Archive for the ‘ Dell ’ Category

Alienware M11x launched and reviewed

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

So the 11.6-inch gaming notebook Alienware M11x is finally here! This is a very powerful beast for so tiny a size (4.5 pounds)!

Alienware M11x

It’s already available for preorder from 799 USD in the US and from 749 GBP in the UK (for other countries have a look at the official announcement) with the basic configuration of an Intel Pentium Dual Core SU4100, 2 GB RAM and 160 GB HD @5400 rpm (320 GB @7200 rpm in the UK). Going for an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300, 4 GB RAM and 320 GB HD @7200 rpm is going to cost you 1024 USD (868 GBP in the UK). And of course, the Nvidia GeForce GT 335M 1 GB GDDR3 in all configurations.

The small gaming laptop has already been reviewed at Hardware Heaven and IGN Gear, and both are very impressed by the machine, that ran all the games thrown at it flawlessly at high settings, and battery life was almost 6 h of general use!

In my opinion it’s a great, great product. But I’m concerned about the ability of these CULV processors of running CPU-intensive games and scenarios, such as GTA4, Battlefield Bad Company 2, 25-man WOW raids and so, that maybe you would considering to do in thes ultraportable.

For more information, the forum members of Notebook Review have compiled a good amount of info about this small laptop in the Alienware M11x official thread.

Cheap gaming laptops: Asus G60VX with Nvidia GTX 260M for 999 USD

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Gaming laptops can be really expensive, but sometimes you can find laptops that are good for gaming and offer a nice price/performance ratio. Such is the case of the Asus G60VX you can find at Best Buy for 999 USD: while it only has an Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2,1 GHz), its Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M is quite a powerful card for the price. And for only 50 USD more, you can have the P-7915u FX with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 at 2.53 GHz.

In case you can’t afford one of these, laptops with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 should to be cheaper and provide a reasonably good gaming experience if you don’t need a high graphical quality, but don’t count on play Crysis on High.

Dell Inspiron 13z reviewed, gets 87% score

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

The guys at Notebookcheck seem to be first publishing a review of the Dell Inspiron 13z, and it is a good one: well done, and with a high score.

The Inspiron 13z has great potential, because its pros allow a wide field of application. It qualifies for mobile use especially with its long battery life, its low weight, and its good case quality.

Unfortunately the main user interface, the display, is a disadvantage here.

Read: Dell Inspiron 13z review

Is Alienware preparing a 23-inch laptop?

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

I seriously doubt it, but a Dell agent at the Dell US Chat seems to have mentioned a 23-inch Alienware laptop to be announced in a month or so. It could be only an attempt to distract the customer. In addition, I can’t think about many reasons to need such a big laptop (well, maybe using desktop graphics cards). The biggest ones I have seen are 20-inch, and they were really huge, anything bigger would be mad.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 in the Alienware M17x is GDDR3 instead of GDDR5

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

It seemed some kind of typo because in some countries it was stated as being GDDR3 and in some others as GDDR5, but at the moment all the users that have got their M17x with CrossFireX 4870s have GDDR3 modules on it.

Performance data is very scarce at the moment, but it seems that the performance of the 4870 GDDR3 CrossFireX is very close to that of the GTX 280M SLI. If the ATI configuration is cheaper than the Nvidia one in your country, that’s OK.

Update: Dell has confirmed they are GDDR3. GDDR5 memory seems to generate too much heat.

Dell Latitude Z600 with wireless dock and charger, HP Envy 13 reviewed, Alienware M17x gets Mobility 4870, ATI Radeon HD 5850 reviewed

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Many interesting news while I was away… Here you have a few of the most interesting:

Dell launches the Latitude Z600

I’ts a very slim 16″ business laptop (4.5 lb) with some innovative features:

  • Wireless docking station: you can use an external monitor, keyboard and mouse without actually plugging them or a conventional docking station to the laptop, the laptop is connected to the docking station wirelessly. It is a costly upgrade (349 USD), but very convenient and innovative.
  • Wireless charging: you don’t have to plug the laptop to a power outlet to charge it, you just have to put it on the charging base. It is expensive also (349 USD).
  • 2 internal SSDs: so you can choose 2 256 GB SSDs inside, for a total of 512 GB of ultrafast (and very expensive) storage.
  • Latitude ON: a more advanced version of older instant-on Linux-based minimal operating systems such as Splashtop, focused on business applications.
  • On the negative side, RAM modules are soldered to the motherboard (so you are bound to 4 GB DDR3, but that is enough for most business users), and the videos show some keyboard flex (but the Engadget folks found it excellent).
  • More information: Dell USA, Dell UK, Direct2Dell, Engadget

HP Envy 13 reviewed

The first reviews are appearing. It seems an awesome laptop, but with weak spots such as an awfull touchpad. Read them at:

Alienware M17x gets ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 GDDR5 option

Both single and CrossFireX. In some countries the pricing is very good (cheaper than the GTX 280M but providing similar or even higher performance). Also the card can shown as a 4850 instead of 4870 but seems to be a typo. In case you are interested on this configuration, wait a bit so possible typos are fixed and some benchmarks appear.

More information: Dell USA, Dell UK, Notebook Review forums

ATI Radeon HD 5850 reviewed

It is not a laptop card and I am not going to upgrade soon (I purchased a 4670 Ultimate recently), but according to the reviews it has an excellent price/performance ratio and idle power consumption, so maybe in the future… I hate not being able to play Crysis on High :) Read the reviews:

Some places to buy the ATI Radeon HD 5850:

Alienware M15x review at DriverHeaven

Friday, September 25th, 2009

These guys are ultra-fast! If you are interested on the Alienware M15x with Core i7 processors, here you have the first review, courtesy of DriverHeaven:

Alienware M15x Core i7 review

New Alienware M15x available, and videos too

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

So the long-rumored Alienware M15x has been released. Here you have the most relevant information:

  • It looks like a smaller M17x Allpowerful, but without numeric pad. It is heavy for a 15″ (from 4 kg), but it is more portable than the 17″ version (from 5.3 kg).
  • The full range of Intel Core i7 Mobile is available: 720QM, 820QM and 920XM. There are some benchmarks of the Core i7 Mobile available.
  • The fastest card available at the moment is a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M, with a GT 240M available too for the less performance-hungry. The GT 240M has been reviewed in the Acer Aspire 5739G, so you can find out some benchmarks at Notebookjournal and Notebookcheck (hint: it is very similar to an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650). Mobile versions of the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series are expected soon (Fudzilla, Portables4Gamers); can we dream about them to be an option then?
  • Base price is 1499 USD (or 1179 GBP, or 1399 €).

Some useful links: more detailed info, pics and videos at Notebookjournal; support information, with manuals and specifications (found at Engadget); and finally, the order page at Dell US and Dell UK.

By the way, Alienware has new desktops computers too.

The video from Notebookjournal is available from Youtube, so here you have:

Dell Inspiron 17 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 in the Dell Studio XPS 16 available in Europe

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

After a few weeks being available in the US, now the Dell Studio XPS 16 is available in Europe with the updated graphics card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670. This card is a worthy upgrade from the 3670, but can lower the battery life of this laptop; anyway, it’s not designed to be far from your desk… The Dell Inspiron 17 is available, too.

Dell Vostro 1220 available from 799 USD

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The affordable business laptop Dell Vostro 1220 is already available at the Dell US site. It’s not based on Intel CULV processors, but on Intel Core 2 Duo ones (there is a Celeron option too), so I and others were wrong. It’s priced from 799 USD and weight from 1.52 kg (3.36 lb).