Alienware Area-51 M9750 Review

Nice review. Loved the cat picture and analogy.

 

I was checking these out, but noticed that it only has the 7950GTX, SLI or not, I plan on doing some heavy DX10 gaming very soon, so this thing, while very nice and cheap, isn't on my list. If this had even one 8800 in it, I would have purchased this, rather than ordering an IFL90.

I like look of the alienware lid as always, but the surface of it is just too plain for me, and the touchpad annoys me since the right/left buttons are one button.

Lastly, the price actually isnt all too bad since this is considerably thinner than the more powerful & cheaper sager. I'm shure that the only reason this is, is because the Alienware uses a mobile CPU, while the sager uses an actual desktop C2D.


Btw, Thanks for the great review!

 

Thanks for the compliments.

For DirectX 10 gaming, I'd recommend the Toshiba Satellite X205, which comes with an 8700M-GT. I'll have the full review of it up in the first half of this week. If you can wait a bit longer, Alienware is testing the 8700M-GT with the M9750. However there is no release date . . .

 

now the reasons for my owning an XPS m1710 just went down a few ;-)

From reading it, it may be DX9, but it will whup 99% of desktops out there, and if you want a modicum of portability, this thing is the best computer out there thus far.

So much to save up for, so little money around due to college....

 

Is the DVI port dual-link? That is, will it drive a 30" monitor that displays 2560x1600?

 

It should be dual-link but I'd suggest emailing/calling Alienware about that. I don't have the M9750 with me at the moment so I can't check but if there is anything about it in the owner's manual I will post back . . .

 

From: Alienware support site:
Question:

Can my Alienware mobile system support my Dell UltraSharp 30" Inch LCD monitor?
Answer

Applies to:

*
All Alienware Mobile Systems

Thank you for your inquiry.

Due to electrical design limitations, the maximum resolution supported by any of the Alienware mobile systems is 1920x1440. The Dell UltraSharp 30" inch LCD monitor has a higher native resolution; and it requires a Dual Link DVI port.

Some of our mobile systems have a physical Dual Link DVI port; however, this port works electrically as a Single Link DVI port. You will be able to physically connect your monitor, but it will not run at its native resolution.



Thank you for your inquiry,

The Alienware Technical Support Team

 

Thanks for finding this info. That really puts a damper on my enthusiasm for buying this laptop. I've been looking to get high-end laptop to drive the 30" Dell. Do ANY windows laptops have dual-link DVI? I know the Apple Macbooks have it.

 

The Clevo M570RU (Sager 5790, Rock Xtreme 770, etc..) is also the newest 17" gaming notebook with Dual-Link DVI.

 

Well, the thing is this laptop and the Clevo D900C are the only laptops capable of running 2560x1600 resolution

 

Read the posting from Disco Stu above. This M9750 cannot drive 2560x1600.

 

For the moment there is only a small number of notebooks that are confirmed to handle WQXGA (2560 × 1600):
- Apple MacBook Pro
- Clevo M570RU (aka. Sager 5790, Rock Xtreme 770, etc..)
... and another model that I cant quite remember.

Unfortunately, the beastly Clevo D900C is not confirmed to support Dual-Link DVI.

 

What I meant was that they are the only ones with enough power to handle wqxga, sorry if I wasn't clear

 

Have I made a mistake, Chaz? Should I have run with the Sager NP9260???[1] Area-51® m9750

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled
Chassis: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Stealth Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 2048MB
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate - With USB Mini Media Center Remote Control and Single NTSC TV Tuner
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 400GB (200GB x 2) Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 16MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: Dual Layer Blu-Ray/DVD±R/W/CD-RW Burner
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card: High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
Mobile Bags: Alienware® AlienArmor 17" Black Aluminum Notebook Case
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $100 Value - FREE!


SubTotal: $6,248.00
Shipping: $55.00
Discount: $0.00
Tax: $490.06
Order Total: $6,793.06

 

For that price, anyone would go for the Clevo D900C (Sager 9260).... unless if you care for a bit more portability.

 

That is such an insane price . . . no I would not have paid that. Getting 4GB of RAM from Alienware and some of those other high-end specifications is what killed your price. I would not spend more than $3,500 - $4,000 to be honest.

I suggest canceling that order and completing the FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum for recommendations. Let us help you out.

 

Thank you for getting back to me soo quickly, Chaz! Yes - it is insane. I'm going to cancel my order right away. I guess i've always wanted an Alienware - but now I cannot justify the price vs. the specs. I will go with the fully-loaded Sager for sure(thanks Gophn!). My intentions upon ordering the m9750 were to completely due away with my desktop. I'm moving around the country every 3 months - so I want the ultimate desktop-replacement. I'm into 3D animation, music creation, DJing, and serious gaming. So if the Sager NP9260 is the ultimate D.R. - then that's what I will choose. If anyone has any other ideas - especially you, Chaz - please feel free to express them. I just hope others can learn from my experience - as this invoice is real - and this is what Alienware feels their products are worth. And to all who say that Alienware's customer support is a joke - it has been more than confirmed by me. Hell - they wouldn't even throw in a mouse with the price I paid! Sorry to rain on anyone's parade. It seems Alienware's prices are out of this world too! :wub:

 

it looks like a dual link buts its not its only a single link so the max res is 1920x1440 nvm this posted i didnt read all of the post before posting this one.

 

Which is the best? this one or the Sager NP9260?

 

See Chaz below He is most wise.

 

We've concluded that neither is "best" - best is a hard word to use to describe anything. It all depends on your needs/wants. I posted a comparison between the two machines a few pages back so look at that and see if it helps you.

 

Alienwares prices aren't actually out of this world, just their designs, what you ordered was completely unreasonable my setup, which is only like 5%-7% slower costs half the prices

Sorry to break it to you but its not so black and white. Logically and on paper the Sager is better because of the desktop processor (and therefore cheaper price). But if you come out of the 2D world of paper and into the 3D world you realise that despite being around $300 (on reasonable setups) more expensive than the Sager it is also (afaik) the thinnest (apart from the 17" MPB - but thats cheating, completely 15" laptop at heart) 17" laptop around. The Alienware is a better laptop. The Clevo is a better Desktop Replacement.

In terms of portability:



vs

 

OK people... if you want power and you want gaming, don't get an alienware! It's nothing more than a Dell. Alienware refuses to answer e-mail, calls, and questions regarding how they plan on staying up with the real competition out in the world of truly high performance laptops. Their memory is slow (667), processor is behind the times (while the new 2.6 GHz Core 2 Extreme, X7800 w/ a FSB of 800 are coming out: see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...22Merom_XE.22_.28standard-voltage.2C_65_nm.29) hard drives that are SATA-150, not 300, non-DirectX 10 compatible cards... should I go on. If you want power, specs, longevity get something else! Their marketing claims are false and they've forgotten who made them who they were... their customers!

All I'm saying is that I was once devoted, but no longer... If you want better performance, bang for your buck, etc. Check out this site:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_buyprebuilt_nb_us2.html

CHAZ,
Can we see a review on the Series 9, Malibal PLEASE?????
Check out the processer and memory in that beast! Desktop Extreme 2.93 and 800MHz RAM!!!



l8r all...

make up your mind based on performance, price and longevity... not a cool case or cute lights.

 

@Digrazz - why would Alienware tell you what their plans are for keeping systems up to date? Most companies keep their product R&D to themselves.

As to not having the x7800 yet - they do go through a fairly extensive testing program to ensure compatibility of the options in their systems. It's likely they will release the x7800 when it's ready.

Alienware is not perfect, but they do make some nice machines and their prices have become more reasonable in the last year. Their style is not for everyone - that's why we have choices.

 

lol.... O M G. do you work for them? Are you on Dell's payroll? I completely understand a company not wanting to release R&D facts however if you want to talk 'facts' let's talk facts.
Alienware claims the following: http://www.alienware.com/microsite_pages/10year/main.aspx
After reviewing these claims, it's damn near false advertising since they claim to be " Turn it up to 11.
Our dials do not stop at 10. We are constantly pushing technology and making hardware do things that go beyond what even the original designers could have imagined."
So just based on this point, where are the DX10 cards? Where are newer processors? What about better RAM (800 or 1066)? I

I agree people have 'choices' but at least give them cutting edge choices???

 

Well if you think about when they announced and planned to release the m9750 (CES in February, release date May, delayed because of a bad batch of cases) It was amazing tech at the time, brand new 7950GTX's and even now its still pretty good tech, SLi in a case thinner than the M570RU?

Not even Clevo Resellers are delivering DX10 GPU's in the D900C or M570RU.
And AW does give cutting edge choices in the desktop section

And Digrazz, the series 9 is a rebadged Clevo D900C, it has a desktop CPU (thus the 800MHz RAM) and there are currently no 800MHz RAM laptops with all mobile parts atm so you can't blam AW not having it. Alienware used to field the Clevo 900's but that what gave Alienware a bad name so I don't blame them for going down a different path. If you want longevity don't look at a Desktop processor in a (even though its massive - 2.35") laptop case.

Alienware might be owned by Dell but its still a completely seperate entity, in the words of Michael Dell: "This summer we teamed up with Alienware..." I don't recall him mentioned plundering Alienwares IP

And why is Malibal trumpeting PCI-E, I mean it just looks like they're piling on features to bazzle you, just like AW, come on, even my VAIO had PCI-E tech in it

 

Actually the 8700M GT's are getting shipped with the new Clevo units (M570RU) first within a month.

Although I would not care too much until the 8800M's come out.

 

Hey Phritz... you call yourself a "Notebook Evangelist" and then claim the following:
"there are currently no 800MHz RAM laptops "
Do some research before claiming these things... Sager, Malibal and MANY others have 800Mhz RAM. Here's one example:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=74

Getting to 'Michael Dell's' quote... dude... that's TOTALLY LAME
I mean seriously... backing up a company that is only partially cutting edge. All I'm saying is that if you're claiming to have a gaming laptop that's a 11 our of 10 as AW claims then why offer hardware that's clearly outdated (667 RAM) non-DX10 video cards... and oh yeah... those are out too in case you haven't been doing your reading. Look at the Toshiba X205.

Do some more research before 'selling' your Dell to me.

One last thing... it's nice to have the cool lights and have to pay a small fortune for the possible (but maybe not) upgrade of your non-DX10 cards that can't really leverage. But hey, like I said, cool lights dude.

 

Actually the forums call me that , if you'd have more than 3 posts you might have noticed.

Do some more research yourself, buy a laptop with claimed 800MHz RAM speeds and then go check what the speeds are for yourself. Santa Rosa does not support 800MHz RAM, it throttles it down to 667MHz, its about as useless as buying 4GB on a Napa chipset, but since you've been doing so much reading and research I guess you just wanted fool me into thinking you're right...

You're obviously just hating on the Alienware because you can't afford it, some people do like to indulge themselves after working for money, and where are the "cool lights" ? afaik as I know only the Dell XPS 1710 has the "cool lights". I'm not selling my "Dell" to you if you can't pay up, which you obviously can't if you call $300 a small fortune. (Yeah that how much more expensive the AW m9750 is over the Clevo M570RU in single card configs and the D900C in SLi configs)

Also you might want to look into the performance of the 8700M GT, while it will suffice for DX10 junkies it still doesn't keep up to the 7950GTX at high res's etc. (which incidentally, is what these 17"laptops have). I agree with Gophn the 8700M GT doesn't actually matter, if I wanted one I'd get an IFL-90 with a 8600M GT and overclock it.

As I said the Malibal (which I've never heard of before, and I've seen a lot of D900C rebadgers) is a D900C with a desktop CPU (just in case you missed it the first time), thats why the 800MHz RAM, I'm actually surprised that you didn't say that the RAM was 1066MHz, (Hoe else did you get to the 800MHz RAM on real laptops with mobile chipsets). I'd rather pay $300 extra then get ripped off later in life by a chiropractor. (no offence Gophn)

 

none taken.

I know that only the notebooks using desktop Core 2 Duo's can utilize the DDR2-800, the rest using Santa Rosa should stick with DDR2-667.

 

Cant' afford it huh.. Is that the best you can come up with? I just paid for a XoticPC Sager NP9260, with wait, OMG supported 800 MHz RAM. Would you like to see a link... ok:
http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?products_id=1932

Configure it with 2GB of what kind of RAM? hmmm... and by the way the configuration is dual vids (2 x 512MB 9750GTX), 2 GB RAM @ 800Mhz, and a Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.93 Extreme X6800 with a FSB of 1066Mhz. 3 x 200GB SATA 300 (no not 150) drives) @ 7200 RPM, 2 are mirrored (RAID 1 there expert) and one as 'data' drive for my VM's (virtual machines goober).

Bottom line, out the door (for less than $5,000K) and this beast rocks your ole school paper weight like a dress on prom night. Part of that 5K also includes a 100% 3 YR warranty on EVERYTHING including the LCD, an extra battery, and wait for it… custom paint job with the sickest detail I’ve ever seen. Check out what they can do at:
http://www.xoticpc.com/extfinish.htm

I never said anything about what I can or cannot afford, but I was trying to avoid the upgrade to dual DX10 compatible cards since they are due later this year. But hey Phritz, it's cute that you like lil blue head and lights. I never said I was an Alienware hater, just saying that if people want a true mobile gaming rig... look around more because Alienware is far more expensive for less than top of the line gaming laptops out there.

The point is, is that Alienware claims to be 'dialed up to an 11' with their technology and it's clear they are not. At one point it seemed like Alienware was going to step up but that's changed and I attribute that to the fact that if they are leaps and bounds ahead of Dell then people won't go Dell and Dell will lose market share in that space (gaming or high end workstations/laptops) to one of their own companies. To combat this, Dell throttles Alienware down so they are equal or maybe just a hair difference between the two. It's Marketing 101.

Just one last thing... if I couldn't afford it, then when did I just order this sick a$$ system.?.?.?

 

Can we keep this on topic? This was a review not a chance for people with D901C's to bash on Alienware or vice versa. If you don't like Alienware, fine. Move along, Move along.

I think the review itself was very well written. Thank you for it.

 

hey all! nice review! i just ordered a M9750, hopefully its worth it =)

 

good for you, nobody cares, =), the community doesn't need people like you.

 

Touche ...

 

hey all! my configuration for my future M9750 is a single 7950GTX.. is it possible 2 upgrade it l8er on?? for xample to a DUAL SLI??

 

chaz, regardless of speed, how would you rate this notebook compared to the clevo d900c? is the wuxga screen on this notebook better than the wsxga and wuxga screens found on the d900c?

 

I didn't have this notebook alongside the D900C for a direction comparison but I can tell you I thought the screens were similar. As a matter of fact I did not even think to compare them so that says I didn't notice any differences. I did not think one was better than the other or vice versa.

I see you have a Clevo D900T (Sager NP9860). If you are okay with something that size again then the D900C is a logical upgrade. For a bit more portability the Alienware is a good choice. The M9750 recently saw a $200 price reduction and SLI has been reduced to $400; you can get a very nice configuration for less than $2,500.

It's up to you. I'd say make a decision, sleep on it for a week, then see how you feel. Keep hanging around these forums.

 

chaz, after recieving my m9750 i must disagree with you on this statement

i do not know how you measure keyboard flex, but i think you may want to rethink how you do this. the m9750 does indeed have keyboard flex around the middle of the keyboard. the keyboard also feels springy and the flex certainly does not help with this. maybe i am too harsh on the keyboard flex, but when someone says there is no flex, i am assuming there really is no flex, something you find on business class notebooks like some of those ibm laptops.