More than a year and a half is the period during which the 8800 GTX is still what we may call high-end NVIDIA. Now of course, six months after its release, and happy coincidence, just before the arrival of the R600, we saw land a 8800 Ultra with slightly higher frequencies, but nothing Folichon. There are two and a half months, the arrival of the 9800 GTX foreshadowed a substantial increase in performance but in the end the card offered only limited profit on our good old GTX and was behind the Ultra version. If the owners of these cards could rejoice in their investment, there was still time to propose more than a few MHz scraped here and there or to use combinations of two GPUs on one card.

GeForce GTX 260

NVIDIA finally heard us: the GTX 280 offers the first real reworking of the architecture G8x. We know now the modus operandi of the Californian firm: introduce a new architecture on a proven method of engraving. Indeed, given the often high number of transistors the chip is expensive to produce and using the cards are still expensive but it can occupy the land. During the years following NVIDIA derives its architecture on the whole segment of the range by using an etching finer but less optimized for high frequencies. Finally when the new process is controlled NVIDIA actually enjoy premium sound that becomes more affordable. We saw it with the G70/G71, G80/G92 and the history repeats itself: here is the GT200, a real monster of 1.4 billion transistors engraved at 0.65µm.

Now Alienware is completely digested by Dell, the brand of choice for wealthy players is more than range. But a range of emergency: the price of 2250 euros in our test version of the M17 reserve this machine for an elite. But his performance will they be able to meet these demanding players?

Game monster Dell Alienware M17x

On the design side, the machine likes or dislikes, but she did not leave indifferent. Some will find it impressive, with its keyboard and its very bright shells came from the automotive world, the others find a little piece look elegant or vulgar. From the perspective of the player, the machine is “big and nag,” an image that sticks to the power needs of recent games.

Before discussing the performance, talking about light: all logos, keyboard and buttons on the unit are backlit, and the user can configure to taste these items. For the keyboard, three different lights can be applied to the main part, and another at the keypad. Enough to make a real rainbow in the sky. One option useless therefore essential that we can move through profiles. This will not increase the skills (competencies) of the player, but at least he will not go unnoticed.

Performance equivalent to a tower (with graphics comparable)

Equipped with disks in Raid with a powerful processor (a T9600 at 2.8 GHz) and a graphics medium-high range, the m17x can play all the games lately, mostly in high resolution. But the GTX 260 is limited by the maximum resolution of the screen (1920 x 1200) with Empire Total War or Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II, when the details are pushed up. This is playable, of course, but the animations are slower. You can go to the next level by adding in the order, a second graphics card GTX 260 or even push two GTX280, but it will go to the banker: 370 euros in the first case, 740 in another.

As a reminder, this technology will afford you the solution integrated GeForce 9400M graphics to enjoy a greater autonomy to the dedicated graphics solution you choose and you will enjoy the graphics performance for playing.

A final word on what nVidia chipset is still very interesting in terms of functionality. By simply installing NVIDIA System Tools tool, you not only can monitor the temperatures of different components, but also can change the operating frequencies of many components as the FSB, the chipset and thus the CPU frequency the different frequencies or nVidia graphics chips, and different memory settings!

Concerns stability: a recurring problem after updating Windows

When you first start, we set up our tools for measuring performance and test video games and we’ve found, after an update of Windows, stability problems are insoluble (more than any system tool such as Windows Update, System, etc.. not wanted to go). We therefore restored quickly using Windows tool AlienRespawn. Alas, after everything is reinstalled, the same update appears to have made our system unstable. Problem or series of random software impossible to say. However the player will necessarily feel annoyed if this problem appears on the machine at 2250 euros it comes to pay. Especially if it has installed four or five games under Steam and 3D Mark 2006 Vantage …
Verdict: Alienware m17x

The finishing of the machine are good, the adapter has been a little leaner, the performance is there, etc.. Everything would be better in the best of worlds if the machine we’ve tested - which, remember, a machine series - had not experienced major concern for stability. When you put so much money in a PC, expected, and it is legitimate, outstanding stability.

Gamer Notebook Dell Alienware M17x

Manufacturer: Alienware
• Model: Area-51 m17x
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300
• Chipset: nVIDIA MCP79
• Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333MHz
• Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
• Dimensions: 405.89 mm x 321.31 mm x 51.31 / 53.59 mm
• Weight: From 5.3 kilograms
• GPU: 2 x nVidia GeForce GTX in SLI 280M
• Monitor: 17 “WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixels)
• Storage: 2 x 320GB SATA II 7200RPM
• Optical: DVD Dual Layer
• Memory Cards: Player 8 in 1
• PCMCIA / Express Card: 0 / 1
• Modem / Ethernet 0 / 1
• 3G / WiFi: No / Yes (Draft N)
• Bluetooth: Yes (2.1)
• USB / Firewire: 4 (2.0) / 1 (IEEE 1394a)
• eSATA: 1 (combo eSATA / USB)
• S-PDIF / Headphone / Microphone: 1 / 1 / 1
• Video Outputs: VGA / HDMI / DisplayPort
• Battery: 9 Cell