Hi guys,
Intro:
As mentioned (http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=73465), I am offering my review of the Alienware Area-51m 7700 Mobile Desktop. It is my hopes that this review will shed some light on this wonderful machine and put to rest some of the bad reputation some people have so deemed this machine to have. You may find corresponding photo's of my 7700 here ----> http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=73465 . This review is not meant to be in any way definitive, it is mearly my opinion's and experience's with the machine thus far. It is my hope that this review will help those out there, that may be having second thoughts about obtaining this wonderful machine for one reason or another...
When I first got the idea about buying an Alienware, I was like many of you, confused. With various laptops on the market all offering respective solutions in their own way, I knew I had to simplify my decision and figure out what I wanted from my laptop most. Its very easy to get caught up on the features that a given lappy has, all the while missing the point of why your buying the lappy in the first place. The laptops I was most impressed by were SAGER, ALIENWARE, The DELL XPS2, and Apple's Powerbook series. Being that I am in the IT field and very interested in technology as a whole, I am always looking to break new personal ground in the technology I invest in. My current desktop is a highly modified Water-Cooled unit that I completed about 2 years ago. I realized quickly that being particularly mobile at any given time was more important then being mobile all of the time. While the Powerbook's from Apple are wonderful machines in their own right, they are geared much more for mathematical calculations or intensive number crunching. I am not doing video work or scientific analysis, so I passed albeit missing out on the incredible cool factor a Mac carry's with it and the wonderful folks that make up their community. While the DELL XPS 2 is a wonderfully balanced machine, I felt that it lacks the upgradeablility, style, overall power, and sophistication the 7700 has. The Sager 9860, while nothing more then a Clevo D900t like the 7700, I felt lacked in style, build quality, support services, and resellability. For me it was the Alien that abducted me in my dreams about a month ago that persuded me to see things his way and use his technology, I bought an Alienware and my life has never been the same
Review:
ORDERING/PHASE GAME: Ordering was a snap and was obviously designed to be this way. I found the website navigation refreshingly simple and enjoyed the various ordering methods, Telephone, Live Sales, and Online Form to be a great service to the customer. Alienware "LIVE" sales agents need work in communicating to customers as well as being more technically fluent. I recommend that Alienware require all of their sales agents to obtain at least CompTIA A+ certification as to help them effectively and accurately communicate with customers. Being a system builder myself for many years, I was shocked to see how much nonsense was being purported from AW agents. Alienware should be very careful in monitoring their agents as you don't know who is on the other side of the phone or keyboard. I played dumb with several agents and got a plethora of "Bogus" information relayed to me from a technical standpoint. In many ways I felt I was at a car lot looking at an 05' Corvette and being told it would be a Lamborgini Diablo. The "Phase Game" speaks for itself and I believe it to be more then meets the eye. I did like the fact that the very exsistence of the phases let me purchase the computer I really wanted but could not afford upon my initial order. I was able to come back a couple weeks later and add all the goodies to my lappy that I could not afford before, without the phases, this would not have been possible. All in all, I give the whole Ordering/Phase process a 5/10.
SHIPPING: Shipping was a very touchy topic with me. I had seen photos of the packing materials used in other 7700 shipments from photos on this board. I was relatively relieved to see the quailty packing architecture of the 7700's. What worried me most was the damage to the "Outer" Alienware boxes that I had seen in photos on this site. The boxes look beat in most of the cases and with all the reported issues many people were having, its not uncommon for one to think that shipping might be responsible. However, logic kicked in and I realized that were not the first people to have our systems shipped and it happens everywhere, everyday. Add the insurance factor to it and I relaxed. When I recieved my AW, I was pleasently pleased to see my AW packed as "Anal Rententively" as I am myself. I love "ANAL" people and so should all of you!!!. It was very nice to see everything in one piece! Now for the bad, I was positively horrified to find my floppy shipped with NO PACKING MATERIALS!!! This pissed me off as a matter of principle, I realize its JUST a floppy drive, but come on, its the principle. In the interest of being thorough, I felt my drive should have been shipped as well as my lappy. This was a let down, I have not tried the drive and will be shocked if it works at all... Shipping score is 7/10. The floppy packed right would have pushed this up to a 10/10.
PACKAGING: When I decided to photo document my AW experience, it was great. I took forever to remove the 7700 from its confines as to savor the wonderful experience of a newly bestowed Alienware owner. I liken the experience to Charlie from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" taking his good ol' easy opening up a Wonka bar only to find a golden ticket! A marvelous experience, I felt like I was 12 again opening a toy at Christmas time. Packaging was great, I was very impressed at Alienware's process of making the machine look like it had never been touched by human hands. This was very nice and added to the appeal of ownership. Materials were also impressive and the personal touches to the owner's manual and "Agent" card were great. I did not like the fact that my mouse pad was packaged in a cheap white envelope, unlike the neat metalic FUNC industries mouse pad packaging I have seen in other 7700 shipments. This is being a bit petty, it all works the same, I could also see why the pads are not being packaged in fancy materials to save some cost. I was VERY DISPLEASED to see my inventory check list and signed inspection document. The Windows XP code was scribbled on the paper and I had annoyingly lift my lappy up and copy it off the sticker. The little things make the difference and the devil is in the detail. Alienware needs to take thier time when writing the XP license key as its VERY annoying to have to get started and stop because the key is invalid due to the fact its illedgible. Other then this, packaging was great! I give it a 8/10 due to the sloppiness of the inspector's writing. Again, could have had a 10/10 very easily...
The 7700 (Initial reaction): All I can say is when I finally got the 7700 out of the box I almost crapped my pants. I was in shock it how awesome the lappy looked in person. It was funny, my wife only agreed to let me buy it because she saw an Alienware on CSI LAS VEGAS!!! Thank you GRISSOM!!! Lol. I could not believe what I was seeing. The laptop was true to life Alien "Gray", very cool looking and very high tech. The Alien head on the clam shell was bigger then I expected and the glowing eyes must be seen IN PERSON to be believed. The 7700 is SOOOOOOOO beautiful to look at. I was just watering at the mouth to see the gigantic 17" Clearview screen. It was a sight to behold and a sight for sore eyes. The 7700 is an absolute tank!!! I never realized just how much the thing really weighed until I picked it up. I like this though as it feels VERY solid and well constructed. The weight makes you feel the Alienware quality, people equate quality to weight many times and this is no exception. The LCD screen was flawless and when AlienGUIse is installed looks breathtaking on an actual Alienware machine. I must say the the Philips LCD is THEE most incredible laptop screen I have ever seen. The color was just beautiful, far more vivid and full of life then my 19" CRT. The subtle chrome trim around the touch pad looks awesome. The paint looks great and the clamshell's rubber grips look super. The keyboard feels strong and firm, The speakers look great and the ample space for typing proved to be perfect for me as I have very large hands and need all the space I can get. Underneath the laptop, the plethora of fans and modular compartments add to the feeling that you made the right choice with the Clevo D900t. Flipping it over once again, the bezels, the awesome integrated web-cam, and the very cool integrated media card readers really set the 7700 off. The "DJ" controls in the front of the 7700 look fantastic as well. I loved the usage of a uniform blue light source for the power button and DJ LCD. The only detractor from the appearence of the lappy is the cheap looking "NOTEBOOK COMPUTER" sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Alienware should have did something to hide this as it looks very Taiwanese/PC-Clone like. I must say that a 10/10 is not unrealistic here. Anyone considering this computer must realize that if weight is a concern, its not for you. When you get it, don't whine about weight as you knew what you were getting in to. An incredible looking system...
The 7700 (Performance): In my config, I ordered the 3.6, 1GIG, nVIDIA DDR3 6800 Go, 17" Clearview w/Cam, XP PRO, Internal wireless nic/Bluetooth. The very first thing I did was customize XP to my liking and give the config a second opinion from myself. I verified Virtual Mem settings, hardware configs, looked WHQL driver dates, etc. After setting the resolution to 1280x1024 versus the stock loaded 1024x768 settings you get from AW, I proceeded to test the system. I immediately loaded 3DMARK05' and left all services on, I unloaded a just a couple apps from memory, set my res to 1280x1024 and proceeded to burn off a score of 3,705 3DMARKS bone stock. No driver updates, no OS optimizations, no OCing of course, just bone stock. I was VERY impressed with this score at 1280x1024 out of the box. Pretty amazing I think. I can honestly say that a 4500 to 5000 score can safely be had as many have reported with intellegent OCing and OCing analysis. Now 3DMARK only means so much to me as I have mentioned in other posts, so I decided to test the system in real-time gaming. I have yet to run baseline frame rates in the games, however DOOM 3 smoked at VERY HIGH detail level at 1280x1024 while my highly OC'd and Water-Cooled AMD XP2400+/RADEON 9200 w/128Mb DDR AGP 8x will barely run it. This was a enough for me to celebrate over, beings that I have not even started confignig the machine, were talking BONE STOCK. FAR CRY flew and I ran it at the highest detail levels even though the AUTO-DECTECTION reflected a slower running system with a LOW setting recommendation. The game cooked at the highest levels and I was just blown away I was doing this on a laptop. All my hardwork dealing with my whiny users as an IT manager payed off in the form of my baby!!! RA RA RA SHISH KOOM BA!!! LOL
8/10
SOUND: Sound was a bit of a disappointment as the first game I loaded had choppy sound. And then the next game had choppy sound telling me that the Drivers for the sound card need looking at. I do feel that the Intel 7.1 sound card should work well out of the box but it didn't. I luckily bought a ZALMAN external sound card with the headphones that works awesome. I give the sound on this system a 6/10 with a potential of a 7/10 if the drivers were better, if indeed the drivers are culprit.
GRAPHICS: What more can be said about the amazing nVIDIA 6800 Go DDR3. This card has proven to be very potent and while not the blistering ULTRA, it is plenty fast enough to hold me over until the ULTRA becomes available. The frame rates this card provides are just awesome and the lighting/shadow/fog effects are something that must be seen to believed on a laptop. The nVIDIA GPU tools that come with the 6800Go are great and just expand on the great funtionality of the card. I MUST STATE THAT THIS CARD IS PLENTY FAST WITHOUT OVERCLOCKING AND OCING WITHOUT PROPER COOLING IS A HUGE MISTAKE, YOU DONT NEED TO OC THIS CARD. The card really does please, from the rich, vivid colors, the insane frame rates (Mine got 72.2FPS on DOOM3, I'm sure albeit 1024x768, need to confirm that), and AWESOME DVD video playback. The 6800Go is a great card and I highly recommend this card to anyone getting a CLEVO/SAGER/ALIENWARE. While ATI is my favorite of the GPU makers, I have read that currently nVIDIA is making the best mobile solution. 10/10 on the graphics no matter your vid card selection, ATI/NVIDIA, YOU WILL NOT LOSE. You must see this card rip to believe it, the thing screams like a desktop...
MODULARITY: Its no surprise that the 7700 is modular given its great size. However, the system goes over and beyond with its awesome co-exsistence architecture. From optical drives to RAID, the 7700 does it all. The processor can be upgraded, the GPU can be upgraded, the MEM, OPTICAL'S, and HDD'S can all be upgraded. If your looking for a lappy and a computer that will be around a long time, you found it. Its an awesome achievement in a production machine to find this kind of modularity. Please consider this when buying a DELL, or other gaming machine as this system should prove to be a far greater long term investement. 10/10
INTERNAL WIRELESS/BLUETOOTH: Contrary to popular NBF belief, I disagree with people that say the INTERNAL WIRELESS CARD sucks. The card connected flawlessly to my super-G network and even picked up my neighbors network with ease. The connection is super fast and with no drop-offs or dead spots. I am simply running a NETGEAR SUPER-G 108Mbps router mated to the ATHEROS card. To test this, I had purchased the associated NETGEAR PCMCIA card and it connects at slower speeds and with less reception then the supposedly crappy internal wireless card I have! DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR! 9/10
TOUCHPAD: So far the touchpad does not impress me and I believe I need to adjust it's sensitivity. I hate touchpads so I don't care anyway. It works and I would say its a 7/10 as it could use a smoother surface for your finger to dance across.
DJ PLAYER: So far this has proven to be nothing more then a gimmick for me, though it works great and rates a 9/10 from me.
KEYBOARD: The keyboard, as mentioned is wonderful. Its firm, great key pressure and quiet. The full size keyboard is great and proves even better if you got bigger hands. 10/10
HEAT: The laptop creates a lot of heat, lets face it. However, I have been doing extensive laptop cooler testing on my company laptop before my AW ever came. I discovered that most of the coolers are gimmicky and don't work for beans. In effect, the smaller the laptop the better cooling any lappy cooler will give you as you have a reduced heat spectrum to begin with. I have found only 1 fantastic cooler so far for the 7700 in the form of the KINGWIN ULTRA COOL UC3. This little gem has a large enough surface area to fit the 7700 on it perfectly while sucking out heat with 3 fans, adding 3 USB ports and 11 media card readers. For a whopping $42 or so, this thing is a steal and you will be hard pressed to find something better. http://www.kingwin.com . You can also find these at NEWEGG.COM. The heat on the 7700 is not bad provided you give it proper ventilation, proper ventilation is the key mated to the ULTRA COOL for great temps.
HOST/SLOT ARCHITECTURE: The very positioning of the HOST/SLOT's are ok. I think the PCMCIA port over the media card readers can be a bit annoying but livable. 7/10.
Overall, in conclusion, I give the 7700 a solid 9/10 for all that it offers and its great future upgradeability. I tried to be as UNbiased as possible in this review and would just like to say that my personal experience has been great so far. NOT ONE PROBLEM with the lappy. DON'T BELIEVE ALL YOU READ, DON'T GET NEGATIVE UNTIL YOU HAVE TO, ENJOY YOUR 7700 AND ALIENWARE HAS A WINNER ON THEIR HANDS! As an engineer myself, I will be happy to prove to any of you just how great a system you hold in your hands. If anyone needs help with your 7700, just PM me and I will be glad to help. With all the stories floating out there about bad machines, and I am sure some poor folks have got some lemons, the great majority are great. Thank you all again for your comradery and getting me through the phase game!
Best regards,
Codename_47
Intro:
As mentioned (http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=73465), I am offering my review of the Alienware Area-51m 7700 Mobile Desktop. It is my hopes that this review will shed some light on this wonderful machine and put to rest some of the bad reputation some people have so deemed this machine to have. You may find corresponding photo's of my 7700 here ----> http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=73465 . This review is not meant to be in any way definitive, it is mearly my opinion's and experience's with the machine thus far. It is my hope that this review will help those out there, that may be having second thoughts about obtaining this wonderful machine for one reason or another...
When I first got the idea about buying an Alienware, I was like many of you, confused. With various laptops on the market all offering respective solutions in their own way, I knew I had to simplify my decision and figure out what I wanted from my laptop most. Its very easy to get caught up on the features that a given lappy has, all the while missing the point of why your buying the lappy in the first place. The laptops I was most impressed by were SAGER, ALIENWARE, The DELL XPS2, and Apple's Powerbook series. Being that I am in the IT field and very interested in technology as a whole, I am always looking to break new personal ground in the technology I invest in. My current desktop is a highly modified Water-Cooled unit that I completed about 2 years ago. I realized quickly that being particularly mobile at any given time was more important then being mobile all of the time. While the Powerbook's from Apple are wonderful machines in their own right, they are geared much more for mathematical calculations or intensive number crunching. I am not doing video work or scientific analysis, so I passed albeit missing out on the incredible cool factor a Mac carry's with it and the wonderful folks that make up their community. While the DELL XPS 2 is a wonderfully balanced machine, I felt that it lacks the upgradeablility, style, overall power, and sophistication the 7700 has. The Sager 9860, while nothing more then a Clevo D900t like the 7700, I felt lacked in style, build quality, support services, and resellability. For me it was the Alien that abducted me in my dreams about a month ago that persuded me to see things his way and use his technology, I bought an Alienware and my life has never been the same
Review:
ORDERING/PHASE GAME: Ordering was a snap and was obviously designed to be this way. I found the website navigation refreshingly simple and enjoyed the various ordering methods, Telephone, Live Sales, and Online Form to be a great service to the customer. Alienware "LIVE" sales agents need work in communicating to customers as well as being more technically fluent. I recommend that Alienware require all of their sales agents to obtain at least CompTIA A+ certification as to help them effectively and accurately communicate with customers. Being a system builder myself for many years, I was shocked to see how much nonsense was being purported from AW agents. Alienware should be very careful in monitoring their agents as you don't know who is on the other side of the phone or keyboard. I played dumb with several agents and got a plethora of "Bogus" information relayed to me from a technical standpoint. In many ways I felt I was at a car lot looking at an 05' Corvette and being told it would be a Lamborgini Diablo. The "Phase Game" speaks for itself and I believe it to be more then meets the eye. I did like the fact that the very exsistence of the phases let me purchase the computer I really wanted but could not afford upon my initial order. I was able to come back a couple weeks later and add all the goodies to my lappy that I could not afford before, without the phases, this would not have been possible. All in all, I give the whole Ordering/Phase process a 5/10.
SHIPPING: Shipping was a very touchy topic with me. I had seen photos of the packing materials used in other 7700 shipments from photos on this board. I was relatively relieved to see the quailty packing architecture of the 7700's. What worried me most was the damage to the "Outer" Alienware boxes that I had seen in photos on this site. The boxes look beat in most of the cases and with all the reported issues many people were having, its not uncommon for one to think that shipping might be responsible. However, logic kicked in and I realized that were not the first people to have our systems shipped and it happens everywhere, everyday. Add the insurance factor to it and I relaxed. When I recieved my AW, I was pleasently pleased to see my AW packed as "Anal Rententively" as I am myself. I love "ANAL" people and so should all of you!!!. It was very nice to see everything in one piece! Now for the bad, I was positively horrified to find my floppy shipped with NO PACKING MATERIALS!!! This pissed me off as a matter of principle, I realize its JUST a floppy drive, but come on, its the principle. In the interest of being thorough, I felt my drive should have been shipped as well as my lappy. This was a let down, I have not tried the drive and will be shocked if it works at all... Shipping score is 7/10. The floppy packed right would have pushed this up to a 10/10.
PACKAGING: When I decided to photo document my AW experience, it was great. I took forever to remove the 7700 from its confines as to savor the wonderful experience of a newly bestowed Alienware owner. I liken the experience to Charlie from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" taking his good ol' easy opening up a Wonka bar only to find a golden ticket! A marvelous experience, I felt like I was 12 again opening a toy at Christmas time. Packaging was great, I was very impressed at Alienware's process of making the machine look like it had never been touched by human hands. This was very nice and added to the appeal of ownership. Materials were also impressive and the personal touches to the owner's manual and "Agent" card were great. I did not like the fact that my mouse pad was packaged in a cheap white envelope, unlike the neat metalic FUNC industries mouse pad packaging I have seen in other 7700 shipments. This is being a bit petty, it all works the same, I could also see why the pads are not being packaged in fancy materials to save some cost. I was VERY DISPLEASED to see my inventory check list and signed inspection document. The Windows XP code was scribbled on the paper and I had annoyingly lift my lappy up and copy it off the sticker. The little things make the difference and the devil is in the detail. Alienware needs to take thier time when writing the XP license key as its VERY annoying to have to get started and stop because the key is invalid due to the fact its illedgible. Other then this, packaging was great! I give it a 8/10 due to the sloppiness of the inspector's writing. Again, could have had a 10/10 very easily...
The 7700 (Initial reaction): All I can say is when I finally got the 7700 out of the box I almost crapped my pants. I was in shock it how awesome the lappy looked in person. It was funny, my wife only agreed to let me buy it because she saw an Alienware on CSI LAS VEGAS!!! Thank you GRISSOM!!! Lol. I could not believe what I was seeing. The laptop was true to life Alien "Gray", very cool looking and very high tech. The Alien head on the clam shell was bigger then I expected and the glowing eyes must be seen IN PERSON to be believed. The 7700 is SOOOOOOOO beautiful to look at. I was just watering at the mouth to see the gigantic 17" Clearview screen. It was a sight to behold and a sight for sore eyes. The 7700 is an absolute tank!!! I never realized just how much the thing really weighed until I picked it up. I like this though as it feels VERY solid and well constructed. The weight makes you feel the Alienware quality, people equate quality to weight many times and this is no exception. The LCD screen was flawless and when AlienGUIse is installed looks breathtaking on an actual Alienware machine. I must say the the Philips LCD is THEE most incredible laptop screen I have ever seen. The color was just beautiful, far more vivid and full of life then my 19" CRT. The subtle chrome trim around the touch pad looks awesome. The paint looks great and the clamshell's rubber grips look super. The keyboard feels strong and firm, The speakers look great and the ample space for typing proved to be perfect for me as I have very large hands and need all the space I can get. Underneath the laptop, the plethora of fans and modular compartments add to the feeling that you made the right choice with the Clevo D900t. Flipping it over once again, the bezels, the awesome integrated web-cam, and the very cool integrated media card readers really set the 7700 off. The "DJ" controls in the front of the 7700 look fantastic as well. I loved the usage of a uniform blue light source for the power button and DJ LCD. The only detractor from the appearence of the lappy is the cheap looking "NOTEBOOK COMPUTER" sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Alienware should have did something to hide this as it looks very Taiwanese/PC-Clone like. I must say that a 10/10 is not unrealistic here. Anyone considering this computer must realize that if weight is a concern, its not for you. When you get it, don't whine about weight as you knew what you were getting in to. An incredible looking system...
The 7700 (Performance): In my config, I ordered the 3.6, 1GIG, nVIDIA DDR3 6800 Go, 17" Clearview w/Cam, XP PRO, Internal wireless nic/Bluetooth. The very first thing I did was customize XP to my liking and give the config a second opinion from myself. I verified Virtual Mem settings, hardware configs, looked WHQL driver dates, etc. After setting the resolution to 1280x1024 versus the stock loaded 1024x768 settings you get from AW, I proceeded to test the system. I immediately loaded 3DMARK05' and left all services on, I unloaded a just a couple apps from memory, set my res to 1280x1024 and proceeded to burn off a score of 3,705 3DMARKS bone stock. No driver updates, no OS optimizations, no OCing of course, just bone stock. I was VERY impressed with this score at 1280x1024 out of the box. Pretty amazing I think. I can honestly say that a 4500 to 5000 score can safely be had as many have reported with intellegent OCing and OCing analysis. Now 3DMARK only means so much to me as I have mentioned in other posts, so I decided to test the system in real-time gaming. I have yet to run baseline frame rates in the games, however DOOM 3 smoked at VERY HIGH detail level at 1280x1024 while my highly OC'd and Water-Cooled AMD XP2400+/RADEON 9200 w/128Mb DDR AGP 8x will barely run it. This was a enough for me to celebrate over, beings that I have not even started confignig the machine, were talking BONE STOCK. FAR CRY flew and I ran it at the highest detail levels even though the AUTO-DECTECTION reflected a slower running system with a LOW setting recommendation. The game cooked at the highest levels and I was just blown away I was doing this on a laptop. All my hardwork dealing with my whiny users as an IT manager payed off in the form of my baby!!! RA RA RA SHISH KOOM BA!!! LOL
8/10SOUND: Sound was a bit of a disappointment as the first game I loaded had choppy sound. And then the next game had choppy sound telling me that the Drivers for the sound card need looking at. I do feel that the Intel 7.1 sound card should work well out of the box but it didn't. I luckily bought a ZALMAN external sound card with the headphones that works awesome. I give the sound on this system a 6/10 with a potential of a 7/10 if the drivers were better, if indeed the drivers are culprit.
GRAPHICS: What more can be said about the amazing nVIDIA 6800 Go DDR3. This card has proven to be very potent and while not the blistering ULTRA, it is plenty fast enough to hold me over until the ULTRA becomes available. The frame rates this card provides are just awesome and the lighting/shadow/fog effects are something that must be seen to believed on a laptop. The nVIDIA GPU tools that come with the 6800Go are great and just expand on the great funtionality of the card. I MUST STATE THAT THIS CARD IS PLENTY FAST WITHOUT OVERCLOCKING AND OCING WITHOUT PROPER COOLING IS A HUGE MISTAKE, YOU DONT NEED TO OC THIS CARD. The card really does please, from the rich, vivid colors, the insane frame rates (Mine got 72.2FPS on DOOM3, I'm sure albeit 1024x768, need to confirm that), and AWESOME DVD video playback. The 6800Go is a great card and I highly recommend this card to anyone getting a CLEVO/SAGER/ALIENWARE. While ATI is my favorite of the GPU makers, I have read that currently nVIDIA is making the best mobile solution. 10/10 on the graphics no matter your vid card selection, ATI/NVIDIA, YOU WILL NOT LOSE. You must see this card rip to believe it, the thing screams like a desktop...
MODULARITY: Its no surprise that the 7700 is modular given its great size. However, the system goes over and beyond with its awesome co-exsistence architecture. From optical drives to RAID, the 7700 does it all. The processor can be upgraded, the GPU can be upgraded, the MEM, OPTICAL'S, and HDD'S can all be upgraded. If your looking for a lappy and a computer that will be around a long time, you found it. Its an awesome achievement in a production machine to find this kind of modularity. Please consider this when buying a DELL, or other gaming machine as this system should prove to be a far greater long term investement. 10/10
INTERNAL WIRELESS/BLUETOOTH: Contrary to popular NBF belief, I disagree with people that say the INTERNAL WIRELESS CARD sucks. The card connected flawlessly to my super-G network and even picked up my neighbors network with ease. The connection is super fast and with no drop-offs or dead spots. I am simply running a NETGEAR SUPER-G 108Mbps router mated to the ATHEROS card. To test this, I had purchased the associated NETGEAR PCMCIA card and it connects at slower speeds and with less reception then the supposedly crappy internal wireless card I have! DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR! 9/10
TOUCHPAD: So far the touchpad does not impress me and I believe I need to adjust it's sensitivity. I hate touchpads so I don't care anyway. It works and I would say its a 7/10 as it could use a smoother surface for your finger to dance across.
DJ PLAYER: So far this has proven to be nothing more then a gimmick for me, though it works great and rates a 9/10 from me.
KEYBOARD: The keyboard, as mentioned is wonderful. Its firm, great key pressure and quiet. The full size keyboard is great and proves even better if you got bigger hands. 10/10
HEAT: The laptop creates a lot of heat, lets face it. However, I have been doing extensive laptop cooler testing on my company laptop before my AW ever came. I discovered that most of the coolers are gimmicky and don't work for beans. In effect, the smaller the laptop the better cooling any lappy cooler will give you as you have a reduced heat spectrum to begin with. I have found only 1 fantastic cooler so far for the 7700 in the form of the KINGWIN ULTRA COOL UC3. This little gem has a large enough surface area to fit the 7700 on it perfectly while sucking out heat with 3 fans, adding 3 USB ports and 11 media card readers. For a whopping $42 or so, this thing is a steal and you will be hard pressed to find something better. http://www.kingwin.com . You can also find these at NEWEGG.COM. The heat on the 7700 is not bad provided you give it proper ventilation, proper ventilation is the key mated to the ULTRA COOL for great temps.
HOST/SLOT ARCHITECTURE: The very positioning of the HOST/SLOT's are ok. I think the PCMCIA port over the media card readers can be a bit annoying but livable. 7/10.
Overall, in conclusion, I give the 7700 a solid 9/10 for all that it offers and its great future upgradeability. I tried to be as UNbiased as possible in this review and would just like to say that my personal experience has been great so far. NOT ONE PROBLEM with the lappy. DON'T BELIEVE ALL YOU READ, DON'T GET NEGATIVE UNTIL YOU HAVE TO, ENJOY YOUR 7700 AND ALIENWARE HAS A WINNER ON THEIR HANDS! As an engineer myself, I will be happy to prove to any of you just how great a system you hold in your hands. If anyone needs help with your 7700, just PM me and I will be glad to help. With all the stories floating out there about bad machines, and I am sure some poor folks have got some lemons, the great majority are great. Thank you all again for your comradery and getting me through the phase game!
Best regards,
Codename_47
but decided to wait a bit. your review and pics are very encouraging 
and i hope to be able to enjoy an experience similar to yours in a couple of weeks.
