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PC Magazine have published a review of the Alienware Area-51 ALX (QX9770) multimedia PC. 'The Alienware Area-51 ALX (Q9770) ($6,829 direct) has heady performance numbers and a price tag to match. Previous Alienware systems have primarily been about their presence on your desk, with quite a bit of performance thrown in. Some Alienware desktops have aspired to performance greatness, only to fall just short. With the ALX (Q9770), Alienware has finally hit the mark, shipping us a lust-worthy system that blew the roof off our benchmark tests. This is a system you'd want to put on your desk to admire and to show off—provided you have the funds for a $7,000 PC.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 4:59 PM | Permalink

CNET have published a review of the Alienware Area-51 ALX gaming PC. 'The Alienware case design remains unique in the industry. It's not for everyone, but it also comes with the best use of case lighting around if you opt for the $100 AlienFX upgrade, as was included in our review unit. AlienFX is an LED lighting and software combination lets you not only customize the color of the various LED lights zones around the case, but it also lets you tie the lights to various functions. You can use the software to shift the lighting to a particular mood-setting scheme when you open a game, and you can even tie it to certain application functions, like making the front panel alien head blink when you have new e-mail. No other vendor has such a feature that we know of, and although it's borderline gimmicky, it helps set Alienware's desktops apart.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 10:10 PM | Permalink

PC World have published a review of the Alienware Area 51 m15x gaming laptop. 'As a high-performance portable, the m15x packs the costliest gear. Inside, Intel's 2.8-GHz Core 2 Extreme runs the show, 4GB of DDR2 RAM makes sure everything operates smoothly, and the 200GB hard disk (as well as a 320GB removable drive) offers room to grow. However, the nVidia 8800M GTX GPU humming under the hood is what ensures that you'll enjoy decent frame rates at the machine's native 1920 by 1200 resolution. Scoring well on our benchmark is great, of course, but the real challenge for a gaming laptop is to see how it handles new, demanding games that tax even high-end desktop PCs. Running our gauntlet of tests at 1920 by 1200, the Area 51 m15x generated 46 frames per second (fps) in World in Conflict and 26 fps in Crysis.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 10:07 PM | Permalink

The Register Hardware have published a review of the Alienware Area 51 ALX CrossFireX gaming PC. ‘The front of the case has one Firewire and two USB ports along with jacks for your headset, and above that there's a door that covers the optical drive. The drive bay flap is an impressive piece of engineering that operates on a pair of articulated arms so the door pulls forward before it swings to one side. Unlike the door on a typical PC case that is usually just a flimsy piece of plastic, the Alienware door is quite substantial. Inside the case, the Area 51 looks fairly conventional. There are three optical drive bays at the front, with an LG GSA-H55L 20x dual-layer DVD writer at the top, an empty bay under that and a card reader in the bottom bay.’

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Posted by HCG Admin at 10:51 PM | Permalink

Laptop Magazine have published a review of the Alienware Area-51 m15x gaming Notebook. ‘The m15x features a full and comfortable keyboard with backlighting and a large, smooth, mylar touchpad that sits flush with the palm surface and is discernable only by a backlit square outlining it. Above the keyboard are touch-responsive keys for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Alienware’s AlienFX Command Center, Stealth Mode, power, and volume. On the sides are three USB ports, FireWire, HDMI, Ethernet, two auto-sensing headphone and mic jacks, a 2X Blu-ray burner, and a 7-in-1 card reader.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 4:35 PM | Permalink

A review of the powerful Alienware m9750 gaming notebook has been posted over at PC Perspective. ‘On the inside, the Alienware m9750 is built on the Intel 945PM chipset paired with the ICH7M south bridge – an aging but potent chipset for notebook computers. It runs on DDR2 memory, speeds of 667 MHz only, but it does have two accessible memory slots. Both the DX9-based GeForce 7950 and the DX10-based GeForce 8700M GPUs are available in SLI configurations. Two SATA bays allow for a single or dual hard drive configuration and even the faster 7200 RPM 2.5” drives are an option for an upgraded price. Networking is powered by an Intel PRO Wireless 802.11 a/b/g card, includes Bluetooth support and has an integrated Gigabit networking connection.’

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Posted by HCG Admin at 3:49 PM | Permalink

Digital Trends have published their review of the Alienware Area-51 m9750 gaming Notebook. 'No hardcore gaming notebook would be true to its name without massive quantities of storage, and the m9750 does not disappoint with its dual 7,200rpm hard drives striped into a RAID 0 array . In total they offer 372GB of super-fast storage and file access, and are way faster than what you’d have if Alienware configured it with the much more common 5,400rpm drives. If you’re the cautious type, you can opt to mirror the drives instead of striping them for increased data safety. The difference with a stripe setup is that if one drive fails you lose everything. With a mirrored setup, everything that is written to one drive is written to the other drive, so in case one fails you don’t lose your data. It should also be noted that Alienware is now offering the m9750 with optional Solid State Disks, which are insanely expensive ($1,100 for a 64GB drive) but very fast and cannot “crash” like a mechanical drive can.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 9:20 PM | Permalink

ZDNet have published a comprehensive review of the powerful Alienware m9750 Notebook. 'On the audio front the m9750 is equipped with 7.1 channel system and comes with all the connections jacks you’d expect, including surround sound speakers and a TOSlink optical port. The system comes with both A/B/G wireless and gigabit wired network support, Bluetooth support, 56K V.92 modem, 4 USB 2.0 ports, Express Card slot, Firewire and a 4-in-1 memory card reader supporting SD, MS, MS Pro and MMC. Games are loaded onto the system via an 8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW with LightScribe labeling technology. Another nice feature of the m9750 is the full-size keyboard with numeric pad, which is a real boost for gamers. There’s also a touchpad with scroll functionality and a media touch strip offering instant access to specific applications. Finally, there’s an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera built into the frame of the LCD panel.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 9:17 PM | Permalink

A review of the Alienware Area-51 m9750 gaming notebook has been posted over at Firing Squad.com. ‘Alienware’s latest gaming notebook, the Area-51 m9750, is poised to change all this. The Area-51 m9750 is designed to deliver extreme levels of performance along with portability. The system fuses two GeForce 7950 GTX cards running in SLI along with dual hard drives and Core 2 Duo processing power all in a slim 1.5” chassis that tips the scale at just 9 pounds. It’s a remarkable achievement that quite frankly has us giddy about the future of gaming on the go. Let’s go over what makes this system so special.’

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Posted by HCG Admin at 10:09 PM | Permalink

CNET have published a review of the Alienware Area-51 m9750 gaming laptop. 'Alienware has finally released the system, and its performance in CNET Labs more than lived up to expectations. Our review system included a host of upgrades that more than double the baseline model's price and we can't help but wish that a $4,000-plus laptop would have a slightly more sophisticated look. (Alienware's occasional tweaks to its plastic, alien-head design haven't gone nearly far enough.) Another oddity--Alienware insisted on providing the system with Windows XP, saying Vista video card drivers weren't yet able to provide the optimal experience (although the Alienware Web site recommends Vista Ultimate). Still, this highly configurable system is great for hardcore gamers who want to ditch the desktop, and even better, it only costs about $200 more than the best Dell XPS M1710 we could configure, which lacked the dual video cards and had a lower screen resolution.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 5:26 PM | Permalink

A review of the Alienware Aurora mALX 19 inch gaming Notebook has been posted over at 14U News. 'Visually the Alienware mALX is a very cool system with the green-blue color shifting paint and the airbrushed graphics on the lid. Alienware uses an AMD Turion 64 Mobile CPU with an 800MHz FSB and 1MB L2 cache. The CPU is certainly the weakest part of this gaming rig and could only muster 833 points in 3DMark06. Graphics on the Alienware mALX are just superb with a pair of NVIDIA Go 7900 GTX graphics cards running in SLI, you can also option the system with a pair of 7950 GTX cards as well.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 3:34 PM | Permalink

Eric Schroeder writing over at Notebook review has posted his review of the Alienware Area-51 m5790 multimedia laptop. ‘The Alienware Area-51 m5790 is a 17" desktop replacement style gaming notebook that is available exclusively via Alienware.com. This is an update to last year's m5750. The differences are just newly added upgradeable features such as Blu-Ray and the Radeon x1900 video card, along with, of course, Windows Vista in all flavors. Windows XP is, unfortunately, no longer available even as an option. This is a slight problem since it's well known that Vista isn't as good as XP for gaming at this moment. So if you're getting this for gaming, you may want to uninstall Vista and put XP on for the time being.’

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Posted by HCG Admin at 8:51 AM | Permalink

14U News have published a review of the Alienware Area-51 7500 Desktop PC. 'The system that I am reviewing has just about everything that you can get on an Alienware Area-51 7500 desktop save a second 8800 GTX for SLI and the PhysX card that is of questionable value anyway. The CPU in this rig is the beastly Intel GX6700 Core 2 Quad Extreme edition that I run in one of my test machines which is the fastest quad core CPU around right now. Alienware cooled the CPU in my review sample with tier AlienIce liquid cooling system and integrated their AlienFX lighting system as well.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 3:55 PM | Permalink

Trusted Reviews have posted their review of the powerful Alienware Area-51 7500 gaming desktop. 'Opening up the side of the case, you'll find a very neat interior, though bizarrely Alienware in its literature claims that it's giving you 50 worth of wiring up for free! One would expect a pre-built system to arrive actually wired up, so I'm not really sure it's the bargain it claims to be. Still, it is all very neat and tidy. There's space for four hard discs in the interior, and two are supplied in this system - two Hitachi Deskstar 7K500s, each with 500GB capacity. These are set up in RAID 0 capacity for the best performance. It adds two points of failure but with games such as Oblivion demanding as much I/O performance as you can give them, RAID 0 on a desktop system is starting to make more sense.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 11:36 AM | Permalink

Laptop Magazine has posted a review of the multimedia Alienware Aurora m9700 laptop computer. ‘This notebook comes equipped with a first-class set of multimedia features and connections: In addition to the basics (four USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard slot, 4-in-1 card reader, and so on), you get an S-Video input and output, VGA and DVI ports, an optical audio jack, and a coaxial socket for the integrated TV tuner. Also included are Windows XP Media Center 2005, a USB infrared receiver and remote, a swiveling, 1.3-megapixel webcam set above the display, and a smattering of quick-touch controls for the dual-layer DVD burner. Although it was not available at press time, Alienware does plan to offer a Blu-ray drive option in the near future. The price was not yet determined as of this writing.’

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Posted by HCG Admin at 7:08 PM | Permalink

A review of the Alienware MJ-12 M7700a notebook PC has been posted ove at Notebook Review. 'The Alienware MJ-12 m7700a is a 17" screen mobile workstation, backed by dual-core AMD Opteron and Athlon 64 FX-60 processors, it is designed to effortlessly handle today'challenging applications, whether that be CAD or gaming, while you're on the go. With dual-core power, the MJ-12 m7700a features two processing cores on one chip to significantly improve system efficiency when operating multiple applications at once. The MJ-12 m7700a also comes with a range of Nvidia Quatro PCI Express graphics cards, including the Nvidia FX 2500M that has 512MB of graphics memory.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 4:15 PM | Permalink

The Alienware Area-51 m5750 laptop with Core 2 Duo has been reviewed over at Notebook Review. ‘The screen is magnificent. I decided to go with the WUXGA display which is the higher resolution option at 1920 x 1200. The screen is evenly lit with the same consistency of brightness and color. When viewing it from the side, it turns a little darker and the colors start to become olive, but it still very visible. Overall, if you are sitting in front of the machine you should have no complaints.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 9:18 AM | Permalink

PC Magagazine has reviewed the Alienware Area-51 m5550 notebook PC. 'Alienware makes some of the coolest-looking laptops in the market, but the company has usually been one of the last to get its hands on the latest and greatest components—especially those from Intel. Until now, that is. Having been bought by Dell has its privileges, and the Area-51 m5550, one of the first notebooks to receive the latest Intel Core 2 Duo mobile CPU (code-named "Merom"), perfectly illustrates these benefits. The laptop's 2.33-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 processor is the fastest one available so far, but this performance-driven media laptop is hot in more ways than one.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 4:25 PM | Permalink

CNET has reviewed the high-end Alienware Aurora mALX gaming laptop. 'The Alienware Aurora mALX is a show-offy laptop. Its 19-inch display is so massive that you need a huge Alienware backpack to carry it around. Its case features an extremely detailed custom airbrush paint job with a ribbon of metallic color that changes when viewed at different angles. And as with all status symbols, it's expensive: pricing starts at $4,499, and our review unit, which included a number of high-end upgrades, cost almost $5,600. The mALX isn't all bark and no bite, though. With two graphics cards running in a scalable link interface, the mALX achieved the highest frame rates to date on our gaming benchmarks.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 3:34 PM | Permalink

CNET reviews the sleek Alienware Area-51 7500 destop PC with the Intel Core 2 Extreme chip inside. 'Alienware is perhaps the best known of the high-end gaming PC vendors, thanks in large part to its distinctive alien-head chassis. We've never really liked the design; the plastic shell is cumbersome, and simple tasks, such as removing and reattaching the side panel, were a pain because of the sculpted front. We're pleased to see that Alienware has redesigned the case, shortening the height and extending the length, streamlining the front and side panels, and adding a best-of-breed--and actually useful--lighting system.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 9:49 PM | Permalink

CNET reviews the feature-packed Alienware Aurora m9700 laptop which is targeted at gamers and users of those resource-hogging multimedia applications. 'With its acquisition of Alienware earlier this year, we've been wondering how Dell was going to keep its high-end XPS line separate and distinct from Alienware's luxurious offerings. The Aurora m9700 certainly makes a bold statement for the Alienware brand, serving up components not offered on its Dell counterpart, the XPS M1710, including an AMD processor, dual-SLI graphics, dual hard drives, and an integrated TV tuner. Like the M1710, the Alienware Aurora m9700 features a 17-inch wide-screen display and a black-and-glossy-silver exterior.

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Posted by HCG Admin at 1:08 PM | Permalink

If you desire a PC to run some of the resource-hogging gaming applications on the market you are most likely to come across the Alienware brand of machines in your search. There are of course several cheaper configurations than the Aurora ALX (GeForce 7900 GX2 Quad SLI), but hey, if you got $6,000 to spare why settle for less than the best. 'Alienware is one of 13 desktop manufacturers partnered with Nvidia to sell PCs with four discrete graphics chips inside, ostensibly to deliver the highest of high-end 3D gaming power. Nvidia first announced this technology, called Quad SLI, back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, by way of Dell's limited-edition XPS 600 Renegade. Five months later, Quad SLI is finally available to the masses, at least the masses who can afford a gaming PC that costs $6,000 or more. Typical of Alienware's highest-end desktops, the Aurora ALX is large, well-built, and expensive--$6,752 for this exact configuration. But the real star of the show is supposed to be Quad SLI. And in its debut, we find that Nvidia's luxury gaming technology delivers on some of its promises but not to the extent we'd hoped.'

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Posted by HCG Admin at 2:34 AM | Permalink