Alienware's latest community effort is AlienNetwork, a "digital channel" which debuted today. To kick off the show with a bang, they revealed that their "fastest ever" 17-inch Area-51 m17x gaming notebook shown back in November is launching today at 5PM (right now, give or take). Versus the m15x, it's got a higher res 1920x1200 screen, NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI graphic cards, up to a Core 2 Extreme CPU and the option for two hard drives set up in RAID. It's in all black and if we might say so, just a bit sexier than the m15x. Update: Here's the product page.
Other worthy tidbits from the show: They're not planning on a MacBook Air competitor. They're big-boned (for performance) and proud of it. Also, they're looking at making some cheaper notebooks for more mainstream gamers that can't afford to drop $3k on a sweet gaming notebook. Budget gaming notebook, I like the sound of that. [Alienware]












Comments
I gotta say, I like that keyboard.
Possible budget gaming notebook from Alienware = awesome.
How is their Sentia at playing games? That notebook is around $1000 in standard configuration, and comes with a decent GPU for the money.
Too bad their case design is Buddha-awful.
I'm still of the opinion that it's a Dell. And therefore no longer the quality company that Dell bought. But my grudges last a looooong time.
There's no point in getting a laptop that size. They will just overheat, drain battery and it's not even practical to carry around. Add a case to it, and it will be close to 20lbs.
@Kaiser-Machead: I don't think they sell the Sentia anymore.
From a owner of an Alienware laptop, some experiences:
1) I purchased a Alienware m9700 (several years back) for around $3000.
2) Initial impressions is that the case was kinda cheap, but I got over that. It is the same chassis that other laptop vendors (not mainline vendors, but small mom/pop laptop vendors)
3) it was HOT. Not like the curvacious doll-face that works in the cubical down the hall, but HOT like make your palms sweat. Wait...isn't that the same thing?
4) My DVD ROM drive died. I replaced it myself under warranty. They charged me $50 for the old part and were to reimburse it after I returned the bad part. I sent it back the day after I received the new part. 6 months later and several emails/phone calls I was reimbursed.
5) I extended warranty another year for a couple hundred bucks. It was expensive, but worth it...
6) The LCD thingy-ma-jigger died, so no LCD output. VGA output still worked. They sent a guy to replace the part on-site and fixed it.
7) Did I mention this is hot? I bought a simple laptop stand to raise it off the desk and allow better airflow, I assume it helped a little.
8) The video card is now flaky/dead. I can get video in safe mode, but installing drivers causes a BSOD. I looked at replacing video card or sending back to AW, but it is going to cost $500+ to replace it (out of warranty now). I assume the heat finally killed it.
It was a good machine. I played DOOM3, Half Life 2, Company of Heros, NWN2, and other new games on it (remmeber they were new when I bought it). It seemed to hold it's own, but it was mired in issues over it's life span (at least more than I am used to), and I am pretty content on retiring it for good.
Anyone want a used, barely working Alienware?
is it just me, or is that thing huge?
I too owned an Alienware a few years back and had a number of issues aside from the heat/weight. I now own a macbook pro and wouldn't go back. Ever. Period (imagine I'm dotting my 'i's with apple logos).
It looks like a ton of bricks
heh over $5000 for best config. worth more than my car hah no thanks, i'll stick to my xps m1530.
That is a desktop replacement. You get a hernia just from carrying that thing around.
I guess that is why they cater to a very specific market.
A semi-portable with tons of power is great if you are into going from one LAN party to another!
@.tox: For a laptop it does weigh one metric shit-ton. For a desktop replacement, it's still pretty heavy. Specs say it weighs 10.5 pounds with the battery. Yeek.
why is it going into his eye? strange design choice.
This thing has what, 10, 15 minutes of battery life?
Does anyone know where I can find that wallpaper...?
@tangledweb16:
Right click, Save Image As...
@vertibraker: @.tox: @MacBastard: @LindsayJoy:
Don't forget the no-lighter-than-2-pound power brick. And I mean that literally. It will be made with sand fired to over 1000° in an oven and be able to support 10x it's weight.
they should stop calling these things notebooks and classify them as textbooks. or tomes. or oxford unabridged english dictionaries.
@LindsayJoy: Any real LAN gamer would solder a handle onto a case and bear with it... this is just a mockery of a laptop. I'm so glad I can play Crysis mobile for 5 minutes until I have to go socket seeking again for power. What a joke.
That thing is gonna heat up like hell !!....everybody knows that once it heats up too much,too often it starts dying....the optical drives are the first to go...this has place for 2,sounds like fun!....
If I put my macbook and my ibook on top of each other, the AW notebook would still be bigger.
Hmmm, roghly the same size as the Playstation 3 laptop...
Sorry, roughly...sheesh
That laptop looks like it eats babies in its spare time. Badass.
... Not that I'm saying that eating babies makes you badass. I'm gonna stop now so I don't get in any more trouble...
It looks ugly and is fat as pig
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