Hardware

Cracking Open the $5000 Alienware Area 51 m15x notebook

By // May 16, 2008, 5:44 AM PST // markwkaelin

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  • Shiny

    The Area 51 m15x notebook is latest in a long line of quality portable computers from boutique manufacturer Alienware. The m15x is also one of the most powerful notebook computers we ever had the pleasure to review. Of course, we couldn't resist cracking open the m15x to see what makes it tick.

  • Logo

    Of course the m15x comes in the box marked with the familiar Alienware logo.

  • Touch of class

    The m15x comes wrapped in a velvet sleeve to keep it all shiny.

  • Touches

    Selling to the enthusiast market means adding little touches to the overall PC purchasing experience. Alienware included a hat and documentation in a nice binder.

    The folks at Alienware also sent us the optional spare hard drive and batter pack.

  • Unpacked

    Here is what comes out of the Alienware box. It's now time to fire up the Area 51 m15x notebook.

  • Pretty colors

    Again, part of the "experience" are the color LEDs that light up the keyboard, touch pad, buttons and the LCD bezel. Software is installed that allows you to change colors to your liking.

  • Benchmarks 1

    The setup for the first benchmark run using 3DMark06.

  • Benchmarks 2

    The score surprised me - I was expecting it to be higher.

  • Benchmarks 3

    As you can see, the m15x did not land very high on the comparative scale. Something was amiss.

  • Benchmarks 4

    The setup for benchmark run number two -- I added anti-aliasing.

  • Benchmarks 5

    The extra work lowered the score.

  • Benchmarks 6

    And again the comparison suffered.

  • Benchmarks 7

    The key was the resolution. The other PCs in the comparison were running at a resolution of 1280 X 1024. I ran the previous two tests at 1900 X 1200.

  • Benchmarks 8

    At the lower resolution we achieve a much more reasonable benchmark.

  • Benchmarks 9

    And a much more favorable comparison.

    Let there be now doubt, the Alienware Area 51 m15x is a very powerful computer. These benchmarks compare favorable to premium desktops. That's a lot of performance in a 15 inch notebook.

  • Benchmarks 10

    For additional comparison, consider this chart. The mark for the m15x is 9239, which is much closer to the 11934 that my dual-graphic carded, Quad CPU desktop scored than it is to what the Alienware m9700 scored a couple of years ago.

  • Geek heaven

    One of the most pleasing gaming geek features of the m15x is the HDMI out. Who can resist the allure of playing computer games on a 42-inch LCD in full 1080p high definition glory!

  • My that is a big cable you have

    It is sort of strange to see a HDMI cable of this size extending out of a notebook PC.

  • Ports 1

    Unlike the Apple MacBook Air, the Alienware m15x does not skimp on the number of available ports. You have the standard card readers, HDMI out, USB and Firewire.

  • Ports 2

    On the other side you have a plug for the AC adapter, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two more USB ports, and jacks for headphones and a microphone.

  • Blu-ray

    The optical drive is a blu-ray DVD reader/writer. This slot can also hold the optional battery pack or a second hard drive. Very clever construction.

  • Underside

    The underside of the m15x is fairly standard notebook construction except for another one of those "PC experience" touches.

  • Name plate

    This Alienware Area 51 m15x is officially designated for TechRepublic, both in earth-bound English and some form of extraterrestrial language.

  • Battery

    The battery seems relatively small for such a powerful notebook, which explains the very short battery life. The m15x is best used with the AC adapter plugged into an outlet.

  • Well packed

    There is very little wasted space inside our m15x. Note the two fans and two large heat sinks.

  • CPU

    Under this heat sink lies the CPU for our notebook: Intel Core2 Extreme X9000, 2.8MHz.

  • Keeping cool

    Heat dissipation is obviously important.

  • GPU

    This heat sink hides the GPU in the m15x: nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX.

  • Speed to burn

    The 8800M GTX is the current performance champion for mobile computers.

  • RAM

    We have two RAM boards in the two available slots. Together they make up the 3GB of RAM.

  • All that can be seen

    Because of the limitations of the 32-bit version of Windows Vista, 3GB is really all we need in our m15x.

  • Hard drive

    The hard drive is housed in a simple enclosure. Swapping this drive for another SATA drive would literally be a snap.

  • 200GB

    Although, with 200GB already installed, I am not sure we need to add anything.

  • Alienware

    The label says it all.

  • More video

    Over here we have a second video system from Intel. Using this system should save your considerable battery life, but you won't play many games with it.

  • Put together

    The Alienware Area 51 m15x is another marvel of engineering. Like other modern notebooks we have Cracked Open, the designers and engineers have done an excellent job of getting some extreme performance from a very compact compartment.

  • Wireless

    These are the chips that give the m15x its wireless connections. Not only is there WiFi there is also Bluetooth.

  • Cracked Open

    The Alienware Area 51 m15x is a well-built high performance notebook with a good balance of features. The notebook is not as heavy as it looks and is luggable from one place to another. However, I don't think I would be using it on a plane.

    At a price point around $5,000, the m15x is a little expensive, but if your are looking for a powerful yet portable PC, it may just be what you want.

Shiny

The Area 51 m15x notebook is latest in a long line of quality portable computers from boutique manufacturer Alienware. The m15x is also one of the most powerful notebook computers we ever had the pleasure to review. Of course, we couldn't resist cracking open the m15x to see what makes it tick.

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By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.