Review Alienware 14 Notebook

Alienware completely redesigned its gaming notebooks. The 14-inch version with the simple designation "14" (formerly M14x) has almost no similarities with its predecessors. The futuristic styling is once again a matter of taste but we like the new design.

The striking lines with the heavily beveled front and the comprehensive illumination certainly stand out from the competition. Thanks to several individual illumination areas and the convenient software it is easy to adjust the lights according to your preferences. This is accompanied by a well-balanced choice of colors. The silver display cover and the silver speaker covers create a nice contrast to the dark-gray surfaces.  

The choice of materials should also convince most users. The display cover is made of anodized aluminum; the palm rest and the display frame are rubberized. As long as you avoid touching the device with greasy fingers it does not really attract any dirt. Alienware almost completely waives glossy materials and uses a matte finish instead. The fact that the bottom is made of plastic is only a small drawback and does not really damage the high quality impression.

There is absolutely no criticism with the build quality. There are just small discrepancies at most, a large part of the competition is considerably worse in this regard. All in all, the case leaves a very high quality impression. 

This good impression does however depend on other factors as well. The 14-inch device has a very good stability, especially the base unit cannot be pushed in even under concentrated pressure. Only the display cover could have been a bit more torsion resistant. Alienware also deserves our respect for the good hinges; you can open the display with one hand but it hardly bounces at all. 

We do not like the bulky design; with dimensions of 335 x 258 x 42 millimeters and a weight of 2.9 kilograms the gaming device could easily be a 15-inch notebook. The competitor DevilTech Fire DT14 (MSI Barebone) is 1.5 cm thinner and one kilogram lighter despite the similarly powerful hardware. The Alienware 14 is not really the most portable notebook.

Software

Although some other manufacturers preinstall less software (Schenker, One) the buyer does not get a hard drive full of bloatware. Besides several drivers Alienware also installs some custom tools on the system. You can maintain the system via AlienAutopsy or create a backup with AlienRespawn, for example.

The most interesting application however is the Command Center. You can adjust the illumination via Alien-FX menu and AlienFusion offers numerous energy saving settings. AlienTouch is - as the name already suggests - for the touchpad.

Accessories

The box content is quite meager. Alienware does include a Resource and Applications DVD but our review unit had no recovery DVD for the Windows operating system. Instead of a full manual you just get a thin quick-start guide. The power supply unit (150 Watts) is very compact with a height of 2.5 cm and a weight of 530 grams.

Warranty

Despite the high price the manufacturer only offers a twelve-month warranty. However, this is not a common bring-in or pickup & return service but some kind of premium warranty with on-site repair service. You can also add a one year accident protection for 55 Euros (~$72).

Processor

The gaming notebook is equipped with a quad-core processor based on Intel's Haswell architecture. Although the Core i7-4800MQ and Core i7-4900MQ are significantly faster in some benchmarks, the Core i7-4700MQ offers adequate performance.

Like its similar clocked predecessor Core i7-3630QM the 22 nm CPU has a 6 MB L3-cache. The TDP was slightly raised by Intel: Instead of 45 Watts it is now 47 Watts for the Core i7-4700MQ.

The massive performance of the processor is partly enabled by the Turbo Boost technology (automatic overclocking) and a feature called Hyper Threading. The latter assigns every real core a virtual partner. 

We should not forget the integrated graphics chip HD Graphics 4600. Combined with Nvidia's Optimus technology the Alienware 14 can easily switch between the Intel GPU and the dedicated graphics card. This solution offers multiple advantages like a lower energy consumption and longer battery runtimes.

As we already mentioned the graphics card is a model from Nvidia's 700-series. While the GeForce GT 750M with 384 united shaders and 1,024 MB GDDR5 memory is a mainstream solution, the GeForce GTX 765M with twice as many CUDA cores and 2,048 MB GDDR5 VRAM is a high-end graphics card.  

The two DirectX 11 GPUs are very similar in some categories: Besides the 28 nm manufacturing process they also use the same memory interface (128-bit). The clocks are the only category where the GeForce GT 750M is ahead of the GeForce GTX 765M with 967 MHz (core) and 2,500 MHz (VRAM) compared to 850 and 2,000 MHz.

Thanks to the GPU Boost technology these clocks are not the end: If the GPU-Z values are correct (Sensors tab), the core clock of the GTX 765M is raised up to 902 MHz.

It is unfortunate that the manufacturer does not provide the latest drivers (yet). We used the preinstalled ForceWare 311.48 for this review, which cannot get the maximum performance out of the graphics card. An update to WHQL-version 320.49 was not successful because the software could not find the right hardware (this is also a problem for other notebooks with GeForce 700 graphics cards).

Our review unit is equipped with a combination of a 256 GB mSATA-SSD and a 750 GB HDD, which is the most expensive storage upgrade (+ 300 Euros, ~$397). The manufacturer integrates a very fast Solid State Drive with the designation LITEONIT LMT-256M6M.

The sequential read transfer rates are not on a reference level (~492 MB/s @ AS SSD Benchmark) but sequential write transfer rates of around 400 MB/s cannot be reached by the competition. With this result the mSATA-SSD is between the 128 GB version of the Toshiba HG5d (462 MB/s @ One K56-3F) and the 512 GB Samsung PM841 (319 MB/s @ Schenker XMG P723). The performance is behind the competitors when it comes to small files but the notebook is very responsive in practice. We determined access times of 0.07 ms (read) and 0.06 ms (write). 

The HDD is also very good; thanks to the 7,200 rpm we determine very high results for the Western Digital WD7500BPKT. 130 MB/s for sequential read and write transfers are pretty high for a conventional HDD, we usually see CrystalDiskMark results below 100 MB/s. Not even hybrid hard drives like the Seagate ST1000KM014 can keep up with the Western Digital. One drawback of the 7,200 rpm HDD is the high noise development (more on that later).   

The gaming performance depends on the system requirements of each game. About 2/3 of the tested games ran smoothly with maximum details and activated anti-aliasing. Among others this includes Modern Warfare 3, Darksiders 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, F1 2012, Borderlands 2 and Dishonored.

Risen 2, Hitman: Absolution, GRID 2 and Company of Heroes 2 however were too demanding for the highest graphics settings. High details and 2x AA is often the limit for the GeForce GTX 765M. We suggest you reduce the resolution for extremely demanding titles; even 1366x768 pixels were very sharp due to the good interpolation. 

All in all, the DirectX 11 GPU is comparable with the GeForce GTX 670MX, which is also based on the Kepler architecture. If you don't want to sacrifice picture quality you should buy a notebook with a GeForce GTX 770M or GTX 780M. However, most gamers will be happy with the Alienware 14; integrating a more powerful GPU in a 14-inch notebook would be quite difficult. 

System Noise

Gaming notebooks are notorious for their high noise development. The Alienware 14 confirms this prejudice; we measured 47 dB (average) during 3DMark06 - this is clearly audible and will definitely annoy some users. The CPU test even resulted in 52 dB, the notebook almost reminded us of a hair dryer in this scenario. 

The Turbo Boost is deactivated when the processor is under maximum load, so the result of the stress test was not as high but still very loud with 50 dB. Without headphones or a high volume setting of the speakers there will often be an overlapping with the game sound. Sensitive users should definitely avoid the device.   

The criticism for the 14-inch notebook is not that bad during idle. If the operating system is installed on the SSD the notebook can be very quiet (29 dB at a distance of 15 centimeters). As soon as the HDD is active we measure an audible 34 dB. But the most annoying part was the fan behavior: The fan spins up from time to time without any reason.  

Devices from Asus (G750JW) and MSI (GT70) are usually perceptibly quieter, but the Alienware 14 is not the only device with such a high noise development: Clevo barebones (compare the P157SM or the P177SM) show a similar behavior.

The temperatures leave a mixed impression. On the on hand the case surfaces warmed up to a perceptible 33-42 °C during idle, on the other hand the notebook was noticeably cooler under load than the competitor DevilTech Fire DT14, for instance.

Average surfaces temperatures of 38 °C (top) or 40 °C (bottom) respectively, are clearly surpassed by the MSI chassis (~43 °C). The maximum temperature of 41 °C compared to 61 °C is also lower. According to the author, longer gaming sessions should be no problem. 

Alienware uses some tricks to avoid very high component temperatures. Our stress test not only leads to a deactivated Turbo Boost feature but also caused throttling of the graphics card. Around 600 MHz (core) is about 30% below the nominal clock. As a result of these "optimizations" the maximum temperature of the GeForce GTX 765M was just 67 °C. The Core i7-4700MQ temperature was a lot higher with 80-90 °C. However, the temperatures were never in the critical area. 

The integrated sound system is very promising, at least in theory. A cooperation with the sound expert Klipsch, the Dolby Home Theater technology and a subwoofer: It seems that Alienware made everything right in regard to the software and hardware. 

Unfortunately, the result is not overwhelming. The high maximum volume and the decent bass cannot really compensate for the quite imprecise and muffled sound experience. You should not expect more than an average performance; similar to many other notebooks we recommend the use of a headset or external speakers. The Alienware 14 is not even close to the sound quality of an Asus N56/N76 or MSI GT60/GT70.

The fixed 6-cell battery (69 Wh, 6,000 mAh) does not really provide long battery runtimes for the gaming notebook. Around one hour under load (maximum brightness) and up to four hours during idle (minimum brightness) are no reasons for celebration. 

With an adjusted brightness at 150 cd/m² and balanced energy saving options you can manage around 3:45 hours during web browsing; DVD playback is possible for almost three hours. Despite the similar battery capacity the DevilTech Fire DT14 lasts considerably longer. In combination with the high weight the mobility of the Alienware 14 is very limited. 

Alienware's 14-inch reincarnation has several strengths but also numerous drawbacks. But let us start with the positive aspects. One of the biggest improvements is certainly the anti-reflective display. Compared to the M14x R2 there are almost no reflections at all and the good panel quality still ensures a high-contrast picture with rich colors.  

All in all, the notebook leaves a very high-quality impression. Besides the materials the build quality can also convince us; keyboard and touchpad are also very convenient to use. Further unique features are the flat power supply unit and the comprehensive illumination. Despite the somewhat pretentious appearance of the case, the individuality of the notebook is unrivaled and not every manufacturer would try to integrate a GeForce GTX 765M into a 14-inch case.   

But all that glitters is not gold. Battery runtimes, maintainability and temperatures are just average. The hefty weight (2.9 kilograms) and the exaggerated height might also scare off some users. Another weakness is the system noise; around 50 dB during gaming might be a reason for returning the notebook. 

We cannot really understand why Alienware even develops a 14-inch device. Wouldn't it be better to offer a 15-inch notebook with powerful high-end graphics cards (GTX 765M up to GTX 780M) and a 13-inch notebook with weaker GPU's (GT 740M up to GTX 760M)?