Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out Alienware Aurora m9700 Email This Print This View My Personal Library Heavy Gear October 2006 • Vol.6 Issue 10 Page(s) 24 in print issue Add To My Personal Library Alienware Aurora m9700 Aurora m9700 $4,074 Alienware www.alienware.com 4.5 CPU’s Specs: 2.4GHz AMD Turion 64 ML-44, 2GB 400MHz DDR memory, Dual 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS; HD audio; 8X dual-layer DVD+RW; 802.11b/g; 17-inch WUXGA 1,920 x 1,200 LCD Although most chipmakers are spending their R&D bucks on all-day battery life, Alienware is out to smoke your desktop. The Aurora m9700 is one of the first generation of SLI notebooks to include Nvidia’s dual 256MB GeForce Go 7900 GS graphics cards. Alienware equipped the m9700 with AMD’s fastest single-core mobile CPU, the 2.4GHz Turion 64 ML-44, which has an 800MHz FSB and 1MB L2 cache. My unit was maxed out with 2GB 400MHz DDR memory, two 100GB 7,200rpm harddrives in a RAID 0 array for 200GB total storage capacity, and an 8X dual-layer DVD+RW drive. Other notable components include an internal 802.11b/g card, Bluetooth, and high-definition sound. Alienware’s m9700 is a polished offering, literally and figuratively. The silver case is smooth, and thanks to a slightly textured appearance, masks fingerprints well. Lift the 17-inch widescreen WUXGA display to reveal a full keyboard and number pad. Notebooks such as the Aurora m9700 are the reason nobody calls them “laptops” anymore. This unit measures 11.75 x 15.5 x 1.8 inches (HxWxD) and weighs 11lbs., 11 ounces. That’s still half as much as the Dell XPS M2010, but you won’t be lugging this notebook to Starbucks every time you need a shot of caffeine. It’s just as well, because the m9700 couldn’t survive a full run of Mobile-Mark05; not surprisingly, it went kaput after just 82 minutes. On the upside, the Aurora m9700 scored a 4956 in 3DMark06 and a 3877 in PCMark05. My test unit also blew through a custom Quake 4 demo at 60.8fps (1,280 x 1,024). It also managed an average of 50fps in F.E.A.R. (1,400 x 1,050), and an average of 117fps in Far Cry’s Research demo (1,280 x 1,024). If you have the change to spare, this is one fine gaming notebook. by Andrew Leibman  User Reviews Be the first to write a review of this product Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.