Alienware launches "most powerful" Area-51 m9750 laptop

While we'll have to wait on some benchmarks to find out if Alienware's new Area-51 m9750 laptop is actually the world's "most powerful 17-inch system," there's no denying that the specs are plenty hot. The laptop features SLI NVIDIA graphics, Core 2 Duo processors, a Blu-ray optical drive, dual HDD up to 200GB per and up to 2GB of dual-channel DDR2 667MHz RAM. That 17-inch monitor features an eyesight bustin' 1920 x 1200 resolution, and should look nice with Vista, which will come pre-installed on the laptop. Alienware even tossed in a TV tuner and a full-size numeric keypad. No word on price or availability, but January 30th (Vista's out) seems a decent guess, and "a whole wad of cash" seems quite likely as well.

[troy orender @ Mar 29th 2008 9:06AM]

The 9750 - let's see. I paid . . . with taxes, title, and licensing . . . about 4k. This was fairly close to fully equipped. Also, as advertised: 2.16 Ghz core 2 duo, 2 Gb of ram, dual Nvidia 8700m 512 SLI cards, and Vista home premium; and my system was supposed to "drop the warhammer" on CRYSIS. The warhammer was indeed dropped . . . on my system. I took delivery in Novemeber and then deployed overseas about a week after. As I began using my system, I began receiving the same error, "graphics adapter stopped responding" and numerous errors with Vista. Then I installed, and began playing Crysis. This 9750 doesn't seem very capable as Crysis shuts it down . . . back into Vista, then Vista has some difficulty. Though sometimes I can play Crysis for up to an hour before any erros pop up. Service pack 1 has been installed last week, and has helped some. Ok, here is what Alienware won't tell you. All versions of Vista (and XP) that Alienware sells with the machine only have drivers for use with a 32 bit operating system. If using a 32 bit operating system i.e. Vista Home Premium, any upgrade in RAM over 2 Gb will not be recognized. But, how do you install Windows Vista Ultimate x64 without the necessary drivers? I called tech support about my problems with Crysis and Vista . . . they recommended contacting Microsoft for a key to downgrade Windows to XP. When I asked if the drivers would work with XP Pro x64 - the answer was no. My experience hasn't been very good with Tech support or customer support. If you buy, I hope you have better luck. I guess I am waiting on some high end support for my high end computer.

[jc @ May 2nd 2008 1:12PM]

Made the mistake of buying a loaded Alien m9750 for my husband. Poor
quality out of the box and their Customer Service is even worse -
BUYER BEWARE! From the very first boot up I got a BSOD. Determined
it was hardware related; sent it back to fix. They finally returned
it after 2 weeks (which SUPPOSEDLY included extensive testing).
Return receipt showed they SUPPOSEDLY replaced the motherboard and
LCD panel. Booted up the day of return and left it on overnight to
patch EQ and found it with another BSOD in the morning! Called them
next day and they said the two video cards were replaced--Huh? What
about that motherboard replacement? Geez, guys, did you replace
anything? What about that extensive testing you did? Sent it back to
get a brand new replacement after much wrangling on the phone, only to
be jerked around by a "Customer Service Advocate" named Eddy for
several weeks. I finally canceled the order and bought a better
laptop elsewhere. Worse CS experience I've ever encountered.
Bottomline: Take you money elsewhere for better product and service
for the price.

[a7878 @ Jul 21st 2008 1:43AM]

Some people may say that gaming laptops are slightly out of hand. The XPS Laptop line was one thing, but this may considered be too much. It's should be called "desktop replacement" and not laptop/notebook computer. If you need portability and the specs, this laptop may work for you.

Marc

Laptop Repair Service in NYC

[a7878 @ Jul 26th 2008 12:56AM]

Some people may say that gaming laptops are slightly out of hand. The XPS Laptop line was one thing, but this may considered be too much. It's should be called "desktop replacement" and not laptop/notebook computer. If you need portability and the specs, this laptop may work for you.

Marc
http://www.portatronics.com

[Dan @ Jan 9th 2007 4:58PM]

Anybody in a giving mood?

[h.r.g.a. @ Jan 11th 2007 3:39PM]

It will only be "most powerful" if there are 7900 GTXs (or higher) in SLI. If the cards are 7900 GSs then it will be only equal to the other Clevo notebooks with single GTXs.

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:36PM]

It has dual 512mb Nvidea GeForce 8700m GT graphics cards. wooop woop!

[Loonie @ Jan 9th 2007 5:42PM]

I would guess the battery is mostly for decoration.

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

I played World of Warcraft in a truck the other day for about 2 hours straight. Plus the thing was powering my phone that I was using as a modem at the time. and it STILL had 23% battery left on it when I shut it down!

so NO, the battery is pretty damned fine!

[happy_thoughts @ Jan 9th 2007 5:49PM]

haha - a laptop with SLI is just insane. I can't imagine this being anywhere near affordable for a long long time tho.

[justdave @ Jan 9th 2007 5:52PM]

10 mins of gaming per charge?

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

It's not a bad price. kit it out to rival current affordable desktops and it will set you back £2000-£2500

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

It's not a bad price. kit it out to rival current affordable desktops and it will set you back £2000-£2500

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

It's not a bad price. kit it out to rival current affordable desktops and it will set you back £2000-£2500

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

It's not a bad price. kit it out to rival current affordable desktops and it will set you back £2000-£2500

[Chris Merchant @ Jan 9th 2007 6:40PM]

Yep, Dave and Loonie. Unless you want to strap a backpack onto your back to carry with your laptop, filled with fuel cells.

Seriously, these gaming laptops are slightly out of hand in my opinion. The XPS Laptop line was one thing, but this is too much. For the wad of cash you'll drop one of those, you could have a bigger-screened and nicely cooled Desktop with similar if not higher performance specs.

But, there's the whole superiority complex that goes along with 'Yes, I play Counter Strike Source on my laptop. Lag? No.. no..'

Chris

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:36PM]

I'm currently using my Alienware Area-51 m9750 to reply to you. I just feel the need to say: YES, desktops are slightly more powerful and slightly cheaper, BUT....they aren't portable. you cannot compare a laptop and desktop. people buy laptops so they can take them to work, to friends houses, to the pub, or to the bowling alley like I did tonight.

I'd LOVE to see you carrying a hefty beast of a desktop, plus monitor and keyboard+mouse etc, into a bowling alley or other public place. it'd be funny to then see the red cheeks on your face and then ask you again, "what is better? Laptop or Desktop?"

YOU FOOL!

[icepop4who @ Jan 9th 2007 7:21PM]

i may have to sell my soul for this.

[Ian @ Jan 9th 2007 7:41PM]

i think the appeal of this is more for serious LAN gamers who don't like the HUGE hassle of moving a high powered gaming rig (which is a bitch, especially with WCing)

[Albert @ Jan 9th 2007 7:56PM]

Yea..it is mostly to appeal to LANers and people who frequently travel but want to play games in hotel room or whereever...

And yes Chris is absoultely right...u could get a much better desktop for less...

[Z @ Jan 10th 2007 8:18AM]

One big question with this device is, will Alienware actually INTEGRATE Bluetooth this time or ignore it and make a person use a stupid BT USB-key like they do with all their other stupid computers?

You know... Bluetooth... the wireless technology found in most every laptop and virtually every phone in the entire world (phones which are all about 1/50 the size of this Alienware computer).

[JustinMcleod @ Feb 19th 2008 8:37PM]

Bluetooth is integrated and works fine. I can send stuff from all my phones straight to the laptop and it's a fast data-transfer too.

[Mistoffeles @ Jan 10th 2007 1:05PM]

Darn.

Now I am going to have to cancel my Alienware laptop order and wait another month.

..... 8)

[bigfoote0069 @ Jan 12th 2007 8:51PM]

I was checking around cnet and they gave this the award for best laptop of CES. Not because it is a powerful computer but because they seem to think that Alienware will price this sub-$2000. I highly doubt this and the price may be possible for a barebones single card, single hard drive, and 512 MB of RAM but for the one shown I expect that price to be doubled and most likely triple that. If however CNET proves me wrong than I may buy my first Alienware this year.

[av8ors @ Jan 16th 2007 12:16AM]

It's should be called "desktop replacement" and not laptop/notebook computer.

[1337 @ Jan 18th 2007 5:45AM]

hey aliens, I am posting in order to get some more info... i am pretty interested in this "laptop" lol, and I would be so grateful if somebody could tell me the price of it, with all they said included, and most important, when will it be available in France..
thanks in advance...

[basicvisual @ Feb 6th 2007 4:47PM]

I currently own the m9700 with dual 256mb 7900gs'. At the current moment SLI is really just a novelty as not a whole lot of games take advantage of SLI and rightly so as Intel hasn't until now had a processor that supported Nvidia SLI.

The big deal about the m9750 is that fact that it will be the first Intel SLI notebook/desktop replacement and that is something to be very happy with as the m9700 only uses a simple amd turion maxed out with 2.4ghz. The chassis is the same in both models and I do have to say it is of excellent build quality. Unlike most laptops this one does not get hot anywhere on the surface where your hands rest and it keeps both of the vid cards cool along with the cpu.

If I were looking at purchasing a top of the line notebook again I would definately wait until an answer about the availability of mobile dx10 cards. Unless you have the money to buy whatever you fancy.

[Luckyd @ Feb 12th 2007 12:18PM]

If you are in the market for a High end laptop, you might as well shell out for the 7950 in Feb or March. DX10 laptops will probably not be seen for atleast another year. Nvidia's Alpha verison of the Moblie 8800 card has a base power requirement of 200 watts, this completely removes it from being a functional laptop card their R&D group will need to get this down to 100 watts or less before they can even remotely function under a 12 cell Liton battery. At the current power usage you would get a "low battery" message the moment you unplugged it from the wall. Don't hold your breath for a DX10 laptop till purhaps the Holiday season this year.

[vivekt84 @ Mar 30th 2007 6:55AM]

What the battery life of m9700 generally n whats the battery life while gaming

[basicvisual @ Mar 31st 2007 11:46AM]

The battery life of the m9700 with SLI and full performance is around 45 minutes, however when using the powermizer selection from AMD it will slow down the processor and if you dissable SLI and do some very basic web surfing or word processing you can get about 2hrs out of the battery. The m9700 and future m9750 are to be considered high end gaming notebooks that can actually take the place of a desktop computer with their power and gaming prowess. So don't expect to get a whole lot of life out of the battery if you are on the go. Plus it is a decently large 17" widescreen so it isn't exactly light either.

[Ryan @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:07AM]

Well first off being maxed out it won't be triple the price! ROFL Right now their best desktop replacement (yes, they call them that and YES they are still laptops)doesn't go over the 3,600 range. Also this is said to come with SLI capabilities for the 7950 512 MB cards to answer one of those people's questions...The launch was speculated to when Vista came out late January but at CES Alienware said it would be a couple of months till a sure release would happen. Hope that helps some of you!

[Lord Vader @ Mar 5th 2007 8:58PM]

when will This Laptop be out MARCH what date ???

Yes I love this Laptop & Will get it

But whts DX10 laptops ? Y should we wait for those ?

[derred @ Apr 26th 2007 1:33PM]

I know it takes a month for someone to answer ur question, but however here its the answer. DX10 laptops meaning laptops that have a graphic card that supports Microsoft's Directx-10 that comes along and only with Windows Vista. For desktops, Nvidia's 8800 series are only ones that support DX10, so what he means by dx10 laptops are those that have dx10-compatibility. If u still dont get what am i saying, Google EA's game named Crysis and look at the game screenshots;and that kind of graphics defines dx10. So without dx10-compatibility graphic cards, laptops can't take full advantages of the new-generation games like Crysis. by the way the m9750 is ready for order by now. Go Alienware website and search m9750.

[Pete H @ Apr 5th 2007 12:45PM]

While looking for M9750 info, found this webpage:

http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/area-51_m9750.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

Have not been able to get there from Alienware's homepage so may not be fully fuctional/debugged. The one item I noticed when going through a config was the option for an external tuner which of course doesn't make sense since it's already integrated. The one I want priced at $4500-$5000. The hardware specs look fantastic. Doing a search on AW's website for "Area-51® m9750" will get you the reviews page.
Also noticed the projected ship date is listed as 28 MAY.

[Pete @ Apr 5th 2007 1:00PM]

Additioanl AW webpage for the 9750.

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_m9750/area-51m_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT&FileName=review_cnet_0107.asp#pdp-nav

[urby @ Apr 28th 2007 7:52AM]

Personally, i was going to buy a m9700, all tricked out, but i saw the review of the m9750 in Maximum PC, and decided to wait (recently). I just went to their site and customized a m9700, w/ 2.4GHz processor, dual 512 cards, the works (even color & high performance Hard Drives) with Office 2007 small business, a gaming mouse, and Adobe Photoshop Elements for $4,400. The base now for a m9700 is 1,599.

Thus, I expect the m9750 to be around 2,000 or more at base w/ 1GB mem, 1x 7950 Go card (512MB?), 17 inch standard (not wide)screen, black, with standard wifi, etc. Not that bad, and i might just buy one fully customized with the money im saving up now waiting.

[derred @ May 6th 2007 9:42PM]

first of all its 512mb 7950gtx which almost equal to m9700 7900 gs's SLi. U can customize m9750 now by going to AW site and search for m9750 at the search bar. U can always buy it first and buy the upgrades later too if ur budget doesnt allow you to maxed it out now. You also can save more on memory and hard drives, make sure to get the 1920 x 1200 screen bcoz an upgrade for that will cost u alot more than if you bought it first hand.

[urby @ May 8th 2007 9:31PM]

Not to be mean to you, but i kind of know... you don't REALLY have to repeat the stuff i already know... but in my own opinion id rather just get the whole thing ready, and not have to send the computer back to Alienware for some nosy tech to look through my shit while optimizing it when i can optimize it myself with my own virus protection, only the Win updates that I really need, and a lot less clutter and crap... yeah, Alienware has options for that, but in general if you don't have the money off hand, don't buy it... kind of like a car, you don't buy just the chassis, engine, transmission, controls and one seat and buy everything else later, you buy it in one piece (so its not the greatest analogy, so what). I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

[urby @ May 8th 2007 9:32PM]

Oh, and don't forget that yes, although the cards are gtx, they still have the mobile designation go, because they are specifically for notebooks, and not to be confused with the 7950 gtx for the desktop (for those who don't look at these part designations on a day to day basis).

[Lord Vader @ May 26th 2007 5:07PM]

Like Yoda said, NO, there is another :P lol

see this Links:-----------

PC MicroWorks – Black–Hawk - http://www.pcmicroworks.com/main.htm & compare all 3

Good part about Alienware is - Looks, CD Drive in Front, USB ports all around, Best layout for ports & Name ;)(Alienware Brand) lol

Good about PCMicro is u can Upgrade(at wholesale prices & money back for the old parts) ur laptop for life, Dead Pixel Protection & reasonable price & is FASTER than Alienware
also has EVDO option, you can gain broadband access to the internet anywhere there is cell phone signal.

& Sager – NP9260 - http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/go_np9260.html
7 + Card Reader

& M Tech – D900C - http://www.m-techlaptops.com/specifications/mtechd900c.htm
4 + Card Reader

SAD part is all the 3 three besides Alenware have same Laptop Box / cover LOOK SAME

Alienware – m9750 - http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_m9750/area-51m_specs.aspx

YES I Like the Alienware myself But the Others are Faster :(

[Aowpr @ May 30th 2007 9:11AM]

So which is better? I've never heard of these other brands (and wikipedia only has a 1-sentence article on Sager, nothing for the others), how do I know they won't break down? They are about as expensive as Alienware.

Also, they don't have the re-spawn program; that's one of the things I like most about Alienware. The good think is that the others have 3 processors, but is that really necessary? Also, wouldn't we be able to ship the Alienware back to the factory for them to install a 3rd once they make them available?

Another thing I liked was the DVR thing in the m9750; the Black Hawk has the internet wherever there's phone connection though. Choices, choices, choices. :(

By the way, when is a notebook going to come out with QUAD-core? That will be the day... 8)

[Khem Chander @ Jun 4th 2007 8:53PM]

I bought an expensive alien-ware laptop from alienware.com. On the new system that arrived, it had problem with the keyboard. IT also had some other problems with the laptop. Then their support team takes forever to get the laptop shipped back to them and then send it back to them. The net result is you don't have a system with yourself for high amount of money that you pay to them. Customers need to understand what on-site support means. It means that it will take about a month to ship it back to them and get the laptop fixed with this kind of a warranty.

[Remy @ Jan 15th 2008 10:16AM]

just went to the alienware site if you search for the M9750 you can configure one it is saying est shipping date of 07-03-07 no blu-ray as an option, also has Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled I hope that they update the options to include blue ray here soon, also getting it configured nicely can run easily 4500 - 6000 just with the options that they have now.

[TheIronDuke @ Jun 28th 2007 12:29PM]

Khem is right on. "On-site" support from Alienware means anything but. You can call them and they may try and talk you through diagnosis and repair, but any repair you have to box and ship. I paid the extra 300 or the "on-site" support precisely because I didn't want to have to ship a PC with a lot of client confidential information out of the office, and found this offerring a complete rip-off.

[Mark @ Jul 5th 2007 10:15PM]

Just curious if anyone knows where one can download a pdf of the manual for this new beast.

[michael @ Aug 5th 2007 9:56PM]

For all of you looking for the ultimate portable(portable being loosely defined) gaming rig, check out the blackhawk at pcmicroworks.com. Excellent customer service, better products than voodoo, alienware, falcon northwest, etc. yet cheaper prices. These people know what's up. By the way, I'm in no way affiliated with pcmicroworks corporation. I'm just that satisfied with my pcmicroworks experience. And the computors are absolute monsters...even if they do require a portable nuclear power solution.

blackhawk-
17" CrystalVision UltraBright LCD

· Intel Core 2 Extreme™ X6800 CPU

· 4096MB High Speed DDR2 RAM

· 480GB @ 21,600RPM Ultra Storage

· High Speed Blu-Ray-RW Drive

· Windows® Vista Ultimate x64

[Banzai @ Sep 4th 2007 1:56PM]

I bought an " Arenal - 17' " from PCMicroWorks a bit after Christmas and bought the warranty plan (which allows you to trade is parts and systems and buy new parts at wholesale) and when I inquired how much trade-back value I could get for the whole system, I was greatly surprised, between 40%-60% dependent on the configuration of my new laptop. Instead of trying to peddle it to friends or strangers for around the same price I could actually get a good value.

To top it off, after configuring the BlackHawk, it stands nearly $800.00 cheaper than Alienware and Sager. Only thing, I wish there was a more attractive case...Generic black box doesn't win any sexy points, but hey, its drastically cheaper SLI, sacrifices people!

[spook24 @ Sep 30th 2007 12:34PM]

i just saw this on the G4 channel last night. they were saying that this laptop cost anywhere from $2000-$4500....ouch!!!! heres my arm and my leg...do u want my foot w/ that. :) of course that comes w/ a 500GB HD and blu-ray disc drive!! ($4500) but - no bluetooth? seriously y not?? all that and no integrated bluetooth and only about 90-120 mins of battery life...i think ill keep my money and put it in to a quad-core motherboard and dual XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3 gfx-cards!!!