Alienware M17 Notebook - ATI CrossFireX and Intel Quad Core in a 17-inch Notebook

So friggin' cool. Alienware's first notebook with ATI CrossFireX™ graphics and Intel® quad core technology... the Alienware M17 Notebook. Way to kick off the post Halloween season. What can HP, Voodoo, or Apple do to compete? Maybe those brands are raising a white flag and admitting defeat in the mobile high-performance gaming segment. Which notebook would you get this holiday season?

This is also the first Alienware notebook with:

• a 1066MHz FSB (front side bus) - Intel Montevinia platform for notebooks
  
• ESATA port - up to 300Mbps storage transfers
  
• fingerprint reader - Biometric Security
  
• 64-bit Windows Vista™ - up to 4GB of DDR3 1,066MHz RAM!
  

It also has the ultra-sweet soft black-touch cabinet previously exclusive to the Area-51® m9750. It has the 1920x1200p display option, HDMI 1.3b output for high definition gaming/media output, and RAID hard drives option.

It even starts at $1,399. Very tempting.

Alienware Launches Back to School 2008

Another year, another dollar? Another year, another fragger! Another year, another student with a kick ass gaming notebook sent to college to earn degrees, get good grades, and get laid! PWND!

Alienware's PC Gaming Season is put to rest with the launch of a Back to School campaign for 2008 it seems. Low and behold all systems now carry Free Shipping. (I can hear the readers going opening new tabs fleeing to www.alienware.com/backtoschool) This is actually very pleasing since it's usually about one Benjamin note to get a system shipped with peripherals. I'm not sure where they made that calculation from but hey free is free.

There are other deals if you're looking for some, they have three bundles with savings that are under $100 but its still a deal I guess.

1. Mobility bundle - an Alienware Orion backpack and 160GB portable USB HDD
   
2. Blogger bundle - Microsoft's Office 2007 Home 7 Student edition + Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Photoshop Elements
3. Media bundle - Klipsch Promedia 2.1 THX speakers + Alienware Ozma5 headphones

So the bundle savings aren't anywhere as good as the free shipping but I guess everything counts when you add it up. It would've been cool if I would have all of this Alienware gear when I was in school. Maybe I would've had better grades, maybe I would have never graduated...it's hard to tell...

How different are the Leica C-Lux 2 vs. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX series cameras?

So I thought I'd do a little more research on the camera thing. It turns out Leica's C-Lux 2 compact camera is very similar to the Panasonic's Lumix FX series. I'd want to conclude that one of the two is a rebranding of the other camera with some minor cosmetic details. The fact that Leica decided to enable this platform and brand it as their own makes me more comfortable about getting the less pricey Panasonic. (The difference in price is around $100 and the feature set is less than) Check out the two cameras here:

They look the same!

I have no doubt they come from the same manufacturer both cameras leverages the same platform but are simply branded differently to make a few extra bucks off of the Leica fans.

Still the tolerance to quality on the lens should be the same since both are Leica made. I'm not mad at the Lumix design. If fact, how does the saying go? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The Leica was released way earlier than this particular Lumix. Maybe the save the newer designs for Leica cameras and then a few months the design is available for the Lumix series.

Should I buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35A digital camera?

Ok, I have narrowed down my list of cameras to two Panasonic Lumix choices there's the DMC-FX33 and the DMC-FX35. I used to have the Panasonic Lumix FX9 until my car was broken into one night in my new and shady neighborhood. That was a few months ago and I haven't had a digital camera since. It's funny how digital cameras are typically things many people become anxious about when they don't have one. I need it most when it's not around. After they get one, it becomes a forgotten object unless they're working with photography or shoot pictures as a hobby.

I use cameras as a hobby. For blogging, personal record keeping, memorabilia, for storing good memories and having something to laugh at and even share once in a while.

I've chosen to go with the Panasonic Lumix series because of their Leica wide angle lens among other features. This series also has a fast shutter speed and a greater than 3x optical zoom which many cameras don't or just make the cut. It is also light and easy to use. The interface is actually easy to work with and there are some lite manual options available. I had considered the Canon Powershot SD1100 but the specifications of this camera imply that a better photograph will be captured with the Lumix...and here it is:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35A - Panasonic's Site.
Compared to the FX33A, it's the "New!" model and has the advantage of 10MP vs 8MP, a 230K vs 205K: brighter screen, is capable of 720p HD videos, has a 4x optical zoom (compared to 3.6x), has a wider 25mm lens (v.s. 28mm), and is slightly smaller/lighter. It's actually $85 more expensive. Do these improvements merit the $85 upsell?

As a marketing person I cant' believe how susceptible I am being to this upsell. It's a difference of 85 bucks ($204 vs $289). I have actually been monitoring these prices and the DMC-FX35A has had a steady price for months. On the other hand the FX-33A is being discontinued and the pricing has been getting better. Which has more value? Maybe next paycheck I will test the waters and make a decision.

I need a new digital camera.

I think people's lives can be improved provided they have a camera from which to capture things in time and space. After my car was vandalized and violated, my old Lumix is now in the hands of a street walking degenerate.

I now have put together a small list form which I must choose. If anyone has any opinions please share.

Help Me Choose a Camera

The New Area-51 Brings More Than New Guts. It eats Blackbirds!

Yesterday, Alienware launched a new Area-51 desktop gaming rig with a whole new motherboard, graphics card, and DDR3 memory. Their homepage calls out "kicking the competition's teeth in since '98."

What I found particularly interesting for this launch was more than the usual. Their homepage banner shows their classic desktop being embraced by a creature from Crysis. If you look even c l o s e r, you can see the creature is holding what it appears to be a black bird.

This is obviously a jab at HP's Blackbird 002 gaming system. I wonder how many people have seen this thus far. I guess HP probably hasn't said a bleep or reacted to not give Alienware any more steam for this launch. HP has never really been a contender in the gaming market. Since their acquisition of VoodooPC they have made a good effort to compete in the gaming market but just how long will their investment continue to swim against the current? For such a large organism of a corporation it's funny to see how slow to market in keeping up with industry technology.

The heavier you machine is, the easier it sinks. It seems HP's acquisition of VoodooPC has made the symbiosis a 'heavier' competitor. I think HP should stick to competing with mainstream brands.

Kudos for Alienware for having some sort of creative competitiveness and keeping the industry interesting.

Alienware Introduces ATI CrossFireX Technology

Yesterday ATI released it's driver enabling CrossFireX technology. With CrossFireX enabled graphics your system can have more than 2 GPUs enabled to power the graphics on your screen for PC gaming or any graphics dependent software. Thats dual ati video cards with dual graphics processing units on each card. 2 + 2 = 4 !

Previously ATI had what was called CrossFire (without the X) where you could have up to two GPUs working in tandem. CrossFireX elevates that to three or even four GPUs which is exactly what Alienware is selling shown on the picture above. The technology is featured on their Area-51 ALX CFX gaming desktop which has all the attributes of any gamer's dream system like:

• liquid cooling
  
• overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU (to 4.0GHz!)
• 45nm Penryn class processor
  
• overclockable DDR3 memory - Patriot brand
  
• built-in wireless-N technology
• up to 4x GPUs and 2GB of GDDR3 graphics memory
• Solid State Drives in RAID0
• Dual eSata ports
• 1000 Watt power supply
  

It also carries a bunch of Alienware exclusive goodies like AlienFX system lighting technology, card keeper technology to protect the graphics cards, excellent internal wire management, their typical predator chassis (which needs a serious upgrade, sorry Alienware). It's also packaged very safely and nicely with extra stuff like a special black leather binder, the world's best mousepad, a mesh cap, key chain, and the usual new PC junk. This of course is for the fancy tuxedo gamer.

Priced at $5,149 you're really paying for the special brand, support, warranty, build quality and bragging rights. It's also really nice to see a bloatware free system which really sets Alienware apart from most PC manufacturers that just pack all the software they can from third parties. On the other hand, Alienware has some very unique software packages that don't consume performance-hurting resources like AlienGUIse which changes the skin of your desktop and overall theme of the OS with several options. There's also Alien Command center which can control your AlienFX and other power-related options. An equivalent performing PC can be self-built at around $3K (plus shipping) but of course it would be packaged in a regular clone case and you would be on your own when it comes to reliability, support, and some possible limitations on how far your knowledge of building and integrating a system goes. Good luck!

Regardless, I would love to get my hands on one of these, with that much processing and graphics power I bet you wouldn't need an upgrade for at least 3 years to play the latest games and possibly 8 years before you need to consider purchasing some upgrades. Thats a lot of deathmatches and raids! For now, considering it's configuration, it must indeed be the fastest gaming PC money can buy.