New M17x R4, M14X R2 and M18X R2 are coming - Speculation thread.

You must have a few of these discreet answers saved for quick and easy access... lol hopefully I'll be receiving a possible email about some unamed upgrades one day.... 8)

 

Man, I'm really not sure. I could ask engineering, but I've been abusing them lately with question after question. Poor Louis grows weary of my name on an email. I'll have to beg off on this one for now. If you don't find out through the crowd's efforts in a month or two, remind me.

If you only knew just how many Dell executives, senior managers and program managers read these boards you'd sing a different tune. I wouldn't be surprised if Michael his own darn self was reading on a daily basis. He's as geeky a CEO as you'll ever find. As it is now, I've sent the collective blood pressure too high already.

 

After some hardcore interwebz searching found this website here:
Portables4Gamers MXM 3.1 : évolution en douceur
It's in French so you'll have to Google translate it..

Which led to this spec sheet here:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=fab0133e0fb54a4b&resid=FAB0133E0FB54A4B!1341&id=FAB0133E0FB54A4B!1341

Judging from the changes table at the top the max power should still be 100W as it doesn't mention anything bout it..I could be wrong haven't managed to read the whole thing.

Edit: 100W means odds are probs no 7990m as 7970m is already 100W and at the new 28 or 22 nm(can't remember) process.

 

Hey bill you are awesome with your hypothetical Nuances!!! lol I think i'll start talking like that when my wife asks me something! lol anyhow This is my item number... 342-4430 for my ssd on th m17xR4 i ordered, can you tell me what i will be getting?

 

Noooo! Wifey sees that BS coming a mile away, my friend. Trust me. It DOES NOT work. If your wife is like mine, she's way too smart for this trick.

D6GG7 MOD,SSDR,256G,S3,#1,7MM,PM830, where D6GG7 is the Dell part number and the rest is the master description. 256GB, SATA III, 7MM Z-axis.

That's a Samsung PM830 mSATA SSD. And it's a fire breathing mother of a hard drive.

 

That's too bad. This is pretty much the only serious question the m18xr1 community may ask. The rest is just small stuff.

Oh btw, hello Michael o/

 

Oh Bill ... it's just a job

All kidding aside, thanks for the "info" you may or may not have provided and hope that Monday is a good day for your customers!


Dave

 

We'll get it answered. Is a couple months too long? If so, let's let the launch dust settle and revisit the topic sooner. I bet Scott_RC-TEK will have a dependable opinion. I'll PM him to see if he can weigh in.

 

Hey Bill ... in reference to Speed84's m17xR4 order ... D6GG7 MOD,SSDR,256G,S3,#1,7MM,PM830 is that Samsung PM830 mSATA SSD (the connection) a 3 or 6 gb/sec connection??

**edit** not the drive itself - it should be a 6gb/sec drive - i mean msata connection

Dave

 

The PM830 is a standard 2.5" SSD that uses SATAIII aka 6Gb/s

 

+rep thanks sir

 

S3 means SATA III, so it's 6GB/sec. Yes, I know some SATA III drives we shipped on some platforms don't all run at 6, but this one does. It's the same one on the XPS 13, and it's really fast. I'm not up on all the SSD's on the market, so I don't know where it ranks. I just know it's on the XPS 13's that I've taken home, and it yawns at everything I threw at it.

 

It's not too long, yet knowing I will be simply able to pay 1k EUR and order a pair of 680M in, say, July, I would sleep calmer. In this way it will be just a matter of phone call.

Replacing the whole laptop is much more stressful than that, especially if everything is working okay. Some may value that. You really never know what Dell sends you next time, e.g. my M14x came with damaged display and keyboard with buttons in the upper row (F1, Pause etc.) not kicking back. I had to wait another 2 weeks to have those fixed since parts had to be back ordered. Anyhow, why replace a perfectly operational R1 laptop if pretty much the only difference between this model and R2 will be different GPU?

Plus what do I need another m18x for, especially if they will differ only in terms of GPUs? I am very fine with 2860QM. I am not going to pay once again for a new Ivy Brigde CPU just because it's 300Mhz faster and apart from benchmarks, I won't see any usage difference. Plus, anything else in my m18x is top notch, including RAM I bought last month.

In other words, the question I asked is indeed serious. As you can assume, there is at least a few dozens of users here thinking in the same way I am and owning top quality hardware, willing perhaps only to get latest GPUs.

Dell should invest into offering some kind of 'GPU upgrade package' for R1 owners, like a kit of 2x GPU + heatsinks (if needed) + the SLI cables (if needed), so so many of us don't have to buy cards from some shady ebay shops or spend hours on Alienware hotline negotiating the purchase of new cards (or perhaps simply looking for a rep educated enough to actually understand what we want since that's rare these days).

 

Thanks Bill ... that's what I was looking for as I thought I had read that there were some that were on mSATA II connections ... I was hoping that these mSATA II connections were not be in any of the new specs for these AW m17s and m18s!

Dave

 

Hi Bill,

Can the Samsung PM830 mSATA be ordered separately from the Dell parts and upgrades site? I punched in the part number, and it could not find it.

So the XPS 13 can run that mSATA at SATA3 speed. I'm wondering if the upcoming m18x R2 will do the same?

 

hi guys,

I purchased the m17x r1 about three years back, was wondering if the material and design is still the same with the r4?

I just bought an m14xr2 for a friend, and if all goes well I may get an m17x r4 for myself very soon! Loved my r1, but its time to retire it.

Thanks

Edit - by design i mean the overall feel and weight of the thing!

 

should be slightly lighter from what i understand, the r1 (which i have) has aluminum chassis and the r3 and up are plastic chassis

 

Bill, thanks for your hypothetical speculations on this thread. You have helped to renew my confidence in Dell.

I purchased my M17X this week with the Intel Core i7-2860QM, 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M, and 512GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s. The ship date is 5/23/12. Hypothetically speaking, it would be wonderful if there were an unnamed upgrade on an unnamed component of this system. Still hypothetically speaking, I would be delighted to receive a proactive email notification should one, hypothetically, be sent.

Out of curiosity, which components on the M17X can be swapped out and upgraded?

 

The M17x R1/R2 are more similar to the M18x than the M17x R3/R4.

 

Hmmmm. This is a flag that should be run up the pole. There is precedence. (XPS 700 DT)

Seriously doubt it at this time. We are shipping it in several platforms, and the supply chain has not fully recovered from the Thai floods. Any non-spinner is in high demand right now. My guess is we need all we can get our hands on for production orders. I would not be surprised to see this part cause orders to go on extended lead time at some point. All the more reason not to dally about ordering. This is pure speculation and not marketing/sales hype. I could be totally wrong.

If you provided your email address at time of purchase, you would receive any email notifications we might send. As far as parts compatibility, I have no clue.

 

That's right, plus it could be listed e.g. like AW2310 display or tactx mouse, to be bought separately as an all-in-one kit/item, so we can call the hotline, give them the item number we want and then await the cards at home to be delivered within a few days. As simple as that, either for AMD or Nvidia kits.

Don't tell me this wouldn't both sell and be awesome to offer to customers. Imagine a PR campaign Dell could build around that: "Other brands want you to buy a new laptop every year. We don't. Our hardware is too awesome to be replaced too frequently. Just upgrade its heart (GPUs) to the newest model and rock on!"

 

No doubt it would sell. I'll take the opposing side just to illustrate the kind of resistance I might see.

How are we going to price this and what kind of margin are you forecasting?
How many units do you expect to sell in FY13-14?
How many R2 sales will this program cannibalize?

 

Also if it was possible to include it in the 3 year in home warranty service malarky (perhaps with a technician to instal components [i.e. one upgrade a year or revision]), id imagine it would increase uptake on that further. Either way, the upgrades idea is a damn good point that I cant believe, certainly the AW side of things, have not already implemented. Certainly would mean AW tech is guaranteed to be the most up to date tech.

 

I second that. If Dell's brass do indeed read these forums, please understand the mentality and mindset of the user base here. Offering an upgrade package will go a long way with customers who buy your machines, but can not afford to buy a new machine with every iteration.

I understand that a kit may cost $1K-$1.5K potentially, but please, also keep it affordable, just like you have done by making the System Ram affordable in the new lineup of machines. (Yes, we pay attention and do appreciate it).

Perhaps there is even money to be made with an upgrade service?

1. Considering this will be a part/service that is similar to other dell "parts" offered in the dell store, it could follow the same model as typical replacement part or upgrade offerings.

2. I can't say how many units dell sells, but i would assume that it would be a small number, perhaps 5-10% of R1 Owners would option this. However small, there is a profit to be made, even in low volume as it is simply an off-the-shelf set of parts. (I would assume) The "good will" and availability of said "easy upgrade parts" will become an attraction for a select group of buyers as well.

3. This is a valid question. For every R2 that sells, there is a high chance that the buyer's "old" R1 will wind up on Ebay and be purchased by a user who was considering a new Alienware. But, that is a wash. The majority of people who consider doing a GPU upgrade will just purchase them elsewhere, from a less reputable vendor. Dell has the opportunity to sell them the kit at a profit and increase the value of the Alienware brand for when the user does decide to buy a new frame.

People that are buying the parts WILL get them somewhere, so why not offer them, make a little money and further strengthen the brand? This could be similar to the Dell Desktop brands with upgradable parts, with the exception that there are few reputable vendors who sell MXM parts.. meaning less competition and greater margins.

 

Thanks for the reply guys, this has helped my decision greatly, since the very heavy weight of the r1 is what has been putting me off another m17x purchase.

However, would it using plastic mean it would be less durable?

thanks

 

Dont know what component margin/bulk buy deals you get at the moment but your already selling 256Gb SSD's at apparently +£500 on current systems and given they retail for £250 at most im sure you can find some margin.

How many times do I upgrade my custom PC a year, maybe twice? Your already stocking the parts, its not like delving into a new stream of business. Buy say 5 extra graphics cards than you normally would and get a techie to botch together a dell upgrade site, bobs your uncle, if it works all you have to do is post it.

From what Ive seen on the forums, people arent keen to buy a new revision unless theres a good number of reasons to upgrade, those who dont upgrade buy the parts of ebay anyway, so its happening whether you like it or not, may as well make some money out of it. Plus theres bound to be things you cant 'upgrade' on the fly, an extra hard drive space cant really be fabricated, id imagine its impractical to offer motherboards.

From there you can look into customisation parts etc if it works well, skins, body kits, MATTE SCREENS... nah screens would be impractical. AW customers have both too much money and the desire to have an awesome machine=licence to print money.

This is quite a good read on why apple sells well, sure with apple its software based but everyone likes the shiney shiney. User Experience: The Reason Apple Towers Over Sony | Gizmodo UK

 

I like this idea a lot. I actually don't think it would cannibalize many sales either. My thought behind this is that, yes, there are a few people out there that are loaded and will buy the new iteration every year, although this is probably a small portion of customers. There are the ones that will buy the parts from an outside source to upgrade, which is also probably a pretty small portion of customers. The vast majority (aka the "average consumer") probably doesn't even keep up with the newest GPUs, and they will stick with what they have.

Doing a promotion like this may actually raise sales. My thought for this is that while people are buying these parts from outside sources, this is a profit opportunity that Dell is losing. Also, if you promote and advertise this new GPU updating sales program, people may be more inclined to buy from Dell as this is a huge added value to a product, one that no other company does. People that are ready to enter the Alienware world or are on the fence about it, could possibly be turned to the Alienside because of this. People that currently have newer Alienwares and don't plan to purchase another one for a few years, could buy these giving Dell more sales in the mean-time until those customers are ready to move to the next model.

Now, I don't think this should be something where a customer will never need to buy a new laptop. That would be silly, as Dell would lose money that way. Basically, every couple of revisions, things change so drastically in the model, that you have to move to the new one. It's the nature of computers. But for the in between years, this is a way to gain loyalty with customers, while at the same time snatch up a small bit of profit that they otherwise would have never gotten.

Dell could also sell a warranty for the new GPUs, which is an even bigger moneymaker

 

Excellent points from TheBluePill and BlueW01f. This is why I pose these kinds of questions here. I'll add them to my pitch.


BREAKING NEWS:
As of now, there will be a post on Direct2Dell with some IB information at 3 PM, CST (18 minutes). Nothing I haven't already intimated at, but it may provide a bit of reassurance to those who don't trust Old Bill and his wacky vague references.

 

Well, I can't answer the first two without being familiar with Dell's economic statistic data (unless you care to share so we can brainstorm about it together) however the answer to the last seems clear to me. Money is not counted in terms of sold unit, but of net profits, isn't it?

If Dell offers 'an upgrade kit', worse case scenario, R2 sales should remain the same, if not go higher. Note that to buy R2 most of us will have to sell R1, so somebody out there is going to buy an m18x anyway. If fewer R1 are available, their price will be higher, and people hence will go back to the source instead of buying 2nd hand, perhaps simply choosing less expensive setups. At the same time quite many R1 owners will invest in the 'upgrade kit'. This means Dell will keep on selling both R2s and the kits.

On the other hand, there is also a lot of people owning R1 who will simply do nothing and keep R1 as it is since it cannot be upgraded, meaning Dell will neither sell new R2s nor profit from selling an upgrade package. Thinking most simply, no upgrade kit = lower (or at least the same) number of R2 sold, but no profits from the kits.

This is naturally subjective and discussable, but then, people thinking outside the box are those who make money. The rest just talks about it.

 

Sounds like some stuff you might be able to take to the big guys Bill?

Dell would have me for life, a new computer every 2-3 years, and probably at least one "Upgrade package" a year.

 

Exactly. Plus, it is up to Dell to offer a limited number of the upgrade packages, say, 1 next season upgrade per 1 revision. R1 came out in 2011, so it gets its kit in 2012. R2 is coming out in 2012, so it will get its kit in 2013 etc.

 

The latest word is the new NVIDIA cards are MXM 3.1 compliant so that means YES... they should work in the M18X R1 as long as the Dell BIOS sees them (time for an update!). MXM 3.1 is generally the same specification as MXM 3.0, but with the addition of PCIe 3.0 (x16) support. In regards to supporting Ivy Bridge processors, it seems Intel is leaving the mobile chipsets behind (i.e. non compatible) and focusing on the desktop chipset platforms. I hope they pull a last minute suprise out of their hat (or something else), but it doesn't look good for us 2011 suckers....oops, I mean CUSTOMERS! Oh well...

Scott-

 

Depends on who's doing the counting and who holds "the D." The guy who owns the P&L for the M18x program would count this as lost revenue if he lost sales to R1 customers doing an upgrade. However, to be fair, they don't always think in strictly transactional terms. (Is my marketing showing yet?) This will have to be pitched correctly by the right person. That won't be me in the end, but what I can do is wrap up all your points in one slide and turn it over to the person best in a position to pitch to decision makers. What that person does from there is out of my hands.

 

You can always try. If this becomes next big thing and you end up CEO, I want my package for free... and an Aston Martin V8 for xmas since I just formulated the original idea

BTW, re what was said, plus, if only Alienware M17x/M18x become known to get this "next season upgrade kits", you may expect at least some part of Clevo/other brands customers to choose Alienware since only AW laptops can be upgraded and Clevo/other brands cannot.

 

Indeed. As I mentioned, I think this could be an opportunity INCREASE sales. People would buy Alienware products for this reason. Sager/Clevo who?

 

This is a great discussion. It would be super peachy if one of you started it as an idea on IdeaStorm, and every single one of you went over and dropped in your thoughts like these into the comments. Also would not hurt if you somehow promoted the IdeaStorm link to the idea to all your communities. If the numbers are high enough (eg, they spike way way over the norm for any given idea), process kicks in, and we are forced to put this up for formal business review. You have to really work it, though. Drive that traffic.

 

again from what i hear its still pretty solid but i dont know for sure, im hoping i can get a new laptop soon (my r1 is dying slowly and painfully) and alienware seems to be one of the better options for overall product in my opinion.

 

Intel Ivy Bridge Goodness Coming Soon - Direct2Dell - Direct2Dell - Dell Community
Go. Read. Now.

And drop in comments so my boy John feels the love, please.

 

Thanks. Still waiting for 7970m news. :/

 

"and optional 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processors provide excellent performance in a laptop"

just found this in the uk alienware site, just wanted to let you all know.
sorry if this has been spotted before!

 

Possibly old news if you read the blog post I linked to above.

 

Well, it's subjective what is affordable in this terms and what isn't. The package may actually be more expensive than the cards as sold with a new system and people would still buy it (I would). Note that this would involve paying not only for new hardware itself, but also for things you don't have to do, what means peace of your mind and saved time. Replacing R2 with R1 means selling your R1, re-ordering R2 (this is tricky, you wan call several times before actually hitting a wise rep), waiting for weeks for it to arrive, worrying about it being in good condition, then testing, configuring everything from scratch etc etc.

And with a kit? You get new cards, you open up your R1, replace the cards (or have a Dell tech to do that for you ~ again, more money for Dell), close your R1, boot up, reinstall drivers, play. 15-30 minutes and done.

And you can always sell your old 2x 580Ms for 400-600 bucks for sure, for example.

 

nothing different

 

Right, sorry. was too excited i guess!

 

After seeing what Allan's doing on the sales assistance thread, you'd be out of your mind or just stupid rich to call in for a quote.

Difference is the information lives on our blog now instead of from some yahoo posting on NBR.

No apologies needed, mate. We're all friends here. Welcome to the forums!

 

yeah I know but it won't make any difference because we know you are Dell and all the info we get or we kind a get from you is accurate

War looks like the M18XR2 on your sig appears to fading everyday a little more

 

Yes. Every time the font is smaller..

 

So IB info on Alienware laptops, desktops, and XPS desktops. Nothing on XPS laptops.

But hey, Ivy Bridge, yay, etc.

 

What do you want to know about XPS? Whether they will have IB? (guessing no since that's pretty obvious)

XPS is one sexay beast. Man, I can't wait.

PM me your questions, good sir.

 

For the US maybe. What about the rest of the world? I know this may be shocking to some, but actually there are people who live outside the States.