Thoughts
Putting aside heat, weight and battery life issues, it's simply astounding what you can cram into a laptop these days. Alienware go to town and show you just what's possible. Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (!), 1GB of DDR400, 4x DVD+RW and swappable graphics cards. Sounds like a desktop wet dream, never mind in a portable (to whatever extent you feel is usable).Throw in features like 108Mbit WiFi, a widescreen 1.7Mpixel LCD, 6 speaker audio (!) and it's hard not to lust after one.
648FX conspires against it in the performance stakes, limiting what the processor can usably do. Alienware do the Extreme with 3.2 and 3.4GHz Northwood processors. They'd be a better fit, saving you (lots of) money with no real world drop off in performance for the most part.
It's big, hot and heavy, but I think that was a given before we even took a look at it physically. You have to decide if 4.0Kg/8.8lbs is something you can live with. It's certainly simple to lug around with the backpack though and it's not too bad on your lap, should you wish to brave cooked sausage and fried eggs for a quick game of UT2004.
Battery life is laughable in the strictest sense, but personally I'm not sure you'd care too much if you were interested in buying one, it's a DTR after all; portability and battery life are secondary concerns.
The presentation is excellent, Alienware going to great lengths to make you feel like you've not just spent money on a laptop, but an experience. If indeed that's the right, admittedly horrible, phraseology.
Swappable graphics means you can drop in the next generation of mobile GPUs without a problem. It really is a good feat of engineering on Alienware and Uniwill's part, they should be proud of it. What usually means a complete unit sale and swap is now a few hundred pound expense at best.
Personally I love it. I'm a geek, I appreciate a £650 server CPU in my laptop. I appreciate being able to swap the GPU. I like having a 4x DVD+RW on the move with 1GB of memory and a 60GB HDD to feed it. I like 108Mbit WiFi without even having the means to use it.
My personal feelings aside, it's an obvious bit of niche hardware that's hard to traditionally score. Is it the fastest gaming laptop on the planet? Yes. Does it cost an absolute fortune? Yes. Do people who'd actually buy one care? Do they hell.
It's an engineering showcase with a worldwide market that's probably smaller than the market that bought a Parhelia to play games on. It's both fantastic and pointless at the same time.
You'll either love it or laugh, it's as simple as that.
Scored on its sold merits as the world's fastest portable gaming device and the ultimate LAN party toy...
Scored against other powerful 3D laptops for gamers that cost over £1000 less...
Are you a big geek with a few grand lying about (and I know I'm talking to a realistic audience of none)? Indulge yourself, pick one up.
Pros
Incredible engineering (3.2EE in a laptop, swapping graphics)Peerless mobile performance
Great features (108Mbit WiFi, 4x DVD+RW, 6 speaker audio, GigE)
Not as bad to lug around as you'd think, the rucksack is brilliant
Excellent presentation
Exclusive
Brilliant ergonomics (big screen, touchpad)
Excellent warranty terms
Cons
Battery life? Err, no.Heavy
Hot
Expensive (Price as reviewed, $3,910.00/£2,200 from Alienware.com, ~£2,750 from Alienware.co.uk. Gotta love that exchange rate!).
