New Alienwares 2016

They have a history of cutting corners in this area. A single 330W AC adapter hasn't been totally adequate since 680M SLI. A 180W AC adapter wasn't enough for a BGA Alienware with 980M. It would be unrealistic to expect them to suddenly straighten up and fly right with Pascal.

 

Would it kill them to make a proper brick? AW hear me, "With great power comes great responsibility."

 

See the naysayers continue to plague us.....

This aside, it's amazing how far this technology has come. We are now closer matched to desktop components than ever before.
Gone are the days of bulky systems amd meagre performance when compared to PCs.

With these new releases I long for screen improvements, cooler and quieter fans and even better speakers now that gaming performance has climbed even higher.

 

It sure has come a long way and a new era has begun...

 

Configurator is online

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/prod...224949606020c99833744&ven3=178503236702315928

 

Oh wow the pricing is quite competitive in the US. No 1070 equipped laptop comes close in Holland.

 

Nice to see the different RAM speed options and best of all...the option to configure it without Tobii..

 

Still nothing here in the U.K. yet, it really sucks having to wait...

I'm very excited for these new releases. Just hope they don't go crazy with pricing.

 

Indeed...the pricing seems very competitive at least from what we can see so far...

4K Option with Tobii is +400
GTX 1070 is +300

I'm sure the QHD's will be rolling out soon ...

However, the Warranty prices are just retarded. I hope this isn't due to Tobii...

 

What the heck? You need to configure your new AW with the biggest and pricier battery if you want 1070. Oh' well. Dell know how to make money

 

The base system is cheap as hell dude. For a chassis containing a lot of metal etc. You get the choice and the battery hardly costs anything extra. You always find something to complain about. The fact is. They offer a 1070GTX machine for cheaper than a comparable MSI or Clevo with a cheap plastic chassis.

 

If the bga haters only have to complain about the 50 bucks for the battery, then we know alienware is on the right way.
Haters gonna hate even if there is nothing to hate

 

You could actually turn it around. They now offer a base system for just around 1300 dollars. So they offer a cheaper battery to make this possible.

 

I don't know why Dell push it this way. You should manage to use your laptop with 1070 on electricity although its have a weaker 69who battery. Why force buyers over to the heaviest battery if people want lightweight laptop with 1070 and maxed portability? Maybe the hybrid functionality doesn't work correctly with the weaker battery?

 

It would be interesting how well the AMD Radeon™ RX M470 with 8GB GDDR5 will fare. It should be slightly above the 980m/1060, given it won't throttle. If not, then it would be further interesting how good it will be overclockable.

So you guys have a mission now!

I agree, 1350 bucks (base + ext. battery) is cheapo, but Dellienware has to make it cheap to regain some market share to say at least!

Edit: Sheesh.... I mixed it up with the RX 480, which is "comparable" with the 980/1060. Yeah, the RX 470 makes no sense for the same bucks as a 1060!

 

Why are you suddenly mentioning hybrid functionality. What does that have to do with any of this? The AW15R1 and 17R2 could use some of the battery when the PSU wasnt sufficient just like 90% of the other laptops out there. All models after that came with larger than needed PSU's. Why bring that up now while there is no indication that these laptops are shipped with small PSU's. You are just bringing up dirt because you dont like these laptops.

It seems that a 6cell battery pack only fits when a 1070 is installed. Wouldnt it be logical that it is due to the larger pcb size to house the 1070? I mean it only sounds logical .

 

Was curious the difference in the Killer WiFi cards, this explained it for me:

 

Pricing is pretty solid, but definitely curious about the higher refresh rate panels. Got confirmation that they are being released on Sept. 30th so they still have some time to add some options.

 

"Alienware FHD camera for systems with Tobii IR Eye-tracking presence detection (Optional)"

Oh I see what they did there...

Streamers might pay the $75 just for FHD camera.

 

The status lights are not gone by the way. They are present under the glass bezel.

 

I have a fairly old Alienware m17x R3 and will be upgrading at some point in the future. There are certain things I like about the AW laptops, but they tend to have several recurrent problems throughout the generations.

Some of the concerns I have about Alienware which I hope they will resolve in this next gen:

- Running very hot compared to other brands like clevos etc. The AW cooling solutions in the past has tended to be inferior. The next gen laptops say they have a better thermal design. Will have to wait and see.

- Related to the above is the terrible default fan speed profiles. I've have to use a third party program (HWinfo) to manage the fans because dell usually have three inadequate fan speeds.

- Throttling. Not only found in some AW but annoying nevertheless.

- The necessity for using Dell graphic drivers. Not sure it you can use Nvidia and AMD drivers straight from their site now, but it used to be the case that in order get them to work required a modified version with lots of installation trial and error. The Dell drivers were undated very infrequently after the first year of that laptop product making this a painful process.

- Bizarre handling of some of their product releases. Essentially advertising features that are not accurate or incorrect. Some of this is seems like internal miscommunication or sloppiness. For example (I can't remember the exact model from this year) but it was released with the wrong power adapter which was causing the GPU to throttle due to lack of power. This had to be pointed out to them by customers who noticed the drop in performance.

- I hate the fact you can't fit 2 standard hard drives in there any more. Just another expense to acquire the newer M.2 SSDs, on top of an already expensive machine.

- Also I hope it is still easy to reach the internal components without too much unscrewing involved.

I would say the heat, fan profile, gpu drivers issues were the ones I found to be the most annoying. If they have sorted these out I'll probably stay on-board.

Despite this they have some very good qualities:

- They still have one of if not the best warranty and service in the business (from my experience). I think you can still keep renewing it for up to 3 years after purchase for a total of 4 years warranty.

- From my experience, it has been a very reliable machine.

- The build quality is still superior to many brands. My first Clevo from XoticPC was supposed to be good build quality until the plastic around the hinges and the back literally disintegrated meaning I could not keep the display upright. Plus a whole range of other problems from the sound card ports crumbling away, to a faulty LCD cable. Never had these issues with AW, and if I did I know that they will come to my house or work place at a time of my convenience and fix it under warranty, and I would not have to pay expensive delivery like with a reseller.

So here's to hoping that the new Alienwares are up to the task.

 

Why do you need a larger pcb size to house the 1070 but not 1060 and AMD Radeon ™ RX M470 with 8GB GDDR5? A bigger battery pack provides more space in the cabinet and not less See the picture. The picture shows the biggest battery pack aka 6-Cell 99W Hour Battery

 

Its Dells decision to sell it this way. Accept it. And please leave this thread if you are not able to add usefull posts...all i can read is mimimi bga is **** mimimi battery mimimi lga is better... it really annoys...

 

Quit your whining and deal with it like a big boy. People have a right to be disappointed. I am, I still hold AW to a higher regard that this 1 size fits all commie machine.
*********************

Moving on, the base price is very cheap but it doesn't take long for things to add up. I thought these were coming with 120hz screens? and what's with only the 1 CPU on offer too?
Guess Alienware is isn't going to step up to the plate for another round.

 

going to try this machine for a month, just gotta wait for the surface book to be returned

 

AMD M470 is baseline GPU.. But change to a GTX 1060 for a $0 price difference for an insanely more powerful gpu than the M470.. Go figure.

 

You need to buy the extra battery to unlock the 6820HK (I think) and 1070 option

@D2 Ultima




And yes, @Diversion - definitely go for the 1060 6GB






GTX 1080 version available november

 

You acquired "99 watt/hour Battery!"

Unlocked Achievement: 6820HK
Unlocked Achievement: GTX 1070

 

Kidding! You're right. Oh fun.. I have to ration my CPU usage each session.
Guess they didn't learn their lesson last time.

Well they got the visual design right.. Credit when due and all.

 

Be forced to update to 1070 and pay for the more expensive battery pack if you want the more powerful unlocked i7-6820. Great way to earn money. Yet another reasons that socket processors should have been used. Why can't you have the more powerful 6820 with the cheaper 1060 + the smaller battery? And the cheaper 4-Cell 68W Hour Battery is lighter and would improved the portability for those who desire this. But you can't if you want the best mobile i7 from Intel!!

 

I mean, morally, would you really want a 1060 on a AW17 when it's only a $300 difference for the 1070? If you're looking for portability, wouldn't you just opt for the AW13 (given it also has a 6700HQ)?

I never considered a 17" laptop (Alienware especially) to be considered portable.. Moveable yes, but portable?

 

And so you can. Just it seems not with the 1070. Maybe because pf a bigger heatsink. Who knows. You still ignore half of my message. Stop bashing without any data.

 

This is the new Aw 17. I expect that the same applies also for AW15. Not everyone needs / or will spend more money than necessary and some want graphics who don't have the bigger power usage from 1070 vs 1060. But people would perhaps wanted the faster 6820Hk.

 

Did it ever occur to you that this list isnt final.

 

I feel like it's preliminary at best.. Especially with no 120hz option listed.. I mean can you even actually put the order in with Dell through the builder? (Too lazy to go back and try).

Edit: It says "Contact Dell".. No buying yet.. I wouldn't take any of this builder seriously (yet).

And there's no AW15 builder either yet.

 

I only could see this builder page trough the link but i cannot seem to navigate to it manually.

 

You are right about this. Someone should asked th Alienware reps about this in chat. It's easier to know exactly when you have all the info as you say. But this battery mystery can be real.

Edit. 6820, 1070, 16GB ram, No fancy Tobi screen, 512 ssd and 2 year support

 

How are you guys getting access to the configuration?
EDIT: Never mind.
Interestingly, the RAM frequency starts at 2400 MHz, not 2133 MHz.

 

Don't understand why the 68wh is now standard. The old model 17R2/3 and even the 15/R2 had 92wh.

 

I would want to know it too...

 

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-17-laptop/pd?oc=dkcwg01hddr

 

I'm waiting on the 15" configuration to come online, but guessing prices will be close if not the same to the 17" prices... as configured, if I'm going to drop around $2,400 USD on it, the cooling/noise level better be "good"... I'm not even going to the list the "great" category because I've used Alienware laptops for work in the past so I've got my expectations set to be realistic. But with so many Maxwell models out there that had "great" cooling systems downgraded to "good" with Pascal... will see what those spell slingers at Alienware have done.

 

Playing games with gamers, LOL.

Really? Dell's cracked gimp-o-matic engineering team is treating the Alienware line the same as Inspiron and XPS. The joke is on the customer for buying it. You'd think a person focused on mobility would want a stronger battery regardless of what GPU it has in it.

 

They won't know the difference anyways.

 

Yeah, but the smaller battery pack gives lower weight. Even more portable... Perhaps a better choice for the smaller AW15R3. Weight can be more important for some, than longer battery time

 

Yeah, but wouldn't using a much smaller battery make it necessary to carry around that big power brick, while it could be optional with a larger battery? The "extra" battery probably weights a lot less than the power brick.

*Depending on the workload, of course. Heavy usage and gaming would require the power brick no matter what.

 

Did I miss something, why would a bigger changeable battery mean using a lower GPU? Also where did this information come from?

 

It depends on the usage. What you prefer. Minimum weight for portability or the longest battery time. Whatever, the more powerful i7-6820 should have been on Dell's pc configuration with lightest and cheapest battery pack(6700Hq is a monstrosity and should be skipped). Perhaps Dell changes his mind or that the option comes later.

Edit. @TechnoWhore (Did I miss something, why would a bigger changeable battery mean using a lower GPU? Also where did this information come from?) From Dell!! See the pict.

 

Pretty sure the 15" is quoted at 7.7 lbs with basic components (as in the smaller battery already). And the 17, pushing 10 lbs with the basic battery.. I seriously doubt Dell is quoting the MOST these Alienwares will weigh when advertising.

 

Probably like you said. Because Dell and Azor focus very on the weight and thinness for the new models. Yeah, offering 2 types of battery, only 1 older 2.5" slot and 2 ram slots make the models more lightweight and slim.