[AlexG]

...but I'm back once again. I got out of gaming for a good few months because my computer took a nose dive. Instead of replacing it right away, I decided to wait until now, the start of the new school term, so I could justify getting a really good one. And it is. This computer is the end all, be all of portable gaming. Here, have a look:

Area-51® m9750

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX - SLI Enabled
Chassis: 17" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD - Stealth Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 2.33GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: With USB Mini Media Center Remote Control and Single NTSC TV Tuner
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 500GB (250GB x 2) Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW Burner w/ LightScribe Technology - View Demo
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
Microsoft Office Suites: Microsoft® Office 2007 Professional - Factory Installed!
Includes Small Business + Access!
Mouse: Logitech® V270 Bluetooth™ Optical Mouse - Silver
Power: Surge Protector - APC Pnote ProC6 Mobile Surge Protector
External Storage: 500GB Seagate Pushbutton Backup External Hard Drive
Mobile Bags: Alienware® Odyssey Backpack
Headphones: Alienware® Ozma 7™ Headphones with S-Logic™ Technology
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $100 Value - FREE!

And it'll be here Thursday. Yay! Anyway, now the ultimate question... will this machine, in all its Vista glory, run the only game I really care about (No, not Solitaire or checkers or chess. Not even BF2. You know which one I mean.)?

[Turey]

How much did that thing cost?

Oh, and BTW, my laptop has a better processor and the 2GB of RAM is in a single stick, unlike yours. The only thing worse is the graphics card. Even then, I don't think your card supports DX10 (AFAIK), while mine does.

Anyway, yes, it'll run FSO fine. A good way to test this is by playing the BtRL Demo, released back in April.

[CP5670]

FS2 will work fine on Vista. Just make sure SLI is disabled.

My laptop is a 3.5 year old piece of junk, but I rarely need to use it so I haven't bothered upgrading it. My money goes into my desktops instead.

[MercFox1]

Ouch, I'm guessing somewhere around $1800-$2000.

Desktops for the win. The only my desktop doesn't outclass is your dual 7950GTXs in SLI mode, but I'm not one to brag.
Nice rig, though.
It should run FS2Open no problem; only thing I've ever had problems with is sound, and I suspect it's because I'm running an old Audigy soundcard and not my Audigy 2,,,

[nvsblmnc]

Alienware Extras: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $100 Value - FREE!

My Aurora 7500 came with that when I bought it  last year.  The first thing I had to do was remove the right-hand side panel and remount it so the PC was actually correctly assembled.

EDIT: Why should SLI be disabled?  FS2 seems to run beautifully on my pair of 7800s with full SLI...

[CP5670]

Ouch, I'm guessing somewhere around $1800-$2000.

I would think it would be at least $4000. AT reviewed an almost identical Alienware laptop recently and their model was $5000.

These machines are pretty nice but only worth it if you do all of your gaming on the go, as you can get incomparably faster desktops for $1300 or so.

EDIT: Why should SLI be disabled?  FS2 seems to run beautifully on my pair of 7800s with full SLI...

The Vsync/stuttering bug. The game will seem to be choppy even though the framerate is high. You should try the game with SLI off and compare the difference. I used to have the same setup at one point and know that it does not work smoothly with SLI, just like almost any other game released before 2004.

[ssmit132]

FS2 will work fine on Vista. Just make sure SLI is disabled.

What's SLI?

[jr2]

The ability to stack multiple graphics cards together and have them work cooperatively to increase your graphics computing power... sorta like dual-core and quad-core for CPUs.

[AlexG]

The laptop will come with SLI disabled because there aren't nVidia drivers for Vista that support SLI yet. I'm told I'll be notified when that happens. I was sure you were going to say that was the reason not to use SLI... but are you now saying to never do it?

It doesn't really matter... FSO ran beautifally on my less-speced machine, so I don't know why I'm even feeling bad if it NEVER supports SLI. Anyway, yes, I do indeed do all my gaming on the go. Well, not ALL of it, but quite a lot. I'm a person very much on the go and I don't like having to leave my gaming behind. Now I don't have to anymore .

EDIT: Oh, and Turey?

[Herra Tohtori]

The ability to stack multiple graphics cards together and have them work cooperatively to increase your graphics computing power... sorta like dual-core and quad-core for CPUs.

You forgot to say that SLI is a technology that enables using multiple similar NVidia graphics cards. ATi/AMD's counterpart for SLI is called Crossfire.

[CP5670]

The laptop will come with SLI disabled because there aren't nVidia drivers for Vista that support SLI yet. I'm told I'll be notified when that happens. I was sure you were going to say that was the reason not to use SLI... but are you now saying to never do it?

It doesn't really matter... FSO ran beautifally on my less-speced machine, so I don't know why I'm even feeling bad if it NEVER supports SLI. Anyway, yes, I do indeed do all my gaming on the go. Well, not ALL of it, but quite a lot. I'm a person very much on the go and I don't like having to leave my gaming behind. Now I don't have to anymore .

Hate to say it, but I think even Alienware knows that they ripped you off. I believe SLI does in fact operate on the latest official Vista drivers (and certainly on some leaked drivers floating around), but actually getting it to work properly and do something substantial in more than one or two games is a different matter. Vista has been out for six months now, but SLI is still essentially broken. You might almost think that Nvidia has abandoned SLI now that they don't need it anymore to get a leg up over AMD/ATI.

My experience with SLI was that it worked well in most popular games that are commonly benchmarked on hardware sites. In anything older than about 2004 and many lesser known modern games, I either ran into various problems (that vsync problem occurs almost everywhere) or the performance was not much better than a single card. I ditched the setup in a few months. That was on XP though, and Vista and SLI is an entirely new can of worms.

As far as FS2 at 1440x900 is concerned though, you're right, it will not matter because one card can handle it perfectly even if you crank up the AA.

[MercFox1]

Ouch, I'm guessing somewhere around $1800-$2000.

I would think it would be at least $4000. AT reviewed an almost identical Alienware laptop recently and their model was $5000.

These machines are pretty nice but only worth it if you do all of your gaming on the go, as you can get incomparably faster desktops for $1300 or so.

EDIT: Why should SLI be disabled?  FS2 seems to run beautifully on my pair of 7800s with full SLI...

The Vsync/stuttering bug. The game will seem to be choppy even though the framerate is high. You should try the game with SLI off and compare the difference. I used to have the same setup at one point and know that it does not work smoothly with SLI, just like almost any other game released before 2004.

That price is stupidly ridiculous. I hand-built a TOTL desktop for $1000 flat; shipping tacked on another $100, but you get the idea.

Heck, if I had $4k to spend on a desktop, it would be the best around.

[Fang_Taichou]

Ouch, I'm guessing somewhere around $1800-$2000.

I would think it would be at least $4000. AT reviewed an almost identical Alienware laptop recently and their model was $5000.

These machines are pretty nice but only worth it if you do all of your gaming on the go, as you can get incomparably faster desktops for $1300 or so.

EDIT: Why should SLI be disabled?  FS2 seems to run beautifully on my pair of 7800s with full SLI...

The Vsync/stuttering bug. The game will seem to be choppy even though the framerate is high. You should try the game with SLI off and compare the difference. I used to have the same setup at one point and know that it does not work smoothly with SLI, just like almost any other game released before 2004.

That price is stupidly ridiculous. I hand-built a TOTL desktop for $1000 flat; shipping tacked on another $100, but you get the idea.

Heck, if I had $4k to spend on a desktop, it would be the best around.

$4k for a laptop?  That's only if you add in the subspace drive, ETAK device, shielding components and a SVas.  Seriously though, $4k will probably get you those holographic displays rather than the LCD screen (or at the very least the best RAM, GFx card, sound and CPU available).  The only reason those brand name comps cost so much is, well, the brand name.

[AlexG]

Yeah, I know, I know. I looked at building my own desktop, but it just seemed like more than I had the savvy to do. I mean, I had trouble installing FSO fer cryin' out loud. I'm still not looking forward to doing that again, truth be told... just sure I'll miss a file or screw something up. And I really DID need it to be a laptop, so I went for the best one I could get. So yeah, there are better machines and yeah, it's expensive. But all I need to know how to do in order to use it is plug it into the wall and press the 'on' button, and that, more than anything, is what I need out of a computer.

[jr2]

@AlexG: Walkthrough.  My siggy.

@thesizzler: Told you so! 

[AlexG]

You guys have a DVD now?!?! I may just have to invest in one of those... though I wouldn't need the base game files themselves as I have the discs.

[jr2]

Umm, download the DVD, and run it from your Hard Disk using Slysoft Virtual CloneDrive (free).

[colecampbell666]

Or Daemon Tools. Does CrossFire work better than SLI?