Related articles

• What the Odachi adds in pure muscle it gives up in polish compared to Alienware’s Area-51 m17x and even ASUS’ G71. Granted, Killer Notebooks is a smaller boutique outfit, which puts it at the whim of style choices made by whitebook ODMs like Clevo, Armia, and Compal. In this case, Clevo’s D9C is tapped as the shell of choice for Killer Notebooks’ Odachi. In contrast to the all-black Area-51, the Odachi sports a two-tone grey/black chassis that, by its very nature, is more generic. The notebook’s lid takes an 18-mil laminated graphic shield, adding a more custom feel to the chassis. This is something we’ve become accustomed to from certain resellers thanks to Intel’s CBB (Custom Building Block) initiative. The ports on either side of the notebook match up well to the chassis. Unlike the Alienware’s flush body, the Odachi cuts in on the right and left sides underneath the available jacks and connectors. Aesthetically, the m17x looks more attractive. However, the stair-step cut into the Odachi’s chassis does serve as a good place to grip the heavy notebook. With the lid open, you can see that Clevo clearly wasn’t going for the same flush-mounted touchpad. It’s instead recessed and surrounded by a chrome bevel. The keyboard does have good tactile response, though. And because this is a large desktop replacement, there’s naturally enough room for a full-sized keyboard and 10-ley number pad. Our only other concern is ventilation. The Odachi, loaded with its desktop processor, three hard drives, and two 8800M GTX graphics cards, generates copious heat, which is exhausted from the chassis through four blowers. The quartet pulls air from vents on the bottom of the notebook. Although we didn’t have any heat problems on our test bench, it’d be conceivably pretty easy to block those vents and end up with insufficient cooling. At the very least, this probably isn’t a notebook you’ll want to use on your lap. More Go-Fast Potential The folks at Killer Notebooks obviously know they’re at a manufacturing disadvantage when it comes to the other former-boutique shops that have sold to larger vendors, such as Alienware and VoodooPC. To help bridge that gap between brains and beauty, Killer makes an extra effort to tune its notebooks for performance. In fact, the company originally sent its sample running a 64-bit copy of Vista Ultimate with several hours worth of tweaks applied, including optimizations for each installed application that’d milk the most performance from the quad-core CPU. We formatted the machine to normalize on a 32-bit environment, but it’s still worth noting that our benchmark scores would have likely been higher had Killer Notebooks re-tuned the Odachi as it would have for a customer. In fact, the company says that if a customer sends his or her software to Killer Notebooks as his or her machine is being built, it’ll install and tweak the software to best utilize the hardware. Why didn’t we send the system back for another round of tweaks on our benchmark suite? As you’ll see, the performance results are already fairly compelling. There’s also another option emerging. Killer Notebooks plans to make its Core Optimization Program (COP) available to customers, enabling do-it-yourself per-application optimizations. Killer says each app takes about 20 seconds to set up and gives the enthusiast complete control over where each thread runs. In this way, you’re able to dictate that a virus scan runs on Core 4 while Crysis employs Core 1, for example.

• Alienware m15x: True Gaming Portability?

  In last year’s battle-of the behemoths, Dell’s M1730 took on Alienware’s m9750, and with the exception of a few quirks, came out on top. But not everyone is ready to lug around a notebook that weighs nearly fifteen pounds with its power adapter. Alienware’s advantage in portability among 17” gaming notebooks was still noteworthy, even if the Area-51 m9750’s battery life didn’t lend itself to truly mobile computing. The company now looks to extend its portability lead, with a smaller, lighter 15.4” unit that maintains the high resolution of the former 17” model without sacrificing battery life. There’s another key difference in Alienware’s 15.4” model, though. While the 17” test unit contained an SLI set of graphics cards, the Area-51 m15x has only a single graphics card. Does the new configuration deliver enough horsepower to qualify as gaming-ready? For comparison purposes, we continue to use an XPS M1730, which retains its SLI muscle. In fact, Dell has upgraded this unit with a new CPU and graphics processor, and changed a few smaller parts as well. The exterior remains unchanged from last year’s review. The Dell XPS M1730 still looks like an Alienware design, but the Alienware m15x is clean, smooth, and dare we say, business-like? Of course the real business is gaming, so let’s take at look at the “business” inside. (Editor’s Note: Check out our Quick Look: Alienware Area-51 m15X Notebook video of the m15x for even more up-close detail on the notebook) System Hardware and Software Configuration Model Alienware m15x Dell XPS M1730 Dimensions and Weight Width x Height x Depth 14.5" x 1.75" x 11.75" 16" x 2" x 12" 36.83 cm x 4.45 cm x 29.85 cm 39.37 cm x 5.08 cm x 27.94 cm Unit & Battery 7 lb 15 oz / 3600.4 g 11 lb / 4990 g Charter & Power Cord 1 lb 11 oz / 765.5 g 3 lb 8 oz / 1588 g Total 9 lb 10 oz / 4365.9 g 14 lb 8 oz / 6578 g AC Adapter & Battery Battery I Capacity Li-Ion 6 Cell 5200mAh Li-Ion 9 Cell 85 Wh Battery II Capacity None None AC Adapter 120 W 230 W Display & Graphics Controller Display Size 15.4" 17" Display Resolution 1920x1200 1920x1200 Graphics Controller nVidia GeForce 8800m GTX 2x nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX SLI System BIOS Phoenix vX32 P3A33 (04/11/08) Dell A06 (02/04/08) CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.80 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, FSB 200 2.80 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, FSB 200 Chipset Intel 965PM Intel 965GM Memory 2x 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 2x 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 Hard Drives Manufacturer & Model Seagate ST9200420ASG Seagate ST9250421ASG Size 200 GB 250 GB Performance (SATA / 7200.2 / 8 MB / 11 ms) SATA / 7200.2 RPM / 16 MB / 4.17 ms Other Devices Optical Drive MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ-220 Blu-Ray Burner PBDS DVD+-RW DS-8W1P DVD Burner Floppy Drive None None Pointing Device(s) Touchpad Touch Pad Audio Chip Realtek ALC885 @ Intel 82801HBM ICH8M SigmaTel STAC9228 @ Intel 82801HBM ICH8M Modem None None WLAN Intel Pro/Wireless 4965AGN Intel Pro/Wireless 4965AGN Connectors PS2 None None USB 2x Left, 1x Right 2x Right, 1x Left, 1x B IEEE1394 / Fire Wire 1x Right 1x Left Serial Com Port None None Parallel LPT Port None None Microphone Yes Yes IR Port Yes None Bluetooth None Yes VGA / DVI / HDMI None / None / 1x Right None / 1x Left / None TV Out None 1x Left TV In None None AC Power Yes Yes PC/Express Card Slots 1x Right 1x Right LAN 1x Left 1x Back Audio Connectors 1x Mic, Headphone Left 1x Mic, Headphone, Line In Left Card Reader 1x Multi Card Reader Right 1x Multi Card Reader Left Fingerprint Security None None Manufacturer Docking Socket None None System Software & Drivers OS Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Microsoft Windows XP Professional DirectX Version DX10 DX9.0c Platform Driver Intel 9.0.0.1008 Intel 8.2.0.1014 Graphics Driver 7.15.11.6755 - nVIDIA ForceWare 167.55 6.14.11.6757 - nVIDIA ForceWare 167.57

• We reviewed the XPS M1730 back in October of 2007, but the company sent us a replacement with an upgraded processor for comparison purposes. The XPS M1730 looks far more like an Alienware product than a Dell, so it would be easy to look at the two and make the wrong guess about its origins, if not for the logos. The XPS M1730 case hasn’t changed since its original review, so we can skip directly to the internal changes. The CPU has been upgraded from the X7900 to the new X9000, which bring an increase in cache from 4 MB to 6 MB. Desktop enthusiasts know that this also means an upgrade in core technology from the 65 nm Conroe to the 45 nm Wolfdale, which should reduce both power consumption and heat. The Dell XPS M1730 is a lot harder to open up than the Alienware m15x, as two bottom panels open to reveal only the hard drive and RAM. Memory was increased from the former configuration’s two gigabytes to the current four gigabytes, still running at DDR2-667 speed. Unchanged but still worth mentioning is the 9-cell battery, which is rated in watt hours rather than the standard milliamp hours. Watt hours are meaningless for comparison purposes, but dividing 85 Wh by 11.1 V yields 7.66 amp hours (7657 mAh).