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
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
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