Alienware 13 Pre-Release Speculation Thread

The base model will probably start at $899-$999. So, an upgraded screen (1080p) is probably $150. The 970M (assuming it's available) is probably a $200-$400 upgrade. The quad-core processor (assuming it's available) is probably another $200-$400 upgrade. So, the maximum price is probably around $1800~$1900 without any extra warranty.

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

 

Plus a RAM upgrade from 8GB to 16GB, a nice SSD as the drive, and we got ourselves a $2400 notebook

 

A lot of the newer 13" and 14" notebooks come with a small SSD (e.g. M.2 128GB). I'm going to assume the AW 13 will also.

But yeah, most Alienware notebooks easily reach $2k with upgrades. That's where they make most of their money.

 

I've tried the little OS drive thing and it really sucks. I really don't understand why the OEMs are even offering such an asinine configuration option. An 128GB OS SSD is very close to worthless unless you have a 1TB HDD or SSD available for data and to be used for your game installation, music and video files. Windows + 3 to 5 games (depending on the title) will swiftly fill up such a pathetically tiny volume. This is one area where even those gamers that are content with having a so-so CPU and GPU will want to step up to the plate and pony up some extra money for at least 240GB SSD for the OS drive.

 

Alienware needs to call up Samsung and make another contract with them for SSD's. For the prices they charge for SSD's, we should be getting 500GB Samsung 840 EVO's, at the very least. Aftermarket upgrading is looking better and better. With Samsung's 3/5/10 year warranties, there's really no point in grabbing a Dellienware SSD anymore.

I agree with you on the SSD front about space and over-provisioning. People buy SSD's without realizing that a good portion of it is partitioned to keep the drive healthy. The actual usable space is like 90% of what the drive is labeled as (e.g. 128GB SSD is really like 90GB usable after OS installation). Sure, it helps with extending the life, but games these days are 50GB's a pop! There's no way in hell that anyone with a 120GB/128GB SSD will be satisified, especially with a $2000 laptop bred for gaming.

I can't wait until 1TB SSD's are less than $300. It shouldn't be too long now. They're just over $400 on Amazon today.

 

Another thing I have noticed is the smaller SSDs also frequently have lower read/write/iops performance. It's not enough to really matter, since even SATA-2 3.0GB/s feels really great with SSD, but still... some people are more OCD about their SSD benchmark results than they are their CPU, even though the former is a lot less important than the latter.

 

You guys seems to be very confident about AW. If they show us tomorrow what you expect, are you all going to buy it right away, or it's not that reliable and we should wait for reviews? Maybe the AW13 (970m+i7 not ulv) overheats, I don't know...

 

because they have less nand chips and thus less dynamic parallelism

 

Soon I'll know how much I need to save for my new notebook..provided it comes with a 900M series gpu. They need to skip the 800M series.

 

New Alienware 13 site is up! Alienware 13 Gaming Laptop | Dell

Looks like it will have the 860M, but with the external GPU / dock accessory option, similar to what MSI is trying to do with their GS30 Shadow in Q1 2015.

Still a question of pricing / timing of availability for the holidays.

 

I lol'd so hard at this

 

Yup - looks external setup through the port - the "Graphics Amplifier"

i5-4210U - please tell me that's not the end of it : /

 

Well, there might be an i7-4510U since Alienware is promoting i7's for all of the computers.
I'm going to assume the Graphics Amplifier won't be limited to the 13. And this is somewhat confirmation that the 14 won't return.
Actually, the GA could be paired with the X51 R3 for dual GPU possbilities, or triple GPU configs if you get that GTX 760x2 GPU paired with a GTX 760. And next thing you know, maybe even the Alpha and Area 51.
Now we just have to wait and see if the basic 13 is bundled with the GA.

 

Well, I wouldn't mind an external graphics amplifier but i5-4200u really? In an Alienware? That's a joke.. I would at least expect a full power i5 and not a ULV one... But let's see if they have a i7 config..

 

I agree on the situation with the 14, I figured it was a likely out and this makes that case more compelling. Still holding out hope for a 15" (one day) though but I would be a bit surprised if one was forthcoming with the "Graphics Amplifier" anytime soon.

 

If the price is around $1200 for a 1080p display, 8gb ram and a hybrid drive I will likely pick one of these up. I want to replace my Sony Vaio T13 and might as well get something that can do a bit of gaming while on the road. The i5 U is a bit of a let down, but I would mostly be using it as a portable computer anyways.

 

Looking at the Graphics Amplifier a bit more, it comes with 4 USB ports (all 3.0?) and an the mystery port. I guess the cable is proprietary on both ends.
Sad for no SD card slot.
Oh, and somehow the 14 had an i5-4430 in its life cycle. Proofreading at its finest, Alienware.
And they tested that GA with anything (not really)!
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3035522
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2982302
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2991883
Though this might hint that the 13 will only have the i5-4210U at launch as its processor, and that Alienware might off the GTX 780 ti (which doesn't say much to the GTX 980).

 

So does the GA also come with a CPU, cause otherwise the i5 ulv won't be able to handle said 4k Displays without bottlenecking, right?

 

Interesting concept but firestrike score are bit low, aren't they?. Would be nice to know if it's a driver issue, limitation from the port or (imho the worst possible reason) cpu limitation.

 

Nope..It'll only be compatible with desktop GPUs (I bet there is an option to choose what GPU you want at the time of purchase for an additional cost).

Compared to without the GA, it's an improvement with a bottlnecking CPU. I mean, it beats these computers (make max score 6834 and uncheck the valid box thing).

 

I like how it says, "Call for Pricing" on the Alienware 13 landing page.

 

With the specs its looking to have, the base price better be well below where the m14's is.

 

Well the site's down now, for me at least.

Those of you that saw it... the 13 had a 860M internally? And the dock thing was just optional if you wanted to run a desktop card?

I have huge reservations about a dock. At least as MSI implemented theirs. I might as well just buy a desktop at that point.

I'm looking to upgrade from my sandy bridge i7 clevo 18.4" laptop. It's served me well, but I'd like more portability, but am wary of heat issues on some of those super thin laptops. I've been known to have some lengthy gaming sessions.

The 13 or 14 seemed to be a good compromise. Not insanely thin (I don't care about thinness), but lighter and a smaller footprint (for example, usable on a plane) than my 12+ lb monolith.

Thanks in advance.

 

860m, in both examples it showed unfortunately. One note mentioned "overclocked CPU" in the context of the "Graphic Accelerator", which I assume must mean the laptop CPU.

 

We still don't know what configurable options will be available. So, don't get your panties all up in a bunch just yet.

 

860M is internal with optional 290X external dock. I'm sure you can replace it with whatever card you want.

See the screenshot attached

 

I'm a bit confused on this whole "dock" business: Will it or will it not have a desktop GPU and CPU?

If it does, aren't you basically buying a desktop computer and a tiny 13.3" monitor to game on? And if it doesn't have a desktop CPU, the desktop card will be bottlenecked by the dual-core mobile CPU, right? So, the whole thing seems a bit redundant to me, especially since you'll be spending like $2k on a 13" notebook, then $500+ on a dock? Just buy a desktop computer, lol.

 

I'm pretty sure it's just the external GPU. Since it requires it's own power supply to power such a card, I'm assuming it uses some of that power to allow an overclock for the CPU (though I don't know why it would go this route, but maybe that's what it's meaning when it states "overclocked CPU"). Any time the dock is mentioned, it only mentions an external GPU, and to develop proprietary hardware to support running an EXTERNAL cpu as well would be pretty intense I would think.

 

Also, I think the laptop is priced at $1,200 not $2k

 

They better offer a quad core option, as the worthless ULV chip is going to bottleneck any high-end desktop GPU like crazy.

 

With a few upgrades and extra warranty, I can almost guarantee you it will reach $2000.

That's what doesn't make sense to me: Why offer this combination without a better CPU? Would be pointless.

 

Agreed. I just have a hard time seeing Dell making that lame a move.... but then again...

 

Summary from the event: "The mystery port connects to the all new Alienware Graphics Amplifier. It's the first 13" notebook that can play at 4k resolution. The amplifier allows you to connect desktop GPU's - yes, multiple - to the Alienware 13. You can take your existing graphics card and put it in the Amplifier. The Amplifier starts at $299."

 

Hey guys!

Thought you guys may like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5fXmSY4V7I

AW 13 with an external GPU Amplifier

 

This is a bit old news now.

 

base price 999. Not bad...

 

I want both 13 and Area 51

 

Config page from AUS Dell.

 

We will see all of the upgradeable options on the website tomorrow. I'm worried that this Amplifier will just be bottlenecked.

 

alienware failed!! no news about 14, 17 or 18 refresh. 299 for the amplifier plus the graphics card?? and that thing is huge, who is carrying that. ULV + 860m?? What a garbage that event was

 

Same here.... anyone think the whole AW 13 was just a bit abbreviated? Also, whats the news on the 14/17/18... they should have touched on all of the lines.

 

Nothing new here. Still 860m. Still ULV i7. Still underpowered.

 

If they don't offer a quad core option with the AW13 then they should just do away with the gimmicky graphics amplifier.

 

Guys, I think we were expecting way more than what was told.

 

Possibly.... I guess the question is... when will we know? Hell, if they can't say anything at their kickoff....

 

Poor Australia... always getting screwed by tariffs.

 

I don't understand why everyone is complaining. This is still an awesome product. I am happy that they decided to go with lower voltage CPU instead of the power hungry one. This allows the laptop to have a long battery life and that's exactly what I need. I am not concerned about the graphics as long that it is better than 8600m gt from 7-8 years ago. The best part is...it's nearly under 1 inches thick and under 4.5 pounds. A huge improvement from my 8 pounds laptop that I had to haul everyday to class.

Just think the Graphics Amplifier as a bonus addition. I can leave the graphics amplifier at college while I have my gaming desktop at home.

 

i cant see the option of adding the graphics amp ??? its not available yet?

 

Im torn now as to what to get. I was hoping for a replacement for my M11xR2 but it just doesn't seem like a full Alienware laptop. I guess the hype got alot of us.

Lets see what upgrades are available tomorrow but looking at the Australia site, looks pretty disappointing.

 

I thought I heard the presenter guy in the Twitch stream say there would be a quad core i7 option for it...