Gaming

Welcome to part three of State of the LAN Party. If you missed them, take a look at part 1 and part 2 posts. Everyone thought that growing older, getting married and having kids would be the only thing to bring an end to the LAN party. While it was true that as we got older we did not have LAN parties every two weeks, we still had them once a month. What did risk putting ours and many LAN parties to an end was Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOs.

By the time the game Everquest had come out our LAN party was in full swing. We had met with many other LAN groups across Florida and made a name for ourselves. I personally found working at Alienware, that the growing attendance to LAN parties translated into more buzz around our products.

One effect was peoples request for a smaller more LAN friendly sized system. People were torn between the massive power and size of our Dragon case and the prospect of having a small portable case to take. Remember, at this time there really wasn’t a gaming laptop and smaller form factor cases were not widely known of or used.

In the midst of larger LAN’s and more attention to networked gaming, a new fully 3D massive multiplayer role playing game was being released to the public. Now Everquest was not the first MMO, but it was the first to do fully interactive three dimensional game play and it brought in gamers who loved Dungeons and Dragons and the other successful MMO at the time, Ultima Online.

Over the next few months hundreds of thousands of people began to play EQ. At first this did not change the attendance of our LAN parties, but it did change much of the conversation within them. Many of us got into EQ and spent much of the LAN talking about our characters. We did continue to play normal LAN games like FPS’s and RTS’s, but somehow we always came back to talking about Everquest.

This was not just an occurrence at my LAN group. All across the U.S. people were talking about how Everquest, or as it was soon to be known as, EverCrack, was taking away gamers from their normal LAN games.

In our LAN group there was actually a divide between those who played EQ and those who did not. The pure gamers, as they called themselves, hated the fact that we talked so much about EQ and one said our LAN party officially died the day we connected a DSL line and played EQ at the LAN.

From my and many other EQ players point of view nothing really changed. We still played other games and interacted. MMO’s were just a new part of the landscape that we enjoyed, but we did find some took to EQ more than others. On the EQ main boards there were daily discussions of people becoming less active in work, school, their social life and LAN parties due to EQ. However, I felt in the end we became even more social because of it.

As high speed internet became easier to come by many LAN goers opted instead to play online. Gaming clans regained much of their strength because of this and LAN parties grew smaller and less frequent. Some of this was also blamed on MMO’s, but also because many companies decision to hold massive yearly LAN parties. It was felt that there was no longer a need to have a LAN party ever month when you could play over the net and then go to the larger sponsored LAN events.

Oddly enough, the EQ players were the ones to stay in touch the most. Since we all played on the same server in the game guild, we would often meet outside of EQ to talk and hang out. We found that many of our non-MMO playing LAN members did not want to attend these social gatherings. Perhaps it was because we talked about EQ, but we were skeptical.

As time went on many EQ and MMO players found themselves going back to LAN parties to get away from MMO’s and to do something different. LAN parties became much more social and private, except for the company sponsored ones.

At Alienware, we knew what our customers wanted and launched several gaming laptops which helped many LAN party members return to their LAN’s now being able to quickly and easily transport their gaming system.

In part 4 of the series I will talk about the evolution of the console and the affect new technology has had on the LAN party and the future of the LAN and its place in computer history.

For those of you who keep up with the technology industry, you may have caught some of the buzz from that Intel's annual round up known as Intel Developer's Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. One of today's highpoints is Intel serving notice they have raised the bar in mobile performance by releasing the mobile version of Core i7 quad core processors (a.k.a. Clarksfield).

Note from Lionel: I saw that some readers were giving Engadget a hard time because Dell.com wasn't updated with the mobile Core i7 goodness. Some of it is now. Click on the banner above  to look at our i7-based laptop offerings. I'll add the Studio XPS 16 link when it's updated. Done.

Make no mistake, putting a quad core processor in a laptop does a lot for performance and there is an elite group of folks out there who always feel the need for speed: gamers. For these acceleration aficionados, Dell has delivered the new Alienware M15x—a 15-inch laptop that reinforces that nobody - but nobody - knows how to pack more into the 15-inch gaming laptop than the Dell/Alienware gaming engineers and designers.

But enough about the expected - let's talk about the unexpected - like the fact that Dell is actually offering these new high-powered processors as an option on three other laptop models, including a Studio 15 laptop powered by the new mobile Core i7 processors with a starting price of  $999. The other news of the day is that we have significantly updated the Studio 17 laptop and have launched mobile Core i7 edition starting at $1,099. And just to make sure all the bases are covered, we've added a Core i7 processor option to the elegant Studio XPS 16 (more on that in a bit). Any one of these systems should definitely appeal to those of you who are "obsolescence paranoid" as well as the performance enthusiast who can't quite fit the aggressive Alienware design into their personal style.

Let's dive into some of the details around the new Studio 17 which frankly lands near the top of the entertainment powerhouse list - excelling at both creating and consuming multimedia content. First up, we have added a JBL-branded 2.1 audio solution with SRS Premium Sound - two 1.5-watt speakers in the palmrest and a 6-watt subwoofer in the base. The colossal 17.3-inch HD+ 16:9 display is great for watching HD content, and includes a 2.0MP webcam. A few other items of interest: this is the first Studio laptop to feature a 1GB graphic solution, and also supports dual hard drives. And while the engineers were upgrading just about every possible feature, the designers were trimming it down, the result being the new Studio 17 is slightly thinner and lighter than its predecessor. For $1,099 you get:

• Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
• 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
• 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
• 17.3-inch HD+ (1600x900) WLED display with built-in 2.0MP webcam
• JBL-branded 2.1 audio solution with subwoofer
• Full-size keyboard with separate keypad
• 9-cell Battery
• Black Chainlink exterior color

While the Studio 17 is primarily a desktop replacement than can be moved from room to room, there are those who need a laptop that balances performance with portability, and so the Studio 15 will also include a Core i7 option. For $999 you get:

• Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
• 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
• 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 1066MHz
• 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
• 15.6-inch HD (1366x768) WLED display with built-in 2.0MP webcam
• 6-cell Battery
• Black Chainlink exterior color

Of course you can put your own personal mark on a new Studio 17 or Studio 15 with a choice of color options ($40) or one of more than 200 original designs ($85) found at www.dell.com/designstudio. 

Finally, we are also offering a Core i7 option on the award-winning Studio XPS 16, with a starting price of $1,249 and it should be available on dell.com by Thursday.

• Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (1333 FSB/6MB L3 Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) - eligible for Windows 7 upgrade
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
• 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1067MHz
• 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Slot load CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
• 15.6-inch HD+ (1600x900) edge-to-edge WLED display
• Built-in 2.0MP webcam and facial recognition security software
• 7W audio solution with subwoofer
• Full-size backlit keyboard
• 9-cell Battery
• Obsidian Black high gloss finish exterior

The Studio 15 and Studio XPS 16 with Core i7 are available worldwide this week. The new Studio 17 is available in the U.S., Canada and Latin America now and expected to be available in the rest of the world next month.

What makes this processor family stand out is the fact that the appropriate number of cores kick into "turbo mode" as needed. (Warning -geek out section ahead). Here's how it was explained to me: If you are running a single-threaded application (word processing, web surfing) then a single core will ramp up to max "Turbo Boost" speed as needed. If, however, the application requires two or more threads, (Gaming, Photoshop, some Excel functions) then the appropriate number of cores ramp up to a higher speed, somewhere less that "max" but still enough to boost performance. Basically whatever you are doing, the processor will crank up the horsepower as needed to get things done, and then drop back down to a more battery-friendly level when you don't. There is no special action required, like fiddling in the BIOS or fussing with power management settings to make this happen, it's all done on the fly dynamically based on what the system needs at the time. If you want more insight on this, check out what the folks at Anandtech said about turbo mode in their Lynnfield review.

And let me end on this note - for those of you who are wondering if the new mobile Core i7 quad core processors are worth the additional coinage, following are some internal benchmarks hot off the line by the engineers in the performance lab. I think the results speak for themselves.

• The Intel Core i7 720QM processor performs up to 151% faster than the Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 processor.
• The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 137% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 processor.
• The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 101% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor.
• The Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.60GHz) performs up to 74% faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor.

(Fine Print: Based on 3DMark Vantage CPU overall score results by Dell Labs in August 2009. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage, and manufacturing variability.)

So there you have it - three laptop options that can handle the needs and deeds of any multi-media or entertainment enthusiast and one gaming laptop to rule them all.  Fasten your seatbelts!

If you're interested in gaming, I bet you're already reading about Intel's latest technology. You might have seen some of the buzz about new products from Alienware. Today, the Alienware M15x has landed for customers in the United States and many countries around the world. I wanted to spend a few minutes going over some of the details behind it and to share my thoughts about it after I’ve had some quality time with it over the last few days…. In the spirit of the M17x that John blogged about a while back, I give you the Alienware M15x.

When a statement is made about being the most powerful 15-inch gaming laptop in the universe, you better have the goods to prove it. After testing out the M17x I knew when the M15x was announced it would continue Alienware’s mobile domination, but I still had to see and experience it for myself.

First things first, when I held this laptop in my hands, I could feel the strength in the design. Not only is it the sturdiest laptop I have held in my hands, but one of the sleekest. With its thermal management system even when I was multitasking to the max, it kept cool and quiet.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the M15x can be configured with the Intel Core i7 920XM. This means from start-up to shut-down you have the best Intel has to offer for mobile units. Let me tell you, it makes all the difference when working on 3D animation or Hi-definition audio and video editing.

Now for the gamers like myself, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 1GB video card delivers the lighting-fast frames per second in old standbys like World of Warcraft to more demanding games like Crysis. It makes all the difference when you can crank up the details to max and still rock high FPS. It doesnt matter if you are a leisure gamer or a twitch monkey, you need to see everything as clear and clean as possible and with this video card and the HD widescreen the M15x has, you get both in spades.

If you download quite a few things, it supports up to 500GB hard drive space. As for sound, when I turned up some tunes, the built-in speakers pumped out crisp clear audio that made me want to retire my headphones. And don't forget some of the features. This rig comes with the Alienware Command Center which is an all exclusive software package that gives you access to AlienFX, AlienTouch, AlienSense, Facial Recognition and AlienFusion power management. With a slot-loading dual layer Blu-ray optical drive combo, up to 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory, an 8-in-1 Media card reader and express card slot and a starting weight of 9lbs, you have everything you need in a powerful portable package.

The bottom line is even with what I knew about the M15x getting my hands on it and trying it out impressed me. Sure wish I didn’t have to give it back.

This must be what it feels like to give birth. I personally have not given birth to a human, but I do feel I’ve given birth to past Alienware products and am really excited about the new products joining the family very soon.  I’ve been seeing and hearing some amazing things about these units – not just performance-wise but the design mixed with functionality makes me proud to be part of this ever-loved brand culture.  We did some really exciting things to support the M17x launch back in June with the all powerful campaign and we are continuing to message our upcoming launch.  With the support of some interesting teasers images and a three-part video teaser, the mystery and lure of the Alienware’s brand continues.  Below is the latest video, check out the Alienware YouTube channel for others.

All the rumors and speculations will roll up to the big fireworks launch at the Tokyo Game show. At our booth we will showcase our entire new product line, with all the systems playing the latest PC games. There will be gaming tournaments on site, giveaways for our fans and a special promo they are running at the show to where customers can get a free Alienware TactX headset.   For all of those die-hard Alienware fans, follow our Facebook page, we will have show updates including video, pictures and coverage from IGN.com and Gamespot.com. It’s going to get rowdy but in a good way. Stay tuned.

In case you missed part 1, check it out here.

Thousands of led lights flashing and blinking illuminate the otherwise dark room at the LAN party. At first glance you might think everyone is playing on a uniformed system, but with a simple question; what kind of rig do you have, you will find out how special and unique LAN goers systems are.

Originally you were only cool if you had a self build custom computer. Still today many who build their own system will swear by it and turn their nose up at anyone with what they call a stock system. When Alienware came on the scene this all changed. It can be debated which one prefers, but once Alienware systems started showing up at LAN parties it became clear that you did not have to be a computer building whiz kid to have a sweet rig.

When I was introduced to Alienware I had already built a system with the help of my friends. I was proud of my system and it was pretty awesome. I have to be honest that when I saw the original hydraulic case in purple my jaw dropped. Here was a system just as powerful as mind in a custom color that looked like it was built by its owner. I later came to realize this was because Alienware employees did indeed hand build their own systems.

To be fair, there were those who compared prices and specs in an attempt to validate their own systems, but for the majority it was accepted as a LAN worthy rig. This may seem silly to those on the outside, but to the LAN member our PCs are as important to us as a powerful engine is to a mechanic.

A lot of time and effort was put into system building. Often one would spend days just building it and then do all sorts of tweaks and fixes to it to get it just right for game day. While it was a badge of honor when you did build your own system it was not for everyone. I never bothered anyone about having a store bought rig considering my first LAN system was store bought. This did not stop others who believed you had to build a gaming system and nothing else was good enough.

Today we have systems that can run most of the games we want to play. Many people still build, but with high performance options at reasonable prices like, Alienware this allows gamers of all ages and economic statuses to own a powerful system. Back in the late nineties this was still not the case. The 3D video card market was just taking off and newer games required quite the system resources.

The downside was that to keep up with the newer games and products you had to upgrade pretty frequently, but to the hardcore LAN and gamer this was all part of the process. Alienware allowed those who could not build or did not have time to troubleshoot the opportunity to have a system that had the power to play their games and the ability to upgrade whenever it was necessary. It was no wonder as time went on that you saw more and more Alienware rigs at LAN parties.

Many who built their own systems also owned an Alienware because of its unique look and upgradability. In the end some will always swear by their own hand built rig, but custom company systems have earned their place among gamers and LAN attendees alike.

In part three of the series we will explore how games and game play have affected the LAN party.