Ok everyone, finally I can provide a review of my Alienware 51m 7700 machine.
If, and when you order the machine from Alienware please keep in mind that it is a good idea to call those guys and ‘confirm’ your order. This generally speeds up the process. You will jump from Phase 1 to Phase 3 almost immediately. My machine has spent total of 9 days in production – 7 of those days was in phase 12 ‘Extensive/Final QC’.

Shipping:

Not much to say here. Only problem I had was the FedEx guy leaving my $4,000.00 machine on my doorstep. Outer box is very sturdy and was very firmly packed. However, the actual box, containing the machine itself, was rather flimsy and was poorly constructed. The damned thing looked as if it was made in Chinese Lego Factory. Anyway, that’s the only complaint I have as far as the shipping is concerned.

Total time from the moment of order to the actually arrival was about 12 days.

Machine itself comes with an external FDD and a shitty Targus rip-off generic laptop messenger bag. So, it is a good idea to order an Alienware backpack or messenger bag. They not only look cool but they are also very nicely constructed. I think Targus makes those for AW, but AW puts their own cute Alien Logo on them. Those bags are awesome. Obviously you get the XP Install Disk, Driver/Utility CD and stuff as well. Also I would advise to get an Alienware respawn DVD.

Machine itself:

Well, what can I say? This baby is awesome. It is heavy, much heavier than an average laptop by far. So please keep that in mind. Power button, the way it is imbedded into the case, is little tough to get used to. It feels as if it is little stiff, but it really is not – it’s just that you have to hold the button down for about a second to turn the machine on and it starts up real quiet like; so, no worries there.

Keyboard is very nicely laid out. I love the built in number pad. When you buy this machine, it is imperative that you buy yourself a Cool Pad and install the GetThermal Utility available on these here forums. She is a heat-producing beast.

As an afterthought, all of the fans on the bottom of the unit are INTAKE fans. I used GetThermal with the AKASA Cool Pad; at first I made a mistake and reversed the fans on the Cool Pad. Machine stayed at about 53 Celsius. After I actually played around a little with the fans I realized that the fans are intake – I have reversed them back to normal – where they are actually blowing on to the bottom of the unit. The machine now Idles at about 49 Celsius and goes to 56 under load.

I always wanted to own an Alienware Laptop. This machine has exceeded all my expectations and I hope that it will work 3 years from now as well as it does today. Grnted I only owned the unit for about a week but she is awesome.

AKASA Cool Pad Modifications:

I have used a standard Hand Drill with a standard Hole Cutter. The wiring itself is pretty easy and straightforward. I was little confused when I saw that AKASA did not include Red/Black wire distinction on the wires but what I did is put my add-on fans side by side with the AKASA internal fans and went by Left/Right wire layout and it worked without any issues. Drill holes, install 70 mm thin fans (I pulled them out of the old Antec Cooler). Anyways, it worked perfectly well. All of the fans on the Cool Pad are blowing UP on to the bottom of the machine and as I mentioned before the machine now stays at about 49 Celsius.

So, feel free to peruse the attached pictures and if you have any questions let me know.

Cheers.

looks mine

Hey! Mine did not come with any cute stickers!!!!! Damn It!

Also, I see your DJ Panel shows something - how come? I can only use mine when my PC is off but connected to the power source?

And what the hell is that little shiny looking thing to the left of your machine?

It will display the time....go into bios and you'll find the setting for this...I assume that is what you mean....nice job on that cooler, looks good....the small silver thing in his pic is one of those male enhancement devices you can get on TV after midnight and all the good infomercials come on, Red used it and all his pubic hair turned green and he pisses in three directions but other than that...its harmless

very nice review and nice cooling pad

Thats an awesome cooling pad you got, i may want to do the same thing, i had to send my 7700 back for repairs because it had a bad motherboard. I should be getting it back next week. Nice review man

AlienKen: I did not see any AKASA coolpads in USA for some reason. If any of you guys have any idea where I can buy it in USA please post it here, I would love to do the same for my Dell laptop.

My AW was left on the doorstep as well. i was out of town and the Fed Ex guy said he gave it to my neighbor. He said my neighbor was a short fat guy and my neighbor weighs like 110 lbs and is about 6 foot tall!!! Well, the fed ex guy now is 4 grand short on his paycheck and i received a new aw while some guy has a free one as well. I am glad your wasnt taken.

OUCH!!!

I put a Gatorade cap under each corner rubber foot and run Gethermal with AC2 Trip at 40 and Fan Off at 35 and right now mine is running at 39° with no laptop cooler. Of course, I keep my A/C at about 68° here in my office. But running the Battlefield 2 Demo it never creeps above 60° even running in dual monitor mode with my external LCD showing Gethermal.

HAHA, that sounds like something that would happen to me, except "I" would have 2 AW laptops, shhh, hehe.

yeah, what he said...