Alienware m9700 review

Features
The big performance shout with the m9700 is undoubtedly the SLI configuration. Alienware has strapped together two 512MB GeForce Go 7900 GS cards into this £2,000 version and it certainly shows. Power moguls may bemoan the lack of a top-end GTX-badged card, but the price hike between the GS and GTX is an unreasonable one for all but the most hardcore of gamers. It's difficult to find fault with the core specification, though -- 2GB of RAM and a 2.2GHz processor are difficult to argue with. 

The 17-inch widescreen display is great for gaming and looks great when running at its full 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution, but its reflective Clearview coating doesn't make for great viewing if using the laptop in broad daylight. If you're on a train or near a window, for example, reflections are all too prominent. We'll forgive it this drawback though as the laptop is mainly designed for indoor use -- anyone who dares take its garish green chassis outdoors runs the risk of being attacked by bees. DVI, VGA and S-video outputs give you plenty of options for connecting an external monitor if the screen's 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution proves restrictive, which it shouldn't.

Above the screen you'll find a 1.3-megapixel digital camera for Web conferencing, or to take photos of you looking mean while fragging all and sundry. There's also a four-in-one card reader, gigabit Ethernet and a 56K V.92 Modem for those poor souls who don't have broadband.

We were slightly miffed at the inclusion of the 80GB hard drive, which is almost an insult in a laptop costing £2,000. It absolutely pales in comparison with the dual 120GB drives in machines such as the Dell XPS M2010, but some may take (small) solace with the inclusion of an 8x dual-layer DVD burner, which in this case is installed at the front of the laptop, between a pair of speakers.

The front-facing speakers mean sound won't be muffled if you decide to listen to music with the lid closed, plus the on-board high-definition audio card will let you connect surround-sound speakers to complete a pretty comprehensive home cinema gaming experience.

Above the keyboard there are shortcut buttons for launching applications and adjusting video and audio playback

Performance
We tested the laptop with a variety of real world and synthetic benchmarks and it proved its worth every time.  It scored 5,434 in 3DMark 2006, F.E.A.R. ran at a blistering 96fps at 1,024x768 pixels, and only dropped to 72fps at 1,600x1,200 pixels. Those willing to sacrifice power could save some cash by dropping the SLI option, which after all adds close to £400 to the price of this laptop, but where's the fun in that?

Core performance was good too. The m9700 proved it's not just a gaming machine by racking up 3,441 in PCMark 2005 -- which just goes to show it won't shy away from running demanding applications. There's one drawback though -- the SLI graphics and a 64-bit processor don't power themselves, so you won't want to venture far from a mains outlet. In our tests the laptop lasted 93 minutes before requiring a recharge.

Edited by Rory Reid
Additional editing by Kate Macefield