In our first run with the Alienware M18x, we sat down and took a look at the notebook itself along with NVIDIA's current top shelf mobile graphics part, the GeForce GTX 580M. We came away from the experience with mixed impressions of the M18x itself, a notebook that is by all means incredibly powerful but also seems to lose a lot of the balance that made the M17x R3 so desirable. On the other hand, the GeForce GTX 580M wound up being the fastest mobile GPU we'd yet tested, made only more formidable through the SLI configuration the M18x enables.

Today, Alienware has graciously provided us with the second half of the current top shelf performance equation in the form of a near-identically configured M18x, this time with two AMD Radeon HD 6990Ms in CrossFire. We'll also take a look at the Intel Core i7-2920XM's stock performance and compare it against the overclocked settings Alienware allows you to configure it with.

Historically, whenever NVIDIA or AMD launched a new mobile powerhouse GPU, AVADirect and Clevo were ready to ship us a high-end notebook to show us what the latest mobile GPUs could do. The problem is that NVIDIA and AMD have been playing a rapid game of oneupsmanship lately, while Clevo has been content with their dual-GPU + desktop CPU X7200. We've already looked at that notebook twice, so we wanted to see if we could find the high-end hardware elsewhere. Thankfully, Alienware was ready to step up to the plate with their M18x.

Perhaps even more interesting, we were able to pull some strings and get Alienware to agree to send us two M18x units back-to-back. Today we present to you the first of a two-part series where we begin with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M (tested in both single GPU and SLI modes), and we'll also given a thorough overview of Alienware's M18x. We'll follow up in the near future with a second look at the M18x, but with AMD's Radeon HD 6990M (again tested in single GPU and CrossFire modes), at which point we'll be able to give a full rundown on how these two top-of-the-line mobile graphics solutions stack up.

Read on for the first part of our Alienware M18x coverage, with dual 580Ms and enough performance to put many a desktop to shame.

We've been keeping track of Alienware's M11x series since the very first one landed and have had the privilege of testing each one. The move from Penryn to Arrandale in the R2 netted a substantial boost in performance at the cost of some battery life, though that issue was mitigated somewhat by the introduction of NVIDIA's Optimus graphics switching, replacing the more finicky software-based GPU switching in the first generation model. With the vastly improved power consumption and efficiency of Sandy Bridge, do we have a true successor to the last two models?

Understanding that many users would just as soon want to be able to game on the go without having to lug a ten pound land monster with them, Alienware offers the M14x, a notebook that offers portable performance without breaking your back in the process. Featuring support for quad-core Sandy Bridge mobile processors and a reasonably fast GeForce GT 555M, the M14x promises an awful lot of power in a reasonably small package. But at what cost?

We've had our hands on quite a few gaming notebooks here, but most of the time they're Clevo-based machines. These aren't necessarily bad notebooks; they're fast, typically have good screens, and they get the job done. Yet they also have some persisting drawbacks: build quality isn't often that hot, the battery is a glorified UPS system, and they feature some of the worst keyboards on the market. ASUS, MSI, Toshiba, and HP all offer fairly compelling alternatives, and today Alienware brings us a particularly interesting contender in the form of the M17x R3.

In the second half of our Mobile Buyer's Guide, we focus on portable machines with screens smaller than 14". The market as a whole is getting a thorough overhaul over the summer, both because of brand new chips coming from Intel, AMD, ATI, and NVIDIA (for those of you keeping score at home, that's...everyone) and because of the rapidly approaching back-to-school season, which always means newly refreshed notebook lineups. With so many new systems out there, who's going to put in the groundwork to figure out which ones can hold their own in the market and separate the contenders from the also-rans? We did, and our findings are in this article. Read on for more details!

Four months ago, Alienware turned the mobile gaming world on its head by cramming a reasonably fast GPU into a small chassis with an 11.6" display. We loved the concept of an ultraportable gaming laptop, but we had a few complaints. Now Alienware has returned with the updated R2 model, sporting NVIDIA's Optimus Technology and the same GT 335M GPU. Added to that is an Intel Arrandale ULV processor, our first laptop to use such a CPU. That addresses two of the biggest concerns we had with the original, but does it make for a truly better laptop? Today we'll look to answer that question with our in-depth review.

Four months ago, Alienware turned the mobile gaming world on its head by cramming a reasonably fast GPU into a small chassis with an 11.6" display. We loved the concept of an ultraportable gaming laptop, but we had a few complaints. Now Alienware has returned with the updated R2 model, sporting NVIDIA's Optimus Technology and the same GT 335M GPU. Added to that is an Intel Arrandale ULV processor, our first laptop to use such a CPU. That addresses two of the biggest concerns we had with the original, but does it make for a truly better laptop? Today we'll look to answer that question with our in-depth review.

A few weeks ago, Alienware launched a revamped version of the famed M11x, the world's smallest gaming laptop. We've been pestering them to get a review sample ever since the press release, as we know there's a ton of interest in the updated M11x. Much to our surprise, a package arrived unannounced yesterday with said laptop. We quickly unpacked the system and prepped it for testing. We already liked the original concept, and the R2 release improves on several areas. Specifically, the old overclocked CULV SU7300 processor was swapped out for a Core i7-640UM and the GPU now has NVIDIA's Optimus Technology to allow seamless switching between the Intel HD IGP and GT 335M. We'll be running benchmarks over the weekend, but today we wanted to present our initial impressions.

A few weeks ago, Alienware launched a revamped version of the famed M11x, the world's smallest gaming laptop. We've been pestering them to get a review sample ever since the press release, as we know there's a ton of interest in the updated M11x. Much to our surprise, a package arrived unannounced yesterday with said laptop. We quickly unpacked the system and prepped it for testing. We already liked the original concept, and the R2 release improves on several areas. Specifically, the old overclocked CULV SU7300 processor was swapped out for a Core i7-640UM and the GPU now has NVIDIA's Optimus Technology to allow seamless switching between the Intel HD IGP and GT 335M. We'll be running benchmarks over the weekend, but today we wanted to present our initial impressions.

When you think of a gaming notebook what usually comes to mind is a 17" behemoth with a ridiculous paint job and the weight of a small child.  While many manufacturers have outfitted smaller notebooks with the right components to make them capable of playing games, it's rare that they actually are marketed as such.  Alienware aimed to change all of that.

As the enthusiast arm of Dell, Alienware doesn't have to worry about catering to a wide audience. Surprisingly enough, that's exactly what this latest notebook seemed to do when we first laid eyes on it. Announced at CES 2010, the Alienware M11x boasts specs that make it a more than capable gaming laptop with a size that many thought impossible to achieve.  We're definitely impressed with the M11x, so join us as we put 11.6” of gaming goodness to the test to see where it excels and where it comes up short.