Hands On - Alienware Area-51 m9750

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Alienware is about to release its next generation notebook gaming rig, the Area-51 m9750. This will be the first 17&quot; notebook to include SLI with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The reps we met with indicated early unofficial 3DMark scores are coming in 30% higher than the m9700.

Alienware Area-51 m9750 (view large image)

The m9750 is nothing short of the highest end notebook to hit the market. Sure, the 17&quot; display is great. And yes, the Core 2 Duo processors fly. Oh, and there's the dual SATA drives that will get you up to 400GB of storage. But slam in dual NVIDIA 512MB GeForce Go 7950 GTX graphics cards and you've got an absolute screamer. The group we visited with tonight are telling us that this machine will certainly qualify as &quot;lust-worthy&quot; for those interested in such things like raw power.

It's easy to get wrapped up in their excitement. The machine looks great and performs like no other. I watched scenes from Blue-Ray movies on the 17&quot; widescreen Clearview display (1920x1200). The display is fantastic, rivaling some of the best I've seen from the likes of Sony and Fujitsu. The shell on this particular version is a smooth black, complete will the illuminated Alienware logo and rubberized grips. We're told Alienware will also be offering a while shell.

They've really paid attention to the details, even the keyboard, complete with number pad, is well done. The rest of the design is nice and clean. The integrated TV tuner is so much less hassle than the add-on units. And you'll find all the other ports you expect from a high-end Alienware setup like surround sound, optical audio, card reader and so on.

Fans of the m9700 might be sad to see the AMD processors go, but with the benchmarks we expect to see, I'm sure most of you will get over it. Alienware wants this to be the premier performance system on the market and will go with the parts that will get them there. The release date and pricing are not yet set, but it should only be a few more weeks before we see it available for sale.

m9750 Photo Gallery

Rubber grips and illuminated logo (view large image)

Audio ports (view large image)

Left side ports (view large image)

Video outputs (view large image)

Integrated TV tuner (view large image)

 

My goodness...I'd love to do a review of a max-ed out model of this notebook! I'm serious...

 

Heck, you and me both.

That thing is going to plain blaze. Nothing will touch it. Not to mention they actually made this one visually appealing. No more ugly plain silver. I like the idea of a white case as well. I'm scared to see the pricetag though. *shudders*

 

Alienware talked about this laptop before at CES but never actually displayed the thing, nice to see them actually roll it out on the showfloor. I look forward to seeing what price tag they slap on this when they put it up on their site.

 

i can't wait for it to be released! It looks so awesome gotta love the black it does look better than the silver.

 

How about the new Clevo? It's got SLI, Core 2 Duo desktop CPU, 3 hard drives, and is probably considerably cheaper.

 

*Correction, one or two others might touch it.

Alienware has the name and marketing hype though.

 

wow, look at the footprint of that thing, its huge, and it looks so thick too, its gonna take up so much deskspace, like having a giant keyboard to type on.... does anyone know how much it would approximately cost to build a system with the same specs on a desktop? how much is the premium for "portability"?

 

any indication of the price of the maxed out version of m9750 and new clevo?
thnx.

 

So what cleavo ODM model is this ?

Never thought I'd say it but I think it might be too powerfull , I'd like to know how hot and noisy does it get .

 

For an Alienware, that system sure is rather stylish, except for the lid. I've always disliked the look of Alienware and thankfully it's limited to only the lid on this one. I'm sure the pricetag will make my stomach turn upside down. I'd rather stick to the Clevo version. I am excited to see more laptops go in this direction though. More power and desktop features are a huge plus.

Funny how Dell gets design and looks (almost) right with Alienware but neglects the rest of their lineup....

 

Im pretty sure this one is uniwill

the same as their lower end models

believe it or not this one should be cheaper than the 9700

It might not be but it should be its the cheaper chassis. area 51 also means the lower line aurora is their top line.

 

The heat wasn't bad on the unit I played with, though the sound is impossible to measure. I was in a crowded ballroom with too much noise to hear much out of the notebook.

Dell still has zero impact on the design of Alienware notebooks, they only help in the supply chain.

 

isnt this the clevo D900c?

 

I think this is just the Clevo D900C. It'll be available through Sager as the NP9260 ( http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/go_np9260.html), and is probably twice the price just for the Alienware branding.

 

It's not a Clevo but an Arima laptop that is coming out within weeks.

 

That Clevo is ugly as heck. And its 2.35" high pretty much the thickest laptop i've ever seen.

 

This is indeed an Arima. It'll be about 4lbs lighter than the Clevo d900c, and not quite as thick. I hope the price will be comparable to the Clevo as well. The Clevo also boasts desktop cpus, while I believe the 9750 will have mobile duo-cores. Which should help with power consumption, and heat.

 

What a bland design, I hope they might give it an airbrush blue shiny / whatever color, kinda like the D900k alienware had, that looked nice!

 

well....... too each his own

well if it wil help it cool down a bit and decrease the heat itll be a welcome addition i guess i guess it pointless to talk about saving battery life as the battery life is goig to be hopeless but then again who wouldnt want to sacrifice battery life to have the most powerful laptop on earth?

 

In regards to the battery power... Its never been high on priorities for me. I look at is as a long life uninterpretable power supply. I don't expect more than an hour worth of battery life.

 

I heard from Cnet that the m9750 is supposed to be sub $2000 which means it's probably like barbebone configuration 1Gb of RAM, 1.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 7950GTX, the basics

 

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http://reviews.cnet.com/4660-12760_7-6683819.html?tag=vid.1

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9674192-5.html?tag=chart

 

not a clevo, not an arima, a uniwill

not actually the same as the 9700 which was made by arima

 

Unless uniwill is using the exact the chassis as the 9700, it is still an Arima. The chassis' are exactly the same.

 

This and that I know for a fact (a supplier told me) that Arima is coming out with a new laptop with exactly the specs announced by Alienware.One feature that is not announce is that it will come with MXM 2.0, That is, it will have the possibility of being upgraded to a GForce 8*. What else was MXM good for in a laptop with a 7950GTX in SLI?

I might be wrong (or was told wrongly by the supplier) but these two facts do coincide perfectly. This and the fact he told that it will not take more then two weeks to have one to show me.

We just have to wait ....

Trance

 

No it is not the same chassis. Does not look like it at all. It looks like the 5790.

I dont know if arima is making one like it.
You might see then this one area 51 using dx 9.0 cards and the arima as aurora with dx 10 cards and costing a lot more.

Try and follow , there is area 51 5500, 5750 5790 and 9750 AREA 51 9750

There is aurora 7700, 9700 AURORA. Even though they slipped that number in as 9750 its the budget alienware line.
I know its confusing thats why Im pointing it out. They are almost pulling a switcheroo on you. It should be called area 51 5795 possibly.

I think youre going to see this one for cheap, cheaper than the 9700 is now.

 

Nope. The 9750 looks like the 9700. Down to the exact placement of each and every port.

The pics of the 9700 on Alienware's site look EXACTLY like the 9750 previewed here. Its an Arima platform. I would ignore what it is called. Focus on the specs. The 9750 will blow the 9700 away, and perhaps even nudge ahead of the mALX with its Duo-Core. You are mistaken on this.

Sorry.

 

Definitely my mistake this is arima 9700

 

I think this is just about the sexiest laptop ever, and I would sell a portion of my soul to have one. I wonder if that's something I could list on eBay.. a portion of my soul.

 

I am interested in buying some of your soul. I think it will make a nice sandwhich!!