Alienware Ships the M17, the First CrossFireX Laptop

On Monday Alienware announced the M17, the world's first CrossFireX notebook. What's CrossFireX? It's a multi-GPU technology, and you could think of it as AMD's version of SLI. In this laptop, it pairs dual ATI Mobility HD 3870 video cards.

Amazingly for an Alienware laptop, starting price is a mere $1,399. For Alienware, that's sure "mere" all right.

I would say one thing to Alienware: be a little more honest. It does start at $1,399, but that doesn't include CrossFireX. For that, and the dual cards, you have to add $250.

The stock LCD offers a modest (for nowadays) 1440 x 900 screen resolution. Want some more real estate? Add a 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology for a measly $200.

Oh, oh: see the trend? Yep.

Anyway, the "base" $1,399 model includes:

• Intel Core 2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870
• 17-Inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p)
• Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit Edition), Service Pack 1
• 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
• 160 GB 7,200 RPM HD
• 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
• Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)
  

Trick it out, including the Intel Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) which adds $1,200 by itself, and you've got a pretty pricey $3,700 monster.

In the emailed press release Patrick Cooper, director of product planning, Alienware, said:

"The M17, loaded with all the capabilities of ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, delivers outstanding performance at an extremely aggressive price point. Paired with an award-winning chassis design, mobile gamers will be blown away by the realism that the scalable ATI graphics solution provides."

Compared to some of the gaming monsters out there, such as the M1730 I have, this thing is compact and light. And even at just under $4K, compared to some Alienware machines, this is (almost) downright cheap.