Ok, so I've been traveling my butt off. I got home to open this thing up and take it on the road with me cause I gotta leave out again tonight!
Anyway she's a beauty. Only one drawback so far. The dvd drive is dead. Blame it on the shipping I guess. So they will send me another it will just have to wait until I get back on the 31st
So I get to haul around my big external dvd drive so I can load stuff.
Here's the pics, I will have to do review later as I got to get a few winks in.
Out of the box benchies are not as good as I thought they would be. Getting a 10381 on mark05 and 5622 on mark06
maybe I am doing something wrong.
Enjoy the pictures this thing is really shiny. It's like looking into a mirror. I tried to take the pics with as little reflection as I could. lol it's damn near impossible.
ps the pic with two lappys is the alx sitting next to my 17inch HP. the thing is one big mutha!
The Review
Specifications
[1] Aurora™ mALX
Processor: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML44 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2
Display: 19" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD Display with Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixel Camera
Motherboard: nVIDIA nForce 4 SLI
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Hard Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 120GB Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GTX SLI Enabled – 1GB of Total Memory!
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS PCMCIA
Wireless Network Card: Internal 802.11b/g WiFi Card
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Mouse: Razer Diamondback Chameleon Mouse
Bluetooth: Bluetooth™ USB Adapter
Power: AC Adapter - Additional Alienware® Aurora mALX 220 Watt Auto-switch AC Adapter
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Ozma 7™ Headphones with S-Logic™ Technology - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Aurora mALX Exclusive Design - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager – Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Aurora mALX Backpack - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Custom Name Plate - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Felt Cloth Protector - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Keychain - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Luggage Tag - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Pen - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Polo Shirt - Included!
Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Phases
Ordered around May 12th and took delivery on July 18th
Wait times are probably reducing now.
The Case
Well of course it’s huge! Very solid. When opening the lid you have to slide the two latches on the front top and the hooks will release then you have to hold the case down with one hand while lifting the lid with the other or else the whole computer will lift up.
I think this is good since the hinges will probably loosen up with time.
The paint job is magnificent; you can tell from my pics that the color really does shift from a red to maroon to blue and black depending what angle you look at it. Being mostly black allows you to see any dust particles as soon as they land on it so you can immediately wipe them off hehe.
The Annunciator lights are great! Not obnoxious like on some machines. You can watch a movie or game without the blue or green lights annoying you.
The Screen
Big beautiful gorgeous screen! This screen is really quite amazing. The 1680x1050 resolution looked awesome with fear before my Artifacting problem kicked in. I watched a couple of movies on it in my hotel room and it was like watching tv at home. I could sit 5 feet away and comfortably watch it and not feel like I needed to scoot closer to the screen as not to miss anything. No dead pixels either.
Keyboard
The keyboard is great. Plenty of room and spread out nice. Only thing I noticed is that the center part of the keyboard seems like there is a little hollow are beneath it because the keys make a slight vibrating sound when typing. The keys affected are 6,7,8,9,T,Y,U,I,O,G,H,J,K,V,B,N,M, comma key and the space bar. I put that on my list of things to checkout when I ship it back to Miami for the Artifacting Video problem.
Maybe it was not snapped in place right or its missing some kind of backing underneath.
Speakers
The speakers are ok for laptop speakers. Gaming and music play much louder than when watching a movie. Definatly need to run some kind of equalizer program to get the bass level up otherwise they will sound like too much treble
Touchpad
Yeah it’s a touchpad can’t say too much about it. Works good lasts along time.
Razer Diamondback Mouse
Very nice and very precise. I am used to a Microsoft optical mouse so the razer seems very sensitive to me. You barely have to touch the buttons to make them click so I need to get used to that. The motion is very smooth and it glides nice across the mouse pad.
Webcam
From what I can see it looks good to me. Turned it on and there I was looking at myself so had to turn it off lol. Picture quality looks fine though.
Internal Wireless Card
So far I have used it at home and two hotels. Shows a strong signal strength and seems to operate efficiently. No problems with it at all. Glad I got this option instead of the external card sticking out which leads me to the PCMCIA port.
PCMCIA Port
I don’t particularly like the spot they picked for this port. It is on the right side and up front so it kind of gets in the way if you are a right handed mouse user.
Media Card Reader
Works great
Video Cards and Graphics
Well I’ll have to wait on this one as you know I have to send my machine to Miami to get that fixed.
Other Ports
Haven’t had the chance to use them all yet since I am currently on the road but the 5 USB ports (3 on the right and 2 in the back) seem to be enough to handle all my external needs.
DVD Optical Drive
Well this piece of hardware arrived partially working. Unless it is related to my video card problem won’t be able to tell until I get it back from Miami. However I like the spot they put it in and it seems to eject and retract smoothly.
Onboard Sound and Audigy Sound Cards
They are both Excellent! With just using the onboard soundcard the quality is very nice no interference coming from the computer sounds great. Plug in the Audigy card and it gets even better. When gaming you can tell which side your enemies are trying to sneak up from behind so you can quickly turn around and put one between the eyes.
The Audigy card only works with the headphones, although I remember seeing on notebook forums some way to trick it to use the onboard speakers.
Ozma 7 Headphones
Very happy with the headphones. They are comfortable to wear for long periods, sound great and have plenty of cord length.
AC Adapter
Big and Heavy
The Backpack
Thank God for the backpack. You need the backpack. Plenty of room for the computer, it slides in and out nicely. Also plenty of pockets for all your other peripherals. I piggyback it on my suitcase so I can roll it.
All the Other Stuff
The mouse pad is excellent and comes in a square aluminum canister.
The pen, well it’s a pen.
Standard Polo type shirt.
Keyboard cloth protector, you’re going to like this, it keeps your sweaty palm prints of the mALX.
Good quality luggage tag and keychain.
Remarks
This is a beautiful machine I like it allot. Can’t believe I had all these problems out of the box though. (Broke DVD drive, bad respwan discs, severe artifacting)
We will see what AW ALX service is all about in the next couple of weeks. I will keep you all posted.
Anyway she's a beauty. Only one drawback so far. The dvd drive is dead. Blame it on the shipping I guess. So they will send me another it will just have to wait until I get back on the 31st
So I get to haul around my big external dvd drive so I can load stuff.
Here's the pics, I will have to do review later as I got to get a few winks in.
Out of the box benchies are not as good as I thought they would be. Getting a 10381 on mark05 and 5622 on mark06
maybe I am doing something wrong.
Enjoy the pictures this thing is really shiny. It's like looking into a mirror. I tried to take the pics with as little reflection as I could. lol it's damn near impossible.
ps the pic with two lappys is the alx sitting next to my 17inch HP. the thing is one big mutha!
The Review
Specifications
[1] Aurora™ mALX
Processor: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML44 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2
Display: 19" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD Display with Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixel Camera
Motherboard: nVIDIA nForce 4 SLI
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Hard Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 120GB Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GTX SLI Enabled – 1GB of Total Memory!
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS PCMCIA
Wireless Network Card: Internal 802.11b/g WiFi Card
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Mouse: Razer Diamondback Chameleon Mouse
Bluetooth: Bluetooth™ USB Adapter
Power: AC Adapter - Additional Alienware® Aurora mALX 220 Watt Auto-switch AC Adapter
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Ozma 7™ Headphones with S-Logic™ Technology - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Aurora mALX Exclusive Design - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager – Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Aurora mALX Backpack - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Custom Name Plate - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Felt Cloth Protector - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Keychain - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Luggage Tag - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Pen - Included!
Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Polo Shirt - Included!
Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Phases
Ordered around May 12th and took delivery on July 18th
Wait times are probably reducing now.
The Case
Well of course it’s huge! Very solid. When opening the lid you have to slide the two latches on the front top and the hooks will release then you have to hold the case down with one hand while lifting the lid with the other or else the whole computer will lift up.
I think this is good since the hinges will probably loosen up with time.
The paint job is magnificent; you can tell from my pics that the color really does shift from a red to maroon to blue and black depending what angle you look at it. Being mostly black allows you to see any dust particles as soon as they land on it so you can immediately wipe them off hehe.
The Annunciator lights are great! Not obnoxious like on some machines. You can watch a movie or game without the blue or green lights annoying you.
The Screen
Big beautiful gorgeous screen! This screen is really quite amazing. The 1680x1050 resolution looked awesome with fear before my Artifacting problem kicked in. I watched a couple of movies on it in my hotel room and it was like watching tv at home. I could sit 5 feet away and comfortably watch it and not feel like I needed to scoot closer to the screen as not to miss anything. No dead pixels either.
Keyboard
The keyboard is great. Plenty of room and spread out nice. Only thing I noticed is that the center part of the keyboard seems like there is a little hollow are beneath it because the keys make a slight vibrating sound when typing. The keys affected are 6,7,8,9,T,Y,U,I,O,G,H,J,K,V,B,N,M, comma key and the space bar. I put that on my list of things to checkout when I ship it back to Miami for the Artifacting Video problem.
Maybe it was not snapped in place right or its missing some kind of backing underneath.
Speakers
The speakers are ok for laptop speakers. Gaming and music play much louder than when watching a movie. Definatly need to run some kind of equalizer program to get the bass level up otherwise they will sound like too much treble
Touchpad
Yeah it’s a touchpad can’t say too much about it. Works good lasts along time.
Razer Diamondback Mouse
Very nice and very precise. I am used to a Microsoft optical mouse so the razer seems very sensitive to me. You barely have to touch the buttons to make them click so I need to get used to that. The motion is very smooth and it glides nice across the mouse pad.
Webcam
From what I can see it looks good to me. Turned it on and there I was looking at myself so had to turn it off lol. Picture quality looks fine though.
Internal Wireless Card
So far I have used it at home and two hotels. Shows a strong signal strength and seems to operate efficiently. No problems with it at all. Glad I got this option instead of the external card sticking out which leads me to the PCMCIA port.
PCMCIA Port
I don’t particularly like the spot they picked for this port. It is on the right side and up front so it kind of gets in the way if you are a right handed mouse user.
Media Card Reader
Works great
Video Cards and Graphics
Well I’ll have to wait on this one as you know I have to send my machine to Miami to get that fixed.
Other Ports
Haven’t had the chance to use them all yet since I am currently on the road but the 5 USB ports (3 on the right and 2 in the back) seem to be enough to handle all my external needs.
DVD Optical Drive
Well this piece of hardware arrived partially working. Unless it is related to my video card problem won’t be able to tell until I get it back from Miami. However I like the spot they put it in and it seems to eject and retract smoothly.
Onboard Sound and Audigy Sound Cards
They are both Excellent! With just using the onboard soundcard the quality is very nice no interference coming from the computer sounds great. Plug in the Audigy card and it gets even better. When gaming you can tell which side your enemies are trying to sneak up from behind so you can quickly turn around and put one between the eyes.
The Audigy card only works with the headphones, although I remember seeing on notebook forums some way to trick it to use the onboard speakers.
Ozma 7 Headphones
Very happy with the headphones. They are comfortable to wear for long periods, sound great and have plenty of cord length.
AC Adapter
Big and Heavy
The Backpack
Thank God for the backpack. You need the backpack. Plenty of room for the computer, it slides in and out nicely. Also plenty of pockets for all your other peripherals. I piggyback it on my suitcase so I can roll it.
All the Other Stuff
The mouse pad is excellent and comes in a square aluminum canister.
The pen, well it’s a pen.
Standard Polo type shirt.
Keyboard cloth protector, you’re going to like this, it keeps your sweaty palm prints of the mALX.
Good quality luggage tag and keychain.
Remarks
This is a beautiful machine I like it allot. Can’t believe I had all these problems out of the box though. (Broke DVD drive, bad respwan discs, severe artifacting)
We will see what AW ALX service is all about in the next couple of weeks. I will keep you all posted.
what are the specs?
the paintjob looks sick, so glassy like liquid...
can you get a close up shot of the grips for us? are they still rubberized or just painted onto a flat case?
The benchmarks don't look too bad...perhaps not as high as you'd expect in comparison to the m9700, but still very good. Even without tweaking, you're getting better benchmarks than the majority of desktops out there!
Thx for the pics!
Its so shiny that you could see a ninja sneaking up a mile away.
Its so shiny that people thinks its a disco ball.
SO SO NICE!
*Drowls*.......
...
...
O ya...
Have fun with it.
2. please check your cpu driver, we have seen an increase of 400+ points on a 3dmark05 after installing the correct driver.
3. even still, your scores should be much higher.
Do you have SLI enabled?
open the nvidia control panel and check "SLI & Multi GPU" make sure its enabled. I'm pretty sure it is, most benchmarks with a single 7900gtx are around the 8000's
4. (i bet this is it)
what were your preformance setting set to? by default, its set rather high, and you want the lowest possible settings. check the nvidia control panel and "preformance settings" there is a template for 3dmark. but make sure you quality setting are set to max preformance (default: quality)
I don't know?
makes me even more antsy to get my new notebook, even though not an alx, still
*has never screwed with processor drivers before*