Well guys, the system came in and I’m quite pleased with what I got. First of all I would like to thank Fed Ex, they put a beautiful and enormous dent right in the said of the box containing the computer, regardless of the fragile sticker on it. This is the first bad taste that I’ve ever gotten from Fed Ex. Not impressed with that, but thanks to Alienwares awesome packing job, nothing even touched the inner box. No damage was present on the system what so ever. All the equipment I ordered came in an orderly fashion with no poorly chosen packing to crease the hat or mark the cup I ordered. Impressive job on that front alone, then we get into what I actually got.
This review will contain comparisons to a dell 5150 notebook I previously owned. I will site up front, right now, that the dell can’t compare in power to this system so some of the downfalls I’m stating are do to the fact that the dell is a less powerful system. So, if dell lovers decide to flame me, I will simply point you to this statement right off the bate and hope to god your ignorance doesn’t go to the extent that you don’t shut up after that.
The first thing I notice in comparison, just by pulling it out of the box was the feel of the computer in general. Lifting it, I didn’t feel the body flex in. The chassis is very stiff and strong. The dells chassis pales in comparison, that is the best I can say. Flat out tried to flex everything lightly and very little would move, virtually none from the screen at all. Very impressive. Looking further into the overall finish was very impressive as well. No dings, no nicks in the finish, no swirls in the paint or runs that were detectable on top or on the bottom. Closer inspection to the entire body showed NO FINGER PRINTS! This thing was wiped clean before it was boxed up. Beyond impressive, ludicrous attention to detail. The dell did have some minor nicks to the cover, but since it had no paint this wasn’t noticeable really unless you paid attention. The dells overall finish didn’t feel near as tight as the area51. So far the dell has been put to shame in the first parts, but these are minor in comparison to how well it need to perform. On that note, we move on.
The machine came with a bench mark of 3111, but I just did one on 3dmark03 and I pulled a 3083. This had Norton internet security and antivirus running in the back ground. Not bad at all, compared to an OC’d dell that could only pull a 420. Hopefully a new driver I’ve heard about will increase that a bit.
The first game I threw in was doom 3. I could make it run pretty stable at 1024x768 on medium detail with 2x AA. I did have some slow down around one of the bosses, but that was about it. Multiple bad guys on the screen didn’t do much. I also played quake 3 and unreal tourney. Both worked quite well, easily pulling FPS in the 100’s at times. Next came UT 2004 when I got home. I installed that onto the Seagate hard drive I picked up. By the way, Seagate external hard drives are very quite and fast. I don’t notice any lags when I’m playing games, none at all. Anyway, I turned up the graphics till the game said HOLY ****, then ran it through its paces, and just loved it to death. Overall, it is obvious that these systems were designed for gaming, it is a ridiculously powerful system! I love it! I’ve heard rumors about greatly increased performance with the new driver, but I want to see it to believe it. If anyone wants to PM me about the driver, please do so. Otherwise, I’m still quite happy with this thing.
No really gripes, and if I think of anything else or have any updates I will try to add them in as I go. Hope this helps someone. This system totally rocks.
This review will contain comparisons to a dell 5150 notebook I previously owned. I will site up front, right now, that the dell can’t compare in power to this system so some of the downfalls I’m stating are do to the fact that the dell is a less powerful system. So, if dell lovers decide to flame me, I will simply point you to this statement right off the bate and hope to god your ignorance doesn’t go to the extent that you don’t shut up after that.
The first thing I notice in comparison, just by pulling it out of the box was the feel of the computer in general. Lifting it, I didn’t feel the body flex in. The chassis is very stiff and strong. The dells chassis pales in comparison, that is the best I can say. Flat out tried to flex everything lightly and very little would move, virtually none from the screen at all. Very impressive. Looking further into the overall finish was very impressive as well. No dings, no nicks in the finish, no swirls in the paint or runs that were detectable on top or on the bottom. Closer inspection to the entire body showed NO FINGER PRINTS! This thing was wiped clean before it was boxed up. Beyond impressive, ludicrous attention to detail. The dell did have some minor nicks to the cover, but since it had no paint this wasn’t noticeable really unless you paid attention. The dells overall finish didn’t feel near as tight as the area51. So far the dell has been put to shame in the first parts, but these are minor in comparison to how well it need to perform. On that note, we move on.
The machine came with a bench mark of 3111, but I just did one on 3dmark03 and I pulled a 3083. This had Norton internet security and antivirus running in the back ground. Not bad at all, compared to an OC’d dell that could only pull a 420. Hopefully a new driver I’ve heard about will increase that a bit.
The first game I threw in was doom 3. I could make it run pretty stable at 1024x768 on medium detail with 2x AA. I did have some slow down around one of the bosses, but that was about it. Multiple bad guys on the screen didn’t do much. I also played quake 3 and unreal tourney. Both worked quite well, easily pulling FPS in the 100’s at times. Next came UT 2004 when I got home. I installed that onto the Seagate hard drive I picked up. By the way, Seagate external hard drives are very quite and fast. I don’t notice any lags when I’m playing games, none at all. Anyway, I turned up the graphics till the game said HOLY ****, then ran it through its paces, and just loved it to death. Overall, it is obvious that these systems were designed for gaming, it is a ridiculously powerful system! I love it! I’ve heard rumors about greatly increased performance with the new driver, but I want to see it to believe it. If anyone wants to PM me about the driver, please do so. Otherwise, I’m still quite happy with this thing.
No really gripes, and if I think of anything else or have any updates I will try to add them in as I go. Hope this helps someone. This system totally rocks.
