2. Out Of The Box

I took the day off from work to pick up my computer, since Alienware said I had to sign for the package. It came right before 4:00 pm, and I got right to work. The box was large, and Alienware threw in a beautiful leather bound quick start guide, that included recovery software and support instructions. That was beyond my expectation - it was nice.

I was almost afraid to touch my new Alienware m5550i, because it was so shiny.

The notebook itself was quite a bit smaller in width than my old 15.4" Toshiba. It also weighed about 1.5 pounds less. The computer was shiny to the point I was almost afraid to touch it. The packaging was secure, but I had no problems getting the notebook out of the box.

Performance

I wasn't totally impressed with the performance of the computer right out of the box. I downloaded and ran 3DMark05 in default mode and got a score of 2100. Frame rates were slow and I was not happy with the quality of the display. I did a little digging, and found a hotfix from Microsoft that enables dual core support in Windows XP. I installed it and ran 3DMark05 again. I got a new score of 3201. After that I looked at display settings and found I could run a preset display setting optimized for 3DMark05. After changing to that, the benchmark score went up to 3433. I tried running PCMark05, but it did not produce any scores.

Here is a preset optimized for 3DMark06. I used the preset for 05.

The computer runs on the warm side. I knew that when I bought it, and purchased a cooling pad. You can see it in the photos of the m5550i. I use it every time I try and run a demanding project or game. The warmest section of the computer is in the right-hand palm rest area. The computer runs really fast on standard install tasks and even photorealistic landscape generation. I use a program called Terragen [http://planetside.co.uk/] for that. The audio quality is far better than I expected, but lacks low range definition. High end and mid range sounds are great. The computer's "subwoofer" doesn't help.

This is a rendering from Terragen. It takes less than 10 minutes on the m5550i.

I like web browsing on this computer. I can view just about any website without having to scroll to the side. The most impressive thing about the Alienware m5550i is its multi-tasking capabilities; the best I have ever seen on a notebook. I installed two games simultaneously, at the same time as running a download of Vista RC1, and a conversation via Windows Live Messenger. There was NO system lag at all in the process. The only noticeable difference was that the actual install processes for the games went a lot slower due to the load on the hard drive.

When I began using the system, I thought I would try the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter demo. The game auto detected my video card. When I tried to play though, it was impossible because it was so jerky. I went into the game settings and tried to lower them, but the gameplay was still so "sticky" as to be unplayable. I play other games as well such as Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires III. For those the playing experience was drastically improved over the old Toshiba.

Battery life is disgusting. I unplug it from the wall for less than a minute to move the computer, and the battery indicator goes from full to 97%. The battery depletes pretty quickly on standby as well, for when I got back from work on 10/11, the battery was at 41%! The computer had NOT been used, and there was nothing attached. It is a 6 cell battery (not manufactured by Sony) and there were no upgrade options when I purchased the notebook - there are now.