Alienware today said it will soon ship a set of three new notebooks based on Intel's Core Duo processors available with 17, 15.4 or 14.1in widescreen displays driven by a choice of Intel, ATI or Nvidia graphics chips. LAN party-ready they all ship with 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet.

The 17in and 15.4in models are part of Alienware's Area-51 line-up and are dubbed the m5750 and m5550, respective. The 14.1in machine is a Sentia, the m3450. This is the one with the Intel graphics - the chip giant's integrated GMA 950 GPU, hooked up to the 1,280 x 768 LCD. It's available with a range of Core Solo and Core Duo processors, at least 512MB of 667MHz dual-channel DDR 2 memory, 40-120GB of hard drive space, and a DVD/CD-RW or DVD±R/RW optical unit.

The m3450 ships with 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet. Bluetooth is optional. The laptop features a built-in webcam, a four-in-one memory card reader, an ExpressCard 54 slot and a Firewire port. There are three USB ports on board too, and 7.1 HD audio.

The m5550's display has no webcam, but there's a choice of 1,280 x 768 or 1,920 x 1,200 native resolution. Buyers can also select either a 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 or 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 GPU to drive the display. Other key specs match those of the m3450.

The m5750 drops the m5550's Nvidia GPU option in favour of a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1800. Native screen resolutions on offer include 1,440 x 900 and 1,920 x 1,200. The bigger chassis means there's room for a fourth USB port, and buyers can opt to install a second hard drive in RAID 0 configuration. Bluetooth isn't available this time round, or on the m5550, for that matter.

The m3450 will cost US buyers $,1099 when it ships on 10 July. The m5550 and m5750 debut 14 days later on the 24th for $1,399 and $1,499, respectively. There's no word yet on UK availability and pricing. ®