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(Excerpts taken from article...)
Alienware's high-priced system comes primed for high-end
gaming.
"Alienware systems are built for devoted gamers, and the
purple-and-black Aurora we tested is no exception."
"With AMD's 1.8-GHz Athlon XP 2200+ processor and a gigabyte of DDR SDRAM,
our Alienware netted a score of 123 on PC WorldBench 4 tests…" "A
19-inch NEC FE950+ CRT monitor rendered bright colors and sharp text in our image
quality tests. "
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"The Aurora is also
pleasing to the ear. Together, the Creative Labs Audigy Platinum sound card and
the Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 five-speaker and subwoofer set thump out rich, sonorous
bass and crisp tones, with the different sound channels easily discernable. The
Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound is especially satisfying when you're watching DVD movies.
The sound card is connected to an "Audigy Drive" panel; occupying an
externally accessible drive bay, the panel provides FireWire and headphone ports,
plus advanced connections such as optical-in and -out, S/PDIF-in and -out, and
a MIDI port for attaching devices like electronic keyboards. It also receives
signals from an included infrared remote control."
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"If recording home movies
is also on your wish list, the Aurora DDR comes equipped with a DVD-RW/-R/CD-RW
drive. Its ability to write to DVD-R media--a format compatible with most newer
home DVD players--will be handy for users interested in producing homespun video.
And upgrades should be relatively effort-free, thanks to a spacious interior with
clear access to its two open PCI slots. Should you want to replace one of the
externally accessible drives, you can slip the old one out without tools simply
by squeezing two metal tabs to unlock it."
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"A distinguishing feature of an Alienware system is its
case color--great if you want your PC to stand out. Our test unit arrived tinted
in a metallic dark purple, highlighted by black edges. Other colors such as
"Cyborg Green" or "Martian Red" are also available. The
wide keyboard matches the system's color scheme and provides plenty of hot-keys
for everything from common cut-and-paste functions to adjusting audio levels."
-- Mick Lockey |
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