Certain amounts of ingenuity were required to make full use of the laptop when a TV tray, coffee table, or hardwood floor was not available. Suddenly anything flat and stiff had an additional use as an Alienware Positioning Unit, such as my drafting board and the tops of boxes.

(NOTE: I plan to submit the Alienware Positioning Unit (or APU) to Alienware. It’s a flat, stiff board large enough to cover the space of the notebook and additional room for a mouse. It would also have a graphic that would exclaim it as the “Crashspace APU”, or better yet the “Christopher T. Means signature series APU”. We’ll do lunch. Talk it over.)

It can now be said that Alienware does not screw around. Other than the operating system and a few Alienware styled themes, there wasn’t anything else on the 7700. This is a good thing to anyone who has bought an E-machine, HP, or Dell computer only to find pointless programs like Microsoft Works and god knows how many money managing and tax programs pre-installed in trial form. Alienware just assumes that if you had wanted crap on your PC you would be ordering computers from someone else.

We immediately set to testing the 7700 with Half-Life 2, Rome: Total War, City of Villains, and (against good taste) Doom III. As expected nothing could bring the system to lag. The 17” WideUXGA 1920x1200 LCD Display brought everything out in vivid color. Everything you have heard and come to expect from Alienware.

Control was a bit different. I didn’t really care for the keyboard. It’s set too far back from the edge and the keys seemed really close together. I ended up putting my Nostromo and my Trackball in my lap and played from my chair. Adding the Nostromo and Trackball made the whole system three times more accessible.

The 7700 also has an additional function not mentioned in the manual. It ranks really high on the impress-o-meter. While certain people are above using material possessions to elevate one’s self above others, I am not above that convention. Any chance I had to mention “oh, well it played fine on my Alienware” or “ I’ll come over sometime, I’ll bring my Alienware” I dropped the name. There isn’t a better silence in the world than the silence of envy. Mwahahah.



Click the image above to enlarge. The system is superb, so now we get down to the nitty gritty. You can build the king of notebooks, but should anyone buy one?

During the Alienware month the 7700 did take the place of my PC. Actually, I have a vague memory of the night I decided the 7700 was much more important than I had realized….

After that night my life seemed to revolve around the 7700. I didn’t seem to sleep much, I ate less, but seemed to get a lot farther in City of Villains and Rome: Total War.

Whereas the 7700 and I are now joined via neural implant, is it reasonable for you the consumer to purchase one? The Hive Mind says yes, but here’s my opinion:

Normally priced about $2,000 (The Bells and Whistles model we had was valued at just over $3600) it’s obvious that this would be an investment for the average gamer regardless if it’s paid upfront or in installments. Taking that into account, do not rule them out. Notebooks hold their value twice as long as any desktop given their portability and rarity, and an Alienware notebook could easily hold for three times longer.

Then there are specific gamers who can easily benefit from an Alienware Notebook.

The Social Gamer: As I said, the LAN game is getting harder and harder to put together as the Internet gets faster and faster and the average gamer (you) gets lazier and lazier (still you). Having the port-o-computer makes it ridiculously easy to join one, and the more that come, the more that will want an invite. Even if it’s not a party, hanging out and playing game on a friend’s home network can become commonplace.

The Gamer on the Go: Travel much? Can’t stand to miss your Everquest II guild raid? Contemplating ritual suicide? This way you can plug into the hotel Internet and never miss a beat. As an added bonus, bloated graphics code seems slightly less detrimental on a top of the line system.

Unless you fit into either of these groups, you should probably go the desktop route. Notebooks are nice, but portability is the name of the game and unless you’re portin’ put that credit card safely back in your Velcro Pac-Man wallet.

I recommend that everyone else reconsider the myth of the Alienware notebook. If you consider your situation carefully they can be a great and entertaining investment. Just make sure you know exactly what you want. Also consider steel carrying cases and tracking devices… maybe a little alarm.

Having shipped back the 7700 and sobbing uncontrollably for two hours, I still miss it so. The laptop crusade marches on though, and one day when Alienware sends me one for writing such a stirring and well-executed article, I can die happy and be buried with it.

Review by Christopher Means.