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Gamertell’s Pulkit Chandna is reporting that Alienware has again pushed the envelope, producing one of the most powerful notebooks known to us Homo sapiens. The Area 51 m17x notebook is Alienware’s newest addition to its lineup and it surely will make its owner the subject of very pleasant geeky envy.

At its heart is an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor with a 4 MB L2 cache. Combine this with the 800 MHz front side bus and 4GB ofDDR2 RAM and one can already sense a winner.

Read [Gamertell]

Seagate has announced that Dell XPS laptops will soon be shipping with their Momentus 7200.3 hard drives, and they will also incorporate the same technology on Alienware laptops soon. The Momentus 7200.3 hard drive was designed for on-the-go worker and touts a low power consumption and overall reliable performance. This new Seagate 2.5-inch hard drive gives out up to 320GB of storage capacity and boasts a fast Serial ATA 3.0 Gbit/second interface. It spins at a 7200-rpm speed and has a 16MB cache. In addition the hard drive is equipped with G-Force Protection that was built to withstand up to 1000Gs of non-operating shock and 350Gs of operating shock and free-fall sensor technology that helps to prevent drive damage and data loss even when your notebook gets dropped.

The Momentus 7200.3 will be offered in 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, 250GB and 320GB storage capacities. These new Seagate hard drives also consumes less energy and will only be a $46 upgrade on the XPS M1730 notebook.

Read [CNW Group] Via [Engadget]

In 2006, Dell acquired the high-end gaming PC brand Alienware to complement its own premium-gaming line of XPS computers. With a market worth around $12 billion, Dell’s investment in the gaming PC market by purchasing Alienware was a logical move. The company allowed Alienware to operate independently, but by doing so it created a problem in that they now had two competing gaming PC lines. Dell has admitted its XPS line has eaten into Alienware’s market share. As a result, the company plans to phase out four gaming XPS models from its lineup, streamlining their offerings and relieving their Alienware subsidiary of competition. Their plan is to essentially create two complementing brands, rather than two competing brands.

The reason why Dell took two years to realize the change was because the company originally thought the Alienware brand was hardcore enough that it would differentiate itself from their “family sedan” XPS line. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Over time, Dell began to market the XPS as a high-end gaming machine, inadvertently creating competition within itself. In fact, some XPS systems in the past contained the same features and components offered in Alienware rigs.

It should be noted that not all XPS systems will be scraped. In June, Dell will be pushing all gaming-centric PCs to Alienware, while the XPS will morph into a more mainstream brand.

[Update] Dell has since released a statement on their Direct2Dell Blog in response to the phasing out of the XPS line. It turns out that the phasing out of the XPS lineup was a bit of an exaggeration. The XPS line will be continued, however Dell plans to expand their focus on Alienware.

“Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands...and both will live on,” spokeswoman Anne Camden said in a blog. “But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design, and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future.”

Read [Tech News World] Update Via [CNET]

Alienware has re-launched its Area-51 7500 into the Area-51 desktop which now supports the most robust gaming platform in the PC gaming industry. The Area-51 is now packed with NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI-based motherboard and NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU single graphics card to deliver high definition PC gaming with high frame rates and smooth Blu-ray disc playback.

The nForce 790i Ultra SLI is the only nForce platform that supports DDR3 memory up to 2GHz. This gives out record-breaking memory speeds that support even the most graphics intensive PC games. The nForce790i motherboard is compatible with 1600MHz FSB Intel CPUs and allows unmatched visual computing through NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology.

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Shuttle, the gaming PC leviathans are releasing a new model in advance of next week’s Cebit extravaganza. The device in question is an absolute beast of computer muscle power. The XPC P2 3500G sports a 750GB hard drive with a 32MB cache and an Intel Core 2 Quad Core processor. It is all encapsulated within an Aluminum XPC case, and has enough cooling and ventilation systems to ensure it doesn’t sound like a raucous under your desk every time you load up a game.

Other features include ATI Radeon HD3870 graphics, 2 Firewire and 7 USB ports, a 25-in-1 card reader and best of all a fingerprint scanner, for when you don’t want anyone to destroy your Gamerstats. It should retail for around $2,250. The world awaits.

Product [Shuttle] Via [Gizmodo]

It was already known that Dell really wanted to enter the phone arena because many giant companies have already begun to create their own phones. Companies such as Apple, Hewlett Packard and Asus, have already successfully entered the phone arena and if Dell looks to make their own mark in the phone industry they will hopefully try to do it with Alienware and Google’s Android. 

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There were many gamer-friendly gadgets at this year’s CES but, due to technological limits and simple human exhaustion, we couldn’t quite get them all on Gadgetell.

Here a reduced version of the list I compiled for my local CiN Weekly column featuring the better gaming gadgets and announcements from CES 2007.  Read on for the list…

• Razer Reclusa gaming keyboard with gold-plated USB plug


• Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse


• Nyko WiiMote charger

• Nyko PS3 wireless controller charger (4 controllers at one time)

• Novint Tech.’s Falcon 3D controller, maybe the weirdest item I found. The pointed mouse floats on robot arms and gives back a bit of resistance so it feels like you are touching the items on your computer.


• Alienware m9750 laptop (bling and caching)

• TDVision Systems’ 3D visor that turns any 2D video into 3D


• Samsung’s Series 53 and 54 LCD HDTVs with increased viewing angles and extras ports for game systems.

• HotSeat Chassis with a metal frame, 23 in. LCD HD widescreen monitors and surround sound. Pricey but dern cool. Frame only kit is $600, full setup can cost $4000.


• PCGamerBike to power your PC and control avatars in compatible games. Coming next month for $1100. Mini version available now for $180.


• D-Box GP-100, the uber plush sound-sensitive chair that reacts to on-screen action. A hard sell for $15K,000.


• N-Gage will become a software package that will work with their NSeries devices and will not be a specific N-Gage branded hardware device (I confirmed this with Nokia).


• Zune will play games by July 2008


• Sony, besides the unfortunate PR blunder, won two Emmys and announced and agreement with Midway to offer more downloadable games.


• Nintendo was a no-show but Wiis were on display everywhere and they won an Emmy for their D-pad.


• Microsoft promoted Vista with the FPS game, Crysis, showed off the Xbox 360 controller working with a Vista PC, console and PC content sharing, a raise in the 50MB download cap on games and some Zune integration.

Alienware, makers of high-end, pricey PC gaming rigs that feature a glowy alien head icon, celebrated its ten-year anniversary at the end October.

Here’s a quote straight from Alienware’s press release:

“When I think about what we’ve been able to do for our customers and the PC market over the last 10 years, I’m humbled ­ but not so humbled that I can’t look ahead and see that Alienware is going to keep on pushing the envelope,” said Alienware CEO Nelson Gonzalez. “Since the inception of the company in 1996, delivering ultimate performance, unmatched style and uncompromising service have always been core to Alienware’s DNA, and we’ll continue moving forward and upward. We truly believe that the stars really are the limit. After all, we didn’t name the company ‘Alienware’ just because it sounds cool.”

They’ve even put a lovely timeline of their accomplishments on their site along with interviews with co-founders Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila.

Here’s another quote from the press release:

“We’ve had a lot of industry firsts during our 10 years in business thus far - more than I could I have ever imagined back in 1996,” said President and co-founder Alex Aguila. “And we remain completely committed to keeping the Alienware innovation engine running at warp speed by introducing better and more innovative products into the market. We know customers are going to continue to remain highly passionate about what we offer because, ultimately, we are the customers - we’re building these machines to beat our own demanding standards. It’s hard not to get excited about the next 10 years.”

Thanks for invading our lives - and wallets - Alienware!

Read [Alienware]

Michael Dell sat down with reporters in a round table discussion last night where they discussed a host of Dell related issues ranging from AMD chips to the new XPS computers, and most notably the competition between Dell’s in house XPS line and their newly acquired baby, Alienware.

Dell made it very clear that he will let these two siblings fight it out, not offering one or the other priority when implementing new technologies into the products. He also said, which i don’t agree with, that Alienware gaming PCs and XPS PCs do not compete for the same market, even though they both target gamers and sell for around the same prices.

A head XPS engineer had to say, “I thought it was a good purchase for Dell,” he said. “In fact, I’m excited by it. We compete with each other, still. We’re still friendly competitors.”

I’m not sure if this guy is jsut playing the PR card or needs help, but there is not enough room for both to be number one.

Read [TG Daily]

Alienware will offer AMD LIVE! (AMD’s answer to Intel’s Viiv) Aurora 7500 and Aurora ALX desktop systems, enabling users to consolidate their photos, videos, music, and movies in one place while accessing all of it through their TVs, game consoles, MP3 players, cell phones, and other common digital devices. In addition, Aurora 7500, Area-51 7500, and ALX desktop systems are now featuring Blu-ray storage.

As part of the AMD LIVE! experience, Aurora 7500 and Aurora ALX systems come equipped with AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors and Windows Media Center Edition operating systems. With Blu-ray storage technology, Alienware systems give users the ability to store entire media libraries, including all their movies, pictures, and music on one disc. Users can also backup large amounts of hard drive data utilizing the massive Blu-ray storage capabilities.

Read [Ubergizmo]