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Alienware Aurora m9700 17-inch Notebook
Page 11 of 12 Video Playback Having GeForce Go 7900GSs for video playback, the DVD-viewing quality left something to be desired. It only scored 77 out of 130 points with the HQV benchmarking tool. It had problems de-interlacing the motion blur at all times, and was fairly noisy at best. Audio The built-in speakers were nice. Laptops usually have the "I'm listening to headphones cranked way up from three feet away" effect, but the Aurora's m9700's sound was capable of watching a movie with other people sitting around it at a table. It may not be physically possible for laptop speakers to deliver loud sound, but they can at least respect the audio they're reproducing, and this laptop was very respectful. According to Alienware, the laptop has 2.1 audio; stereo output and a center "subwoofer". It didn't make the table shake. It's that you just can't call it a "prettygoodwoofer", so I don't blame them for trying. As a desktop replacement, the built-in speakers may as well be moot, since the computer has 5.1 audio-out, through both analog 3.5mm jacks and digital S/PDIF for the high-end 5.1 audio setups. Battery Life Portable in no way implies not needing a tether. I wasn't expecting an eight-hour stretch without getting plugged in, but the best way to extend the battery life is to not use the computer. Idle: 1 hour, 25 minutes CPU load: 51 minutes CPU + GPU load: 42 minutes Watching a DVD: 1 hour, 11 minutes Honestly, I could imagine Alienware designing a laptop form-factor desktop replacement without a battery. And this would be a good thing. The space could be used for much larger cooling systems, the video cards used could be more powerful, and it's not like this machine's going anywhere without the power supply. Heat and Noise The fans ran at a constant, low pace. The sound of air moving was the only noise; the fans themselves were silent. And of course, it has more than one. I did take the laptop outside, on a warm day, and ran a bunch of synthetic loading apps, to drive up the system temps and see what would happen. It crashed once out of three one-hour load tests; not great, but not terrible, either. Even desktops run aground when hit with Orthos and RTHDRIBL and SuperPi all at once. More evidence that suggests the computer is desk-bound. Indoors, the fans kept the computer under 80 degrees Celsius, but moved enough air that, during the DVD-watching battery test, it melted a chocolate bar I failed to notice behind the laptop. The power supply is rated at 240 watts; I suspect that the laptop can chew through all of it. Even though the laptop blows a lot of heat out the back, the palm area, touchpad, and keyboard stayed completely cool; it's very well-insulated. Software and Bundle The fact that Alienware is bereft of bloatware is one of the oft-unspoken selling points. I can't stand the horrible McAffee or Norton or any other hack-laden, credit-card slurping, registry-warping POS utilities that get tacked onto an OEM installation to drop the price. It's worth the extra cash to never have to deal with that crap. Instead, the Aurora m9700 was pre-loaded with a pretty good skinning utility that easily changed the entire user interface from the tired XP theme to a handful of Alienware-themed skins. Other skins are available, too, although it costs extra to download them.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks Page 3: Test Setup Page 4: Testing - HL2 Episode 1 Page 5: Testing - F.E.A.R. Page 6: Testing - Company of Heroes Page 7: Testing - Prey Page 8: Testing - Need for Speed Most Wanted Page 9: Testing - 3DMark 06 Page 10: Performance Summary Page 11: Performance Summary, Continued... Page 12: Conclusion
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