[spwolf]

http://www.amazon.com/UL80Vt-A1-14-I...5248365&sr=8-1 Doesn't quite have the oomph of the Alienware though

and its Asus... my less than 2 year old $2k business class Asus creaks and squeals and peels... my 4+ year old 13" XPS is like brand new. My $2k Asus has build quality of Inspirion product line, which would have been $1.2k less expensive. But of course, on forums Asus is da best shat in da town... serves me right.

p.s. of course it is 14" asus with a lot worse gpu... not comparable at all.

[Trojita]

It's almost as heavy as the Envy 15 I ordered.

[dallow_bg]

i'm still not seeing the grand motivation in spending $200~ and dropping some performance in order to cut 2 pounds of weight. does it still have a DVD drive? or atleast a ST card reader of some sort?

weight and physical size (this particular netbook is heavy though at 4lbs)

That means no disc drive either, but all the ports you need.

[Caesar III]

In terms of gaming performance its no where near, there's pretty much an order of magnitude difference. Its also much larger. I really don't understand the absolute need for an optical drive, I mean how often do you burn movies on the go? Just rip all your media and install all your games to the HDD at home and be on your way. An optical drive just adds unnecessary bulk.

If you do not use steam or another DD service and want to play some games without some *cough* you need a dvd drive.

The machines sounds nice but the weight is wow :D It's 11" and like 2,5Kg? WTF? My 12" is like 1,8kg and I think it is heavy :)

[Agate]

Pretty good specs..could be one of my prime choices for a new laptop, actually..

[brain_stew]

i'm still not seeing the grand motivation in spending $200~ and dropping some performance in order to cut 2 pounds of weight. does it still have a DVD drive? or atleast a ST card reader of some sort?

Because a machine the size of two DVD drives with 6 hours battery life is actually usable on the go? I don't think you're grasping just how small this thing is, see exhibit A:

[IMG]http://i48.************/dgmngl.jpg[/IMG]

As for the comment about dropping performance, well, that's really not the case, spend 5 minutes in the BIOS and that CPU will perform damn close to your Athlon and that GT 335M will have no problem outperforming your 4650 either.

The machine is not for you, fine, but to write off its achievements because you bought a machine twice the size with similar performance and a 1/3 of the battery life for roughly the same price hardly makes the machine seem unimpressive.

[Big Ass Ramp]

Wow, I'm surprised I haven't heard about this before. That seems really tempting. I almost feel like there must be a drawback that I'm missing.

[Pandaman]

weight and physical size (this particular netbook is heavy though at 4lbs) That means no disc drive either, but all the ports you need.

yea i mentioned that in an edit, but its the last post of the page. so...

how is its size functionally more portable then my laptop save for the people who walk around with small-medium sized bags like a purse? I mean, i'm a college student who buses everyday in a science course who doesn't have a locker and carries the days books in a shoulder breifcase. I'm literally the ideal market for small laptops, but i'm not exactly having trouble as it is.

going my the DVD comparison above drakengard and shadows of the colusus, well, im not seeing the techcrunch to get everything to fit. i'd lose my numpad and an area roughly equivalent to my DVD slot and card reader. basically my complaint is that it seems to be a year old laptop that had the external media slots removed. an interesting steam-machine in concept and something I'm glad to see they are purpsuing but i don't see it to be anything worth fangasming over. yet.

it should be noted at this point that my 'computer hardware' knowledge is limited and i might very well be missing its more technical merits.

[momolicious]

umm, so how does this cure cancer?

[brain_stew]

Wow, I'm surprised I haven't heard about this before. That seems really tempting. I almost feel like there must be a drawback that I'm missing.

If you do buy it make damn well sure you perform the 5 minute BIOS OC. You're losing around 2-3% of the battery life (and gaining 1 degree in heat) but receiving a massive ~20% performance improvement pretty much across the board. You'd be insane not to.

[brain_stew]

umm, so how does this cure cancer?

Well its GPU will run Folding @ Home faster than a PS3 (whilst using a fraction of the power) and around 4x as fast as any previous machine of this size, so yeah, its a pretty good cancer curing machine! :lol

If you do not use steam or another DD service and want to play some games without some *cough* you need a dvd drive.

Type *game* no dvd into Google, problem solved. Regardless every game release worth a damn is released on DD platforms these days, so it becomes less of an issue each day.

[Meier]

Sounds great, too bad it's ugly as hell.

No kidding. I could never, ever use a computer that looks solely like a gaming computer.

[FlawlessCowboy]

So hot.

I don't have the money, but if I did, I'd be all over this.

[BravoSuperStar]

No kidding. I could never, ever use a computer that looks solely like a gaming computer.

For an alienware design I find it fairly conservative. Yeah it is still a bit tacky, but the smaller size helps. I actually like it, tbqh.

[TheExodu5]

Really nice and I think GPU switch is a great idea, but this laptop is missing one crucial feature: HDMI out.

[Hazaro]

Only a matter of time before another company does this.

Looking forward to one that looks better.

[brain_stew]

For an alienware design I find it fairly conservative. Yeah it is still a bit tacky, but the smaller size helps. I actually like it, tbqh.

Yeah, the Star Trek keyboard font can go and the silly Alien badge with LED eyes, but honestly its much more tasteful than previous Alienware designs. Also, something I didn't realise, a backlit keyboard seems to be standard on all models, that's damn nice considering the feature is usually exclusive to $1000+ premium models. Heck Apple will charge you $300 for it! :lol :lol

[spwolf]

If you do not use steam or another DD service and want to play some games without some *cough* you need a dvd drive. The machines sounds nice but the weight is wow :D It's 11" and like 2,5Kg? WTF? My 12" is like 1,8kg and I think it is heavy :)

you can use steam or what brain stew suggested... or have external dvd drive, even though i am not sure why would anyone do that.

i have added 2nd HDD instead of my DVD to my laptop and have not used dvd drive for quite a while... only problem with limited gaming is that my gpu is not good enough even for RTS's these days.

[brain_stew]

Really nice and I think GPU switch is a great idea, but this laptop is missing one crucial feature: HDMI out.

It actually has HDMI, Displayport and VGA out, see:

[IMG]http://i47.************/1eukwh.jpg[/IMG]

[Dynamic3]

If you do buy it make damn well sure you perform the 5 minute BIOS OC. You're losing around 2-3% of the battery life (and gaining 1 degree in heat) but receiving a massive ~20% performance improvement pretty much across the board. You'd be insane not to.

Does this oc apply only to the dual core option?

Also does anyone know if the trackpad is multitouch and if you can do audio over HDMI in addition to video? Thanks.

Edit: ^What is that port to the right of the HDMI port? Does that site you are pulling those pictures from also have a write-up? I would like to check it out.

[Pandaman]

Edit: ^What is that port to the right of the HDMI port? Does that site you are pulling those pictures from also have a write-up? I would like to check it out.

its a displayport.

[brain_stew]

Does this oc apply only to the dual core option? Also does anyone know if the trackpad is multitouch and if you can do audio over HDMI in addition to video? Thanks.

They're both "dual core" chips but as to whether you can OC the Pentium chip? I don't think anyone knows at this point, the review models had Core 2 chips and allowed an easy OC to 1.6ghz (with excellent results) but that doesn't guarantee ou'll be able to do the same with all chips. If its confirmed that you can then that's the way I'd go, Pentium + OC, save ourself $100 and actually net yourself better performance than the stock Core 2 model but we'll have to wait and see if that's possible.

Don't think the trackpad is multi touch though you can set it up for scrolling.

No idea about audio over HDMI.

Edit: The site with the pictures is linked in the op! :lol

They're from the hardwareheaven.com review.

[Psy-Phi]

Don't know if I could muster myself up to play on an 11.6 inch screen.

It's got to have some kind of video out. Hook it up to an external monitor/HDTV.

[BravoSuperStar]

Just checked out the ordering configurations. A 7200rpm drive as the minimum standard would have been nice as it's being positioned as a gaming laptop. Same with 4gb of ram, but $50 for the upgrade is reasonable. The backlit keyboard is a nice standard feature though for sure. Also it goes without saying how much a device like this will benefit in the coming years from large capacity and affordable SSD drives. I'd be surprised if they don't end up selling quite a few of these anyway. Hell it's more interesting than the ipad at least. :D

[rhfb]

I really could use a gaming laptop. This thing fully upgraded looks damn sexy and has a sweet price too.

Was going to consider a MacBook Pro with Win7 bootcamped but they are just so woefully underpowered for the price now :/

Basically instapurchase if this is a good hackintosh machine.

[newsguy]

I asked about this thing in the PC thread. I think it would be pretty sweet for downtime at my job. I've never been a pc gamer so I'd need a 360 controller for it, but ME2 at high settings from work? That shit sounds so tempting.

[dallow_bg]

I WANT IT!!!!!!!

But it's too damn ugly.
Damn, I may have to live with it, specs are too good.

[Doomy]

may well sell my macbook for one of these. My macbook is 2 years old but they hold their value well. I got a pretty brutal PC which I keep up to date but rarely game on. This thing will obviously play EVE well and might just be the ticket for portable SF4. Once I given up on Demons Souls Ill have to have a look, cheers OP.

[Pctx]

Consider this shit bought... Way to go Dell!

[firehawk12]

It needs a Core i5... what is the SUwhatever anyway?

[rohlfinator]

Interesting idea, I guess.

It still kind of baffles me as to why anyone would want a gaming laptop, especially one with an 11" screen. Unless you travel a ton, a desktop paired with a netbook (or a better general purpose laptop) will do a much better job 90% of the time.

[dallow_bg]

Interesting idea, I guess. It still kind of baffles me as to why anyone would want a gaming laptop, especially one with an 11" screen. Unless you travel a ton, a desktop paired with a netbook (or a better general purpose laptop) will do a much better job 90% of the time.

My netbook is my main computer.
So this beefy one would be even better.

Don't care to have a desktop.

[hitmon]

This is now on my wishlist. Mass Effect 2 on max settings is impressive.

[RaySpencer]

Im tempted to get rid of this xps 1330 for this new alienware, its smaller, faster and less half the price of what I paid.

At the time, this was the fastest smallest (or the smallest fastest?), now its been outdone :(, damn technology !

[rohlfinator]

My netbook is my main computer. So this beefy one would be even better. Don't care to have a desktop.

Eh, whatever floats your boat, I guess. Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you want a desktop (even as a secondary PC)?

Oh, and this is an $800 PC in 2010 with that HDD and 2GB of RAM? I guess it doesn't surprise me that Dell is trying to gouge people on the upgrades, but still.

[Odious Tea]

Sort of want. But too ugly. No way I'll pull that out in class.

[Ysiadmihi]

The size and battery life is impressive but...ME2 at only 30fps at 720p? The game is not terribly demanding so it sounds to me like this would be outdated fairly quickly.

[spwolf]

Eh, whatever floats your boat, I guess. Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you want a desktop (even as a secondary PC)? Oh, and this is an $800 PC in 2010 with that HDD and 2GB of RAM? I guess it doesn't surprise me that Dell is trying to gouge people on the upgrades, but still.

yea, dont get it either... should be priced $500 like rest of the netbooks rite?

... definetly thinking about this in the future...14" has proven as impractical... a bit worried about 11"....

[Fox318]

I've bee looking forward to the system specs on this for a while. I'm seriously thinking of picking this up. Anyone try Crysis on this yet?

[sweetvar26]

The system does not come with a DVD drive, for those who don't know about this yet.

[Lagspike_exe]

So, the entry $800 machine ( I guess that would be 800 euro in EU) can run Mass Effect at 720p maxed?

Shit, if this gets shipped to my country, I'll skip iPad and just take this.

[IMACOMPUTA]

ive got a dell xps m1730 gaming laptop.
17" screen
2xsata hdd's
core2extreme @ 2.8Ghz
4gb RAM
Nvidia 8700M 256mb

Please buy this from me so i can buy the m11x!

[Q8D3vil]

very good price
but i can make desktop that's x3 more powerful than this with the same money ammount

but still .... very good for gaming on the go :D

[newsguy]

Can anyone tell me what upgrades I should be adding to the core model? $800 is the base price. What are the minimum performance upgrades I need to add to get the most out of the games. In other words not Bluetooth add ons and the like. Obviously the $100 extra for the core 2, but what other things will boost performance?

[Lagspike_exe]

Can anyone tell me what upgrades I should be adding to the core model? $800 is the base price. What are the minimum performance upgrades I need to add to get the most out of the games. In other words not Bluetooth add ons and the like. Obviously the $100 extra for the core 2, but what other things will boost performance?

Won't exactly boost performance by much, but adding additional 2GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM will make your life easier.

[sixteen-bit]

Will it play SFIV at 60fps?

[cory]

This is close to what I'm looking for. It's getting pretty crappy having to transport my PC to and from college.

[spwolf]

It actually has HDMI, Displayport and VGA out, see: [IMG]http://i47.************/1eukwh.jpg[/IMG]

This laptop is full of freaking win... for those that have used laptops a lot here are some freaking nice points:
1. Smart port placement. What you see above is the SIDE of the laptop. Meaning it is much easier to attach cables to it. When you have many ports of the back, you have to turn the laptop around to get the cable in.
2. Smart port selection. 3 USB ports. HDMI/VGA/DisplayPort. MediaCard reader. 2 Audio outs.
3. Underside does NOT get too hot according to the reviews (in quite many laptops with dedicated card, you might almost get burned if you put your laptop on your lap while playing games.)
4. GOOD keyboard and trackpad. Edge to Edge keyboard designed for the games in mind. Normal laptops are not suitable for fps gaming for instance because of bad keyboards. My 15.4" Asus has only slightly wider keyboard than this 11.6" laptop.
5. Impressive battery life. 8.5hrs in normal use, 2 hrs with heavy gaming and 4-5hrs running 1080p video? Most of laptops at those prices have 2hr life for ordinary use.
6. Nicely sized - despite all the hardware, laptop is not too big or thick or heavy. Slightly smaller than XPS 13 and 10% heavier. Keep in mind that they have to cool that effectivly.
7. Good performance and overclocking, as brain_stew mentioned.

This thing is all around win-win for us - customers. Only nitpick i could find is lack og gigabit networking but thats really minor.

I am definetly thinking of picking this up! Awesome job Alienware!

[dLMN8R]

yea i mentioned that in an edit, but its the last post of the page. so... how is its size functionally more portable then my laptop save for the people who walk around with small-medium sized bags like a purse? I mean, i'm a college student who buses everyday in a science course who doesn't have a locker and carries the days books in a shoulder breifcase. I'm literally the ideal market for small laptops, but i'm not exactly having trouble as it is. going my the DVD comparison above drakengard and shadows of the colusus, well, im not seeing the techcrunch to get everything to fit. i'd lose my numpad and an area roughly equivalent to my DVD slot and card reader. basically my complaint is that it seems to be a year old laptop that had the external media slots removed. an interesting steam-machine in concept and something I'm glad to see they are purpsuing but i don't see it to be anything worth fangasming over. yet. it should be noted at this point that my 'computer hardware' knowledge is limited and i might very well be missing its more technical merits.

You're comparing completely different classes of laptops. Perhaps an extremely heavy laptop with a 15." screen and shitty battery life in a machine that's almost as fast as the one this thread is about works fine for you, but that doesn't make it an equivalent machine worth the same price.

This Alienware PC is far more compact, far lighter, and far more practical. That's why it's "only" $100 cheaper than your laptop.

[duk]

damn... nice laptop!!! ill wait til its like 600 lol