That being said there is a major flaw with this laptop. Within 2 months of owning the laptop, the keys started popping off. Dell does have a picture tutorial on how to put this keys back on, but if you follow the tutorial it will often lead to adjacent keys popping off. And if you push too hard when trying to get the keys to latch, then you are out of luck. Luckily my first experience with Alienware customer service ended in a keyboard replacement in less than 2 days from calling tech support. However when it started happening again tech support was not that helpful. I was told I would need to purchase a replacement keyboard for $110! The laptop is under warranty for 4 more months. I was even considering extending the warranty.
My suggestion is to use the built in keyboard as little as possible. I use a logitech keyboard now, my biggest issue is now the laptop does not really travel easily anymore.
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Mind you, I give this 3 stars only because of the amount of self maintenance that needs to be done, I have the 1st revision M17x from 2009, with all the bells and whistles and it runs newer games flawlessly still, so for game performance it gets a 5 star review. I agree that the reflective screen is an issue if taken outside or played by a window, but I have no problems with it inside, and usually play at night anyway, don't most gamers? So for looks I give a 5 star review as well, the keyboard lighting themes you can set to match your mouse or background and its very eye-catching and fun.Now for the part which gets the 0 star review that made me select the 3 star total...
I bought through Dell, and while the warranty period lasted, it was fine.
Rather than having to send it in, they walked me through popping off the touch sensitive panel where the volume controls and eject button etc are when it arrived and they didn't work. I dislike the fact that you have to use a thin screwdriver or other hard/sharp object to pry off a panel made of softish plastic but that's the price you pay for not having visible screws. It was easy enough to replug the tiny connection that had wiggled loose and then snap the plastic back into place, and the problem was solved, for a few months, until putting it down when done using it eventually caused it to wiggle free again. But knowing what had happened the first time I didn't even have to call and wait on hold, just fixed it myself in 10 minutes, this has happened a few more times since then, always with the same fix.
I did have it stop registering the charger as other people have mentioned, but all I was told to do was remove the charger, remove the battery and wait 30 seconds for any residual power to dissipate and then put it all back together. Which basically reset it and fixed the issue. I have had to do this a few times since as well but it always fixes it.
The drivers on the CD are a good starting point for reinstalling WIndows, but they lack good descriptions for anyone not into building their own computers, so finding updated ones online can be fun. The ones on the Dell website are a joke. There are new video card drivers for my 285M on the Nvidia website from within the last month, but the ones specific to the Alienware, which does make a difference, are only as recent as 2010...
If you try to install the ones from Nvidia you will get an error telling you that no eligible hardware is found... even though your card is listed in the description. Its because the way Alienware sets up the system requires custom drivers so your card actually has a slightly different ID than the standard ones and that specific ID isn't listed in the standard driver programming. If you want the latest you will end up spending a few hours doing you tube video watching and forum searching to find the solution which involves rewriting a portion of the driver files to include your model ID, then doing it again to include the basic third video card that is installed along with the 2 running in SLI, and then going into your BIOS and disabling the Hybrid SLI and the Integrated Graphics so that the computer will recognize the SLI cards and not try to run off of the basic card instead. Then you go into your video card control panel and tell it to use the SLI again... And then it works beautifully.
If you are into building your own computer and working on it yourself, these systems are great. I wouldn't trade mine in, I love this beast, but I also know that for a beginning techno geek or someone who needs simple maintenance only devices, this would be one of the biggest headaches ever. Be forewarned...
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