Dell's Formidable Alienware Notebooks & Desktops
You've met the M17x, now meet the rest of the extraterrestrial members from Alienware. For its second wave, Dell will be introducing the 15-inch M15x gaming notebook along with two Area-51 desktops with their mix of fearsome hardware. Wait not. It's time to board the mother ship.
Alien Invasions: The Beginning
Aliens and Area-51. Well, rest assured that this article isn't about UFO conspiracy theories originating from Nevada. We're talking about a bevy of Alienware rigs you can finally get your grubby hands on locally. Yes, they've landed. The launch was held at the J-Cube Cyber Cafe yesterday, where members of the press also had a chance to experience the mega rigs up close and personal.
Part of Dell's event itenary includes an FPS shootout. Blackshot was the title of choice as members of the media were pitted against a group of extreme gamers for a friendly showdown.
Dell has played a key role in serving up notable gaming platforms in recent years, both, on the desktop and notebook front. You might also recall their 17-inch XPS M1710 which made its rounds as a gaming machine in its heydays (and it still is a formidable machine). After their acquisition of the Alienware franchise in 2006, however, Dell has since re-branded their XPS gaming range as a multimedia suite in a logical bid to safeguard their own business interests. Well, it would be tragic if they shot themselves in the foot with a comparable product line, wouldn't it?
In the wake of the recent release of the M17x notebook, Dell is looking to augment their Alienware fleet further with more prolific systems for gamers here to relish. Their latest release includes a 15-inch M15x laptop and two formidable Area-51 desktops. Incidentally, there's good reason why we are excited about the M15x as well. While a number of desktops in the wild have already been fitted with Intel's Core i7 processors, Dell has made a notable head start against their competitors with the adoption of the Core i7 mobile platform.
Breaking New Grounds: Alienware M15x Gaming Notebook
We can't say if the M15x is truly the best of its class since we've yet to review it, but Dell has proclaimed that the Alienware M15x is "the most powerful 15-inch gaming laptop in the universe" as indicated in their press release. That's a rather bold claim to make, but the notebook's hard-hitting specifications seem to indicate an element of truth.
How do you identify a gaming notebook? Well, the fancy backlights and trimmings should give it away. The Alienware M15X is one of the first to bring the quad-core Core i7 processor into the notebook arena.
We know that aggressive specifications can lead to overheating issues. To combat this, the M15X is engineered with a chassis to better manage thermal efficiency. This 15-inch gaming machine packs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M as its GPU of choice.
Brandishing a much anticipated Core i7 920XM processor, Dell has finally brought the world of quad-core Nehalem microarchitecture into the laptop space, previously available only on desktop systems. With this introduction, it's safe to say that the Alienware M15x would give their competitors something to think about, like ASUS and their upcoming G60J rig for example. Both models are torchbearers of Intel's Core i7 mobile processors, but it's apparent that Dell has drawn first blood here. On top of that, gamers can look forward to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M, a graphics processing module tailored for gaming purposes with a whopping 1GB worth of discrete video memory. With that, the Alienware M15x also promises higher HD frame-rates for a more pronounced high definition experience.
A gamer having a fragging good time on the M15X. It's good to know that FPS games like Blackshot didn't seem to faze the Alienware notebook. Let's wait and see if Dell's new toy would ultimately make a killing in the consumer market.
In addition, Dell is retailing the M15x with up to 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory and a slot-loading Blu-ray drive. Given its blend of hardware specifications, it appears to us that the Alienware M15x is set to undertake 3D games and those of a more demanding genre. Surprisingly, Dell did not incorporate any HDMI ports for this particular iteration, although there is a next-generation DisplayPort alternative to be found. If you're keen to get one, the M15x will be retailing at $2,999 onwards and is available online at www.alienware.com.
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The Area-51 Desktops
There's more in the can if notebooks aren't your cup of tea. Besides the M15x, Dell's offering a number of gaming PCs as well. The Alienware desktop suite comprises of two models - the Area-51 and Area-51 ALX. These systems are expected to brandish top of the line components, including an overclocked 3.86GHz Core i7 processor to satiate you hungry gamers out there.
How does quad-GPU power sound to you? Well, Dell is shipping the Area-51 desktops with dual 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 graphics cards with SLI enabled. Hmm, don't you just love that alien crest on its chassis?
Furthermore, the Alienware bunch will land on earth as a quad-core package. What do we mean by that? Well, besides its deployment of the quad-core Core i7 processor, the Area-51 line also combines dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 graphics cards to form a cumulative quad-GPU solution. That's a double quad CPU and GPU whammy if you get our drift. Additionally, these PCs also cater for multi-GPU support, meaning that it supports both, NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire technologies in the mix. The Area-51 innards also encompass a cold-plated liquid cooling unit to cope with the processor's overclocked speeds.
To prevent overheating, the 'multi-fins' are situated at the top of the chassis to allow hot air to dissipate. Dell has christened this feature as the 'Active Venting' louver system. How fancy.
The Area-51 desktops come with a 21.5-inch Alienware AW2210 LCD monitor and TactX gaming mouse. By the way, these rigs are also capable of housing six SATA2 drive bays. We reckon that's more than enough space to house your hard drives?
The desktop systems will come skinned in two colors, Lunar Shadow and Cosmic Black. There are more perks too. The Area-51 systems also feature an Active Venting louver system (see photos above), internal 'theater' lighting, and a strategic layout of internal components for easy user upgrades. If you are wondering, the Area-51 and Area-51 ALX actually share a similar form factor so there's really nothing to distinguish them cosmetically. Their main differences lie with their components within, like different processor speeds for example. The Area-51 comes with an overclocked Core i7 975 3.60GHz CPU, while the Area-51 ALX goes one-up with a faster Core i7 processor running at 3.86GHz. There's no word on their local pricing as yet, but don't expect these babies to come cheap.
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