At a glance, the XPS M1730 and Area-51 m9750 appear to serve the same markets, featuring the same monitor size, a "RAID" Level 0 array and Nvidia SLI graphics. Differences in hardware specifics made each stand out in its own particular set of benchmarks, however. Since SLI technology defines these as "gaming" systems, we’ll start with the game benchmarks.

F.E.A.R performance allows the Area-51 m9750 to dominate the game charts, but it falls behind in Oblivion and Doom 3 for a combined average difference of only 15%

The Alienware Area-51 m9750 might have the more powerful graphics configuration, but Dell’s XPS M1730 has both a faster processor and the ability to overclock. These could be keys to an XPS performance win in average application performance.

3D Studio Max gets the largest gains, exceeding the difference in CPU clock speed probably because the XPS M1730’s faster Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor also has a higher bus speed for better memory access. The overclocking capability gives the XPS an even greater performance lead, but it is really only useful when running the notebook from its AC power adapter.

Synthetics include CPU and memory benchmarks that could extend the XPS M1730’s performance lead beyond what real applications indicate, but by how much?

Sandra leads the synthetics by giving the XPS a score that almost perfectly reflects its CPU speed difference. SPECviewperf balances the Area-51’s more powerful graphics processors against the XPS’ faster CPU with the M1730 coming out on top. Most surprising is 3D Mark 2005, which shows the more powerful m9750 graphics solution falling prey to the M1730’s powerful central processor.