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I paid more not just for looks, but b/c AW is my lover and it gives me pleasure all through the night...that took a lot of effort to type and retype as I am fairly intoxicated

You just shared too much. But know what you ment (the intoxicated part).

No, I'm one of these recalcitrant weirdos who gets my wife to perform live. Go figure.


LOL...Yang pretty much summed it up.

I've owned two Sagers back-to-back and I've been pretty happy overall with them. For me, cost wasn't an issue this time, and I wanted something that "made a statement" visually. I may have opted for a Sager if they offered paint schemes. At the same time, I couldn't wait on a custom paint job as I had to get the machine pretty quickly. Alienware, while more expensive, was less costly than Hypersonic (which I also looked at, but got scared when DB started having his pre-shipment problems with them), and offered the conspiracy blue paint.

Also, I've dealt with Sager tech support and, while I eventually got stuff taken care of, it was very difficult talking on the phone with them. I felt I needed a personal translator at times. Alienware offers a better online tech support system. Not sure yet about the quality of their tech reps. Hope I never have to find out.

If money is an issue, I'd recommend buying a Sager through PC-Torque. If you buy through them I believe they'll handle any tech support issues, plus their pricing is some of the best you'll find.

you know i am kind of pissed i have basically the same thing on order as you did sager and i ordered it 3 days earlier on dec/27!!!!

1920/1200 screen was my main delay......

you have had yours for a while mine is in phase 5 still wtf is going on with alienware!!!! plus mine cost over 6k wtf!!!! i am getting a little pissed!!!! glad your happy but it just makes me more pissed...lol... oh well i am gonna have to wait for corporate support to get back to me!!!!

Over 6K? Dang, did you get a 24 karat gold plated case or sumtin'? What else did you get besides the FX-60 that added to the cost?

I just took a look at the configurator and I see the FX-60 is over $500 more than the 4800+ X2. That's a pretty penny.

Yours didn't get kicked back from phase 8 to phase 5, did it? I think that's happened to some people.

Well, if your machine is anything like mine, it'll be worth the wait. I know that's tough medicine to swallow now, but once you get it the phase game will be all but forgotten.

Actually I'm one of those sick guys that likes this part of the process -- I like looking forward to my machine.... obsessing over it.... agonizing over every phase and part.

Seriously. It took me a long time to admit it, but I do like it. :P

[1] Aurora™ m7700

Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4800+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service / AlienAutopsy / Respawn
LCD Display: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD Clearview Display with Built-in Camera
Motherboard: VIA K8T890 + VT8237A Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Video Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
Hard Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 200GB (100GB x 2) 7200 RPM SATA
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder
Secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS PCMCIA
Primary Battery: Alienware® m7700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Additional Battery: Alienware® m7700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Notebook Coolers / Stands: Xbrand 360 Adjustable Stand with USB 2.0 Hub
Additional AC Adapter: Alienware® m7700 220 Watt Auto-switch AC Adapter
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Wireless Network: Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card
Bluetooth: Bluetooth™ USB Adapter
Floppy Drive: USB Floppy Drive
Mobile Transport : Alienware® Odyssey Backpack

i added the fx-60 so add 500 smacko's!!!!! plus i just made another order for an aluminum case and portable stand!!! i need a case that just holds the computer so i can pack the backpack with all my other goodies... plus i have an mx 5000 keyboard mouse setup not shown above for somereason but in my actual order and it's adobe format so i cannot put that one up!!!

sager you in love with her yet or what? damn it's been a while any update? she performing to the max!!!!!

/signed

Yeah how are things 2 weeks later?

Back by popular demand! Ok, let's give the audience what they want...

The machine's performance has been exemplary. Everything I've stated previously I still emphatically stand by.

I've encountered a couple of self-inflicted problems, mostly with the audio. I found the Audigy 2 ZS notebook PCMCIA card on sale for $56 after rebate, so I couldn't pass it up. As soon as I plugged it in, I couldn't believe the difference! If you value high quality sound at all, this is a must. The integrated audio can't handle high bass level stuff (techno, house, heavy rock) without distorting. The Audigy 2 handles it great, and the Ozma headphones are an excellent match. I picked up nuances of songs I had never heard before.

The downside is Creative's driver and software set. I should've just installed the card's drivers and left it at that. There's so much application crap they include with the installation package, and as a techno dweeb I must try all of it, of course. Well I can't get some of the bundled stuff like the integrated sound mixer and equalizer to work reliably. I've done everything under the sun to troubleshoot it, but no dice. Unfortunately, I think I've dirtied my XP install where I'm probably facing a wipe/reinstall. Even system restores aren't restoring properly. Again, this is my fault and no fault of the Aurora. Installing sound drivers just sucks when it goes badly. That's always been my experience.

One other problem I've had is the occasional hard lockup. Everything just freezes, most of the time when I'm browsing in Opera 8.51. I haven't narrowed it down yet, but no doubt it was something I've installed that's just not playing nicely. This is another reason to wipe/reinstall the OS.

Keep in mind I have a lot of stuff running on this machine, especially background processes like IIS, ColdFusion, Postgres SQL database junk, and other stuff--probably too much. In any case, the computer just keeps marching along smartly, especially speed-wise. Applications load and run quickly and I don't feel I'm stressing the computer at all. Not even close.

Fan noise seems to have picked up somewhat, but this has been my normal experience with other computers. It's still not obnoxious, but it's definitely audible. The GPU fan cycles on for two minutes/off for one minute. The other fans aren't too noticeable until you start gaming. Then they ramp up. I expect the fans to get noisier slowly as the computer ages. Their bearings wear which increases the noise level over time.

The few times I've played America's Army, the computer has done great. The highest I've ever seen the GPU temp was 93C near the end of a heavy gaming session. The screen is still amazingly beautiful and no dead pixels. I just have to keep the dust off of it to keep it looking nice.

I have no complaints about the wireless internet. I've yet to be dropped during normal use.

Traveling with this beast is not a problem for me. Again, the backpack is great and it doesn't feel like I'm toting around 21 pounds. Using the computer on my lap is still very comfortable. I'm continually amazed by how well the weight is distributed. I don't feel and "pressure points" on my upper legs like I did with my old laptop, even though this one is heavier.

In short, everything works pretty much as advertised and as I had hoped. The stuff that is problematic has been caused mostly by yours truly.

thx for the update sager!!!!!!!!!! glad you still love it sounds likie the relation ship might even be improving a little!!!!!

Nice report, though is the audio really THAT bad?
The FedEx guy pictures are totally hillarious, I wonder what he was thinking when he saw you snapping pictures of him carying the 30 pound package.
Anyways I took the liberty of filling in all that empty space.

LOL...nice one. Good ol' Homer.

Actually, the FedEx dude never saw me with the camera. Our place has those "hey thief, over here!!!" elongated rectangular windows bracketing the front door. I snapped the pictures while inside the house looking out one of those windows. I was afraid that if I overtly took the guy's photos, he'd drop the Alienware box. Sure didn't want an impromptu drop test done on my baby.

Yes, in my opinion the audio is that bad. The integrated audio picks up some of the electromechanical noise from the Aurora (hard drive read/writes, scrolling noise, etc.). It's especially noticeable if you want to play mood music tracks that can't cover up the computer's internal racket because there's no heavy metal noise to mask the sounds. Also, whenever you have to max out all of the settings just to get somewhat decent sound, then it's just not up to snuff.

Again, if audio isn't your bag and you just want to play music on your lappy's built-in speakers, then no worries. You can get by fine. However, if you have a home stereo you wish to hook up to your lappy, then by all means spring for the Audigy card. Don't waste your time with the internal sound. Caveat: you can't pass audio through the Audigy to your internal speakers. You have to use an external hookup. (Maybe someone has a workaround for this, but I'm too lazy to search for it since I wouldn't want to do this anyway).

Hey Sager try this out, I'm thinking about picking up the audigy (why not).

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=100197

Also if you didn't read they do have the audio dj thing fixed by means of newer optical drives (6750). I think I like mine more than the first couple days I had it. Finally got it loaded with everything I'm used to. Good to hear your still running great.

Hey, there he is! Thans for the link. Since you went to the trouble of posting it, now I'll have to try it out.

Once again we're in accord about love for the laptop. Now that I'm more or less used to the differences in key placement and operation compared to my old machine, I'm enjoying it more each day as well.

I did have a self-inflicted problem with installing the Audigy drivers that necessitated wiping the drive to get things back to normal, but if I don't wipe the drive at least once during a migration to a new machine, I consider it a failure, LOL. Interestingly enough, the drive-wipe solved the problem I was having with the AMD Power Monitor installation. Never did figure that one out.

Thanks for the heads-up on the 6750 opticals. Man, that was quite the ordeal you had there! Very happy for you that it was taken care of the right way. I'll give TS a call soon so I can get my (hopefully) 2 drives!

The Audigy is definitely worth it in my mind. My biggest concern was not wanting to use up my 1 PCMCIA slot on a sound card of all things, but the reliability of the internal wireless has been top drawer. No need to drop to a PCMCIA wireless card. ZipZoomfly has it for 60 smackers after a $30 rebate and ships it 2nd day for free.

BTW, last weekend I did do the wipe/reinstall. Went smooth as silk and now everything is behaving as it should. Props to AW for the respawn utility. Saved me 2 hours of screwing around with installing everything individually.