Alienware M14X 14" Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor, 8 GB RAM, 750 GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit) Black

Alienware seems to have gotten all the "little things" right with this laptop. The form factor is large enough to game or do "real work," yet it is small enough to be portable. The strange-looking beveled keyboard is actually very pleasant to type on - fewer errant keystrokes and better speed. The trackpad has discrete buttons with nice tactile feedback. There is no annoying bloatware (trial AV, toolbars, etc) like you might find on an HP. I was worried that the styling would be garish and distracting/embarassing, but it really isn't that bad.

The components, are, of course, top notch. You could probably get them in other computers as well, though.

Overall, no complaints.

I purchased this laptop through Dell's website. I have a 6gb ram, 1.5gb graphics card configuration.

All in all, the laptop performs well. I did have an issue with Windows no longer being able to install drivers, which led to my graphics card no longer having a driver, which led to me having to respawn the system to factory settings to fix the problem after Dell's tech support was unable to correct the problem. However, all that is really due to problems with Windows rather than the laptop itself.

Pros:
- Excellent performance, and the price isn't too steep for what you get.
- The m14x is a nice looking laptop, and garners quite a few envious glares from people who see it.
- The keyboard feels great, but bears a certain issue I will touch upon in the cons.
- The touch pad is good, and has a lot of customization built into the Alienware control center software, from touch
sensitivity, to settings that help mitigate accidental palm... Read more

I really wanted to love this laptop, I really did. The AlienFX thing is pretty cool with the whole keyboard lights and the rest, the screen was great (1600x900). It was nice and fast, although, booting it up took about 4 minutes before you could actually do anything on it, and that's WAY too long for a brand new top of the line computer. The video card (GT555m) was great and games looked great and the frame rate even at high detail never really took a nosedive. The klipsch speaker set up in this thing was awesome too, had a tiny little woofer in it that brought some great sound with it.

All these things kept me wanting to like or, or even to use it, but the ONLY thing stopping me, was the fan. Any other review that you read, if someone says the fan isn't that bad, is lying or borderline deaf. I'm sorry. I've been building and repairing computers for at least 15 years now, and never have I heard any fan that gets THIS loud. I understand that things need to be kept cool,... Read more