This was way back during my college days in 2009, I was in a crazy mood to get my first Alienware M15x model. Moreover because I have been a mad gamer for the last 20+ years and always look forward to high - end machines. I could not afford it when I was small but gradually as years passed , it got better and better. I would be sitting on my Dell XPS Studio with Ebay being opened for like 12 hours a day just because I was bidding on an Alienware M15x which I thought I could get it but sigh could not.
Then in 2010 Alienware launched its first store in Goa, that was after they tied up with Dell for their sales in India. I ran to the showroom and there was the first demo unit for the M15x and the M17x, that time only those two models were available. I asked the store guy to place an order for the M15x and insisted on picking up the Store Demo Unit itself with some discount. That time Alienware's were pretty cheap as compared to how expensive they have gotten post 2013.
Image source: Laptopspec.net (Red Alienware M15x)
Man this machine was super bulky, and considering how heavy my books at college were i had a hunch back in the reverse direction LOL. This was exactly the same colour I had got myself. It was one of my best purchases and I got it with a discount at 91,000/- INR or something . This was the 2nd variant on the M15x.
The saga of Alienware continues
I kind of started getting tired of using this machine after I joined my Masters, which had a lot of traveling and mostly I would have to carry my laptop around the college. So I decided to dispose this one and get myself an Alienware M14x which I got I guess somewhere around 2012 or so in April. I had ordered that one directly from Dell Online at a whooping 1,25,000/- INR and got a Alienware Backpack worth 5,000/- free with it!
I got myself the M14x 13 Inch variant and it was yet again the Crimson Red colour and looked spectacular. I think almost all of my friends from college has seen this laptop. I had used it for presentations, hell load of Assassins Creed games, Half life and what not, but this machine never had a hitch ever in terms of performance.
A brief on the specs of my Model
So I got myself the top most model thats why it costed me alot. Sadly when I sold it away on Ebay I just got about 45,000/- INR for it. The reason behind selling this one was it was a little bulky and I had started working then and carrying such a huge machine was not feasible for me for which I had to opt for a Macbook Air .
It came with a Intel Core i-7 - 2860 QM processor clocked at 2.30 Ghz with Turbo Boost up to 3.40 Ghz, 8 Gigs of DDDR3 SDRAM clocked at 1600 Mhz, 750GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive, a 14 inch WLED HD+ 900P display with a resolution of 1600x900. It also came with a Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC card with blazing Internet Performance.
This was one of the best part about the specifications , 3 GB of DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M ! It was huge at that time during 2012! Apart from this it had High Definition Audio 5.1 Performance with SoundBlaster X-Fi Audio and the songs used to literally scream out of the machine. It also had 3 High-Speed USB 2.0 ports, a DP/HDMI-Video Output, 2 Audio Out Connectors , Audio In Microphone Jack.
It also came with a 2.0 MP HD front facing web camera with Dual Digital Microphones. The keyboard was an AlienFX illuminated keyboard with full customisation of colours. I will talk about it in a while. It also comes in a 7 in 1 memory card reader as well. I also got my Alienware engraved with my Name on it. :)
THE ALIENWARE COMMAND CENTER - ALIEN FX, ALIEN FUSION, ALIEN TOUCH,ALIEN SENSE(More features added post my model)
Image Source: Reddit
Now coming to the most amazing feature of the Alienware Laptops. So it is called the Alienware Command Center. Here you can customise the colours, look and feel of your laptop including, the Power Management vs Performance , the way the laptop unlocks itself with top of the line security features.
Alien FX- The level of customisation this machine or any other Alienware Machine offers is phenomenal . I mean as you can see you can customise the colours on the keyboard, and that also can further be divided into 4 parts. This customisation includes the Alienware Logo, the Name, and the front grill (yellow coloured one), the trackpad and other touch panel controls on the top. For the Colour customisation there are 3 modes - Color, Morph and Pulse. Color basically sets a solid color to a particular section, morph means that you can set a sequence of colors that keep changing, and pulse will make the chosen colors create a pulse effect . Yeah I know it sounds crazy!
AlienFusion - This feature basically offers customisation for battery performance vs gaming performance of the machine. If you are ready to plugin your power source and crank up the battery for max performance, then it drains a lot of battery. If you are traveling and want more juice from the battery it greatly will show performance loss. You can toggle these on the function keys with shortcuts.
AlienTouch - This basically allows you to customise the touch pad settings like scrolling sensitivity, tapping and virtual scrolling.
AlienSense - Only available I think on the R1 and R2 models. I had this on mine. This has a very advanced form of security and uses Facial Recognition for unlocking your Alienware. You can set the desired level of security like Face plus password to make it more secure.
Gaming Performance
So I have played like many games quite a few years back on this machine. I have played Assassins Creed series till Brotherhood on this Machine and it ran like a breeze. I have also played GTA 4, Far Cry , Metal Gear Solid III and IV, Prototype 2, Half-life all parts till the 3rd one where it ended abruptly.
Ive also played most of the Need for Speed games on this machine. These games were played not at very high graphics settings on the GTX but at normal. But the settings for the games were turned to Ultra High and I never had to crank up the GTX to get games running smoothly. My average FPS I would get was around 30-40 FPS.
So if you are a gamer and want to get a really good machine that does not lag one bit no matter what game you are gonna play go for the Alienware M14x or the M11x if you looking at carrying around. The M14x was not such a bulky model, but it had issues with battery and overheating was always a problem. There are and were many gaming laptops out there, but if theres something to really mess with those games out there its Alienware anytime.
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