Alienware M15X 15.6-Inch Cosmic Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)

I ordered my Alienware M15x through the Dell website on 12/3/2009. Delivery occurred on 12/18/2009, which was the original order anticipated build completion date. Nice! The laptop is replacing a home-built custom quad-core Cosmos gaming PC.

During the purchase process, I opted for the RAM upgrade to 4GB @ 1333MHz, upgraded the video card to the 260m (and got a $50 Dell promo gift card from this), got the 1080p screen, and upped the hard drive to 320GB. I subscribe to Steve Job's notion that Blu-Ray is a bag of hurt, so I stuck with the DVD/CD slot burner.

Performance-wise, the M15x is Sea Biscuit. I've thrown several games at it, from Crysis (silky-smooth at high resolution), WoW, Torchlight, Fallout 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Company of Heroes. All ran flawlessly, at max or near-max settings. The standard Core i7 1.6GHz (2.8GHz turbo) cuts through these applications like nothing I've seen. While I enjoyed overclocking my custom desktop PC, this machine doesn't really need it. It's greased lightning right out of the box.

Pros:

I liked the price point. I knew I was getting a great machine for the money, and what I spent matches what I received.

Weight. This is a desktop replacement, so I expected some heft. I like the fact that this thing has some meat to it. If I wanted a light, take-anywhere laptop, I would have bought a netbook.

Alienware effects/polish/workmanship worth the price of admission. This is a beautiful machine.

Dell's service. Anytime a company underpromises and overdelivers, I'm a happy camper. The M15x arrived way ahead of schedule, packaged professionally, and came out of the box ready to roll.

My cons are pretty similar to other reviewers:

screen is really reflective, but playing in a darker room mitigates this.

touchpad. I don't know who was driving the boat when they decided on this particular hardware. It's not that bad, but it's not great either. Onscreen movement is pretty herky-jerky, even after software update. Mouse-users won't bother with it.

After years of desktop machines and business laptops, this is my first personal laptop, and start-to-finish, it's been a great experience. It's easily replaced my workhorse desktop for all my uses. I will gladly buy Dell/Alienware again down the road. Can't recommend it enough.

I got this computer last week and I've logged soooo many hours on it already its ridonkulous. Plays wow good. Super fast for editing photos (I'm a photographer so I opted for a larger hard drive). I will use this machine until it dies on me. Screen is crystal clear, boot times are fantastic. Good, solid, stable machine for gaming runs cool and we all know alienware isn't surpassed by looks. Get one and get the enjoyment I have from mine! Hoo-yah alienware!

Buy Alienware M15X 15.6-Inch Cosmic Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Now

I bought this laptop over three years ago and it still runs like it did the first day. I've only ever had one problem when the power cord died, but who hasn't had that problem? Great graphics, very fast quad core.

Some things to note:

-Pretty heavy (around 9 or 10 pounds)

-Expectantly low battery life (about 3 hours)

-Kind of a beast, certainly not meant for school/travel

I was really into gaming when I got this laptop and it has treated me well through many online and offline games, never giving me issue. The support/warranty is pretty phenomenal including Next Day Business and Remote service through Dell.

If you're a gamer, I would certainly recommend this laptop. If you're just doing your normal day-to-day, I probably wouldn't buy it. It's pretty pricey, but you get what you pay for.

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My son wanted this laptop as he is an "online gamer'. We couldn't be happier with this computer. Runs great, user friendly and is the perfect gaming computer.

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I've had this machine since early 2010 and to start things off it was EXTREMELY over-priced for the specs it has. An Asus or Lenovo of the same, or greater quality would be nearly half the price. You're only paying for the "wow" affect this computer leaves people with.

Once I took this thing out of the box, I had issues within a week. It was overheating CONSTANTLY. I contacted Alienware and got 0 support, and after much research I found this was an issue with the entire line of M15x machines and that I was screwed the only way to cut down on the overheating was to air dust it every few weeks or so, which was VERY annoying to do, and yet the problem still persisted.

The computer also had many bugs that came along with the pre-installed OS, and the DC Port has crapped out on me twice. You only have 2 USB Ports, no HDMI support, its heavy and bulky. Its very glossy, so it scratches easily and the paint chips at ease, and the display is honestly very sub-par for a computer of it's price. It will also sound like an obnoxious washing machine whenever its running louder than most bulky desktops.

The only good thing about this machine was its awesome speed, smooth keyboard, and flashy looks. Playing around with your backlights and other appearance settings in the command center always gets you a nice reaction from others, and just looks simply awesome.