A lot of co-op PC gaming is not only done online, but at LAN parties. If you've never experienced one of these Mountain Dew laden events, well do yourself a favor and find a local one. Of course it's not easy lugging your desktop PC across down for a little multiplayer gaming, so the best thing to do is find yourself a slick gaming laptop.
Enter Alienware's upcoming M17x laptop. This laptop falls just short of NASA computing power with a Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 Gig of Ram, and Dual Nvidia GT260's with one gig of VRAM each. Yes my friends, this computer is so fast you'll actually be killing zombies before they appear in Left 4 Dead. With speeds so fast, your Space Marine squad will arrive on Typhon before the Tyrinaid fleet and erradicate them with your visual fidelity. And the techno rave inducing lighting system is an added bonus for those spur of the moment LAN dance parties. Hey... the caffeine can go to your head.
So...how big of a mortgage will this laptop cost? How about a starting price of $1799.
Specs:
Among the configuration delights lurking under the anodized aluminum hood of the starter model are the following:
• A single 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX260M GPU (upgradable to dual 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 280M GPUs for your sweet high-end graphic needs)
• An Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz P8600 CPU (upgradable to a Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core CPU)
• 4GB of RAM (Up to 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM)
• A 250GB 7200-rpm hard drive (upgradable to a 1TB 7200-rpm or to 512MB of solid-state storage capacity [Raid 1 or Raid 0]; users can swap out hard drives by removing the battery)
• A slot-loading DVD-RW drive (upgradable to dual-layer Blu-ray Disc)
• A nine-cell battery
• An nVidia GeForce 9400M G1 GPU with HybridPower technology (the big bonus here on the motherboard helps you get decent scaled-down graphics when you don't need the dual-card megaton firepower; it kicks in when plugged into AC power)
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• An optional 1920-by-1200-resolution edge-to-edge LCD
It should also be noted that as of now, Dell will no longer be creating Gaming Laptops focused on the hardcore gamer like their traditional XPS lineup. Instead those duties are fully on Alienware's shoulders....assuming aliens have shoulders.