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Features
The MJ-12m 7700 is an all out assault on the mobile workstation space. It features a desktop motherboard housing a Socket 775 3.4GHz (2.8 to 3.6GHz available), Intel Pentium 4 CPU with Hyper Threading technology, Intel 915P +ICH6 chipset, 800 MHz front side bus and 1MB Cache. This unit shipped with 1GB PC2-4200 DDR SDRAM at 533MHz. It offers support for up to 4GB RAM, once Windows XP 64 ships. Internally housed is a pair of Promise 2+0 Stripe/RAID SATA 40GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, (support for RAID 0+1) a single NEC DVD+-RW drive, and a second slot for a second optical drive. The 17-inch display is driven by a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 PCI Express graphics card. Maximum screen resolution is a gorgeous 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA) resolution at 32-bit color. A BisonCam web cam video conferencing camera is located at the top center of the screen bezel.
Performance
The MJ-12m 7700 trounced the previous Alienware system we looked at in the Photoshop Guassian blur test by a full 10 seconds. On the Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 Adobe Media Encoder test, which involves encoding a 545MB AVI file to MPEG-2, the MJ-12m 7700 churned through the NTSC DV 4x3 Low Quality 4MB VBR 2 pass encode in 2 minutes 48 seconds, and 1 minute 55 seconds for the NTSC DV 4x3 High Quality 7mb CBR 1 pass. The previous Alienware churned through each test at 3 minutes 7 seconds and 2 minutes 5 seconds. It also handily beat the latest (March 2005) Dell workstation that was tested by DMN's Charlie White in the Cinebench test by tight margins, scoring a 293 in the Cinebench 2003 Rendering CB-CPU score versus the M70's 282, and scoring an 89.8 sec Cinebench 2003 Rendering time versus the Dell M70's 93.3, a mere four second difference. The MJ-12m 7700 also registered a blazing 62MB/second read and 40MB/second write on the Canopus StormTest, which tests a computer's hard disk drive for video editing. This can be attributed to the set up and components in the MJ-12m 7700. Desktop CPUs and RAID subsystems in a notebook configuration are hard to beat.
Cinebench 2003 Rendering CB-CPU 293 Cinebench 2003 Rendering time 89.8 sec Canopus StormTest/Read 62MB/second Canopus StormTest/Write 40MB/second Adobe Photoshop CS Guassian Blur with radius 6.3 on 9.51MB JPG: 42 seconds Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5/Adobe Media Encoder NTSC DV 4x3 Low Quality 4MB VBR 2 pass 00:02:48 Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 /Adobe Media Encoder NTSC DV 4x3 High Quality 7mb CBR 1 pass 00:01:55
First Impressions
The MJ-12m 7700 ($3165 as configured) is a well thought out machine that offers true desktop speed and features in a portable unit. This system's LCD screen is surprisingly crisp, and at 17 inches, is one of the larger screens currently offered on a notebook computer. The inclusion of built in memory card slots as well as the capability to install two hard disk drives is an added plus, as is the addition of two 4 pin 1394 FireWire 400 (a FireWire 800 port should be included in the next rev of this system) ports on the side of the unit. As built, this system is ideal for digital video editors by virtue of the horsepower and functionality built into it. A RAID subsystem and a desktop CPU cruising at 3.4GHz, combined with not ONE, but TWO IEEE 1394 ports will make virtually any mobile digital video editor a happy video editor. It is also ideal for a power image editor/digital photographer due to its crisp, massive screen treatment and built in memory card readers.
Since the MJ-12m 7700 features built-in 802.11g wireless AND FireWire ports, the PCMCIA card slot is free for other devices. My only qualms with the MJ-12m 7700 is the physical weight of the system and its propensity to get warm on the wrist rests. If you intend to travel, with it, you're going to need one of those rolling computer bags, because this system is 13 plus pounds. This is due in part to the fact there is a full blown CPU inside and not a mobile CPU that draws less power, as well as a larger screen, two hard drives, and more fans to keep the unit cool. Heat is dissipated from the sides and underneath the system, so working with the system while on your lap is really detrimental to the integrity of the system, as well as your own skin. But with all the fans, the system is acceptably quiet. I expected it to be loud, but surprisingly it was not. Alienware offers a one year warranty on the MJ-12m 7700. The company also offers two tiers of three year warranties; a standard three year $265 warranty as well as the Alienware AlienAutopsy bundle for $299, which enables an Alienware technician to troubleshoot your computer remotely via the Internet.
If you are in the market for a true desktop replacement that sacrifices nothing, then you should seriously consider the MJ-12m 7700. I imagine that Alienware is aiming the MJ-12m 7700 at those who want a desktop replacement in a mobile configuration. Nevertheless, despite these minor irritations, the unit performs extremely well and is a true desktop replacement for those who want the mobility and the power to create digital content anytime and anywhere. For more information, visit www.alienware.com
John Virata is senior editor of Digital Media Online. You can email him at jvirata@digitalmedianet.com
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