The Alienware 51m is not manufactuered by Alienware, rather a company called Sager (and resold to distributers all over the 'net).

Alienware basically just recases these beasts, and installs their own software. I have a friend who purchased two of the 51m's when they first were released--he loves it, and is perfect for his needs.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/...systems.html#56

Now then, if you look at the 5620 and 5650 series, you will see that these are exactly the same notbooks as Alienware sell, minus all of the pretty coloured cases. (Not to mention about a $800 less [if you purchase from a secondary source--direct will only save you about $700]).

BTW: I just ordered my own 5620-
P4 2.2GHZ
512MB PC2100 DDR
Radeon 7500 64MB DDR
UXGA 1600 X 1200 15" LCD
40GB HDD
8X DVD/CDRW Combo Drive & Floppy
56K/Ethernet
WinXP Pro
Battery & Case

All of this shipped to my doorstep for a measly $2050
From Alienware: $2808 + shipping.

Once I get this machine, I am definatly going to be posting all over about how it is working out for me. Since I will be going to school in Boston and live in NY, I will be taking the 1 hour shuttles (there are two every hour in both directions) home, I will be traveling with this 10 pound beast. Yes, I was concerned about the weight being a problem, but then I decided to purchase one of the Targus Sport Backpacks (which is supposidly to be the best option for the Sager notebooks).

And about the battery, it has a 1.5 hour life (at its worst I have heard). However you can though a second in the Floppy bay and it suposidly lasts around 2.5-3 hours. Which isn't bad because I am coming from my old IBM Thinkpad were the battery would die at exactly 1.5 hours, always [it was rather odd].

-mass