Overall System Usage and Features.

When the system first arrived with us we discovered a slight issue with memory timings, basically the memory used in current Clevo systems was running at DDR333 rather than DDR400 on the latest revision motherboards. This issue will have affected all manufacturers who use Clevo and not just Alienware. Following our initial report of the concern Alienware confirmed that they could recreate the issue and contacted Clevo for a fixed bios. This arrived in a couple of weeks and we began testing the system.

What this delay allowed us to do was to really experience what day to day use of the system was really like. We went out of our way to use the M7700 as our main system and pretty much took it everywhere as well.

So how did we find general use of the laptop? Well, to be honest, it was a great system to use. Imagine you have just about the best PC money can buy however you can take it anywhere and you have exactly what Alienware give you with this system.

Regardless of location we could perform any task that we would normally do on our main system, although on occasion you would be limited by battery power (1hr) under heavy use. The portability of the system is also worth bringing up… this machine is what I would consider relatively heavy. With the stock bag Alienware provide it can be awkward and uncomfortable to carry around and we would suggest that you put aside money in your budget for the backpack option which makes the unit much easier to transport and spreads the weight much better.

Finally before we look at the performance of the M7700 another point of note in the package is the Alienware Respawn discs. These allow you to restore your OS install to the pre shipping build (including drivers and applications). Before sending on the unit we gave the process a whirl and are pleased to report that not only was the restore hassle free it was super quick, completing un under 30minutes. A great restore system, in fact the best we have seen.