I really need to thank everyone that has posted their reviews; (good AND bad) you have no idea how helpful they are!! So, with that said here is my story so far (to be followed by my review)
Because of an article I read in the May issue of Computer Gamming World on the Alienware Area-51 7700, I went right to the web site and ordered one. Now normally I research the hell out of anything I buy, but I figured that CGW wouldn't steer me wrong. I had little knowledge of Alienware, but understood them to put out expensive, powerful machines. Good enough for me, I always figure you get what you pay for (mostly). I had ordered my Area-51m 7700 on March 30th for $4,456.02, configured with:
17" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD Display with Built-in Camera - Xeno Grey
P4 560J 3.6GHz 1MB Cache
2GB DDR2 @ 533MHz 2x1024MB
ATI X800 w/256MB DDR3
60GB 7200RPM ATA100 (x2) RAID 0
8X DL DVD
XP Pro
Alienware Respawn
Extra battery
Belkin AC Anywhere 300W
A couple days later I was checking on my status, (didn't know about the phase game and was in phase 3) and did a double check on my configuration and discovered the price dropped $400!! I emailed Alienware and they credited me the amount, but on the 6th of April, I was back to phase 1. So 14 days later and numerous calls to Alienware for status checks, I'm only in phase 9. In frustration and boredom, I decided to do research on my purchase, and boy am I glad I did! I found lots of reviews on the net, but the best and largest source was here at notebookforums.com. I quickly found and dived into the Alienware review threads, and found reviews both good and bad. I was really alarmed by what I was reading, and started to feel that I might have made a bad purchase. In a very informative post by Codename_47 he stated "The Sager 9860, while nothing more then a Clevo D900t like the 7700.." and it got me to research on Clevo clones and specifically Sager. My first laptop was a Sager, a 486dx4 100, first laptop with a 2x internal CDROM!! I quickly found the Sager review threads here and liked what I was reading.
When I last talked with Alienware CS on the 15th, they said that my order should ship on the 19th, it was now the 22nd. I called CS yesterday the 22nd, and was told that my order should ship on the 27th. That was IT! I decided to start shopping for a Sager 9860. I had 2 criteria, in stock, and fast shipment. Being a Naval Reservist and getting activated very soon, I can't afford to wait. I first went to PCTorque, but they were out of stock, next I found *********.com and they were in stock and offered 2nd shipping free. I also discovered there are more options available that Alienware didn't offer. So I canceled my order with Alienware and ordered the following from *********.com for $3518.00
17" WSXGA+ ATI Mobility Radeon X800 w/256MB
3.6GHz (660) Pentium 4 w/2MB L2,
2048MB 533MHz DDR2 2-DIMM,
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive (x2 RAID 0),
8X DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Drive, & DVD 2nd drive,
Built-In 802.11g Wireless + Bluetooth Module,
TV-Tuner w/Remote,
Windows XP Pro
So, I get a faster CPU (larger cache anyway), 2nd optical drive, internal wireless NIC, and a TV tuner for, um, let's see, almost $1000 less than my original order with Alienware!!! And, I should actually get it next week by Thursday, the date Alienware said I *should* get mine from them.
I will document my experience and post a review once it gets here. I have a LOT to do before getting deployed so I'll do my best. I will be utilizing this forum heavily for help and advice, I've already found a lot of very useful information, from a handy script and backpack choices, to a laptop cooler I'll get from kingwin and how to rub out a dead/lit pixel. I do have one question I haven't found brought up yet, has anyone backed up their system with Ghost or something similar? Once I have spent the many hours of initial configuration, I plan to Ghost an image, but this will be my first experience with RAID 0 and would like to know if anyone has had success doing this, and/or restoring, expecially in light of the driver issues for the HDs I've read about.
Again, I want to thank everyone for participating and contributing on these forums, they are an invaluable tool and resource!!
Geoff
Because of an article I read in the May issue of Computer Gamming World on the Alienware Area-51 7700, I went right to the web site and ordered one. Now normally I research the hell out of anything I buy, but I figured that CGW wouldn't steer me wrong. I had little knowledge of Alienware, but understood them to put out expensive, powerful machines. Good enough for me, I always figure you get what you pay for (mostly). I had ordered my Area-51m 7700 on March 30th for $4,456.02, configured with:
17" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD Display with Built-in Camera - Xeno Grey
P4 560J 3.6GHz 1MB Cache
2GB DDR2 @ 533MHz 2x1024MB
ATI X800 w/256MB DDR3
60GB 7200RPM ATA100 (x2) RAID 0
8X DL DVD
XP Pro
Alienware Respawn
Extra battery
Belkin AC Anywhere 300W
A couple days later I was checking on my status, (didn't know about the phase game and was in phase 3) and did a double check on my configuration and discovered the price dropped $400!! I emailed Alienware and they credited me the amount, but on the 6th of April, I was back to phase 1. So 14 days later and numerous calls to Alienware for status checks, I'm only in phase 9. In frustration and boredom, I decided to do research on my purchase, and boy am I glad I did! I found lots of reviews on the net, but the best and largest source was here at notebookforums.com. I quickly found and dived into the Alienware review threads, and found reviews both good and bad. I was really alarmed by what I was reading, and started to feel that I might have made a bad purchase. In a very informative post by Codename_47 he stated "The Sager 9860, while nothing more then a Clevo D900t like the 7700.." and it got me to research on Clevo clones and specifically Sager. My first laptop was a Sager, a 486dx4 100, first laptop with a 2x internal CDROM!! I quickly found the Sager review threads here and liked what I was reading.
When I last talked with Alienware CS on the 15th, they said that my order should ship on the 19th, it was now the 22nd. I called CS yesterday the 22nd, and was told that my order should ship on the 27th. That was IT! I decided to start shopping for a Sager 9860. I had 2 criteria, in stock, and fast shipment. Being a Naval Reservist and getting activated very soon, I can't afford to wait. I first went to PCTorque, but they were out of stock, next I found *********.com and they were in stock and offered 2nd shipping free. I also discovered there are more options available that Alienware didn't offer. So I canceled my order with Alienware and ordered the following from *********.com for $3518.00
17" WSXGA+ ATI Mobility Radeon X800 w/256MB
3.6GHz (660) Pentium 4 w/2MB L2,
2048MB 533MHz DDR2 2-DIMM,
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive (x2 RAID 0),
8X DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Drive, & DVD 2nd drive,
Built-In 802.11g Wireless + Bluetooth Module,
TV-Tuner w/Remote,
Windows XP Pro
So, I get a faster CPU (larger cache anyway), 2nd optical drive, internal wireless NIC, and a TV tuner for, um, let's see, almost $1000 less than my original order with Alienware!!! And, I should actually get it next week by Thursday, the date Alienware said I *should* get mine from them.
I will document my experience and post a review once it gets here. I have a LOT to do before getting deployed so I'll do my best. I will be utilizing this forum heavily for help and advice, I've already found a lot of very useful information, from a handy script and backpack choices, to a laptop cooler I'll get from kingwin and how to rub out a dead/lit pixel. I do have one question I haven't found brought up yet, has anyone backed up their system with Ghost or something similar? Once I have spent the many hours of initial configuration, I plan to Ghost an image, but this will be my first experience with RAID 0 and would like to know if anyone has had success doing this, and/or restoring, expecially in light of the driver issues for the HDs I've read about.
Again, I want to thank everyone for participating and contributing on these forums, they are an invaluable tool and resource!!
Geoff
