Alienware Area-51 m9750: Power Gaming on the Go
by Jarred Walton on August 24, 2007 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Test Setup
Alienware is currently shipping the m9750 with either Windows Vista or Windows XP installed. However, if you're looking at the SLI configuration there's basically no reason to consider Windows Vista just yet. We ran into a few issues trying to get Windows Vista installed and eventually abandoned the effort. While it would have allowed us to run a few other performance tests, the fact of the matter is that the system is plenty fast in any other area, but it's the gaming performance that really sets it apart.
In terms of pricing, the Alienware m9750 is actually pretty close to the Dell XPS M1710 with an overclockable CPU that we tested a few months ago. The m9750 doesn't support overclocking, but considering the price of the T7600G processor users could instead pick up a second GPU. Not surprisingly, the overclocked XPS M1710 ends up providing more CPU performance while the m9750 is usually faster in games, but we'll let the graphs and benchmark results elaborate on this fact.
Alienware is currently shipping the m9750 with either Windows Vista or Windows XP installed. However, if you're looking at the SLI configuration there's basically no reason to consider Windows Vista just yet. We ran into a few issues trying to get Windows Vista installed and eventually abandoned the effort. While it would have allowed us to run a few other performance tests, the fact of the matter is that the system is plenty fast in any other area, but it's the gaming performance that really sets it apart.
| Alienware Area-51 m9750 Tested Configuration | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz 667FSB 4MB) |
| Chipset | Intel 945PM + ICH7-M DH |
| Memory | 2x1024MB DDR2 SO-DIMMs (Qimonda 64T128021HDL3SB) Tested at DDR2-667 5-5-5-15 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB SLI |
| Display | 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) with Clearview LG Philips LPL0B0A (Jan 2005) |
| Hard Drive | 2 x 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA (Sesagate Momentus 7200.2 ST9160823AS) |
| Optical Drive | 8X DVD+/-RW (Optiarc AD-5540A) |
| Networking/Communications | Intel 3945ABG (802.11A/B/G) Mini PCI Wireless |
| Audio | Realtek ALC885 7.1 HD Audio |
| Battery | 12-Cell 95WHr |
| Operating System | Windows XP Media Center 2005 |
In terms of pricing, the Alienware m9750 is actually pretty close to the Dell XPS M1710 with an overclockable CPU that we tested a few months ago. The m9750 doesn't support overclocking, but considering the price of the T7600G processor users could instead pick up a second GPU. Not surprisingly, the overclocked XPS M1710 ends up providing more CPU performance while the m9750 is usually faster in games, but we'll let the graphs and benchmark results elaborate on this fact.
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Frumious1 - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
Oop - was apparently posting at the same time as you. Count me for keeping the graphs as is!Marlin1975 - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
It still uses the 945 chipset and not the newwer 965?I would think being on the cutting edge it would benifit fromt he new Mem. controller and other upgrades the 965 had?
toon26 - Saturday, September 8, 2007 - link
I have buy this portable with 4 giga of mémory but the bios reconize just 2559Mb of méméory.Commercial service of alienware For the small history my son comes to acquire this portable with option 4 giga of memory (it makes studies to become data-processing engineer) and appear that the BIOS of this portable recognizes only 2555Mo of memory.
The engineering department of Alienware is informed of a problem on this BIOS. The sales department of Alienware wants to offer a mouse well to my son for the damage undergoes (the option to pass from 2 to 4 giga has to cost 280 to him€, for a portable with 3400€)
Most comic of the history it is that the site of Alienware always proposes this option of the 4 gigas who is completely unusable so much than a new BIOS will not come to correct this problem.
All the tests which I could read on this portable in the newspaper industry or on Internet were made only with 2 giga of memory, and thus nobody could locate this BUG, not even the Alienware company which is praised to make pass more than 200 tests to your portable before sending it to you
JarredWalton - Saturday, September 8, 2007 - link
Which is why I have the following in the review:The OS options further cement the deal: no 64-bit, don't bother with the hugely expensive memory upgrade! And of course, for 64-bit you'd need new GPU drivers, which are MIA.
yacoub - Monday, September 3, 2007 - link
Nope, most major laptop manufacturers (Dell/Alienware being prime examples) seem to have a fetish for extremely over-priced laptops with outdated chipsets. Here, pay $5,000 and we'll give you 945 and DX9. WOW WHAT A DEAL! ;PJarredWalton - Friday, August 24, 2007 - link
It's a case of time to market. SLI notebooks were initially demoed at CES 2006. The first ones didn't show up until quite a bit later, and they were Go 7900 GTX cards. NVIDIA released the faster Go 7950 GTX, but I don't believe laptops supporting the faster cards became available until early 2007. Alienware probably doesn't have to resources to update their laptop line every time a new chipset comes out. Besides, they'd still have to deal with NVIDIA's driver updates (or lack thereof), and Santa Rosa wouldn't make that big of a difference in most titles - especially not in the GPU limited games.