The Phase Game: Not sure i can describe it but i know you all know how it feels. having a 4000 dollar toy but you cant play with it for 30 days. believe me its worth the wait,... you come home, the fedex guy comes and you have an ear to ear smille... as soon as it was delivered the first thing i remeber is how much lighter the box was than i anticipated. i open the box and all the goodies were packed nicely... laptop, games, usb key, tv tuner, t-shirt, kingston lock ect... its pretty overwelming to have all this stuff...
the accessories....
Lock: the lock is pretty good for the money. i got the key lock, the connection to the laptop itself is very sturdy; it also comes with a nice mounting bracket so you can screw it in to something solid. i put it on my desk... won't deter a superthief, but the avg. joe is gonna have to carry my whole desk out to steal my 51m
Pic:
ESPN:
T-Shirt: Pretty cool looking shirt, kinda large but should shrink in the laundry... went with the standard black, not much to say here...
Pic:
Mouse/Mousepad: The mouse is pretty sweet... matches the laptop color pretty well... its very accurate and the response is good, works on pretty much any surface smoothly, including my leg. The mouse pad is one of my favorite features,... seems simple but the thing is nice... it has this little clip that holds the mouse wire in place so its not all over the place, which is key since the usb ports are on the right making everything kinda clumped up with the wiring.
Pic:
Remote Control/Usb drive: The remote control kicks major arse! You can program it with any application, the only thing is it needs to have hot keys(i.e. cntl+s to save) it can control 4 different applications, i have it set to my TV tuner, Realplayer, DVD player and Mozilla.... it works great with realplayer... you can switch tracks easy, adjust volume, the whole 9. a great feature, especially if you dont have a stereo like me. The usb drive i pretty self explanitory, it has the alienware logo and havent had any issues wit it, works flawless....
in addition you can Boot from the usb drive, which is a plus with no floppy drive.
Pic:
Manuals: You get a very nice little Alienware Binder to keep all your documentation in order. your invoice, some benchmark results and all your software/drivers. put together nicely, most companies you get the packing slip and thats it...
Pic:
Cooling pad: doesnt come with it but the antec cooling pad is a must for this laptop. the thing works great, even without the fan it provides a nice surface to sit on your lap and allow ventilation from the bottom. keeps the laptop very cool. very quiet!
Pic:
Wireless: didnt go with the built in cuase i heard it was crap so i went with the netgear 802.11g card... what can i say the thing is a beast. im yet to get signal strength lower than "excellent" and im always between 48-54 Mbps. can get reception outside my building (im on teh 3rd floor).
Pic:
WinTv PVR(Tv Tuner): Well i already knew what i was getting with the haupagge PVR. The thing works like a champ, again no problems installing the usb device, it found all 125 channels and they all come in at the same quality i get on my TV. the picture is flawless and there is no ghosting or skipping at all. picture is kinda blurred up close but when standing from nromal tv watching distance(even for a small screen for TV) it is great. The PVR also has MPEG2 encoder which allows you to record and pause live TV. it has a scheduler built in so you can set times to tape stuff(i.e monday at 8pm) the recordings are great quailty, but take alot of space. 5.4 GB for 1 hour. this is where that second hard drive comes in BIG! thats an additonal 80 GB! a must buy if you get the TV Tuner! you can hold 14 hours of live peicture perfect quality TV on that secondhard drive! just like a tivo!
Pics: TV Tuner:
ESPN:
TNT:
Recording Scheduler:
On to the Laptop itself.....
The laptop is a work of art, it is truly a beutiful machine. The laptop is extremely quiet...hell the damn powersource makes more noise than the laptop! The thing is a walking port replicator.... TV out, S-video, usb, firewire, memory card reader, pcmcia, paralell, serieal, ps/2. The screen is gorgeous, the 16.1" had no washout at all, the ghosting is near non exsistent, you have to be really looking for it to even notice. the keyboard is prety ncie, kind of transperant, i have no problem with any of the key locations, the fn/control thing is kind of annoying but laptop users are used to it. the mouse pad is pretty nice, the scroll feature is really handy if you can master it, if not you can kinda get annoyed by it. the DVD burner works great. 35 mintues to make a copy. onyl had problems with ULEAd, but made copies with no problem with Nero and dvd x copy xpress. the second hard drive sint hot swapable but ive had no problems with that at all either, it is recognized by the laptop automatically.
The battery gets decent life for the intese apps andhardware running 2 hours or so, 1 hour and a half of gaming.
pics: Laptop:
Top:
Bottom:
left:
Right:
Screen:
My 2 favorite possesion, college degree and 51m:
After getting over the initial feeling of having the laptop arrive it was time to set the puppy up... i dual booted it with linux(slackware) and xp pro... since you cant have the second hard drive and cd drive in at the same time this got kind fo tricky... i had to boot from the network and download the slackware files to a small windows partition on the 2nd HDD. i then mounted that and installed linux onto the 2nd hdd from a drive on that same hdd! and it worked wonderfully!
now i ahve 2 OS' runnng like champs on my beast.
Pics:
Dual Boot:
Slackware booting:
linux in action:
Okay Okay i know what your thinking "hey i ain't got time for the jibber jabber" lets see soem gaming!
ask and ye shall recieve!
here are the goodies i got with the laptop:
I had no trouble installing any of these, none of the "cant authenticate errors" Call of duty got popped inf irst, played great, no skipping, great graphics, no ghosting:
picd:
Age of mythology was up next, again flawless, this is a great game i highly suggest you try it out, very addicting, i could get away after hours of gaming if finally stopped... here are some pics of it in action...
Halo.... this is the only thing that gave me trouble... graphics kinda of blocky,,,,.... played very fast and smooth but graphics were quite right.. but i didnt mess with any options so that could be it... here are some pics:
Next it was emulation time...this meant 2 things ...
1) time to break out the gravis game pad pro... i.e. the best darn emulator joypad known to man:
2) tiem to get out the classics...
i wont beat around the bush here, all i'll say is they all played flawless... nos kips, graphics 100% accurate to their console+Tv counterparts... here we go ina quick rundown:
NES:
tyson-
zelda-
snes:
supermario wolrd-
Genesis:
nhl 93-
n64:
mariokart-
gameboy advanced:
Metroid fushion-
whew! i hope i didnt leave anything out... to sum things up this is a great laptop and a great experience... there really sint anything this laptop cant do...
hell just in the first day i:
dual booted windows and linux, played nes, super nes, genesis, n64, gameboy 3 pc games, watched tv on the lappie, recorded 2 tv shows, watcha DVd, copied a dvd, burned a DVD, copied video from a camcorded via the firewire ports, surfed the itnernet wireless...
The picture is awesome, the sounds is pretty good for a laptop too!
all this with NO PORBLEMS WHATSOEVER at incredible speeds...
the machine is a beast, but runs as smooth as silk. i cant possibly say enough about this notebook.
Ratings (out of 10):
speed: 10
screen: 9
Sound: 8
Noise: 10
Heat: 8
Battery Life: 7
Gaming: 12.5
DVD: 10
DVD burn: 9
Usb ports: 10
firewire: 10
Wireless: n/a
pcmcia wireless: 10
smartbay: 10
remote controll: 11
mouse: 8
keyboard: 8
opticall mouse: 9
Mousepad: 10
geez did i miss anything?
ohyeah overall experience a perfect 10
the accessories....
Lock: the lock is pretty good for the money. i got the key lock, the connection to the laptop itself is very sturdy; it also comes with a nice mounting bracket so you can screw it in to something solid. i put it on my desk... won't deter a superthief, but the avg. joe is gonna have to carry my whole desk out to steal my 51m
Pic:
ESPN:
T-Shirt: Pretty cool looking shirt, kinda large but should shrink in the laundry... went with the standard black, not much to say here...
Pic:
Mouse/Mousepad: The mouse is pretty sweet... matches the laptop color pretty well... its very accurate and the response is good, works on pretty much any surface smoothly, including my leg. The mouse pad is one of my favorite features,... seems simple but the thing is nice... it has this little clip that holds the mouse wire in place so its not all over the place, which is key since the usb ports are on the right making everything kinda clumped up with the wiring.
Pic:
Remote Control/Usb drive: The remote control kicks major arse! You can program it with any application, the only thing is it needs to have hot keys(i.e. cntl+s to save) it can control 4 different applications, i have it set to my TV tuner, Realplayer, DVD player and Mozilla.... it works great with realplayer... you can switch tracks easy, adjust volume, the whole 9. a great feature, especially if you dont have a stereo like me. The usb drive i pretty self explanitory, it has the alienware logo and havent had any issues wit it, works flawless....
in addition you can Boot from the usb drive, which is a plus with no floppy drive.
Pic:
Manuals: You get a very nice little Alienware Binder to keep all your documentation in order. your invoice, some benchmark results and all your software/drivers. put together nicely, most companies you get the packing slip and thats it...
Pic:
Cooling pad: doesnt come with it but the antec cooling pad is a must for this laptop. the thing works great, even without the fan it provides a nice surface to sit on your lap and allow ventilation from the bottom. keeps the laptop very cool. very quiet!
Pic:
Wireless: didnt go with the built in cuase i heard it was crap so i went with the netgear 802.11g card... what can i say the thing is a beast. im yet to get signal strength lower than "excellent" and im always between 48-54 Mbps. can get reception outside my building (im on teh 3rd floor).
Pic:
WinTv PVR(Tv Tuner): Well i already knew what i was getting with the haupagge PVR. The thing works like a champ, again no problems installing the usb device, it found all 125 channels and they all come in at the same quality i get on my TV. the picture is flawless and there is no ghosting or skipping at all. picture is kinda blurred up close but when standing from nromal tv watching distance(even for a small screen for TV) it is great. The PVR also has MPEG2 encoder which allows you to record and pause live TV. it has a scheduler built in so you can set times to tape stuff(i.e monday at 8pm) the recordings are great quailty, but take alot of space. 5.4 GB for 1 hour. this is where that second hard drive comes in BIG! thats an additonal 80 GB! a must buy if you get the TV Tuner! you can hold 14 hours of live peicture perfect quality TV on that secondhard drive! just like a tivo!
Pics: TV Tuner:
ESPN:
TNT:
Recording Scheduler:
On to the Laptop itself.....
The laptop is a work of art, it is truly a beutiful machine. The laptop is extremely quiet...hell the damn powersource makes more noise than the laptop! The thing is a walking port replicator.... TV out, S-video, usb, firewire, memory card reader, pcmcia, paralell, serieal, ps/2. The screen is gorgeous, the 16.1" had no washout at all, the ghosting is near non exsistent, you have to be really looking for it to even notice. the keyboard is prety ncie, kind of transperant, i have no problem with any of the key locations, the fn/control thing is kind of annoying but laptop users are used to it. the mouse pad is pretty nice, the scroll feature is really handy if you can master it, if not you can kinda get annoyed by it. the DVD burner works great. 35 mintues to make a copy. onyl had problems with ULEAd, but made copies with no problem with Nero and dvd x copy xpress. the second hard drive sint hot swapable but ive had no problems with that at all either, it is recognized by the laptop automatically.
The battery gets decent life for the intese apps andhardware running 2 hours or so, 1 hour and a half of gaming.
pics: Laptop:
Top:
Bottom:
left:
Right:
Screen:
My 2 favorite possesion, college degree and 51m:
After getting over the initial feeling of having the laptop arrive it was time to set the puppy up... i dual booted it with linux(slackware) and xp pro... since you cant have the second hard drive and cd drive in at the same time this got kind fo tricky... i had to boot from the network and download the slackware files to a small windows partition on the 2nd HDD. i then mounted that and installed linux onto the 2nd hdd from a drive on that same hdd! and it worked wonderfully!
now i ahve 2 OS' runnng like champs on my beast.
Pics:
Dual Boot:
Slackware booting:
linux in action:
Okay Okay i know what your thinking "hey i ain't got time for the jibber jabber" lets see soem gaming!
ask and ye shall recieve!
here are the goodies i got with the laptop:
I had no trouble installing any of these, none of the "cant authenticate errors" Call of duty got popped inf irst, played great, no skipping, great graphics, no ghosting:
picd:
Age of mythology was up next, again flawless, this is a great game i highly suggest you try it out, very addicting, i could get away after hours of gaming if finally stopped... here are some pics of it in action...
Halo.... this is the only thing that gave me trouble... graphics kinda of blocky,,,,.... played very fast and smooth but graphics were quite right.. but i didnt mess with any options so that could be it... here are some pics:
Next it was emulation time...this meant 2 things ...
1) time to break out the gravis game pad pro... i.e. the best darn emulator joypad known to man:
2) tiem to get out the classics...
i wont beat around the bush here, all i'll say is they all played flawless... nos kips, graphics 100% accurate to their console+Tv counterparts... here we go ina quick rundown:
NES:
tyson-
zelda-
snes:
supermario wolrd-
Genesis:
nhl 93-
n64:
mariokart-
gameboy advanced:
Metroid fushion-
whew! i hope i didnt leave anything out... to sum things up this is a great laptop and a great experience... there really sint anything this laptop cant do...
hell just in the first day i:
dual booted windows and linux, played nes, super nes, genesis, n64, gameboy 3 pc games, watched tv on the lappie, recorded 2 tv shows, watcha DVd, copied a dvd, burned a DVD, copied video from a camcorded via the firewire ports, surfed the itnernet wireless...
The picture is awesome, the sounds is pretty good for a laptop too!
all this with NO PORBLEMS WHATSOEVER at incredible speeds...
the machine is a beast, but runs as smooth as silk. i cant possibly say enough about this notebook.
Ratings (out of 10):
speed: 10
screen: 9
Sound: 8
Noise: 10
Heat: 8
Battery Life: 7
Gaming: 12.5
DVD: 10
DVD burn: 9
Usb ports: 10
firewire: 10
Wireless: n/a
pcmcia wireless: 10
smartbay: 10
remote controll: 11
mouse: 8
keyboard: 8
opticall mouse: 9
Mousepad: 10
geez did i miss anything?
ohyeah overall experience a perfect 10
