aurora m7700 - Page 4

Jan 18, 2006 3:02 PM

Arrived at FedEx location

SHAWNEE, KS

Should be here for sure tomorrow (at least it's in the right state). Sager if you get a chance put up some pics and a short, what you think about it, post.

You may beat me to it!

For some reason, FedEx attempted to deliver my new backpack, but the laptop was left at the depot. It arrived at the FedEx depot at the same time as the backpack, but only the latter got loaded on the truck. It didn't matter anyway as no one was home when the delivery was attempted. Belive it or not, I'm kinda glad, as it was a long day at work, and I had a crushing headache and went to bed early last night. I wouldn't have even opened the box if I had gotten it--that's how bad I was feeling.

Feeling much better this morning, the first thing I did this morning was check the FedEx site, and both packages are enroute to my house. I'm working from home today, so only an F-5 tornado can rip me from my domicile!

I'll try to get a short description and some pix up as soon as I can.

Well that is kind of a bummer. Glad your feeling better. Hell I woke up this morning at 5 and have been looking out the window all day so far, lol. I know that it wont get here till mid afternoon but I can dream cant I. Dam this waiting is killing me, it's worse than playing the phase game. Going to be a long day I think. Keep us posted.

Man, it's just like waiting for a huge snow storm that you want to experience, except the storm never shows up.

Well, I did get some flurries in the form of the new XL backpack just a few minutes ago. I asked the guy if he had the other package on this truck, but he said no. Guess it's on another truck. It better be. At least the FedEx tracking site says it still is.

Alright...I'm priming the camera. Hope work doesn't intrude too much this afternoon cuz I don't feel like doing any of it right now...Stay tuned.

Good to here it is starting to arrive there. Mine is coming from a town about an hour away, so no telling when I'll be seeing anything here. Lol about the camera, I just charged mine up last night to be sure. Feel like a little kid before Christmas. Good luck on it getting there safely.

So ya got it? Excellent!!! Picture, pictures! Speech!!! I will live vicariously through your computer experience.

Just put up some pictures in the photos section. I'll post some benchmarks later tonight.

P.S.-Your going to love it once yours is there!

Playing the Waiting Game

Hi All, noob here to the forum. Been back & forth on the forums the past few weeks doin' "research" Ordered my Aurora on 12/8/2005. Been on phase "5" since MLK day. I had to chime in and give my thoughts. As far as my config (in sig) Yes, i know i should have at least gotten the 4400 instead of the 4200, and YES, same with the graphics card (got the 6800 instead of the 7800 or even the 6800 ultra) and Yes, shoud've gone with the XP pro... lemme see, anything else? Oh yeah, 7200 rpm drives instead of the 5400...and the 3 year instead of the 1 year warranty. But that's ok. I'm a graphic artist (like soooo many others out there!), but I work in LARGE FORMAT digital printing. So my file sizes can easily run a gig. Got tired of staying late at work (like 2 nite) to do mah magic thing, so I got the system to solve all my problems. only one it can't seem to solve is this huge feeling of "tiredofwaitinitis". Apparently a bunch of you suffer from this same ailment.

I know that I'm monologuing here, but after being online for the past umpteen weeks sifting thru the "pros" & "cons" of Alienware and Alienware ownership, I've come to the following conclusions that I just had to share with peeps that might understand my angst the most.

1) Yes, Alienware does seem to have a record of unsatisfied customers...
however, it seems that EVERY company has some kind of bad rep. To me, it doesn't seem logical to have 100% quality/satisfaction amongst the buying public. Statistically it just doesn't jive. Reseller ratings, CNET etc. etc. Can give you both Good and bad....take them both with a grain of salt.

2) Yes, Alienware does make flippin' flap-jackin', booty searin', eye blindin' fast systems. It seems that throughout their 10 year history, they've consistently brought out the cuttin' edge tech to the public. As with any new technology, there's bound to be some bugs & problems initially. So I have to keep the thought in the back of my mind that problems MAY occur. (let's hope not though!) I just hope that I don't have to go through the customer service nightmare. But just in case, I looked over some tips and solutions that may help in that event.

3) No, it's not a prestige thing (well maybe a little) to own this beast. It's a tool (at least for me). A tool that I can impress the clients with and maybe even give a little "nah-nah- nana- nah!" under my breath to some fanboys who may be geeking over my lappy. And as with any tool, TAKE CARE OF IT AND IT WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!!!! Meaning.... It's my belief that maybe %50 of the nay-sayers of AW probably didn't take care of it properly. No, I don't mean by abusing the crap out of it or using it as home plate or something..(that last little reference was to a game played outside called Baseball... ) But the simple stuff, like blowing the dust out of it.... keeping it ventilated and cool...etc. etc. But, again, just my opinion.

4) And finally...No matter what you do in life, there will always be people that are 100% for you and the same goes for the opposite. That's just the way we are as humans. So after all of the reading, reviews, blogs, forums and website research, it comes down to 1 thing. I like what the company produces, I hope I don't have any problems and no matter what, there WILL be something BIGGER and Better within a year or 2.

So I am at peace now with my decision. That night in December when I hit the "Order" button and almost instantaneously a huge knot formed in my stomach, is history. The phase game in FULL effect, and presently, that knot has been replaced with anxiousness and Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. To anyone who has bothered to even read this far, thank you. This post I think is more for my own benefit, just to be able to get all of these things off my chest. I'll definitely be back... I'll try to be one of those that actually DOES take some pics of the lappy and maybe even slap together a review of sorts. I promise my next post will be shorter. Excelsior! And always remember.... "Chaos is the Harbinger of change!"

Nice post and very well said. Congrats on your order and hope you no troubles with your machine.

Saw your pics hulioni.... let me just say that I am green w/ envy!!!
I'm sure you'll keep us posted as to the in's & out's of the machine. I've got one question though, the MJ12 is in the same cse as the Aurora, I believe. Supposedly that's what's on backorder for my model. You ordered after I did, and received B4 i did. The Alienware Gods must be against me!!! I didn't even get the 7800, and I'm STILL in a hold pattern at AW. Go figure. Makes me even more jealous....

I have no idea why I would have got mine before you. They had a mess-up with the finance department and was told that I would be expedited, other than that I don't know. Once you get to phase 5 it seems to go much faster (I know that doesn't help). The shipping on the other hand is a different story, look at what sager is going through. It is worth the wait, and without any problems you will just love the laptop.

hulioni, pics and 3dmark05/3dmark06 scores please

First pics are here.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=129065

I did run 3dmark05 with 81.98's and got right around 7500 with the 7800 at 450/1.2. I think I'll reformat and do a clean install tomorrow, then do all my benches. I am going to clock my main rig down to 2.4ghz and will post both as a side by side compare. Tonight I'm just checking for functionality at this point. Any idea why my front led when set to 12 hour display in bios doesnt work right? 24 hour works but with 12 hour it starts out with a 4 in front of the time then every hour it just goes to 00:and the minutes. Bios flash maybe? Minor problem aside, this is one kickass lappy.

The hulioni Alienware Majestic 12 is sweet!
Its always nice to see the rare breed MJ-12 in the forums.

Thank you very much Aurora (funny that is the name of my street). The only reason I ended up buying one is because of all the great people and support that is offered on this site. I know the risks going in, and I've owned about all brands (Sony believe it or not was my worst buy ever). I'm so glad I found this forum when I did, you guys/gals are great. Hope to be done with my review by early next week.

Other than the option of getting the quadro and an opteron processor nothing that I can tell. The MJ-12 seems to cost less for the same spec'd machine though for some reason.

I completely missed (or maybe initially discounted) the MJ-12 when I was spelunking around deciding on the config I wanted. AW's laptop area is a bit confusing as I've come through there a couple of different times and have found different things.

During my research phase, I was more concerned with the variants of the Aurora/9750 among Alienware, Sager, PC-Torque, Falcon NW, Hypersonic, etc. I had pretty much zero'd in on the Aurora anyway, but I think hulioni was very cagey with his setup. I don't see much difference either, other than the slightly cheaper price on the MJ-12. I think the fact that both hulioni and I are experiencing the same problems with the clock/audio dj tells you that the two builds are practically identical.

Sith, I'm glad to hear you got over your buyer's remorse. As I get older, I find it gets a lot easier to spend big bucks. After buying a car, a house, etc, 3 to 5 grand on a laptop doesn't seem like so much anymore. These are all great machines regardless of your config. As long as it's what you want and can afford, there's no reason to worry about what anybody else thinks. A lot of this stuff is mostly hair-splitting among the gaming cogniscenti anyway, but that's where they have their fun. More power to 'em.

Trust me I'll be checking up on this, as it isn't a problem for me but it still is getting to me that something on this kick ass rig isn't as it should. Think I'll call back Tues. or Wed. Good luck with yours, and hope it to be trouble free. You'll love it.