Alienware is a rather boutique type of laptop computer gaming makers in worldwide and even in America i has most consumers being a stay home people willing to spend the money most of their time and money to improve their computers with the Alienware certified products that has the high prize marks and also enough power and features even in the home theatre systems they have to play most DX10 games an encode movies flawlessly.
The M17 skips the recent slablike redesign of Alienware’s laptop line and goes back to an older chassis, similar to the one we saw in last year’s Area-51 m9570 model. Our test system includes dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, 64-bit Windows Vista, 3GB of RAM, and a 7,200rpm 160GB hard drive for $1,999. The quad-core CPU options, which we have not had a chance to test, would add between $850 and $1,200 to the price. Our review unit features a dual-core, Penryn-class Core 2 Duo P8400 processor.
However, if you have the greenbacks to drop on a completely tricked-out portable gaming platform, then the “recommended” upgrades will suit you well. For a total of just under $4,000, you can add an additional 3870 for Crossfire, illuminated keyboard, Core 2 Extreme QX9300, a total of 4GB of DDR3 memory, 1920×1200 screen, BD-ROM drive and 500GB of storage (2x 250GB @ 7,200rpm.
As per the norm, Windows Vista Ultimate is recommended, and is available in 32 and 64-bit flavors. If you are too lazy to make your own, don’t forget to purchase the $49 Vista recovery DVD. As for the warranty, the m17 comes with one year of onsite service standard, and an extra two years on top of that will run you an additional $300 (no word on if that includes accidental damage).
My biggest beef is with the rubberized wrist rest. Or maybe I should say, “wrist landing pad.” Its so huge, I could park a can of coke on it without fear of hitting it as I type. Seriously, it feels like an unnecessarily large gap between the keys and the edge of the notebook (my guess is that the beefy GPU needs room to breathe). I do like the touchpad and its long, thick mouse button bar, but trying to go back and forth between that and the keys forced my hands into an awkward angle. So make sure you’ve got good carpal tunnel coverage on your medical plan before buying this laptop (or get an external mouse). A plus, though, is that the machine’s coating feels good. Its supple, rubbery matte covers most of the beefy computer. It’s even on the Batman codpiece-like laptop lid.
That gripe aside, those who want to get their game on will get a good deal out of the Alienware m17–especially considering that last year the m15x sold for over twice as much. As a gaming machine, the m17 delivers speed where it counts, but it lags a little in more conventional office-application tests.
