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By Staff, July 9, 2005
Alienware computers have developed a reputation as the ideal product for the serious gamer. They've capitalized on the fun and mythology of alien encounters, Area 51, UFO sightings and oval-faced, spindly aliens in the cosmetic design of their machines-faintly hinting that the technology and performance of these workstations is somehow extraterrestrial. We all know it's marketing shtick, but it's fun to play along.
(For example, Alienware's technical support, AlienCare, involves an automatic inventory of your computer's systems via a process called AlienAutopsy. If AlienCare can't help, the company provides AlienRespawn on a Boot CD and Image DVD so you can restore your system to its original factory settings without having to send the machine away for repairs. The metaphor does not end there. Also look for Alienware-designed computer chassis, some with illuminated AlienEyes, in colors including Saucer Silver, Xeno Grey and Conspiracy Blue.)
In an effort to push beyond the bounds of game enthusiasts, Alienware has developed a number of machines targeted at professionals in other industries, including editing, animation and graphic design. The newest of these products are the MJ-12m 7700 and Area 51-m 7700 mobile workstation notebook computers. The sleek, dark-grey design (also available in Conspiracy Blue!) with the signature alien face icon certainly exudes that aura of having something that others don't-like owning a Ferrari. Certainly, from a performance point of view, it's in a similar class.
Engineering Design
I recently tested the MJ-12m 7700, which is built like a desktop system. In fact, at about 13 lb. with battery, it is large and heavy and meant to function as a desktop replacement-or for when you want to take your desktop on the road-rather than as a "toss it in the backpack" kind of machine. The notebook is built on PCI Express architecture using the Intel 915P Express chipset. PCI Express bus architecture permits faster performance by the video display graphics card. (PCI Express x16 graphics delivers up to 4GB/s per direction between the graphics processing unit and CPU.) The 915P chipset is also optimized for better performance with Pentium 4 CPUs running in the Hyper-Threading mode. The chipset design includes an onboard ATA drive controller and support for multi-stream DTS and Dolby Digital audio.
My system shipped with a 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4, but you can get your MJ-12m or Area-51m configured with a CPU up to 3.8GHz. And this is a full-blown desktop Pentium 4, not the mobile version used in most commercial laptops. The Pentium CPU is set in the Hyper-Threading mode, which enables a single processor to function as two virtual processors by executing two threads of data in parallel through the chip. Depending on the application, the single Pentium 4 is recognized as two CPUs and the application takes advantage of multi-threading and multi-tasking functions if coded into the software.
You can configure an MJ-12m with up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM (4GB on the Area-51m). My review unit shipped with 1GB; I'd recommend 2GB for standard video editing tasks.
Hard drive speed and performance are key factors in video editing. The MJ-12m has two bays for optical drives and two bays for internal drives. You can get up to 200GB of internal storage, but this maximum capacity uses slower 5400 rpm drives. The recommended configuration for video is 120GB, which consists of two 60GB 7200 rpm Serial ATA drives. The two SATA drives are striped as a single volume using either RAID 0 (a combined set with no data protection) or RAID 1 (minor data security).
In addition to the internal drives, my system included a built-in 7-in-1 memory card reader (for various sizes of Flash and SD cards) and a dual-layer DVD±RW/24x CD-RW combo drive, which is essential if you plan on doing any DVD authoring with the system. There is no internal floppy drive, but Alienware includes an external USB floppy drive with each system.
Cooling
Any workstation like this one-mobile or desktop-will generate a lot of heat. The MJ-12m is no exception. It is engineered with dedicated cooling systems for both the CPU and the graphics card. The MJ-12m gets pretty hot after running for a full day with work that frequently engages the CPU, DVD and hard drives. There are lots of fans underneath and to the side that keep the internal hardware at a reasonable temperature even after hours of use. The fans are definitely audible, but I didn't find them to be a great distraction. The noise level is similar to that of most high-performance PC mobile workstations but not as quiet as an Apple PowerBook. I found the side fans to be a minor nuisance-not because of the noise but because the left one blasts hot air right where I rest my hand. Do that for a day and your wrist will get toasty.
Video Display System
The most stunning part of the MJ-12m 7700 is Alienware's Clearview Enhanced Display. The base display configuration is a 17-inch widescreen WXGA+ LCD panel (native resolution of 1400x900), though my review system included the optional enhanced screen resolution of 1680x1050 (WSXGA+) in the same 17-inch widescreen LCD form factor.
The screen appears glossy like a CRT instead of having a matte appearance like most laptops
. As you would expect from a company known for making gamers' machines, the display is driven by a high-powered display card. You may choose from three graphics cards-two from Nvidia and one from ATI-each with 256MB of memory. My system included the Nvidia Quadro FX Go 1400. This card requires a hot-rodded Nvidia driver to push the screen to its full 1680x1050 resolution-I found that out the hard way by mistakenly installing a different Nvidia driver and then not being able to get the correct one from Nvidia's download site. Fortunately, Alienware ships its systems with recovery discs (AlienRespawn) so that users may easily re-install missing or misbehaving software components. It was as simple as inserting the disc and clicking on the menu item to fix the video subsystem. I was up and running with the correct display driver in no time at all.
This is a high-resolution screen, which by its nature means that text and icons may appear quite small. You can mitigate this problem by changing the settings in Windows XP's Control Panel so that desktop icons and fonts are larger. An alternate approach is to lower the screen resolution. On the other hand, a high screen resolution such as this gives you plenty of real estate for your applications.
In keeping with the extraterrestrial mystique, the MJ-12m ships with a custom GUI application that gives you several dark or silvery techie/alien themed skins to replace the default, primary-color appearance of Windows XP. The skin gives your system a distinctive look, but I found that using it wreaked havoc with several of the editing applications I had installed, so I opted instead for the Windows "Classic" theme.
Editing with the MJ-12m 7700
How well does Alienware's notebook put all this horsepower to work? I tested Boris Red, Avid Xpress Pro HD, Pinnacle Liquid Edition and Adobe Premiere Pro. All installed smoothly, with the exception of Avid Xpress Pro HD. The MJ-12m uses a RealTek surround sound audio card that apparently conflicts with the Avid software. I could get Xpress Pro to run only by disabling the audio card in Windows' Device Manager and working silently or with an Avid Mojo DNA connected to handle the audio.
Responsiveness with various types of media was fast-even HD files. Media handling like this is good but not vastly superior to other notebooks I've used or tested. My current benchmark is the speed of my own 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 laptop. The Alienware system did quite well with OpenGL tasks, like Avid's real-time DVE moves and titles in the Avid Marquee 3D titler. Marquee features lighting, textures and the ability to work in 3D space. This ability typically bogs down most computers, but working with these titles was fast on the MJ-12m.
Some applications are more optimized than others. It took the Alienware notebook two minutes to render a 1920x1080 uncompressed HD file consisting of a :05 Boris Red pan-and-scan move using a high-resolution still photo as a source. My PowerBook clocked in at about six minutes for the same thing. On the other hand, when I compared a six-layer HD effect that I'd composited in Avid Xpress Pro HD on the MJ-12m to a similar effect in Final Cut Pro on the PowerBook, rendering times were much closer.
If you intend to use the Alienware MJ-12m 7700 for presentations and plan to work with Windows Media HD files, then you'll appreciate the fast video performance. Microsoft's Step Into Liquid high-def trailer played smoothly on this system. I couldn't play the same file on my older HP/Compaq Presario Windows XP laptop (with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4) without dropping frames.
Is it for you?
The Alienware MJ-12m 7700 mobile workstation isn't for everyone. Its size and weight will turn some off, but it's not really out of line with other high-performance notebooks. Despite its high level of performance, the MJ-12m 7700 isn't the most expensive of the bunch. I checked out the Alienware Web site to estimate the cost to configure a system like this test unit. At the mid-$3K to mid-$4K range, depending on options, the MJ-12m 7700 price is similar to Apple's current 17-inch PowerBook G4 models. Some of the PC competitors, such as the Dell M-70, are at least $1,000 more, and neither Apple nor Dell offer dual internal drives in a RAID configuration.
There are other "nice to haves" with the Alienware system that will appeal to many. DVDs look stunning on the display, which is augmented by surround sound with four internal speakers and a subwoofer. The audio card includes S/PDIF digital audio connectors. There are two 1394a mini-jacks for DV and four USB ports, video in and out with an optional TV tuner card and optional WiFi and Bluetooth support. The laptop lid even includes a built-in Webcam for video messaging (available with the WSXGA+ display).
If you're interested in tackling the demands of editing video on the road and need to work with compressed HD or uncompressed SD files, then the Alienware MJ-12m 7700's performance will quickly win you over. Coupled with a price that's in line with less powerful PC notebooks, it's like buying that Ferrari at a Buick price.
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