Slideshow

Alienware's ultra-hot M17 gaming notebook

An absolute beast of a notebook in a dog of an economic climate…

  • The keyboard has the usual Alienware glowing capabilities, so nerdlingers can unleash the inner geek at LAN events. Fortunately they can turn it off if their lack of gaming prowess makes them look like n00bs, lest they become a neon-pink beacon of FAIL…

  • The 17in display has a native resolution of 1920x1200, which means Full HD viewing on the move. Dual 500GB hard drives have been linked in a RAID 0 configuration to provide speedy access to 1TB of data, which equates to a very large amount of “legally downloaded” files. Unfortunately the 1TB setup uses hard drives that spin at 5400rpm, not 7200rpm.

  • The most notable thing about the unit, apart from the design which makes it look like the love child of The Predator and a George Foreman grill, is a very heavy feature set. Packing a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 in the top-end configuration, users will need to fork out an additional $US1200 if they want to upgrade from the baseline 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400.

  • Alienware has launched its M17 notebook, and it’s a strange-looking creature…

  • Also impressive is the use of an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 with CrossFireX capabilities, so buyers with spare cash can hook up a second, identical GPU. This is great for gamers wanting to play the next generation of games hitting the shelves, as well NASA engineers looking to fully render the planet Mercury.

  • Now if you’re still salivating and saving your change for a tasty piece of M17 goodness, here’s the bad news. With all the juicy extras included, it’ll cost you almost $US4500. So with the Aussie dollar being the way it is, you can probably choose between the Alienware M17 notebook or the City of Hobart…

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