Alienware 13 Pre-Release Speculation Thread

Well we were a bit mislead that this event would tell about their hardware direction as it wasn't really told. To wait more, though, does feel empty.
Reviews of the 13 are up, and they are between mixed to positive.

I assume not. I couldn't find its page.
Oh, and for those still watching the event, they are giving away a 13 + a GA to a viewer. Hey, a $0 capable computer is a good computer.

 

The upgrades will probably be on the display and maybe ram, I guess. I doubt they would add a hole new feature to increase graphics performance, and offer a 970m upgrade.

 

i dont see why other companies couldn't take advantage of this. install an express card slot, and make an adapter. leech off alienwares box haha

 

Well the sweeps starts now and ends in 2 days and the prize is a fleshed-out 13, GA, and a GTX 970.
Confirmation that the Area 51 will support both the GTX 980 and GTX 970.
Honestly, I really want it now to upgrade my X51.

 

I want a full desktop processor in a 14 inch frame, no GPU and only egpu that supports up to 700 watts. It would be a weird monster but it would be glorious.

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While we're at it lets add in a 1TB SSD, and 5 year warranty, and a 30" IPS display and it'll reach 5K!

 

Does thickness matter to you? If no then such a thing already exists, it's called a Mini-ITX case.

 

It has an eGPU, very tempting although I'll have to see the final price on launch.

More pictures.

 

Mini-ITX is merely a small desktop that is easier to move from room to room, or from one location to another. Not being fully self-contained with integrated input devices and display panel, it's not really something that could be seriously considered as a replacement for a high performance laptop. That's not to say nobody wants them or anything like that; only that this is totally an apples to oranges comparison of two distinctly different product types. It's sort of like comparing a handgun to a rifle, or a pickup truck to a passenger car.

 

How futureproof this should be? I mean, you have the alternative to keep improving your gpu, which is nice. But not your cpu though, and an i5 ULV already underperforms a lot.

 

The dock itself is future compatible (according to articles on the web), so what you'd really be upgrading in the future is the laptop.

 

It would probably slow down the need to update the laptop. After a year and a half I felt I needed to upgrade my m11x. I still use it (R3) but a lot of games just chug on it so I use it mostly for work. If I had the amplifier I could still get at least a full 3 years out of it instead of getting depressed after 1.5 years. When the 17 and 18 get this port. ..might be pretty amazing.

 

I feel like this being an option on the M17 would be the real game changer. True high performance CPU with a high preformance GPU inside as well for on the go power, and then this for when you are at home and you want to super charge.

 

That very well may happen.

From Facebook page. This could explain why the next revision is taking so long.

 

I need this like right now

 

Clevo are expected to release a laptop which will have an x97 board in a 15" form factor. Release date unknown.

 

The laptop itself is fine
But an ULV i5 with desktop gpu that's ridiculous

 

I hope other laptop companies are also pressured to follow suit and make their own eGPU adapters. I don't hate Alienware, but their laptops are always more expensive for the same hardware. I don't want to pay $1700 for a 13 inch laptop with the 860M.

I understand why Alienware put in the i5 ULV. Their laptops have been historically bad at cooling, and the ULV should use far less power. However, the price should also be lower. Otherwise, they are cutting corners to maximize profits, as usual.

 

So you're saying $999 is a expensive starting price?

 

1600 AUD is...

 

Oh yeah, forgot about the AUD price.
You guys have it bad there. Like really bad...

 

It appears you have either believed a great deal of misinformation frequently spouted by internet trolls or have a lack of understanding about the product line. With respect to cooling, their laptops are almost always superior to all of the alternatives. It's one of the areas where they consistently shine and the competition frequently falls short. Sometimes their thermal paste application doesn't cut it, but the same can be said of their competitors. Many enthusiasts redo the paste job and end up with something superior to what they purchased, but you get consistently excellent engineering of Alienware cooling system components. This becomes pretty obvious if you observe the bulk of information posted in forums where enthusiasts from a variety of brands hang out and intermingle like they do here.

If you pay full retail web price, yes... Alienware laptops are very expensive. But, doing that isn't the smart way to buy any product. If you take time to negotiate or follow the sales Alienware's pricing is competitive and frequently better. Build quality is unmatched and the warranty support is also superior.

 

AW laptops... bad at cooling? Are we reddit now? Also, never get an alienware from the store page if you care about money, thats just dumb.

 

Nah, just another misinformed consumer. Remember, this is the internet. Nothing said needs to be accurate.

 

A lot of AW hate in general comes from their desktops, which do have a somewhat bad history, especially with pricing. Seriously, AW desktops can even give Apple mac pro's a run for their money, and not in a good way. Especially when they are not even put together in the US.

 

If there's an option for a better CPU, I'll purchase it. I'm thinking the better CPU would bump it up to around $1249-1299. Crossing fingers.

As for the GPU, most of the sites are saying it's the DDR3 variant of the 860M. Is this bad or good? I'm assuming bad.

 

Well I must say their egpu solution looks better than what MSI has for their gs30. You can actually still use the laptop.

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That may be true, but this is a notebook forum and the discussion is primarily about notebooks. It's always good to have an awareness of the audience, and the subject matter, to avoid self-embarrassment. Self-awareness also helps one identify when they should be embarrassed.

Haters are going to hate even when it exposes their ignorance on a subject because that's how they get their jollies. It should be interesting to see what effect, in any, the new Area-51 is going to have on the haters that actually possess the ability to think on their own. There will always be the hopeless cases that listen to talking heads and jump on the hater bandwagon.

 

I think they were referring to the ram not the memory type on the gpu. The 860M uses GDDR5. GDDR3 on a 860M would be a huge bottleneck, as if the ulv cpu already wasn't.

 

Oh no! The new AW13 will be shipped from december 8 ( Alienware 13 Gaming Laptop | Dell Italia), so i think i will not receive it for Christmas!!!

 

If anyone wants to use eGPU when gaming at home and a small footprint laptop when you travel there are better eGPU alternatives availible. Both featuring proper non ulv cpu-s, and ability to get to quad core.

Dell Lattitude E6440 - can get quad upgraded, has msata and 2.5 slot for drives, you can even add third drive if you use hdd caddy. eGPU works via EC.
HP Elitebook 2570p - this one is a beefy monster, or has the potential to be. Quad upgrade possible, people over at TI are able to sustain impressive turbo speeds on it, space for 2x 2.5 drives in a very small footprint. Also eGPU via EC.

I had the latter to fiddle with eGPU setup using EXP GDC v6, although AMD cards require some work to get it working, nVidias that I tested were plug n play. 660TI and 550TI worked plug n play and using external screen I got around 90% of their performance (I was only using an i5 dualcore to benchmark) note that I used reference cards, with dual core cpu and no overclocking as I was very time limited. Worked well, too well and I almost ended up selling my M6600 for that little champ, thing is after I posted my eGPU setup to one of the local IT forums i got an offer I couldn't refuse

 

I'll take back what I said about the cooling, it's average. There was that one time I put my hand on an Alienware 17 and it felt like a heater, which gave me a bad impression.

Maybe you and I are talking to different people, but the last person who posted in the bargaining thread was able to get free shipping and 5% rewards through chat, and that's it. So sorry, I have to make a phone call and argue with someone before I can consider paying $3200 for the 780M! Why the hell would I argue with some representative over phone for that price when I can literally buy TWO MSIs or Asus's with the 970M for the same price, without saying anything to anyone?

Oh, those people aren't doing it right. I guess I have to be an expert negotiator before even thinking about buying an Alienware. Or maybe I have to try 11 times like this guy until I finally get an American representative? You know what, I'll just keep calling like this guy and have representatives repeat the base price until I get it into my thick skull.

The build quality isn't unmatched. It's literally made of aluminum and rubber. Well guess what? There's rubber and aluminum on other laptops as well. And they feel about the same to me, because it's aluminum and rubber!

 

Just a field research here. Is there someone actually going for the AW13 at this point ?

 

australia gets it november 21st-ish but we pay 2x the price lol

 

He said there would be an i7... not quad core i7. There is no quad ULV i7 (yet).

Full voltage laptop CPU's can sip power on battery too. I can get 6 hours on my Clevo with i7-4810MQ.

 

Can anyone explain to me why this would be better than a 14 aside from the smaller form factor and the 860m? (which isn't that hugely more powerfull than a 765m we're talking about a 20% difference in performance here and not to mention crippeld with the dual core ulv cpu).

And that touchpad...one of the biggest advantages of the 14/17/18 and so on is the excellent dedicated buttons instead of crappy clickpads.

Now I don't mind the 13 since it is basicly the new m11x which I always had a soft spot for (even though for me it was way to small to be usefull).

And it looks a lot better than the bulky 14 but performance wise it is so massivly crippled with the ulv cpu making the Egpu setup worthless and no more than a gimmick for benchmarking and games that don't use that much CPU power.

The Clevo w230ss even with it's mediocre build quality would be a far more sensible choice in the 13" form factor since it offers a decent CPU.

 

Yeah - for all the reasons you just quoted I am hoping that they now maintain the 14 (or adopt a 15" design). It seems like a huge hole in the price/performance range to have a crippled AW 13, then the next step being a 17. I was really looking forward to the 13, but gawd, with an i5 ULV? I think Dell thought everyone would swoon over the idea of the eGPU setup... and ignore the obvious problem with a non-quad processor. I still say it doesn't add up... either a refresh is around the corner (like I was saying before that they did with the R1->R2 for the M11x), or we don't know everything yet. No question that the eGPU is not dedicated to the 13, without doubt the other sizes will get it and the question then is will they get a similar downgrade in CPU in the drive towards efficiency in a slimmer package.

 

I'm thinking about it along with an Area 51. I'm getting married on the 8th of November so I'm finally going to settle down and actually live in an apartment instead of bouncing from one place to another (living out of my backpack). The 13 is under powered so relying on it to be my absolute base station with the eGPU might not cut it. I'd like to hook up the Area 51 to a 4 K TV next to my desk so I can do all my work, game at my desk but then have the option to kick back on the couch and game on the TV or use Nvidia Shield if I want to game lying down. I could do this on the 13 all hooked up but somewhere down the near future it's gonna start to bottleneck. At least with the Area 51 I can keep upgrading for many years. I'll be living with my wife in a very small condo so cooling is going to be an issue. The 13 allows me to essentially combine my Razer Edge and M11x r3 into one device for the road (I own my own business).

 

There's now an Alienware 13 and M11x section. What?!

People still own the M11x, guys. Don't kick them out yet.

 

Thinking about it. I would like to wait a bit though and see if it gets better. I would like to see the sd card slot put back in there first.

But this seems like a great solution for me right now. Space is limited in my house due to the wife and kids having things. The 17 I have now is great, but its big and heavy. If I wanted to dock it to my lcd in the basement I have like 6 plugs just to put in to connect it all.

If the GA dock was modded to house some hdds, maybe a soundcard, and a network jack I would be all over it. I think its pretty possible to do, since the dock houses a usb hub.... just get usb soundcard, network and some sort of usb connected 4 drive (2.5 inch) hdd bay.

This has alot of potential, but needs to be refined.

Doing the things I listed, along with making the 13 a little better would put me right in line with money.

Fixes for the 13 -
SD card slot
Give me the running lights on the side of the base!
900 series gpu
dual msata or m2 slots

Fixes for the GA -
4 2.5 hdd bays
Network jack
Sound card
Power the laptop through the dock port too would be nice.

 

The Alienware 13 replaced the Alienware 14 on the US site. I'm very disappointed.

Spoiler

No CPU upgrade options available until Broadwell! They're going to lose a lot on this "switch."

 

Guys, I'm getting this. This is actually what I've been looking for now that I think about it. Leave the box over at the apartment, take out my 780ti from home and bring that and the laptop with me instead of an 18 inch monster.

 

The only CPU they currently offer is the: Intel® Core™ i5 4210U (Dual-Core, 3MB Cache, up to 2.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost).

With this CPU, they also allow you to order the new Alienware Graphics Amplifier:

Spoiler

Bottleneck much?

 

Oh look, they're offering 3rd party GPUs, not the standard reference ones.

 

One of the config options states it has 2 M.2 SSDs (1 128 GB, another 256 GB). So there's that to check off.

 

Gonna have to wait until they have better specs.

 

and..... O R D E R E D!

12/12/14

 

I also just got married and this is one of the reasons behind my purchasing decision too

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The Canadian site had an error which subtracted $50 from the normal price for the 256+128gb m.2, so I had to place an order. I got the 1080p display with 8gb ram and the 256gb+128 m.2 drives. I also had a 10% off coupon code, so I got mine for $1169 CDN!! I have a feeling it will get cancelled since my orders always tend to be cancelled which is why I bought my GT70.

 

I only see an i5 mentioned. is there no i7 yet?