Alienware Area-51 m5500

and it is AWESOME! Everthing arrived in perfect working order. Here are the specs:

[1] Area-51® m5500

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M 760 2.0GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2
Display: Alienware® m5500 15.4" WideXGA 1280 x 800 LCD - Xeno Grey
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 915GM + ICH6 Chipset
Memory: 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz - 2 x 256MB
Hard Drive: 60GB 5400 RPM ATA100
Optical Drive: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go MXM 6600
Sound Card: Intel® High-Definition Audio
Modem: Integrated 56K Modem with V.90 Technology
Wireless Network Card: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 a/b/g Wireless Card
Communications: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Power: Alienware® m5500 9-cell Lithium-Ion Additional Battery
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Flash Memory: Alienware® USB 2.0 256MB Flash Drive
Mobile Bags: Alienware® Odyssey Messenger Bag
Headphones: Sennheiser PC140 Multimedia Headset
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
Alienware Mouse Pad: Alienware® Mousepad

[1] Special Financing Offer; 6 Months Same As Cash Financing with the Alienware Credit Card
[1] Free Alienware® Odyssey Messenger Bag; On Select Notebooks
[1] Free Alienware® USB 2.0 256MB Flash Drive ; On Select Notebooks
[1] Free Sennheiser PC140 Multimedia Headset; On Select Notebooks
[1] Instant Free Shipping; On Select Systems

SubTotal: $1,951.00
Shipping: $108.76
Discount: $239.00
Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $1,820.76

June 5, 2006 - Ordered
June 7, 2006 - Phase 3
<Jumped from phase 3 to phase 9>
June 13, 2006 - Phase 9
June 13, 2006 - Phase 10
June 17, 2006 - Delivered at 9:10(eastern) in the morning

Here are some pics of the box's and packaging -

One box held the bag, extra battery, and headphone while the other box held all the other stuff





Bag, Battery, and Headphones

Here's some pics of the computer -




From left to right, Media card reader, Microphone jack, Audio in jack, Headphone jack, Video card switch

Left to right, IEEE 1384 port, USB ports x3, AC Adapter, S-Video. Exhast is below the usb ports

From left to right, Ethernet, Modem, DVD-RW


With the 9-Cell Battery in. The 6-Cell is flush with the end while the 9-cell sticks out a bit
[IMG][/http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/aladar50/Alienware018.jpg[IMG]
Another picture of the 9-Cell


Overall, I am very happy with this laptop. I've had zero problems with it so far, and everything seems to be in working order. Those pictures were taken from my camera's memory card straight from the media card reader on the front.

So far, the only games i've put on are Half-Life 2 : Episode 1 and Counterstrike Source. HL2:Ep1 plays beutiful, considering its only 512 ram. Here are some pics:




I've ordered 2 gigs of ram, and it is coming in the mail now. Here's the ram I ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146440
Hopefully I don't mess anything up

Again, I am very happy with this computer, and would recommend it to anyone.

So here's my spec: (prett chessy, but as a college stud....dent, i'm kinda low on dough, ironic because my name is Pimp..lol. but nevertheless:

[1] Area-51® m5500

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M 740 1.73GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
Operating System (Office software not included): Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 90-Day AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support
Display: Alienware® m5500 15.4" WideXGA 1280 x 800 LCD - Xeno Grey
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 915GM + ICH6 Chipset
Wireless Network: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
Memory: 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz - 2 x 256MB
Hard Drive: 60GB 5400 RPM ATA100
Video Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go MXM 6600
Sound Card: Intel® High-Definition Audio
Optical Drive: 24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder
Ethernet NIC: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Modem: 56K Modem with V.90 Technology

Had this baby for three months so fat, only complaint is that alienware send me a replacement optical drive, but the bezzel does not fit, and it's a slotload drive too!

Shipping (10/10):
Order in End of Jan. i think around 22th, then it arrived on Feb. 3rd. Not bad, since i live all the way in San Hose. P.S. go Sharks.

My mom was hidding this box in the basement, she kept on laughing at me at dinner, and after dessert she finally told me that a black alien box arrived for me.

First impression (10/10):
I took the box to my room, and had my dirty way with it. I was impressed with the clean install, and there was also a document inside the computer with my specs. SWEET.

Graphics (9/10):
After the second day my CD drive died on me, so i had to use my desktop drive; networked the computer and laptop together, and install my games from my desktop. FEAR totally rocks, running it at 800x600 with med- high settings, i thought i need an alienware sli rig to run that game. Battlefield 2 rocks too, running the game on i believe 1200x800, somewhere in that neighborhood, with all filtering no AA on med settings. (I know i'm gonna upgrade ram soon). Command and conquer generals run like butter at max settings, quake 4, not all that bad. The sims 2 maxed out, now i wish i had the SXGA screen, could have seen more. I thought this card was just good for DVDs, but man it's not that bad for a 15.4" laptop, got many praises from ppl with integrated graphics.

Speakers (8/10):
speakers were quite good, was not that bad compared with name brand laptops.

Keyboard (10/10):
translucent color rocks.

Overall 9/10):
I use a backpack with a laptop compartment, have no problems here. Everytime i go to the library to study and play games, everyone passes by and give comments like: "dude you got one of em badass alienware," or "sick, how much did it cost?" ocasionally some dell xps guys wanna go head to head over LAN. CAnt wait to upgrade card and kick their arse. I wish i had bought the warranty though. It cost 150 for a 1 year warranty if you dont by the warranty with the laptop. If i had bought the warranty with the laptop it would only cost 50 dollars. I learned a valuable lesson here guys.

P.S. intel's wifi was pretty easy to use (10/10)

P.S.2 I bought my lil brother that 512mb alienware mp3, and he loves it, iPods owners really envy him. The grils said alienware mp3 is so lite and cute, girls flock to him just to play with it. Sound quality is awesome, and it comes with a semi noise cancellation earbuds. for 80 dollars after rebate, it's a steal. Now if only they had an mp4 player.

I could take picture if someone show me how to paste em.

Before I start, here are the specs on my particular system:

Alienware Area-51 m5500

15.4" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD
1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 533MHz FSB
1GB DDR2 RAM
Alienware® Intel® 915GM + ICH6 Chipset
256Mb NVidia GeForce Go MXM 6600
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
60GB 5400 RPM ATA100 HDD
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX
24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD
Motorolla 56K Modem with V.90 Technology
Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet

Now let's get this started...

Design:

The first thing you notice about this laptop.. yeah it's the glowing blue alien and Alienware logo on the back. My roommate got really scared one night when he woke up and saw a pair of glowing eyes staring at him. That was amusing. The design is not tacky though, and it's done clean enough that even my mom wanted one (lol, my mom is quite trendy).

The case is solid... the plastic doesn't flex easily. The lid is sturdy, and you really have to try hard to get the LCD to ripple from behind. The dark grey color is really classy, and the black keyboard and rubberized grips contrast it well. The only thing which could be improved is the placement of the sound jack in the front. Since I use an external USB sound card, it's ideal because when I'm on the go I use headphones and the jack is right there. If you've got your speakers permanently connected, it just doesn't look nice.. big deal. All 3 USB ports being on one side is a bit annoying, but I'm only using 2 right now and it's not that bad. Also the whole thing weights about 6lbs and is 1.4" thick. Check it out:

http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/1.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/2.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/3.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/4.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/5.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/6.jpg
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienware/desktop.jpg

AlienGUIse is responsible for the windows skin, and comes pre-installed on your system. I love it.

Input/Output:

That's just a fancy term for keyboard, touchpad, speakers and LCD screen really.. The keyboard. It's great! The keys are a little stiffer than is usual on laptops, but it feels really sturdy, and the keys have just the right amount of bounce to them. All in all, it's more comfortable than most other laptop keyboards, with the exception of the awkwardly placed Fn button, which is right where teh Ctrl button should be (that button is slightly to the right..). That cost me a couple of deaths in Counter-Strike, but you get used to it. I just switched shift to crouch and caps lock to walk and I was fine. The touchpad is really responsive, but not jumpy and annoying. Also, I find that it's placed in the right location, so your thumb doesnt accidentally make the cursor jump all the time. The buttons are solid..

The LCD sceen is nice. It's not one of the glossy types (which I actually don't like as much because of the glare they produce), but its a bit more shiny than the average LCD. The 1680x1050 resolution is great, I wouldn't go for the UXGA+ because seriously it's not worth it and everything will be way to small (overkill!). The colors are all really vibrant, and it handles game pretty well. The speakers are actually really nice. They're pretty loud, and they stay clear no matter how high you turn them up to. They're built into the bottom of the screen, so the machine doesn't rattle when you play music on them. I see them as the best speakers in a laptop this size.

Performance:

Now the serious part. All applications I tested ran great. When you click something, it opens.. it opens right then, not five seconds later, or in half an hour. The system is fast, and you won't be sittitng around waiting for stuff to happen. Windows loads up really quickly, shuts down pretty much when you click the button. Wireless G is great, signal strength is pretty strong everywhere.

Now to games and benchmarks... HL2 and Counter-Strike Source run maxed out.. and by that I mean every possible setting including filtering set to 16x and AA set to 6x, and resolution at 1680x1050. It looks great. Doom3 ran on "Ultra" mode no problem, I don't remember which resolution I used, but it looked gorgeous. Quake 4 ran on high, at 1280x1024 resolution. Here are some screenshots. Keep in mind these aren't as nice as the real game, which runs in widescreen on this machine.

http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienwar...4/quake4-1.JPG
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienwar...4/quake4-2.JPG
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienwar...4/quake4-3.JPG
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienwar...4/quake4-4.JPG
http://www2.bc.edu/~hallaba/alienwar...4/quake4-5.JPG

As you can see it looks pretty good. I haven't tried Ultra mode yet (I was playing the demo version). I'll try it later today when my game comes in, but my guess is it would lag a bit at such high res. F.E.A.R. was playable, obviously not at infinity x infinity resolution, but it looked nice and ran smoothly. I also tried Call of Duty 2, and that ran smoothly at some decent settings. It actually ran better than F.E.A.R. and looked nicer (same as Quake). I think the engine in F.E.A.R. is just a little awkward (like HALO but better).

Time for benchmarks! I was surprised to find that my particular machine outbenched most other m5500's on the forums. This is impressive considering I have a 5400 RPM HDD and the slowest offered Pentium M (my Voodoo died after 3 years and I was on a tight budget). 3DMark03 yielded 6248 and 3Dmark05 got me 2783, which is amazing for something you can carry in one hand. I didn't run 3DMark06 yet, but that benchmark tends to kick your system's ass unless your running dual 7800GTXs.

Other/Misc:

Battery life on this system, considering how much power it has, is not bad. Running the integrated card (I'll explain what I mean in a bit), 3 hours of battery is average. I doubt anyone plays intense 3D games while not plugged in to the power, so that's not a big deal. Now.. the system comes with a built in Intel Extreme Graphics 3 card, which is disabled when you're running the GeForce Go 6600. However, a click of the switch on the front and a reboot will make the machine use the integrated card, saving precious power. This feature is neat, since it essentially reconciles good performance and long battery life. Make sure you actually buy a video card when you configure the system though, since Alienware's configurator defaults to none.

The right side of the palmrest tends to get a little warm, but since your hand is usually on the mouse that's not a problem. It only gets annoying for extended periods of typing (like what I'm doing now). The system runs fairly quiet most of the time and just below annoying level the rest of the time. I'm usually playing music or a game though, so it's not bothersome.

Overall:

I'm in college.. I like to play games, and have them look nice, but at the same time I carry around my laptop to and from class, and therefore a behemoth 17 incher is not an option. I find that this laptop is the best mix of performance and portability on the market. Everyday I love it more.. the widescreen is really growing on me, and at this point I wouldn't willingly go back to a standard screen. Also.. I got mine for $1600 shipped. That's a great value.. I tried Dell but all their laptops were either really cheap or really expensive, really small or really huge. Sager only offered the video card in 128mb for some reason when I tried to buy one.

I love it. Get one now! Wait, don't get one. I kinda like having the coolest notebook around. Quake 4 is here. Time to play! Later guys.

-Noodles

**Warning**

I'm not really good at the whole review thing....This is just me typing a bit about my new lappy...

First Impressions

Shipping

I must admit, at first I was a bit worried about my lappy. I've heard a few horror stories on these forums about FedEx shipping and from some friends at work, so I was a bit white knuckled the whole time. However, I was immediately reassured when I opened up the black AW box and saw how well this machine was packaged. Everyone knows how wonderful AW packaging is, so I won't even get into it. It also shipped in 8 days from the time they recieved my payment...not bad at all!!!

A+

Quality

Wow, what can I say...No flex whatsoever with the case. Amazing build quality. Very nice screen, no flushed colors. 1 dead pixel, but its at the very top of the screen. Took me forever to find, and I never notice it. No biggie. Keyboard is wonderful. The touchpad is nice also, and I got used to it very quick, as I've used many before.

A

Looks

Hot damn this rig looks nice! Conspiracy blue is b-e-a-utiful! (While we're on paint, does anyone know if the paint rubs off easily where your hands rest?) The AW head is much larger than I expected and the lights just draw attention to you like that! The rubber grips are nice and add a very nice look to the case. The only thing I don't like is the blank area between to two speakers below the screen. I would have put Alienware or another alien head in there, but thats just me.

A

Sound

Sound is what you'd expect for a laptop. Its not that bad at all though. First DVD I popped in was Band of Brothers and it didn't sound too shabby. Just get yourself headphones and speakers and yer all set.

B

I feel the need.....the need for speed baby!

This puppy is FAST! Well, to me it is anyway. Mind you, I'm upgrading from a 866mhz, 256MB Dell lappy hehe. But I think this rig is fast on any planet. First game I loaded was UT2K4. All settings as high as they can go and I experience virtually no lag. Every now and then it can get a bit skippy, but I haven't d/led the latest omega drivers yet. MoH:AA runs perfect all settings highest, but thats not a true test really. I play around on Photoshop a lot, and it loads in mere seconds, compared to the half a minute on my Dell. Any other app runs blistering fast...

A+

Noise

I've heard a few complaints about the fans being too loud. Hm....To me, they are just fine. I hardly even notice them, and they run almost all of the time. I guess they may be considered loud for a lappy, but its nothing distracting by any means.

A

Satisfaction

Overall, I love this rig. To all of the AW hatas out there.......get within a mile of one first! I couldn't be any happier....Hopefully the combo of Firefox/SpywareBlaster/Avast/ZoneAlarm will keep this machine safe for a long while....

And what is a review w/o a few pictures?

First pic is my setup. Got the speakers from my bro and a sub under the desk hehe..

Second is the top of the case. Its a much darker blue than the picture..

Third is the keyboard, which is very nice. I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the keyboard is a translucent black. Very cool...

Hope the pics aren't too big for ya either. The resolution makes evreything looks so tiny..