Alienware Area-51 m9750: Power Gaming on the Go
by Jarred Walton on August 24, 2007 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Features and Options
The components listed in Alienware's online configurator are like a Who's Who list of high-performance laptop parts. While the test system we received is by no means a slouch in the performance department, there are quite a few upgrades that can still be made. The reverse is also true: anyone looking to save money can easily pare down the options on a few areas. Here's a quick overview of the current possibilities:
Alienware is a gaming-centric company, and if you're looking for a high-performance gaming notebook by far the most important aspect is going to be the graphics card. NVIDIA's GeForce Go 7950 GTX continues to be the fastest mobile graphics card presently available. Still not fast enough? Upgrade to SLI and add a second GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB - the current upgrade price is $600.
Another extremely important aspect of any gaming notebook is going to be the display, unless you plan on connecting an external monitor. Alienware allows users to choose between a WXGA+ (1440x900) or WUXGA (1920x1200) LCD for the m9750. We can't speak as to the quality of the lower resolution display, but especially if you're looking at getting the m9750 with SLI graphics we see little point in getting anything other than WUXGA. The higher resolution display also comes with "Clearview Technology", which presumably refers to the glossy finish. Unfortunately, we did notice that selecting the higher resolution display currently delays the estimated ship date by about two weeks.
The m9750 is not based on Intel's latest Santa Rosa platform, and it uses an Intel 945PM + ICH7-M DH chipset. That means all of the Core 2 Duo processors are the slightly older models that use a 667 MHz front side bus (FSB). As we pointed out in our Santa Rosa article, clock for clock the faster FSB and other tweaks do help make the new processors slightly faster, but the difference certainly isn't worth losing any sleep over. If the primary concern is gaming and you like to run at higher resolutions, you can even downgrade the processor and still end up with perfectly acceptable gaming performance.
Memory options consist of the standard 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of memory. All three options populate both SO-DIMM slots, and we would strongly encourage all buyers to upgrade to a minimum 2GB of memory. At the same time, upgrading to 4GB of RAM is currently incredibly expensive ($1000) and would also require the use of a 64-bit operating system (see below), so we wouldn't recommend that upgrade. In other words, take Alienware's - and our - recommendation and go with the 2GB memory configuration. Whichever RAM size you select, you will get DDR2-667 memory.
Deciding on which operating system you want on your shiny new Alienware laptop may be one of the more difficult choices to make. First, 64-bit operating systems are not an option, so if you haven't already just forget about using 4GB of RAM for now. Very likely, the reason 64-bit operating systems are not listed is that driver compatibility would be suspect at best. Consider the following statement regarding Windows Vista: "Windows Vista does not currently support NVIDIA SLI functionality. If you choose Windows Vista with your SLI system, only a single graphics card will be enabled. Alienware will notify you once a Windows Vista SLI driver becomes available." If you're not interested in the m9750 with SLI, that might not be a big deal, but if you're after maximum gaming performance in a notebook you will almost certainly want to stick with Windows XP. If you choose any operating system besides Windows XP Professional, the configurator also gives you the option to get a USB Media Center remote and a single channel ATSC TV tuner. Adding a TV tuner will currently delay processing, however.
The hard drive options are pretty unusual for a notebook, as the m9750 chassis is able to support two 2.5" SATA drives. Users can choose to have either single or dual hard drives, and if dual hard drives are desired three options are available: RAID 0, RAID 1, or dual drives without RAID. In the case of the latter, it's important to note that you only get one possibility: a 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) combined with a 200GB 7200 RPM drive. Single drive options range from 80GB up to 250GB with 5400 or 7200 RPM spindle speeds - the fastest 7200 RPM Drive is 200GB while 250GB is available with a 5400 RPM spindle. A 32GB SSD is also an option, as is a 160GB Hybrid Hard Drive with 256MB of flash memory. (You would want to use Windows Vista as your operating system if you get the hybrid drive.) RAID options allow you to select two of any of the hard drives, other than the hybrid and SSD drives. For maximum performance at the cost of not having as much internal storage capacity, you can even select two SSD drives in RAID 0. The cost for such an upgrade is about $1000, which apparently means that Alienware is not using the MTRON 32GB SSD we've looked at recently. Optical drive options consist of the typical DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive or a DVD burner with optional LightScribe technology. A Blu-ray optical drive is also available if you're willing to delay shipping a bit.
The remaining options consist of a few accessories and your choice of software - 14 different games can be preinstalled, in addition to the usual security and office suite possibilities. You can also choose to upgrade to a Draft-N wireless networking card and if you select one of the Windows XP operating systems you can add Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio. The only other important option in the online configurator that we would pay attention to is the warranty. Alienware Area-51 m9750 notebooks come with a standard 1-year warranty, but you can add a 2-year warranty for $200 or a 3-year warranty for $300. We're not sure about the rest of you, but especially with notebooks we're inclined to purchase an extended warranty. Alienware does offer a pretty comprehensive warranty, including on-site service. If they deem it necessary to have your notebook sent in for repairs, they will cover the shipping costs both ways and they use FedEx 2-Day Priority Mail. Phone support is also available 24/7.
The components listed in Alienware's online configurator are like a Who's Who list of high-performance laptop parts. While the test system we received is by no means a slouch in the performance department, there are quite a few upgrades that can still be made. The reverse is also true: anyone looking to save money can easily pare down the options on a few areas. Here's a quick overview of the current possibilities:
| Alienware Area-51 m9750 System Configuration Options | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo T5500/T7200/T7400/T7600 |
| Chipset | Intel 945PM + ICH7-M DH |
| FSB Speeds | 667 MHz |
| Memory Speeds | DDR2-667 |
| Memory Slots | (2) x SO-DIMM, 512MB up to 4GB, DDR2, Dual Channel supported |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB One standard or two for SLI |
| Display | 17" WXGA+ (1440x900) 17" WUXGA Clearview (1920x1200) |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x ExpressCard/54 |
| Hard Drive | 80/160/250GB 5400RPM, 100/160/200GB 7200RPM 32GB Solid State 160GB with 256MB flash Hybrid RAID 0 or 1 allows two hard drives |
| Optical Drive | 24X Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 8X DVD+/-RW DVD-RAM Blu-ray DVDR |
| Networking/Communications | Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet and V.90 56K Modem Intel 3945ABG (802.11A/B/G) or 4965AGN (802.11A/B/G/N) WiFi |
| Audio | 24-bit High Definition Audio with 2.1 Speakers Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme (XP only) |
| Left Ports | Flash reader (SD, MS/Pro, MMC) 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x ExpressCard/54 2 x USB 2.0 1 x mini-Firewire |
| Right Ports | 1 x USB 2.0 Volume knob Headphone, Mic, and 5.1 analog audio S/PDIF optical out |
| Front Ports | Optical drive |
| Back Ports | Audio in TV coaxial input (optional) Component TV out Modem jack (RJ-11) Power Connector 1 x USB 2.0 S-Video VGA DVI (single link) |
| Keyboard | 99 Key QWERTY (US) |
| Extras | 1.3MP Webcam 9 quick access buttons Optional NTSC TV tuner and remote |
| Battery Options | 12-Cell 95WHr |
| Dimensions | 15.65"x11.75"x1.5" (WxDxH) 8.5 lbs. (12-cell battery) |
| Power Adapter | 180W |
| Operating System | Windows XP Media Center 2005 Windows XP Professional Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
Alienware is a gaming-centric company, and if you're looking for a high-performance gaming notebook by far the most important aspect is going to be the graphics card. NVIDIA's GeForce Go 7950 GTX continues to be the fastest mobile graphics card presently available. Still not fast enough? Upgrade to SLI and add a second GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB - the current upgrade price is $600.
Another extremely important aspect of any gaming notebook is going to be the display, unless you plan on connecting an external monitor. Alienware allows users to choose between a WXGA+ (1440x900) or WUXGA (1920x1200) LCD for the m9750. We can't speak as to the quality of the lower resolution display, but especially if you're looking at getting the m9750 with SLI graphics we see little point in getting anything other than WUXGA. The higher resolution display also comes with "Clearview Technology", which presumably refers to the glossy finish. Unfortunately, we did notice that selecting the higher resolution display currently delays the estimated ship date by about two weeks.
The m9750 is not based on Intel's latest Santa Rosa platform, and it uses an Intel 945PM + ICH7-M DH chipset. That means all of the Core 2 Duo processors are the slightly older models that use a 667 MHz front side bus (FSB). As we pointed out in our Santa Rosa article, clock for clock the faster FSB and other tweaks do help make the new processors slightly faster, but the difference certainly isn't worth losing any sleep over. If the primary concern is gaming and you like to run at higher resolutions, you can even downgrade the processor and still end up with perfectly acceptable gaming performance.
Memory options consist of the standard 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of memory. All three options populate both SO-DIMM slots, and we would strongly encourage all buyers to upgrade to a minimum 2GB of memory. At the same time, upgrading to 4GB of RAM is currently incredibly expensive ($1000) and would also require the use of a 64-bit operating system (see below), so we wouldn't recommend that upgrade. In other words, take Alienware's - and our - recommendation and go with the 2GB memory configuration. Whichever RAM size you select, you will get DDR2-667 memory.
Deciding on which operating system you want on your shiny new Alienware laptop may be one of the more difficult choices to make. First, 64-bit operating systems are not an option, so if you haven't already just forget about using 4GB of RAM for now. Very likely, the reason 64-bit operating systems are not listed is that driver compatibility would be suspect at best. Consider the following statement regarding Windows Vista: "Windows Vista does not currently support NVIDIA SLI functionality. If you choose Windows Vista with your SLI system, only a single graphics card will be enabled. Alienware will notify you once a Windows Vista SLI driver becomes available." If you're not interested in the m9750 with SLI, that might not be a big deal, but if you're after maximum gaming performance in a notebook you will almost certainly want to stick with Windows XP. If you choose any operating system besides Windows XP Professional, the configurator also gives you the option to get a USB Media Center remote and a single channel ATSC TV tuner. Adding a TV tuner will currently delay processing, however.
The hard drive options are pretty unusual for a notebook, as the m9750 chassis is able to support two 2.5" SATA drives. Users can choose to have either single or dual hard drives, and if dual hard drives are desired three options are available: RAID 0, RAID 1, or dual drives without RAID. In the case of the latter, it's important to note that you only get one possibility: a 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) combined with a 200GB 7200 RPM drive. Single drive options range from 80GB up to 250GB with 5400 or 7200 RPM spindle speeds - the fastest 7200 RPM Drive is 200GB while 250GB is available with a 5400 RPM spindle. A 32GB SSD is also an option, as is a 160GB Hybrid Hard Drive with 256MB of flash memory. (You would want to use Windows Vista as your operating system if you get the hybrid drive.) RAID options allow you to select two of any of the hard drives, other than the hybrid and SSD drives. For maximum performance at the cost of not having as much internal storage capacity, you can even select two SSD drives in RAID 0. The cost for such an upgrade is about $1000, which apparently means that Alienware is not using the MTRON 32GB SSD we've looked at recently. Optical drive options consist of the typical DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive or a DVD burner with optional LightScribe technology. A Blu-ray optical drive is also available if you're willing to delay shipping a bit.
The remaining options consist of a few accessories and your choice of software - 14 different games can be preinstalled, in addition to the usual security and office suite possibilities. You can also choose to upgrade to a Draft-N wireless networking card and if you select one of the Windows XP operating systems you can add Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio. The only other important option in the online configurator that we would pay attention to is the warranty. Alienware Area-51 m9750 notebooks come with a standard 1-year warranty, but you can add a 2-year warranty for $200 or a 3-year warranty for $300. We're not sure about the rest of you, but especially with notebooks we're inclined to purchase an extended warranty. Alienware does offer a pretty comprehensive warranty, including on-site service. If they deem it necessary to have your notebook sent in for repairs, they will cover the shipping costs both ways and they use FedEx 2-Day Priority Mail. Phone support is also available 24/7.
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MissPriss - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
Who are *you* to correct misspellings?!JarredWalton - Monday, August 27, 2007 - link
I'm Jarred Walton, and I think Yyrkoon knows I'm only kidding around. (I hope?) Who are you? :)PeteRoy - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
I hate these graphs that you have to look at the legend and remember the colors to be able to compare the systems.Bring back the old bars that are easy to understand with the system name on the left of the bar without it going up and down in the chart.
Please.
Frumious1 - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
I think the charts are fine! If anyone finds the graphs in this review to be too difficult to understand, I'm not sure what they're doing reading Anandtech in teh first place. The technical jargon is a lot more confusing than a graph that shows the Alienware laptop consistently at the top, but most of us manage to deal with that.customcoms - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
99% of your graphs, including all of the ones in this article, are very easy to read and make the most sense for the data conveyed. And if anyone has tried making graphs on a computer before, you can understand the often annoying, time-consuming process it takes, and appreciate the work Jarred and the other anandtech editors go through so we can spend 10 seconds looking over a graph that probably took 10 minutes to make.The only graphs I have a problem with are the cooling graphs in the heatsink reviews, and the problem with those is there is too much data for the graph!
sc3252 - Saturday, August 25, 2007 - link
Graphs are some of the easiest things to make in articles, writing should be the long part. At most they take 3 minutes or less in any decent office program. As far as their readability, I didn't have any problems, but I did just skim the article.JarredWalton - Sunday, August 26, 2007 - link
Mwahahahahaaa! 3 minutes for the graphs!? Wow, you need to try doing one of these things. That, or I seriously need to get a clue on how to do Excel graphs faster. Let me give you a rundown of how it goes.1) Take spreadsheet from last article and insert a new row (or two) for every benchmark with the name of the new tested system. Then input the new results. This usually takes 15 minutes and is the easiest part.
2) All the stuff done with the AnandTech graphing engine is relatively straightforward: export the Excel to CSV, then import that into the graphing engine. Go through and size all the graphs as necessary and change line coloring. 15-30 minutes depending on the article, usually.
3) The graphs in Excel. Wow, where to begin? First, since I'm now using Excel 2007, there are some MAJOR graph bugs. If you just right-click a chart and try to change the source data, the charts go nuts. I have no idea what MS did, other than adding some nice line antialiasing, but the Excel 2007 chart UI is garbage as far as I'm concerned. So, I start (on a second PC) in Excel 2003. *IF* all of the benches are the exact same as a previous article, it's pretty simple: you change the source data for each chart to include the new laptop. Modify the line for that laptop so that it's thicker, and make sure all the line colors and thickness settings are correct (i.e. so that the same laptop is always the same color). This usually takes at least 30 minutes.
In this article, there were several sources for the benchmarks. The gaming stuff was mostly from the Dell M1710 article, while some of the other benchmarks came from elsewhere (i.e. the PC Club article). (Sometimes, adding another system can make the legend too big, so then you're stuck with resizing and such.)
4) Once the charts are done in Excel 2003, I save and open in 2007 (to get the nicer looking lines). Then I take screen captures, paste into Photoshop, and crop off the excess white space and other junk. (This involves a lot of select/copy/past stuff, plus a couple macros to help with the cropping.) I spent at least a couple hours getting all of the gaming charts updated and making sure they look right. I wish Excel communicated better with Photoshop, but I find that when I just copy the chart and paste into PS, things usually get resized a bit in random ways. Since I want all the charts to be the same size, that just doesn't work for me.
As an aside, the LCD results alone typically take a couple hours to get ready, adding the data, resizing, tweaking, etc. (Not to mention running the benchmarks for all of this stuff multiple times, but I'm sure everyone realizes how much time that can take).
Bottom line, I find that getting *all* the graphs ready (plus often rerunning a few tests at the last minute because the results don't look right initially) is an all-day affair. Then there's the images... that's easily another day or two, taking, retaking, and then Photoshopping the pictures. (Let's just say that the laptop pictures aren't taken against a pure white background with no texture, so there's a lot of cleanup involved.) This article was intended to be done by Wednesday, but over the course of the week it ended up getting finished Friday morning.
Running the tests is still the longest part of any review, however, especially if there's any back-and-forth between the manufacturer, or some issues come up that need to be addressed. (For example, I tried to review an Alienware notebook last year and eventually had to give up because of some testing issues I kept encountering on that model.) If someone could give me all the data I needed - and I trusted the source - and all I had to do was write the text, I think I could get the text done in two days at most. Basically, I count on three weeks of testing and benchmarking (I don't even want to think how often I install Windows in any given week....) followed by a solid week's worth of writing. If I cut out certain tests, I could probably reduce the testing significantly, but then I wouldn't be as sure of the results.
If any of you really think this stuff seems easy and would like to give it a shot - realizing that proper benchmarking and the ability to get repeatable results is very high on the list of priorities - drop me a line. Gary has talked with a lot of people about doing motherboard reviews, but by the time they realize everything involved, many decide it's not worth the effort. No guarantees or anything, but if you know hardware and can write coherently, there's a good chance we can use you. Convincing us that you're worth hiring: that's the hard part. :)
JarredWalton - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
I tried to make sure all the colors were consistent in the scaling graphs. I just can't imagine that stretching the gaming results into nine pages with 36 graphs would really help that much, especially in this type of article. The scaling graphs are so clear that I'm not sure what the difficulty is. Alienware is the bar at the top, XPS M1710 is next, ABS Z5 is below that, and the ASUS A8Js and G2P occupy the bottom area. These charts actually require quite a bit more effort to create than a simple bar chart, but the data density is higher, conveying information in a much more concise fashion. For example, it allows everyone to quickly see whether we're CPU limited or not.I'm curious, how many other readers out there really dislike these types of charts? If no one thinks they're useful, I could save myself quite a bit of effort. Or is this just a case of a vocal minority, and most of you agree with me that the scaling charts are better? Let me know.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I like these charts better. Lots of bar charts would take forever to compare across charts and pages.Not shown in this review, but occasionally your results have a bar chart for one resolution and then the line graphs for all resolutions. The Bar chart seems redundant when the numbers are listed in the line chart and you have the line.
kmmatney - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
The charts look fine here. However similar charts used in the CPU heatsink articles have gotten out of hand...