The Alienware Notebook: A Beast of a Machine

As we take a closer look at this sleek and powerful notebook from Alienware, it's easy to see why it's generating so much excitement among gamers and tech enthusiasts. The machine is equipped with a quad-core Intel Core i7 2630QM processor at 2.3 GHz, which can be turbo boosted up to 2.9 GHz, providing a significant boost in performance for demanding tasks like gaming.

The notebook also boasts an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M mobile graphics processor, giving it a substantial edge over other machines on the market when it comes to graphical capabilities. This makes it an ideal choice for those who want to play the latest games without sacrificing too much in terms of performance or battery life.

One of the standout features of this notebook is its gorgeous display, which comes in two different resolutions: 1366x768 at 16:9 and a higher-end option with a resolution of 1600x900. The display is also surrounded by a sleek and modern design that gives it a premium feel.

However, despite its impressive specs, the machine does have a drawback - its battery life. With an 8-cell battery on board, Alienware claims that the notebook can last around 6 hours on a charge. While this may not be enough for heavy gaming sessions, it should still provide more than enough power to get through everyday tasks like browsing the web or watching movies.

In terms of design and build quality, the machine is built solidly and feels substantial in the hand. The rubberized finish gives it a premium feel, while the thermal take level 10 cooling system ensures that the machine stays cool even during intense gaming sessions.

The notebook's dimensions are also worth noting - with a weight of 6.2 pounds for the 14-inch model, it may not be the most portable option for those who need to carry their laptop around frequently. However, its size and weight are likely to appeal to gamers who want a high-performance machine that can still deliver in terms of portability.

In conclusion, this Alienware notebook is a beast of a machine that's sure to impress anyone who sees it. With its impressive specs, gorgeous display, and premium design, it's an ideal choice for gamers who want a powerful machine without sacrificing too much in terms of style or substance.

Alienware Command Center: Customization Made Easy

One of the best features of this notebook is its Alienware Command Center, which allows users to customize various aspects of their machine with ease. The Command Center gives users access to a range of tools and settings that can be used to adjust everything from the display brightness and keyboard backlighting to the machine's performance settings and cooling options.

The Command Center also allows users to configure different zones on the notebook for gaming purposes, making it easy to switch between different modes or adjust the machine's settings to suit individual preferences. With its intuitive interface and range of customization options, the Alienware Command Center is a great tool for anyone who wants to get the most out of their machine.

Contest Alert: Hot Hardware Dads and Grads Giveaway

In other news, we're excited to announce that our contest with Hot Hardware is just around the corner. The contest, which ends on June 27th, offers up an incredible prize package consisting of a quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor, paired with a 512GB SSD from Kingston and dual Radeon HD 6870 graphics.

The system will be encased in a stunning Thermal Take Level 10 case, giving it a premium look that's sure to turn heads. We'll also throw in some additional goodies, including a side of cable management and a personalized gift for the winner.

To enter the contest, all you need to do is visit our website at hothardware.com and participate in the comments section. We'll announce the winner shortly after the contest closes, so be sure to check back in regularly for updates on the competition.

Social Media Links

If you're eager to stay up-to-date with the latest news and announcements from Hot Hardware, we recommend following us on social media. You can find our official accounts on Twitter (@Hardware), Facebook (facebook.com/Hardware), YouTube (youtube.com/Hardware vids), and Dig (dig.com/Hardware).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this Alienware notebook is a powerhouse machine that's sure to delight anyone who sees it. With its impressive specs, gorgeous display, and premium design, it's an ideal choice for gamers who want a high-performance machine without sacrificing too much in terms of style or substance.

We'll be putting this machine through our rigorous benchmarking process in the coming days, so be sure to check back in regularly for updates on our findings. In the meantime, we invite you to join us at hothardware.com for all your tech news and reviews needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis episode of Two and a Half Geeks is brought to you by data robotics drobo you may be familiar with drobo for the home user but for small to mediumsized companies check out drobo.com buus for simple sophisticated storage solutions for the Enterprise coming up on Two and a Half Geeks AMD is really ticked at babco and just decided to leave Dell's got two laptops an XPS and an Alienware they are nothing alike I'm assured by Marco and there's plenty more including more information about the contest the bar has been set wicked fast it rocked in the benchmarks we're going to up the Annie a little bit processing power I kind of understand this welcome back to two and a half Geeks I'm I actar alongside Dave altavilla and Marco chapeta how are you guys doing doing great how you doing brother good good how about Dave how about I'm I'm well thank you and yourself I'm still good that's why Dave's doing not so great because I I told him he's got to stay in his chair and he can't spin or move or do anything so I'm fidgety he's very very unhappy about that that's why we're going to start with Marco to punish Dave we're going to talk about AMD this is the headline at hot Hardware AMD gives bapco the bird chirps about unfair cyark Benchmark as I understand it there is some kind of Benchmark that a bunch of different companies are a part of this is this is the whole bco situation so there's Intel AMD Nvidia and they're all on some kind of uh I don't know a committee of some kind and so Nvidia not Nvidia AMD was saying that this was unfair Marco could you fill in all the gaps I'm I'm I'm making here because I don't fully understand the story sure so bapco is a Consortium of basically well was a Consortium of all the major Hardware vendors and a handful of major software players as well and bapco created benchmarks um that would supposedly evaluate the total system performance of a PC um designed to help Corporate America make buying decisions on what kind of PCS they need for their applications now bapco is also used some websites like hot Hardware some other Publications um we use it for system level reviews as well and what has happened is over the course of the last couple of years during the development of cismark 2012 uh AMD I guess put forth many proposals 80 of which bapco says were approved but many of which were not and now that the Benchmark is complete AMD saying it it is it is not a valid representation of current system performance it does not Leverage The GPU enough and hence it is is not fair to their products so they didn't say it's not fair to their products but obviously they're leaving because it doesn't paint their newer Fusion products you know in a great light because it's heavily dependent on CPU performance and Intel has a huge Advantage there so CIS Mark looks like the Intel show now that there there are other companies too nvidia's there and there was a bunch of other non-intel companies there did they also leave or did they stay do they also find the test to be unfair for them well it it's funny um I'm going to have to just give give credit to semi accurate Charlie demerson actually got statements from Nvidia and Via who also left babco also left the Consortium um right around the same time AMD did last week so now it's really just Intel on the major Hardware front and a bunch of software people so you know it kind of marginalizes bapco completely cismark according to via AMD and Nvidia is not representative of real world system performance the way people use their PCS today so hence they are withdrawing from bapco and you know it's interesting I I sort of see where they're coming from because CIS Mark 2012 even though it's just coming out still uses even older web browsers that don't offer any kind of GPU acceleration so who cares how the browser test is if it's not leveraging any of the GPU horsepower so I don't know kind of an interesting discussion it's going to make us all have to think about how we evaluate the performance of a PC yeah Dave where do you think you're going to go for your performance benchmarks then are you going to just marginalize this Mark entirely and just say okay look well it's only for Intel so what's the point in using this I mean how are you how is this going to affect your actual testing yeah I I think it's it's it's pretty huge I mean when you have that sort of critical mass leaving the Consortium to you know approve and ratify you know the the test methodologies and and the uh applications and the test Suites that are in this Benchmark when you have that you know number of uh you know major players defecting uh you know it's it just totally takes the um you know I guess relevance out of out of the tool for us um or at the very least um you know sort of paints a little bit of you know a negative light on it in in fact that you know these other major players feel it's biased uh towards you know other CPU architectures or other uh you know performance uh metrics that are less important to the consumer and and that's huge I mean at the end of the day um our our Benchmark numbers our performance evaluations are only as good as the tools we use and if some of these major players numerous not just one now uh don't feel they're fair then you know we have an issue with it too let's talk about a review of a laptop I know you guys have the Dell XPS 15z which if I remember right looks kind of just exactly like the MacBook uh is Dave how did it actually what do you think of the laptop first and then what what could you tell us about it sure well you know I I think um folks sort of uh you know are a little bit overzealous in that claim that it looks like a Macbook I think I think they're giving a little too much credit to Apple on this uh it certainly has some design cues that are uh akin to the MacBook line um you know certainly you know chrome finish you know aluminum and uh uh you know sort of silver clad machine does have some sty qes in that direction but it it's actually a very well-built machine a very thin machine uh dell claims the thinnest 15inch on the market and um it is it's less than an inch thick it's it's gorgeous um backlit keyboard you know these sort of uh shaped key caps uh very comfortable typing experience um very nice um screen uh 15.6 in 1920 x 1080 native res has an Nvidia GeForce gt52 on board and we tested one with a core i7 2620 dual core with hyperthreading uh so four threads available to the operating system at 2.7 GHz and 8 gig of RAM um you know really nice machine put up some really nice Benchmark numbers uh it's the kind of machine you know at at 5 and a half pounds that guys like me I I actually don't mind carrying a little bit of weight in my bag that that I would travel with without hesitation it's beautiful machine so how was the actual performance I mean I think performance per dollar almost because if this was a MacBook Pro it probably cost something like I'd say 3500 bucks you're talking about 8 gigs of RAM and you're talking about a n actually you can't even get that display I don't think on a MacBook just yet I don't think they do 1080p on the 15inch I got to double check that how was the performance like for the price oh it's it's fantastic I mean you know for the for the price and especially when you put it when you compare it to the MacBook Pro I mean hey let let let's be fair now if you're going to say it looks like a MacBook Pro Pro then let's compare the the internals and the performance and the value per dollar that you get uh that's that's a very good point iaz um you know I think the 15-inch MacBook Pro starts at $799 ours as tested fully loaded with 8 gigs of RAM a discret you know Nvidia GeForce GPU Etc was $15.99 so 200 bucks uh less right off the bat versus even the base model MacBook Pro um ton of horsepower under the hood you're talking about a 2.7 gig uh dual core uh Sandy Bridge processor and an Nvidia GeForce uh gt525m mobile processor on board with Optimus switching so you know it'll it'll switch to the GPU when you need some gaming and switch off when you don't and um you know in terms of you know gaming and multimedia it's it's actually get plenty of horsepower under the hood for some some light duty gaming you know some some lower res stuff maybe uh 720p sort of resolution with uh medium image quality no problem on this GPU and uh the processor is more than capable for just about anything you could throw at it so real nice machine for the money and uh base price starting at $9.99 if you if you really want to get cheap about it yeah actually I just while you were talking I priced out the MacBook Pro at 15 in its display maxes out at 1680 x150 and the processor maxes out at 2.3 GHz and when I put 8 GB of RAM it cost 2749 here we go there you go that's pretty that's a grand yeah so what I'm suggesting if you really do like the Apple experience buy the XPS and put OS 10 on it if you feel like it that's if you feel like I didn't say that oh no no no that that is not a hot Hardware recommendation although I think the viewers that they felt like it could do it uh let's talk about something we don't talk about much of speakers there's a Logitech z906 speaker system that you guys reviewed and looking at the picture of this thing it looks more like a home theater setup there seems to even be like a a huge control module what looks like to be a receiver of some kind uh what could you tell us about this so This is actually logitech's brand new top-of-the-line 5.1 Channel speaker system uh Logitech Z 5500s were for years considered one of the best 5.1 Channel multimedia speaker system for PCs and they kind of you know sat a top that perch for a long time well logitech's here with the z906 is which we've reviewed uh it it's a 5.1 Channel system as you mentioned 500 watts total RMS and it does now include this control pod with a wireless remote but it has six inputs now so while it is a PC speaker system it can be used in a home theater setup you have multiple inputs you can switch between them easily with the control pod and the Pod is is kind of sized just right to fit in a home theater environment too so you end up with a it I'm I'm going to say it's one of the better 5.1 Channel systems it they are only single drivers and all the satellites so you don't get quite the crisp you know Ultra clear highs as you would with a you know a multi-driver setup but a killer speaker system all around our man Paul really liked them and they're they're not terribly pricey when you consider you know you get a a Class D amp with the sub the five channels the control module and a remote for a street pice around 320 bucks now now looking at this this control pod you're talking about I mean I would imagine a lot of this would used to be used to be done uh via software you probably have like a control panel there how did you find or how did hot Hardware find the use of a control pod to access everything it seems like it seems really consumer friendly it actually is because they the the remote is also really simple so you don't have to walk up to the control pod and say you know switch inputs from your Playstation to your PC or you know your Blu-ray player to your to your PC you can switch inputs and control some of the basic functions right from a wireless remote and the Pod has lots of um you know lots of indicators and simple switches so while it looks kind of busy it we did find it to be easy to switch between the inputs and and adjust you know output quality volume and all that kind of goodness it's it's another it's probably logitech's best speaker system you know it it's deservedly pushed the z5500 off the top and the z906 is are now logitech's Premier system it's safe to say that well let's talk about another D laptop but this one's the Alienware and this thing will never ever be mistaken for a MacBook Pro this is the m14x a sneak peek Dave I know you have it right there you showed to me before the show let just show the audience what it is because that thing is really pretty sure and actually you know I'll take one step back on the XPS 15z and say uh we gave Dell the editor's choice on that laptop we liked it so much so just a not notable there big as risk there let's let's talk about this this Alienware though yeah well you know more from from the folks at Dell but their Alienware Division and this thing is lining up for some high marks as well this is one cool sleek and badass might I say looking machine uh this is the uh m14x it is a 14inch Alienware machine and as you can see backlit keyboard here we've got it in uh sort of an alien red angry alien red mode you can change those colors with uh Alien uh Command Center and you can change the colors in like three or four different zones on the keyboard for gaming purposes um just a really really nice machine you've got a quad core in here core i7 2630 qm at GHz and uh you know that has turbo boost I think to something like 2.9 You' got Nvidia GeForce GT 555m mobile graphics processor in there and uh so a little bit more horsepower than the XPS 15z gorgeous display uh let's see there's a couple different options for display you've got I'm looking it up now I had it in front of me where did it go 1366x768 and 16 by9 uh on the display if you wanted the high-end uh version 1600x 900 resolution uh 6 and 12 pound machine and absolutely cool and sleek and looks a little bit like a little muscle car now you said 6 and a half pounds so it's pretty hefty so since people are going to be using this for gaming I'm going to assume that it's got no battery life uh and you'd probably be wrong oh good that's always good to know it's got an8 cell battery on board uh I we researched that uh we we just got the machine in the other day I mean literally showed up on our doc on Friday um so eight cell battery on board and with nvidia's Optimus again switching you know graphic switching capability when you're on the desktop um this machine is probably going to last well Dell claims around 6 hours on a charge or I should say Alienware uh the division of Dell La said it lasts about 6 hours on a charge uh you're not going to get six hours gaming guaranteed uh you're probably going to get somewhere uh south of that if you're doing some heavy duty ging gaming I'm going to guess probably uh something around a couple hours um but you know browsing the web maybe watching a movie you know running on the igp and Sandy bridge and and the processor on board uh I'm sure you could approach the uh 5H hour mark or six-hour Mark we're going to do full Benchmark uh run on this thing and also some battery life testing as well so we'll let you know but it's got an ell battery on board and so that's why it's a little bit heavier 6 and2 PBS for a 14-inch machine um it's it's it's not uh a felt notebook by any stretch but it's it's built solid really nice texture uh rubberized finish um great accents and uh we're expecting big things from it really really sharp looking notebook want to make any promises on when we can see the review on hot Hardware want to say a week or two six say a week week and a half yeah so hang tight definitely hang tight or if you want to go hot Hardware right now you could check out uh some information about the contest that's being run right now uh Marco could you tell the audience about the contest I can we are actually in the the final days by the time this H podcast goes live we may have even announced the winner um we're going to announce this this coming week the 27th the contest ends it's the hot Hardware dads and grads giveaway uh it is a going to be a beautiful quad core AMD Phenom 2 X4 980 Black Edition powered machine that Dave and I are going to put together um complete with you know SSD from Kingston Kingston memory a dual Radeon 6870 Graphics going to be a great gaming system all encased in a sick thermal take level 10 you got to come by the site check out the picture the system looks awesome if you haven't been commenting and you're going to join now to go see the picture though you're not going to win you had to be around for a while and participate on the site so uh be sure to come by the site check out the winner soon and we will announce the next contest as soon as we can so if you want to find out anything about the contest or future contest or anything we talked about at Today's Show check out hot hardware.com but maybe you want to go around the web you want to get it on something like Twitter that's good we we have stuff for that there's twitter.com Hardware there's dig.com Hardware there's youtube.com/ Hardware vids and there's a one I'm forgetting oh that small company called Facebook facebook.com/ Hardware so you can go there and you can see great hot Hardware content all over the web that's right for you guys so for your convenience so we're very glad to bring that to you anyway that wraps up this episode of Two and a Half Geeks does anyone want to say anything before we leave thank you for stopping bythis episode of Two and a Half Geeks is brought to you by data robotics drobo you may be familiar with drobo for the home user but for small to mediumsized companies check out drobo.com buus for simple sophisticated storage solutions for the Enterprise coming up on Two and a Half Geeks AMD is really ticked at babco and just decided to leave Dell's got two laptops an XPS and an Alienware they are nothing alike I'm assured by Marco and there's plenty more including more information about the contest the bar has been set wicked fast it rocked in the benchmarks we're going to up the Annie a little bit processing power I kind of understand this welcome back to two and a half Geeks I'm I actar alongside Dave altavilla and Marco chapeta how are you guys doing doing great how you doing brother good good how about Dave how about I'm I'm well thank you and yourself I'm still good that's why Dave's doing not so great because I I told him he's got to stay in his chair and he can't spin or move or do anything so I'm fidgety he's very very unhappy about that that's why we're going to start with Marco to punish Dave we're going to talk about AMD this is the headline at hot Hardware AMD gives bapco the bird chirps about unfair cyark Benchmark as I understand it there is some kind of Benchmark that a bunch of different companies are a part of this is this is the whole bco situation so there's Intel AMD Nvidia and they're all on some kind of uh I don't know a committee of some kind and so Nvidia not Nvidia AMD was saying that this was unfair Marco could you fill in all the gaps I'm I'm I'm making here because I don't fully understand the story sure so bapco is a Consortium of basically well was a Consortium of all the major Hardware vendors and a handful of major software players as well and bapco created benchmarks um that would supposedly evaluate the total system performance of a PC um designed to help Corporate America make buying decisions on what kind of PCS they need for their applications now bapco is also used some websites like hot Hardware some other Publications um we use it for system level reviews as well and what has happened is over the course of the last couple of years during the development of cismark 2012 uh AMD I guess put forth many proposals 80 of which bapco says were approved but many of which were not and now that the Benchmark is complete AMD saying it it is it is not a valid representation of current system performance it does not Leverage The GPU enough and hence it is is not fair to their products so they didn't say it's not fair to their products but obviously they're leaving because it doesn't paint their newer Fusion products you know in a great light because it's heavily dependent on CPU performance and Intel has a huge Advantage there so CIS Mark looks like the Intel show now that there there are other companies too nvidia's there and there was a bunch of other non-intel companies there did they also leave or did they stay do they also find the test to be unfair for them well it it's funny um I'm going to have to just give give credit to semi accurate Charlie demerson actually got statements from Nvidia and Via who also left babco also left the Consortium um right around the same time AMD did last week so now it's really just Intel on the major Hardware front and a bunch of software people so you know it kind of marginalizes bapco completely cismark according to via AMD and Nvidia is not representative of real world system performance the way people use their PCS today so hence they are withdrawing from bapco and you know it's interesting I I sort of see where they're coming from because CIS Mark 2012 even though it's just coming out still uses even older web browsers that don't offer any kind of GPU acceleration so who cares how the browser test is if it's not leveraging any of the GPU horsepower so I don't know kind of an interesting discussion it's going to make us all have to think about how we evaluate the performance of a PC yeah Dave where do you think you're going to go for your performance benchmarks then are you going to just marginalize this Mark entirely and just say okay look well it's only for Intel so what's the point in using this I mean how are you how is this going to affect your actual testing yeah I I think it's it's it's pretty huge I mean when you have that sort of critical mass leaving the Consortium to you know approve and ratify you know the the test methodologies and and the uh applications and the test Suites that are in this Benchmark when you have that you know number of uh you know major players defecting uh you know it's it just totally takes the um you know I guess relevance out of out of the tool for us um or at the very least um you know sort of paints a little bit of you know a negative light on it in in fact that you know these other major players feel it's biased uh towards you know other CPU architectures or other uh you know performance uh metrics that are less important to the consumer and and that's huge I mean at the end of the day um our our Benchmark numbers our performance evaluations are only as good as the tools we use and if some of these major players numerous not just one now uh don't feel they're fair then you know we have an issue with it too let's talk about a review of a laptop I know you guys have the Dell XPS 15z which if I remember right looks kind of just exactly like the MacBook uh is Dave how did it actually what do you think of the laptop first and then what what could you tell us about it sure well you know I I think um folks sort of uh you know are a little bit overzealous in that claim that it looks like a Macbook I think I think they're giving a little too much credit to Apple on this uh it certainly has some design cues that are uh akin to the MacBook line um you know certainly you know chrome finish you know aluminum and uh uh you know sort of silver clad machine does have some sty qes in that direction but it it's actually a very well-built machine a very thin machine uh dell claims the thinnest 15inch on the market and um it is it's less than an inch thick it's it's gorgeous um backlit keyboard you know these sort of uh shaped key caps uh very comfortable typing experience um very nice um screen uh 15.6 in 1920 x 1080 native res has an Nvidia GeForce gt52 on board and we tested one with a core i7 2620 dual core with hyperthreading uh so four threads available to the operating system at 2.7 GHz and 8 gig of RAM um you know really nice machine put up some really nice Benchmark numbers uh it's the kind of machine you know at at 5 and a half pounds that guys like me I I actually don't mind carrying a little bit of weight in my bag that that I would travel with without hesitation it's beautiful machine so how was the actual performance I mean I think performance per dollar almost because if this was a MacBook Pro it probably cost something like I'd say 3500 bucks you're talking about 8 gigs of RAM and you're talking about a n actually you can't even get that display I don't think on a MacBook just yet I don't think they do 1080p on the 15inch I got to double check that how was the performance like for the price oh it's it's fantastic I mean you know for the for the price and especially when you put it when you compare it to the MacBook Pro I mean hey let let let's be fair now if you're going to say it looks like a MacBook Pro Pro then let's compare the the internals and the performance and the value per dollar that you get uh that's that's a very good point iaz um you know I think the 15-inch MacBook Pro starts at $799 ours as tested fully loaded with 8 gigs of RAM a discret you know Nvidia GeForce GPU Etc was $15.99 so 200 bucks uh less right off the bat versus even the base model MacBook Pro um ton of horsepower under the hood you're talking about a 2.7 gig uh dual core uh Sandy Bridge processor and an Nvidia GeForce uh gt525m mobile processor on board with Optimus switching so you know it'll it'll switch to the GPU when you need some gaming and switch off when you don't and um you know in terms of you know gaming and multimedia it's it's actually get plenty of horsepower under the hood for some some light duty gaming you know some some lower res stuff maybe uh 720p sort of resolution with uh medium image quality no problem on this GPU and uh the processor is more than capable for just about anything you could throw at it so real nice machine for the money and uh base price starting at $9.99 if you if you really want to get cheap about it yeah actually I just while you were talking I priced out the MacBook Pro at 15 in its display maxes out at 1680 x150 and the processor maxes out at 2.3 GHz and when I put 8 GB of RAM it cost 2749 here we go there you go that's pretty that's a grand yeah so what I'm suggesting if you really do like the Apple experience buy the XPS and put OS 10 on it if you feel like it that's if you feel like I didn't say that oh no no no that that is not a hot Hardware recommendation although I think the viewers that they felt like it could do it uh let's talk about something we don't talk about much of speakers there's a Logitech z906 speaker system that you guys reviewed and looking at the picture of this thing it looks more like a home theater setup there seems to even be like a a huge control module what looks like to be a receiver of some kind uh what could you tell us about this so This is actually logitech's brand new top-of-the-line 5.1 Channel speaker system uh Logitech Z 5500s were for years considered one of the best 5.1 Channel multimedia speaker system for PCs and they kind of you know sat a top that perch for a long time well logitech's here with the z906 is which we've reviewed uh it it's a 5.1 Channel system as you mentioned 500 watts total RMS and it does now include this control pod with a wireless remote but it has six inputs now so while it is a PC speaker system it can be used in a home theater setup you have multiple inputs you can switch between them easily with the control pod and the Pod is is kind of sized just right to fit in a home theater environment too so you end up with a it I'm I'm going to say it's one of the better 5.1 Channel systems it they are only single drivers and all the satellites so you don't get quite the crisp you know Ultra clear highs as you would with a you know a multi-driver setup but a killer speaker system all around our man Paul really liked them and they're they're not terribly pricey when you consider you know you get a a Class D amp with the sub the five channels the control module and a remote for a street pice around 320 bucks now now looking at this this control pod you're talking about I mean I would imagine a lot of this would used to be used to be done uh via software you probably have like a control panel there how did you find or how did hot Hardware find the use of a control pod to access everything it seems like it seems really consumer friendly it actually is because they the the remote is also really simple so you don't have to walk up to the control pod and say you know switch inputs from your Playstation to your PC or you know your Blu-ray player to your to your PC you can switch inputs and control some of the basic functions right from a wireless remote and the Pod has lots of um you know lots of indicators and simple switches so while it looks kind of busy it we did find it to be easy to switch between the inputs and and adjust you know output quality volume and all that kind of goodness it's it's another it's probably logitech's best speaker system you know it it's deservedly pushed the z5500 off the top and the z906 is are now logitech's Premier system it's safe to say that well let's talk about another D laptop but this one's the Alienware and this thing will never ever be mistaken for a MacBook Pro this is the m14x a sneak peek Dave I know you have it right there you showed to me before the show let just show the audience what it is because that thing is really pretty sure and actually you know I'll take one step back on the XPS 15z and say uh we gave Dell the editor's choice on that laptop we liked it so much so just a not notable there big as risk there let's let's talk about this this Alienware though yeah well you know more from from the folks at Dell but their Alienware Division and this thing is lining up for some high marks as well this is one cool sleek and badass might I say looking machine uh this is the uh m14x it is a 14inch Alienware machine and as you can see backlit keyboard here we've got it in uh sort of an alien red angry alien red mode you can change those colors with uh Alien uh Command Center and you can change the colors in like three or four different zones on the keyboard for gaming purposes um just a really really nice machine you've got a quad core in here core i7 2630 qm at GHz and uh you know that has turbo boost I think to something like 2.9 You' got Nvidia GeForce GT 555m mobile graphics processor in there and uh so a little bit more horsepower than the XPS 15z gorgeous display uh let's see there's a couple different options for display you've got I'm looking it up now I had it in front of me where did it go 1366x768 and 16 by9 uh on the display if you wanted the high-end uh version 1600x 900 resolution uh 6 and 12 pound machine and absolutely cool and sleek and looks a little bit like a little muscle car now you said 6 and a half pounds so it's pretty hefty so since people are going to be using this for gaming I'm going to assume that it's got no battery life uh and you'd probably be wrong oh good that's always good to know it's got an8 cell battery on board uh I we researched that uh we we just got the machine in the other day I mean literally showed up on our doc on Friday um so eight cell battery on board and with nvidia's Optimus again switching you know graphic switching capability when you're on the desktop um this machine is probably going to last well Dell claims around 6 hours on a charge or I should say Alienware uh the division of Dell La said it lasts about 6 hours on a charge uh you're not going to get six hours gaming guaranteed uh you're probably going to get somewhere uh south of that if you're doing some heavy duty ging gaming I'm going to guess probably uh something around a couple hours um but you know browsing the web maybe watching a movie you know running on the igp and Sandy bridge and and the processor on board uh I'm sure you could approach the uh 5H hour mark or six-hour Mark we're going to do full Benchmark uh run on this thing and also some battery life testing as well so we'll let you know but it's got an ell battery on board and so that's why it's a little bit heavier 6 and2 PBS for a 14-inch machine um it's it's it's not uh a felt notebook by any stretch but it's it's built solid really nice texture uh rubberized finish um great accents and uh we're expecting big things from it really really sharp looking notebook want to make any promises on when we can see the review on hot Hardware want to say a week or two six say a week week and a half yeah so hang tight definitely hang tight or if you want to go hot Hardware right now you could check out uh some information about the contest that's being run right now uh Marco could you tell the audience about the contest I can we are actually in the the final days by the time this H podcast goes live we may have even announced the winner um we're going to announce this this coming week the 27th the contest ends it's the hot Hardware dads and grads giveaway uh it is a going to be a beautiful quad core AMD Phenom 2 X4 980 Black Edition powered machine that Dave and I are going to put together um complete with you know SSD from Kingston Kingston memory a dual Radeon 6870 Graphics going to be a great gaming system all encased in a sick thermal take level 10 you got to come by the site check out the picture the system looks awesome if you haven't been commenting and you're going to join now to go see the picture though you're not going to win you had to be around for a while and participate on the site so uh be sure to come by the site check out the winner soon and we will announce the next contest as soon as we can so if you want to find out anything about the contest or future contest or anything we talked about at Today's Show check out hot hardware.com but maybe you want to go around the web you want to get it on something like Twitter that's good we we have stuff for that there's twitter.com Hardware there's dig.com Hardware there's youtube.com/ Hardware vids and there's a one I'm forgetting oh that small company called Facebook facebook.com/ Hardware so you can go there and you can see great hot Hardware content all over the web that's right for you guys so for your convenience so we're very glad to bring that to you anyway that wraps up this episode of Two and a Half Geeks does anyone want to say anything before we leave thank you for stopping by\n"