How far Alienware has gone backwards

No I'm dead serious. I just graduated university and I'm actively looking for work! Tough market out there, even for engineers

 

Man, You shouldn't complain...

In Poland half of ppl work for 500$ while computers and cars are even more expensive than in Germany. There are no jobs for higher classes so they ran away from country. It's hard to get any job because almost all companies are foreign-based and they suck every single minute and life from polish employees. Country is mainly destroyed with no polish based companies that would pay tax to country. Fuel is more expensive than in germany(!).

Cars are mainly 8-15 years old as ppl don't have money to buy new. Every car, even cut in a half is being repaired so someone will buy it. Hospitals are full. If you want to visit a specialist doctor for free then soonest visit is in 2019 year.

For 20+ years of democracy and capitalism country got ruined and destroyed in every way. Even now stupid ppl taught by Yankees gives their children's American names and kills our culture. Every polish word gets obsolete and is replaced by Yankee one. Communism was so much better than this...

 

Same boat.. Became an IT/Data and Analytics FS Consultant with EY... Engineering jobs are so hard to get and don't pay much here..

 

You are so right there GodlikeRU; I'm a Brit married to a Polish girl who grew up in the good old days of the PRL, great education, good social systems, AND industry too - she was born in Nowa Huta and her father was a PZPR member and design engineer at the Lenin Steelworks mum a party member and teacher; my wife followed her mother into education. There were certainties in life then - work hard, contribute to society and reap the rewards that come with living an industrious life. Then along came Reagan - his gameplan was to destabilize the Comecon countries and it's pretty well-known that Wojtyla was America's man, and that Walesa was receiving funds from the US via the Vatican.

She finished her education with two degrees and a teaching qualification and sadly found that there was no future in post-communist Poland for her; initially arriving in the UK in the 1990's she stayed for six years working 'under the radar' ( this was obviously pre-EU ) as a nanny, barmaid, etc etc. which was somewhat less than her qualifications had equipped her for.....

With her parents aging she returned to Poland in 2001 and the place had changed dramatically, and not for the better - much of the manufacturing had disappeared with (for example) FSO in its death-throes, much low-level crime (graffiti, youth misbehaviour and so on ) which back in the days of the Milicja this type of thing was not tolerated-drunk youths would end up in the back of a Milicja Zuk and dumped 20 miles out of town, giving them a nice walk back to town to sober up......
She felt that her country had ceased to exist and with a heavy heart returned in 2004 where she had the good fortune to meet yours truly - quite ironic really as I was a member of the Communist Party in the UK in my younger days, and she had joined PZPR...... her family had a chuckle that she travelled to London to meet a party member!

Now the so-called Policja seem more interested in posing like German Polizei in their German-built Passats, Vectras and Mercedes vans...... Polizei look-a-like paintjobs!

It's a tragedy what has happened there, and when the biggest house in the town is the priests house and one of the most-watched TV programmes is about a crime-solving priest in Sandomierz - you know who I mean?

Krakow is full of US big business - a Starbucks on every corner, KFC, McDonalds et al, and 'Polishness' is disappearing fast! Try finding Bar Mleczny these days!

And before anyone comes on here accusing me of being a US hater I can assure you I am not; I love American culture, products, people ( and especially Alienware Pre-R2!!) but not to the exclusion of everything else! I don't like seeing national identities being stifled, or regime-change being used to expand 'markets' with big corporate money being used as a weapon, or to expand a political power base.

Returning to the topic, I think AW really have lost their way with the recent revisions and I'll be looking elsewhere alas; I came from a Dell Precision M6500 to the AW17R1 but having looked at the current Precision models, they have gone the same way as AW with the Apple-like obstructions to upgrades and I'm being more convinced by a Clevo-based self-build.......

 

I think you mean Soviet brand of Socialism as Communism has never existed in the Marxism defined form.

 

You're right to a point Blazertrek50, Soviet 'Communism' was Marxist-Leninist rather than Marxist; it rejected the idea that a world revolution was a pre-requisite to build a Socialist state ( in this case within Russia ) and adopted the concept of 'Socialism within one country' and of a transition in stages ( Five-Year Plans ) from capitalism to Socialism. The concept of Marxist-Leninist doctrine was a more pragmatic approach where it was accepted that there was a state of 'Actually-Existing-Socialism' which acknowledged that countries (e.g. the USSR, DDR ) were travelling towards a state of communism.

For far more clear information than I am able to put into words see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism–Leninism

And at this point I'll shut up about politics and get back to searching for a new palmrest 29G90 for my AW17R1 because the marks ( not Marx ) on it are REALLY bugging me!

 

By taking out HDMI In they have done a great setback. It's for the reason I didn't upgrade and still using Alienware 17 2013. I wish they brought back HDMI IN in Alienware 15"

 

they did? oh man... that was really a special feature only alienware machines used to have... afaik

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

The Clevo X7200 also had HDMI In

Although Alienware's HDMI IN was the best.

 

Alienware used to do almost everything right, and were almost always the best of the best. Now, there is just not much to get excited about.

 

That is true. They are only interested in doing whatever is cheap and low cost but yields high gains. They're a business that does not care about the gamer anymore.

 

I will say this : If DELL had followed in Alienware's old path and continued to deliver high quality goods, they would certainly reach a point where they have a monopoly and it would go downhill from theretoo, so in a way, whats happened with their systems is just naturalk evolution of gaming rigs, and probably not by any sales teams design too, as surely they wouldn't let performance get in the way of quality parts and service *cough cough* but we wouldn't have new Clevo's that kick ass like they do right now, if DELL pushed out that system bios for the AW18 a year earlier, or say if they created a spiritual successor to the M17X-R4/AW17 and ALSO gave it the mpci-e built in external GPU adapter (which has been available for like 5-10 years on ebay for like 50$ or so- all over...can be used in any system with a mpcie....anyways)

 

Yeah, where we are today was avoidable. I think we are where they want to be, unfortunately.

I get a real chuckle out of the eGPU thing. It's really a novelty intended for geeks that want to game with a consumer laptop with nothing but integrated graphics. It was never intended to be a crutch for "gaming notebooks" that were not built with components good enough to excel in their own target market.

Step 1: Start with a crippled BGA laptop... founded on the concept of compromise.
Step 2: Chain it to a desk. Hook it up to an eGPU contraption that delivers less performance than a desktop GPU does in a desktop, and less than their own SLI laptops and call it a day.
Step 3: Spin it as being a customer-centric move to ensure the ability to upgrade to stay current with graphics card technology and lie about it achieving true desktop performance.
Step 4: Watch the money roll in from people gullible enough to swallow the lies.

You basically kill both performance and mobility with a single shot... and totally ignore the fact that the business decision to go with BGA is actually what is responsible for having killed upgradeability. It's all a bunch of lies, double-talk, smoke and mirrors designed to fake people out and drive sales of a grossly inferior product. Never mind the fact that they charge extra for the contraption without any GPU to go with it, and offer no guarantee of how well it works in the end... just a huge compromised gimmick all the way around.

 

My complaint about this, is you can do this on the M17X-R4 or R3 even. Can't use a 900M series ? Add the mpcie /pcix x4 2.0 adapter and get 90% the performance of your desktop 980 Ti on your M17X-R4, thats what .... about 15,000 in firestrike , or the same as SLi 980M in some cases when not using an X series cpu, I think.

Anyone who bought a laptop and got the WiHD card for instance... think about it... that thing transmits wirelessly the bandwidth you'd need to use a desktop graphics card. It works. This is what DELL did, they just soldered a connector to this and tried to develop a software to control it/detect it. (would be the same as detecting ANY new hardware that shows up in device manager really..so you know they spent little to no time at all on implementation either.)

All in ALL, I bet DELL had an intern who came up with this concept, they loved it, went with it, and then because he signed some papers, i bet he got no money and was let go after the internship too. Because this whole idea of using the "graphics adapter" is such a cheap knock-off idea, that any idiot into computers can come up with, you just know, they only spent a few weeks on it. Minimal everything.

 

It's insane to see what Alienware has done themselves.. you'd think their income would be bleeding just a little bit.

 

There are a lot of people willing to spend money on disposable BGA crap, so they may actually be doing better in terms of incoming dollars. Hard to say since we are not privy to those details. It will take a while for name recognition and reputation to wear off for such a large player in the niche market.

Quality and performance is seldom a prerequisite for most consumers. Popularity, social identity and the pursuit of a small form factor seem to be the guiding principles for most jokebook gamers. Alienware is following the mass market and competing with the cracker-box OEMs like MSI and ASUS that cater to the masses, so it's really more of a business decision rather than taking a stand based their past reputation for building world class products with industry leading quality and performance. Those of us that insist on owning exceptional products that are unmatched in the industry are a dying breed, but it is better to die as an elitist than to go with the flow and embrace compromise.

 

You killed it.

I totally agree, the world has become so gamer-nized that everything gamer-like is purchased instantly. *cough* Razer Blade *cough*.

Let's not start another war, but money talks once the reputation is recognized by everyone.

 

notebookcheck.net should give minus points on gaming laptops with BGA hardware when they review these. For example; Approximately 10% lower score with BGA vs socket hardware is suitable When a review page such as Notebookcheck criticizes the use of BGA processors should this also reflected in the total score of the tested laptop.

 

Yeah, I agree... at least a 10% deduction right off the top for BGA before they even turn it on for the first time. If it were up to me it would be a 50% deduction for BGA off the top. Disposable garbage "high performance" products have no place in the life of an enthusiast. BGA is a good fit for Apple and cheaper junk in a class like Acer, Dell Inspiron or HP Pavilion/Compaq Presario notebooks. You expect it to be disposable because it doesn't cost enough to build to be awesome. I'm OK with it in that scenario. When it starts having problems, you simply yank out your HDD or SSD and toss the rest of it into a dumpster and get a new one. That's not an enthusiast product, and it's not a "high performance" product.

 

'you'd think their income would be bleeding just a little bit'​

Again, we aren't privy to their bottom line, but I have a hunch they're doing 'better' this way. Gave in to the temptation, you know?, as in: 'we can make more money going down this route, but we'll have to sell the better part of our company's soul to get there'. They did. I'm sure at Dell's behest. But that soul has been sold. The one thing we can be sure's bleeding is their reputation - but - if their profits are up? perhaps they assume their rep is at an all-time high. Ironic. I literally only take 2 seconds thinking about it all; to think longer makes my soul bleed out in a slow trickle. I'm not alone in knowing they're Gimmickware these days, breaks me heart too.

Their following isn't much different than the belief system & faith of a Scientologist. Alientologyware is the label I've coined for it & an ex-Alientologist is how I prefer to identify myself as these days.

*shrug*
I've left the Church. I don't pray at that altar anymore.
I speak out against it.
points off for BGA, oorah!​

 

Ah yet another cynical brother of ours! Welcome to NBR (although you've been here ½ year already)

 

Everything will start all over again, Wait and see . High end ? LOL

 

Hey guys, you know the stuff that Clevo is throwing down Alienware won't take lying down right? They are a business and they won't let Clevo take their market share. If they decide to actually listen to their customers they will handily dismantle that tiny Taiwanese company piece by piece.

 

and if Clevo takes enough of the market they will surely listen

 

If it takes Clevo stealing their business for them to do the right thing it calls into question how committed they are to producing high quality products that enthusiasts desire to own. The Alienware 18 was a year behind on being updated for 980M SLI. The were slow to respond to demand and look how many people still don't have the machine they ordered. And, those that do find it is crippled by the same 330W AC adapter that wasn't enough power for 780M SLI.

 

This is exactly as I wrote earlier. Dell go totally the opposite way. This is not double posting .
I don't like MSI or Asus(All use Intel BGA crap) but they have not changed direction such as Dellienware. The next thing that comes from Dell in 2016; Soldered RAM . Everything becomes BGA in 2016. LOL. Perhaps Dell also go back to using a 180w psu so that everything fits? Nice.

 

HILARIOUS ! Whats worse is all they did was give you a laptop with a soldered on GPU.... that stupid graphics adapter uses the mpcie bus with a soldered on extender card-adapter and connector thats been available for laptops for a decade !

 

Yep, stuck at x4 lane speed. Woohoo.. Not

 

LOL. Upgraded AW15R2 gets eaten by newcomer ACER PREDATOR 15. Both have Skylake i7-6700BGA + Gtx980m. Perhaps Dellienware has something to learn from Acer about better performance (perhaps consider a merger?)??? Alienware sinks further and further down now. There is no end of the downturn. Now is Alienware below the level of ACER in performance. Who thought this for 2-3 years ago? Next goal for Dellienware is Chromebook . Acer is additionally also a cheaper BGA machine. Why choose the new modern AW when you get an ACER cheaper and with slightly better performance in benchmarks?
I did not make a spoiler or tumb of this. All this ugly appear much better with large images .

Dell really needs this graphics amplifier to their modern gaming laptops, so the new Alienware models manage to overtake Acer in benchmark performance.

 

How sad. It's been almost 4 years since I originally had my 7970m's in CF with a lowly bottom of the rung Ivy Bridge 3610qm.... and my benchmarks still smash the best AW can do today on 3d Mark 11 by over 2000 points. It would probably still trade blows with the Breadbox too.

 

wow.... just WOW, and ACER laptop beats a top of the line Alienware 15.
Now THAT is something to talk about. Holy ESSS... when the mainstream of people learn this, they will never trust Alienware as a brand again. This WILL hurt sales bad. SHould create new thread - Acer laptops beating DELL/Alienware top of the line laptops for 1/3rd the price

 

Maybe this is the best solution for DELLIENWARE? http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/bga-only-is-it-true.783466/page-17#post-10154223

 

Where are you getting 1/3rd the price when a 15r3 is roughly the same exact price?

 

Dont think we can blame it all on dell and alienware, they need to have income (put that aside),
The reason they used soldered cpu is because of intel only offered skylake cpu in soldered form, and most of the consumers (not that tech savvy kind of person), can only judge the performance by numbers, hence there are questions like, can a 920m run battlefield 4 better than 780m?
In order to compete against other manufacturers, they need to have skylake ( no matter it's bga or not) in their latest line-up, not sure if skylake mobile socketed cpu will be released or not.
But alienware should've used mxm gpus in their line-up, but that makes the graphic amplifier irrelevant.
I guess is that the reason why there is only one hdmi 2.0 port out is that they need to sell more g amp (more output options)

 

ACER PREDATOR 15?

The 6 year old M15x is faster 920xm and 980M GTX not a bad throttle free combo...

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

I know. Sit and wait for news about that Dellienware and Acer might collaborate on a new gaming laptop... So-called <Alien Predator 15/17 edition>. Dellienware has something to learn from Acer as you can see in the post AW 15R2 getting REKTD by Acer predator

 

Right ? I have clients laughing because they upgraded the M15X and it outperforms garbage made today, and its HOW MANY CHIPSETS BEHIND ??

 

You can add me to that list bought one of your 980Ms second hand.

No igpu switching problems no bios problems. Plug and play fun!

I wonder why M15x is so gpu friendly with so many architectures. What did Dell do with this machine

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

@King of Interns: id be interested in more details concerning the 980m in your m15x. benchmarks, temps, etc, got, by any chance, a thread for that somewhere? otherwise id be more than happy to read it here (if its not too much OT, although it would perfectly fit in this thread!) or just send me some pms budd y

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I don't sell second hand, so you didn't get from me. Before someone reads this and starts saying "hey but you gave that guy a deal.."
But I am happy whomever you got it from mentioned me, if it stills works.

 

Of course not from you my friend it was surplus to his needs

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

How far Alienware... The whole Dell has gone backwards
Notebookcheck.net Review says; What happened to Dell's quality control or did the manufacturer think that buyers of the advertised "High Performance Notebook"... This time it's not about the use of bad screen quality on latest Alienware laptop models or the throttle mess and the weak 180w psu + the fancy Hybrid bios with the first AW15/17R2 Echo models but their newest of ot their high end product line... You have to start to wonder what is happening at DELL... The future looks very BLACK When it comes to next Aw models that will be launched in 2016

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-X...HD-InfinityEdge-Notebook-Review.156462.0.html

 

even more so to go with clevo.

 

It would be great to see Alienware have another go being performance king. They'd have to do something truly spectacular to take that crown from Clevo now though. Clevo have done really well to respect the enthusiast and acknowledge what a real performance laptop needs to be great - modularity, unlockable Bios and bigger (more) PSU's.
I won't hold my breath. The first step to for AW would be to identify there's a problem.. Despite all our efforts they're yet to get that far. They're too busy doing an 'Apple' and trying to tell us what we need.

 

While Clevo, MSI and Asus now play with the new desktop card from Nvidia in their laptops, play Dellienware still with soldered Gtx980m. Now upgraded with 8Gb VRAM on their Gtx980m BGA card. This means; Awbook can either have soldered 4 or 8Gb VRAM version of BGA Gtx980m card. Nice I expected actually soldered memory chips on the motherboard also but Dell may upgrade to this in the 2016 models of Awbooks

 

They might as well solder in the memory and use proprietary sata connections for the HDDs. Who cares at this point. Not AW. I mean, why would anyone want to upgrade their laptop when they could buy a new one every 12 months so uncool keeping old tech right.
Plus it's so much fun gaming on battery outside on a sunny day

 

LOL. Gaming on battery outside on a sunny day??? This becomes very problematic... Have you seen reviews of the screen quality that Dell use on the rebadged Aw15R2? Awbooks was supplied with some of the worst screens that is ever created. Think the screen has 200 nits. And a bunch of display problems as well. The new screens are a downgrade from those shipped with previous early 2015 Awbooks. Nice. Latest Echo models can have as much as whole 3TB of storage space while the real Aw models could have 7TB. This is what Dell calls innovation or refresh

 

What nitwits

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

There is this article from Notebookcheck, quote from it, "The other two million has been shipped by Acer, Lenovo, HP, Razer, Gigabyte, Haier and Dell combined, with the latter boasting approximately 100,000 units of its high-cost Alienware laptops (which is a pretty good result as well)".

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-and-MSI-account-for-50-of-gaming-laptops-sales.156832.0.html

100,000 units shipped can considered as good results?

 

HAHAHA!! What a joke! I'm pretty sure that even Clevo sold more than this! Alienware has really fallen!