Alienware Area-51 M9750 review

The M9750 can be configured with two types of screen. Both are 17-inchers, but one runs at a relatively low WXGA+ resolution of 1,440x900 pixels, while the other can push 1,920x1,200 pixels. The latter is better for playing games and watching movies, so we'd recommend spending the £150 premium if you have the means, and especially if you've gone for the dual GeForce Go 8700M GT graphics cards.

At the rear, you'll find a line-in, coaxial SPDIF port, S-Video output and a modem jack

Our review sample shipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 processor running at 2.33GHz, which is the fastest Alienware offers at the time of writing. Other options are available, though. The bottom-rung 1.66GHz T5500 can save you nearly £400 off the asking price, but we can't see the point of a 1.66GHz CPU in a gaming laptop. Other 1GB, 2GB and 4GB RAM options are available, all of which are 667MHz DDR2 modules. Ours used 2GB and ran fine.

Alienware offers a variety of optical drives including a standard dual-layer DVD rewriter. If you've plumped for the high-res display, you might also want to upgrade to a Blu-ray disc drive, although that costs an extra £190. We wouldn't bother with the dual Blu-ray writer configuration, but that's only because we don't have £235 to spare.

Performance
It's quick, but you probably didn't need us to tell you that. It racked up a very impressive PCMark05 score of 6,616, which is 786 more than we got with the Dell XPS M1730 -- but it's worth noting that our test sample of that laptop used a slightly slower 2.2GHz CPU.

It couldn't beat the Dell for 3D gaming performance, however. The Alienware racked up a 3DMark06 tally of 5,136, which is slightly embarrassing considering the XPS M1730 scored 8,870. Don't let that put you off, though -- the M9750 is still very capable of throwing a few polygons around.

Conclusion
If you're after a gaming laptop that doesn't scream 'chav' or 'boy racer' then this could be the ideal solution. It's attractive, quick and can be configured to suit your specific needs. But if no-holds-barred gaming is what you're really after, then the XPS M1730 is probably a better option.

Update: Alienware contacted us to suggest that the 3DMark 2006 score in our M9750 review was low compared to their expectations of the system. We agreed to test a second Alienware M9750 laptop, but Alienware was unable to ship an identical model, making a direct comparison between the initial review sample and its replacement impossible. Whereas the graphics solution in the original sample comprised dual GeForce Go 7950 cards in an SLI configuration, the second sample uses dual 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 8700M GT cards in SLI -- which cost an extra £120. That system scored 8,871 in 3DMark 2006 -- a tally that is nearly identical to the Dell XPS M1730, which uses the same cards and achieved 8,870.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday