Alienware M17 offers high-end gaming on a budget

by Stevie Smith - Nov 4 2008, 16:30

While cutting-edge PC gaming puts well-armed system owners in full control when it comes to upper tier software titles that truly test hardware, not everyone can afford the monetary outlay that accompanies being equipped with the best the market has to offer. And that’s where Alienware’s new M17 comes in.

Built for those enthusiast gamers constrained somewhat by budget, the considerate and creative folk over at Dell-owned Alienware offer up the M17 notebook as yet another entry to their bulging high-performance PC gaming portfolio.

Available now in the U.S. and across Europe, the Alienware M17 is powered by “the world’s first mobile quad-core processor,” the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300, and also stands as Alienware’s very first notebook to be decked out with ATI CrossFireX multi GPU technology -- including dual ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cards.

Other contributing features of note include a 17-inch Extreme High-Definition LCD display (1920 x 1200), a solid 3GBs of DDR3 memory muscle (optional up to 4GBs), dual 500GB hard drives linked to RAID 0, full DirectX 10.1 support, and an onboard Blu-ray drive.

According to Alienware, those specifications leave the M17 perfectly positioned for providing “aggressive performance at an equally aggressive price” in a market well-known for stinging gamers’ pockets as well as their eye sockets.

“By incorporating the all-out performance of CrossFireX graphics and quad-core processing into Alienware’s award-winning notebook lineup,” enthused Frank Azor, executive vice-president for Alienware’s Product and Marketing Groups, “the M17 delivers an impressive feature set at a price point that doesn’t break the bank.”

Case in point, all of the above, when added to the system’s already overt processing and graphical oomph, will cost discerning gamers less that $2,000 USD.

Learn more about the Alienware M17 notebook by visiting its official Web page.

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