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May

31

The 3D PC

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3D entertainment is gaining quite a bit of momentum especially with awesome 3D movies like Alice in Wonderland and of course James Cameron’s Avatar. We’re seeing a sort of “3D revolution”, as NVIDIA calls it, where 3D is being introduced in all kinds of types of visual entertainment ranging from of course movies and PC games to photos and even live 3D broadcasts. At Computex 2010 this week, NVIDIA is partnering with us (Microsoft), Alienware, Asus, Dell, Toshiba and others to introduce a new category of PC: the 3D PC.

With a 3D PC, the consumer can easily bring the amazing 3D experiences into their home. For example, they can play 3D PC games. NVIDIA has invested a lot of time working closely with game developers so that more than 425 PC games work great with NVIDIA’s 3D Vision technology. Sony and Fujifilm will be bringing 3D digital cameras to market where consumers can take 3D photos and view them in 3D on their 3D PC. A 3D PC can view the Web in 3D including live streaming of 3D video. And you can watch Blu-ray 3D movies thanks to folks like Cyberlink who will be releasing a version of their software player that will support playback of Blu-ray movies in 3D.

So what makes a 3D PC? A 3D PC must have, by definition, the following minimum requirements:

The idea behind having a 3D PC category is to make it easier for consumers who are looking at purchasing a new PC to get a PC that is capable of delivering the 3D experience for the right budget. For example, several OEMs will be featuring a “3D PC” category on their websites. For folks wanting to upgrade an existing PC to get the 3D experience – retailers will be featuring 3D PC branded components to easily identify what they need to do their upgrade.

It’s really exciting to see this new category and the 3D space grow. Both my colleague Ben Rudolph and I will be talking more about 3D PCs in the coming months here on the Windows Experience Blog.

For more information, give this blog post a read from the NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA today is also announcing the newest addition to their GeForce consumer GPUs based on their Fermi architecture: the GeForce GTX 465. Previously, the GeForce GTX 480 and 470 GPUs were announced in March. The GTX 465 will hit with the target price of $279, like all GTX 400 series GPU will support DirectX 11, and also support NVIDA’s 3D Vision technology. For more information on the GTX 465, click here to read their blog post.

May

28

The Alienware M11X: A little dog with a big bite

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Gamers on the go have always had to trade portability for power, and vice versa. If you  wanted a killer system, you had to be ok with lugging around a “lapmonster”, and if you wanted small and light, you had to cosign yourself to a less-than-ideal set of specs.

The guys and girls at Alienware were tired of that trade-off too, and solved the problem with the Alienware M11X Gaming Laptop. This is 11” of pure power – one of the most impressive gaming rigs I’ve used, packed into a little, tiny, netbook-sized package. And it’s LIGHT! My machine weighs in at just about 4.5lbs, which is plenty light to toss into a messenger bag and tote around all day.

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Chassis design is very Alienware – black polycarbonate, sharp edges, etc. – but what really stands out are the specs. Inside my unit is a ULV Pentium U4100 (there is a Core2Duo model available), 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 256GB SSD, backlit keyboard and webcam. Graphics are switchable; run the integrated Intel graphics when you’re browsing the web and doing basic productivity work to save juice, and hit the Binary GFX button to kick on the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M card for ultimate fragging power. The GeForce GT 335M is a mid-range notebook graphics card, but still packs good power, clocking in a 6.5 WEI score for both desktop and 3D graphics. The card supports CUDA, too, so it’s available to handle processor cycles in certain scenarios like video encoding. This is handy since the Intel Pentium U4100 isn’t all that powerful and can choke a bit on processor-intensive actions. Switching is fast and near-seamless, and I found myself switching modes pretty regularly.

Battery life is surprisingly good. I got about 4 hours of normal use out of the M11X (using largely the integrated graphics mode). While gaming I stayed plugged in but logically assume that battery life will tank when cranking hard on a 3D game.

Admittedly I’m not a huge gamer (having an 18-month old at home severely impacts one’s ability to retreat to my home office for an hours long HALO-bender), but I did take one for the team and spend a few of my working hours playing favorites like Street Fighter IV and Batman Arkham Asylum, and both performed beautifully. Running full-screen at full-frame rate, Batman ran nearly lag-free with only the occasional very short stutter. Sound is immersive and fills the room, and helped me easily blow an entire afternoon on the game.

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One of my favorite things about this PC (beyond the sheer power of the hardware) is the Alienware Command Center, a pre-loaded app that lets you completely customize the look and feel of your PC. That includes dropping on the “Alien Guise” custom theme, and changing the led backlighting on the Alienware logo, keyboard and case accents to almost any color you want. It’s a nice way to make the PC as unique as its owner, and it’s a great compliment to the Aliensense facial recognition software, which makes login as easy as smiling at the built-in webcam. Check the video to see it in action:

While my loaded M11x costs about $1800 (nearly $600 of which was due to the fact that I splurged on a giant 256GB SSD!), you can get one starting at $799. That’s a very reasonable price point for hardware of Alienware’s quality.

If you’re a gamer and are looking to keep playing even when you’re away from your main rig, definitely look into the M11x.

Questions/comments/concerns? Leave a comment or hit me on Twitter @BenThePCGuy.

May

28

Get On The Bus in Washington DC

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The Bus Tour gets to our nations capitol in Washington DC for two days of presentations on Windows 7, Office 2010 and MDOP. The crowd was great and the city is amazing. Check it out! For more on the Get On The Bus tour or to sign up for sessions in one of our remaining cities, check out the site here.


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