Underneath the machine is a metal plaque, which can be customised on check out. There are two fan vents underneath for a dual fan cooling system.
Onboard sound is handled by a Klipsch system and almost matches the class leading M18x. It certainly won't replace a dedicated sound system, but it is surprisingly capable. Treble frequencies are clear, midrange is focused and there is even a little bass impact.
The battery is removed with a simple lever system, there is also a battery check button on the battery itself which highlights across a light readout. The Alienware M17X design is similar to the M18x laptop which we reviewed last year. Simply remove two screws and slide the back panel outwards, exposing the components underneath.
This machine is powered by the Intel Core i7 3610QM processor. It is a 45w design clocked at 2.3ghz, with a turbo boost up to 3.3ghz. It is cooled by a heatsink connected to a dual copper heatpipe and fan. The AMD HD7970m is cooled in a similar fashion, by another dual heatpipe heatsink cooler. Our machine features 8GB of Samsung 1,600mhz DDR3 (2x4GB), a 64GB SSD drive, and a 500GB mechanical drive for storage.