poumpoum's Alienware m9700 Review

After a waiting time of two months, I've finally received my Aurora m9700
Alienware offers me the SENNHEISER Headphone for the late. My configuration is
the next one (sorry it's in french but everyone will understand I think):

1] Aurora™ m9700

Moniteurs: Écran LCD panoramique 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) avec Webcam et Clearview
Système d’exploitation: Microsoft® Windows® XP Edition Familiale avec SP2
Garanties: 3 ans AlienCare - Aller et Retour Atelier avec Hotline Gratuite 24h/24-7j/7
Processeur: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML44 2,4 GHz, 1 Mo de Cache L2, 800 MHz FSB
Mémoire: 2 Go DDR SO-DIMM bicanal à 400 MHz (2 x 1024 Mo)
Carte vidéo: Double carte graphique NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS - 256 Mo - équipé de la technologie SLI
Disque dur système: Performance Extrême - RAID 0 - 200 Go (2 x 100 Go) 7200 tr/mn SATA
Lecteur optique: Graveur DVD+/-RW 8x Double Couche avec logiciels
Carte son: High-Definition Audio avec son 7.1 surround
Clavier: Clavier pour portable - Français
Cartes mère: Jeu de composant Alienware® NVIDIA® Mobile SLi
Communication: Adaptateur 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet et modem 56K V.92
Carte de réseau sans fil: Carte mini-PCI WiFi intégrée 802.11b/g
Batterie principale: Batterie Lithium-Ion Smart pour Alienware® Aurora m9700
Sac à dos pour Notebook: Sac à dos Alienware® Odyssey
Bluetooth: Appareil Bluetooth® integré
Security Locks: Câble Antivol Targus avec fermeture par combinaison
Batterie Supplémentaire: Batterie additionnelle Lithium-Ion Smart pour Alienware® Aurora m9700
Logiciels sécurité: Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Pro - Français
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - intégration et inspection exclusives - €99 d’économie - Gratuit !
T-Shirt gratuit: T-Shirt Alienware® - Noir - XL
Gratuit ! Métamorphose de votre bureau: Exclusif : AlienGUIse Theme Manager

Photos speak better than me (even if the quality isn't so good) :





After opening :





After the first power on :









First Impressions :

*OMG!, it's my first laptop computer and generally I don't like this kind of computer
because of the lack of power and high resolution... but I find this one really amazing!!
The booting time is really short and the Turion is easy to configure with NHC v2.0, it
permits to put it at 800Mhz and block it at this frequence (I wasn't able to do that
before I install this software). This last one permits equally to use the Nvidia
PowerMizer more quickly than the normal way. I tried to encode movies for my psp and the
time seems to be the same than with my AMD 4000+ sure it isn't a dual core but it's enough
for me and for playing game.







*This computer seems really well built, the resolution of the screen is enormous
and really practical when you have to use the desktop (you can put a lot of files on it,
open internet pages and launch software etc...)





*One of the first thing I've tested is the hard drive, I was anxious about the
performance because normally on the laptop... but this score strucked me :

It is really near of my desktop computer, with raid0 too !!!!


*The keyboard is good and large. The sensitive shortcuts for internet, and
music or video player are really pleasent to use. The touchpad is original and not so
difficult to use.





*The next thing I test is the GPUs and after the installation of the AMD
Turion Driver 1.3.2 I obtain this :



Before I was near the 9900.
I tested game like FEAR, DOOM3, PREY, CONDEMNED etc... and the graphical power is here,
I play at high resolutions with max details and I use filters like FFSA, Anisotropic...
BUT the memory stick could have been better for a computer like this. In F.E.A.R. for
exemple when the computer has to read quick in the RAM to load textures I have bad lags...
I had exactly the same problem with my desktop computer before I bought my CRUCIAL memory stick.
I'm waiting for other advice about this, pepsirules2k of the forum has just ordered CRUCIAL
memory stick with better timmings (3-3-3 against 3-4-4 for the origin ones)
You can follow this post here : http://www.notebookforums.com/thread172740.html


*The sound of this laptop seems really good to me even if everybody says the opposite.
The small woofer is small of course lol but it works really well (put the Rock mode in the
equalizer, it's the best configuration I think)
You can read my advice about the "buzzing keyboard" thing here : http://www.notebookforums.com/thread175137.html


*Wifi and bluetooth works realy well, nothing else to say


*Temperatures are really high, near 85°C for the GPUs and I saw 82°C for the CPU!!
I was a little anxious about this but it seems to be the same for the other. I'm trying
to build a laptop cooler currently, I will inform you if I can finish it.


*The battery life is really short, I knew that but not a this point!! In disabling
the SLI, downclocking the GPUs near 75Mhz, and the turion near 500Mhz with 0.6V (with Systool),
down the brightness IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to have more than 2hrs!! and I remember that someone in this
forum was near the 2.9 hrs with his m9700, perhaps he hadn't raid? So if someone could
explain me how this is possible, it would be sympathetic.


*The bag is PERFECT, you can put the computer and all the accessories with it like the headphone,
an external Hard Drive, a mouse... and it seems really solid.




*The head phone has a good sound even if I would prefered headphone with "cable" :




Finally I'm really happy, and even if it's expensive I think it's a good choice for people who
needs a transportable computer with power, storage and graphical power. Perhaps the memory stick could
has been better but it is not a big problem...
Sorry for my english again

lolol thx Kazkek, Do you speak french?

I didn't see where I post, but in fact I'm in the wrong place to post this review! Does a moderator can replace my post, sorry for my mistake

Thx, did you try to simply fix the CPU frequence with Systool?

Lucky man!! you have the 512 ones!! It wasn't possible in my country
Great Score with your OC!!! At which frequences do the cards function?

thx guy

*I will try with coolbit later but I believed that it wasn't possible to use this software with the m9700??

*2.5 hrs is really good but I did exactly the same thing with mine (one GPU, brightnes, bluetooth, I've even shutdown the audiio card lol... except for the disabbling of the external light, how do you do that??) but for me it is impossible to get more than 2 hrs!! Perhaps it is because of the hard drive, have you got raid too? and with wich disks?

Thx

I've tested more games now and this is my conclusion about the computer and the SLI :

*Only few games doesn't work with SLI (Oblivion & Call of Juarez are the only ones I've found for the moment) for all the other ones it works perfectly!!

*For the games wich works with SLI, it is really good for High Resolution with FSAA, you got awesome FPS, for example in Half-Life 2, 1920X1200 with EVERYTHING HIGH and filter at MAX Iv'e got something like 135 FPS!!!but if you prefer playing with HDR(like me) the SLI is TOTALLY useless
(I tested it in Far Cry )

*A thing that IRRITATES me is this ****ING resolution problem!! I don't know if you have the same problem but in ALL my games the possible resolutions that I can choose are the 4/3 resolutions AND the only wide screen resolution available is 1920*1200!! (unplayable with Oblivion and even Far Cry with HDR) so I play in 4/3 with black line on right and left
But If I play this game on my desktop computer (with an old 17' @ 1280X1024@60Hz MAX) all the wide screen resolutions like 1280 X 768, or 1088 X 612 or even 960 X 600 are AVAILABLE!!! so what we have to do to access to this resolutions? Perhaps we can change the screen drivers
or something like this? what do you think?

*The OTHER BIG problem is the "memory problem" (or perhaps it comes from an other thing like HDD or CPU Driver) but in ALL my game, even if I play in 640X480 with 400FPS from the beginning to the end I HAD BIG LAG during 0.5 sec but it happens REALLY often!!! So have you got the same
problem with yours?? I play with the 1.3.2.0 and I wanted to try to play with the 1.2.2.0 but I can't reinstall them!! Someone knows about that?
I've tried to play Counter Strike Source with my friend and it is unplayable!! If I do the server sometimes I lag and all the other people connected lag too because of me. The lag is little but it generally happens during fights!!
PLZ HELP ME!!!!!


Thx a lot


EDIT : For the resolution problem, I'm really stupid , in the control Panel of Nidia
it is possible to create new resolution, and after that it will appear in the game resolutions
available.