How far Alienware has gone backwards

What benchmark you have tested the 2500k on? Can you post the scores? I had a 2500k and it was decent for gaming and gaming only. Its a pure gaming chip which there is nothing wrong with it. Most of us buys these things to game.

First, what advantage does GA have over TB3 again?

I have used MSI GT70 before and I found it to be very lacking in all departments. I generally dont like BGA GPUs machines so I refuse to use them at all. I have absolutely no interest in battery life at all, for the tasks I do on laptop, I need the GPUs and CPU at full power, so battery life absolutely nothing to me besides as UPS.

Yeah the gigabyte machines were on TN panels and were shoddy. However I would prefer the aorus over the alienware everytime. At 3.2-3.4kg, the 970m SLI and 6820hk have a single 980m beat and as for noise or temperature, I am not too focused on both or otherwise I will be using an asus.

To expand, the MSI machines I had difficulty with optimus garbage and lack of decent cooling. I absolutely refuse to go back to an optimus based laptop now. I have a friend with the similar model and he is complaining about the heat issue with it.

My problem with alienware is that they are heavier than similar performance BGA competitions but offers nothing important compare to them.

A P750DM-G is at the same weight class and uses a 6700k which I can clock to 4.5ghz, good luck doing that on a 6820hk with a locked bios. The 980m is also MXM and can be replaced. I am fine with the build quality on clevos, you are using the laptop at home/work/school whatever. If you are using the thing on a wildness expeditions or whatever, get a toughbook.

I refuse to touch a notebook with optimus based GPUs at all. Its pure garbage that works whenever it feels like it. I dont care how many hours of battery time I suffer because of it. I want it to work right when its plugged in.

An alienware might be acceptable had they shrink down the size even more. Right now its at a limbo state imo. It does a lot of things ok, but nothing well.

You either do it well or dont bother. I dont need something thats doesnt excel at anything.

 

Product QC in general has gone done the past 10 years to be honest.

But your experiences are different from mine. My friends AW M15X's had issues and my AW15's (3 of them) all had no issues, no screen bleed, came with USB install drives. Unfortunately the first AW15 that arrived was dropped by UPS and the box was heavily damaged and one of the laptop corners was damaged because of that, the second had a battery that was wearing out a bit too quickly and they wanted to replace it, unfortunately the technician wrecked my system so they replaced it with a new AW15 R2. Thats service!

The inside of the current Alienwares are metal by the way. The motherboard is on a metal plate, the screen lid is aluminum and under the palmrest there is a big metal plate as well. The old ones had a fair share of plastic bits as well.

Value? the AW's now are priced lower than the past generations, the performance is now closer to desktops than they were in the past. For an almost senior citizen you sure have a colorful lange "turdbooks"only a handful of the same people in this subforum are agreeing with eachother including you. From my experiences and studies I always learned that the ones that are vocal about the product are only the ones that want to complain. People that do enjoy their products have no need in general to be active in threads like this. I just like to discuss stuff . But you are sure a funny guy, so something that has a lot of good points in other departments like size etc but still performs very close you instantly call it "****, turdbook, crap, feces" or whatever. Seems like you have a personal issue with these products and no sense of perspective.

 

Have nothing to do with alienware.

More of intel and nvidia lowering the performance of standards of desktops.

 

I can post some fresh ones later. I used it for a long time as my 3d render PC. Also there is ofcourse a 5 year gap between those 2 cpu's and the differences are fairly small. 10 years ago the generation gaps were far larger.

The GA is fully implemented on bios level and automatically turns off the laptop GPU and overclocks the memory etc. TB3 GPU enclosures are still not available as well.

Now I dont have any issues with Optimus, at least it never let me down or gave me errors. So for now I dont complain about it.

The Gigabyte that I had and the Aorus that I tested fortunately had good IPS panels but the cooling was absolute crap, very loud even when idling and the temps were not good as well. The Aorus does indeed have a SLI option but recent gen PC games often dont even support it. Also the battery life on my AW15 with productivity is 7 hours. The Aorus SLI systems dont even have 1/3 of that. So the reliability issues (they break down quickly for a lot of users), heat, noise and no battery life to speak of made me look away from them.

The thing they offer is balance. The Aorus might have the best performance of the thinner machines out there but compromised, the Asus laptops might be the quitest runs out there but are as thick as the thickest Clevo's out there etc. The P750DM-G is almost twice as thick as an AW15 by the way. I dont consider it in the same size class. The styling is not my cup of tea but it does seem to be a nice performing laptop as a desktop replacement. It does runs loud.

 

I agree on the Intel part but not the Nvidia part. They are the ones making the biggest performance jumps per generation, their past jumps weren't that great as they are now.

 

This is done purposefully. They are holding back true progress because they have no reason to advance further. AMD is not within striking distance of nVidia, so they continue to make slow advances and milk the market for what they already have. Don't even get me started with the clockblocking thing they tried in the past, the EDID corruption that happened ONLY with nvidia cards, and a slew of other dirty things they were able to get away with. Nvidia is a completely unethical company, and I'm ashamed to have their cards in my systems. But in the pursuit of performance, there is no other choice.

 

The laptop GPUs are compared with 980 when they talk about desktop performance, it should be compared with GTX 980 ti. We are use to comparing the laptop small die part to the desktop based small die part. Before kepler, nvidia released the large die part as full flagships instead of titan/ti scheme, so ofcourse the comparison is off by more.

Overclocks memory? Turn it off? I am questioning the overclocking memory part and not sure if the bios part is a positive or negative. I heard a lot of issues for GA as well.

SLI is fine on most AAA games for now. There is also a 980 desktop option.

What type of productivity do you do thats fit the battery time for 7 hours? Because its not going to be full stress at all.

If it is a 96 Whr battery, you need to be using less than 20w.

7 hours give you 13.7w. Thats not full CPU nor GPU.

 

This person is a new level of obstinate. I'd have an easier time getting a sentient wall to transform into a stone golem and walk around serving tea and crumpets to Australians than getting him/her to look at reason and have a change of mind.

 

Yes, that's correct. And, as I already mentioned, I do have have an issue with these junky BGA products. That's the whole point. I find them totally unacceptable.

The only perspective I care about is my own. I buy products based on what I want, not what the masses think might be tolerable. Value and price are not the same thing. Performance and being built with modular components trumps everything else. Compromise performance and/or solder the CPU and GPU to the motherboard... instant turdbook. Doesn't matter if the price is lower. I would prefer to pay more and get more, not settle on something just because it's cheap or representative of what the average consumer is content with. I only take price into consideration when everything else is equal. Compromise on either of those things and the product is no longer open for consideration... totally off the table. But, that's me.

Quoted for truth. And, "doing something well" excludes everything BGA in my book, too. Sockets and slots are the price of admission for earning worthiness for consideration... no point in measuring performance if it is soldered to the mobo... at that point it doesn't matter.

 

So Nvidia makes larger jumps than ever but is slightly hampered by the the current fabrication limitation and are waiting to make the jump of their chipfoundries to go to 14nn and you call it done purposefully? YOu should blame TSMC chip foundries for example for that. Only Intel was able to go to 14nn for a long time and both Nvidia and AMD couldnt grow as much as they wanted because of that. Nvidia and AMD both had their fair share of missteps, so if you accuse on company of that do them both. The worse thing is that AMD even got away with their chip problems while Nvidia got burned big time for their 8800 series of solder issues. While the real culprit was the European Union forcing them to use inferior solder which could be remedied by waiting for a better chip fabrication process and smaller die size.

Intel on the other hand with artifically keeping Moor's law up by just adding iGPU's on almost every chip out there is a whole different story and I truly hope AMD zen will slap Intel big time in their faces and start a new true progression of chip architecture.

Come with arguments instead as a mature person instead of between the lips insults.

The GTX980TI came way after the vanilla 980s which are exactly the same chips and the mobile 980m's by the way just clocked lower and some cuda cores are turned off. That is why I would always compare the desktop 980 with a 980m, same generation, same core, same architecture.

Most issues are fortunately resolved with bios and software updates.

Current AAA titles are often not fine with SLI, ofcourse badly coded ports but still triple AAA titles but also modern Unreal Engine 4 games have issues with it. I actually cant run a lot of modern games with SLI anymore and one of my gpu's is just sitting idle in my desktop for months now. The Witcher 3 was pretty much the last triple A titles that did have excellent SLI performance in my case.

Browsing, photoshopping, coding and or watching movies in the airplane. In full idle it goes for around 11 to 12 hours. All out gaming is a different matter ofcourse but Starcraft 2, CS GO would still go for around 4 to 5 hours.

 

thats a signature quote right there!

 

They could, and I kind of think that was what the original 18 was meant to be, but it just hasn't been followed up on.

At least, they didn't end up like Voodoo did after HP bought them and threw the ENVY name on everything. I had the first ENVY 14 after HP released it and it was a great machine, but i still remember all the Beats marketing and the fact they could never keep the $200 optional Radiance 1600x900 display in stock so 90% of the machines sold had a HORRIBLE quality 1366x768 display. It was so clear HP had no ****ing clue what it was doing, or what it's market was.

 

The problem @rinneh is that whenever NotebookCheck have tests of the new modern slim BGA AW <gaming> Laptop models... The exact same thing happens. Every time... Is it because the test rewiev page always get somehow crippled AW Echo model for testing or is it because they know nothing about computers? Perhaps I should not I blew on the fire? Better with a warning than none is my mantra.

Look at this below. This is a laptop with socket hardware. My new purchase. At about the same size as my great Aw17 (latest Aw17 model from Dellienware that enthusiasts would purchase). Maybe I rather should say Hardcore enthusiasts... The price I payd is slightly lower than a full-featured AW17R3 here at home. I think this is pretty scary . Whenever I get more time, I will add this also in my sig. As primary computer

 

1 - No, I'm tired of arguing with you. I've spent many a post in the past telling you things which you flat out refuse to change your mind, see my side of things, or even accept anything I've said. Henceforth, I am not bothering to tell you anything unless I see you feeding bad information to somebody else.
2 - I wasn't insulting you. It was a truthful statement. You have a ridiculous amount of people consistently telling you that you're wrong WITH PROOF all the time, including myself in the past, and you STILL refuse to change your mind. I would quite literally quicker get a sentient wall to transform into a stone golem and serve tea and crumpets to Australians. Hence my calling you Obstinate.
3 - Obstinate: "stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so".

All of your arguements are have been shot to pieces already, so you have nothing to even argue with anymore. But since you're so obstinate, you refuse to accept that we buried every inch of your arguements years ago in a hole so deep it could be the 8th world wonder, and keep summoning them back to tell people the same things we proved wrong already. It's a waste of my time to argue with you. My statements are not insulting, nor are they personal attacks. They're simply true. You just don't like that it stings, so you perceive it as an insult. As far as I'm concerned, what I say is the same as calling the sky blue in the daytime, or saying pizza isn't a vegetable.

 

Always? I only recall this review of the current series that ever said something about battery drain under load. But the 180watt powersupplies for the first gen current models with a 980M was indeed a mistake. which should have been more properly rectified. The 15R2, 15R1, 17R2 are all well reviewed there without any problems like this.

But funny isnt it, the AW17R3 and the AW15R2 share the exact same motherboards, the same powersupplies etc. But Notebookcheck did not have had any problem with the 15R2 while they had with the 17R3. No details about how they tested it, or they dropped the ball, or it was a fluke or there was something wrong with the hardware. No conclusions can be drawn from here, but I could not reproduce this problem. I had no battery drain whatsoever after a 4hour gaming session and a 1 hour benchmark run. Since they constantly rated the Gigabyte laptops fairly high and never mentioned build quality issues which really a lot do notice I started to take there reviews with a grain of salt to be honest. But enjoy your new laptop (no this is not sarcasm by the way, only can wish the best for people that worked hard and bought something that they wanted).

And when I dropped some benchmarks results in a topic you flat out ignored them. Refusing to see my side of things etc etc. Just the same handful of people here that by the way often just ignore a lot of information. So overstating again the same as some of your opinions as some other users here. I count the 4 or 5 same names everytime that is not a ridiculous amount of people just as the benchmarks that I posted in the past to bring some perspective to the table with small performance differences are enough to value a socketed Clevo laptop from godlike to a smaller system that comes close to the performance to absolute "dogshit/turdbook" in the opinion of some people here. Can you see the ridiculousness in that.

 

I do not know if you're absolutely right, but sales of the Alienware laptop is only 1oo.ooo devices. Not much in the grand scheme of gaming laptops... Now is also EVGA and Acer new competition to Alienware with their new gamingBooks... Do you still think the sales will be 100,000 Aw computers when competition is getting tougher on GamingBooks??? I do not know how many gaming laptops Clevo sell, but it's certainly not a big difference between Alienware's low / medium sale numbers.

 

Hard to say how much Clevo is actually selling for just gaming though, since a lot of places buy them for engineering purposes.

 

Define small. 6700hq gets 600ish in cine r15, my 6700k gets around 900ish. @Mr. Fox's 6700k gets over 1k and his 4960x gets even higher. Unless you define small as in 50%-100% jump, it is unwarranted.

 

What about the titan x? You cant deny the so called top of the line card is running on the mid end die.

A lot current game runs SLI such as division, tomb raider etc.

Your productivity is different from a lot of other people's productivity which will take up a lot more battery.

 

but the titan x / 980ti doesn't run on a mid end die. it runs on the full gm200 die with only the 980ti have some SMs disabled

 

I know. I was saying that people who are saying laptop are approaching desktop performance are comparing it to 980 which is the mid end die I was talking about. Not GM200.

 

I think Clevo sells the most worldwide, to be honest. Alienware should be the least sold; it's only got gaming-class (marketed, anyway) laptops. ASUS and MSI have more midranged stuff, so I'd expect them to be a bit bigger in marketshare. Clevo though sells directly to businesses as well as to a crapton of companies all over the world. They're the oldest (older than Dell) that makes laptops that's still selling today, and they're a verifiable giant. I would be beyond amazed if they have less marketshare than Alienware in total worldwide.

My 4800MQ at stock gets about 692 in Cinebench, and a 4710MQ can OC to 3.5GHz and do the same, so that looks like a negative to me, doesn't it? =D.

 

I think AW sells more than 100000 notebooks a year. Why? they would lose money big time with those numbers and Alienware would already have been closed down because of it. What are your sources? Because this would truly surprise me.

Lets just talk stock speeds for now and a various of benchmarks http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ Not the best source but it at least has both in similar circumstances. Those are not 50% differences. But as I said around the 20~25% while the wattage is like double and higher clockspeeds for the 6700K. Those difference dont mean a **** product compared to a good product.

Tomb Raider runs okayish with SLI but not great. I actually finished the game last week and it had annoying drops in SLI. The Division I havent tested yet with SLI.

You can add music production to the productivity list and it keeps on running. I dont think the things I do for producitivity are that unique this is what people do on their pc's to earn money.

 

If you Google sales data on Aw gaming laptops, you'll find these figures(exactly 100.000). This is not taken out of thin air. In the article you will find Asus and MSI also
You're welcome!! http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-and-MSI-account-for-50-of-gaming-laptops-sales.156832.0.html

 

I found the link in the meantime. But they dont have a real good source, checked the digitimes website too but this is according to the Taiwanese manufacturers themselves. I am trying to find sales number snow of Nvidia mobile gpu's Because I suspect they sell much more than the said around 4 to 5 million units a year.

Some overall gaming PC industry numbers http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/7/9271463/lenovo-asus-acer-intel-pc-industry-ifa-2015

The Titan X performs roughly the same as the 980ti but also came months later. A good measure point will be when Pascal comes out. A new production type, a new architecture and all will come around the same time. Lets see how big the differences are then.

 

I agree that Clevo has more market share total then Alienware, what I was saying that it would be hard to figure out how many of those sales were just for gaming laptops, since like you said, Alienware is only marketed towards gaming laptops where Clevo covers a much wider range.

 

@rinneh

Why would someone buy a 6700k to then run at stock clocks? No, that's not how it goes.

 

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/eurocom-sky-x9e-vr-ready-gaming-notebook.html
This is something Dellienware was close to manage and could be... But long time ago Wish @Alienware-Frank and @AW Khan had seen this... They'd yelled in anger at what they did with Alienware Maybe some AW reps can show this to those two mentioned... Alienware Frank was last seen: July 17, 2015. It's time he take a look in the thread to see what his older customers who have jumped the ship really want.

 

Because it adds variables that arent measurable by us. There are 6700K's on the market that hardly break 200mhz extra on each core. there are others that can add 1ghz on per core. A single case cannot be used as an example for all. My old 2500K sandy bridge in my second PC also could be clocked to 5ghz on air and 5.3 on water which is one of the best SB 2500K samples out there but plenty that couldnt even touch 4.3ghz. This is why I compared the stock speeds for this discussion.

 

That doesn't make any sense. What matters is what you got and what you can (or can't) do with it. Got a crappy CPU that doesn't overclock well? Sell it on eBay and buy one that's not crappy for at or near the same price... problem solved. Unless you have a BGA CPU, in which case you're pretty much screwed unless you enjoy playing motherboard roulette and even that will be more performance limited in the end.

 

Random thoughts for the day:
Failienwares are being sold at Walmart, this is how far backwards they've gone. I thought this discussion was in the bag already, but it looks like it's turned into a talk over how well they're doing at winning the Battle of Mediocrity.

If my hypothetical Sky X9's 6700k couldn't break but 200MHz per core out-of-box I would like to think I could track one down that could break 1GHz per core & swap it in there. If I had an old Sandy that maxed at 4.3 I feel I could get my hands on one that could push to 5.0+. This is an issue then: when the silicon lottery's been lost, swapping removable cpu's vs swapping whole laptops. Tank just the cpu vs tank the whole laptop. Ship us back the cpu vs ship us back your laptop. We'll trade out your cpu vs we'll trade out your laptop. Your cpu ships in 3days vs we'll build you a new laptop in a month - or worse - we'll send you a refurb'd in a month

Why would someone buy the GA & drop a high dollar 980/Ti/Tx into fo? @rinneh --> when you come across a GA power supply dp/n FT8V7 ACBel or W2M26 Delta with an 80Plus sticker on it you be sure & let me know ok? <-- I would never mate a top tier card with a low-grade power supply; the ($100) GA which used to sell for $300 but now sells for two hunge is Mr Dell's & Mr Azor's attempt to package mass-produced low-grade low-cost Chinese crap into a shiny Alien box & charge double & triple for it. If a PSU can not earn at least a base 80Plus rating (let alone a bronze) it is your signal that the parts inside it are inferior & have no business being coupled to mission critical parts & pride-&-joys. Alienware is a front for Dell. Dell Alienware is a simple "we'll buy low while you sell high" partnership & the GA appears to be the crowning achievement.

Sir. Lift the lid on that thang & tell me again how impressed I'm s'posed to be ... they din't even have the where-with-all to provide it with a decent sized fan 'cause sumthin bigger woulda cost them a nickel. In fact they purposely shrunk it & designed the chassis around the fan. Bare-naked zip-tied puny wires. This is what u want your T i strapped up to? $45 bargain-bin B.S.?No ty Mr's Dell / Azor. Take this ACBel fire hazard & shove it.

"Eurocom provides an unlocked BIOS along with an Overclocking Seminar with overclocking expert Mr. Fox so users have a quick rundown on how to best push their new EUROCOM Sky X9 E to the limits as well as setting limitations and safe guards for safe operation." About brought a tear to my ii's when I read it ... thanx @Papusan for the link.

 

You talk about cheap chinese stuff, and I agree the GA isnt the most well built device, it is simply an external PCI express port. I never checked the powersupply though. But the laptops itself in terms of build quality are up there, ofcourse there are some monday morning examples of a quality control problem, but I have come across those also with Clevo and other brands.

Oh and your walmart remark is pretty much ********, Walmart just sells everything that earns them money.

 

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I see Eurocom also sells some BGA laptops, so the mediocrity they're surrounded by is in their own warehouse. Like I said, none of these companies really care about you, only the money you bring them. The Sky does look pretty nice, a bit on the high side for price for me though.

 

Eurocom is nothing if Clevo goes belly up. So to say they drive innovation XD I still think Clevo has to improve the chassis of their systems itself. I kinda see an Alienware laptop as a Mercedes or BMW. An allround good car. But a Clevo more like a Caterham or a BAC Mono. Not a lot of attention for the shape and overall function but purely made for that quick circuit racing.

Just 3 of the current lineup feature non BGA cpu's if I am correct.

 

Sure... Why not... as long as people are willing to pay less and get less in return, might as well make a buck. But, let's not muddy the waters with distractions. Business is business, and if they were not in it to win it, they would be taking the lame approach like Alienware did.

The point is not that they offer trash to those that want it as much as awesomeness for those that require it. Just like Mr. Bialic said in the quote... " freedom to choose" and " freedom to control" ...and those are things that are painfully absent in the options offered by their competitors.

That's not likely to happen... they're gaining market, not losing it. One person's definition of a good car may not match another person's definition. Opinions are like belly buttons and butt cheeks... we all have them.

I cannot imagine why anyone would think the appearance of the Sky X9 or the Sky DLX7 are anything short of awesome, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For every person that doesn't like how they look, I'm sure there are at least two that disagree. Let's just hope Alienware pulls their head out and has an answer for this. The desktop trolls that always rail on "gaming laptops" (and with good reason lately, based on most the rubbish that is available) are now taking note and acting less trollish, so that's a very positive thing. If they get converted it will be pretty awesome, and the tolerance for BGA garbage will lessen, demands and expectations in terms of notebook components could increase, which would be a huge win for everyone... including those with lower standards. As things stand right now, the bar has never been set lower and truly outstanding notebooks (in terms of components and performance) are few and far between.

 

Certainly true, it's nice they offer the option for those who want it. I'm just saying that to say that they're driving innovation from mediocrity when they themselves sell that mediocrity seems like business speak. I also have to agree with rinneh that it's mostly Clevo that's driving the innovation, but like I said it's always great to have choices.

I would say Alienware is more like Lexus or Audi, more upscale models of stuff they currently make in a more sleek, attractive, and affordable package. The high end Clevos are like Dodge Hellcats, the only mission is brute force and performance in a straight line.

 

Well, straight line performance is what I value most. So, mission accomplished on that part.

However, looking at the specs (besides CPU and GPU) I am not sure that argument holds water. It looks like their appointment of additional features trumps the best Alienware offers. And, with TB3, a person could tether their beast to an eGPU and have something that works better than the GA if that's what they actually wanted to do for some reason.

I dunno... looks pretty upscale to me, hoss. What's not to love about this list of options?

Code:

The EUROCOM Sky X9E is full upgradeable and customizable, customers can choose between a variety of components.

Processor / CPU Options
4GHz (up to 4.2GHz) Intel Core i7-6700K; 4C/8T; 8MB L3; Skylake-S; 14nm; LGA1151; 91W
- 3.5GHz (up to 3.9GHz) Intel Core i5-6600K; 4C/4T; 6MB L3; Skylake-S; 14nm; LGA1151; 91W
- 3.4GHz (up to 4GHz) Intel Core i7-6700; 4C/8T; 8MB L3; Skylake-S; 14nm; LGA1151; 65W

Memory (RAM) Configuration - Fully Upgradeable
- 16GB; 2x 8GB; DDR4; 2400Hz; CL14; 260-pin; 1.2V; Kingston HyperX Impact; 2 SODIMMs
- 24GB; 3x 8GB; DDR4; 2400Hz; CL14; 260-pin;1.2V; Kingston HyperX Impact; 3 SODIMMs
- 32GB; 4x 8GB; DDR4; PC4-2133; CL15; 260-pin; Micron; 1.2V; 4 SODIMMs
- 32GB; 4x 8GB; DDR4; 2400Hz; CL14; 260-pin;1.2V; Kingston HyperX Impact; 4 SODIMMs
- 48GB; 3x 16GB; DDR4; PC4-2133; CL15; 260-pin; Micron; 1.2V; 3 SODIMMs
- 64GB; 4x 16GB; DDR4; PC4-2133; CL15; 260-pin; Micron; 1.2V; 4 SODIMMs

VGA / GPU Graphics Options
- 8GB GDDR5; NVIDIA GTX 980 (desktop) (N16E-GXX); MXM 3.0 107.6x115mm; 200W
- SLI 2x 8GB GDDR5; NVIDIA GTX 980M (N16E-GX); 1536 CUDA; GPU/VRAM Clock 1038MHz/2500MHz; Maxwell (28nm); MXM 3.0b; 2x 103W

LCD Display Options
- 17.3-inch (43.9cm); FHD IPS 1920x1080; MATTE (Non-Glare); 300nts; 700:1; 72% NTSC; eDP 30pin;LP173WF4 SPD1
- 17.3-inch (43.9cm); 4K UHD 3840x2160; MATTE IPS; eDP; 1000:1; Adobe RBG 100%; 400nts; AUO B173ZAN01.0

EUROCOM Sky X9E Specifications:
- Display: Choice of FHD 1920-by-1080 or 4K 3840-by-2160 pixels; 17.3-inch (43.94mm); eDP LCD Displays
- Chipset: Intel Z170 Express (Skylake)
- Processor: Skylake, LGA1151, up to Intel i7-6700K, fully unlocked
- Memory: up to 64GB; DDR4-2133/2400; 4 SODIMM sockets
- VGA Technology: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (N16E-GXX); or 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
- Storage: up to 4 drives; 2x HDD/SSD (SATA3) + 2x M.2 PCIe x4/SATA RAID 0/1/5/10
- Communications: two 1Gb LAN RJ-45 ports Killer E2400 + M.2 WLAN/Bluetooth
- Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows: 10, 8.1 and 7
- Card Reader: 6-in-1 MMC/RSMMC/SD/miniSD/SDHC/SDXC up to UHS-II
- Keyboard: Illuminated, backlit with customizable 7-colours
- Security: TPM 2.0, Fingerprint and Kensington Lock
- Audio System: Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3; external 7.1CH audio output; headphone out, microphone in, S/PDIF and Line-in port; two built-in ONKYO Speakers (2.2W)+ Subwoofer (2.5W)
- Ports: 1x USB 3.1 / Thunderbolt 3; 2x miniDP 1.2; 1x HDMI 2.0; 5x USB 3.0 (1x Powered USB AC/DC); S/PDIF; Headphone; Mic; Line-in; 2x RJ45 (LAN)
- Weight and dimensions: 4.8kg; WxDxH 428x308x45mm

 

Nothing at all, I'm just saying that it's all about brute performance. There's no regard to battery life, weight or design, just functionality. Exactly like a Hellcat. I mean, I could substitute Corvette in here if you would like that instead. I feel like we're starting to argue just to argue when we both actually agree with what was said.

 

OK then... I'll hush up.

Edit: I'm definitely not a Dodge fan... Ford and Chevy guy here. So, yeah... 'vette is better, or Saleen Mustang would also do in a pinch. (See my wallpaper.)

 

I'm definitely a Ford guy myself, so I'm with ya.

 

The thing is, and my main gripe within this thread. How a relatively small difference is considered from total awesomeness to total trash. Ofcourse I know that in the end when you really push the Sky X7 for example you get more performance out of it up to maybe 50% more CPU performance. But you have to sacrifice a lot to get that. Its not that one product is total **** and the other one total awesome. It is the right product for you or not.

I am a fairly demanding professional that needs a laptop for both work but also pleasure when I am on the road. I spend months a year away from home in Japan and at night I still want to play a good game. But I have to take my laptop to places as well in a messenger bag for example (I take it with me every workday). Thus for me the AW15 is the perfect laptop in terms of performance, durability and portability. For you that bit more extra performance at every cost is your perfect laptop. Doesnt make it better or worse.

In the end for me no laptop on this world offers the performance I need for pure rendering stuff, that is why I have a desktop. But for a makeshift design office, render station and gaming station? It is the best for me and no Clevo comes close they all lack something I need.

 

I get what you're saying, but there is no sacrifice whatsoever if you don't need what it lacks. The only feature that I can identify is longer battery life with integrated graphics. It has the latter, disabled on purpose. We actually had the option of enabling it and chose not to because that's too much of a distraction that requires compromises on a machine focused on performance. Rather than being a jack of all trades and master of none, we went with domination in the realm of performance because that was the most important thing.

If you don't need to run a long time on battery, then it's just irrelevant. But, to your point, if you do, then this is not the best option. I guess if a person is super OCD about size and for whatever reason they feel thinner and lighter is critical, this is definitely thicker and heavier (and has to be to support its specs). I find it easy to understand the battery life thing because that can be mission critical. The size/weight is a personal preference that will vary by individual user. I've traveled extensively with 18" monster Alienware laptops and size has never been a problem. Size and weight is a legitimate personal preference though.

 

All Alienware has to do is come out with a dual Pascal MXM Desktop graphics card Sli setup with a Broadwell-E Desktop CPU and keep it an inch thin, then they win, and we will forget how bad they were for 3 years. They can Make it a a world's first 21'' laptop, meant for VR and 4K 3D gaming at 120Hz,

 

They would also have to step up to the plate with a fully unlocked BIOS and an adequate power delivery system, which they have totally wussed out on. But, then all the people that whined and moaned like little girls about wanting small, thinner and lighter--more like a MacBook or Razer abortion--would have a feces hemorrhage about it being 21" and say it's too big, an inch is too thick, and it weighs too much... yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Even if the current type of smaller BGA design were still offered, there would be people complaining about it. Just because. Options are a good thing. Lack of them sucks for those that are unwilling to compromise. Some people don't like it when an option for something better than what they prefer is available to those that require it. It almost seems like they want everyone to have to live with the same limitations to keep a level playing field, which is really stupid. The lack of high end performance options is the part I have a hard time with. BGA has been around for a long time. It wasn't until Alienware left everyone stuck with it as the only option that we saw debates on the subject. Nobody cared because they could still have something they wanted and did not have to settle for something less. You almost never saw Alienware owners trolling Razer, MSI and ASUS threads and harassing them about their crippled BGA turdbooks because they were totally irrelevant to us and we just didn't give a rat's butt how they were made.

 

Size matters on a bicycle in the summer (yeah I rather take a bicycle because it keeps me in shape ) next to it was already difficult enough to find a normal backpack that fits a 15inch laptop nowadays.

About stuff like the locked bioses I agree. It also would make the community stronger.

 

My X6 from Eurocom is locked. So annoying. Can't do **** to change the RAM speed or timings or CPU.. everytime I try, no matter how little XTU rejects it, cause its set in stone in the bios. Thats how it was stock. So even the best of companies lock their bioses. It's also still sort of new, so I'm not going to bother updating the bios until I need to, otherwise it works great at stock speeds. G-Sync is awesome ! I Supposed to sell this laptop, decided to keep it. So obviously I like it alot.

 

I disagree. When Chrysler merged with Daimler - qui bono? - Chrysler products did, like the Crossfire which incorporated 80% Mercedes 'stuff' into the chassis, making its DNA more Mercedes-like than Chrysler-like; a good thing, they all did argue. What happened when Dell bought Alienware? It's like finding Chrysler's 'stuff' gumming up your Mercedes, which is why I spotlighted the GA, for instance, & don't get me started on the FlagShip desktop, which only comes in one color with one motherboard choice: it is a cookie-cutter product save for 3rd-party hardware choice. My WalMartgument (which belongs to Poppysan) speaks to whether this is in fact a boutique brand anymore like in days past, or if that moniker is lost now given the fact I can go down to WallyWorld & gets me one. Your dismissmive that WalMart has no bearing & is ******** - that is fine, it is your opinion - my opinion is that it has a direct bearing on how far backwards this company has gone: the issue of & if whether they can even be considered boutique anymore? Highly significant. To me & to others it says they sold out to go mainstream instead. I don't know what it says to you, but I can about guess. To call them a boutique these days is as hollow as the comparison to a Mercedes: they just look like one. Which Mercedes model can you fingerpoint to which pivots off of the foot of compromise. There ain't one. They used to be Mercedes, but I live in a world of: what have u done for me lately.

@MrFoxRox asked a direct qwestion of Mr Azor & got a direct answer: 'Sir. Will you keep on selling cookie-cutters or offer us up a beast' & the answer was " Possibly, if there are configurations missing in our current line-up we are listening & will consider adding them", which means 'yes until we decide otherwise', & that was last year & not a damn thing changed since then. They're still baking cookies, not beasts.

On top of it, Azor himself said: " We do not like the fact that we had no choice but to support BGA processors in this generation of notebooks & knew it would be a sour point for our customers", so if 'they' do not appreciate being moved into BGA-World, if the GM of this company himself admits he ain't happy about it why should any of us be. If he ain't happy with it, it means there's a problemo with BGA, one in which they know all-too-well about & yet have decided to 'live with it'. You may be fine with it but I know for a fact the GM ain't fine with it (or else pretends not to be fine with it), & his opinion counts more toward this than anyone else's I might presume. There is a poblemo with BGA hardware which means there's a problemo with Alienware itself so long as they employ it under the ruse of 'built with gamers in mind without compromise', & that BGA word already came down from On High brother @rinneh ... Azor already rendered a negative verdict on BGA for all of us to contemplate in our own spare time over the implications, so why not go argue it out with him too?

We do not like the fact ... blah blah blah ... support BGA ...

Go convince Azor to like the fact & then come back & try to convince the rest of us to like it too, yes? They ain't Mercedes & they ain't boutique & not many of us 'like the fact'. I know you like facts though Rinneh. BestBuy / MicroCenter, that was one thing; the fact is, stooping to sell at WalMart makes it all feel so low-rent anymore. ... Alienware products at Walmart adds to their rep certainly - but it comes at the expense it takes away something fundamental from the Aliens rep ... if you don't know what that fundamental thing is, well, some of us that jumped ship sure as **** do ... and we liked to have named it: 'How far Alienware has gone backwards'.

 

I'm not really sure the WalMart argument holds any water, I can pick up a Sager/Clevo at Amazon, which is the WalMart of the online world. I mean, would you really stop buying Sager/Clevo if they sold at Walmart? As far as the your Mercedes argument, the C300 is certainly a model of compromise, it's definitely built to a budget. I will definitely agree that they are no longer a boutique brand, but probably for reasons that are different from your beliefs in that they don't do any custom stuff anymore, and I can understand how that would turn people off to the brand.

 

Boutique brands in the PC bizz hardly exist. Clevo isnt, Dell isnt, Apple isnt etc. They are all mass produced hardware in Taiwan, China etc.