Review: Alienware Area-51 m9750 notebook PC

Alienware machines aren't known for skimping on performance, and the much-delayed Area-51 m9750 looks set to keep up this reputation.

Announced in January of this year, it's not designed with the latest technologies. The m9750 relies on the old Intel 945PM Napa chipset rather than the updated Santa Rosa platform.

What is new about this notebook design, though, is that it's the first to put two graphics cards on an Intel motherboard with a Core 2 Duo processor. Until now, AMD has had mobile multi-graphics card functionality all to itself, despite having slower and less energy-efficient mobile processors.

Inside there's a T7200 2GHz processor backed up with 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 Ram. This is pushed to the side lines by the two headline grabbing Geforce Go 7950GTX cards in SLI mode, each with 512MB Ram; mobile versions of the faster 8800GTX aren't due until later this year. A pair of 250GB hard disk are in a Raid 0 configuration and provide ample storage.

An Alien face moulded into the back of the display glows blue when the unit turns on, implying this notebook has something to shout about - and indeed it does. It scored a whopping 8,099 in 3Dmark06 and 11,305 in 3Dmark05, the fastest we've ever seen from a notebook. Fear maintained 117fps (frames per second) at 1,024x768 and 102fps at its native resolution of 1,440x900.

Although the screen measures 17in diagonally, is even lit and vibrant to look at, this relatively low native resolution doesn't do the SLI setup any justice. You have to pay extra for a 1,920x1,200 screen, but it really is essential to take advantage of the two graphics cards. Overall system performance was similar ly impressive, scoring 5,182 in PCmark05.

Benchmarking aside, we got three blue screens within an hour by performing various tasks – all relating the Nvidia's driver. Alienware confirmed there are problems with SLI support and Vista so we can only recommend that prospective buyers plump for XP Pro for now.

With SLI turned off, however, we found the notebook a delight to use. The trackpad is large and responsive while the keyboard is firm and features a separate numeric keypad.

An LED strip on the back of the display shows hard disk activity and power status. Another strip above the keyboard does the same but also provides media keys - these don't currently work in Vista though.

The notebook weighs a staggering 5.35kg with the power adapter or 4.2kg without. You won't want to leave that power adapter at home, though, since battery life was below average lasting just 61 minutes in our most intensive battery life test. Despite its weight, the notebook's dimensions are similar to that of a standard 17in notebook.

Our model lacked Wifi, but Alienware tells us retail units will ship with 802.11g PCI Express mini cards.

The m9750 comes packed with loads of extra features including a 1.3-megapixel webcam, separate DVI and VGA outputs, a front facing DVD wrier sandwiched in between some extremely impressive notebook speakers and a subwoofer on the belly of the unit.

On the right side, volume control is joined by optical and 5.1 analogue surround sound jacks, which are rare on a notebook.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that the notebook creates an awful lot of noise for a notebook. That said, it's still less than you'd expect from an average desktop PC.

All in all, the Area-51 m9750 is a good option for gamers on the go, but Alienware is stuck between a rock and a hard place with Nvidia SLI and Vista; at present, you simply can't have both.