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Sentia m3450 vs Area-51 m5550

post #1 of 8
5/18/07 at 12:45am
Thread Starter 
I've been looking for a new laptop the last couple of days and I finally got to the point where I needed to ask a question. I've basically narrowed my search down to either the Sentia m3450 and the Area-51 m5550.


I really like the Sentia for it's light weight, small size, and superior battery performance (compared to the m5550 anyway), as well as the slightly lower cost ($100 is $100). I would mainly be using this laptop for working on my thesis so I will be taking it with me to the library and such so would need decent battery life and portability. However, my main question is if the Sentia would be able to run Star Wars Galaxies at all. It doesn't necessairly need to be high setting/resolution, just reasonably playable. It would be nice to be able to hop onto Galaxies and play for a bit if I'm away from my desktop. Knowing the answer would greatly help in trying to make this decision.


Anyway, thank you to anyone for your advice.
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post #2 of 8
5/18/07 at 12:01pm
I can't say much about the Sentia as I've never seen or owned one, but I had the m5550 would be able to handle graphics better with the dediacted GPU. You can get better battery performance by dropping the bicks on the 9 cell battery for the m5550. It can give about 2:45 of battery life word processing, web browsing and email. The 6 cell that it comes with give about 1:30 to 1:45 from my experience. You could always order 2 of the 9 cells plus have the 6 cell it ships with. Just my thoughts.
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post #3 of 8
5/18/07 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I went ahead and ordered the Sentia, it just fits my needs a lot better. I also talked to a friend last night and he said he plays Galaxies on a laptop with just the integrated video and his machine only has 256 RAM so I think I should be fairly well set. Thanks for the advice Cajun. Time for the phase game.
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post #4 of 8
5/18/07 at 1:15pm
It should be able to play Galaxies on low settings at least. The only game I have played on mine (school sucks) is Fable, and it works flawlessly on conservative settings and with the laptop plugged in (the cpu downclocks itself while on battery power). I have the 2Ghz with 2GB or memory.

It's a great little laptop. Should make your thesis work at least a little more enjoyable.
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post #5 of 8
6/15/07 at 3:18pm
Thread Starter 
Well I've had my Sentia for a couple weeks now and so far I'm very impressed. My only complaint is that I have 3 dead pixels but they are on the very edge of the screen and extremely spread out (and I don't even notice them the majoirty of the time) and that could have happened with any computer I purchased. Prophecy, I don't know what programs you were running or the setting you were using to only get 45 minutes of battery life. I was doing word processing and internet browsing and my battery lasted almost 3 hours. My fan is also incredibly quite and I can usually hardly tell that it's running and I really like the feel of the keyboard. So far it has made my thesis work a lot easier (and it plays Galaxies quite well). I did notice though that the Sentia isn't even offered on Alienware's website anymore so I guess if I would have waited my decision would have been made for me.
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post #6 of 8
6/15/07 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tone-Man8 View Post
Well I've had my Sentia for a couple weeks now and so far I'm very impressed. My only complaint is that I have 3 dead pixels but they are on the very edge of the screen and extremely spread out (and I don't even notice them the majoirty of the time) and that could have happened with any computer I purchased. Prophecy, I don't know what programs you were running or the setting you were using to only get 45 minutes of battery life. I was doing word processing and internet browsing and my battery lasted almost 3 hours. My fan is also incredibly quite and I can usually hardly tell that it's running and I really like the feel of the keyboard. So far it has made my thesis work a lot easier (and it plays Galaxies quite well). I did notice though that the Sentia isn't even offered on Alienware's website anymore so I guess if I would have waited my decision would have been made for me.

He is only trying to start a flame war, and it has been noted properly.
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post #7 of 8
6/15/07 at 3:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by prophecy View Post
The only thing good about the Sentia is that it looks cool. Otherwise it's a piece of Garbage and Alienware has the worst customer service I've ever seen. The battery lasts 45 minutes if you're lucky, the fan is the loudest I've ever heard (next to a big old Dell my friend has), the build quality feels really cheap (keyboard feels like cheap plastic, you can see the lights from the alien head right through the screen, etc), and Alienware won't honor their return policy. Seriously ToneMan, if you can cancel your order, you should do it. Get a ThinkPad or something, you'll thank me later.

Thanks for trying to start a flame war.
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post #8 of 8
6/15/07 at 11:22pm
*clean up crew* coming through
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