I received my system on May 13th and had some time to play with it. Although I lost about five days being sick, which is why this review is late. What timing! When the FedEx truck arrived at 11:30am I hit such a peak of excitement that for a few brief moments I felt like I was a 9 year old boy again coming downstairs on Christmas morning! Anyway, here is the system I have:
Area-51 m5700
Pentium M 760 2.0GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2
17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz
100GB 7200 RPM SATA with NCQ
256MB NVidia GeForce Go 6800
Intel High-Definition Audio
Media Center Remote Control with NTSC USB TV Tuner
8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Order Total: $2,331.00
First Impressions
Absolutely STUNNED at the size and sleekness of this unit. It is beautiful to say the least. I spent the first 15 or so minutes just admiring it before I even turned it on. I have never owned a laptop before so this was a momentous occassion. I then powered it on and:
Cool beyond belief. Absolutely incredible. My feelings were: I made the right choice (after 1 year of research). Even the black box is cool. Geeky I know.
Performance
I'm using this unit as a desktop replacement. But, I am also a big gamer and I plan on playing alot of strategy/RTS type games on it. So, I was initially concerned about the GeForce 6800 card and the M5700 not being upgradeable. I mean I could have purchased a Sager or a Dell MPS170 (before it was discontinued) for less but have a powerful GeForce GTX 7800 card. This bothered me to no end and I agonized over it endlessly.
However, after installing and running Star Wars Empire at War, Galactic Civilizations II, Civilization IV, Space Rangers, The Movies, and Evil Genius I was happier than happy! Smooth as glass and beautiful! I then installed and ran Half Life 2. Here is where I figured I would be pushing it. Guess what? BEAUTIFUL! All graphics maxed and running in widescreen 1900x1200 it is smooth as ever! Oh boy am I happy!
I now have no fear in wondering whether this system can run the games I plan on buying such as Heroes of Might & Magic V, Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer III and Neverwinter Nights II.
So for those of you considering this model for gaming, especially strategy/RTS type games, you will have no problem at all. I'm not sure how it would handle the likes of FPS type games (besides Half Life 2) but I reserve those for my Xbox 360. Of course, the internet browsing, word processing, photoshop etc. all run so well that words cannot describe it.
I'm also really happy that I decided on the WUXGA 1900x1200 screen. It is so crisp and clean and provides alot of screen real estate.
Accessories
I briefly messed around with the tv tuner card I got with it. I was able to get the tv on my computer with no problems. I have yet to try out the recording capabilities. I don't know why I got this option. I guess I figured I'm spending $2,000 I might as well spend an extra hundred to get it. You never know when I might want to use it. It will be useful to record those episodes of CHARMED I miss while at the gym!
I purchased my own wireless mouse (Microsoft Wireless 3000 model) because I hate using trackpads. The mouse works flawlessly.
The Alienware mouse pad is so cool. It sits in a rubberized "container" of sorts to eliminate any sliding around and it is reversible with two types of textures. You can use whichever one feels better with your mouse. Cool.
I watched the opening 20 minutes of Star Wars Episode III on the laptop and to say it was breathtaking is an uderstatement. The DVD drive works great. Although I won't be watching movies on it unless I travel it is a nice feature to have.
I love the XP Media Center Edition and I can't wait to try this with its connectivity to the Xbox 360. That should be loads of fun.
Overall
I really have no complaints about the system whatsoever. It is doing everything I wanted it to do. The only thing that bothers me is that I'm constantly looking at the back of the unit to admire the blue glowing alien head and Alienware name. It intereferes with my game playing! Everything worked right out of the box and my entire experience with Alienware from purchase to delivery was perfect. I think I will be happy with this system for the next several years to come. Bye Bye desktop!
Area-51 m5700
Pentium M 760 2.0GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2
17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz
100GB 7200 RPM SATA with NCQ
256MB NVidia GeForce Go 6800
Intel High-Definition Audio
Media Center Remote Control with NTSC USB TV Tuner
8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Order Total: $2,331.00
First Impressions
Absolutely STUNNED at the size and sleekness of this unit. It is beautiful to say the least. I spent the first 15 or so minutes just admiring it before I even turned it on. I have never owned a laptop before so this was a momentous occassion. I then powered it on and:
Cool beyond belief. Absolutely incredible. My feelings were: I made the right choice (after 1 year of research). Even the black box is cool. Geeky I know.Performance
I'm using this unit as a desktop replacement. But, I am also a big gamer and I plan on playing alot of strategy/RTS type games on it. So, I was initially concerned about the GeForce 6800 card and the M5700 not being upgradeable. I mean I could have purchased a Sager or a Dell MPS170 (before it was discontinued) for less but have a powerful GeForce GTX 7800 card. This bothered me to no end and I agonized over it endlessly.
However, after installing and running Star Wars Empire at War, Galactic Civilizations II, Civilization IV, Space Rangers, The Movies, and Evil Genius I was happier than happy! Smooth as glass and beautiful! I then installed and ran Half Life 2. Here is where I figured I would be pushing it. Guess what? BEAUTIFUL! All graphics maxed and running in widescreen 1900x1200 it is smooth as ever! Oh boy am I happy!
I now have no fear in wondering whether this system can run the games I plan on buying such as Heroes of Might & Magic V, Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer III and Neverwinter Nights II.So for those of you considering this model for gaming, especially strategy/RTS type games, you will have no problem at all. I'm not sure how it would handle the likes of FPS type games (besides Half Life 2) but I reserve those for my Xbox 360. Of course, the internet browsing, word processing, photoshop etc. all run so well that words cannot describe it.
I'm also really happy that I decided on the WUXGA 1900x1200 screen. It is so crisp and clean and provides alot of screen real estate.
Accessories
I briefly messed around with the tv tuner card I got with it. I was able to get the tv on my computer with no problems. I have yet to try out the recording capabilities. I don't know why I got this option. I guess I figured I'm spending $2,000 I might as well spend an extra hundred to get it. You never know when I might want to use it. It will be useful to record those episodes of CHARMED I miss while at the gym!
I purchased my own wireless mouse (Microsoft Wireless 3000 model) because I hate using trackpads. The mouse works flawlessly.
The Alienware mouse pad is so cool. It sits in a rubberized "container" of sorts to eliminate any sliding around and it is reversible with two types of textures. You can use whichever one feels better with your mouse. Cool.
I watched the opening 20 minutes of Star Wars Episode III on the laptop and to say it was breathtaking is an uderstatement. The DVD drive works great. Although I won't be watching movies on it unless I travel it is a nice feature to have.
I love the XP Media Center Edition and I can't wait to try this with its connectivity to the Xbox 360. That should be loads of fun.
Overall
I really have no complaints about the system whatsoever. It is doing everything I wanted it to do. The only thing that bothers me is that I'm constantly looking at the back of the unit to admire the blue glowing alien head and Alienware name. It intereferes with my game playing! Everything worked right out of the box and my entire experience with Alienware from purchase to delivery was perfect. I think I will be happy with this system for the next several years to come. Bye Bye desktop!
