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Area 51M-7700 Questions

post #1 of 31
10/3/05 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
Hello everyone,
I just have a few questions about the Alienware Area 51M-7700 before I order it. Number one, how high resolution of a screen should I get? Is there much of a difference between the SXGA+ 1680x1050 and the UXGA 1920x1200 for dvd playing?
Number two, I was reading the specs on the drives you can get with the 7700, and on the Slot load Dual Layer DVD drive, there was something called soft read error less than 10-9 and hard read error less than 10-12. What does this mean?
Lastly, I was looking at the processors, and I saw that there was one called a 560 J 3.6 GHz 800 MHz FSB 1MB and a 660 3.6 GHz 800 MHz FSB 2MB. They are exactly the same except for the 1 MB cache of the 560 J and the 2 MB cache of the 660, yet the 560 J costs twenty-five dollars more? Why? And which processor is overall the better choice for dvds, games, and future upgrades?
Thanks a lot for the help, guys,
Depp
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post #2 of 31
10/3/05 at 9:55pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry guys but I have one last question I forgot to ask. How much space on your hard drive does it take to record a movie from an actual dvd disk and save it so you can view it without the disk? Also, how does it play when you do that? Does it lag or freeze any?
Thanks,
Depp
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post #3 of 31
10/3/05 at 11:26pm
Depp i can help with the processor question..

the price increase is due to availability. I would definately suggest you go the 6xx series as they are all 64bit compared to the 5xx series which are 32bit... What does that mean ----> Future proofing to a small degree.... An i believe the 6xx series to be a superior chip in general however others might disagree.

Cant really help on the screens.. there is a difference but ill let someone a bit more informed than myself answer that one. Same goes for the DVD drive (i would also like to know what its about now that you bring it up)

The HDD question is an interesting one. If ripping DVD's to HDD and storing them and playing them back is what you want to do then i would be looking at around the 120gig onwards capacity.. You dont need that much.. you can rip dvd's and burn with prob a 10 gig HDD but i would still suggest the former. Also you will want to have a higher speed HDD for enconding and playback purposes. 7200 rpm would be ideal... 5400 rpm wouldnt be to bad but possibly noticeable difference...

Guys, what does everyone else think?

hope this helps a little
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post #4 of 31
10/3/05 at 11:53pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks DontUhatePanta,
Any insight is extrememly helpful. I was definitely looking for a hard drive in the mid or upper hundreds with 7200 rpm because I hope to store dvds, music, and a lot of writing documents on my system and have it for a few years. On that note, do you think I should stay with a single drive, or opt for the dual drive?
Another thing about the screen for anyone who can help, I am a writer and plan to be on it for hours at a time during the day writing, and I don't want a screen that has such a small resolution that I am straining my eyes out of my head to read it, unless of course you can change the fonts in programs and your desktop, which would then render my worries irrelevant. Thanks again,
Depp
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post #5 of 31
10/3/05 at 11:59pm
get the 60gig 7200rpm internal and buy a big external drive like 260gig... i got the 1000gig which is nuts, already have 3000 songs and at least 50 full dvd's.

for the screen get the one i have, its great and has a great price.

for the processor check out their site lol, they have great comparison. the one i have just blows out everything (except the better ones lol). get at least 1gig of ram.

have fun!

p.s: this laptop is NOT for writers, take that from a fellow writter Stay with an IBM T43 or a mac ( ) for writing. or try the sentia... its actualy pretty damn good
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post #6 of 31
10/4/05 at 12:33pm
nice to see you back, Z.
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post #7 of 31
10/5/05 at 8:42pm
Thread Starter 
This computer is not good for writers? Why? Is it because of the size, weight, or the keyboard? Also, does it run hot all the time, or just when you play the most demanding games on it?
Thanks guys.
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post #8 of 31
10/5/05 at 9:09pm
a little from column A, a little from column B...

it is heavy. Has no battery life, and as with most laptops - continual typing on a laptop keyboard can be quite uncomfortable... a usb keyboard might be advised...

As for the heat issue.. not to sure... i think most ppl complain about heat mainly during times of great GPU usage.. so yes games etc... cant really comment on just general office use though...

maybe someone else might be able to help with the heat problem...?
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post #9 of 31
10/5/05 at 9:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Depp
Hello everyone,
I just have a few questions about the Alienware Area 51M-7700 before I order it. Number one, how high resolution of a screen should I get? Is there much of a difference between the SXGA+ 1680x1050 and the UXGA 1920x1200 for dvd playing?
Number two, I was reading the specs on the drives you can get with the 7700, and on the Slot load Dual Layer DVD drive, there was something called soft read error less than 10-9 and hard read error less than 10-12. What does this mean?
Lastly, I was looking at the processors, and I saw that there was one called a 560 J 3.6 GHz 800 MHz FSB 1MB and a 660 3.6 GHz 800 MHz FSB 2MB. They are exactly the same except for the 1 MB cache of the 560 J and the 2 MB cache of the 660, yet the 560 J costs twenty-five dollars more? Why? And which processor is overall the better choice for dvds, games, and future upgrades?
Thanks a lot for the help, guys,
Depp

A soft error is a faulty data reading that doesn't recur if the same data is reread from the disk. It's usually caused by power fluctuations or noise spikes, etc. A hard error is when it does recur and is uncorrectable by the error detection and correction system. Those numbers on the slot drive are standard for most optical drives now, so don't worry about them. Btw, I believe that's 10 to the negative ninth and 10 to the negative twelfth respectively, rather than ten dash nine etc. As for the screen, if you are into dvds, I'd say go for the WUXGA since HD tv is starting to move to that resolution. As for the processor, go with the 6xx. Alienware is the only place on earth that I know of that prices the 5xx series higher. It's probably because they have a limited amount left in stock and want to make them more appealling by overpricing them so people will think they're better. As for ripping DVDs, you really ought to rip to a divx or xvid format since depending on the quality you select for the rip it'll save space without degrading quality. And if you want a lot of DVDs no internal hard drive is probably going to be big enough for you, so yeah get an external. Regardless of the size of the interal though, it should be 7200rpm. You'll notice it when booting up, loading files, etc.
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post #10 of 31
10/7/05 at 4:11am
Thread Starter 
On the WUXGA screen, how small does everything appear? I saw that some people posted in these forums that you can enlarge everything (the text, icons, etc.). Does it work the same way as on a desktop? I just go to control panel, then appearance and themes, and you can change the sizes and styles of most everything on the system.
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post #11 of 31
10/7/05 at 4:17am
Yep.. windows isnt really customised for a laptop. It is the same program with the same options (well pretty much)..

there will be alienware mods and software on there... but the core is still windows XP so if you are familiar with any version of that (even if yor not) its all pretty much the same
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post #12 of 31
10/7/05 at 4:52am
heat: gets nice and hot (especialy the bottom left)... uncomfortable for typing/writting.
7700 kboard isnt made for writting... the keys place doesnt feel 'natural'. a ibm t43 is great for writting.
this laptop is for gamming or CAD deff not for writting (IBM T42-43 very good for typing/writtting.)
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post #13 of 31
10/7/05 at 6:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeeRonan


p.s: this laptop is NOT for writers, take that from a fellow writter Stay with an IBM T43 or a mac ( ) for writing. or try the sentia... its actualy pretty damn good

I'll have to disagree with you on that one Zee.

I too am a writer, and I use it for all my writing. Although I have to say my writing i split 50/50 between the 7700 and my desktop. Because sometimes...just sometimes it feels better when writing in a chair as opposed to on the couch.
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post #14 of 31
10/9/05 at 8:58pm
I use the laptop for a tremendous amount of writing - the keyboard is big enough for me to avoid hitting the wrong keys and I like the separate number pad. But having worked on smaller laptops makes me thankful for the 7700. I suppose a wireless keyboard could also be a solution.
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post #15 of 31
10/11/05 at 12:57am
Don't know what kind of writer you are... only a moron would use the 7700 to write a book... Oh you did know i ment a writer as a book writer? and not your school word paper thats do tom?

Writers don't use a 7700 to write books or long articles. It's not practical, because its to hot, to heavy and uncomfortable to write with. Oh and it cost +$3000. They use Mac's (ugh) or IBM's because they are cheap, practical and very good to type with. Maybe YOU use the 7700 to write, but 98% of writers do NOT. So shut up and go write your school's essay

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post #16 of 31
10/12/05 at 12:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeeRonan
Don't know what kind of writer you are... only a moron would use the 7700 to write a book... Oh you did know i ment a writer as a book writer? and not your school word paper thats do tom?

Writers don't use a 7700 to write books or long articles. It's not practical, because its to hot, to heavy and uncomfortable to write with. Oh and it cost +$3000. They use Mac's (ugh) or IBM's because they are cheap, practical and very good to type with. Maybe YOU use the 7700 to write, but 98% of writers do NOT. So shut up and go write your school's essay

Yeah Zee, I'm sure you have experience writing ANYTHING worth reading. Though you probably could write a book on how to be a total poser who tries to make people think his uninformed opinions are worthwhile by shouting as loud as he can. Might want to get an IBM for that, though. It'd be a long-ass book.
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post #17 of 31
10/12/05 at 2:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blowfish64
Might want to get an IBM for that, though. It'd be a long-ass book.

rofl



in other news. I have an IBM T42.... and without being a writer i can tell you after about 20 minutes of typing emails on this thing my hands ache... its the positioning of hands i think.. not sure...

but im not a writer so you guys might do things differently...
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post #18 of 31
10/13/05 at 5:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeeRonan
Don't know what kind of writer you are... only a moron would use the 7700 to write a book... Oh you did know i ment a writer as a book writer? and not your school word paper thats do tom?

Writers don't use a 7700 to write books or long articles. It's not practical, because its to hot, to heavy and uncomfortable to write with. Oh and it cost +$3000. They use Mac's (ugh) or IBM's because they are cheap, practical and very good to type with. Maybe YOU use the 7700 to write, but 98% of writers do NOT. So shut up and go write your school's essay

Just because some people have money to spend on buying high grade computers for mundane and bountifully paid writing, you can't diss people for using such a beautiful piece of machinery for writing. You are a skeptic. I have usb keyboard I use for writing, why in the world would I even use the onboard keyboard that would be stupid. Dumbass.

Why don't you think before you post. Dumbass. BTW MAC"S suck balls, and I don't like Cheap PC's.

and the 7700 is the only laptop I use. and I use it for multiple things. My programming for work and my writing for work...2 jobs on one machine...WOW..that is something you probably never thought was possible..dumbass
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post #19 of 31
10/16/05 at 3:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeeRonan
Don't know what kind of writer you are... only a moron would use the 7700 to write a book... Oh you did know i ment a writer as a book writer? and not your school word paper thats do tom?

Writers don't use a 7700 to write books or long articles. It's not practical, because its to hot, to heavy and uncomfortable to write with. Oh and it cost +$3000. They use Mac's (ugh) or IBM's because they are cheap, practical and very good to type with. Maybe YOU use the 7700 to write, but 98% of writers do NOT. So shut up and go write your school's essay
Wow - what's with all this hostility and anger? Well, perhaps you are the great American novelist so we should all assume that you know everything?

I use the 7700 extensively for writing technical reports and legal docs and it works fine for this use. After I'm done for the day, I can game on it. Perfect combination.

Hope your books sells and your attitude improves.
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post #20 of 31
10/16/05 at 5:26pm
Don't worry. I think he finally got banned for good. Can I get an amen?
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