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Here is my review of my Area 51 7500 that I just got about a week ago.

Reasons for purchasing this computer:

1) I have built my last couple of machines but did not want to go through the hassle of upgrading this time around.

2) I have a full time job and had to recently switch from Community College classes to University classes at night and I wanted something to rely upon at home, my latest self built system had motherboard or software issues and I really did not want to work on it.

3) Coolness factor with nephews (Always important to be the cool uncle)

4) Ease of future upgrades, this case is awesome and should last a long time.

5) I was comfortable ordering from Alienware because of the mostly positive attitudes in this forum, I have always found the NBF to be the most informative and supportive forums out there. I also have a coworker who ordered his wife an ALX and saw their system and was hooked on it, although I could not afford their model.

System Specifications:

[1] Area-51® 7500

Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling and 1000 Watt SLI Capable Power Supply - Saucer Silver
Chassis Customization : Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue
High-Performance Liquid Cooling: Alienware® Standard System Cooling
Acoustic Dampening: Alienware® Acoustic Dampening
Graphics Processor: Single Graphics Processors - 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600 GTS
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
Memory: High-Performance 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 1GB - 2 x 512MB
Motherboard: Alienware® Approved NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 500GB (2 x 250GB) Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ 2 x 8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Burner
Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
Monitor: No Monitor
Keyboard: Saitek II Backlit Keyboard
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service
AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
Removable Storage : Alienware® 28-in-1 Digital Media Reader / Writer
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $100 Value - FREE!
Alienware Extras: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - $100 Value - FREE!
Free Alienware® T-Shirt: Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black

Ordering:
Very easy after I settled on the system I wanted. Took me about a month to decide to pull the trigger, but happy that I did.

Phase Game:
In all I think it took about 4 weeks to get to me. I did not keep track of the dates nor the phase processes that much. It was just a daily lunch ritual

Shipping:
I had the unit sent to my work since there would be someone to sign for it and I would not have to take a day off or deal with the hassle of trying to pick it up at a Fed Ex location. But it was kind of sad to see it sitting in the receiving area all by itself.

Bringing her home:
I have a 2006 VW GLI (Jetta) and it has an extremeley large trunk. The box just barely fit into the trunk. But it was a workout to get the box out of the trunk

1st Power Up:

WOW, she was quiet and ran perfectly from the start. No complaints whatsoever!

Performance and Upgrades:

I knew from the start that the 8600 GTS was not a screamer, so the 3D mark 06 score from Alienware was 6244

I had a 8800 GTS videocard and installed it and now get a score of 8750. Not a large score but I can hold off until the new NVIDIA cards come out later this year

I also changed the memory out to 2 gigabytes or Corsair dominator series memory from ZipZoomFly, they were cheaper than NewEgg on the day that I ordered it.

Current primary Use:
Mostly using school programs and transfering One Notes from my Tablet to the Alienware

Games - waiting for the new games to come out, plus not a lot of time yet to spend on the older games

Music - I stick with Itunes mostly and it was a hassle trying to transfer the music from my old system to the new system. It was primarily with the music that I purchased and needed to transfer twice. Probably operator error but I will blame Itunes.

Pictures:

Here are a couple of the pictures that came out clear. I tried to have a couple of nighttime pics but those are not turning out well. I will try later.

There is also a picture of the Acoustic dampening. I was debating wheter I should get it or not, but it may be worth its investment later on. It is the piture of the door by itself and they have a white Alien head on the foam

Also the Iphone was beig a diva and wanted to be in the pictures as well, maybe with the $100 in store credit I could get one of those Mac Mini to keep all of my music.







Scott

I think I need help with posting the pictures, if anyone can let me know where to go I will try to get them up as soon as possible. I tried to use Flickr and also used the attachements and did not get it to work right.

Thanks for the peek at your system. The silver does look nice with the grey base.

I think you can see the pics if you just go to this address, then use the arrows on the right to go through the three pictures. I don't know how flickr works or how to direct link a pic from there...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9939481...n/photostream/

Thanks! Nice! I think thats a nice score for the 8800GTS...I'm glad you like your system. It seems like a great way to start and then upgrade from there...

I'm seriously thinking about a decent desktop, but I travel waaaaay too much, so I would hardly get to use it

Congrats again!