Ask Alienware's General Manager, Frank Azor, Anything on AWA!

Hi
Take a look at this 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark test .. Why throttled this i7-4710HQ (BGA) processor that is inside the Alienware 17r2 down to 3GHz under this benchmark test? Is it because it gets too hot or is it due to power? Something is odd since a i7-4710BGA shall not be so hot. http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2760703
Edit: Dell's engineers should fix up the mistakes in earlier versions of the Alienware Laptops too. It is quite perverse that cpu fan does not start when both the temperature and wattage increases. Cpu fan on Alienware 17R1 (Ranger) starts 8-10 seconds later when the temperature has already gone down. Every single time. What is the purpose of such a fan profile? Get this fixed .. This problem applies to both 17 and 18.

 

I'm definitely with you. Even more with the customization, I remember back in 2007-2009 going to Alienware.com just to see how my future laptop was going to be and I really enjoyed a lot the ability to customize it. Just by having the option to select different cpu, gpu, colors, chassis, etc. made me choose Alienware instead any other vendor.

 

The UEFI gui bios is nice though. Most desktop motherboards now have a nice gui bios with many overclocking options. It'd be nice to have this on alienware laptops as well. Anyways we'll see how my area-51 does overclocking wise, I haven't had a chance to play with that yet.

Seems decent:

stock: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9364903

oc: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9365065

Borrowed my brother's 470 for a quick minute. Need some more ram for quad channel, dual channel ain't cutting it.

 

That's not true. All X99 boards overclock the same, it's the ASUS boards with the special socket that has more overclockability with the uncore/ring/cache.

I run a 24/7 4.5Ghz @ 1.25 with 1.8VCCIN. There is no one I know on OC.net that has that 1.8 VCCIN.

 

You can win the silicon lottery and overclock with lower voltage.

I doubt the motherboard would last as long if you push more than 4.5GHz.

 

I benchmark at 4.6Ghz with around 1.32v. Any higher and the voltage is too much for the 5960x and cooling must be in the 350W+ range, which is chilled water to phase change.

If I were to buy an ASUS R5E I would gain absolutely nothing. I've owned a R4E so I know what those boards can do. I don't need black nichicon gt caps. If the board dies it's under warranty.

 

I agree with the others. If you cannot bring back the 18" then make the 17" with upgradable parts and sli. I do not want to or will carry a docking station with me when I fly or drive to another area.

 

1. Will bring this up.
2. I can't promise this will be around forever! Remember when XP EoL'd and it wasn't available anymore through mass licenses. XP was EOL'd a long time before I went through the great drought XP licenses in 2008. I was doing IT at the time, before my return to Alienware, and I had to find XP licenses for one of the clients we supported. The costs for XP licenses was astronomical and I couldn't get them through my Technet candy store.
3. I use Comcast... pray for me.
4. What do you consider serious about the current design? Does the lighting not fulfill the colored customization you like? I personally think its cooler. Silver/Black is such a great contrasting color to the lights for me. When you have a blue chassis or red chassis and use the lighting it looks like fruit loop vomit. That's just my opinion!

EDIT: Added my opinion! Edits for transparency!

 

It's the same drum Ive been beating for the last year or so; I loved having choice between Nebula Red, Space Black and Lunar Silver for the chassis. I was pretty damn proud of my red anodized aluminum monster, even if it added a ton of weight. The build quality now is quite good, but there is always room for improvement. We don't have to go nuts, but a little variety (which you are free to charge for) would be very welcome.

And yes, I will pray for you.

 

Not to contradict zombiegoat entirely, but I actually prefer this year's colour and design to any of the previous years.

 

I have a black (actually more of a gunmetal color than black to be accurate) M18xR1 and a red M18xR2. Both are absolutely amazing, but everyone that sees the Nebula Reb is extraordinarily impressed. I have never once received anything but compliments on how beautiful that red anodized finish looks... definitely a head-turner in a sea of ordinary looking computers. Photos of this red Alienware chassis are always an injustice to how truly fantastic it looks in real life.

The pitch black color of my M17xR2 chassis is also impressive and unique. It is a satin finished piano black anodize that looks like a million bucks. It is hard to imagine black being striking to behold, but it is an extremely dark look that makes other blacks look gray.
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This was from another thread, but it has a place here also.

 

Another +1 for Nebula Red - I miss that amazing colour and the fact that it was solid aluminium top and bottom.

 

Bring back the AW18. I personally have no interest in a 17" gaming laptop. The fact that the AW18 was 18" was the main reason I got it. While I game with a monitor, if I had to I could game on the 18" screen, I just can't with a 17 or smaller. The 18 was a special beast. It was the product that when people asked me what is so special about Alienware, I would show them the 18 and they just "got it". That was all it took for them to understand. That's even before explaining the SLI and the ability to upgrade. The 18 is what made Alienware different than other notebook manufacturers. Now you are just another face in the crowd. I personally know 4 people now (outside of this forum) that were planning on getting an AW18 and now they are going to all make their own desktop. Well, 1 guy is looking at the new 18" MSI. Alienware used to be the Holy Grail of gaming. You are now just another mid level gaming notebook that can be bought at Walmart. The GA is an awful idea. It's huge, ugly, and most importantly, if I have to hook up a GA to my laptop to make it special, to make it a beast. Then it really isn't special at all.

As of now, with your new lineup, there is no reason at all to purchase your products over any other brand, there is no redeeming quality left. You guys made a big mistake, you disappointed your loyal fans, you know, the people who go online and spread the word about your products. The people who take the time to establish a community and most importantly to you (you would think) the people who will and do spend 3-5k on your laptops. It amazes me, You see companies do this crap all the time, Let's go cheaper, let's go after a bigger market, let's follow the trends and go against everything we once stood for. All that ends up happening is they ruin the reputation they use to have, sales get worse and they end up going under or becoming a shell of what they once were. Dell/Alienware is on the fast track in the same direction. It never works and it won't work for you guys either. Alienware needs it's Lexus to it's Toyota, the 18 was it. Funny thing is, Most people knew once Dell bought Alienware, that it would only be a matter of time before Dell ruined them. Thank you prooving us right.

I initially was done with you guys completely. I cancelled my pans to buy a new 18 and a new Area 51. However, I just bought an 18 with 880's in it because I couldn't get myself to get a smaller laptop (the 17" issue) and I wanted an 18 I could hang on to for a while. It is my pride and joy as far as my tech goes. However, I did not buy it from Dell, I am no longer going to buy the Area 51 or any other product from Dell either and I have told everyone in my circle who used to be interested all about the unfortunate decisions you guys have made. I will not support Dell with 1 more dime ever again unless they bring back the 18 and the features all the other enthusiasts on here are looking for.

 

I'm confused, what type of warranty covers system theft?

 

I wish they could bring back the old M1Xx chassis...

I only had my M14x for a month before it died and had to go back, but I miss it so much. Based on what's out there now, I don't think I'll ever get to own another laptop that looks that freaking good.

 

You can, for a fee, elect to (or you used to be able to) have what is called "Lo-Jack" insurance from Computrace: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/lojack?c=us&l=en&cs=19

Not sure if this can still be had......

 

Here's what I want in an Alienware SLI beast. Check out these CPU benchmarks. Still waiting for my second AC adapter, SLI bridge and second GPU heat sink, so I only have one 980M running at the moment.

4930K @ 4.5GHz on 6C/12T. Look at the nice temps running on stock fan profiles with Liquid Ultra.

 

Looking good Mr. Fox. Is that 4930K delided?

 

Nope, it's not.

Here's a baby CPU and GPU overclock. 980M has zero throttle issues on this machine. Stays exactly where I put it.


Here is a photo of the monster CPU heat sink. Pretty cool stuff (pun intended).

 

Mr Fox..that looks like fun! Especially now your 980m's are unhinged and free from throttling

This is exactly the kind of thing Alienware needs to have on offer..

 

So before the G/A arrives I find that the latest offering from EVGA ( http://www.evga.com/articles/00904/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-980-KINGPIN-ACX-2/) will not fit - insufficient power supplies, or at least connectors

Any AW rep comments?

Thanks

 

New to the forums, but not to the dream. Throughout high school and college, I always wanted an Alienware BEAST. I've made my way and am able to afford such things now (not bragging, just back story).

This past November, I was ready for a new gaming laptop. So I began my search and started with Alienware. As everyone knows, Alienware was on still on previous gen hardware at that time while competitors had already made the change, specifically the 980m. My eyes wandered to other brands....I configured probably 100 machines across every brand you can think of. I called and engaged Alienware several times to check for updates on the model refresh. I managed to hang on until it happened...CES came, and we had our new Alienware lineup. That high school kid in me was giddy with excitement!! I immediately placed an order for the best system I could configure in the 17" model.

Since that time (what, January 7 or 8) my order has sat in pre-production status...and had to be canceled several times and placed again for one reason or another from Dell. But that's a different story for a different time. The point is, this month (of headache and pre-production status with no indication of what's actually happening or when I would really receive my system) has provided me with an abundance of time to read. I found these forums and have learned so much about who Alienware used to be compared to who they are today. As I've read more about the current offerings, versus what Alienware used to provide for about the same premium, as well as how poorly the current lineup stacks up against the competition, that childhood dream of owning an Alienware laptop has all but died.

For a month, I've went over what I'm actually paying Alienware for in terms of both hardware and performance. Size and weight was NEVER a concern...as a quick note on that in reference to the decision to provide a 180 watt PSU in lieu of a 230+...if the size and weight difference in carrying around a 230 watt adapter really hinders you even in the slightest amount, you seriously need to forget gaming, forget being a notebook enthusiast, and get off of the couch immediately because your are going to die from a complete lack of any shred of fitness! You could build the stamina required to "lug" the 230 watt PSU from doing donut curls (yes literally just lifting and eating donuts). For that matter, there is absolutely no difference in an 8 lb machine vs a 9 lb machine as far as physical effort goes, especially in the gaming laptop genre. If someone is actually complaining about the 1 lb difference, they're looking in the wrong area for what they need and definitely need to rethink their quality of life. So please Alienware, throw every last bit of this thinner and lighter crap out the window. The only thing that gets us is less of a gaming machine...either more heat, lower performance, less of the more useful stuff (sli, memory banks, drive slots, optical drive), and a completely underperforming 180 watt PSU to save our aching backs apparently.

How easy it is to get sidetracked when speaking of everything that's WRONG with Alienware as it stands. Maybe its easier to looks at what's right with Alienware. You have a brand name that used to stand for something. You have the reputable warranty service. That just about sums it up...and you're in the process of laying waste to one of the two positives in the brand. Alienware is no longer the premium overachiever with top of the line hardware. Every single component inside the new 17 can easily be outclassed by every single competitor in the market. Even if you take a laptop with similar, soldered components (see Asus ROG g751-jy), the Alienware 17 is put to shame. So not only are you offering lower component horsepower than say Sager, origin, MSI, etc...you can't even compare to something with the same components. The power just isn't there in the soldered components you are offering. The CPU doesn't hold a candle to whats available in socketed CPU. The graphics amp was a clever cash grab that could have had potential use. But it was done in the wrong way..as stated already, it should have been a performance accessory...a means to bring a little desktop power to an already top of the line machine. Instead, we have a completely underwhelming, soldered CPU that would never keep up with a good desktop GPU in the first place. Not to sound rude in the slightest, but I'm not sure why it's even necessary to ask what's wrong with the current lineup. It was Alienware that showed the world what a gaming laptop was supposed to be. You know how to do it. You've done it before...you were "it" when it came to what gamers and enthusiasts wanted in a machine. Get rid of everything you've done in 2015 on the hardware component side, and go back to what you know and used to do. It's that simple. There's no need to sacrifice (yes, sacrifice) top of the line hardware and gaming performance for the sake of being thin and light. That's what dell has the inspiron or XPS for, and they fit that market just fine.

Alienware is no longer king of the gaming machines as it stands right now, and I'm not even the enthusiast market. I'm a new customer that is looking for the best bang for the buck. Alienware only hit half the mark there, and that was the buck. My current order is over $3000. I just don't think I'm going to be able to keep that order because the hardware, in any premium fashion, is no longer there...only the price is left premium.

I don't know that our voices will even make a difference in what's offered, and I'm probably getting ahead of myself. But just assuming Alienware takes heart and makes the 17 the unrestricted gaming powerhouse it should have been in the first place...what kind of realistic time would it take to put out that model? I, for one, would definitely wait a few weeks for Alienware to correct it's current mistake of a machine and offer a true gaming laptop. But push that time frame into the region of months or more and there's just no point in waiting for the unknown...I did that with the lastest refresh, and it was a slap in the face rather than any sort of upgrade to the previous lineup.

My apologies to anyone that took the time to read all of this. I hadn't intended on my post being this long. I can only hope it will do some good in not changing, but completely stopping the direction Alienware has taken. To an extent, it is a market thing with Intel (I agree, Mr. Fox). However, the socketed days are not gone just yet, and Alienware should still, and always, be offering the best of the best that's available. That's what Alienware is supposed to be, but certainly not what they are today.

 

Dear Mr. Azor and Alienware Representatives,

I know I have spoken briefly before with you in private about a general issue with the Alienware 17R2's 180W power supply. I'm writing to you again a little bit about that however, more importantly, this is about my first experience with Alienware.

I'm going to give you a little bit about myself first to give you an idea what kind of user I am. I first dove into the world of gaming computers a few years ago, purchasing an Asus laptop for myself. Well, after many warranty issues over a $2000 computer that Asus refused to fix properly or replace, I swore I’d never deal with a company like this again. I would receive the laptop back in worse condition after it being "fixed". So after two laptops from Asus, I now refuse to buy Asus ever again.

Recently, I came to a point now where I'd like another laptop for gaming and for school stuff (well, for the little bit I have left of school anyway). Basically, I enjoy everything about computers to the extent that I made this stuff my major by taking Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Engineering. Can you see why this power supply unit stuff would bother me?

I looked for the best performing computer I could find and be taken apart without going through hell. Well, after many positive reviews, I found Alienware. I always thought Alienware was an overpriced unreliable brand, but I heard wonderful things about the warranties, customer experiences and so on. I decided I would order an AW17R2 with a 980m.

I was pretty excited to get it, however, this is probably the most excited I became. Configuring it was probably the most exciting part of the process (I configured many laptops from other companies but I liked the aesthetics of Alienware most). Everything after configuration was a total let down. I would have figured after all of those positive reviews, I would have been on a good road to continue.

To place my order I talked to a sales rep on chat, who called me to help me through the sale. Later on he sent me details that I was unsure about, but he said he would call me to explain it. So I e-mailed him asking for the call and he sent me more documents. I dialed his extension and left a message. He never called me back. I went into the chat and found him online; he said he would call me. He never did. So, the next day I went and dialed his extension again, no answer and I left voicemail again. I tried chat, another agent told me he was on break and he would call me back in 20 minutes. Instead of him calling, he had another agent call me on his behalf. This agent wanted me to explain everything all over again. I refused and requested the other agent call me back, he said he would call me in 15 minutes. Hours went by, no call. I went into chat again and told him if he didn't call me I was canceling me order, guess what? He called me in 2 minutes, told me he never called me because their “systems were down”. Then why would another agent be of use if the systems were down? I see this as him trying to pawn me off on someone else since he already had the sale.

After this, my order got stuck in order processing for 4 days. Every time I tried to call, I would get transferred left and right saying it's an issue with the system. The first agent I talked to told me it's a good thing I called because it was "stuck and they wouldn't have noticed.” Everyone promised to call me back, nobody ever did. I connected to supervisors, by that point I was angry enough to lose it with one of the managers enough that they agreed to fix it for me. He called me back an hour later and wow, surprise my order moved out of processing.

After a day in production, I was concerned with the date of arrival of the product (I was told I would definitely have it by February 10th by the sales staff), I contacted customer support who said they would expedite it. So, he sent off that request. The next day I called to see if it was expedited, the agent told me it wasn't, so he would send it off. So, I figured this was fine and everything.

Basically, my order was comprised of two parts, the laptop itself and a mouse. The mouse shipped first and was due to arrive Jan. 29th. The sales employee made a mistake and didn't include my full address on the parcel, so I had to connect with Dell to correct it. In the meantime, speaking with the rep, he did correct it, but even better he kept calling me by the wrong name, using 3 different names each time he talked to me (calling me Robert, Wendy etc.) Ignoring this, I remembered about the expediting of my order and asked him if my build was expedited, he said he would send the request down for me since it doesn't look it was.

The order was significantly corrected to my liking now, as far as I was concerned but I had enough of it at this point and I asked for his manager to call me. His manager called me back and told me they would fix the shipping error for me and that the expedite request was indeed submitted and accepted. He also promised me compensation for my issues after I explained them to him and said he would e-mail me something for it. I never received an e-mail from him or further contact.

Now the fact the laptops are BGA bothers some people, but personally, it doesn't bother me to a large extent because that's how I've always had laptops when I bought them. In my opinion if I wanted to upgrade a computer, I’d buy a desktop. However many in the community still enjoy modding laptops. It’s a great option to keep open for people, in my opinion.

Now, this brings me to the power supply unit. Since I will be paying $2500 for this laptop, I expect performance, especially since you guys don’t have $2500-value customer service, you must pour it all into the computers, right? I don't have $2500 to lose since I'm still a student. You are expected to deliver that performance, especially at the price point.

During the sales process experience I should have considered that encounter with your company to be a warning and decided to withdraw my order. While I find foreign call centre staff can be good at their jobs and be satisfactory most of the time as staff found in North America, I have heard contrary to this about the "Indian sales team" is rough to deal with at Dell sometimes, I took that as normal for most companies’ horror stories and ignored it (pardon my generalizations regarding Indian call centre staff stereotypes). Now with all these power supply unit issues and people showing proof, I'm frustrated beyond belief. It seems all we are getting are the stock PR answers that aren’t anything. With the cost of Alienware products and the name of the brand itself, we would expect some transparency and better service.

I honestly feel like this entire time I'm following you guys around trying to tell you your mistakes (when I'm done university, will you guys give me a job or compensate me for this? Just kidding). The support customers once had for you is now slowly disintegrating. The premium feel you have for your laptops is now going away. Do you guys even feel bad about this? Do you even care?

At this point, I'm considering ditching on the order then going over to MSI. How many other first experiences do you want to ruin before you fix something? Alienware is starting to illicit the same level of disgust and irritation I get when I deal with Asus. I avoided Asus for this reason. Mr.Fox is one of the most reliable people to get data from, I would probably trust his data and opinion more than your own engineers opinions if they let the 180W power supply be “enough” for the laptops.

Please don't consider this a flame, I'm not writing it in a sarcastic or negative way, I'm just saying how I feel about the brand and my experiences as a first time user who is concerned, albeit extremely irritated about the issues the 2015 lineup has.

The AWA AMA was a great start for the sake of your company; more reps should be available to talk about the issues with the 2015 line up on NoteBookReview’s forum. I do notice in the past the reps were far more active than they currently are, though I do see some reps being active now. Active reps are great, it only means REAL information is passed to you Alienware. It’s up to you to decide what to do with it. I’m sure none of you are aware how many people have called your tech support about the 180W power supply unit issue, anyway. But until these problems are fixed, based only on my ordering experience and the reading of the power supply unit issue, I can’t in good faith recommend Alienware.

Thank you,

bnosam.

 

Dam now I one to buy one!

 

LOL you can't delid the 4930K. The IHS is soldered on for the -E CPUs.

 

It's still possible. MSI even has a guard for it.

 

LOL show me someone who's done it successfully without killing their chip. And with an already soldered IHS what thermal benefit would delidding bring.

 

Don't have any references, as it's extremely risky, but it's still possible.

Google delid soldered cpu.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1458006/how-do-i-restrain-the-temps-on-my-delidded-4930k

Delided 4930k, no pics so you'll just have to take his word

 

Guys, can we reign it in a bit, it is the 'Ask Frank' thread. Go PM maybe? Thanks.

 

All about the Benjamins​

 

Maybe this will help a little more than the last one.

 

I just took time out to read through the AWA "Ask Frank Anything" thread.....man, looking through the last part of it, I could clearly see that you could "Ask Frank Anything" but wether you got a reply was a whole different matter. I mean, questions about the Superbowl and who he fancies winning, questions about a Steam logo, a "heart to heart" about bullying (really???) and lets not forget the most important question...wether Frank is gonna watch Game of Thrones or not......all of which got ANSWERS........

Did any REAL questions get answered? - NOPE.

I'm sorry, I gotta call BS on this "Ask Frank Anything" shenanigans. Might as well have asked him for the next lotto numbers.........

I got a couple of thousand in my pocket to dump on a laptop right now. From what I see, it ain't gonna be an Alienware......

 

Because its easier to answer those question that to answer the real technical questions. Sometimes i think that most of those people work for them and they just post those question to make the technical questions disappear.

 

Exactly. The ambiguity of anything technical, while hoo-rarring some obscure sport lost me all respect for him. All that stuff about being there back in the day and having a vision - hmm, the corporate zombie bug has him now .

 

It reminded me of the UK's Prime Ministers Question Time.......loads of questions with lots of wriggling and positioning with no solid answers. A 180w PSU with a machine that has potentially a 47w cpu, a 100w gpu, a power hungry touch screen at full brightness and the rest of the usual stuff....sufficient???? - maybe at stock with absolutely no additional stress on the machine. Hey, but that's how Dell roll these days.......test it like that and ship it out.......not their fault if it sucks if you try to do anything other with it that what they validated it for...........

 

Yeah, that was what I was meaning about the ambiguity. Very politician, you can hear the words this way, or you can hear them that way, but never in a definitive way. He's not just straddling a fence, it's up to his ribcage and blood is spraying, haha.

I know we've seen this coming for a long time. They totally failed you a while back and you'd given them a bunch of customers, but it still hurts to see it happening wholesale.

 

How overclock your new i7-4930K compared to I7-3970/4960x with gtx980m sli ? Is there any drawback to use a I7-4960x ? Which of these two (your and a 17-4960x) processors get the best bench score? Ignore the price .. Have seen that it is possible and provide a great i7-4960x .. As overclocking very good.

Have you started using Win 8.1 on the new the laptop ?

 

LOL! I am enjoyed being able to run Windows 7 again. That really sucked having to use Windows 8 for 980M in the Alienware. I need it for Fire Strike benchmarks, otherwise I would not even bother installing that crappy OS. I haven't done it yet. It requires so much tweaking to make the UI acceptable that I am just not ready to have to deal with that huge pain in the bottom yet.

 

HaHa. I thought you started to like win 8.1 ..

 

You seem to forget that a lot of people work abroad and off shore like myself, and i like to take my Alienware 18 with me, but there is no way i would like to carry the GA around with me, as weight limitation of chopper flights would not let me do this. and the shear size of it.

Can you imagine:

"Hey guys, look at my brand new Alienware laptop, oh wait, can you help me lift this on to the desk"

"thats not your power supply is it, its massive!!! ha ha ha"

"no this is my Graphics card, Kewl isn't it"

Not going to go down well off-shore, and i know a lot of my work buddies have went and bought Alienware laptops after seeing mine off shore. Do you honestly think they will if they have to chain it to a graphics adapter rendering it as a desktop.....

 

Hi man, hope you don't mind if I add my 5c before an official response?

This has to be the most '1st world problem' (with 1st world equipment) I've seen in a long time - haha, just messing with you!

I'm assuming personal space off-shore is also at a premium so a gaming laptop is a perfect choice. Mine is basically a DTR. It does not travel with me, far too heavy lugging on and off flights, that's what my work laptop is for. It would be nice to be able to pass the evening's spent in hotels gaming but they usually have some 'interesting' films to pass the time .

I see the GA as an attempt to mitigate the lack of upgrade-ability that the soldered components preclude. Right now, if you buy an AW get it fully speced to the best CPU and GPU. It will ( should, still to receive mine) perform great ATM. A year or two down the road the GA will let purchasers at least get something that will chew up the latest games - with a mobility compromise. Choice of GPU is also far easier, a load of OEM's making desktop cards.

Those of us with enough disposable income will simply replace it and not bother with the GA in 2 years time.

HTH

 

That's what it is and why it was rushed... because of BGA.

Anyway I thought my case was more 1st world.

Do I use the AW18 today or the Area 51 R2?

 

Tough one and yup re the first world but jumping on-and-off helicopters with restrictive weight limits trumps IMO

 

Thanks for letting me know about this issue, I will ask the service team to look into a more secure process.

Try it, if it fails let me know and I'll replace it for you. The Area-51 MB is anything but cheaply made, surprised you think so. No it's not a $500 MB but it certainly wasn't cheaply designed or built.

 

@Alienware-Frank
I would like you to read posts 128 & 129 in this thread. It could be quite informative what the first customer experience is regarding your Alienware products. Any questions, I'm sure you are welcome to ask, I'll answer anything directed at me.

Thank you.

 

Well I think this observation is pretty unfair. I answered just about every question I was asked, what didn't I answer?

Seriously? I'm here to close any gaps I didn't cover during the AMA on Arena. What technical questions can I help you with that weren't already addressed in the AMA?

 

I know you guys are angry but let me copy and paste some of his responses. From what I saw, he went in order and once the two hour mark was reached the AMA ended. Game7a1's questions were very similar to your own, steviejones. I believe he voiced your concerns from questions asked earlier in this thread.

Frank's page 1 response to

-outunderstars:

Thanks for taking our questions! I bought an Alienware Alpha and have really loved it (even with its sluggish HDD) I have a few about the Alpha:

1. On a scale of 1-10 how happy are you with the initial sales of the console?
   1. Very happy with the sales thus far. But more importantly we are very happy with the response we've been getting from Alpha owners. They understand our vision and see the potential of what we are investing in.
2. When will the Alpha’s custom GPU drivers be updated to support the Nvivda Experience and Nvidia Shield Streaming?
   1. You can install GeForce experience right now and use most of the features in Alpha's desktop mode. We are working on a 10 foot mode for GFE but I don't have a date for when it will be ready yet.
3. How often to do envision the hardware being refreshed?
   1. We want to stay on top of major performance improvements so when we see big leaps in gaming performance capabilities from our partners we will introduce a new version of Alpha. That may be as soon as every year or so or as long as every 2 years.
4. Any chance of a dedicated portable gaming handheld/tablet?
   1. Yes there's a chance but not ready to announce anything yet.

_______________________________

Frank's response to shawnchalfant on page 1:

When do you guys plan to support the Alpha as stated, video drivers are falling behind. Can not download latest updates from support site only via UI. I want my drivers separate from Alpha UI as it feels like a broken concept. I bought all of you speech's and preordered mine only to find out I got the same old Dell treatment with drivers, screed. We want our video drivers, let Nvidia update them because your failing to deliver.

We hear you loud and clear and we are working on enabling you with the ability to DL and install drivers directly from Nvidia. This is a top priority for us and we are actively working on it. I promise it will get fixed but not ready to commit to a date just yet as we are dependent on Nvidia in this as well, it should be soon.

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Frank's response to MrFoxRox on page 2:

Hello Mr. Azor. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to communicate with us and seek our feedback. That you have taken the opportunity to do this is a positive reflection on you and the Alienware brand.

Thanks MrFoxRox, you're famous among our staff and I thank you for your support and enthusiasm over the years.

I am an overclocker and extreme performance enthusiast first, gamer second. Many of your customers that share my passion feel excluded by the configuration in the current product line. The graphics accelerator is a nifty geek contraption that anyone can appreciate, and you guys pulled that off in an excellent manner with the external PCIe port. Great job on that.

Having low-TDP processors with BGA mounting is unacceptable for enthusiasts that care about extreme performance, the ability to perform simple repairs or upgrade their expensive systems with newer and better components after the point of sale. Having to buy a new machine to improve its capacity for performance is not a good product model for us. Having made these comments, my questions are as follows:

(1) What are the product design team’s plans for future models that would be views as acceptable by the performance enthusiasts for future Alienware laptops? Your competitors are offering machines with Extreme Processors, unlocked desktop CPUs, more power supply capacity than what is necessary (rather than not enough) and socketed CPUs and MXM slots for GPUs. This is critical in our view and we abhor the trend with Intel to move laptops to BGA. This is a dead-end street for us.

For many years we used desktop processors in our notebooks. The truth is that the compromises that come associated with doing so are not worth it in our experience. Intel doesn't support DT CPUs in mobile form factors and as a consequence system designers are left on their own to design, develop, validate, and support their platform with little, to no system-design assistance from Intel. The result is lower quality systems, trust me we have years of experience that prove this and that experience was from working some of the very same ODMs that are doing this again (ask yourself why did everyone move away from DT CPU's in the first place several years ago ). The efficiency of desktop processors is also considerably less as compared to mobile processors causing them to put out higher heat and consume more power per watt than mobile parts. The result being much thicker notebooks, much heavier notebooks and borderline unacceptable battery life. We do not like the fact that we had no choice but to support BGA processors in this generation of notebooks and knew it would be a sour point for our customers, this is why we accelerated our Amplifier development plans and worked to ensure it would launch with this generation of notebooks. The amplifier gives you significantly more longevity and upgrade-ability than a CPU socket would. Intel changes their CPU socket about every 2 years on DT and mobile parts so the upgrade path is limited. The amplifier is much more flexible and delivers graphics performance benefits which are more impacting to gameplay than CPUs upgrade paths.

(2) Will there be an option for bare bones or “configure your own beast” rather than the cookie-cutter configuration approach that we see now?

Possibly, if there are configurations missing in our current line-up we are listening and will consider adding them.

(3) What are Alienware’s plans for support the existing (last generation products) that still need attention? I ask this for a couple of reasons.

- The M18xR2 and Alienware 18 both have issues supporting GTX 980M SLI, as do the M17xR4 and Alienware 17. They malfunction. It appears a BIOS update to allow full compatibility is needed.

We never designed and/or launched GTX 980ms on M18R2. We can work with you Mr. FoxRox to try and get the combination working and it's not an approved configuration but we can't guarantee it will work, this is why we never launched it. We will of course support all validated and launched configurations throughout their warranty lifetime.

- People that own your best products already are not ready to buy new. The new products do not meet our expectations and they are outperformed by your previous models. In the event of a system exchange under warranty or performing our own upgrade, we want to be sure we have the support we deserve having purchased a very expensive flagship product. Being locked out of an upgrade path or being downgraded to a lesser product in the event of a system exchange has us worried.

The only previous generation product that outperforms current generation is the 18 which we had to end of life due to the manufacturing of 18" panels that meet our quality and performance specifications no longer being available. If you have a service incident covered under warranty on an existing 18 we will replace it with another 18. We keep inventory of all parts in our systems in our service department.

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Frank's response on page 2 to impaxts:

Frank, can you speak to the direction Alienware is having to follow with partners such as intel and Nvidia as it relates to BWA chips? Alienware always seemed to empower the users to work on their systems and upgrade to keep their systems pushing the performance envelope.

Hi impaxts,

Please take a look at my reply above to Mr FoxRox for some context on your question. We are using BGA graphics chips on our latest products because MXM modules have been very challenging to find in the industry for customers to purchase and upgrade with. We've waited for the maturity of the MXM industry now for over 8 years since we originally helped Nvidia develop the MXM specification. Rather than continue to wait and deal with the cost, size and thermal compromises that come with MXM we focused on offering the dream of what MXM was supposed to be through the Graphics Amplifier. The amplifier allows anyone to upgrade the graphics on their Alienware notebook by easily purchasing off the shelf and readily available desktop graphics cards from anywhere. No VBIOS or BIOS complications to worry about which was always a huge issue with anyone trying to upgrade MXM cards on their own as Mr.FoxRox is struggling with now with the 980m cards. We recognize there are some driver challenges right now on the amplifier which we are quickly fixing with NVidia.

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Frank's response to shawnchalfant on page 2:

So what's the deal Frank, I feel like you guys left Alpha owners out to dry. Remember you stated several things via videos and literature that has yet to be delivered.

Sorry you feel that way but I assure you that's not the case. Most of us in the office have Alphas at home and are actively working on improving it. It's only going to get better and the SW is improving rapidly to enable the improvements. You will see updates pushed much quicker moving forward now.

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Frank's response to Game7a1 on page 2:

I hope this AMA goes well with us all, Frank Azor. I have a few questions to ask, hoping that you could answer them with some elaboration.

1. What was the main reason for including a 15w CPU in the 13 instead of and 28w or 37w CPU? From testing it on my 13 (i7-5500u), it can game, but I see the 13 could handle a higher watt CPU like the i7-5557U.
   1. The 13 has been designed to be balanced between gaming, mobility and productivity. In order to hit the right balance we need to focus on size, weight, battery life and gaming performance (of course). The 28W CPU performs nearly the same as the 15W CPU parts except it has faster Intel integrated graphics which isn't important for us when we already bundle a superior NVidia 860m GTX discrete graphics chip. We didn't go with the H processors because the compromises were too great for this specific form factor. Our battery life would have dropped by about 2 hours and we would have had to grow the notebook to a size where it might as well have been a 14" notebook (hence the 14" it replaced).
2. Why include a 180w charger/PSU on the 15 and 17 R2 with wither the GTX 980m or the R9 m295x? In the past, Alienware has shipped 240w PSU with the 17" model that came with a 100w GPU, so this new decision is weird.
   1. It makes no difference to your performance as long as the system is rated to run within 180W. If we shipped a 240W when all you need is a 180W then you'd have a heavier and bigger AC adapter than necessary with no benefit.
3. Is upgrade-ability a top focus with laptops? The usage of H and HQ processors and the soldered GPUs on the 15 and 17 R2 aren't upgrade-able with a motherboard swap, so I was wondering if Alienware intends on making Alienware laptops as upgrade-able as possible. (It seems many of us will ask this, so maybe providing one giant answer will satisfy the answer to this question).
   1. Please see my answers above for more context. The Graphics Amplifier makes these new Alienware laptops potential lifespan longer than ever. The CPUs will hopefully eventually go back to sockets when Intel makes such a decision.
4. Does Alienware have an interest in dual-GPU (SLI/Crossfire) laptops? The size is not as important, but seeing the dual-GPU absent in years is an odd omission.
   1. The current 15 and 17 notebooks when paired with the graphics amplifier and the fastest desktop graphics card you can put into it outperforms dual mobile graphics cards notebooks in gaming. We think this solution makes more sense as it's easily upgrade-able and applicable to all of our current and likely future notebooks than having to reinvest in a Dual-GPU notebook (an expensive one BTW) every 2 or so years.
5. Are there plans to have future iterations of the Alpha supporting the Graphics Amplifier? Surely this will give a leg up on consoles, and consoles themselves usually have add-ons. The Alpha and the GA is a nice combination that can outlast consoles better than currently.
   1. We are fully committed to the Alpha product line and its future. You can expect us to continue to innovate on Alpha as we do on all of our products. Alpha is already the fastest console on the market, we will ensure it remains as such in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read through and answering the questions made by the Alienware community.

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Oh, hi Frank. lol.

 

..Thanks for the response but I'm over it now, there is a difference between an ambiguous answer and a detailed response, but I argue semantics.

I'll try:
1 have you reproduced (reliably) the slower performance out-of-the-box ,and it getting fixed by a simple higher wattage PSU.
2. Are you prepared to supply owners with an interim solution of a larger PSU while you root cause the problem?
3. Is there a regulatory or safety issue with this option?

Thanks.

 

Please read the first post I posted on this thread, we are working on it and if we screwed up we will fix it. Need a little more time for testing, thanks. What details did I miss thus far?