Alienware Area51-m Extreme
| Alienware Area51-m Extreme | |
| Processor | Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, 3200MHz, 512KB L2, 2MB L3 |
| Display | LCD TFT, 15.4, WSXGA+, 1680x1050, Widescreen, 32-bit colour, S-Video and VGA output ports |
| Northbridge | SiS 648FX |
| Memory | 1GB, 2 x Apacer DDR400 512MB SODIMMs |
| Graphics | User upgradeable cores, ATI MR9600 PRO 128MB and NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 options available |
| Southbridge | SiS 936L |
| Disk Storage | Hitachi Travelstar 7K60, 60GB, 7200rpm, UDMA5, 2.5", 8MB cache |
| Removable Storage | Quanta SDW-041, 4 x DVD+R, 2.4 x DVD+RW, 16 x CD-R, 8 x DVD read, 24 x CD-ROM read |
| Audio | C-Media AC'97 6-speaker Audio |
| Audio Connectivity | Line output, combined Line input/ S/PDIF output |
| USB | 3 x USB2.0 ports |
| Firewire | 1 x FireWire400 4-pin unpowered port |
| Networking | Realtek RTL8169 10/100/1000Mbit wired Ethernet, 802.11a+b+g 108Mbit/sec WiFi wireless Ethernet |
| PC Card | 1 x Type-II PC Card slot |
| Card Reader | Multi-media card reader (SD, MMC, XD) |
| Misc | Dual port IrDa transciever, 6 stereo speakers, Parallel port |
Hear that? That was the sound of your jaw hitting the floor. 3.2 Extreme Edition, WSXGA+ Widescreen LCD, 4x DVD-R, swappable graphics, 1GB of DDR400, GigE wired Ethernet, 108Mbit/sec wireless. It's all there, you didn't read wrongly.
With a specification to make any desktop machine proud (bar the obvious concessions to mobile hard disk storage and one-step-under-the-desktop-best mobile graphics), the Area51-m Extreme is just that, extreme.
However, a closer look does reveal some subtle flaws, given what you'd expect from such a specification.
SiS's 648FX chipset houses but a single memory controller, limiting the oh-so-mighty Extreme Edition to 3.2GB/sec of transfer from said controller. A dual-channel chipset, such as Intel's 865PE, scheduled to be grafted to the Uniwill base that Alienware use for the 51-m, by Uniwill as soon as they can, would be more suited.
Past that however, you'll struggle to find anything that's going to limit what you can do in a mobile form factor.
The 'turbo' WiFi is notable for its inclusion, as is a current desktop speed DVD writer, supporting the + side of the standards. Specification wise, you'd have trouble thinking what else you could add or change.
Alienware offer a slightly larger 16.1" widescreen LCD now, an option since the review unit shipped, but that's the only upgrade the unit could possibly get from Alienware themselves.
Specification is just one side of a multi-faceted package however, it pays to look at how it's been implemented and what it's like to use, and not just as a testbed, running benchmarks.
Let's do so.
