Alienware's Area-51m 7700 Mobile Desktop reviewed
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 1st 2005 11:03AM
posted April 1st 2005 11:03AM
Digital Video Editing has a review of Alienware's ridiculously big Area-51m 7700 laptop, appropriately dubbed a "Mobile Desktop". The 13.5 pound (!) laptop has a 17-inch LCD (not widescreen) and a 3.4GHz Intel desktop CPU, which accounts for some of the extra weight since it means there's also a lot more fans than a regular laptop to keep it from melting down. It also comes loaded with a pair of Promise 2+0 Stripe/ RAID SATA 40GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 PCI Express graphics card, and 1GB PC2-4200 DDR SDRAM at 533MHz with support for 4GB once Windows XP 64 ships. Price as configured is $3165, not including chiropractor bills.
[Via The Inquirer]
In the past, Alienware laptops have just been rebadges of Sager laptops. I think the twin to this one is here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=49132
and it's cheaper if you don't get the Alienware name.
Its not a rebadge of a sager, they both, along with a few other manufacturers (hypersonic for example) buy from the same asian manufacturer and slap in their own parts. If you look at the past and current lines of all these companies you will find a lot of consistency.
While very heavy, Both this and the 5500 are viable options for gamers (obviously), but more usefully, creative proffessionals like myself. Try doing video editing on another laptop. Its worth being heavy and practically requiring being plugged in to be able to work a project anywhere, particularly for clients. Hopefully in three or four years we'll get some lighter machines that can do the same thing.
And of you think that is bad, do yourself a favor and dont look at 1 Beyond's laptops. They can cost more than a new hyundai.
Why does a gaming laptop need a RAID?
#3 with stripping...
maybe faster loading?
$3,000+ and you only get 80 gigabytes of space? That's weak sauce.
I also concur with #3, there's no need for a RAID setup on a laptop...honestly.
That thing is big! Its double the weight of a 17" PowerBook!
Actually, Alienware has the cheapest from all the other places (sager, voodoopc, etc.). Seems they got a deal with the ODM or something.
Just configure identical models and you will see.
I am thinking of getting this system, but the weight seems a bit much. But hey, it is a mobile desktop
I don't get how Windows XP 64 bit is going to increase the amount of memory this laptop can support when it has a 32 bit processor. Is the maximum addressable RAM limited by the OS or the processor? And if it is limited by the OS, then how is the 32 bit P4 going to run a 64 bit OS?
#8 - the latest Pentium IV chips have 64-bit "extensions" that probably allow it to access the extra memory.
I just got one of these things for portable motion graphics and it is smoking fast. One large downside is that the battery only lasts for about an hour.
I can get you a great deal on this laptop. I'll throw in the fart pipe and bolt-on airfoil for your car at no extra charge!
Don't tell about this to that homeless guy from Starbucks.
I got almost the exact same laptop at Widow PC.
http://www.widowpc.com/gaming_pc_laptops.html
The main differences I see are that I got a TV tuner that came standard with mine and the delivered it about 48 hours after I ordered it. Last time I ordered an Alienware it took about 2 months to get to me. I do CAD design presentations and 2 months is just way too long when I need the hardware for business. Besides, I read a few articles about Alienware not servicing their hardware after the warranty is up.
hey my name is leah surette i`m looking around 4 a laptop but i`m not sure if alien ware is the way to go? but i already have a desktop
got this laptop about four months ago. all top of the line parts with amazing performance. it is quite heavy but it feels very substantial for a laptop, the craftsmanship feels very solid. I have no complaints with this computer or its performance. as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for."
got this laptop about four months ago. all top of the line parts with amazing performance. it is quite heavy but it feels very substantial for a laptop, the craftsmanship feels very solid. I have no complaints with this computer or its performance. as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for."