Well, it's been a year since I bought my Area-51 m5500, so I thought that I should do something special to commemorate the occasion. The day I made the decision to buy the m5500 had long been coming, as I needed a laptop for my school work while I was on the go for the gov’t. A lot has happened since then including a job change, and now a change in school majors. Along the way, my m5500 has been there with me, tired and true and not a lick of trouble.
The screen is flawless, with a resolution of 1680x1050. Watching DVD’s is a joy as they literally pop off the screen, and on occasion MbWife and I will sit in her ‘coffee-house ‘style office and just chill out with our favorite movies. We have to be careful though, as the movies can get a bit loud when hooked up to the Bose Companion II speaker system. (The old neighbors have a problem with this)
The 100GB (7,200rpm) hard drive is quick to retrieve programs and images, without a moment’s hesitation. Even with all of the photos and music that we’ve downloaded/uploaded, we still have plenty of drive space.
Now I come to one feature that I absolutely love about the m5500- the ‘hybrid’ graphics system. When I need to run productivity applications, the Intel GMA comes in handy for battery saving purposes. When I want to do some graphically challenging tasks, I power the system down, flip the switch on the front of the laptop, and I’m now using an Nvidia GeForce Go 6600(256mb) graphics card. Though I’m not a heavy gamer, I do like to play flight simulator games on occasion and this card works wonderfully for that purpose. Battery times even after a year’s use are okay: With the 6 cell battery I can get 2.45 min using Intel GMA and Wi-Fi on, and nearly 3 hours with the Wi-Fi off. I bought a 9 cell battery to go with it and the run times are a bit better: 3 hours 20 minutes Wi-Fi on and 3 hours 30 minutes with Wi-Fi off. (I just performed these tests over the last couple of days, amongst protests from MbWife-She has taken over the helm of the m5500) Battery run times for the Nvidia GPU are a bit worse. Using the 6-cell battery, I am able to get 1 hour 45 minutes with Wi-Fi on, and 1 hour 56 minutes with Wi-Fi off. With the 9-cell battery, I am able to get 2 hours 15 minutes with Wi-Fi on, and 2 hours 26 minutes with Wi-Fi off.
I usually keep this laptop plugged in as it doesn’t get the travel time it once did. I got the Alienware Odyssey Briefcase for travelling, and the briefcase gets the most abuse these days as I use it for my work laptop. It is spacious, and there are enough pockets for everything you could want to carry. I will say however, that the bag is prone to tipping over on its own if you’re not careful. Speaking of all of this travelling, I will say that the m5500’s weight is not as bad as I once thought it might be. All told, it weighs right around 7lbs and while this might seem heavy to some, it’s not that bad especially going through airports.
I will conclude this lament by saying that I really love this laptop, and I’m glad I purchased it when I did, as they no longer offer the hybrid gpu option. I have never had a problem with it overheating, getting a stuck pixel, keys popping out, or any of the other pitfalls one might encounter after a year’s time. I do however, have one complaint- MbWife has fallen in love with this laptop and she now covets it and has made it an integral part of her office. I would love to get it back, but at this point I really love sex
and I can better position myself to get a newer one by letting her have this one.
My specs are as follows:
Alienware Area-51 m5500
2 Ghz Pentium M Processor
1GB Ram
15.4” Widescreen LCD with 1680x1050 resolution
100GB (7,200 rpm) Hard Drive
Intel GMA and Nvidia Geforce Go 6600(256mb)
Windows XP Professional
Alienware 256mb Flash Drive
Alienware Odyssey Briefcase
6-cell battery plus 9-cell battery
Here are a few pictures:
m5500
m5500b
m5500c
briefcase
The screen is flawless, with a resolution of 1680x1050. Watching DVD’s is a joy as they literally pop off the screen, and on occasion MbWife and I will sit in her ‘coffee-house ‘style office and just chill out with our favorite movies. We have to be careful though, as the movies can get a bit loud when hooked up to the Bose Companion II speaker system. (The old neighbors have a problem with this)
The 100GB (7,200rpm) hard drive is quick to retrieve programs and images, without a moment’s hesitation. Even with all of the photos and music that we’ve downloaded/uploaded, we still have plenty of drive space.
Now I come to one feature that I absolutely love about the m5500- the ‘hybrid’ graphics system. When I need to run productivity applications, the Intel GMA comes in handy for battery saving purposes. When I want to do some graphically challenging tasks, I power the system down, flip the switch on the front of the laptop, and I’m now using an Nvidia GeForce Go 6600(256mb) graphics card. Though I’m not a heavy gamer, I do like to play flight simulator games on occasion and this card works wonderfully for that purpose. Battery times even after a year’s use are okay: With the 6 cell battery I can get 2.45 min using Intel GMA and Wi-Fi on, and nearly 3 hours with the Wi-Fi off. I bought a 9 cell battery to go with it and the run times are a bit better: 3 hours 20 minutes Wi-Fi on and 3 hours 30 minutes with Wi-Fi off. (I just performed these tests over the last couple of days, amongst protests from MbWife-She has taken over the helm of the m5500) Battery run times for the Nvidia GPU are a bit worse. Using the 6-cell battery, I am able to get 1 hour 45 minutes with Wi-Fi on, and 1 hour 56 minutes with Wi-Fi off. With the 9-cell battery, I am able to get 2 hours 15 minutes with Wi-Fi on, and 2 hours 26 minutes with Wi-Fi off.
I usually keep this laptop plugged in as it doesn’t get the travel time it once did. I got the Alienware Odyssey Briefcase for travelling, and the briefcase gets the most abuse these days as I use it for my work laptop. It is spacious, and there are enough pockets for everything you could want to carry. I will say however, that the bag is prone to tipping over on its own if you’re not careful. Speaking of all of this travelling, I will say that the m5500’s weight is not as bad as I once thought it might be. All told, it weighs right around 7lbs and while this might seem heavy to some, it’s not that bad especially going through airports.
I will conclude this lament by saying that I really love this laptop, and I’m glad I purchased it when I did, as they no longer offer the hybrid gpu option. I have never had a problem with it overheating, getting a stuck pixel, keys popping out, or any of the other pitfalls one might encounter after a year’s time. I do however, have one complaint- MbWife has fallen in love with this laptop and she now covets it and has made it an integral part of her office. I would love to get it back, but at this point I really love sex
and I can better position myself to get a newer one by letting her have this one.My specs are as follows:
Alienware Area-51 m5500
2 Ghz Pentium M Processor
1GB Ram
15.4” Widescreen LCD with 1680x1050 resolution
100GB (7,200 rpm) Hard Drive
Intel GMA and Nvidia Geforce Go 6600(256mb)
Windows XP Professional
Alienware 256mb Flash Drive
Alienware Odyssey Briefcase
6-cell battery plus 9-cell battery
Here are a few pictures:
m5500
m5500b
m5500c
briefcase
