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Short Version: The witchdoctor perscribes this laptop!

Long Version:

Ordering Process: Easy. Alienware makes it very easy to order your computer. I did mine over the phone to facilitate the 2% military discount.

Phase Game: Painful! But this was a pre-order, I expected to wait. In my experience, the CS reps were as forthcoming as they could be. I have seen posters insinuate that CS reps are lying to them. I don't think so. It is a big company, I just doubt that they have all the information there at their fingertips.

Construction: Went fast. Nothing backordered. The only thing that held me up was the 4 July holidays.

Delivery: Speedy. 2-day shipping from FedEx. Was shipped on Friday and arrived at my house on Saturday.

Packaging: I see what folks mean by AW packaging. Very nicely done. Box was secure and in good shape when delivered. No tape cut, no dents or bruising to the bland outer cardboard box.

First Impressions: ZOMG, teh sexy! This laptop was thinner than I expected. It is my first AW and I kind of expected the AW lid to be rather thick -- it is not. It is also fairly light. Anyone who complains about this laptop's weight needs to put the mouse down and go to a gym. The screen is downright gorgeous. No dead pixels, extremely bright and crisp. I have no problems with reflections into the glossy screen, either. The only other thing that sruck me was the size of the power brick. It is big! About three times bigger than my Motorola "flip" cell phone.

Performance so far: All I asked for. Seriously. This is my new mistress. I have only played WoW briefly. But from what I have seen, it is an absolute charm. Wireless range and performance has been great. I really won't get to play much with the wireless until I start traveling again and hit some hotels. I have not noticed any great heat. In fact, I have been busy typing and surfing the internet for two hours and both palm rests and the back of the laptop are pretty cool to the touch. The palm rests are very cool to the touch, in fact.

Pictures:



Here she is right out of the box.



I set her up on the foam pads she shipped with to give an idea of how thin this laptop is.



Here is the power brick. That's my wife's little "flip" cell phone beside it. That phone sits easily in the palm of my hand -- the brick is larger than I expected.



This was a pretty difficult shot to pull off. I just wanted to show it sitting on my small gaming table.



A look at the desktop.

Other Stuff:

I'll grab a screen shot or two of WoW over the next two nights. I know a few posters have expressed interest in that.

Well it seems the more people that post. The heat issue only depends on the person. Marker is the only one that says it is extremely hot, but everyone else says that it is either "hot but not too hot" or "no problem with heat"

I cant wait. Mine ships tomorrow.

I hope to have a big review. I just have to clean up my little space first. Maybe you all will get to see my MRE (meal ready to eat) Katrina box desk.

Cant wait for the pics

congrats witchdoctor, I can't wait to get mine, it has been sitting 70 miles away at the FedEx sort Facility since Saturday morning @ 6:30am.

I can't wait to see your pics.

Well, he said there was no problem with heat when browsing the internet, or using Word. When you start gaining it gets a bit hot, NOT unbearable heat, but just uncomfortable enough where you don’t want it resting on your lap.

But the problem I have with heat is CPU temps. At max load the CPU sits around 75C! Cant over clock this baby much if these are the stock temps…

Well maybe when Hammerhead does an AS5 review, the temperature will drop 10 degrees. I hope he does. Im kind of reluctant to do it myself, but I know I would benefit in the long run.

When surfing and typing, the cpu won't be taxed, and the vid cards will be in 2d mode. I'm sure marker01 is right that under constant load these things get warm. AMD processors have always run hot compared to pentiums.

Hammerhead, when you get yours can you take pictures and instructions on putting AS5 on the m9700? I have done it to the video card on my m7700, but I just want to be more carefull this time and make sure I do it the right way..

I too am hoping HH will post an experts "how to" for adding this to a mobile processor.

It’s selfish, but I don’t want to be the first one to do this, plus i am not familiar with mobile CPU' … But I was the first to OC the processor if that counts

If HH doesn't do a writeup of AS5'ing the laptop before I do, then I'll take photos & write instructions when I do mine

I have to find a use for all the precision screwdrivers, ArctiClean and AS5 that just got delivered, after all

I'll be gaming on it tomorrow night, I'll post what I find about heat then.

Now with pictures!

Thanks for the pics witchdoctor, you have the same keyboard and mouse that I use with my black/blue alienice desktop. Very shwiggity shwank...

Thanks!

Benchies?

Three and a half hours playing WoW last night. It did *NOT* get very hot. Palmrest remained cool, rear of the laptop was just warm to the touch.

I love this laptop!