It seems that as of today, Alienware is staying as the sole gaming face of its parent company Dell, and their new 17'' gaming laptop is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Alienware – lean and mean gaming machine.

The starter version of M17x, as it’s called, comes with a 1GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 260M, but if your graphics craving exceeds it you can upgrade to dual 1GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 280M. Alienware opted on the Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz P8600 CPU but you can upgrade to Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core CPU if you choose so.

The starter model comes with 4GB of RAM upgradable to up to 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 and a 250GB 7200rpm hard disk. As far as storage goes, if the starter model doesn’t strike your chord you have a choice or up to 1TB 7200rpm HD or 512MB of SSD storage (Raid 1 or 0).

The device features 802.11n WiFi, a slot-loading DVD-RW (dual-layer BluRay is optional), Nvidia Geforce 9400M G1 GPU with HybridPower technology, and even an optional 1920x1200 resolution edge-to-edge LCD.

As for the connectivity, we’re talking about a four-pin FireWire port, four USB port, eSATA/USB combo port, an ExpressCard Slot, and an eight-in-one Media Card reader. The M17x also has DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA outs as well as 6.1 audio.

The starter model should be priced at $1799, which is in our opinion quite reasonable for the juice it packs. You can find out more and check out some photos here.