Not sure when to buy an Alienware 14

I would like to buy an Alienware 14 this December, but I'm scared that right when 2015 starts, Alienware will have released a new model. Should I wait a little longer before I buy a 14 inch Alienware laptop? or will a new model be released a long time after that?

 

The much updated Alienware 13 ought to be coming around Nov., so I'd wait until then.

 

It's been on the market for a while now. My recommendation is that if you need it by December, buy it... IF you don't need it immediately then don't.

There is a new platform coming, 13 inches. You could also look into that one.

 

I'd take Porras hint quite seriously!!!!

 

I picked up a cheap one ebay for £600, 4700mq, 750m, GT msata/HDD, For Steam home streaming from my big 18 it does the job wonderfully

 

Another soldered on graphics machine

doh Alienware.....

 

It's hard to get space on an ultrabook for a full MXM card. The new 13 will be really thin for a gaming PC.

 

The 14 could have though! I would buy the 14 if it had upgradeable graphics!

 

Thanks everyone for answering! I'll look into the Alienware 13 when it comes out see if I want to buy that instead.

 

I'm struggling with the same decision. I want something in the 14-15" range and would really like Alienware to update the 14" to make my decision easy. I'll check out the Alienware 13, but think it might be too little and possibly too weak for my needs.

 

Any idea when Alienware may release some firm specs for the 13?

 

Yes, any idea Mr. Alienware Rep?

I have $1800-2000 dollars with your name on it!! LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONEY

 

IT should happen soon, we´ve been releasing info about the new desktops, but the new 13" laptop will get it´s turn soon.

 

The new 900M series GPU's are about to get announced and soon released too. The specs of the 970M and 980M are already out. I've heard the new laptop upgrades including for the alienware 14 might happen near the beginning of November.

Really excited to see an alienware 14 with hopefully 970M (due to the maxwell architecture with lower power consumption and with it lower temperatures, the AW 14 should be able to handle it fine).
I'm still currently using and typing from my trusty alienware m14x r1 with a geforce gt 555M. But it cannot run the latest games decently anymore. So I'm in for an upgrade.

 

QUICKSORT, how's the quality of the notebook lasted over the time you've owned it?

 

Also, my 770 desktop hits 299-fps at 1440p in TF2 lol. I think I shouldn't have any issues playing that game unplugged!

 

I'm a computer scientist. I happen to know how to use a laptop clean. I have also installed an SSD on my own in it (much cheaper) and to this day it is better then it was, still a beast never had a problem with it even though my GPU has been overclocked for almost 2 years now (from 590MHz to 725MHz).

And I have to say this. Alienware does have quality. This laptop feels really strong in my hands in terms of consumer grade laptop. And I'm so comfortable with a 14 inch gaming laptop. Powerful yet actually good portable. My favorite system yet.

Now how to use a laptop clean:

1: I make sure that my laptop it's air vents are NEVER blocked. Good airflow has to be ALWAYS subject for your laptop since overheating is the thing that lowers the lifespan of a laptop most! It's also not a bad idea to always keep track of your processor temperature with a program like CoreTemp. Or perhaps also your GPU with GPU-Z, but GPU shouldn't be necessary. It's the best if you can keep your CPU heat stricktly lower then 90 degrees Celcius at all time. When I first Overclocked I reached temps such as 98 degrees. Sicne my GPU was the bottleneck anyway I disabled Turbo boost on my CPU and now I have temperatures like max 82 degrees. And I have better frame rates on games. So again make sure your laptop has good air flow. NEVER use pilows when putting it on your lap since they block those COMPLETELY in fact avoid using it on your lap directly unless your legs are not blocking the vents.
Also get yourself a compressed air can. Should be cheap. Use those to blow in all the air vents to keep the dust away. Do this like every 4-6 months I'd say. (I use my father his large air compressor XD)

2: Assuming you are using windows, get yourself a decent anti-virus software with a firewall, the ones with firewalls are called "Internet security". I've tried many over the years, the best protection with not too much giving crap every second, I can say that Kaspersky Internet Security is my favorite. Never had problems with virusses so far, Firewall keeps most of them outside and even when a few slip through, scannign my PC every month or two sweeps those away.
Don't underestimate a good Anti-virus software. PAY FOR THEM, it's not worth loosing your 1000-2000$ machine just because you didn't pay for a yearly antivirus software of 40$ (cheaper if you buy a 3-pack if you have more PC users in your house).
Also it's not a bad idea to check your chrome/firefox extensions now and then to see if there no suspicious/adware thing. If there is something you don't know you son't use, I suggest uninstalling it.
Also go to "programs&features" in the control panel. Check all the programs installed on your PC. Again uninstall any suspicous/adware looking thing.

If you do these things. And you have no bad luck with your hardware (since I have seen people having trouble with hardware practically on every laptop brand, happens). You should be able to use your laptop many years until you have a hardware default.

 

Hope you don't mind, but I thought I would jump in on this as well because I'm in the same boat as QUICKSORT (pun intended).

I'm an active duty Navy sailor, seasoned gamer, and computer enthusiast. I've had Gateway, HP, Compaq, Dell, and Alienware laptops. The alienware M14X is my most recent and is about threeyears old now.

The M14X R1 build quality is excellent. The case presentation, layout, and performance of the case and exterior of the laptop itself are everything I had hoped for when I purchased, and I have yet to be disappointed in the last 3 years.

As QUICKSORT did, the first thing I did was swap the HDD with a 128GB SSD. I have a full desktop at home and a portable 1TB HDD for storage. I do not use the M14X for storage, only for gaming, and the 555M with an Intel Core i5 has performed this task flawlessly. I opted for the i5 over the i7 because of power draw and my belief that an i7 would not grant "bang for the buck" over the i5. The i5 has been a champ and I stand by that decision.

When seeking out a smaller laptop, I was willing to compromise on performance, because I understand the limitations of the form factor, especially where they were 3 years ago. The games I play most frequently or recently are World of Tanks, Bioshock Infinite, Torchlight I and II, Star Citizen (alpha), Minecraft, and Dishonored. There are newer games, but as my ship is often at sea, I tend to stick to somewhat older offline games I need to catch up on.

The only thing that has kicked my M14x/555M's behind is the Star Citizen - Dog-fighting Module. I was able to (for months) log in to the Hanger Module and check out my Constellation Spaceship and the progress RSI was making on tweaking the ship and hangers. Most everything I mentioned I was able to run on Medium settings with decent frame-rates. The newer Dog-fighting module is unplayable due to low frame rates and stutter. I am very impressed that the 555M will actually load and run it though, which is a testament to the quality of the build from 3 years ago.

So again, like QUICKSORT, I do enjoy my M14X immensely; however, I also am in the market for a replacement and looking forward to the 970M chips which are around the corner.

 

Hi - any chance you can confirm that there will be both a 13 and 14 Alienware, or is the 13 replacing the 14 in the lineup?

 

I don't think he will be able to answer that.
However, I can say that we should hear more about the 13 at the end of October and through a couple of days beginning November.

 

Give the movement on Alienware's Facebook page for advertising the 14 I think its being dropped in Favour of the 13

 

Yeah - I was hoping for a slip-up there

 

Hi guys, im my country (Italy) the Alienware with GTX 765 was removed from web site. Do you think will be replaced by GTX 860 or directly by Alienware 13"?

Sistemi per giochi Alienware | Alienware Italia

 

The removal could be explained by one of two things.
A. Stock on GTX 765m is low (regionally or globally, probably the former),
B. They are preparing for the next revision
No ideas if there will be a revision soon, so we'll have to wait. Alienware may be waiting for GTX 900m and 900 series GPUs (and Broadwell) to refresh/revise their current computers. Desktops should be soon; laptops, though, might be a month or two afterwards.

 

Now the are other discount! AW 14 at 899€ (i5 + GT 750). But the GTX 765 aren't avaiable more
899€ is great offer! Can i go for it? The basic spec are bad?

 

It would be best to wait for a refresh or to get another laptop since the 900m series is starting to be released... I think today, actually.
The GT 750m is a good GPU, but since it is outdated, it isn't best to get it.
Since heavy discounts are happening, then a revision/refresh should happen soon.

 

Thx man for suggestion. I think you're right. The basic configuration maybe has no-sense. Is like buy a Ferrari with Fiat engine

 

The Maxwell cards were just announced this morning by NVIDIA. You should wait.

 

Highly doubt would get a 970M in the little 13 inch version. More like the more recent 860M, not much to wait for it turns out to be dual core based machine.

Only if the 14 gets the 970M which is possible, not sure that would even get that either.

 

There are a couple of 13" laptops on the market with the 870M.

To remain competitive, I think Alienware will offer the 860M on the base model and have the 870M as an upgrade option for more $$$. Assuming they keep the 14, it should have the 4760HQ/4860HQ/4960HQ processors with 960M or 965M. The 960M will not be an exact re-brand of the 860M. It should have more cores, kind of like how 680M to 780M was. The Alienware 17 and Alienware 18 would then have the 970M, 975M, 980M.

This is what makes sense to me. I'm just making a guess on what seems plausible at this point.

 

What 960M would that be, I only see the 970M and 980M announced.

 

I presume they will fit GTX 850 into AW14. Don't you think?

 

@J.Dre

I think your assumption may be correct (except for the aliewnare 13) but something I do not like AT ALL. Though 1st of all indeed only 970M and 980M did release so no 960M 965M for quite a time. Only these enthousiast grade GPU's have been announced and released. Same goes for the desktop class GPU's the GTX 970 and 980.

However. As you stated there are small laptops with a 870M in there like the aorus X3 plus which is a 13.9 inch ultra light and thin gaming laptop. Those GPU's use more power then the 970M and are getting hotter. The alienware 13 will NOT got the 870M quite sure about it. since the gap between the the alienware 13 and 14 becomes negligible.
The alienware 14 on the other hand, with the new maxwell GPU's due to the lower power consumption, there is now room for a 970M in it. Which would be very nice, and is exactly what I want. Otherwise I'll have to go with a different brand unless alienware comes up with a 15 inch laptop that is as thick as the aliewnare 13 with a 980M.
But alienware seems to be very slow. They haven't even updated their Desktops with the GTX 980 and 870 which have been out longer.

And there is also this as you might already know:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4960HQ,Alienware 0146Q8

A 3dmark benchmark results of an unknown alienware machine (code name 0146Q8) that is packed with a 980M. Nothign special you'd say since you would think it's most likely the alienware 17. HOWEVER!! This benchmark also shows that the machine is packed with the Intel Core i7 4960HQ, which is a soldered GPU. If I can recall myself correctly I have never seen a soldered CPU in the alienware 17. So if this is the alienware 14, than I'd be VERY impressed to see it packed with a 980M. Or perhaps a new 15 inch model?? I don't know, but it brings up question marks.

 

I mentioned the 960M and 965M because there are unknown graphics cards on the GPU-Z hardware ID samples (or something) that Cloudfire presented. We've speculated what cards they may be, and the 960M/965M seem to be the most logical at this point. There are also rumors of a 97xM and 98xM coming out next year, sort of like how they replaced the 780M with the 880M shortly after.

P.S. NVIDIA did not replace the 765M with the 860M. Retailers started selling the 860M in place of the 765M. There's a huge difference. :thumbsup:

 

I have to call something wrong about the 3Dmark score of this Alienware laptop. The GTX 980m's VRAM is very different from the others (1 GB versus 4 or 8 GB). As well, its core clock is about half of the stock core clock of a GTX 980m; possible throttling?
The processor's turbo boost speed is less than the stock speed. I can understand why the Iris Pro 5200 had 0's all over the place because it could be disabled, but the other two oddities cause me to question the legitimacy of this data. As well, it seems that the CPU, the i7-4960HQ, has only been used on another computer, an Apple Macbook Pro 2013. Odd that they didn't go for the i7-4980HQ.
I too have been speculating that this could be a thin 15", but it can be possible than Alienware will now start soldering CPUs to save cost (while leaving the GPU alone or soldered, depending on the size of the laptop).

 

Will we see a 4K screens on Alienware Laptops next year ?

 

Still no update or idea if there is going to be a 14?

I'm now looking at GS60 or maybe a Thinkpad T440s, but would like to see what alienware is bringing.. specialy because of there carbon body that worked very well on my now 7 year old little Vaio Z monster.

The 13" Alienware dissapointed me a bit since is has even worse specs then the Thinkpad T440s while that isn't even a gaming laptop... specially the intel i5-xxxxU dissapointed me a lot, the fact that the T440s only has a dual core i7 is already the reason I'm not owing it already..

I really hope the 14"or 15" version of Alienware is comming out soon with a decent CPU... I might even buy it with the graphics amplifier...