News Bits: Alienware Skullcap Design Available, Toshiba Intros 160GB 1.8-inch Hard Drive

Alienware Area-51 m15x now available will Skullcap case design

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Alienware has made available the Skullcap case design option for its m15x. The Skullcap design has ribbed sections on either side of the lid that have been of feature of Alienware laptops for some time. The m15x is also available with the Ripley case design, which has smooth and clean lines.

Product Link (Alienware.com)
NotebookReview.com review for the Alienware Area-51 m15x

Toshiba to introduce highest-capacity 1.8-inch hard drive

Toshiba says that it will put the world's highest-capacity 1.8-inch hard drive into mass production by August. The 1.8-inch drive will have a capacity of 160GB, a SATA interface, and a 5400RPM spindle speed. An 80GB version of the drive will also be introduced.

Full Story (ChannelRegister.co.uk)

Kingston introduces DDR2-800 HyperX notebook RAM

Kingston today introduced high-performance HyperX memory for notebooks. The 200-pin modules run at 800MHz and are available in 2GB and 4GB kits.

The 2GB kit will retail for $88.00, and the 4GB kit $138.00.

Full Story (HotHardware.com)

OCZ introduces Spyder USB flash drive

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OCZ Technology today introduced its Spyder series of USB 2.0 flash drives. The Spyder's slide-top design provides protection for the connector without a cap. Its key selling point is its extremely portable design.

The Spyder drives are available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB drives.

Product Link (OCZTechnology.com)

 

thx for news

 

The skullcap makes the m15x a real AW imo.
The kingston ram is darn expensive,wuosh,138$???ouch.
And the spyder flash drive is ..link broken for me..

 

Hmm... I'm ready to bet m15x owners are gonna be pretty pissed abt the new case. Especially those who bought it recently

 

160gb 1.8" , do the ipod classics not use 1.8" drives then??

 

No I like the clean look of recent alienwares, but that skullcap says alienware

 

yes they do.. but they use a Zif connector not SATA and they're sure to be spinning at 4200rpm, as apposed to the 5400rpm of this new Toshiba drive... im waiting on SSD price reductions for my VAIO TZ (like everyone else)...

 

I really think the Ripley design looks better

 

Yeah me too, the Ripley design is too Alienware-ish.

 

What? the skullcap is alienware'ish , if that's the point your trying to make.
And they shoud stick with skullcap,it makes for a great image.

 

Yeah sorry that's what I meant to say, the skullcap design is too flashy. I guess that's fine if all you're planning to do is gaming but it doesn't look professionally at all. I still would chose the m1530 hands down.

 

For the price, the XPS1530 wins, but they're in a totally different league, the m15x is in the high end gaming laptops competing directly with DTRs.
It deserves the aggressive skullcap design.

 

I think the people who are buying it deserves the options, it seems to be a good machine after the update to resolve the issues with overheating.

 

Thanks for the news.

 

Took alienware forever to pull that out of their hat.

I wonder what took them so long.

 

I wish Toshiba sells those 1.8" HDs in stores. They're next to impossible to find ...

 

i agree the skullcap is a head turner but imho it fits in better w/ the overall design of the M15X. the back lit keyboard and neon colors cannot be covered by ripley lid as it doesn't look professional at all. heck, if you stuck a alienware head logo on a latitude it would look flashy.

 

Though I agree that the m15x is in a totally different league, am I the only one who thinks the skullcap design makes the thing look ridiculously cheesy and cheap? For the price I'd rather have a laptop that doesn't look like a lame Halloween prop, and I'm a gamer.

Then again I've never been a fan of the whole "xtreme gaming" style of design in general, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

The skullcap looks cheesy? it's always been the AW signature on the laptops...and desktops too...
I think it's aggressive and screams : "I`m outta this world" ..
An AW laptop will always turn heads,that's for sure.

I own a sager and although it looks nice, wedge shaped and all, any AW would outclass it in style.ALWAYS.

 

Given the choice I'd still go with the 8800GTX 15.4" Sager... hmm. Looks much more classy and is something I'd pull out at a business meeting or during a seminar. A big ribcage on the back of a laptop along with a million neon lights might not be the most impressive thing in the eyes of ... well, respectable folk, haha

 

True,but then again, AW doesn' make anything but gaming equipment. And flashy too..as I said, everyone will recognise an AW instantly...

 

So, Toshiba's 1.8 160 isn't a SSD?

 

So no, it's a HDD...

 

I think it looks cheesy on those too.

To me it's always screamed "I'm aimed at 15 year old boys!"

Eh... not for me. It's not stylish, it's gaudy. To use a car analogy, they may run like Ferraris but they look like stuff from Pimp My Ride. Bumps and ridges and neon lights everywhere... all it needs it a huge muffler and spinning rims and they'd be impossible to tell apart.

Honsetly, this is one area where I think consoles have had it right for a while. They're clearly gaming machines, but they don't look like they were designed by HR Giger phoning it in.

Again, though, PC gaming style has just never appealled to me. It's always been too "Mountain Dew Extreme" for my tastes, and this falls right in line with that whole motif. It apparantly appeals to its target market though, so... more power to 'em, I guess.

 

Well, I never said I like the AW style
That's why I have a Sager