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Alienware M18x Laptop Review (with i7-2960XM Extreme Edition)

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

  • Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
  • Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
  • Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
  • Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
  • Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

  • SMP – Multi-Processor
  • MC – Multi-Core
  • SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
  • MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
  • GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
  • NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
  • AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
  • IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

An incredible set of results for the M18x with Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition on board, in the slight overclocked state, it manages to keep up with the reference clocked Core i7-2600k desktop processor.

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11 comments

  1. That really is insane. the price makes my wallet cry however
    🙁

  2. That is an incredible computer, kind of a dream machien for most people. Also that CPU is amazing, its like a desktop chip in a mobile package.

  3. The 2960 extreme edition is breaking new groud, especially for mobile systems. problem is the price, its a hell of a lot more than the closest CPU which is only moderately slower (until its overclocked anyway).

  4. The red is much nicer than the boring black IMO. the bare bones system isn’t a bad price, do you get the same panel for the entry level priced model?

  5. How did you update the driver? my m17x says it isnt a supported device on the Nvidia site? ill have to try again with that driver you used.

  6. This is a great laptop system, I have the m17x and love it, but im sorry I didnt buy the 18 🙁 id love dual 560m

  7. They cost so much money, but they make a statement. I dont think this machine could be carried about however it is far too big and heavy. almost 6kg? ouch!

  8. The appearance is spectacular, the black one looks so dull. Its interesting to see they dont charge more for the red in this range, but the lower specification machines it costs £10 extra.

    They should make some with specialised Alienware skins, like they allow for on the inspiron 17 inch range, but make them all alien based transfers for the lid.

  9. I would not pay this much money just to get so little in return. But i’m not reach and i don’t need/like laptops, if i were all that i guess i’d take it. As stands i can make a desktop that outperforms that laptop with $1k.

  10. Sure, I think we all could, but its missing the point. its a laptop, and it looks pretty nice to me, with a very impressive screen.