMonitor Pro in the systray to track Max and Min Temps. I finished Crysis and Crysis Warhead before this, but have been running The Witcher v1.5 for the last several hours all maxxed out settings and got the following temps FYI:

Degrees C Min/Max (Stock / No Overclocking)

ACPI Tz00 : 47 / 65

QX9300 Core 0 : 45 / 67

QX9300 Core 1 : 45 / 65

QX9300 Core 2 : 44 / 64

QX9300 Core 3 : 45 / 67

GeForce 9400 : 62 / 78 (probably the hottest component!)

GTX280M #1 : 41 / 72

GTX280M #2 : 42 / 71

Generally smooth playing but occasional slowdown/crawl to <3 fps (which could be either driver or Vista)

FurMark 1.7 is another good way to test the max temp of the GPUs - mine maxxed around 79-81 after leaving for 10 mins and held roughly level around there. My M17x sits on a large hard lapdesk so it has plenty of air around it fyi..

I am awaiting to hear back from my Dell Account Manager regarding Customised Nameplate (which I believe others haven't received either?). Also the Owners Identification Card was missing from the inside of the manual. Not necessary for the laptop to run, but missing nonetheless.

In total I have sent 4 e-mails, chased Account Manager by phone 3 times (navigating the IVR and changed phone numbers), and also spent 2.5hrs in one call to Alienware Slovakian (EMEA) Support (who were very helpful and courteous - but I ended up fixing the Stealth locking issue myself, so called them back to advise in case anyone else had this issue, for which they were grateful).

My Dell Account Manager told me that he checked with the Dell Sales Team and the Custom Nameplate isn't available anymore. I pointed out that it was an option when purchasing, appears on my invoice, and sent him a screenshot where it is still advertised on the M17x product page, and "proclaims that your custom-built M17x is unique to you." per advertising, that just wishing it away and attempting to fob the customer off wasn't an acceptable answer after spending >£4100 on a laptop!

 UK Consumer Protection, and Advertising Standards would be interested to know, as I'm sure would be prospective customers, plus my Credit Card company would cover me here if necessary, so this is an attempt at a Pyrrhic victory or not? I have given him until the end of this week to respond, or I will return my M17x for a refund. This is unacceptable, and very poor attitude for Dell to just take the stance that they can't now deliver something that the system was sold on the promise with (and advertised in articles/reviews). If they even apologised and offered to make up for this elsewhere (e.g. a bag!), but I don't think this has even occurred to them. This is Ostrich type poor behaviour, and very unprofessional of Dell. As with you Freestylaruk, this is turning out to be more trouble than it is worth...

All the best

Trelawney

Hi there Trelawney,

Gave up on the nameplate thing over 6 wks ago due to the more serious ongoing issues I have had, was given the similar thing that although it was listed on the website, it wasnt going to be able to have my name on it either. I think it is more to do with time to get name plates etched, the quicker the machines go out, the better, get the sales and settlements fast.....In real honesty I dont really want to bad mouth the whole concept........deep down I still like what the M17X stands for, the design / idea etc they did a good job, but somewhere the minor and now the big issues, I am sure are adding up and will result in many refunds occuring in the near future for sure. If you have a good machine that is working, I would hold onto it, and ask them to send you out a nameplate with the name etched on it as listed on the website. Keep pushing upon them, however I was surprised to hear you didnt get that personal name card......I didnt check on that myself in my pack.

CC company have assured me that as long as it can be proved my unit was faulty (which I can more than easily) then a full refund within the warranty period can be claimed no problems i.e. first year only, hence I am not so worried. It was never about the money anyways, I really wanted one working like it was supposed to thats all. Yes whining here might annoy a few Dell / Alienware reps but come n step into these shoes, paid top end £, 7 wks of calm politeness on the phone, doing everything that was asked of me, being co-operative, giving more than ample time to find resolve, even doing the testing and being part of the snagging process, but ending with no results and no use of the machine so far. has tested my patience to the absolute. I actually dont blame the Tech Support guys at all, you know I feel sorry for them, if lots of these M17X's start turning up with the same issues, specially if the customers know their gear and performance ratings, factoring for it being a laptop, they are going to have a tough job. The chaps I dealt with so far were very supportive as best as they could and like me tried everything, I think surprised themselves when the machine they tested couldnt produce results either.

I have to say after seeing your temps.....still appears a little warm but do not appear to be breaching CPU redline like mine is....were you running at high res under full stress loads. Looks like you may have one of a few that may have a better build behind it, but i note you stated a drop on FPS to 3fps???, what resolution was this? didnt sound right i.e. was that a typo?. Probably a background task kicked in or Superfetch under Vista can be irritating.

The 280M GPU's from what I have found so far, are designed for high temps however around the 70Cs is pushing it compared to overclocked Desktop CPU & GPU's in SLi running at 45C & 49C respectively under full resolution and full load with Crysis or Farcry2, yes I know its a desktop but my M17X seems to be running at least 30-40C hotter with similar desktop chip and mobile GPU's all at stock clocks. Your average gamer or demanding user starts to worry when temps go beyond the 55C mark on CPU, GPU's or Motherboards under stress load and start looking for better cooling aids to ensure protection but most importantly performance. See the internet its all there for all to see. My Quad Core Extreme 2.53Ghz is redlined by intel at 71.4C, where as the motherboard should not be anywhere near 65C if anything 60C is the max for such a motherboard (Capacitors/components on motherboards start loosing performance above 45C and drastically more when nearing the 60C's and shorter life spans).

Furthermore the most extreme motherboards designed specially for Military, Deserts and Mountains have a range from -21C to an ultimate maximum of 70C no more!!! Thus for my M17X to be idling on the motherboard way past the average 35-40C mark into the 70Cs is scary to say the least. I know for a fact the motherboard in the Alienware is not one of those special extreme spec types. The expert who checked my machine also explained the most likely cause my intial HDD's started knocking and were replaced was simply that they crashed several times at temperatures outside the tolerances they are designed for, which was well above 60C being the average maximum tolerence of a typical high spin notebook HDD, at such high temps, internal HDD pressures increase, the platters warp very very slightly but enough to risk damage from the heads, crashes under such scenarios are not good. All of the above not my opinions just information from the experts and the free internet out there.

I think you have the picture, imagine If I had overclocked the CPU and GPU's on mine......I cannot risk any of my work or critical data to go into such a machine. It looks like you may have a better performer than mine, I do hope you have, as I have lost all faith in mine for now.

Freestylaruk