Alienware MJ-12m 7700

Let me begin by giving you all a specification run down on my newly purchased (and arrived) Alienware notebook. I have a 17'' 1920x1200 lcd display, with the 7800gtx, 2 gigs of ram, 200 gb of harddrive capacity (2x100gb @7200 rpm each),2 optical drives, and an Amd Athlon 64 3200+. Don't be agitated or turn away by hearing that I spent approximately 4k and only got a mediocre processor. I realized it was a 150 dollar proc and continue to have aspirations to replace it later. My justification follows along with a review component by component. I have pics but, well, my advertised 10 in 1 card reader isnt exactly functioning. I will manage to get pics up for you all though, however.

Processor: Talk about bottlenecks. I got the Amd Athlon 64 3200+ and yess, its slaving its ass off. I manage to get maybe 2 programs running and the proc is running at nearly 100%(keep in mind, I have backround utilities running as well). You probably are all wondering, "why the hell did this bowzoe choose a measly 3200+?". The answer is simple. And although switching app to app isnt nearly as satisfiable to me as it can be, I know that when the AM2 platform is released, I will purchase an fx-60 for replacement. Right now, they cost somewhere around 1000 bucks. Too deep for my pockets ( at least for just a proc). Eventually, around the turn of 939 pin chipsets descent towards becoming obsolete, thesse procs are going to drop price. Not to say my proc is a horrendous proc at all. But for an Alienware and consumer expectation, I rate it a 8 out of 10.

Lcd: The lcd is a 1920x1200 wide panel display monitor. These screens are absolutely gorgeous. The colors are vivid and it is everything I expected out of this monitor. For potential buyers, this screen is well worth the wait. The webcam is a mediocre in screen cam. I wasnt expecting an elite cam as some standalones, but considering it is implanted into the screen, most definetly, its a pleasant addition. Because of the lack of color in the cam video, I give the monitor a 9 out of 10.

Graphics Card: I have the 7800gtx. Need I say more. 10 out of 10.

Ram: I got 2 gigs. But after a nuisance of taking my system out of the box and seeing random system shutdowns, I immediately called AW tech support. They were more than helpful. I called them and after nearly 2 hours of troublshooting which included removing the ram several times, testing the sytem after several restarts and removing the keyboard to see if the problem was actually the seating of the wireless card, we finally resolved the problem. Currently my system is running off of a single gig. I sent in the other gig and as soon as they get it (and I know when cuz i got the tracking number! ), they will send me another gig back. Not a bad deal. Thank the man above that i didnt have to send my system in. Give it a 9 out of 10 just because of the defective ram.

Keyboard: Nice keyboard, yet takes some getting use to. Easy to type on and soft keys that dont make annoying "clicking" noises. 10 out of 10.

*Just to add, my optical drives sometimes roar up into action. This system sometimes really literally sounds like a beast!

Dj: It Works!!!!! The system is off and I just press a little chrome button to turn on the Dj. Runs like a charm. Dont listen to people who have difficulties with it.

The sound is AMazing! Great clarity, resilient little notebook speakers. Crank em up all the way, and the instruments are clearly detectable on any song. Gaming is an inner muse and without the robust sound, it just wouldnt be the same.

Im getting tired though... goodluck on your purchases and PLEASE let me know if you have any further questions. NOw that I have the system, I can answer ANY of your questions.
By the ways, whomever claimed that pics dont serve this notebook justice, boy were they right. B-E-A-utiful!

Alienware MJ-12 m7700

System Specs

17” Wide screen 1920x1200
AMD64 4800+ Dual core
2x80 GB 7200rpm sata raid 0
2Gig PC3200 ram
2x Dual Layer DVD burners
Internal wireless
NVIDIA 7800GTX go 256mb
Windows Xp pro SP2
Alienware Odyssey Backpack



The Phases
Well this was a Christmas present from the parents (giving them my sony laptop). I finally hit the buy button on 12-25-05 after many times specing out the rig I wanted on the Alienware.com website for many weeks. The next day I was already at phase 3 with the estimated shipping date of 1-11-06. Well after a couple weeks in phase 3 I decided to call up and ask about the order. I was told that financing had made an error and that they still needed to charge the balance to my charge card. They transferred me to the financing department and got that squared away. My computer finally went into phase 5 (production) on the 10th. It was obvious that there would be no shipment on the 11th. On the night of the 12th I checked the website for my status and found that I was now at phase 8 (wasn’t going to be long now). I can understand the slight delay as I ordered and went through 3 national holidays during this process. I was told to call back on the 16th so I did that morning and was told to call back later in the day. Well after all the waiting I finally got the good news I was hoping for, it shipped and should have a tracking # in 24 hours. It didn’t take 24 hours as the tracking #’s were sent to my email that night. Overall it was delayed by a few days, but I can’t complain after the before mentioned holiday delays. It could have been faster I think, but all in all I am satisfied with the timeline.

Rating 8/10




The System

Screen

I am happy to say that the screen is very likable. I have no dead pixels after 2 days, so I don’t expect them to appear (I’ve always been told that they will appear very early if they are going to). I really do like the glossy, wet look to the monitor. It seems to make things much more crisp than the screen on my Sony that doesn’t have it. You do need to have some good eyes when running at native 1920 x 1200 resolution as the text is quite small. I am used to looking at my Dell 2405 24” 1920 x 1200 display, so it is a very noticeable difference in font size to me. I am not saying this is a bad thing at all as I really do like working on this laptop (writing this review with two pages side by side in Microsoft Word is very nice and productive). It does scale fairly good in the 3dmark tests but if you lower the res lower than native text starts to get blurry, as you would expect. This is in no way a fault of this screen as all flat panel displays have a hard time running anything other than native res (some do scale better though than others). If I had to nit pick and say something less than positive about it would have to be these two things. The screen seems to be very blue. It isn’t a big problem, as a little time tweaking the color in the Nvidia control panel you should be able to get it where you like it. The one thing that will keep me from giving this screen a 10 is I believe it isn’t as bright as it should be (not as bright as my older Sony 15” screen). It is a small gripe that I can live with though. So for me I give it this score.
Rating 9/10




Keyboard

I can say for sure this keyboard is a huge step up from the one on my Sony laptop. I have written this review on it and can say that it is just about perfect. I love the number pad on the right side as I’m use to using this on my main computer. Not much else to say about it other than I like it.

Rating 10/10




Touchpad

Once again as I compare this to the one on my old Sony it is much, much better. It has a sort of texture to the pads surface. The sensitivity is very accurate and smooth. The scroll pad on the right side of the touchpad is a very nice addition over the compared touchpad, and used often when not using an external mouse. The buttons under the touchpad have a firm action to them and make a bit of a click when pressed, which can help to confirm that you have actually hit the button. The one on my Sony seems to go haywire all the time and ends up being almost useless half the time. I have not seen this Alienware touchpad do anything odd at this point. I do normally use an external mouse almost always, but did test this out for a length of time and came away completely satisfied.

Rating 10/10

Speakers

The speakers seem to be very nice on this laptop. They are very clear, even at full volume, and seem to be fairly loud. Coming from the two tiny speakers on my Sony this is a huge leap forward for me. My old laptop was at full volume all the time and about 4 feet from it I could not here when someone would send a message on skype (makes a sound). With these much improved speakers I only have to run the volume at about 56% and can still here a message from the other room. They go plenty loud. I put in a cd and cranked it up all the way and you can hear this thing from any room in my house. I am not sure that the sub is something they needed to put on these things as it doesn’t seem to have any bottom end to me. But hey I can tell all my buddies “my laptop has its own sub how about you”. I am very pleased with these, and they fit the bill for my usage.

Rating 10/10


Wireless card

The wireless card seems to be very good so far. At about 40ft away and through two walls I still have 100% signal where it rests. I love the fact that it is internal, and don’t have to worry about hitting it and messing up either the card or the laptop. Also I don’t have to remove the pcmcia card every time I put the laptop in the backpack. My Sony sitting next to this one with a Linksys pcmcia card doesn’t keep 100% signal at all times, so I think this is a very good internal option. I haven’t had the chance to lug it out back and see how far from the house I can get, but the Sony can still connect two houses down, so my fingures are crossed that it will do as good or better. I like to turn the card off when not using the internet and it is so much easier being able to just hit the fn + f11 buttons. Without a true range test done yet I ranked it below, may change if range becomes a problem but not sure it will be.

Rating 10/10


Web cam

The cam works very well. It doesn't like low light levels, but with enough light the picture is very good for a 1.3mp cam. Pictures taken are small and I haven't seen any settings to change it. I have used it with the new skype and video conference feature and it worked perfect. Not sure that I can be anything but positive towards it as it works and does the job (never had one before so nothing to judge by I guess).

Rating 8/10 for bad low light levels



Graphics

Well this is one of the best features of this laptop. I ordered the 7800gtx go, as I love my two in my desktop. I have always owned Nvidia cards with the exception of an ATI x800xl while waiting for my 7800’s to get to me. This card clocked at a stock speed of 400/1.1 seems to be very conservative, and great to keep things running cool. I have had it to 461/1.22 with not much extra heat or any artifacting. In this post you can see how well this card can compete with a similar desktop setup. http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=129329. I have only played one game at this point on it and it was BF2. I had it at the stock 400/1.1 with aa 4x and af 16x. I run fraps in the background and averaged 50 fps. Not bad, and very playable. This was also with the res forced to native 1920 x 1200 with the szx szy shortcut fix. I did at first have the well know crash to desktop problem, which is easy to fix. The default refresh rate for these monitors for some reason is an odd 61hz, while the default refresh for the game is 60hz. All you need to do is go to documents and settings\your name\my documents\battlefield 2\profiles\default folder and open up the video.con file in notepad. You will see where the default is set to 800 x 600 60hz, just change the 60 to 61, save and you should be good to go (info taken from the sager section on this forum, thanks). Throughout this review I have compared this laptop to my Sony, but this just isn’t possible with the graphics. The Sony has a Radeon 7500c and won’t even play current games. This is why I set up my desktop to exact same settings and test those for a comparison. It is still early in my owning this and without much game play I think its perfect so far.

Rating 10/10


Heat

Well first off I am kind of surprised here. I have read on these forums and elsewhere about major heat problems with this model. I in my setting (around 75f ambient) I have found this not to be the case. I do have the lapcooler 4 and have never run the laptop without it to compare the difference. At idle and while surfing the internet it stays around 34c to 36c. In comparison to my water cooled desktop it’s not that bad. My desktop idles at about 22c, but once again that is on water cooling. After playing BF2 for about an hour (with the fans set to high with the fn + f2 buttons) I alt tab out and see it was running at 46c. I have always tried to keep my processors under 50c and with this large case and its thermal properties it seems to do just that. Heavy encoding running on both cores (one project on each core) and the fans on auto it did break 50c a couple times. The fn + f2 is a great feature and does a very good job of cooling down these beasts. The only problem is that I have not found a way to monitor the graphics card (tried everything). My guess is it must have been left out in the bios maybe. I used to set my drink to the left of my laptop, but with the heat exhaust coming out there I have learned to relocate it. I haven’t called tech support about the lack of thermal monitoring on the graphics card yet so I am at a loss for now, as it should support it (the 7800gtx). The air exhausted can get very warm so my guess is while gaming it is at or above 70c. This lack of temp monitor for the card lowers the score somewhat in my opinion. I know not everyone is going to care about this but I certainly do.

Rating 8.5/10
For lack of thermal monitoring.


Case

I can say that the pictures just do not do this paint job justice. It is a very deep, dark blue with a metallic flake to it. It is absolutely great looking for a mass produced item. It does kind of change from a little lighter in bright light to a very dark blue under low light conditions. I don’t have any rattles or any squeaks so far. It seems to be a very well thought out design, with tight gaps. Once the bottom covers are removed you can see that they do a good job of wire management. It is very clean looking inside, although a bit cramped as you would expect having two hard drives, two dvd drives, a large graphics solution, and large battery. Like stated above this is a simply great looking machine, and was a bit of a surprise for a mass produced item. It may not be as cool or look as good as one of those custom painted laptops like DB’s, but for a mass produced product it exceeds my expectations.

Rating 10/10


Alienware Backpack

I think Sager has said all that needs to be said about it perfectly. So I don't feel the need to write the same stuff that he has as I feel exactly the same about it. His thoughts on it can be found here.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=129016

Rating 10/10 Very nice

Update-Customer Service

Well I have been battling the non-working audio dj that many have. I have been talking to cs and ts for a few weeks now and they are all very helpful. They seem to have good knowledge of the machine and take great steps to trouble shoot the problems. During the course of the replacement orders they were going to replace both my drives with newer ones. When the box arrived there was only one drive in the box. I sent a pm to AlienRichard and within 24 hours he has taken care of the problem. He is a true asset to these forums, along with the rest of the mods here. I haven't had better customer service from any company I've dealt with. I am completely happy with the service I have received to this date. The new drives do fix the audio dj function, and once my other drive gets here this lappy will be as close to perfect as you can get in my opinion.

Rating 10/10

Conclusion

I will add to this review as time goes by and things change. Also feel free to ask for certain things that you would like me to add to this as well. Also realize that this is a first impression as I’ve only had this beast for 4 days so far, so I reserve the right to change my ratings at any time. Sorry for the long post but I felt this machine deserved a good attempt at a good review. I will be adding pictures to this post as I get them uploaded and linked, but for now this is the thread that contains pictures of my laptop for now. http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=129065.
Rating 9.8/10 Updated to reflect the customer service