Will definitely do. I may even do a Youtube unboxing clip, with that 300 soundtrack in the background. Or maybe the Sprach Zarathustra for added effect.

Computers are non-taxable items.

The package has departed Leipzig, Germany on its way to Hong Kong at 0700 this morning.

Also had just did a little bit of shopping in preparation of the arrival of the Alienware, namely these items:-

1 x Crysis Special Edition
1 x Crysis Warhead
1 x Command & Conquer Tiberium Wars
1 x Command & Conquer Kane's Wrath
1 x The Witcher Enhanced Edition
1 x Command & Conquer Red Alert 3
1 x Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse + Free 1 x Razer Gaming Mouse Mat "Control" Edition

Will be heading out tomorrow to get Far Cry 2, and am feverishly waiting for Fallout 3. Are there any other games that would put the Alienware to work? I was contemplating Call of Duty 4, but I've already finished the game on PS3, and don't feel like buying the PC edition, with its sequel, Call of Duty World at War coming out so soon. Any other suggestion/recommendations besides the usual 3dMark06, CPU-Z, SuperPI, etc?

Yup, why not? Forgotten about that already. Alienware does include a 72 hour period of burning-in of the notebook, that is part of the 200-points checklist. They would already posted the results on that leather folder included, along with other benchmarks such as 3DMark06 they did beforehand.

Checked into DHL again, Package has arrived in Hong Kong close to midnight a hour ago. If there are not complications, I hope it would catch the first flight out and be here by afternoon, and be in the delivery van for sendoff this evening. Please arrive before I go to work!

Isn't Stalker an old game? I've sidelined that in favour of other games before, so I'm hesitant to pick that up now. Far Cry2 looks ultra-gorgeous from the screenshots, plus it has the most intuitive benchmarking section built-in. Those who had grown up on the old Far Cry will find it a different beast altogether because of the even more open-endedness of it, but I'm up for for some non-linear goodness. FallOut3 got glowing reviews from almost all reviewers, I just checked Metacritic. Are you sure it is that bad?

Thanks bro. Yeah, I've been bouncing off the wall waiting for this to arrive, when it cleared Phase 9. Crossing all my fingers that it will arrive safely and expeditiously.

Yup, The Qosmio, the White Macbook and the Macbook Air. Used to have an eeePC, but cant get used to cramped keyboard. I may be selling the Qosmio off if there are any interested parties.

Going to the US alone may incur additional charges on fares that would make buying it from there non-practical.

EDIT: If it follows as planned, I may receive it before i go to Osaka tonight. I can spend my time there tweaking the drivers, installing the games and necessary things while I'm there, and by the time I get back here on Saturday, it should be up and running smoothly. If anyone wants to inspect the Alienware personally, we can make the coming Sunday as a meetup of sorts. Otherwise, I'll be locking myself in my room the whole day.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Oct 30 2008, 01:20 AM

^Midvalley new wing/ The Gardens would be nice. I've been meaning to go and check the place out, but enever got around doing it.

^Great! I'll be on the lookout for a crazy looking person then.

^You know I'm kidding, right?



This post has been edited by stringfellow: Oct 30 2008, 03:38 PM

Due to the combined facepalming STUPIDITY of the shipping courier, our local customs AND particularly the person who wrote the invoice describing the package containing the Alienware, the package is now held hostage by customs until a revised invoice describing the content of the package is delivered to them. Which makes things harder since all liaison with Alienware is via electronic/digital means only, and our idiotic customs only deal with physical/paper trails.

Sorry guys, looks like this Sunday's plan is put on hold. I will be back from Osaka on Saturday, but it would be late enough to even attempt to rectify this unnecessary complication. DHL does not do delivery on Sundays so, it looks like Monday for the problem-solving.

Oh, the order is still tax/duty free, it is just that those idiotic customs wants proper paperwork for this package for filing on their side. Bloody dilligent arseholes, dont you think?

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Oct 30 2008, 03:39 PM

I HAVE IT IN MY HANDS!

Be back later for impressions and unboxing video.

I have tons of other things to update on this beast. The new Command Center introduces AlienSense face recognition login and AlienTouch, an enhanced touchpad experience. I need to update those now, and unfortunately, the downloads are crawling right now. Also need to download half-a-GB 3DMark06 app, as well as updating Cyberlink PowerDVD BD Edition update, which is crawling, for a mere 87+Mb download. Either crappy Streamyx, or crappy ftp site for Cyberlink, or both!

Sorry in advance for the shakiness of the cam, I was nervous and excited at the same time. Initially I had the Youtube clip with the background music of 300 trailer on it, but slapped with copyright issues when uploading to Youtube. So had to upload it raw like this. I'm not sure if I would ever sleep tonight, with all the tweaking, installation, benchmarking and stress test I'm going to do, so it may be a while before I'll be back here.

Wish me luck!

Thanks! This baby's strictly for gaming only. Minimal tweaks on other configurations, and therefore making it run smoothly.

Got everything up and running now, but not 3DMark06 yet. 2 hours+ till the download is complete. AlienSense works BEAUTIFULLY, what it does it it learns the features of your face, and use that as a template for a Vista login. Once the initial template is done, every time you log in, it will present itself as one of the option, besides punching in the password, to log you in as a specific user. I tried shoving a picture of me on the webcam, trying to trick it into thinking I am logging in, does not work. Which is a relief since anyone can login into this Alienware if they get hold of my picture. Once the real err...."face" is present in the Alien outline, then it scrutinises the facial features, and if pass then it will log you in. You need to stay still though, don't start smirking, or making funny faces, it will not log you in that way.

Updating graphic card driver as we speak, I'm not too sure I'm ready to use modified drivers from laptopvideo2go for this. Sticking with the official drivers from Nvidia for now.

Sorry I didnt get back to this thread sooner. Had to do tons of games installation, download their patch, clean up, and then tweak the Alienware to run back at optimal settings.

It's relatively ready now for becnhmarks and tests. Had done a preliminary on 3DMark06 and it ran a 9400 points. The information docket I've received from Alienware states a 10k+ points which I am not sure where they get it from, so call me a skeptic.

Most importantly, the Alienware is proving its worth on games. ALL games except Crysis ran 1920x1200 MAXED OUT! They ran at their highest settings and at satisfactory framerates, which in my books, means 30fps or more. Crysis, I had to drop it to 1280 x 1024 , but still maintain a HIGH setting, to get the framerates to maintain above 30fps. Still looks bloody awesome at that resolution. Once I bump up the resolution above that, it can go up to 1920x1200, but the framerates drops to the teens and worse once you get dense foliages and multiple bogeys coming in during gunfights.

I do not run stress tests on this, the 72 hours stress test has been done on this unit by Alienware during Phase 7, so that has been taken care of.

I've got these games installed on the Alienware:-

Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium War + Kane's Wrath, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, The Witcher.

Waiting to get my own copy of Fallout 3.

No point for me getting a 1730 as it is no longer a laptop, it is a desktop replacement. When it comes to anything 17 inch, it sacrifices portability, and if that is the case, and it stays at home because of its non-portability, might as well call it a desktop, and if it is becoming a desktop, you can build a better desktop with better specs and cheaper cost.

My Alienware, and Corad's Sager, are gaming machines in portable form. When a "laptop" becomes so encumbered so much that it spends most of its time at home, it defeats the purpose of being a laptop that you would bring around with you, no matter how powerful it is. It is only useful when it is being put to use.

I know how "portable" a 17 inch laptop is, look at my sig, I have the 17 inch Qosmio. As much as I want to tell myself that it is a laptop, it's usage pattern defies the conventions of being a laptop, so much of its time spent at home being I don't feel inclined to "port" it around because of its dimensions and weight. That is why 17 inch laptops are not laptops to me.

Personally, I think the 1730 is ugly, with it's out of place blings and boring uninspiring design.

If you don't mind, this is a thread discussing the Alienware. I believe there is a 1730 thread around here somewhere, feel free to show your love for it there. I believe, for something as portable, by the practical sense of portability, the Alienware and the Sager are engineering feats by their own measure. Anybody can fit if anything into an enclosure as fat as the 1730. No offense.

Without some sort of external cooling mechanism , it gets pretty hot when ran on High Performance mode. It has this Stealth Mode which activates at the touch of a button, which downthrolles the processor to 1.6Ghz and switches the graphic card in use to the IGP built-in, this gives it longevity in terms of battery life as well as cooler running.

The right part of the palm rest gets pretty hot , I assume this is where the 8800GTX is. Other than that, pretty much smooth sailing. Installed Notebook Hardware Controller, and no warning bells or alarms so far. Also just got myself the Notepal Infinite, that should help push the hot air out.

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Added on November 3, 2008, 9:59 pmThe first test of mobility ran fine today, when I was out and about in Plaza Lowyat to get my stuff and meet a colleague for lunch. Was at MacStudio today in the afternoon, so the guys there got their first look at the Alienware. Pretty much a unanimous "Awesome!" from them, even though it's pretty blasphemous to oogle at a Vista machine when they are selling Macs!

Got around and walked around to Delifrance with my colleague, then walked back to Low Yat to Level 2 to get my Notepal from Cycom. Tested out the Notepal there, and then went back on the monorail to KLCC, for dinner. Just got home now. All with a simple Booq slingbag, nondescriptly carrying the Alienware around, and I plan to keep it that way, so that people wont know I am lugging anything precious in the slingbag. Lugging in around a 17inch specific-laptop-bag around is like an advertisement to ask the thieves to some and steal your laptops!

So you see, to me, it is not about the unbridled power underneath the hood of the machine, it is about portability as well. No point having the most powerful rig on earth, when it is 7 kilos and breaks your back lugging it around.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 3 2008, 09:59 PM

Care to elaborate why Zalman's cooling pad is better?

But the Zalman has this weird design flaw. The holes only goes to 2/3 up the top, and the top is not vented. On my Alienware, the top area needs to be air-circulated from the bottom, and without these vents, it is not pneumatically efficient.

Watch this Youtube clip on how the user actually have to shift down his 1730 down to properly cool and air-circulate the bottom of his 1730:-

Ni Hao from Shanghai! Always hazy and always choking, as always, it's Shanghai!

The order was made from www.alienware.co.uk, but their billing department redirects your order to their sales team in Deutchland/Germany. Good too, since EU is dropping like mad these days.

I'll be back today from Shanghai today, touchdown MH389 at 2140. IF anyone wants to have a feel of the awesome power of the Alienware, I'll be attending the iPhone gathering tomorrow at KL Sentral, but after 2030. Will be there to meet old friends, and make new ones too.

The 9800GTX will never be available on a 15 inch chassis, due to its overbearing thermal envelope. If Alienware is ever going to place one, it would be on their 17 inch chassis.

Correction on the supposed meeting tomorrow, that gathering is on Sunday not tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be in Lowyat Plaza to pick up Fallout 3 and send off Red Alert 3 to a friend. Probably catch Quantum of Solace too at the movies while I'm at it.

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Added on November 5, 2008, 11:24 pmThe 9800GTX will never be available on a 15 inch chassis, due to its overbearing thermal envelope. If Alienware is ever going to place one, it would be on their 17 inch chassis.

Correction on the supposed meeting tomorrow, that gathering is on Sunday not tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be in Lowyat Plaza to pick up Fallout 3 and send off Red Alert 3 to a friend. Probably catch Quantum of Solace too at the movies while I'm at it.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Nov 5 2008, 11:24 PM

3.8kg or thereabouts. Definitely takes getting used to from my previous Macbook Air.

The spaceship works like out of this world! IT came without any bloatware whatsoever, except Nero Essentials and Cyberlink PowerDVD for Blu-ray burning and playback respectively.Every apps run slick and smooth like butter.

Just got Fallout 3 Collector Edition, and it ran MAX setting at 1920 x 1200 Ultra High. So far all games ran at max setting 1920 x 1200, except Crysis and the Nvidia Medusa demo. Crysis CAN run at 1920 x 1200, I just have to whittle down the details to medium. I have yet to find a middleground for the Medusa demo to run satisfactorily.

The only problem I had was finding a graphics card driver that ran great with the games AND with Blu-ray playback on Cyberlink PowerDVD. In the end, I had to "cook" the 179.13 and 180.43 driver so that Cyberlink PowerDVD accepts it for Blu-ray playback. Running fine now after modding the drivers.

A possible point of disgust would also be the trackpad sporting the same smooth surface material as the rest of the chassis. The LED lining around the trackpad basically outlines where the trackpad starts and where the chassis ends, and it may get confusing when you're looking at the screen and not the pad when moving the cursors around. Thankfully, I've moved up to using the Logitech G5 mouse for all mousing purposes.

Trust me, it's the camcorder, not the backlights on the keyboard.

Coming back tomorrow morning, and the Alienware will be in KL Sentral tomorrow evening. Drop by if you're in the neighbourhood.