Alienware debuts two SLI laptops

Darius Chang | May 11, 2006

Alienware, the PC company made famous for its high-end gaming systems with almost insane performance, has announced two new notebooks that are set to revolutionalize the mobile gaming scene. Powered by top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics cards, the 17-inch Aurora m9700 and monster 19-inch Aurora mALX are based on AMD Turion processors.

Both systems come with relatively few USB and connectivity ports for their size, though you may be able to get sets with integrated Airgo MIMO wireless in June (current retail units come with the standard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi radio). The mALX also comes bundled with the superior PCMCIA Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card. The Aurora m9700 and Aurora mALX are available now for US$1,999 (S$3,119.94) and US$4,499 (S$7,021.81), respectively. Unfortunately, these systems are available only in the US and there is no news of Alienware machines coming to this region.

By the way, we are using the term mobile computing loosely with these Alienware PCs. The m9700, possible the first SLI system with a 17-inch display (previous SLI notebooks were 19-inch monsters), is barely portable at a hefty 3.86kg. As for the 19-inch mALX, there is a reason a backpack is part of the standard bundle. At 6.8kg, walking between LAN party locations may just be what makes your chiropractor chuckle with glee. Photo gallery