Alienware Area51 M5500 Notebook

The Area-51 m5500 balances the capabilities of high-performance mobile graphics, Intel Centrino mobile technology, and DDR2 Alienware-qualified memory with a highly mobile design that weighs 6 lbs and features a 15.4” wide-screen LCD. In addition, the Area-51 m5500 features a new Alienware innovation, Graphics Control Technology, giving customers the flexibility of switching between the advanced capabilities of graphic solutions like the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 and Intel Media Graphics Accelerator depending on performance and battery needs.

The m5500 is among the first to offer dual graphics cards. The idea is to let gamers get in a few rounds of Battlefield 2 with Nvidia’s GPU, and then switch over to Intel graphics to save some battery life for everyday tasks like surfing the Web or checking e-mail. Is this multiple-personality portable worth almost two grand? The m5500 looks exciting on the outside with a blue LED and rubberized side grips, but flip it open and it’s indistinguishable from the myriad of other notebooks on the market. In fact, we previously reviewed an Xtreme Raptor 766X that looked identical except for the cover. The black keyboard and gray plastic border are a letdown for an Alienware system. The keyboard is average, but the Space bar is shrunken to make room for extra keys on each side, this occasionally led to accidental button presses.

The machine I tested had a Pentium M 760 processor clocked at 2.0GHz, this has since been nominally replaced by a Core Duo CPU. Will this be replaced too, by a Core 2 Duo, before Alienware ships? The review unit featured 1GB of DDR memory, along with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU connected to 256MB of VRAM. The graphics choice on the new model is either a Mobility Radeon X1400 or a GeForce Go 7600, so the 3D scores aren’t quite comparable.

Flip the switch labeled Ext. VGA to On, reboot the system, and the laptop runs using the Nvidia graphics chip, most suitable for gaming. When set to Off, the Alienware uses Intel’s integrated graphics; this setting is best for business applications and Web surfing and provides improved battery life. The Intel integrated graphics chip comes with the 915GM core logic chipset, but Alienware adds an Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 with 256MB of video memory.

These graphics chips drive the 15.4-inch WSXGA+ LCD. The 1680 x 1050 display isn’t shiny and bright like competing consumer notebooks, but the anti-glare coating helps reduce eye strain. Having this super-high resolution display means that you won't have enough 3D power to play most games at the native screen resolution, at least not given the current GPU choices. In its defence, you will be able to watch 1080i HD video in full resolution on the screen, which might be appealing.

The m5500 notched a 6,325 on 3DMark03 using Nvidia’s graphics, which is a good midrange score. Playing F.E.A.R. on the autodetect setting yielded a pretty good 45 frames per second (fps). On the maximum setting, the count went down to a sad 12 fps, which means the system won’t play the latest games on the highest settings. You should still be able to run any game you wish, albeit at a medium graphics setting.

Keep in mind that playing games with the Nvidia GPU enabled sucks the life out of the battery. With Nvidia’s graphics, the m5500 lasted about 2 hours and 34 minutes. Switching to Integrated Graphics mode, the runtime jumped to 3 hours and 37 minutes with the Wi-Fi off, giving you over an hour of extra battery life.
 

Overall, the Alienware Area 51 m5500 is a rather strange beast, it has a super-high resolution display, but not enough graphics power to run 3D games at its native resolution. There are plenty of configuration options available to cater for a wide range of wallet sizes, but the question is if Alienware will skip the Core Duo version and go straight for the Core 2 Duo upgrade. Considering how fast Intel has been releasing new products this year, there’s no wonder the laptop manufacturers are having a hard time keeping up.

As one of the pioneers of the gaming notebook, it comes as no surprise to see Alienware coming to the table with yet another innovation. In 2002, the original Area-51m represented the world's first gaming-specific notebook. In typical Alienware fashion, the notebook carried a pricetag that was equally as breathtaking as its performance. With the arrival of the Area-51 m5500, Alienware has given a consumers a much more cost-conscious notebook that still provides the same level of performance enthusiasts have come to expect from this manufacturer.

The back of any Alienware notebook is perhaps one of the most distinct and recognizable aesthetics of any PC in existence. Here, the familiar corporate alien head is augmented by a set of rubberized grips which are raised and textured with a unique rubber feel to provide better grip when carrying the system. In the past, many have been impressed by the glowing eyes of this alien head badge whenever the system was powered on. With the Area-51 m5550, Alienware has taken things up a notch slightly by having the alien head and the Alienware logo bathed in a blue backlight in addition to the eyes. In practice, this consumed negligible power and certainly went far in capturing passer-by attention.

A neat feature is that you can disable the graphics chipset and use the integrated Intel graphics capabilities. It’s not the only notebook in the world to offer this feature, but it means you can get slightly better battery life when you don’t need the extra graphics performance. However, the review unit wasn’t set up correctly, so switching to the integrated graphics mode resulted in no drivers being loaded. This isn’t up to Alienware’s normally high standard, but I’m sure it was only a minor oversight.

The general build-quality was good, which is something you’d expect from an Alienware product, especially at the price you’re paying. Although I’m not that keen on the rubber inlays in the lid - it just adds weight without appearing to have any functionality - some buyers like the look. The unit's battery life was quite disappointing, considering that you won’t get more than one and a half hours' worth of DVD watching and not quite two hours' general Windows usage.

External connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-pin Firewire port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a modem socket. There’s also a PC card slot, useful for 3G data cards, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader at the front. D-Sub VGA output and an S-Video TV out is also present.

Alienware includes a set of recovery CDs called AlienRespawn, which is cutely named, though it’s not standard and you can choose to do without if you wish to save 30 quid. Kaspersky Anti-virus is another cost option included with our review sample. There’s 60GB of hard disk storage, which isn’t humungous by today’s standards. At least it’s a decently fast Hitachi TravelStar drive with a spindle rotation speed of 7,200rpm. Removable storage isn’t so impressive. There’s no DVD Burner, only a CD-Writer/DVD-ROM combo drive – very passé. A DVD Burner is available as a cost option though.

Alienware 2 VGA card ?? GeForce Go 6600 or Internal Graphic

Easily one of the most exciting aspects of the Area-51 m5500 would be the inclusion of an NVIDIA MXM discrete graphics module. When configuring a system, consumers have the option of choosing either an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 in 128MB or 256MB varieties or a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600. Our test system was equipped with a 128MB GeForce Go 6600 module which appears to be a MXM-I form factor according to this document from NVIDIA. Unfortunately, this means that the notebook cannot accept flagship level GPU's as their thermal and voltage requirements demand an MXM-II or higher form factor. This is a shame as with the card removed, we can see there is more than enough room for the larger form factor of the higher-end MXM formats.

To exploit the Alienware Area-51 m5500's ability to actively swap between the integrated Intel graphics and the NVIDIA GPU, you simply slide a switch on the front of the system with the notebook powered down. With the switch positioned to the left, the notebook uses the Intel IGP to maximize battery life. Should you wish to game or need some 3D horsepower, you can move this switch to the right to enable the GeForce Go 6600 module. Conveniently enough, the system is smart enough to channel video from the correct source to the single 15-pin VGA connector on the back of the system.