Alienware 13 Pre-Release Speculation Thread

Haha, the suspense! I saw it at PAXaus, it's pretty straightforward - PCB + power supply.

 

Yeah, I just want it to get here so I can go out and get lunch! haha

 

I remember waiting for my very first Alienware system. Was so excited my stomach was churning.

 

Unfortunately for me it's just the graphics amp, the laptop doesn't get here for another 2 weeks.

 

Heheh - just pulling your leg - but right now it makes a great desktop space heater

Seriously, congratulations - really look forward to hearing what you think of it in conjunction with the lappy.

 

I've been looking at your signature for coming up with a suggestion. On a scale from 0 to 10, how brilliant would it be if you turned the 13 + GA into a workstation computer by getting a FirePro or Quadro card (would have said how stupid, but confusion would have amassed my question)?

 

I think it would totally depend on what you would be rendering, it would obviously have to be GPU bound rather than CPU -- but it could be pretty damn awesome.

 

Here we are gentlemen (Sorry for it being out of order, imgur is being stupid), here is the link to the full album: Alienware 13 Graphics Amp - Imgur

 

Nice Pics Sandman! Thanks for sharing - can't wait for the benchmarks!

 

I am amazed by how small the box is. Thought it would be bigger and more stylish.
The box that contains the GA.

 

Thanks! Yeah I can't wait, now I just need my laptop to show up.

Yeah it's pretty small and low on the frills. I mean it only cost $239

 

Great pics Sandman! :thumbsup:

I would have bought the GA as well if I could get that price. It would have been nice to muck around with.

Looks like I should get the 13 soon.

Order summary
Item: Alienware 13
Status: In Transit
Status History

Estimated Delivery Date: 8/12/2014

Anybody else got their ETA's?

Cheers.

 

2/6/2015 (MM/DD/YYYY). Yay me. Hope it arrives a couple of days earlier than that.

 

Thanks! Trusty iPhone 6 camera hasn't let me down

Mine still says the 18th of December but I just called Dell and they said it should be shipping any day now -- very very strange. :thumbsup:

 

wow! congrats! 5 more days! how do you manage to sleep? counting aliens jump over the fence? =) that would be cute! haha

care to share the specs you got? no one will judge you i promise =)

 

HAHA thanks lol

I just like getting new toys to play with haha!

1 338-BFRJ Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)
1 619-AFYO Windows(R) 8.1 (64Bit) English
1 658-BBVB Additional Software
1 658-BCCM OpenLabs StageLight
1 370-AABX 8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (2 x 4G)
1 490-BCLP NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 860M 2GB GDDR5
1 379-BBCZ for direct order
1 379-12846 NO Option Required
3 379-BBDD Thank You for Choosing Dell
1 450-AATD Power Cord (ANZ)
1 450-ADFZ 130 W A/C Adapter
1 555-BCDR Killer 1525 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
1 620-AASU Windows 8.1 DVD OS Recovery(English)
1 451-BBKW 52 WHr, 4-Cell Battery
1 817-BBBB No FGA
1 340-AMOX Killer Wireles 1525 Driver
1 340-ACBS Document for MUI (English, Khemer, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, Spanish)
1 340-ADDI Directship Info Mod
1 340-AMOW Alienware 13 Shipping box
1 340-AMUL Ship Mod / Documentation
1 340-ALUI FullHD 2MP Camera with dual digital microphones
1 631-AALS System management software
1 630-AAGN Microsoft Office Software Image (Multi-Language)
1 525-10375 Dropbox software
1 525-10086 FastAccess Facial Recognition 4, Digital Delivery
1 580-ACRR Internal Eng/Int (Qwerty) Keyboard
1 391-BBUG 13 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS-Panel Anti-Glare 350-nits Display
1 400-AGFB 256GB M.2 SSD
1 203-62515 X5101A0AU-Alienware 13

Cheers.

 

8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (2 x 4G)
580-ACTO
1 English Keyboard
490-BCKD
1 NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 860M with 2GB GDDR5
555-BCHM
1 WLAN Card DW1550 Driver
400-AGFB
1 256GB M.2 SSD
619-ADTC
1 Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit English
555-BCDR
1 Killer Wireless Card 1525
450-AAUO
1 US Power Cord
340-AGUD
1 Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French)
995-5433
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Extended Year(s)
995-5423
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
995-5443
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
995-5453
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, 1 Year Extended
954-1680
1 Premium Phone Support, Initial Year
932-5231
1 Premium Phone Support, 1 Year Extended
950-3338
1 2 Year Limited Warranty
931-7581
1 Accidental Damage Service, 2 Years
332-1286 1 US Order
525-0016 1 Dropbox, Digital Delivery, 20GB for 1 year Promotion
338-BFRJ 1 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)
391-BBUF 1 13 inch QHD (2560 x 1440) IPS-Panel Anti-Glare 400-nits Display with Touch Technology
451-BBKW 1 52 WHr, 4-Cell Battery
450-ADFZ 1 130 W A/C Adapter
340-AMOW 1 Alienware 13 Shipping box
631-AALS 1 System management software
340-ANBG 1 Placemat (English,French,BRPT,Spanish)
332-1530 1 Dell.com Order
332-1530 1 Dell.com Order
658-BCML 1 Additional Software
340-ACQQ 1 No Option Included
630-AAAU 1 Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
817-BBBP 1 None Required
817-BBBB 1 No FGA
* -DISCOUNT/COUPON APPL


Estimated Delivery Date
12/16/2014: hi2:

 

Despite all of the drama about the CPU, I too believe that it will serve you guys well. They demonstrated its performance at PAX Aus, and it seemed to hold its own.

Enjoy! I may grab one when Broadwell officially hits the market. I still need something extremely portable that can game in between classes.

 

Guess I'll join in though mine is the most boring setup

8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (2 x 4G)
English Keyboard
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 860M with 2GB GDDR5
WLAN Card DW1550 Driver
500GB 5400rpm Hybrid HDD with 8GB Flash
Windows 7 Professional (64Bit) English
Killer 1525 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
US Power Cord
Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French)
No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
Warranty Support, Initial Year
In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
1 Year Limited Warranty
Accidental Damage Service, 1 Year
System management software
Placemat (English,French,BRPT,Spanish)
Dell.com Order
US Order
52 WHr, 4-Cell Battery
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)
Directship Info Mod
Alienware 13 Shipping box
No FGA
Dropbox, Digital Delivery, 20GB for 1 year Promotion
13 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS-Panel Anti-Glare 350-nits Display
Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
OpenLabs StageLight
Additional Software
None Required
130 W A/C Adapter
No Option Included

Estimated Delivery Date: 12/17

Plan: Replace the anemic HDD with a Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB

 

You owners and your December ETAs...

You happen to be the only one of us to get Win7 Pro. I wouldn't call that boring.

 

instead of an i5 4210u they could have put a i5 4300u (which is slightly better and same TDP). i find the fact that alienware put such a weak processor (gaming wise) and force people $300 to change to i7U to be insulting to the customer.
.

 

Yeah, forgot about that... probably regret it in the long run, but I am slow to change (a side of effect of getting older I suspect).

I kind of agree about the markup, for my purposes and time to hold the unit the i5 will work - but like I said earlier, about $200 of the markup is the HDD (1TB) and the memory (16GB). Reduce those down to a more minimal config and the price is okay. I think they put it out there with an inflated config to try to limit demand (maybe they aren't sure about supply of i7's yet and are worried about fulfillment) and keep the i5's going... OTOH, your point about the i5-4300 I agree with completely. I just decided I didn't want to wait any longer, but if you do wait and the options for i7 -based systems show up I suspect the prices will start to come down into February. Now, if they release a 14/15 in a thinned out chassis that is reasonably quiet (which they won't) I will be pissed... and have to play brinkmanship with wifey to pass off the AW 13 to some lucky person

 

Mine Is In Production Now!

 

Well it's actually $150. It seems like $300 thanks to the huge discount the 3rd configuration has (in the US), but if you configure the second option to match the 3rd or 4th, sans the i7, you see the upgrade price is $150.
Now why they didn't put the i5-4300U or i7-5600U is beyond me, but looking at the specs and features, those two CPUs are more for professional laptops than regular laptops.

 

Hey Bumbo2, best to keep your expectations in check and focus on the delivery date until they list the system as "shipped"- I've seen systems be in "production" for a period of time - it just means that the internal sales processing has completed and it is ready for production - this unfortunately doesn't mean it's actually being worked on at that moment, sometimes systems sit "in production" for a time while they get a large enough set of orders to purchase parts in lots, at least that is what I have heard.

True, $150.00 is really the expected list price difference with everything else equal. Beginning to wonder when they will upgrade the AW 13 i5 to a Broadwell chip as well...

 

Hey Docsteel,

If you're wondering - a guy from Alienware jumped in with some thoughts on the eGPU stuff on my reddit thread:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/2o314j/alienware_13_graphics_amp_unboxing/

 

I've seen that person on AWA helping out with Alpha users.
But he does pose a good argument about not using Thunderbolt. While the CPU will be the first bottleneck, in the other 2015 Alienwares, the bottleneck could have been the bandwidth of Thunderbolt.

 

Cool reading - I realize they can't tell everyone everything due to competing in the market, but its so nice to just have a plain, frank discussion on an item.

 

I don't think, that with broadwell release aw13 will get 970m. It will break all their "idea" of GA.

 

Looks like my ETA just updated again. :thumbsup:
Fingers crossed!

Status Date
Order Received 18/11/2014
Work In Progress 26/11/2014
Production Complete 29/11/2014
Manufacturing Build Complete 30/11/2014
Arrived in Main Hub 2/12/2014
With Local Carrier 4/12/2014

Item: Alienware 13
Status: With Local Carrier
Status History

Estimated Delivery Date: 5/12/2014

 

Hey Reborn2003 - just make sure you post some pics!!!

 

Is the i7 worth the upgrade (the only real gaming I would do on it would be WoW). Otherwise it would mostly be used for school. I am thinking about setting for the i5 1080p version and just upgrade the HD to the 256 SSD and add a few years of extra warranty.

 

If you plan on owning the 13 for a long time, I recommend the i7. If not, get the best bang for your buck with the i5.

 

I'm glad they're talking about the bandwith/connector/thunderbolt issue online now. They gave us the discussion at PAX, as well - that's why I shake my head when people go on about "we need thunderbolt eGPUs!" - even if intel got over their BS, it wouldn't matter, because the pipe just won't support it well enough to make it worth it. FWIW, I think it's awesome what Dell has come up with here with the amp. For a 1st gen machine, the AW13 is awesome. In the future when they specc it up a bit, it'll be perfect.

 

My i5 1080p unit has shipped. It is due on the 11th. If no one else has by then I will post a review. I have plenty of games to test and am going to see how much of a bottle neck the ulv CPU is.

I didn't order the graphic adapter as if I wanted something that bulky on my desk I would just build a decent itx

 

AAAANNNNnnnnnd here's one demo of its performance with COD Advanced Warfare, it's almost there though;

 

i'm very interested in the 1080p IPS antiglare display. i hate the glossy displays and its very difficult to find a laptop with a IPS matte/antiglare display.

the i5 4210u reminds me of the su7300 in m11x

 

To Game7a1's point, in my experience every MMO like WoW, etc. seems to be heavily CPU-bound... definitely get the i7 under the circumstance. At 1080p my guess (and its just a guess is that WoW is likely to drop in around 45-50 fps at 1080p). I say this because I play another MMO that is also CPU-bound on an M11x-R3 frequently and average around 25~fps in the most congested areas. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised, but I am keeping my expectations in check until I have a unit in hand. My impressions are that reviews do everything they can to pump fps... frequently no AA, etc so I don't trust them Even the ones that says "maximum settings" often leave something turned off like vsync...

Yeah I am real curious to see it... I have lived with reflective screens so long it rarely bothers me anymore, but less reflectivity would be a welcome change. I really see the AW 13 as you described, just the next generation of the M11x. I would have to hunt around, but I recall discussing with others on here back in the heyday of the M11x that 13 would have been ideal... guessing that was like mid-2011 or so... and here we are

 

Hey Doc, when you get yours can you do some comparison picks against the m11x?

 

Certainly - I play a lame MMO a lot (Champions Online) but I can certainly compare an R2, R3 and the AW 13 with same settings. It's quite CPU-bound, so it's a good comparison game to use. heck, I might even throw in an OC'd M14x-R2 for kicks

I am very confident in the AW 13 to perform for GPU-bound games, CPU-bound is going to be the real story...

 

1080p is slightly overkill on a 13.3 inch and the gtx 860m+i5 4210u will have trouble at tthe resolution with newer games like the witcher 2, crysis 2, shadow of mordor. running games at anything other than native resolutions greatly reduces image quality.

the TN 1366 768, 200nit panel is almost certainly not bright enough and probably has poor color gamut.

An excellent option would have been to have an antiglare 1600 900 screen, 300nits+, display with good adobeRGB, sRGb coverage. 1600x900 seems like the perfect resolution for 13.3in and no windows scaling would be needed.

 

I'm really anxious to hear some reviews...especially hearing how battery life does to compare i5 vs i7 and how much of a hit the higher rez screens make.

I had just started looking at the Aw 14 to replace my m11x r1 when the 13 was announced and the 13 is a whole lot more attractive to me than the 14 was. The i7 is very tempting but I don't know if it is worth the extra $350. Decisions, decisions...

 

- You can always lower the resolution.
- You can always disable touch (if you get the touch screen).
- You could disable turbo boost and hyper threading.
- You could always limit the maximum processor state on battery.
So I don't think battery life should be a big concern.

 

I was considering the Sager NP7338 until the Alienware 13. I have a few reservations about the ULV processor but considering that I might slap in an SSD, things should be smoother.

 

The i5 and i7 are identical in terms of performance. The main difference is clock speed. The performance increase is negligible at best.

I feel as though I've used the word "negligible" far too many times to describe Alienware. It's just ridiculous.

 

from: Hands on: Alienware 13 review | Laptops and netbooks Reviews | TechRadar

"As a standalone laptop without the Amplifier, you've got a solid rig that should play games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at a respectable 60 frames per second while live streaming on". No mention of settings or resolution, but check out the review with pcmag.com, they mention several scores at various resolutions one being 1440p

Another: http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-13

"As I blasted my way around Elphis, Pandora's moon in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, the Alienware 13 moved at a brisk clip averaging 60 frames per second at 2560 x 1440p with everything jacked up to ultra.

On the BioShock Infinite test, the Alienware 13 notched 76 fps on low at 1080p, beating the 63 fps category average. Neverthless, this rig was easily surpassed by both the Y50-70 (96 fps) and Blade 14 (120 fps). At maximum settings, the Alienware 13's frame rate dropped to 38 fps, which is playable but still worse than the Blade 14 (51 fps) and Y50-70 (42 fps)."

If these reports are true 1080p should be fine for GPU-bound games at high or better settings in the majority of cases, namely where CPU-binding isn't that heavy.

Hmm.. it will amount to something noticeable considering the difference in chip series, but I don't think you're going to net 20 fps; certainly for GPU-bound games very little, CPU-bound it will help. It will be very interesting to see people's real world comparisons. This is literally the first i5-based system I've ever owned new, but I think for my limited needs in that form factor it will be more than sufficient.

 

This is where I come in... sort of. I'll still have my HP laptop with its i5-4200U. Sure, I can't overclock it to the speeds of an i5-4210U, but I can make a very good guess on CPU performance.
In my review of the 13 (whenever I get it), I'll compare the i7 to the i5. I can't do GPU comparison (maybe for the iGPUs, though), but with what I have and some number crunching, there's bound to be some truth to appear in the tests. I'm also going to compare with my m14x R2 before I sell it just because I want to see how bad of a CPU drop I'll be getting and how great of a GPU boost I'll see.
Unless someone has two 13's with different CPUs or finds a laptop with an i5-4210U and GTX 860m and compares with the 13 (or worse, just the i5-4210U), then my data can be reliable. I'll also compare my data with a 13's benchmark.

 

@Game7a1: it should be fun to see - I believe the i7 difference is not going to be huge in terms of fps difference from the i5, but I bet being both a Broadwell and an i7 it will make at least a 10% real average gain in fps, at a very minimum and as you said closer to 18-20%.

 

Well the 13 arrived today! :thumbsup:
I haven't had much time to test it out just yet after work and the movies.
This unit is slim and seXy! Very silent doing normal stuff so far with fans only kicking in when testing Vantage and Fifa 15. Noise levels weren't overly too loud.

Hope to have more tomorrow.
Ran a quick 3d mark vantage - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4210U Processor,Alienware 0VMGD7

Just a few pics I managed to take.



More tests tomorrow. Super tired now!

 

nice i didnt thought the cpu score would be that "high". Expected it to be at ~5000
did u get the G/A? If yes which GPU do u use?
Is the SSD always a Samsung one?