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Alienware Insightb for Newbie

post #1 of 2
11/29/03 at 2:58pm
Thread Starter 
I've been doing research on a purchase of a 51M. I'm looking for a little insight and maybe this forum can help since I don't own a 51 yet. It appears that the older 51 was the same case as the Sager 5600 series. First question why would Alienware go to the new case design but suffer performance decline since no dual channel ram? It appears clear that the Sager 5600 units should outperform Alienware easily because of this. The 5600 design allowed for more options as well. IE dual battery, hard drives etc. Was it that they were losing sales to Sager and others? Why is Alienware not using the 9600 pro version? Why do you have to use two dimms instead of one with this newer unit? Can't I just buy 256 and save a ton of money and buy dimms elseware. Sorry for all the questions and rambling. Just very curious. Your thoughts!
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post #2 of 2
11/29/03 at 7:46pm
First they more than likely went to Uniwill for a more unique market presence, but other than that the new 51M has sleeker look, and it makes for the possibility of two screen choices the 15" and the 16", and an easily swappable GPU.

As for the ATI 9600 PRO, who cares? One of the many pleasent new features is the upgradeable GPU in the 51M. A short time from now when the 9600 is yesterdays news we will all be swapping the latest and greatest GPU into our 51M's in our living rooms'. While the Sagerite's drop a couple a G's on a new mobo in an attempt to refresh their aging 15" chassis.

As for the dual channel DDR, the performance increase is so minute, that you can easily not have it and run with the big boys.

Lastly, yes you can just buy 256 and get cheaper dimms from another vendor. Thats what I did, I saved about $60 doing this. Another hint for you is this, you can get the IBM/Fujitsu 80GB Travelstar hard drive for a bunch less from other vendors. That will give you some extra money for a three year warranty. That way if you ever get a dead pixel then you can get the screen replaced. It's worth the cash alone for that, a new screen for a 6 month old lappy is sometimes the cost of a new notebook.
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