Alienware New Model Speculation Thread

Good find/memory Joker. I had no expectation of Optimus, but I was hoping to at least have the "ability" to switch to the IGP to obtain longer battery life when fully mobile. I somehow suspect that the M18x won't have the Z68, and while I don't care about the OC abilities, the IGP thing would leave me a bit wanting. Good find on that detail though.

Dell has been known to get early release materials in its machines, so it's remotely possible they have Z68. And they HAVE to know that it's an obvious desire, the ability to use the IGP when extending life and CF/SLI when gaming hardcore. But given how long these things sit in "development" I kind of doubt they managed it. /sigh

Oh well.

 

This is new news to me whats the Z68 chipset?

 

Battlefield 3 will play fine on mid level Alienwares and higher. (m15, m17, m18 and m14 most likely).

Battlefield 3 will again require both strong cpu and gpu. Any quad SB should be enough and any mid level gpu should be able to play on at least medium levels.

Think about it.. they are releasing this for console as well. We should be fine.

StevenX

 

A new desktop chipset due out in May.

 

I'm very excited about that game, with my specs, do you think i will be fine?, i play BBC2 at Max with 50 - 80 Fps, lower 28 - 30
I ask cause i am thinking about to get a 920XM or the new M18X (not money yet, just to be sure)

 

Does anyone know or have a good guess as to what the m18x will weigh?

 

From what I've seen, the base weight of the M18x will be around that of the M17x R2 (~12 pounds). With added components etc, it may increase to 13-14 pounds.

But since it's probably going to be announced in a couple days, you won't have to wait long to find out

 

Went fully loaded at launch and I never felt stupider for ordering the configuration. Half the crap that's optional can be had for much cheaper on Newegg, or some other online store.

 

I copied this from one of the China sites earlier...

Alienware M18x
* Starting Weight: 11.93 lb
* Height (front) 2.09" to (rear) 2.13"
* Depth: 12.68"
* Width: 17.17"

 

I have a feeling that Z68 will be standard, after all Intel has cut deals with companies that have less buying power than Dell does. Think about it, would Dell knock off features that all the other Alienware laptops have?

 

Do you happen to have dimensions for m14x?

 

these have been posted 20 times before in this thread alone...



SEARCH!!!!

 

Uh yeah, should have clarified that... full spec in regards to CPU and... well, CPU! No way you'll catch me getting RAM or HDD upgrades from Dell...

At the time of purchasing my r1, the r2s had already been released, so yeah, that's what I was getting at

 

Details here, but in German.

Height: 37,8 mm
Depth: 258,34 mm
Width: 337,00 mm
Weight: 2,92 kg

 

Sorry I think I started following this thread when it's already over 100 pages, and the search function on these forums are horrible ;<

Thanks, that's almost identical to my xps 14, only a tiny bit bigger and thicker. Anxiously awaits the release and price

 

Is it possible that there are US exclusive options for the M18x? I really hope so, because i'd prefer to get one 6970m rather than the base GTX460m, which is the only single GPU option in the UK.
Actually, i have an off-topic question: can the GPUs in the two slots be different, and if yes - what can be the one and what can be the other?

 

Well I don't think the specs we see on the UK's website are final, I'm sure there will be more options once the M18X is officially released for ordering.
Clevo already offered a combination of a 460m and 485m in their x7200 laptop, so technically it is possible (with nvidia cards anyway, not sure about AMD), but whether Dell will offer support for something like that is a different story.

 

Just talk to dell rep, show them they are making at least 2.5k based commission and they need to swap the 460 with 6970 and they get deal , done !

 

Well i thought about it, but it's almost sure it won't happen, because i live in south-eastern Europe and i don't think they'll give me a discount when they find that out... I see that everybody is talking about waiting for the m18x r2 and the Intel Ivy Bridge. Can someone tell me what will be the advantages over the Sandy Bridge family?

 

The US site usually has more options then other countries. You could assume that more options will be added on the official release date
If you want a single 6970 why not get the M17x R3? (cheaper) (unless ofcourse you want the bigger screen or to upgrade the to xfire later?)

I know desktops could have crossfire with 2 different gfx cards not sure if you it can still be done or if it can be done in laptops
do those Clevo models have the 460m and 485m in sli or are they for powering different screens?

 

For a single GPU, the m17x-r3 makes the most sense. The M18x is meant to be a dual card configuration, especially considering its size and weight. The difference in screen size is hardly noticeable, trust me.

 

IVY BRIDGE

Code named "Chief River", this mobile platform will debut
at CES 2012 featuring: 3rd Generation (and final)
"Core i" Processors (before new
architecture Haswell in 2013) Should be a compatible
upgrade for Sandy Bridge
notebook owners

Shrink of Sandy Bridge to 22nm Focus on efficiency Quad Cores replace dual
cores as mainstream in
notebooks

Thunderbolt integration 3rd Gen High-k Metal Gate
Technology

USB 3.0 DirectX 11 enabled gpu GPU has 24 Shaders

 

They have (had) them in SLI

 

I wouldn't say hardly, if you put an 18" laptop next to a 17" one you can see a size difference, well at least I do.
But there are benefits other than the bigger screen in the M18X especially better build quality, and maybe better speakers, better keyboard, etc.
So if weight isn't an issue IMHO even as a single gpu laptop it's not that bad of an idea...

 

Although the M18x and M17x R3 are similarly positioned and hopefully priced, the differences are, as you said, quite a lot. And if they put a 1700$ price tag in US (which is quite possible bearing in mind it costs the same as the UK one) no one will buy the R3, except for 3D. The reasons are the bigger screen in the not much bigger shell, 2 GPUs, the overclocked CPUs, the bigger keyboard, the much better build quality - the alumium is years better than plastic. I'd like to buy a M18x with two GPUs, but i don,t have the money. I'll probable purchase it with one, and later upgrade, and i think many people will do the same.

 

M18x won't be using Z68.

For a simple starter Z68's launch is said to be in the 2nd week of May so you're most likely not going to see it in a notebook that was "supposed to launch" last Friday.

For more complex reasons though I'm doubtful Intel will even release a mobile version of Z68 at all, since they probably don't believe most of the chipset's features are beneficial to notebooks.

The storage features like RAID 5 and support for RAID configs >2TB flat out won't be used in notebooks...even if you take into account the people that mod out the ODD to get a necessary 3rd HDD. SSD Caching too, with it's RAID controller requirements, becomes less practical in a system with limited HDD bays because it loses most of the whole speed without sacrificing storage deal it's meant to offer. A notebook user is better off filling one of their storage bays with a larger capacity SSD as a stand alone boot drive, than using one of the bays for a small SSD slaved to a HDD.

Honestly the only exclusive feature on the Z68 chipset that's of any practical use to notebooks is the dual-GPU with IGP support....but, as much as you might think it is, it isn't worth Intel's while to introduce a Z M68 chipset when a) only one manufacturer is producing a single DTR notebook that would use it, and b) Intel likely doesn't acknowledge battery life as a primary concern for people who would buy such a DTR notebook.

 

We don't know yet. everyone knew Z68 was coming ages ago maybe alienware didn't launch m18x until now because of z68, if not they were able to launch it with m17x r3 instead of launching it now with m11xr3 and m14x

It's not like m18x will be shipped at April 19 anyway, it will be taking orders to build them at that date, shipping date should be the same date when z68 actually get shipped. even then April 19 is still unconfirmed.

Just saying using Z68 is possible if alienware wanted to use it, doesn't mean they will.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intel has started production of the Z68 chipset which features SSD caching capabilities, according to VR-Zone.

Intel has also started production of their Z68 chipset this week along with other Cougar Point SKUs like H61 and Q65. All of them are based on the new B3 stepping therefore the SATA port 2-5 issue is fixed before they hit the market. Judging from the specs, it seems Intel has catered Z68 specially for enthusiasts which allows better processor overclocking, discrete graphics support and SSD caching capability. With these enhancements, Intel has priced the Z68 chipset some US$8 higher than the P67 counterpart. The launch for the Z68 chipset is slated for first week of May.

SSD Caching joins a regular hard drive to a solid state drive, putting the most frequently accessed data onto the SSD for quick access. The two drives appear as a single drive to users.

 

So basically it's like a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid just with two separate drives?

 

Ya and Intel support vs Seagate (which I would trust more)

Personally....I just use SSDs as my boot drive so could not care less about the SSD caching, I care about the CF+IGP support most

 

Pretty much, some previews however reporting that using it make your SSD slower than using it separately from your HD (your HD will gain some speed though)

It's good option though if you have 40GB/60GB SSD+ 1TB HD
if you got 256GB SSD or even 128GB SSD and 1tb hd you might want to keep each drive alone for better performance

I move steam games i use at the time to my SSD, once i finish them i move them out from my SSD and put back other games i plan to play next in my SSD, there are tools available to move files.

 

Tomorrow morning, 11am EST. Alienware Announcement.

 

Where was that post with the differences between the M17x R3 and the future M18x? (I tried search, but it seemed to find things from 2010). I think joker posted it.

I suppose for some of us, the $200 seems not much more to pay for the above mentioned benefits, especially if you don't plan to travel "too" often with this machine. I'd probably travel 2-3 times a year tops and it'll be just moved from a backpack to a desk.

I see the benefits as:
1) Better build quality (reading about scratches on the soft plastic from the M17x R3 new machines is disappointing)
2) A possibly better screen (??)
3) Option to use SLI/Crossfire down the road if necessary is further future proofing
4) Better sound w/ subwoofer (read about the various complaints the sound is weak)
5) Overclocked CPU option
6) Probably better resale value

Will have to see if it can use the onboard gfx to conserve power (sounds like it won't be able to, at least not yet). That will probably be my deciding factor. Do people think it will have this option down the road (after May)? I can wait.

 

You forgot Quick Sync, which would be very beneficial to a notebook user.

 

It should still work on notebooks using the H6* PCH and Optimus/switchable graphics.

 

If anyone is wondering the link to that page

Announcement Coming here

 

does anyone know if alienware us can ship to the united kingdom?

sorry to get off topic

 

Why would there be an Alienware UK if the US could ship there?

There are ways to get the laptop from the US, but it requires a US postbox mail forwarding service, a physical US phone number (on a call re-routing service of some sort) and a compatible credit card. There's a thread around here that explains how to do it, but I don't know where it is.

 

That is too bad. I'm a U.S. citizen who is currently at school in the UK. I have a U.S. address, credit card number, and the like. Hence, I'd much rather have the Americas keyboard, power adapter, price, etc.

 

The best way to do that is probably to use HIDevolution.

 

Have a relative who can receive it and ship to you?

 

That can definitely be done. I just didn't want to bother anybody. Thanks for the help guys.

 

Oh bugger. In my edits I must have deleted the link. Doh!

And thanks.

 

Z68 doesn't automatically mean you'll get to use QuickSync.

The notebook will still need Lucid's Virtu in order to enable QuickSync while a discrete GPU is installed, which Dell will need to pay a licensing fee for...a fee that also carries an extra charge for dual-GPU support....on top of the extra cost of the MUX connections to the display.


You've then got to anticipate compatibility issues between Virtu and AMD's and Nvidia's own graphics switching solutions for notebooks. It might be an easier task to get Virtu and PowerXpress to not butt heads, but seeing as Virtu and Optimus are trying to do each others job in a very similar way (via software) it's unlikely they'll play nice together. Compatibility issues might be the reason LucidLogix and Intel are targeting Virtu at desktops right now, where AMD and Nvidia haven't concentrated on offering much in the way of graphics switching.

 

I think the strongest feat of Z68 is that it allows for dual graphics + IGP.
This is exactly what is missing for me in Avenger to be the best of the best.
If it can sport 5-6 hours of battery life on IGP it will be priceless if not, i don't see many reasons to "upgrade" from M17x-R2

 

AMD did get the 6970M to switch graphics on the m17xR3, but Optimus is no where to be seen on their offerings. I wouldn't be surprised if 6970M CF has switching for the m18x... but good luck carrying that beast around

 

Same size and weight as the M17x R1 and R2 which MANY people carry around regularly....

 

i'm sure it ain't a problem, I'm just saying portability isn't the #1 consideration when buying such a notebook I'm sure

 

Actually portability was the biggest draw to the m17x R3 for me. To have such a powerful machine weigh in under 10lbs and with 4-5 hours of battery life? Sold.

There's a bit too much of "Well I wouldn't do this so no one does it" thinking on here sometimes. True, a lot of you don't look at the R3 and see a "portable machine" yet I see the ultimate portable machine.

And truth be told, those who need the m18x to be portable, will make the m18x portable. Really, carrying around ~15lbs isn't that horrendous. Sure, it's not as easy as throwing a 3lbs netbook in your bag and scurrying off, but the tradeoff is in the power, obviously.

 

Portability is very dependent of who the carrier is. I don't mind carrying a 3 kg laptop in my backpack (thinking of the M14x here), but my wife wouldn't like it (she did it for two years with an old 3.5 kg laptop though ).

 

Can't wait!!
Buying soon, ha ha ha he