Get ready to game. But don’t get ready to move the 9.5 pound Alienware M17 around. For serious gamers wanting a serious laptop with almost limitless upgrade options, the new M17 is one piece of machine.
While it’s not the best looking frame, as Alienware went back to old school cases, the M17 packs a punch on the inside with the basic setup of an Intel Core 2 Duo and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870. However, thats all just the beginning. The M17 offers dual processor and graphics setups for a price.
cNet tested a version of the M17 with the following setup:
Our test system includes dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, 64-bit Windows Vista, 3GB of RAM, and a 7,200rpm 160GB hard drive for $1,999. Our review unit features a dual-core, Penryn-class Core 2 Duo P8400 processor.
With that system, the reviewers found a lot to like about the notebook — mostly from a gaming standpoint. cNet reported trouble with the trackpad, but that shouldn’t be a problem for serious gamers who will bring a mouse to the party.
Of course, on paper, the M17 looks like a very suitable gaming platform. But serious gamers won’t want to take my word for it. If you are looking to get into gaming, though. The M17 might be one of the newest products on the market to get your feet wet with.
Some very basic specs:
- Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme Processors
- Processor Speed: 1066 MHz
- RAM: 6 GB
- Weight: 9.5 lbs.
- Display Size: 17 inches
- Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
- Storage Capacity: 500 GB
- Networking Options: Intel WiFi Link 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N
- Primary Optical Drive: DVD±RW, CD-RW
Full specs and more infor is available at Alienware’s site.
The amount of power in this laptop is quite high, and a gamer would do well to use it if a desktop was not in their purchasing mindset. The video card and CPU are quite a benefit, and the cost reflects on these upper-end parts. The display is also suitably sized.
very serious laptop. great specs… alienware optimized there laptop to its limits.
warning: alienware is not what they used to be… to all gamers out there that still think they are the top of the line.. be warned. I bought a m15x awhile ago and they sent me a lemon, GPU crashed in 2 weeks, so i fought them and now im waiting on my M17 to come in.
I have the M17 and its a nice laptop the memory however will only go to 4gigs total, I know, I wanted 8, but was told by a tech that it will only support 4. My setup is as follows,
Resoluton 1920×1200
HD 3870 x2
Intel Q9300 Quad @ 2.53, 12mb Lvl2 cache
HD Seagate 250gig x2 raid 0
4gigs of DDR3 1066
DVD-RW, no blue-ray waste of cash.