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Alienware M17x-R4 reviewed

by on19 April 2013

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Review: Performance to remember

The Alienware M17x-R4 is the fourth incarnation of the company’s high-end 17-inch gaming laptop series. As usual, consumers are left with a choice of several predefined configurations, but true connoisseurs will probably go for a custom configuration. It all boils down to the sheer amount of cash consumers are willing to invest. In this case, we recommend you go for SSD drives, as HDDs really have no place in high-end gaming rigs. The sample we received boasts one of the best configurations available. It is based on a Intel Core i7-3820QM clocked at 2.7GHz, which can hit 3.5GHz on Turbo. More demanding consumers might want to go a step further and pick a Core i7-3840QM, which turbos all the way to 3.8GHz. However, the added performance hardly justifies the higher price.

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The M17x-R4 is available with up to 32GB of memory. Our sample featured 16GB of DDR3 clocked at 1600MHz. Needless to say, it was more than enough.

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Of course, gaming performance depends on the choice of GPU, and our sample has it covered. It packs a Geforce GTX 680M, the fastest mobile GPU on the planet.

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As we already said, a speedy SSD is a must for high-end rigs, desktops and notebooks alike. Every system equipped with an SSD tends to be much more agile and responsive.

The M17x-R4 features two 256GB 6Gb/s SSD drives, courtesy of Samsung, and it supports RAID0.


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Gamers on the go need a lot of screen real estate, and the M17x-R4 features a crystal clear 17.3-inch 1080p panel, with WLED backlighting and a 60Hz refresh rate. Other highlights include Kille Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0, a slot-loading Dual Layer Blu-ray drive and Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di audio.

We’ll talk about battery life later on, but let’s just say that it is a 90WHr 9-Cell affair. Of course, this is no ultraportable and the charger is a must when leaving the home for any extended period. Apparently Win8 is still not the preferred choice for gamers, so the M17 ships with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, which is still a pretty good OS for any gamer.


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Last modified on 19 April 2013
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