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

1. Introduction2. Alienware M18x Laptop (Package & Bundle)3. Alienware M18x Laptop (1)4. Alienware M18x Laptop (2)5. Alienware M18x Laptop (Super High Res Gallery)6. Testing Methodology and Configuration7. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra8. Synthetic: PCMark 79. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit10. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage11. Synthetic: 3DMark 1112. Synthetic: SSD Performance13. Real World: BluRay Playback With PowerDVD1114. Real World: MKV 1080p Performance15. Real World: Flash HD Performance16. Real World: Media Encoding17. Gaming: Alien V Predator18. Gaming: Dead Island19. Gaming: Dirt 320. Gaming: F.E.A.R. 321. Gaming: F1 201122. Gaming: From Dust23. Gaming: Home Front24. Gaming: Kane & Lynch: Dog Days25. Gaming: Total War: Shogun 226. Technical: Battery Life27. Technical: Acoustics Performance28. Technical: Thermal Dynamics29. Technical: Bios & Overclocking30. Closing Thoughts31. View All Pages

Alienware have a well earned reputation for creating some of the most exotic, ludicrously specified gaming machines and today we look at their M18x laptop which features the latest flagship Intel Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition processor, Bluray drive, 8GB of 1600mhz DDR3 memory and dual Nvidia GTX560m graphics.

The M18x is no superportable, nor is it a bargain sub £500 machine either, with specifications ranging from £1,700 to over £5,000 it is a serious investment for a serious enthusiast. The model we are looking at today costs around £3,568 inc vat and features the Intel Core i7 2950XM Extreme Edition processor.

We already know the M17x is a killer laptop, so we were particularly interested to experience the bigger brother with dual graphics cards. With the ability to manually overclock the system even further, is this the ultimate performance laptop?

Review System Specifications:

Item	Description
Base	Alienware M18x Nebula Red
Memory	8GB 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel (4x2GB)
Keyboard	Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Video Card	Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M SLI™
Hard Drive	256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive
Microsoft Operating System	English Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
Optical Devices	Blu-Ray ROM Combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read and write) Drive
Sound	Integrated High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio Powered by Klipsch®
Wireless Networking	Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 – EUR
Cables	UK 2M 250V Power Cord
Shipping Documents	English Documentation
Gedis Bundle Reference	N08W1801
Standard Warranty	1 year Next Business Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Enhanced Service Packs	1Yr Next Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Bluetooth	Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Card – EUR
Order Information	Alienware M18x Order – UK
Primary Battery	Primary 12-cell 96W/HR LI-ION
Carrying Cases	No Carrying Case
Processor	Intel® Core™ i7 2960XM Overclocked Turbo Boost (8MB Cache)
Dell System Media Kit	Alienware Resource DVD
Camera	Integrated 3.0 Mega Pixel HD Camera
Avatar	Alienhead 3D
AutoMatic Updates	AutoMatic updates – On
Wallpapers	Redefining your standards Wallpaper
TimeZone	(GMT + 00.00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
AlienFx Colour	Mars Red
Accidental Damage Support	No Accidental Damage Protection
LCD	18.4″ (47 cm) WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
Hidden NamePlate Engraving	Generic Name Plate Engraving
Protect your new PC	No Antivirus Software
Power Supply	330W AC Adapter

The Alienware M18x arrives in a giant box, which could comfortably house a child. It weighs over 12kg, so you are aware immediately that this is a substantial system.

Inside the outer box is the Alienware branded container, which features a wonderful pixelated style fascia.

Shipped above the laptop is another, smaller box which contains all the peripherals.

The bundle is very impressive, as it should be with a premium product such as this. The mouse mat is a quality unit, and features the famous glowing Alien head.

The AlienWare cap will certainly grab the attention of a passer by, with the URL listed at the back.

The stand out extra for us is the leather bound manual, which features two giant screws on the left. It folds out to detail all areas of the laptop and surprisingly it even explains a little about the overclocking capabilities.

As we expected, the power adapter is a massive brick, weighing more than a netbook. The model number is DA300PM111. It connects to a standard, full size power supply cable. This is useful as many enthusiast users have several of these laying around, meaning a spare is always at hand.

Bonus points for presentation. The M18x is shipped within two very thick pieces of Styrofoam. As an extra security measure the laptop is encased in a soft felt case. This can actually be reused as a travelling cover.

I was immediately impressed with the appearance of the M18x, especially in the ‘Nebula Red' scheme. We analysed the surface for any flaws or marks and we are pleased to report a perfect finish. The starting weight of the machine is 5.41kg, ours was 5.65kg.

This is not the kind of laptop you would carry with you on a regular basis, due to the weight. It is 55mm thick at the rear and could easily eat the Macbook Air as a snack. The underside of the machine has a whole array of vents to ensure adequate airflow.

In the middle of the M18x is a metal plaque which highlights the name of the machine. The onboard audio uses Klipsch components, a well known company who produce a wide range of quality desktop speaker systems. The sound quality is very impressive, with even a reasonable level of bass response delivered. One of the best audio systems we have heard on a laptop, to date.

The M18x has an immensely impressive range of connectivity. Along the left side of the machine is a security lock, GB lan port, VGA connector, HDMI (1.4) out, mini Displayport, two USB 3.0 ports, SPDIF, microphone and two headphone connectors … so you and a friend can listen at the same time.

Along the right side is an HDMI in port. This means you can connect a device such as a Playstation 3 and use the M18x screen for display. Next to this is an eSATA/USB combo port as well as two USB 2.0 ports. Finally, there is a DVD RW or Bluray drive and a 7 in 1 media card reader.

As a quick recap here is a list of the ports on both sides:
(1x) Power/DC-in Jack
(1x) RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet IPv6
(2x) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports
(2x) Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Port
(1x) eSATA 3Gb/s + USB 2.0 Combo port (with PowerShare Technology)
(1x) Mini-Display Port
(1x) HDMI 1.4 Audio and Video Output
(1x) HDMI 1.3 Audio and Video Input
(1x) VGA Port
(1x) 9-in-1 Media Card Reader
(2x) Audio Out 1/8″ Ports
(1x) Combo S/PDIF Optical output / Analog Headphone Line Out (7.1 digital audio output via S/PDIF)
(1x) Line In Microphone 1/8″ Port (retaskable for 5.1 analog audio output)
(1x) Security Lock port

The M18x is a very attractively designed laptop, which is unlike many of the larger machines available on the market today. The sculpted corners and angular panels really enhance the overall appearance, giving it a slightly futuristic dynamic. It is crafted from aluminum and rubberised plastics.

There is no catch or locking mechanism on the lid however it does seal with a reassuring weight. At the top of the panel is a 3.0 Megapixel HD Video and Picture Camera with dual digital microphones. The camera is reasonably good, although not the best we have used.

The 18.4 inch screen is a beautiful 16:9 1080p implementation which is glossy, but delivers crystal clear, razor sharp images. For Bluray media and gaming it is a perfect partner. There is plenty of brightness available, meaning the screen is usable in all but direct sunlight. Viewing angles are superb and two or three people can sit in front of the screen and see the images perfectly. This is as good a laptop screen as we have seen and superior to anything we have reviewed this year.

The M18x keyboard is beautifully finished and like other models in the series it uses the futuristic ‘Star Trek' style font on the lettering. It is the same size as the model on the M17x and has a full numpad on the right.

The keyboard is very good, and although there is a little flex it was easy enough to reach close to optimum typing speeds. We are glad to see Dell using a double height return key. It falls a little short of the one used on the ThinkPad X1 for heavy duty typing demands (recently reviewed over here) but it is significantly above average.

Top right is a row of stylish function buttons which allow for volume and media adjustment as well as for ejection of optical discs and wireless connectivity. The last button on the right gives direct access to the AlienFX software. This is also backlit and custom controllable.

We have looked at the AlienFX software before, but in action it is easily the leading implementation on the market. You can control various sections of the board to vary the colours, and with the advanced settings even have areas pulsing.

The trackpad is excellent and offers full support for gestures. Along the side of the board is a row of 5 function keys which can be split into 3 sets offering 15 customisable functions within games.

Power saving settings are extremely detailed, covering all aspects of performance. Dell have it set up fairly well for both battery and mains power.

The lighting is very effective and beautifully designed. It is evenly lit, thanks to the sections of LED sources underneath.

The 96Wh battery slots into the middle of the M18x. There is a readout, via a button on the back of the chassis which indicates a portion of battery life left. The M18x can handle an SLI configuration (and AMD cards if you desire), and this particular system build contains two Nvidia 560m graphics solutions. You can equip the machine with two Nvidia 580m discrete cards, but you will add almost £900 to the price. Bottom right in the image above, you can see the Samsung 256GB Solid State drive however you can get Dell to configure the system with two. There are also mechanical drive options available, up to 2 x 750GB in Raid 0.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

System validation is available over here.

This system is based around the Intel Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition processor, the most powerful mobile solution available on the market today. This is the first time we have taken a look at this particular processor, so we will compare against other processors we have reviewed in the past. We are also including some results from the desktop Core i5 2500k and Core i7 2600k at reference clock speeds.

Our Core i7 was supplied in a pre-overclocked state (bios setting ‘1 out of 3', but more on this later in the review).

i7-2630QM results taken from this review.

i5-2410M results taken from this review.

i7-2600K results taken from this review.

i5-2500K results taken from this review.

The 2960XM was only launched a short while ago and is clocked at 2.7ghz, with a turbo boost speed up to 3.7ghz. It is a 4 physical and 4 logical design sharing 8MB of level 3 cache. Dell offer various memory configurations, allowing for the choice of 1333mhz or 1600mhz DDR3. We opted for a 8GB 1600mhz configuration (Hyundai), which is approximately the same price as 16GB of 1333mhz memory. The memory is configured to 11-11-11-28-2T timings.

This system is equipped with two 560M processors in SLI. Dell supply the machine with 269.03 drivers, which are quite outdated and nothing newer is available from their support site. Using the Nvidia website we installed the latest beta mobility driver, revision 285.27. This driver has many more bug fixes and performance enhancements when compared against the driver supplied.

The software install is free from crapware and we are pleased to see that Alienware omitted Norton and McAfee. We installed the two CPUID applications shown in the list.

Our system included the excellent Killer Wireless-N 1103 – EUR networking card. We reviewed the N1102, over here.

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit
SiSoft Sandra
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra V11
PCMark 7
Dirt 3
Total War: Shogun 2
From Dust
Dead Island
F1 2011
F.E.A.R. 3
Home Front
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Nikon D3X and 28-70mm lens with R1C1 kit.
Olympus EPL1.
Thermal Diodes.
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp.
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Mete.

All results are gained from multiple test runs to ensure any abnormalities are removed before publication. Some game description introductions are taken with courtesy from Wikipedia.

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.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.

A final score of almost 5,000 points is the highest we have seen from any mobile system, by a clear margin.

CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.

We thought the i7 2630QM was a fantastic performer until we benchmarked this i7 2960XM Extreme Edition. A score of 6.64 is fantastic, even for a desktop system. The AlienWare M18x could be used full time as a rendering station, without a doubt.

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

A score of 18,373 points is extremely positive. In real world terms this is actually 1,300 points more than we achieved with the excellent Sapphire HD6870 Dual Fan Overclocked Edition when we tested it within an overclocked Core i7 970 desktop system.

3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance.

Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. We tested at the default performance setting.

If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.

3DMark 11 is a demanding synthetic test, and this score indicates that this system should handle the latest engines at reasonably high settings.

Dell don't mention if the M18x is a SATA 6Gbps capable system, nor do they mention which 256 GB SSD they supply in their configuration tool.

They are using the Samsung PM810 drive, which is a capable solid state drive, but it is limited to SATA 3 Gbps speeds.

A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance. We use two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the Samsung SSD from the onboard SATA controller.

Performance is solid enough, if nothing groundbreaking … scoring around 250 MB/s in the sequential test.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Similar performance results, indicating maximum performance parameters around the 250-265 MB/s mark.

We decided to try a little upgrade of our own, and we took out the drive bay and added a Patriot Pyro 128GB SSD drive, which we reviewed over here.

Massive performance increases from the Sandforce SF 2281 powered Pyro drive. In hindsight, we would ship the M18x with the lowest priced mechanical drive to save money. Then buy one or two SF-2281 SSD drives, mirror the install with Acronis Drive Image and swap them over. Raid 0 with two of these drives would be stunning.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the new extended Bluray Disc of Lord Of The Rings.

An average of 7 percent CPU demand is hardly tasking the system. Plenty of CPU cycles left over for multitasking, if the need arises.

The Matroska Media container is a very popular, open standard Multimedia container which is usually found as .MKV files. It is a very popular format in enthusiast circles and can be played directly in Windows Media Player with suitable codecs installed. We use the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP).

We ripped our BluRay disc of Sniper Reloaded to 1080P MKV and use Windows Media Player to playback the file.

CPU time averaged around 25 percent, which again is a good indication that the system could handle other duties while watching this content.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online. Full hardware acceleration is enabled.

No problems with the playback of high definition Flash media, averaging only 7 percent CPU time.

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

• Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
• Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
• Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
• Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
• Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
• Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors.

Nvidia Cuda acceleration is enabled.

A final time of 10 minutes and 44 seconds is class leading, and the best time we have recorded from a laptop. It is actually faster than many desktop systems we have reviewed this year.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

To test the system we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality High, MSAA Samples 0, 0 af, ambient occulsion off, shadow complexity medium, motion blur on.

No problems powering this Direct X 11 engine, even at 1080p. Great results from the M18x.

Dead Island is set in the fictional island of Banoi, located off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The main characters wake up in the Palms Resort hotel to find the island attacked by zombies and mysteriously, they are immune to whatever is making people into zombies. As they try to find and help other survivors, they must also find a way to escape the island as well.

Dead Island is a fun game and it runs exceptionally well on this system, generally maintaining a frame rate between 50 and 90. It dropped to 44 once during our testing as it paged data between environments.

Dirt 3 is a rallying videogame and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters, although the “Colin McRae” tag has been completely removed from this iteration (having been previously been removed from American versions of previous games in the series).

We used the Ultra preset for the testing.

The game plays great on the M18x averaging over 50 frames per second, even with Anti Aliasing enabled.

F.E.A.R. 3 includes features such as “co-op, an evolved cover system, and more scares”, according to Day 1 Studios founder and president Denny Thorley. In the game, the players control either Point Man or Paxton Fettel, the protagonist and antagonist, respectively, from the first game, F.E.A.R.. The control system for the Point Man is the same as the previous two games, giving the player a command list typical of most first person shooter games (the ability to fire weapons, throw grenades, melee, activate/use items etc), as well as the ability to slow time. As Fettel, the player assists the Point Man by using telekinesis, stun, possession, a melee attack unique to Fettel and other abilities. In addition to these abilities, the player also has full access to the abilities of any character Fettel possesses. Both characters have the ability to access and control enemy technology (such as mech suits).

F.E.A.R. 3 is another fun third person shooter which can be demanding of the graphics hardware. No problems for the dual Nvidia 560m's in SLI, averaging over 40 frames per second at the native resolution of the screen.

F1 2011 is the newest Direct X 11 racing game from industry pioneers CodeMasters. The 2011 Formula One season is the 62nd FIA Formula One season. The original calendar consisted of twenty rounds, including the inaugural running of the Indian Grand Prix before the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Pirelli returns to the sport as tyre supplier for all teams, taking over from Bridgestone. Red Bull Racing are the reigning Constructor's Champions. Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel is the defending Drivers' Champion, one of five World Champions appearing on the grid.

Another excellent CodeMasters racing game, and this time we cranked the Anti Aliasing to 8x. No problems with the overall performance, averaging 65 frames per second, and dropping to only 57 frames per second once during our test section.

Campaigns in From Dust are structured as a sequence of missions, whereby completing certain objectives expedites the tribe’s progress and bestows additional powers, such as the capacity to jellify water. Tribal shamans alert the player to natural disasters, notably tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, shortly before they occur. These disasters can be inhibited through creative, physical manipulation of the environment: a tsunami can be jellified, wildfires extinguished, and lava flows diverted.

We are including this game today as it is one of the best indie games we have played in recent years.

From Dust is forced to maintain a frame rate around 30, so this result is pretty much on par with other leading graphics solutions we have tested in recent months. The interesting part of this test is the minimum frame rate however, as lesser solutions will often struggle to maintain a smooth frame rate with this engine.

Homefront is a first-person shooter video game developed by now defunct Kaos Studios and published by THQ, in which players play as members of a resistance movement fighting against a near-future Korean military occupation of the United States. The story was written by John Milius, who co-wrote Apocalypse Now and wrote/directed Red Dawn.

Homefront was critically panned when it was released, but we really enjoyed the single player experience. The engine is quite demanding although most modern hardware will run it fine with a few compromises. The M18x system experienced no problems even at these high settings, averaging over 40 frames per second.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a video game developed by IO Interactive, published by Eidos Interactive under Square Enix available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. On July 14, 2010, it was announced by IO Interactive that Kane & Lynch 2 would be releasing a week earlier than scheduled.

Announced in November 2009, the game is described as having a new visual style inspired by documentary films and user-generated content. According to the press release, “every aspect of the game has been designed to deliver a fresh perspective to the words ‘intensity' and ‘realism'. This includes also a new audio style. Instead of using ingame music, German composer Mona Mur was hired to create complex ambient soundscape layers generated from real city noises, vintage synthesizers, guitar amplifiers and unusual software. “ A pair of teaser videos accompanying the announcement present game footage from a distorted surveillance camera perspective. Dog Days was presented from Lynch's point of view.

We deliberately used very high anti aliasing settings to test the hardware and the frame rate was maintained over 60 at all times. A fantastic result.

Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths.

All settings are pushed to mixed high/ultra settings as shown below.

Real world testing can fluctuate a little, especially with dynamic environments. With this test we also like to include built in benchmark results via Steam so readers can directly compare against their own hardware. Direct X 11 1080p and 720p results are below.

Even at 1080p, the game is perfectly playable with high image quailty settings, thanks to the SLI configuration. A single card would need a lot of these settings reduced to achieve playable frame rates.

To test the battery today we put the machine through three sets of real world situations.

One as a media movie lover on the move, a person wanting to watch HD media on a train journey or bus with two thirds screen brightness (any less and quality suffers).

Secondly as a business man, using the machine for productivity with wireless enabled and balanced power settings with a mid way (around half) brightness setting.

Thirdly as a gamer on the move, with the nVidia graphics cards fully active and screen brightness up high.

The 12 cell battery is a powerful unit, but the demands placed upon it are intensive. We managed to get 2 hours and 40 minutes out of the system when using it for general work, which isn't a bad result considering. When gaming, we recorded a little less than 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is worth bearing in mind that this is purely a desktop replacement system, not a businessman's portable ‘workhorse' for office work on the move.

We measure from a distance of around 2 foot from the chassis with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The system is actually quiet under most situations. When loading the processor with 100% demands in Cinebench R11.5 or when playing an intensive game – the multi fan system kicks in hard and it becomes clearly audible. Still, I was quite impressed with the Alienware preconfigured fan settings.

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together.

The cooling system is clearly well designed to maintain these temperatures, and we stress tested it for 12 hours solid for stability. It passed with flying colours.

We also attached 5 diodes to the rear of the machine to measure the load temperatures of various parts of the chassis. These were measured after 1 hour of intensive work.

The underside of the laptop has such intensive airflow that the temperatures never rise to anything we would consider a problem. It can get warm, but this isn't the machine you will be using on your lap for hours anyway. It is very heavy and blocking the vents with clothing is not a good idea.

The InsydeH20 bios is surprisingly good, offering a variety of settings for customising the machine.

The user interface is easy enough to navigate and there are settings for all areas of the machine. If you aren't comfortable with bios settings, then just leave it as is, there are no glaring problems with the default configuration.

Alienware/Dell explain a little about the overclocking capabilities, but they clearly want users to either leave the machine as is, or to use one of the three built in overclocking settings. The machine was shipped at a ‘Level 1' setting, but both ‘Level 2' and ‘Level 3' offer slight improvements without sacrificing stability. The image above shows our slightly tweaked ratio limits which offer slightly higher performance than the preconfigured settings.

We used MSI's Afterburner to overclock both graphics cards and settled on a final figure of 825mhz core and 650mhz memory. We found they would overclock slightly higher, but overclocking a laptop system is more delicate than a desktop considering the more constrained airflow. Playing ‘a little safe' is always a wise long term choice.

The overclocking really helps to boost overall performance, clearly noticeable from both the results above. An increase of 800 points in 3dMark 11 is substantial.

The overclocked settings enable the i7-2960XM Extreme Edition to outperform the reference clocked i7 2600k by a clear margin.

Overclocking the processor enables it to perform at almost identical levels when directly compared against the reference clocked desktop Core i7 2600k. Excellent results.

Over the years Alienware have earned a reputation for creating some of the finest gaming laptops available to the enthusiast user. With such a wealth of configuration options, the M18x reinforces the brand name and cements their position, right at the top of the ‘no compromises' pile.

Of course, this machine will be tailored for a small audience. People with a high amount of disposable budget, and those who want a desktop replacement without having to compromise on performance. With our chosen configuration, the M18x accepts no compromises and it just blasted through all our testing. The Intel Core i7-2960XM Extreme Edition is an absolutely incredible mobile processor and with it at the heart of a system full time duties as a rendering and video encoding station are easily feasible. The only problem is that it adds £850 to the asking price.

The Nvidia mobile 560m graphics cards are very impressive, and in an SLI configuration they can maintain solid frame rates at 1080p with all game engines available today. It is worth mentioning that we didn't test solely with old Direct X 9 titles today either, we included intensive Direct X 11 titles such as Total War Shogun 2 and the excellent F1 2011. If you want even more power then Nvidia 580m SLI is an option, but be prepared to add another £840 to the final price.

The overall build quality is superb and it is hard to find fault. The system backlighting options are phenomenal and really add to the overall appearance. That said, we do wish that Dell would reinforce the keyboard a little to remove the minimal amount of flex. This really should not be noticeable on a machine at this price point. Internal build quality was faultless and the engineer who assembled the machine clearly took his time.

We were extremely impressed with the WLED 1080p screen. Backlighting was consistent across the full width of the panel, and it offered enough brightness to be used in daylight. For high definition media playback and gaming it excelled and is easily as good as the best screens we have seen used on the high end Apple Macbook Pro laptops.

Noise levels are reasonably good, the M18x will remain quiet until tasked hard with 100% CPU load, or when powering a Direct X game at high settings. As an insanely specified desktop replacement we can accept a certain amount of noise.

We did find out that Dell are using Sata 3Gbps Solid State drives, which is slightly disappointing, especially as our testing highlighted that a Sandforce SF-2281 powered drive was capable of maintaining 450 MB/s+ sequential transfer speeds (rather than 250 MB/s+). The motherboard has SATA 6Gbps capability, so why not use it?

The machine we reviewed today was custom specified to £3,568 inc vat and is it without a doubt the most powerful laptop we have reviewed to date. Nothing has even came close.

Specify your own over here.

Pros:

• Overall performance is staggering.
• As powerful as a high end Core i7 2600k desktop gaming system.
• Build quality is exceptional.
• Onboard lighting system is a lesson in how it should be done.
• Can power the latest Direct X 11 games.
• Fantastic 1080p panel.
• Strong upgrade options.
• Is supplied with three pre-overclocked bios settings.
• Can be overclocked even further in the right hands.
• Klipsch onboard speaker system is impressive.

Cons:

• Heavy.
• Expensive.
• 3GBps SATA drive used.
• Some keyboard flex.
• Cooling system can be heard when taxed hard.

Kitguru says: The most powerful laptop we have reviewed to date. Nothing comes close.

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