Alienware 13 Pre-Release Speculation Thread

Nope, you're not the only one. Technically it's Maxwell, so they are probably claiming it to be relatively new, despite it being released earlier.

There will be upgrades available, though. Alienware always has upgrades.

 

Hmmm should I be an early adopter...or wait for a 960m with broadwell. Sure! I seriously need to upgrade from my 7 years old laptop with 8600m GT, modern Intel HD graphics beats it easily.

 

Anybody who guessed an external graphics option may be correct. This is from one of the articles from China.

I snipped the quote down to where it says external graphics just to get a more accurate translation (because Google Translate doesn't play nice with paragraphs). They are talking about a video card, a GPU.
“选配的外置显卡。” = "Optional external graphics card."
More snipping kept saying external video card (的外置显卡 is external video card).
The more I think about this, though, the more I get the idea that Alienware will make that eGPU port on all laptops to compensate for soldered components (we know for the CPU, but what about the GPU?) and potential thinness.

 

What worries me about this is that how good of an eGPU can we put on the AW13 without it being bottlenecked by the ULV processor?

 

I wouldn't even bother with an external GPU, lol. Bryn hit the mark on that one. It will be bottlenecked so horribly, unless there is a quad-core option.

I'm assuming they want to get 860M SLI performance with their Alienware 13 and an external dock. That's probably the goal.

 

This has been one of my original thoughts - that a "boxed" 860m or whatever 900 to mate up to provide a proprietary SLI solution. If that is so, it gives me more hope that a full-on quad-core is an option; Dell/AW are not idiots enough to produce a system hopelessly bottlenecked.

 

Since Broadwell-U is supported and looking at these three tables, I still put doubts about a quad-core processor.
If the 13 won't have Broadwell quad-cores, then it most likely won't have Haswell quad-core. But a confirmation or deconfirmation of this will happen in 3 days.

 

The whole eGPU thing is just a silly geeky gadget anyway. If you want an awesome laptop, the best solution would be to simply build it to be awesome all by itself, with awesome parts inside of it. I've never seen an example of making a silk purse from a sow's ear work out well. If you have to start connecting external components to make it awesome, then there's a missing ingredient in the machine itself.

Wanting to is one thing, but if you need to sit at a desk to use any laptop, there's your first clue about it leaving much to be desired.

Microscopic font size needs an external monitor. Mediocre core components needs an eGPU for excellent gaming. 1+1=2.

I'm not saying an eGPU is not cool. I like geeky stuff, but it doesn't make up for design shortcomings. An eGPU would be nicer on a big beast laptop with an Extreme CPU and SLI, just to give it an added layer of freakishly nice performance.

Another way of looking at it... if you want to create a ruckus, flash bangs will help a little bit and a few RPGs will cause localized pockets damage. If you're serious about winning, nothing but WMDs will do.

 

Well I did more digging, and the 13 has results on futuremark. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2885663
I didn't find one for an i7 or an i3, but one option may be the i5-4200U. There are multiple on there, so I'll see what I can report.
Oh, and to humor people about the what the performance should be with an i7. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3050889

 

I would not call not putting a 980M inside a small notebook a design shortcoming. You fail to see it as a business that intends to make money, you seem to think they are(should be) a company that lives solely for making the most powerful machines for gamers such as yourself, yet I am pretty sure that for every gamer like you that spends 5k on a notebook, there are 100 "softcore" gamers that buy a 1.1k~2k "regular" notebook from them, and that translates to A LOT more money for them.

I don't see anything wrong with having to sit at a desk to get the best out of my notebook, as I also have to sit at my desk to use my huge mouse pad with my mouse, my big monitor and my keyboard. I don't enjoy playing games on my computer unless I got all of the fore mentioned together. And wouldn't it be nice if the same machine that can handle games at 60 fps at my desk could EASILY be taken to my classes where I can put it pretty much anywhere I want because it's just so small and easy to carry around?

I see a great product that will appeal to a lot more people (and make a lot more money) than a triple GPU notebook

 

I would not say that about 980M either. But, I would say that about a 2014 low-TDP version of a Core 2 Duo CPU and humble 860M. That doesn't strike me as having the makings of a great product, even with an eGPU. I haven't seen anything official that indicates we can expect a 980M and a nice Core i7 in the 13. If they do that it will be a really stout little bugger.

Oh, neither do I... and, that's why I said...

It's like Burger King - 'have it your way' - assuming something does not interfere with it, like weak hardware. This first link in the quote below is an example of weak hardware.

 

The upgrades or configurable options and price will determine whether or not I purchase the Alienware 13 for work/class and light gaming between.

That score is borderline acceptable, IMO. Gigabyte has 14" models with 970M's that destroy that score.

 

So gaming laptops leave much to be desired because you have to be stationary in one place, like a desk, because you have to have it plugged up to a wall because the battery itself cannot provide enough power for the laptop at its fullest?
I just bringing up the other side of the pond.

 

I game and bench with my beasts sitting in my lap, in my recliner and in hotel rooms all the time. That's not at a desk, nor does it need to be. It's not very easy to use a desktop computer that way.

My point is about having to use an external monitor and eGPU to have a good gaming experience with a laptop leaving much to be desired. I almost never use any system without AC power. I even use a power inverter in rental cars instead running off the battery. I have desktop class power anywhere I go... no desk required. But, it's certainly an option if that is what a person wants. Key words here are required and option.

Somehow I doubt it would be much fun to try any serious gaming while walking around with any machine and running on battery power. It's bad enough to have people bumping into me texting while walking and not watching where they are going, LOL.

 

Oh, that's what you meant by stuck at a desk. I thought you were being figurative. Yeah, that makes more sense now.
In any case, I was unable to find any more tests from the 13 that had a different processor. All of them had an i5-4200U.

 

If that truly is a result from the 13 then that sucks. Why use the older 4200U when the 4300U has been available for awhile?

Hopefully they'll at least have the i7-4600U as an option if all of the processors will be ulv only.

 

i7 4578U will be used for this aw13

 

Not this again. First this thing,

and now this with no proof. Again.

 

I hope so, that's one of the best ulv cpus right now. It's not quad-core performance, but the 3ghz base clock makes it a good dual core.

 

Yeah, but it's still only a dual core CPU... and PCIe 2.0. That really blows chunks. It's very deceiving for an i7 to be a lame dual core. I could see people buying this thinking they are getting 4C/8T and only getting half of what they expected in an i7.

ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-4578U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)

If they are hung up on this BGA crap, they should, at minimum, offer a humble little 4710HQ CPU. At least that would not be 2 cores and 4 threads short of a full load.

ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)

Maybe they didn't plan well enough for more than a 28W CPU. The better one is 47W. If they plan on using something mundane, like a 90W AC adapter, 47W might be too much CPU for it to handle with a dedicated GPU.

 

Why would this be limitation? Its not like AW13 will have Titan/780ti or something as bandwith hungry as those cards in it...

 

Better question: Why use PCIe 2.0 on something new? It's an obsolete spec.

If obsolete is OK, they may as well just use SATA-2 3.0GB/s for the drives as well.

I get your point about it not being important with the kind of configuration we will likely see on the machine as a whole, but it's 2014 now. PCIe 2.0 is Gen 2 Sandy Bridge, not Gen 3 or Gen 4.

 

I agree on this; the whole external GPU setup leaves me cold.

 

Good news! Early leaks suggest the Alienware 13 will have the 970M and a 4710HQ, just as predicted. All you non-believers can go home!

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Alienware 0146Q8

As said many, many times before. Alienware always offers many upgrades for their systems. :thumbsup:

 

Out of curiosity, what is the support situation with Gigabyte, is it sending off to a depot for two weeks?

 

I have no idea. But I'm sure it's nothing compared to Alienware.

 

Just curious - as bad as Dell techs can sometimes be, the majority where I live have been nothing but professional and to date three times on site for different issues over the years within a couple days with techs on site have yielded nothing but positive results. The thought of no other option but to ship to a depot as a first option is unacceptable.

 

That needs a 240W PSU for sure on that setup...are you sure about that ?

 

It doesn't need 240W. A 180W PSU would suffice.

I'm sure the base configuration will come with a 150W PSU and the upgraded version will come with 180W PSU.

 

Hate to break this to you, but this is the same laptop that had the i7-4960HQ and GTX 980m. Google the mobo and you'll see what I mean. (And I'll already reorted this in the Maxwell thread, so yeah...)
Or better yet, click over here. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4960HQ,Alienware 0146Q8
But very good, now the next revision supports M.2.
However, the one with the i7-4960HQ has me confused. I know that the benchmark might not correctly I.D. the components, but woould it really screw up on the socket?

And for comparison.

 

This HQ is a dead end. Why are they even doing this now ??
I thought we had time until the Broadwell-H and Skylake-H BGA craps come out next year...

 

The socket could be wrong altogether. I guess we're still going to have to wait and see.

If it's not the Alienware 13, why in the hell would the Alienware 17 or Alienware 18 support M.2? That makes no sense. They don't need that. M.2 is commonly used in Ultrabooks or low-voltage systems. Maybe they did redesign the entire lineup again? Impressive if they did?

More questions than answers... NO!

 

M.2 is faster than mSATA, isn't it? So they would want faster SSDs in the laptop.
Never mind. PCI-E M.2 is faster, but there are SATA III M.2.

 

This makes me worry that all of their systems are geared toward power efficiency at the sacrifice of performance...more so than ever before.

 

M.2 PCIe x4 is faster than sata 3 msata.

Also, the 4702HQ has a 37W tdp so it is closer to the 28w ULV dual core i7. I'm pretty sure the dual core i7 ulv will be the highest cpu. As for a 970M, it is definitely a possibility, but I wouldn't get any hopes up for it.

 

Looking pretty thin. Didn't translate the page but looks like GTX 860 m

http://m.pchome.net/article/1758896.html

 

If it has the 970M and a quad-core processor (4710HQ), I'm buying one.

 

Reading that, I feel like almost all of the Chinese articles are copy-pasta.

 

The side profile of the laptop is pretty revealing vs everything else I've seen online.

 

You mean this?

The only new thing I get from is that the 13 will sport 2.0 speakers like the 17.
Hey, could anyone tell if the these are the new laptops?

Because they looks thinner and sport the same design they have currently. My eyes might be playing games with me now.

 

I think it's time for an Admin or Senior Moderator to add an Alienware 13 sub-forum.

 

Translated using Google translate: "....the new Alienware 13 uses the Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, graphics card is equipped with NVIDIA GTX 860Mgraphics card, and has 2GB GDDR5 graphics memory."...I think I'm gonna wait for the 14. Wouldn't mind if they had the touchscreen on the 14. Got used to it on my Razer Edge Pro (But I now use my Alienware M11x more due to way better keyboard but I wish my M11x had touch)

 

I know and understand you want latest and greatest, but the need for pcie 3.0 in notebooks is just not there. That being said i think pcie2 is ulv chipset/cpu limitation rather than dell intended design. So your hate should be directed to intel

That beefy i7 someone mentioned is still ulv and it will be followed by ulv chipset.

Talks about quad and 970m regardles of power efficiency is a long shot. Maybe in 14" but no way in 13 unless Dell makes some sort of dual fan cooling, limits turbo speeds and nvidia booost. And not to mention price premium it would have and by looking where m11x fell with its price i think 13 will also be here to fit lower price point, where y510 was and similar machines. Or else we will have just a portable multimedia heater, rather than gaming machine which costs an arm and a leg.

I know i could live with i7 ulv and 860m on 13" as long ascthey gave me hd option i have poor eyesight and fhd is just overkill for me at that screen size.

 

That appears to be the Alienware 13, Alienware 14, and Alienware 17.

I doubt they're the R2's. It looks like they're just showing you how the Alienware 13 sizes up.

The Alienware 13 does have dual-cooling. Dedicated fans and heat sinks for both the CPU and GPU.

 

really expecting the great upgrade about i7non-ulv and 970M gpu for aw13 in the near future....

 

I'm probably going to wait for the next version of 17 and use my M11x as an ultra portable. It's looking like it will be 800 series GPU and I'd rather be at the latest and greatest before it starts to slow down like my m11x did after about a year and a half.

 

pci-e 2.0 uses less power and has no tangible performance penalty with the class of hardware in use.

 

How much should we expect from an AW13 if the i7 not-ulv and 970m were true? I'd like to be the same as an AW14 with a decent configuration nowadays, so about $1600,00 but knowing Alienware, I guess that it won't happen for less than 2k...

 

I am still hoping it ill be a good M11x upgrade. It would be with 860m but a 9xx series card would be better. If its is released with 860m I think I will just hold off a little bit to see what happens.

 

Which might be one reason why 880M SLI is more or less non-functional in the M18xR1, and also possibly why 780M SLI performs better in the R2 than it does in the R1, and slightly less than it could potentially perform with the X79 platform. I prefer having more than necessary as opposed to "good enough" on most things.