New Alienwares 2016

So, for many that are using their laptop for universal tasks, DTR is truely not some good idea. It can only be the toy for those who has other computers to use on the move.

 

Well IMO battery life is the last thing on the list of priorities for me when buying a gaming laptop or a powerhouse of a notebook. Who games on battery and expects there to be good battery life anyway? Seems a bit of an oxymoron to me.

Those are highlighted in blue, because those are either standard and/or a better quality items (brand etc...) that come stock without having to select it as an upgraded option. Does that answer your question?

Either way, the point is for the dollar you're getting a lot more car with the DTR if CPU power is what one really needs. That single thing in itself, even IF, the prices were the same makes it a no brainer, YET the reality is that the buyer is faced with the fact that they have to justify spending ~$600 more for a weaker CPU.

 

I would say that your comment is subjective, but when I travel almost twice a month with the P775DM3 fitting nicely in the same bag that my 17R3 was once in, I would be lying to myself if I was to say that the DTR is not portable. Have you seen what the P775DM3 looks like? Overall, it's about the same as the R3, just a little thicker.

Again, it all depends if one needs the power or not. For me the choices are limited because I truly need the portable power for my work. However, I'm a heavy packer so I also bring along my MBPr with me as well to use on the plane and for other stuff...

 

Well outside of gaming i love to have 8 hours of productivity timeon the go. Also better ergonomics is something that is calculated into the price. The clevo is an ergonomic nightmare.

 

Yeah I like all your reviews... but if that was the case with an alienware, or another BGA laptop you wouldn't be so indulgent, imho . That just shows what got me off Clevos in the first place : horrible quality control.
- I mean the % of returns and random quirks was too high for me, way higher than MSI or DELL, what's more important than the quality of the heatsink in a gaming laptop ?!
- I had to change twice my keyboard, my poor trooper in battlefront kept walking in front of enemy blasters even after i released the W for 5 seconds.
- the screen bezel OMG : lightbleed and it kept popping off each time I opened the lid.

And btw they're selling a clevo P6x0RS-G, with those problems NOT fixed in the new revised pascal barebone AND with a Bios/EC that wasn't even tested : bad optimus / Gsync transition, horrible fan tables (it was a idle/load binary transition, and it went in load mode too late after the temp rose), external display problems etc. This is when i decided to stop clevos, they need to change their QC and improve their quality ffs, because they're asking for a premium price not on par with the quality of the barebone !!

Once the barebone's quality is improved and the QC is more efficient, I will be the first to hop in the Clevo train (again). But from now on, it's a no-no. Now I don't know if it's like that with their DTR but a defective heatsink on a 2000+ machine shouldn't be happening that much.


back on topic : Anyone knows why 2x8 DDR4 2667Mhz is less expensive than the 2x8 2400mhz DDR4 option ? (That's the case for dell France )

 

Btw for all of u inside Europe waiting for their Notebooks:
In China they had vacation from 10/01/16 to 10/07/16. They will Start working on all orders from tomorrow on, so they will likely to be shipped by end of the next week. Atleast for Europe it will take another week to get them from china to ur home. So dont expect them to be delivered in time... more like two Weeks from now. :/

 

Still no user or professional reviews of the new Alienwares? Seems a bit strange to have shipping units but still no reviews (at least not anyone that I've been able to find)

 

As an example, I play games on the train. My train trip is about an hour, so I need to find a laptop that can last at least an hour, ideally much longer so that even when the battery is a year or two old it can still last the trip.

Doesn't seem justified to me, but ok.

Yeah, no doubt the Clevos are better value, but there are valid reasons for choosing an Alienware over them. Certainly I wouldn't call it a 'no brainer' for all situations.

Have they actually shipped though? I haven't seen anyone mention theirs has actually shipped yet.

 

How come there seem to be no option to get 32 GB RAM with 2800Mhz RAM but only with 2400Mhz?

 

It takes a lot of time to review them properly. So It can take a week or 2 before we see reviews pop online.

 

They probably don't have any 16GB 2667/2800 modules in stock.

 

Guys,

I'm thinking to get AW15 with i5 processor inside, it comes standard with 2133MHz RAM.
However I wonder if i can slap 2400MHz RAM and expect it to run at 2400MHz as well. Or any reason for me to just go to i7 model? I will use this machine for gaming.Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

I think you should change a bit on your hardware sig. Maybe more like this *4.1GHz was the max (stable)*

★ [한성컴퓨터] 노트북 EX76S BOSSMONSTER [775DM3]┊ 6700K (-225mv Core&Cache)┊32GB RAM*┊2TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSD*┊ GTX 1080┊ 4K GSYNC┊ ↑ Hansung Computer Notebook EX76S ┊ Delidded + Grizzly Conductonaut ┊
"A repaste is mandatory. Not an option. Friends don't let friends stay stock."

☆ MacBook Pro 15" Retina ┊MAXED ┊ Intel "i7" 2.7GHz ┊ 1TB Flash OWC SSD + 256GB JetDrive ┊ 16GB ┊ GC LM
★ iMac 5K Retina ┊ 4.0GHz "i7" ┊ 32GB RAM ┊ 1TB Flash SSD ┊ GPU 4GB ┊
☆ SOLD Dell 15" XPS 4K UHD ┊ i7-6700HQ ┊ 32GB RAM ┊ 1TB m.2 ┊ GTX 960M ┊ Grizzly Conductonaut ( GC) ┊Possibly the coolest running XPS to date.
★ SOLD Alienware 17.3" R3 ⌲ 4K UHD ⌲ i7-6820HK @ 4.3GHz Stable | 4.6GHz Max [Grizzly Conductonaut] ⌲ 32GB DDR4 2133MHz ⌲ GTX 980M [8GB] ASIC: 86.4% ⌲ Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD ⌲ Samsung 950 Pro 512GB m.2 ⌲ Intel 8260 WiFi ⌲ W8.1 Pro ★ Classic Shell
Cinebench R15 △ CPU: 914cb ┊ OpenGL: 146.16 fps ▽ XTU (Current World Rank #2 (AW17R3) 1388 △

 

Whats the story with battery, at least in Sweden there seem to be no customization available there. On Alienware.com it seems like the 17" is always delivered with 99hw battery, does the 17" always come with the larger battery no matter what market it is in?

 

No, you can't. The i5 can't run RAM any faster than 2133MHz: http://ark.intel.com/products/88959/Intel-Core-i5-6300HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz

If you want 2400MHz RAM you'll need the i7.

The 1070 requires the 99Wh battery (I'm guessing to handle current draw via the 6 cells). Not sure if in Sweden you've only got the 1070 as an option for the 17"?

 

I can understand wanting to game while on the train and if that's the case, it'd be more practical to buy a laptop with a >1060 to maximize battery life. Since an hour isn't that long pretty much any laptop should be able to suffice, but for those who fly like me for several hours, a decked out GTX1080 gaming laptop or notebook should not be counted on to provide a lot of battery life to game. That's the point that I was trying to make.

For universal tasks other than gaming or CPU intensive tasks for work, is the reason why I have my MBPr on the trailer hitch getting pulled behind my P775DM3. Yes, there is a purpose for other laptops and trust me, I almost never pull out my DTR on the plane haha as the person beside me probably would give me the stink eye for hogging up all the space lol.

Regarding the default configuration vs add on's, Clevo has add on's that are better, either quality wise and or capacity wise than the AW and that is what it is being compared to for the price point. As you can see AW has changed up their structure a little to where things are a bit more ala carte and by adding on certain items it adds onto the price, which is needed in order to match that of the DTR that it was being compared to. Adjustments had to have been made for the comparison to be fair. Hope that makes sense...

My reference to "no brainer," was specifically and directly related to the point that the user needed CPU power for his daily usage. In that case, a 6700K is a no brainer over a mobile 6700HQ or 6820HK. I did not imply that it was a "no brainer," for all situations.

I think the AW's are shipping ~14 days after ordering from the looks of it...who knows...Some have an EDD of the 16th of Oct. We'll have to wait and see.

 

thanks for the quick reply mate! I guess now im gonna get i7 +2667MHz ram

 

LOL...On my 2nd R3 I was able to run 4.3GHz stably, which means benches such as Unigine Heaven, FireStrike and Cinebench R15. I also gamed no problem as well. I have personally seen other R3's and R2's able to run 4.2GHz just fine and only one other R3 able to run 4.3GHz stably. Yes, it's rare but doable. If it weren't for the limitations that had existed, I'm sure there would have been a lot more (people with 6820HK's) able to run steady at slightly higher clocks than 4.1GHz.

The point is, it's not impossible with the 6820HK. It's a good chip for what it is. Remember it is a mobile chip so for it to achieve what it does...not too shabby. My 3rd R3 was a gas hog and that was the one that was able to hold clocks at 4.6GHz for gaming and some rendering, but that was about it. The point here with that is...there was no BSOD nor did it freeze up. Did it throttle? Of course, but not all the time...it stayed alive, bumpy but it hung in there...

There is nothing that I need to change. 4.3GHz was the highest I was able to achieve out of my R3's so it's accurate.

 

What do you guys think it's worth getting for the display option on the 15... UHD 300nits or the TN 120hz G sync panel? Is gsync really worth it? And do you guys think it's going to be a lot more than the current £150 extra the UHD costs?

 

Fair enough, good point and I agree as well. I can only speak from my personal experience, but the P775DM3 is not that much different than my R3. Honestly, perspective wise, the P775DM3 seems slimmer when looking straight at it due to the screen bezel being a lot more thinner than the R3. Overall real estate wise it also takes up the same amount of space on my desk. Although it is a little thicker than the R3, they are really both about the same. Pictures don't do much justice for any computer...it's just one of those things one would have to see for themselves in person to get a real feel for it.

I do agree though that aesthetics and ergonomics are important. Who doesn't want a nice looking car right? Well there's that....then there's the practicality side where if one really needs all the power that they can get, function over form will win every time. True, it's not some fashion show we're dealing with here, but a design is so subjective that it can go every which way til' the cows come home. There's a reason why I went with the P775DM3, because it's something that suits my palate, but most importantly I really do need the CPU power. Clevo could have done a lot better with the ergonomics, but in all honesty that would have made this thing so thick to accommodate for the cooling....anything thinner and it would be a nightmare in respect to thermals...having desktop components in here is no joke and is quite impressive for it even existing in this form factor.

What I'm curious to see is if AW really did their homework to hit it out of the park with their new cooling system. I'm a realist....and if AW/Dell did manage to design something to keep the GTX1080 tame, then give credit to where credit is due as this would be the newly set benchmark for everyone else to get on the ball with focusing more on engineering & design than just releasing rental car boxes. So far things seem promising thermal wise for the AW R17R4 GTX 1080 with it having so much metal and being heavy (good thing)....this is what a lot of folks including myself are anticipating to see how it runs out of the box....

 

Well, Maybe more like this *4.3GHz was the max stable on one of all my MB. I was lucky in the lottery silicon (but I had to swap 3 motherboard because the motherboard could not handle overclocking - I've fried 3x 17R3 mobo's myself from OC'ing) *. Newer Aw machines are not designed for serious overclocking, so steer clear

 

Well I can see You read Intel,s data sheet as the Devil Maybe you should read the one for all i7 as well
http://ark.intel.com/products/88967/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/products/88969/Intel-Core-i7-6820HK-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/products/88196/Intel-Core-i7-6700-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_00-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz

 

Haha...well can't argue that. Yes, I have had a total of 4x R3 units, not just mobo replacements.

I had bought two R3's one for the office and one for home. Yes, crazy I know.

Then I fried the first R3's mobo -> got it replaced -> fried it again -> got it replaced and this was one of the lucky 6820HK's.

Then on the second R3, I fried it -> got a replacement (completely new unit) -> fried that one again and got a new R3.

So that's 4x total of actual R3's throughout the course of ownership. I do have one R3 atm within the family, which was the second R3.

Confusing I know, but to just to be clear, I only fried it because I went extreme with OC'ing and pushing these things til' its every last breath. If you would have seen what I did to these things to push them lol....oh my... @Mobius 1 knows me and what extremes I go to beat these things to the ground.....can they handle it? Yes, but at a cost....frying the mobo....

So new comers, just to clarify, of course 99.99999% of you all will be fine, but I've fried my mobo's due to pushing them beyond limits. Some call this crazy....but there does exist a group that call this absolutely spectacular.

For most people....you'll be fine.....but not everyone lives within limits....

Here's my philosophy: "If a company is going to claim this and that....then they better be able to back it up. On some of the R3's and R2's the 6820HK could not even hold 4.1GHz OC on the CPU when they claim that they could. Can yours? 2 out of 4 of mine could not so that's about 50/50. Now let's be real, that stinking sucks! So if there is a claim and I pay my money for it, then it better be able to back it up."

ie....for those of you ordering the 6820HK, if it can not hold 4.1GHz as advertised, you better give them your best right hand upper cut and start demanding. Don't settle for false advertisement. If you don't plan to OC, then don't even buy the 6820HK. I think the 6820HK is a fine chip for what it is (a mobile chip), but man....pay thousands of dollars for your engine to not even run as advertised? You better rip them a new one. <--- That's me being nice too...

 

Personally I'm more interested in the TN 120Hz G-Sync panel. There's already been a video of the 17" one that looked pretty good, so I'm fairly confident about the 15" one also being decent. As for G-Sync, IMO yes it's worth it; running a game smoothly without compromising framerate is great. As for the cost, I actually expect it to be less than the UHD panel; most other manufacturers have 120Hz options for less than 4K, so I don't see why it would be more expensive with Alienware.

 

I saw them in real at IFA2016 while I had my AW15 with me. I felt it was a trrible thick and annoying laptop. Its nice what is inside. A mid/high end desktop in a laptop body but it ditches pretty much everything why I like to have a laptop next to a desktop. Also I really didnt like the build quality. It didnt feel dense yet it is very heavy, the keyboard was less good, the trackpad less good etc. All things that matter to me daily.

It is true the AW15 has quite a large footprint. But it is fairly thin.

FOr me the current ideal laptop is the AW15R3. The right balance between specs and portability for me.

 

Ok, fair point. I had also noticed that the RAM was limited to 2133 with the i5 6300HQ and thought it was a processor limit, and when looking up the spec sheet I found it only mentioned 2133 and thought that was the reason.

Do you have the answer for why 2133 is the limit in the Alienware configuration, or whether the 6300HQ can run 2400MHz RAM?

 

Also the new TN-WVA? panels are suppose to be much improved over the traditional TN's that had the viewing angle issue and pink hues. The QHD will almost certainly be cheaper than the UHD.

It would be nice fi the QHD did NOT come standard with the Fufuobi Eye Tracking.....SMH....to be forced with an option is just plain ludicrous.

I'm really pleased to see this type of healthy discussion going on.

Cheers

 

I think just a case of Alienware not making it more complicated for themselves than is necessary; they've saved themselves 2 more lid options to have to stock by keeping the Tobii eye tracker on both the 120Hz and 4K screens. Consider it a bonus

Could possibly do without the rolling of eyes, but no reason not to be civil.

 

Knowing Alienware, the G-SYNC options will probably be the same price as the UHD option.

 

Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me actually, but as long as it's not more expensive than the 4K then it doesn't seem that bad to me. Not sure what it is for other countries, but for Australia the 4K screen is only A$253, which is quite reasonable.

 

To each his own. This is why having choices is such a great thing.

Yes, my only gripe on the P775DM3 is the track pad. It works well for regular stuff, but the accuracy is the worst I have ever seen on a laptop. My track pad on my sisters Chromebook is better than this. Yes, really. I was so pissed at times, mind you I come from being used to my MBPr trackpad so my standards are high, which IMO is the best in the industry with only Dell's XPS glass trackpad closing in at a second place in my books.

As for the keyboard, it is okay....the tolerance of the keys itself are better than the R3, but the key pressure is a bit light and bouncy which I'm not used to. Funny thing is....the actual keys themselves I think are from the same supplier as AW keys lol...they are literally identical...I do prefer keys with a little less travel distance, but this is all subjective.

Having balance is important, but having gotten used to the 17" machines, let alone with absolutely needing the screen real estate and power, for me the 17" R3 and P775DM3 size is where my sweet spot for a portable machine is calibrated.

 

I must say, after the discussion about not using a DTR on battery and not using it in cramped environments, I'm surprised that you would be using its trackpad often enough for that to be an issue. Wouldn't you almost always be using a mouse?

For me the trackpad definitely is important (train usage - can't exactly pull out a mouse there). Same goes for keyboard. I've seen quite a bit of flex in other laptops (eg MSI GT62VR) which would give me concern, but the AW with the backplate seems fairly rigid. Hopefully works out ok.

 

AW offers the 1080p screen with and without Frobii. I'd imagine the providing the QHD and UHD screens with the same options are more than doable as it already exists as an option for the 1080p.

IMO, forcing Frobii upon consumers is a bit annoying when one could opt out of that to put the money toward things that they really need like upgraded RAM etc...

As you can see I'm not a fan of Frobii, but that's just me.

As far as being civil, the boundaries are quite large and as long as the discussions stay within the limits, then it can be very educational for the new comers seeking info about their next purchase.

 

It's hard to keep track of the count now With your 4 motherboard swap, there will be 22 motherboard swap spread over 5 Aw owners. This is Scary. Someone here who talked about Clevo and QC?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...aming-wont-turn-back-on.796294/#post-10349641

And I havent count on how many have swapped to new MB because of this http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...3-owners-lounge.770314/page-350#post-10357157

DELL say much strange... Previous they also said 16GB ram(2x8GB) was max for all AW machines with Skylake chipset. Same with the stock ram speed(max 2133 for all Aw models)...

 

I use a mouse 99.999999999999% of the time. The only time I have attempted to use the track pad was when I was testing it out to see how it performed and also the very few times I was sitting at the couch installing some programs. After I had discovered how terrible the track pad is, I never again went back to it. However, this does not take away from the things that are actually important in the DTR.....the sheer power and performance.

Since I use a mouse all the time, all of this is irrelevant to me and my usage. I won't do my editing work using the track pad, but I use a mouse anyway so no issues there....

Well if the track pad is important to you than a DTR, at least the P775DM3 is not an option for you.

AW does have one of the best keyboards on a gaming laptop.

 

Mmmm that's not true and a bit extreme because not everyone will do what the very few would do. Therefore, that's a bid out of line to even bring up to be a valid point...let's stay on track here and keep it healthy.

Someone here who talked about Clevo and QC? Darn right...Yup that's me. What are you trying to imply? Do you want to hear it again? Okay....for simplicity sake, Clevo has a MAJOR QC issue and we all know it. AW/Dell has far better engineering and build quality. Is that what you wanted to hear?

 

Basically I think they've got the entire lid pre-built, and based on the customer choice they choose one of four. By having it with and without for the QHD and UHD panels they'd have another two lid combinations to stock.

Oh, I agree; seems completely gimmicky to me. I'd have it disabled the entire time even if just to save on power.

Yep. TBH, I wish there were options for a portable relatively efficient laptop with non-BGA CPU and MXM graphics, but for now I'm ok with having something like the AW15.

 

Pretty much all alienware units have a backplate behind the keyboard including the current generation. Totally love the solid feel when typing. I wouldnt mind if they create a desktop keyboard with the same feel. I would buy it. Actually one of my favorite keyboards of all time and only some higher end mechanical keyboards surpass it in my opinion.

 

Aren't the panels separate from the actual screen assembly? If so then there would be only 2 molds, but yea I see your point...who knows...we'll have to wait and see.

AW could have done just that, but unfortunately the industry in general is going Apple on us.

The R3 was the best gaming laptop keyboard that I've ever typed on and the track pad was one of the best as well compared to the rest in this class.

 

I just note that of all my last 3 laptops (2 Clevo and one AW), the only model I had problems with, was Dellienwares's model

 

Yeah, they are separate, but what I'm guessing happens (purely guessing) is that the panels and screen assemblies are all built together in China (or wherever) in the 4 configurations before being sent to the regional areas where Dell combines them to the customer preferences. There's no reason why they couldn't do it in all 6 configurations, just that for the sake of simplicity of logistics and ease of build at the regional factories I think they've limited themselves to 4.

 

With the nature of computers in general, the uncertainty is just as high as the direction the wind blows at any given time. Theoretically, quality control wise with AW/Dell being much bigger and having a much much larger budget, they can spend more for better engineering and also afford more to deal with hiccups in the assembly line. However, with Clevo the only line of defense is the resellers themselves.

 

I had a Clevo P650RE-G briefly, and compared to the previous 3 Dell laptops I owned, the only one I had trouble with was the Clevo (both the screen and battery had major issues, so I returned it for a refund). Individual experience usually doesn't for much.

 

Yeah, Dell have a lot of money in the bank. But they can should spend more for better engineering and also afford more to deal with hiccups in the assembly line as you said. Because this isn't good enough
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...3-owners-lounge.770314/page-350#post-10357157

Edit All Brand can deliver faulty products, but 22 MB spread across 5 users only in our community is frightening

 

AW/Dell has a lot more units out than Clevo so of course the more there are the more the numbers will be for faulty units. It's all relative.

 

It seems you need no more but a box, a screen and a super badass mobo……It was also the reason why Iast time I picked Clevo instead of AW. This time I just wanna try some new feeling and get a laptop with a little bit better build quality. New AW looks quite much like Dell 7710.

 

Dell, yes. But AW is not a big brand. One of the smallest in the GameBook industry

 

What?

Alienware has a larger market coverage compared to Clevo.

 

Not many reports on sales of AW Machinery. But here's one for you bro http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-and-MSI-account-for-50-of-gaming-laptops-sales.156832.0.html

And Clevo's is only the manufacturer(ODM) of Clevo models. But Clevo Barbone is sold under many many names all over the world

 

Yeah but it is based on taiwanese sources so Clevo would be named as Clevo there. SInce it is a taiwanese company. However this data is very outdated. According to Nvidia who supplies all the GPU's the gaming laptop market is growing very quickly.

Also Asus even dares to call Geforce 950M equipped laptops a gaming laptop. While MSI and the rest only reserves that name for 960 and higher. It smells a bit like cheating.