Hey guys,
As you may already know I ordered a Sentia on the 22nd of March. Well, it's here, and I couldn't be happier!
I guess I'll start at the beginning.
On a quiet evening in June of 1981 my parents, who just recently got married, got together and... umm...
Oh wait, wrong story...
On Tuesday, March 22nd, I placed an order on the Alienware website. I clicked submit and it took me to my shopping cart.
Odd, I though.
I assumed it was a glitch in the website so I went back and placed the order again. This time, I got an order confirmation and the order #. Hooray!
I then called Susan at Alienware and she told me to send her my order # and she would make sure everything went smoothly. I know Susan from the Alienware forums and the IRC channel where we used to chew the fat. I have to say she is one of the nicest and most helpful people I've ever dealt with. We probably exchanged over 50 e-mails through the whole process of my order. Anyways, Susan told me my credit card would be charged the next day. That evening however, I get a call from Bank of America, my CC company, and they notify me that a charge was placed on the card. Strange, I thought, Susan told me it would be charged tomorrow. So I sent her an e-mail so she would follow-up. She was surprised.
The next day she informed me that the previous order, the one that gave me the shopping cart instead of the order confirmation page, was the one that was charged. Good thing we caught it early, I thought. Susan then gave me the order number of the first order I placed and cancelled the second one. Made sense to me since the payment was already processed and both orders had the same configurations.
Susan: 1, Glitch in Alienware's website: 0
The next few days I was checking the 'Order Status' page religiously. Even though I knew it would be a few days before they would start building it. On Wednesday, the 30th, Susan e-mailed me telling me that my Sentia went into production, and that they would give it a final inspection before it ships. Hooray!
Inspect the hell out of it, I thought. I've heard a few horror stories and I was hoping I wouldn't be one of those unlucky ones who posts one.
The next day she e-mails me telling me it should be shipping on Friday.
As you can imagine, I was very excited. Although, I think Susan was more excited about my order than I was. 
Friday was a pretty busy day at work, so I didn't get a chance to check the order status. Nothing shipped.
Monday came and went, nothing shipped.
Maybe they found something wrong during the inspection. I don't know. I'm very patient so I didn't bother to question.
Tuesday, the 5th of April, I get an e-mail from Susan. She sent me the tracking number and told me that it's shipping that day via 2nd day! When I originally ordered it I asked for the Ground shipping which was free. When I tested the configuration with the 2nd day shipping I would have had to pay the full price ($130 or so).
The next few days I was checking the FedEx website 20, if not more, times a day. FedEx estimated the delivery date at April 7, 2005 before 7PM.
That Thursday I check the FedEx site and see 12:36 pm Delivery attempt BROOKLYN NY Customer not available or Business closed
Why do they always deliver when no one's home?
Knowing I'd have to pick it up myself I left work earlier.
I got home around 6ish and found the black package safely behind my front door! Which was strange because it had to be signed for.
Apparently my grandmother, who lives 2 houses over, signed for it and left it there. Without thinking I dropped my bag and removed my jacket. I heard the thud my IBM laptop made as it hit the ground. Thankfully the padded bag it was in broke the fall. I then grabbed the box and headed to my room to open it.
I grabbed a carpenters knife and carefully, as if I was removing someone's kidney, I cut through the tape. Once opend, I realized that most of you will want to see pictures so I grabbed my camera.
My first impression? Where's the rest of it?!
It's tiny! But I knew it would be small and that's the reason I got it.
Please don't be D.O.A!
Woot!
Here it is next to my IBM T41.
Here it is on top!
After staring at it for about 45 minutes I wiped the drool off my face and thought I'd give this baby something to do. So I put on a movie.
45 minutes of staring at it on + 1h 50m movie + 15% remaining after = great battery life in my book!
Here are a few pictures I took the next day, in better lighting.
The LCD is very reflective, but the colors are bright. I like it!
Here's a few pics I took with my wide angle lens on.
I guess that's it for now. I still have to install some benchmark apps. I'll try to get that done soon. Special thanks to Susan and Nelson, and of course Alienware for making this kick ass machine!
As you may already know I ordered a Sentia on the 22nd of March. Well, it's here, and I couldn't be happier!
I guess I'll start at the beginning.
On a quiet evening in June of 1981 my parents, who just recently got married, got together and... umm...
Oh wait, wrong story...
On Tuesday, March 22nd, I placed an order on the Alienware website. I clicked submit and it took me to my shopping cart.
Odd, I though.
I assumed it was a glitch in the website so I went back and placed the order again. This time, I got an order confirmation and the order #. Hooray!
I then called Susan at Alienware and she told me to send her my order # and she would make sure everything went smoothly. I know Susan from the Alienware forums and the IRC channel where we used to chew the fat. I have to say she is one of the nicest and most helpful people I've ever dealt with. We probably exchanged over 50 e-mails through the whole process of my order. Anyways, Susan told me my credit card would be charged the next day. That evening however, I get a call from Bank of America, my CC company, and they notify me that a charge was placed on the card. Strange, I thought, Susan told me it would be charged tomorrow. So I sent her an e-mail so she would follow-up. She was surprised.
The next day she informed me that the previous order, the one that gave me the shopping cart instead of the order confirmation page, was the one that was charged. Good thing we caught it early, I thought. Susan then gave me the order number of the first order I placed and cancelled the second one. Made sense to me since the payment was already processed and both orders had the same configurations.
Susan: 1, Glitch in Alienware's website: 0
The next few days I was checking the 'Order Status' page religiously. Even though I knew it would be a few days before they would start building it. On Wednesday, the 30th, Susan e-mailed me telling me that my Sentia went into production, and that they would give it a final inspection before it ships. Hooray!
Inspect the hell out of it, I thought. I've heard a few horror stories and I was hoping I wouldn't be one of those unlucky ones who posts one.
The next day she e-mails me telling me it should be shipping on Friday.
As you can imagine, I was very excited. Although, I think Susan was more excited about my order than I was. Friday was a pretty busy day at work, so I didn't get a chance to check the order status. Nothing shipped.
Monday came and went, nothing shipped.
Maybe they found something wrong during the inspection. I don't know. I'm very patient so I didn't bother to question.
Tuesday, the 5th of April, I get an e-mail from Susan. She sent me the tracking number and told me that it's shipping that day via 2nd day! When I originally ordered it I asked for the Ground shipping which was free. When I tested the configuration with the 2nd day shipping I would have had to pay the full price ($130 or so).
The next few days I was checking the FedEx website 20, if not more, times a day. FedEx estimated the delivery date at April 7, 2005 before 7PM.
That Thursday I check the FedEx site and see 12:36 pm Delivery attempt BROOKLYN NY Customer not available or Business closed
Why do they always deliver when no one's home?
Knowing I'd have to pick it up myself I left work earlier.
I got home around 6ish and found the black package safely behind my front door!
Which was strange because it had to be signed for.Apparently my grandmother, who lives 2 houses over, signed for it and left it there. Without thinking I dropped my bag and removed my jacket. I heard the thud my IBM laptop made as it hit the ground. Thankfully the padded bag it was in broke the fall. I then grabbed the box and headed to my room to open it.
I grabbed a carpenters knife and carefully, as if I was removing someone's kidney, I cut through the tape. Once opend, I realized that most of you will want to see pictures so I grabbed my camera.
My first impression? Where's the rest of it?!
It's tiny! But I knew it would be small and that's the reason I got it.
Please don't be D.O.A!
Woot!
Here it is next to my IBM T41.
Here it is on top!
After staring at it for about 45 minutes I wiped the drool off my face and thought I'd give this baby something to do. So I put on a movie.
45 minutes of staring at it on + 1h 50m movie + 15% remaining after = great battery life in my book!
Here are a few pictures I took the next day, in better lighting.
The LCD is very reflective, but the colors are bright. I like it!
Here's a few pics I took with my wide angle lens on.
I guess that's it for now. I still have to install some benchmark apps. I'll try to get that done soon. Special thanks to Susan and Nelson, and of course Alienware for making this kick ass machine!
