New Customer Alienware Review - 7700 owner

[AlienRod]

Hello to everyone

I'm new on these forums and only stumbled across these forums a few months back.

These forums made my time and stress of buying a new lappy easier. I was browsing around for a reasonable yet powerful machine. I had found the Alienware website a few months earlier and had always oogled the incredible machines they had on offer. Unfortunately for me to buy an Alienware I had to make an expensive international order. I'm an expat living in Russia you see....

I had always had my eyes on a lappy that was upgradable, especially the GPU. I think thats why a lot of people are attracted to Alienware's product.

I've had a few lappy's during my time: 3 x Compaq Presario's, of which 1 I still have, an old P2, 1920 series...a great lappy, but very outdated, yet still running smooth 7 years later. A Toshiba P25, amazing PC, stable etc....but not upgradable.....

Eventually the 7700 was released late last year, pre order only. Now I knew this was the one! and immediately placed my order in December 2004.....The wait!!!...........

I hadn't taken the warnings to heed on the forums and did not understand what the complaints were, but let me tell you, knowing that I was not the only one and seeing loads of others also playing the waiting game, here in the forums, gave me great relief!

Others started receiving thier Macines, posting pictures, sharing emotions of happiness, sometimes sadness....dead pixels, the odd hardware issue, etc...

Still there was this feeling of togetherness as everybody cheered and in turn gave support to those that needed it.

The Phase Game:

This machine is being "Custom Built". Yes you were lucky enough to say EXACTLY what you want in this machine. Companies have suppliers, suppliers have suppliers and so on. Sometimes there will be delays! I had a delay as there were no Screens. I was stuck in Phase 8 for 2 weeks. I must admit, I was not informed of the delay and had to make a few calls myself. But eventually I was informed why and when I could expect my phases to continue. It jumped from phase 8 to shipping in 1 week. I did not receive a shipment email, even though the website said my machine had been shipped. I called up the contact person that I have and she immediately gave me the tracking details.

The package, believe it or not, arrived the next day. Yes people, from the UK to Russia, overnight. Incredible!

Needless to say, I live in Russia, so there were tax issues, strong customs controls and more money to be spent....After a week of customs clearance, yes another week and tax of $1000 paid, I received my big black box.

Ok folks, I'm not here to talk about money, just my personal experance with Alienware.UK.

The Package:

The best packed lappy I have EVER received! DHL did a great job too, not even a ding!

The Machine - 7700

Yes, I was one of the very first to receive this lappy! I was elevated, Ecstatic. I mean, after only dreaming of owing a "Custom Built" Extreme macine like this.

I placed her on my desk, fired her up on batteries and started going through the rest of the box. I could'nt find the power adapter! It wasn't here! Where the hell is it?! I take out the free Carry Case and it seems a little heavy. I open the bag and there it is! The power adapter. Ok, I feel like a right idiot now...lol.

I fiddle and daddle. I want to test the restore software, so I perform the entire restore.

It finishes. I load up all the drivers etc...

I check all and notice that now I have SP1 installed. Where is SP2? Nowhere to be seen.

My machine starts crashing whenever I put in a disc. oops. Also no DVD software. No Windvd, no powerdvd, no extra discs.

Ok, so its on the line to Alienware, I send an email to support. Nest day, no response, 2 days later, i call up the rep that I have been in contact with. She confirms they have my mail and i will get an answer today. I did......

Alienwares Reply:

We do install SP2 in the factory but we do not supply the software on any discs. You will have to request a Free cd from Microsoft.

You can download free dvd playing softwate from the following website.......
or we can send you the PowerDVD disc that you should have. I asked them to send me the disc. It arrived 2 days later - very good!

The problem regarding the crashing machine whenever a disc is inserted has still not been answered by Alienware.UK. Dissapointed! I however got help for that from these forums and even posted my comments regarding this issue. These forums are great guys!

Its almost 2 months later, and I have used this machine every day for more than 8 hours a day and she still runs great:

Machine Overview: Area 51m 7700

No Scratches, No Dead Pixels, Slightly noisy fan at first, that faded after about a week, must be run in.

Everything I expected and still expect has indeed met my expectations!

Shock:

Girlfriend spills Fanta on the Keyboard! Keyboard is messed-up! I call Support and they are extremely helpful and guide me how to remove etc...They explain to me how to clean and if there are still problems, a new keyboard will cost $30. Plus overnight shipping. Not Bad.

Anyway, the 7700 survives a spill and still running well, no liquid got into the system. pheeew!

Some Benchies: Its the 1st Nvidia 6800 ddr NOT ddr3

No Overclocking, room temperature 24 celcius, max settings

Driver - 676 original Driver

3dmark01 Final - 16803
3dmark03Final - 7276
3dmark05Final - 2785
AquamarkFinal - 43519

Mobometer during tests, highest temp reached: 65 celcius. I ran all tests after each other. While downloading Aquamark, she ran at a constant cool 50 celcius.

http://notebookforums.com/attachment...hmentid=&stc=1
ma.JPG


Ok, somebody said there were newer drivers on the Sager Site. I installed those too and heres the differences:

Driver 679 - Sager Website


3dmark01 Final - 16825
3dmark03Final - 7270
3dmark05Final - 2767
AquamarkFinal - 43640

No big differences here.......

also mobimeter during tests: max temp: 66 celcius...

http://notebookforums.com/attachment...tid=4501&stc=1
mb.JPG

Conclusion and Thanks to all:

Alienware.UK delivers! Good but slow service = overload and not enough staff. C'mon guys get more staff and you'll have less angry customers. Better response times etc...

Great machine!

And BIG BIG BIG thanks to all the helpful people here on the forums.

PS: please excuse the schpwelling ewwers: tee hee....

[TheMerovingian]

very nice laptop, mine is arriving hopefully today or tomorow

[Yang88She]

Congrats on your new system, not sure what the time difference is over there, but you should try to get w/ our new CS:S alienware clan...well it's still in the making

[AlienRod]

Tx guys, Merv. you're the Australasian chap. Finally hey, you must be getting over eager, let us know how the system is. You must be one of the first Australasian customers down under......good luck!

Yang, bummer about your system Hope it turns out well in the end for you......

And I forgot to say before...Big Thanks ALIENWARE!

[Craig]

Congrats and thanks for taking the time for the review A-Rod!

Don't forget the little people now that you've got your baby

[FlightDoc]

Congrats!