RIP - Alienware 18

Anyone who has not voted yet please do so here:

Idea Storm

 

Today I was chatting with a former customer of mine about the direction (or lack of) that Dell/alienware have taken in the last few weeks, I mentioned to him about the new gen CPU's and GPU's being soldered to the motherboard, preventing not only upgrades but repairs as well.

He comeup with what may be a valid point the agro alienware community may be able to use.

He asked the question - Is Intel a progressive company?

From what I understand, if a company or corp calls itself progressive then they hold their standard to a higher level, this usually includes ENVIROMENTAL policies aimed at greenhouse gases or EXCESS POLUTION.

If Intel go down the path of intergrated CPU's and the OEM's follow with intergrated GPU's this will prevent component level repairs, thus creating an enormous increase in e-waste.

If Intel spruke themselves as a progressive or environmentally friendly company this is going to contradict their own policy.

I know Dell spukes about environmental issues and how good they are - How good are they if they have to throw out a complete mobo assembly every time something goes wrong with this new rubbish

Someone mentioned in a post earlier on/in this thread that a page should be started at change.org - I thought at the time that might be going to far, but now I'm not so sure.

Maybe it's time for a little investigative research to findout Intel position on environmental issues, we might have something here

 

Found this in less than 5 minutes

 

$500 more for the top 17 inch here in Canada but that is mostly the exchange rate right now

 

Possible, but it would depend on what the real savings were at the end of it all.
It isn't just about the purchase price.

For example (and this is a rough estimate) - let's use the new 17 at USD$2,649.99 and assume it is delivered at no cost to a tax free US state where it is then on-forwarded to Australia using a freight forwarding service like MYUS or ShipItTo etc.

Based on today's exchange rate according to XE ( XE: (USD/AUD) US Dollar to Australian Dollar Rate) it would be AUD$3,228.11 -

On the face of it, that's pretty decent so far.

Using ShipItTo, the price to send it to Australia (using TNT Express with free insurance) is (AUD?)$319.83 (I couldn't quickly determine if it was in AUD or USD so let's assume it's picked up country destination currency and go with AUD). I also specified a box with 60cmx60cmx60cm - I can't recall how big my box was when it arrived but if anyone has dimensions on-hand that'd be handy. Obviously anything bigger will be more expensive.

Next up, import duties into Australia - DutyGST
10% Goods & Services Tax + a 5% rate of import duty (applied to the purchase and shipping cost total). So 15% x the cost to purchase and get it to Melbourne, Australia is AUD$532.19.

I don't know if there's a cost involved in transferring your warranty to Australia but I'll assume no for now.

That brings the purchase price to: AUD$4080.13 for a new USD$2649.99 Alienware17.

So yup, works out cheaper at a very rough estimate and not taking into account any other charges I may have missed. It's probably still a viable option but before pulling the trigger fellow Aussies will really need to do their research.

(Happy for anyone to correct / fill in the gaps if I've missed something)



I'm currently still using an m17x R2 with a 680m and it's going strong even if it is a little long in the tooth.

Personally, I'd been waiting to see what the new 18's were going to be like and was really disappointed that it'd been pulled entirely as I was looking to upgrade this year.

The new 17 doesn't really do it for me and the general vibe I'm picking up on NBR is that Dell has lost the plot with this refresh so I'll hang on to what I have for a bit and see if Dell reverses their decision or there's a better comparative choice on the horizon.

As an aside, it'll be interesting to see how they handle warranty repairs/replacements with the m18x series gone and seemingly less powerful options for replacements available. I'd cringe going from a fully specced m18xR2 to a fully specced Alienware17 if I were in that position.

 

Yup I considered buying from the US as well last time but the hassle and overall savings was not worth it.
Apparently also in the US there is a 8% VAT tax on top of the initial purchase price. Kind of like our GST in OZ however it is not included in standard pricing.
We shall see if anything changes in the future in terms of pricing.

Yup a few peeps are already in this boat with the replacement offerings. They are being offered the new 17 R2's because there is nothing left better to offer them unfortunately.

 

With the rare metals in apparent limited supply it is surprising that the BGA route is being so aggressively adopted. Huge amounts of extra waste! Perhaps by the time my daughter grows up will be heading back to the stone age.

Humans have been consuming resources that should be preserved for future generations for a long time now. Soon enough we will be in trouble! I won't be dumping my laptop until close to 2020. Unless it breaks irreparably. Something I doubt considering how easy it is to replace even the mainboard....

 

Yet silver prices and other rare metals are down
They should be giving us everything we want.

 

Sound like our friends that are being raped by their governments abroad need to pack up and move here. Just pretend you're from Mexico and you can get in easy, no questions asked. You might even get a free cell phone if you hurry up and get here before 2016. You can buy your fill of electronics gadgets, and if you don't like it here you can always go back home again on a free ticket, all courtesy of the American taxpayer and Der Führer.

 

I recently purchased AW 17 for the mrs from the US..4930MX cpu, gtx 765, 16GB ram total cost in AU dollars was $2800 including shipping, some sellers in the US do declare a lower value on the laptop in my case only $500 if you ask them nicely. In australia anything under $1000 that you import doesnt attract any customs duty.

 

This is ridiculous,they already make cpus and graphics cards with new goodies almost every year or two, soldering in things stops upgrades ect,, too much greed. This also cuts resale prices down on these as they are discontinued.

Cheers
3Fees

 

I actually think the resale price on a M18x R2 or Alienware 18 will increase, at least for a few months.

 

I'm not selling my 18 just because they discontinued it....to me that's all the more reason to hang onto it!

 

Also because it is perhaps becomes your last Alienware.

 

It's not just AW18 that's dead, the whole brand came crashing down and dropped into the deepest pits of BGA filth and too much of greed...
This is the perfect time for clevo to release a successor to P570WM

 

Se my other post's

 

While it's certainly an option to reduce the apparent value of the package if anything happens en-route in terms of damage or it goes missing then you're usually only insured for that amount.

It's a significant enough risk that I wouldn't do it personally as you're gambling on the fact that nothing goes wrong. Yes, these days with tracking etc. it's less likely for something to disappear but it's still a dangerous possibility.

 

Good point - But if it's purchased through ebay and/or paid with paypal then you have buyer protection too, and that will cover the entire amount (Including shipping)

 

Dont count on ebay and paypal for buyer protection, in the net result, they will tell you after wasting your time, contact your credit card issuer and dispute transaction, they side with the seller, seller refunds ect, they get nada, zip, nothing, no monies-no honeys. Buyer protection is nice advertising, it took massive public work to get them to publish this, getting them to fly straight is not in the cards as theres no oversight, a complaint is best friend if things go astray and or dispute the transaction.

Ebays new gimmic is ask for refund here thru them and then they offer a refund $10 less than what you paid to even contact the seller, I have seen so many of these gimmicks and stalls its ridiculous, if everything goes good, good seller, smooth sailing, if not its all stalling and non sense.

Another eye opener is your funds in paypal are not insured, this came from FDIC who insures deposits in banks. Also since they are an auction house, its very difficult to find out who regulates them, theres few regulations on them,, Law Makers are snoozing again or they like the free trips to Rio or elsewhere too much, so the bills to regulate them go to the bottom of the pile.

Cheers
3Fees

 

No no that would be to powerful for the average consumer. Give them what they want, a multi function, solor powered, mortar brick.

 

Point taken for the U.S.A. - But I'm in AU.

In Australia Paypal are considered a "bank" and/or a "financial institution" which means they have to follow very strict laws regarding almost every aspect of their business, we have quite good consumer and financial protect here, I doubt very much paypal would be able to slip through these nets, if the financial laws and ombudsman does not get them, them the consumer laws and civil administration tribunal will (civil admin cases cost $49 to start)

 

I've been down very similar roads in Australia before, the law here favours the consumer, not the business - I've also had to make quite a few paypal claims myself against USA sellers (They sell sooooooooo many faulty mobo's)

Every claim I have won and has been paid out to me within 30 days

 

Anyway - Back on topic.......

Looks like we have some movement from Dell on ideastorm






Please keep the votes and comments flowing

Idea Storm

 

I received an email from him about the change.org petition too.

 

Typical canned corporate response. Might've even been a robot who sent that.

 

Tell me about it. If it wasn't a bot it was a text book copy paste from their corporate guide book. It doesn't get much more insincere than that.

 

I have been chatting with one of the Dell forum moderators about how people can make their options known to Dell upper management concerning the direction of the Alienware brand.

I have been given a name to contact - Any suggestions on how to handle this - A single email from me, or numerous emails from all of us?????????????????????????????????

I also got confirmation from this person that ideastorm is only being monitored for TOU violations, weather the acknowledge we got on ideastorm was a person or robot is a mystery, let hope they were human........

It also does not mean voting should stop as it is still a record of peoples feelings and potentially can be used to reinforce any argument for reinstatement of 18's, MXM's and/or QM CPU's

 

I do not own an AW machine but it might seem to me an email from one of the mods on this board, in the name of everyone, might carry some weight. Good luck.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

I think they already know this. They have to because the disgruntlement is too widespread for them to be oblivious to it. If they do not know, all they need to do is pay a little bit closer attention to the venom in so many threads here, at Tech|Inferno, and even Alienware Arena.

If they know, and care, and plan to do something about it, it won't happen overnight. You cannot turn a battleship on a dime. Undoing what they started will be time consuming and expensive. The path of least resistance would be to reinstate the 2012 17 (Ranger) and 18 (Viking) with GTX 970M and 980M, but doing that will require people in authority to admit mistakes. Good business leaders are quick to acknowledge their mistakes and that could certainly happen, but only if they want it to and if Compal is actually able to deliver the hardware goods on the discontinued models. They may have set things in motion that cannot be undone with the flip of a switch because of how many different players need to be involved in the process. Rumor has it that 18" display stock is exhausted and none are being manufactured. If that is true, some sort of mod to fit a 17" LCD into the 18" lid would also be necessary. This is not something that can be done right with bubble gum, duct tape and baling wire. It wouldn't be a huge undertaking from a design perspective, but tooling up, manufacturing the mod components and having it churned out in mass volume wouldn't be an overnight process.

 

There's only a single one, and that's an LVDS-type (which would be a no-go in any new design).

Spoiler: laptop panels lvds over 17.3 inch

There's not a single eDP over 17.3" available. There's a few monitor eDP panels starting at ~22", but these too are discontinued and weigh 2kg+ ... bit heavy for a display lid. Used to be there were 20" entertainment laptops available, perhaps these weren't much of a success, but if 17.3+ isn't offered by any manufacturer then their sales numbers equate to zero, obviously.

Spoiler: laptop panels edp over 17.3 inch

Really hope this situation will change and a 20"-ish eDP full-gamut panel will become available. Clevo could make a dual MXM mobile server out of that. And with the increased surface area there'd be no need for the X7200/ P570WM's brick-like designs anymore.

 

Interesting what your saying,,here they say they dont have checking or savings accounts so they are not a bank, I believe pay pay is registered as bank in europe, yet no correspondent bank office that I have heard about. Here the Credit Card Company is the preferred method if things go astray(US Treasury authorities get reports on all disputes to check them out for statistical purposes and related), both ebay and paypal get fees for every item sold(when paypal is transfer agent, if not just ebay fees).

Cheers
3Fees


PS:
I still dont like Dell discontinuing a line and leaving buyers of these items holding them, Should be like HP Pavilion keep the line alive and well. Thats an unfair business practice, they should do what 3Dfx did give everyone who owns them a sufficent coupon to get an nvida card when they closed out and merged. Mine was $40-40% of retail cost of $100 , here a Different dell laptop coupon for similar cost and abilities Dell laptop or something.

You alienware owners should get busy and call dell and ask for a coupon or discount to cover market loss on discontinued line,, they probably will work something out. Lord knows you paid enough to get some consideration.

Wheres the Ralph Nader Group to protect buyers when you need them ? Waiting for your call , email or letter,, good to know.

 

Your 18 wont suddenly start performing worse though and things like GPU drivers will apply to the machine. With 3dfx it was different, driver support was going to go down the toilet after all.

 

I don't think that rumor is true.... What the does the MSI titan machine have in it? I thought that it had an 18" 1080p PLS panel in it. And honestly if they came out with someone even close to as good as the m18x r2 I would buy one just to support the brand, not necessary because I need it. Doubt that will happen though.

 

Remember that the GT80 Titan may have a different mounting orientation than the Alienware machines. Just because screen size is the same doesn't mean the bezel, connector (eDP vs LVDS), or mounting orientation is. One screen cannot simply fit in another laptop that is a similar size; you need to make sure they're 100% compatible. In the case of the M18x/AW18, they probably DO only have very few screens that may fit.

That being said, most of the displays we have now are out of production and have been for quite some time. My 120Hz panel I got in late 2013 was made in 2010 and never sold before that. There was not enough demand OR stock for them, and thus clevo stopped using them. You can still find them for sale elsewhere if someone purchased a P37xSM or P37xSM-A model and wished to use the panel in it.

I would not be surprised if the specific panel the AW18 is using is actually out of stock (or not in-stock enough to consider selling the machine in bulk) as it hasn't been in production for quite a while, but there is little way to know.

 

if theres a 2000 alienware 18 / m18x R2 owners out there, Dell just lost 2000 x 2k-3k. although a small market to them, still quite a bit of money as we are the ones tend to spend most on everything. time to give business to MSI and Clevo.

well no need to be so upset, 980m may not work in aw18, theres a chance AMD's card might work who knows.

 

Assuming AMD actually makes anything worth its salt.

 

There is always hope, but a heavy dose of skepticism would be appropriate where AMD CPUs and mobile graphics are concerned. Based upon their track record with me personally, I will be playing the role of a Doubting Thomas. But, I certainly won't hesitate to kick NVIDIA (or Intel) to the curb like a dirty old grease rag if AMD magically pulls off something amazing... as long as it doesn't have a high failure rate.

 

actually AMD gpu is doing great on desktop segment, and hopefully that gets carry over to mobile as well. crossfire already better than SLI for stutter/smooth game play over last several months, if the mobile card isn't crippled by manufacturer then its all good.

 

The problem is amd can't brute force notebooks like the desktop power wise.

 

It does, it's a Samsung PLS FHD matte, which is the LVDS panel poster earlier: Samsung LTM184HL01 (listing erroneously claims '6-bit, 1-channel', it should say '2-channel'). Funny thing; looked for a review, but only found this listing on ebay; LTM184HL01 (...) for alienware M18X r3. Insane price, to be sure.

Anyway, with the hype surrounding 4k screens, and their concomitant demand, it's unlikely any other 'high-end' manufacturer will make use of LVDS-type panels anymore; neither 4k available, nor >262K colours (for the dtp clientele). In that sense, it's understandable AW skipped 18" altogether; customer cries " 4k!", yet they wouldn't be able to deliver.

 

They could have made a beefy 17 and a slim 15 inch if they did not mind them not sharing the same motherboard.

 

Yeah, personally I don't care if the display is 17" or 18" as long as it has a crisp and bright 1080p screen. The most important thing is that the rest of the machine is not a crippled turd, supports a socketed XM or desktop K/X CPU and dual MXM GPUs and overclocks like a banshee. These people obsessing over obscenely high screen resolutions that are worthless on tiny 13, 15 and 17" laptop display panels and ignoring the rest of the product are part of the problem. It must be hard for the OEMs to cut through all the noise, but they have been listening to too many mainstream Dell customers and assuming Alienware customers want the same crap.

 

Except for the fact that most of the AW customers probably would go for the higher res screens. You don't usually hang around the clevo side, but the RIDICULOUS amount of people buying P650SE, P650SG and P750ZM that are looking for 1620p and 4K screens, on single GPU even, willing to run games at 1080p and let it upscale. I'm not gonna blast anyone for choice, but most people (at least those active here, and on desktop forums) assume 1080p is now "baseline" and 1440p+ is the way to go for gaming no matter what.

 

Having recently shopped for an external monitor I was looking everywhere for a 1440p 24"...doesn't exist.
Everything is just about 27" and up recently.
Yeah.. And God only knows how a single mobile GPU is going to run some of these 3-4k laptop monitors.
It's like the bragging rights is now about screen resolution.. Doesn't seem to matter if the weak hardware runs everything like a PowerPoint presentation .

 

Alienware 20 with X99 and external PCIE please.

 

You're right TBoneSan! I didn't even realize. I set the search engine to 1440 and up (16:9 aspect only) and set screen sizes to 25" and below, and ONLY 4K monitors showed up (using PCPartPicker). Then I expanded the search to above 1080p... no dice. It seems like 1440p does indeed start at 27" and no smaller, which is an annoyance to me, as I prefer the 23-24" range for extra monitors. That really sucks.

Thing is, 1080p at ~21" or so is actually crisper than 1440p at 27" in terms of pixel density. *sigh*. And then on the flip side, 17" laptops are 1080p ONLY, and 3K and 4K are hitting 15" models. Which will never hold SLI or anything sufficient to seriously rip apart higher res screens.

 

Yeah there's absolutely nothing. I really wanted at 24 " screen. 27" is too big for my desk. I had to settle for 1080p 24 " 144hz.
Happy with my choice. Actually I'm happy that going to 144hz hasn't totally ruined 60hz for me. If I'm forced to play a game at 60fps anytime it's not as bad as I thought it would be going back. 60fps is still nice.. It's not like going from 60fps to 30fps.
Although I can now pick out 60fps very easily, especially moving around the cursor or fast pivoting in games.

 

Yes, that's how it is. I personally suggest 120Hz over 144Hz for games that need to be vsynced to specific refresh rates like Skyrim, where you can just "vsync to half refresh" in NCP or something, but that's about it. I have yet to see any single GPU on the market that can max any game at 1080p and get 120fps, and I prefer 120Hz over higher res. It's kind of why I picked this machine with the high refresh rate. I originally had wanted the EM model.

 

Yeah you've got a good thing going there with your machine. For better or worse, it's a keeper.

 

Isn't it interesting--and I believe comrade Fox has been bemoaning this trend for a good while now--how such a design philosophy with utterly poor priorities and sense of pragmatism is starting to bleed exponentially into the enthusiast bracket of consumer electronics? I realise that this is a bit of a generalisation, but what you gents are discussing here with regards to high-end gaming laptop screens speaks to this increasing scale of this very issue. It's a progressive decline in overall product integrity, favouring the most inappropriate, and even absurd, of superficial upgrades/design choices at the expense of what would be the core hardware and mechanical elements. We've almost got a damning predictive model in the works because of the expected behaviour of a certain groomed segment of the consumer base.