Area-51m 7700 Phenomenon

Alienware High-Performance Gaming Laptops – Bringing Your Games to Life with the Highest-Quality Components

"Phenomenal Functionality

Never before has such an extensive amount of functionality been packaged in such a compact and efficient form. Created in an effort to merge desktop features into a smaller form factor without compromise, the Alienware Area-51m 7700 represents the world's first 'Mobile Desktop.'"

Alienware: Max Memory

Alienware High-Performance Gaming PCs – Bringing Your Games to Life with the Highest-Quality Components

"DDR2 Memory

Responsible for storing, arranging, and delivering vast amounts of critical data with extreme speed and accuracy, system memory is integral to the performance and reliability of a computer's processing subsystem; the slightest flaw can lead to data loss or corruption and even system failures. Alienware qualifies only the highest-quality memories to ensure every Alienware system operates with extraordinary performance and reliability. The Area-51m 7700 supports the latest DDR2 memory allowing for bandwidth up to a stunning 8.5GB/s. Here, popular bandwidth-intensive applications such as high definition audio and video will see an immediate boost in performance thanks to the speed of DDR2 memory."

The Area-51m comes with 4 SO-DIMM slots! Upgradeable to 4GB of DDR2 memory. Wow!

Alienware: Innovative High-Performance Custom PCs!

Save Up To $800 on an Alienware High-Performance System!

"Lucid Gaming

Armed with NVIDIA's latest GeForce 6800 Go and ATI's latest Mobility RADEON X800 graphics modules, the Alienware Area-51m 7700 has the full bandwidth of PCI-Express x16 and 256MB of memory to handle even the most taxing applications and games. Matched to a brilliant 17' LCD, this system will redefine what the ultimate gaming experience should be."

Alienware: Area-51m 7700 Chips

Alienware: Innovative High-Performance Custom Laptops

"Unparalleled Performance

Having Intel's latest PCI-Express based 915 chipset as its core foundation, the Alienware Area-51m 7700 is able to support the latest and greatest technology available on the market. From the phenomenal speed of the newest Pentium 4 processor to the astounding performance of the 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Go graphics, this system is a no-holds barred solution for anyone looking for the ultimate in performance."

A True Gaming Laptop

Its a great feeling walking into the room geared up for a nice day of LAN gaming and all you have is a side bag (or backpack) whilst everyone else is backing up the truck to the security door entrance to unload their tower of power and monitor. Then someone overloads a power socket and everyone's computer blinks off... there you are - A smug look on your face, victorious thanks to the battery power. I could go on...

But what comprises a good gaming laptop? What should I have to keep me competing with the big guns? I currently have a Dell Inspiron 9100 with a Pentium 4 3.0HT, 1 GB Ram, Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 w 128MB Ram, 60GB 7200rpm harddrive, WSXGA+ monitor (1680x1050 max resolution), and a decent headset. I bought that over a year ago and some parts of it today are getting a bit old.

But don't let the brand name fool you. There are some key parts to a laptop that you should be fussy about if you want a good portable gaming machine. Most laptop brands can offer you the good parts you need... I personally believe that design, look and feel of a laptop (due to its brand eg. dell, alien etc) is up to you and what you want. Having said that - the latest Dell laptops seem to be geared more towards portability (using the centrino chips for longer battery life), the alienware laptops are geared towards performance.

Either way, some key components should be kept in mind:

1. The processor. Try and get the best because in 3 years time - it will be old and outdated.
   
2. The RAM. High frequency, dual channel, bare minimum 512MB.
3. The Video Card. Unfortunately - where the laptops generally falter is in the video quality. Poor refresh rates and large digital pixel sizes of the monitor make for a not-so-smooth picture. A good video card can make up for a lot. The video card of my laptop seems to cope ok. Because of the pixel size - setting a high antialiasing value does help but does sacrifice performance. The ATI Mobility Radeon X800 and nVidia GeForce Go 6800 for laptops do hold up well I've heard.
4. A good quality monitor. Bigger is not always necessarily better. Try to focus on resolution rather than size (15" or 15.4" is generally min/ideal for gaming I find). A smaller pixel size also makes a crisper picture.

Some other factors to consider include a fast hard drive. A faster spin, like the Hitachi 7200rpm 60Gig Harddrive, would give you better performance than a standard 5400rpm.

I have kept my eye on the PCI Express video cards as they do provide a greater throughput of data than the old AGP 8x cards. Soon I plan to look into the latest video cards to ascertain which one gives great quality.

Watch this space...

AS.