Laptops Arena

The most powerful notebook on the planet announced last year is finally released.
Alienware Area-51 m17x is the 17-inch version of the Alienware Area-51 m15x described in one of our previous articles.
Its bigger brother has a Extreme High-Def 1200p display, advanced multimedia capabilities and is the best gaming notebook.

Powered by an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 processor and with the SLI-enabled NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs with DirectX 10 support, it is able to deliver highest performances besides allowing for extra large media storage with its dual drives configured in RAID 0 array and 500GB Smart Bay drive, totalizing 1.5TB maximum capacity.
"The Area-51 m17x is, by far, the most aggressive, most powerful notebook computer Alienware has ever built," according to Frank Azor, Executive Vice-President for Alienware's Product and Marketing Groups.

It features the Alienware Command Center control panel for AlienFX customizable lighting system, the AlienFusion power management system, High Speed Draft-N Wireless module, Windows Vista Ultimate operating system pre-installed, and built-in TV tuner.
The AlienFX lighting system allows the user choose from different colors and transition effects from 6 areas from the logo and keyboard to the touchpad.
AlienFusion is the way to the power management tools from where you select maximum performance for your work or increased battery life.



Other features include 4GB memory, 7.1/5.1 Digital High-Definition Audio, 2 speakers/subwoofer, auto-sensing headphone jack, FireWire, ExpressCard slot, a 7-in-1 card reader, a 12 Cell Lithium-ION Battery with Touch Activated Battery Meter, Full Size Keyboard with Separate Numeric Keypad, Full Size Touchpad with Rocker Buttons, and Security Lock Slot.
The price starts at $2,199 and raises depending on your final configuration.

"With NVIDIA SLI and two GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs, the most powerful notebook graphics processing solution ever, Alienware's Area-51 m17x is equipped to generate an unrivaled visual experience," said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook GPUs at NVIDIA. "Whether users are tackling the new era of DirectX 10 games, high-definition movies or dynamic Windows Vista applications, they can count on the Area-51 m17x to deliver."

Back in November I was telling you about the latest powerful notebooks from Alienware, Area-51 m17x and Area-51 m15x, and now the company has announced that the 15.4-inch model is equipped with the 45nm processor from Intel, making it the first 15.4-inch notebook running on the Core 2 Duo Extreme X9000.

With the 45nm processor, the Hafnium technology, more transistors, enhanced thermal management and Intel HD Boost, the Alienware m15x provides fastest operation speeds for a 15.4-inch model.



"When we launched the Area-51 m15x in January with the original CPUs and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX GPU, we knew we had crammed in more power than anyone had ever seen in this size system," says Bryan de Zayas, Associate Director for Product Marketing at Alienware. "Now, with the addition of an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000, we've made the world's most powerful 15.4-inch notebook even more powerful."

This is the coolest laptop I’ve seen and hope to say it again about other models soon!


The Alienware Area-51 comes in two versions, the m17x and the m15x, both specially equipped for the best gaming experience.
They were launched together with the latest Nvidia video called, the well known GeForce 8800M, which is the most powerful video card at the moment incorporated in laptops.

The special feature called BinaryGFX allows switching between the integrated graphics memory and the dedicated one.



These together with the Intel Core 2 Extreme processors will power these laptop models at the beginning of 2008 when they will be released on the markets.
Both will sport 667MHz DDR II, three hard drives with SmartBay option and over 1080p video and high-definition audio.


The m17x features a 17-inch display with a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels (Widescreen UXGA), 4GB system memory plus 1GB Intel Turbo Memory for the best responsiveness, 640GB of hard disk space with RAID 0, a Blu-Ray burner, the 802.11a/b/g/draft n wireless connectivity, a External Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card, and a built-in TV tuner as an option.


The price is very high, about $5,628 without taxes, for a complete configuration that includes two video cards, a 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor, 2GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, 400GB HDD at 7,200RPM (16MB Cache), Turbo Memory, the Blu-Ray burner and the TV tuner.


The second model, Alienware Area-51 m15x is conceived smaller, with a 15.4-inch display, but with the same high resolution.

It’ll have one Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX card that reaches twice the performance of the GeForce Go 7950 GTX, the Blu-Ray burner, maximum 320GB HDD with Smart Bay, and maximum 4GB RAM.

The price in this case is unknown yet.
Both notebooks will come with Windows Vista Ultimate pre-installed.
The color options for these two notebooks will be black and silver, while the design options will be either a SkullCap or a Ripley smooth lid.

The AlienExchange Trade-in Program is launched by Alienware, and is a great opportunity for those of you who are bored of your old configurations and want new ones but don’t have enough possibilities.



Within this program you can trade in your goods consisting of electronic devices, toward the purchase of new Alienware products.
You can trade almost anything, from PDAs and projectors to car audio receivers or notebooks.



The steps are simple:
You select the electronic devices you want to trade in, then after the AlienExchange quote is generated you choose an award type in the form of an Alienware gift card or a check.
More than that, for trading in an old Alienware system, they give you extra $200 on top of what your generated trade-in quote comes out to toward the purchase of a new Alienware system.

The trade-in items are mailed in using a free shipping label that can be printed out.

Alienware has announced their latest laptop “The Area-51 m5790”.

The Area-51 m5790 laptop features a 17-inch widescreen (1920 x 1200) and comes with Windows XP pre-installed but you can upgrade it when Windows Vista hits on January 30th with 50 % discount.

The m5790 boasts a Core 2 Duo processor, up to 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM, a Blu-ray optical drive with max of 200GB dual HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon X1900 graphics with 256 MB memory.

Pricing and availability for Area-51 m5790 has not yet been sent but we expect to hit stores in February.

Via alienware.