A reason for game geeks to leave their lairs

March 2, 2006—Like most dirty little habits, PC gaming is generally conducted behind closed doors in darkened rooms. But Alienware's new Aurora m7700 laptop threatens to bring this addictive pursuit out into the open. Underneath the company's signature alien-eyed shell are two scary AMD Athlon processors, which combine to let multitaskers play 32- and 64-bit games simultaneously. And, thanks to Nvidia's new 256MB GeForce 7800 graphics card, you can actually see the nimbus around Matthew Kane's lightning-quick moves when you're blasting away in Quake 4. As for sound, Creative's new Audigy card gives you immersive 3-D audio in full 5.1 or 7.1 surround, so you'll hear the enemy coming even if you don't see him. Combine that with a 17-inch screen, dual optical drives, and a 7-in-1 media card reader, and you've got the best gaming laptop out there. The downside? Weight and cost. At 10.5 pounds, the m7700 weighs as much as three ThinkPads, and, at $4,400, it's hardly cheap (though if you order online you do get a free one-gig memory upgrade). But that's a small price to pay for the chance to see daylight again.
Alienware Aurora m7700, $4,400, available now at www.alienware.com.

— Peter Suciu