Alienware 17 Upgrade Capability

Hey,

I'm gonna get an Alienware 17. However, I want to be able to know how much I could upgrade it in a few years when it needs it. To my understanding, the basic model(lowest price), can get fitted with the parts from the most decked out one (ex: cpu, gpu, etc.). However, can it use parts that would be on future models? Or would there be a limit as to how powerful that cpu/gpu would be? Also, how big could the internal hard drive be?

Thanks!

 

Next generation components (2015) will be compatible.

Keep in mind, any upgrades you install are not covered under warranty. They also do not void the warranty for the remaining OEM parts.

 

Future adaptability looks good from our stand point now but that could potentially change if they decide to update the MXM card slot for the GPU's. We have been pretty lucky IMO that they have aloud us to upgrade for as long as we have been able to considering how fast desktop parts usually become obsolete. There are no signs that I know of that say were going to loose up-gradability but as most will tell you they could change something at any point and we might be SOL.

As J.Dre has said, 2015 looks good , no major changes that would prevent you from running anything but who knows what next year will bring.

Keep in mind with CPU's as the newer models come out we do lose out on the ability to upgrade from one CPU type to the next as the sockets change but the GPU's have remained largely unaffected and we are seeing a lot of re-brands. Re-brands could also be a sign that something new will come along at some point and may change the slot type but we won't know till we see it more then likely.

It is usually quite expensive to upgrade your CPU and especially your GPU as well, in fact it is usually more cost effective to just get the better system right from the start but I understand not everyone can afford to do that and as such these are excellent machines for the ability to upgrade almost anything.

Internal storage as far as I know will only be limited by however large a drive you wish to install. The 17 has 2 HDD/SSD bays ready to go from factory and you can install a 3rd if you remove the optical drive. There is also 1 mSATA slot that is ready to go and in a lot of configurations comes with an mSATA already installed. As far as I know most 2.5" drives are sitting about 1tb now in terms of as large as they come and this includes an mSATA drive so you could have upwards of 3-4tb in there if you so chose but it would be costly. Your probably looking at least $500 per 1tb drive so $1500+ just for the storage if you were to do it after-market, you would be much better off just buying an external drive for storage unless you needed it at the ready and installed all the time.

 

Pascal is not going to be using the standard PCie. So, anything after 2015 will require a new motherboard, most likely. GPU's usually don't change all that much, but it looks like they will for 2016.

If you buy a PC next year (with Broadwell and Maxwell), the CPU may not be upgradeable the following year (2016), like Ivy Bridge wasn't upgradeable to Haswell. And if they do not use PCie, then you may not be able to upgrade your GPU either.

For now, you're safe. I wouldn't worry about it. I'm just making these guesses based on leaks, which could be completely false.

 

True this, the machine will be able to run the latest games for 2-3 years on high settings, then you will need a new GPU that will likely need a new mobo.