Alienware M17x R4 Review (i7 3610QM/ AMD HD7970M)

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell June 15, 2012 Featured Announcement, Laptop / Mobile

Rating: 9.0.

Today we are looking at the latest, 4th revision of the ever popular M17X laptop from market leader, Alienware. The M17X R4 features a quad core Ivy Bridge processor and AMD's Radeon HD7970M discrete mobile graphics solution for enhanced gaming performance. If you have a couple of grand spare is this the best way to blow it ?

The M17x R4 is a desktop replacement with cutting edge components and a large 17 inch full high definition screen to enjoy the latest Direct X 11 games and bluray movies.

The machine is designed like the previous version, with high quality onboard lighting easily controlled via the software. Rest assured, if you are a businessman on the move then you will be looking elsewhere, this is no ultraportable, weighing in at a back breaking 4.3kg.

The system we are reviewing today features the latest Core i7 3610QM with 8GB of 1,600mhz DDR3, SSD boot drive and AMD HD7970M graphics. The M17X R4 Dell sent us for review today costs £1,769.01 inc vat, although you can increase the system price to around £4,000 if you maximise all the upgrades.

Specifications available:

Processor

Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Intel® Core™ i7-3820QM (8MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

Operating System

English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)

Memory

6144MB (1x2GB + 1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
12288MB 1600MHz Dual Channel DDR3 (2x2GB + 2x4GB )
16384MB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
24576MB 1600MHz Dual Channel DDR3 (2x4GB, 2x8GB)
32768MB 1600MHz Dual Channel DDR3 (4x8GB)

Video Card

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M
2GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 7970M

Display

17.3″ WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
17.3″ 120Hz w/ 3D Bundle WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
17.3″ WideHD+ (1600 x 900 ) WLED LCD

Audio and Speakers

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di High-Definition 5.1 Audio with THX TruStudio Pro Software (Standard)
2.0 Speaker configuration
Audio Powered by Klipsch®
7.1 Digital Audio out using HDMI out connection or S/PDIF Optical port .

Networking and Wi-Fi Options

Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC (Standard)
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0 (Standard)

Hard Drive

Up to 2048GB4 hard drive (5400RPM)
Up to 1224GB4 Solid State hard drive
Up to 1024GB4 hard drive (7200RPM)

Optical Drive

Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVD±R/RW) (Standard)
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)

Power

High Capacity 9-cell Lithium Ion (90whr)

Camera

2.1 Megapixel Full HD Camera with dual digital microphones

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15 comments

Davis
June 15, 2012 at 10:37 am

Well I never thought I would say it, but £1,700 is actually pretty good value for that machine. must be their best priced laptop in a long time. I might end up going for a 128GB SSD though as 64GB is borderline.
Brian
June 15, 2012 at 11:19 am

Thats a nice looking system. good pictures of the keyboard, is that the Star Trek font they use? lol.
Slash
June 15, 2012 at 11:23 am

What a spec, my dream laptop. The ivy bridge mobile processors look good, but not really such a huge advancement for Intel.

Shame they didnt use an AMD processor, but I suppose it wouldnt be popular.
WarrenUK
June 15, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Dell confuse me, some of their pricing upgrades are decent, like the HD7970 but the memory options can be excessive. the fact that this is easy to open makes me want to spec the memory as LOW as possible, then get some from amazon, like the corsair veageance (16gb for £100 on amazon for 1600mhz! 2x8gb!).

Can this computer take 8GB memory sticks?
Zardon
June 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm

Hi Warren, yes it can take 8gb memory sticks. go for it !
Seth
June 15, 2012 at 1:50 pm

I dont mind dell machines. (its basically dell) – but I think id opt for a precision with Quadro for work. The only concern i have is dell batteries, ive had three other machines now and all the batteries fail after a year.
WarrenUK
June 17, 2012 at 6:50 pm

I ordered one, now to deal with my wife 🙁
Alen
June 17, 2012 at 6:51 pm

You are mad buying one of these ! you could build one for much less ! alienware are a ripoff.
WarrenUK
June 17, 2012 at 6:52 pm

Dont talk nonsense, this isn’t a desktop system. you can’t make a laptop. half the parts aren’t widely available for a start.
Andrew I
July 8, 2012 at 3:25 pm

Yes there are cheaper options like the vortex 3 from pcspecialist but they look cheap compared to Alienware. This is also cheaper than an apple too and has better spec. I’m sold on it