Alienware Area-51 m9750 Laptop

PLEASE READ ALL BEFORE REPLYING

I was planning on buying this laptop, and I know I have alot more choices other than Alienware, but I have wanted one my whole life, and if I get anything less, I will regret it. Anyways...I plan on playing City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and Oblivion.

With the specs that I will list below in a second, will I be able to run these games? And if so, what detail level will I be able to run each of them on. I have a good feeling I will be able to run City of Heroes, and World of Warcraft, but I am very Iffy on Oblivion. Here are the specs of my computer:


[1] Area-51® m9750

Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Includes AlienRespawn v1.0 Recovery Software!
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Video/Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® Series - 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8700M GT - Enables DirectX® 10 Graphics!
Chassis: 17" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD - Stealth Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 2MB Cache 667MHz FSB
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 512MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 120GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW) w/ LightScribe Technology - View Demo
Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card
Sound Card : High-Definition Audio with surround sound


The only upgrades I MIGHT be able to afford is:

2.0GHz Duo Processor
~ OR ~
2GB of RAM

I do NOT have enough for the dual Geforce cards, these two are my only options. So if you know if I am able to play these games, and how well they will run with these specs, please let me know any insight you may have.

If you need any other info, don't hesitate to ask!

 

Welcome to the NBR forums.

You should be able to play those games you listed fine (with high settings since those games are not very graphically intense in today's standards.)... however the RAM definitely needs to be upgraded first... then maybe the CPU if you feel that its needed.

I did not realize that Alienware is still selling such an outdated system (its two generations behind in technology), since its uncommon to even find the CPUs for it.

 

Yeah, like I said, I have MANY other options in computers...just always wanted an Alienware. And I don't plan on playing high-end games like Call of Duty 4 on it (That's what I bought a 360 for, lol), so I am glad to hear that I am able to play these games.

Now will the RAM affect the gameplay as much as the CPU? Or am I ok to leave the RAM as-is and be good to go playing these games?

And thanks for the welcoming! Seems like a good community here, and more knowledgeable that Yahoo! Answers, lol.

 

No, you would want to have at least 2GB of RAM to play games comfortably.

The RAM is your main bottleneck from the specs.

 

Sorry for so many questions, such a relief to have people answer my questions. With the upgrade of the 2GB of RAM, will I still have the same results from Vista as I would from XP? Or even with the 2GB, will vista use more, and play the game less than XP?

I know Vista is a memory hog, and there are many things still wrong with it. So I have no idea why I am considering using Vista over XP, I guess just because it's alot of "Eye Candy".

 

Vista would do fine with 2GB of RAM, just disable the non-essential eye-candy, Aero and side toolbars.

 

Gophn is right. U need least 2gb ram for gaming no exceptions

 

2GB of ram really is needed for Vista, particularly for a gaming laptop. For XP, you can make do with 1GB (though 2GB still seems to be the "sweet spot"). I would want to upgrade the CPU, if I were you, as 1.6 slow and I would worry about it being a bottleneck for gaming (a 1.2 ULV will run Vista BTW).

 

What is the definition of "ULV"?

And most of the games I plan on playing are City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and Oblivion (maybe a select others). Counting out Oblivion, CoH and WoW are both recommended 1.7GHz+ and 1GB of RAM+.

So all that I am really worried about is the constant issue of Lagg, and not knowing what up-grade will decrease it during gameplay, RAM or CPu upgrade.

In a perfect world, I could afford both right off the bat, but ofcourse being from the manufacture, each upgrade is so expensive.

I could just upgrade the CPU, and upgrade the RAM later because I hear it is cheaper, but I plan on playing games right when I get it, so I am wondering what will be the best thing to upgrade right now.

 

Upgrade the RAM yourself to 3GB and the video card to SLI 8700M GT instead of the CPU. Alienware discontinued a SLI 7950M GTX option, which is a lot faster than the 8700M GT, but one of the users on the forum is selling a really tricked-out like new M9750 for a great price. You should throw this guy an offer, you'll get faster notebook than what Alienware is offering now:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=236671

 

I would buy it used from that guy, buying a boutique laptop is something that you really want, but you will regret it later on. I did the same thing except spent money on a $7,000+ voodoo laptop, and now I regret owning a voodoo since Hp has destroyed their tech support and now I am out of warranty, cause hp changed voodoo's warranty terms.

K-TRON

 

The ideal thing to do is to upgrade the processor now (the graphics card is already more than powerful enough to play any game, and most at high settings), if it's not stretching the budget too much. A 2 GHz processor or higher is generally considered pretty good in the Core 2 line, and while a 1.66 isn't that much slower, it is a fair amount slower, and processors are not an easy upgrade. RAM is much easier to upgrade later, and much cheaper to upgrade after you buy the laptop than if you buy a manufacturer upgrade. If I remember, Alienware charges $150 to go from 1 GB to 2 GB on this model, which is the most price-gouging I've ever seen on that upgrade. You can get a full 4 GB from Newegg, or probably you local store, for $100. The processor is definitely the better option to get right away.

ULV stands for Ultra Low Voltage. They are the most power-saving notebook CPU's Intel has, consuming 10 Watts of power (or 5 Watts if they are single-core). It's an Intel definition - Ultra Low Voltage could mean whatever you want it to mean if you're defining the application.

1 GB of RAM will be enough to run those games fine if you go with XP. With Vista, it's questionable whether it'll be enough to run them well. Oblivion recommends 1 GB (requires 512 MB), but XP is listed as the OS on that spec sheet. Usually the RAM amounts go up 512 with Vista. If you go with Vista, it may be better to skip both upgrades from Alienware and upgrade the RAM yourself to 2.5 GB or 4 GB. 2 GB is certainly enough that you won't notice a decrease in performance with Vista from lack of RAM, but you are far better off upgrading that yourself than buying it from Alienware. The Alienware premium isn't that bad for this notebook, but the Alienware RAM premium makes other brands' RAM premiums look dirt cheap.

The one for sale on these forums does look like a pretty good deal that would be about the same price as the one you're considering direct from Alienware (remember no tax on it either), and a better (if older) graphics card and more hard drive space. It's certainly worth considering.

 

As was said above: ULV stands for Ultra Low Voltage, they are the very power efficient (but slow) processors normally used in ultraportable machines. They can consume as low as 1 Watt of power. My D420 has the best config available with a 1.2Ghz and it means I get 7+ hours battery life.

With my notebook (1.2GHz ULV, 1.5GB RAM) I can run Vista OK but with occasional spots of lag when I do fairly heavy multitasking (12 Firefox tabs open and 3-4 word documents).

The best upgrade for you to buy now is the CPU. RAM can easily be upgraded later and 1GB is enough to be usable.

An off-topic note on the subject of expensive upgrades: My D610 cost £1500 for those specs in my sig when I bought it 2 years ago! Just think how things have changed............