*Official* Alienware Launch Discussion Thread

Yes the new 18 looks good, and video options are very nice, though it would be good to have a single card option.

 

Spoke with one of the sales person today and got some info...

It appears that parts to assemble the notebooks will start to be delivered to the factory by the end of this next week...

After that i should take 5 day for the first note to be send to the distribution centres and possibly starting to be shipped to the customers...

Finally we will be notified by the carrier a couple of days before the actual delivery

At least for the uk...

The expected date 22/07 as i quote their exact words is " the worst case scenario" and the deadline to deliver this first batches of notebooks...

We just need to wait and see how long will it take to receive...

 

Just FYI but unless dell have reorganised their logistics, US purchasers machines are built and shipped to a central depot. They then charge customers extra for 'next day delivery'. ROW gets a tracking number as soon as it is ready for dispatch from the factory (China). You then get to watch it go through a bunch of countries and customs clearances before it gets to you. Adds to the fun.

Mine took 3 days to get to the UK, then another 4 days to get to me - apparently some old bint was celebrating being in her job for a long time and the whole country came to a standstill

 

Hehehehehe - I wonder who that old bint was? :thumbsup: (go out and get a REAL job LOL!)

 

Yep... Youre saying pretty much the same thing she said...

The 5 days was to arrive in the uk distribution centre... And then another days which was not mentioned by her to be delivered...

However she did mentioned that i would be contacted by a carrier to arrange delivery...

Thats odd

 

Yeah, I got a call (UPS if I remember correctly) to confirm someone would be in to sign for it the day before it was delivered.

 

I got that call too with my just recently delivered (though about to be returned) 17R4. Funny thing is that they still left it on the porch with no signature! It was somewhat ineptly hidden behind a plant potter.

 

I think FedEx handles my area for thier next day shipping. They usually deliver a bit earlier which I highly prefer. I HATE waiting all day for a package to be delivered. Every time I hear a bird fart I race to my window to see they're there.

 

I waited and waited until they revealed. I always hated silver laptops. Any chance of getting back red ?

 

No and no. And the silver is really dark, more like a gray. I think it looks pretty nice.

 

And the "black" M18x R1/R2 is actually a gunmetal color. I like the super-dark pitch black color on my M17x R2 the best of all. It has always been striking to look at. I wish they would have kept it like that. It's too bad they don't have color choices any more. But, you can always do a custom paint job if you want something truly unique.

There is always a possibility that they might make Nebula Red available at a later date, along with some other component configuration options. I guess we will need to wait and find out.

 

I'm thinking that if i can one day get chassis parts from parts people, i can paint them white and change the alienFX colors to red and Yellow(touchpad) in celebration of Mirrors Edge 2.

 

Hey,
I just ordered a M14x with just a upgraded display, how much difference is there between the two graphics card? Worth the upgrade?

 

If you can afford it then there's absolutely no reason not to get the upgrade, it's the most important part of your system.

 

I understand that but I'm just interested in how big of a difference it is. Is there any way to know at this point in time cause I can't find anything that highlights this on the internet.

 

Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of reliable information on how those GPUs perform. The professional reviews are sometimes not very accurate and the real evidence of performance is not available until the machines are in circulation and being tested more thoroughly by end users. If you can afford the best one offered for the 14, it would be wise to go with that option. You may regret not spending a little extra later on. It might last you an extra year or so before you feel a compulsive need to upgrade in order to maintain a good gaming experience. If you are not a gaming enthusiast, then it probably doesn't make any sense to get the most powerful GPU offered.

There is a danger in assuming they are close based on the naming convention. For example, one GTX 680M is almost double the graphics performance of a GTX 675M. The GTX 765M should be notably better performing that a GT 750M. Having 2GB of vRAM in the GTX 765M is also a huge advantage over the 1MB offered with the GT 750M in the 14. Many modern games need more than 1MB of vRAM. Even some older games (Crysis 2, for example) can use more than 1GB of vRAM.

 

Taken from notebookcheck:

"The graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 765M is clearly above the GTX 660M thanks to the higher amount of shaders. The maximum performance may differ a bit depending on the cooling solution of the used laptop (due to GPU Boost 2.0 better colling solutions lead to a better performance). In our tests the average performance of the GTX 765M was above the older GTX 670MX. Demanding games like Metro: Last Light, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3 or even SimCity were only playable in 1366x768 pixels and high detail settings at fluent frame rates. Older and less demanding games like Star Craft 2 however were playable in Full HD with all settings set to max."

"The feature set of the GTX765M is identical to the GTX670MX as both are based on the same GK106 core. Therefore the GPU supports up to 4 active displays."

 

Definitely grab the GTX 765M in the Alienware 14.

 

I would highly recommend the 765m. You wont regret getting it later on.

 

I meant the 750m vs the 765m.. the two different cards offered in the new alienware 14

 

Get the upgrade for the GPU especially since you have upgraded the screen

 

there is a massive difference. Trust us and go with the 765m GTX its much faster than the 750m GT

 

There's already a review of the new Alienware 17 http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-17.aspx

It says there that the battery life is actually worse than M17x despite the fact that one of the most notable improvement from ivy bridge to haswell is lower battery consumption. Could someone please clarify?

Sent from my PadFone 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

the m17x and m18x are back instock to order on the UK website. Popped up as of 16:00pm today.

Lets hope they offer some sweet cheap upgrades. Incidently the 17x is stock with a GTX 675m and £250 to upgrade to GTX 680M.

 

Take all the reviews you see with a grain of salt. Those machines are pre-production models with Beta and old drivers. Wait till some of us get ours for better reviews of actual production models. It should be noted however, that the new models' battery is slightly smaller capacity.

 

Alienware 17 Review Image Gallery Page 9 says the battery is very long lasting

 

I apologize if this is a dumb question, but I've been confused about how battery capacity is measured. For example, many people are saying that the battery on the new Alienware's are smaller than the previous generation. According to Dell's product pages, the old m14x had an 8-cell 63whr battery while the new model has 6-cell 69whr battery. Based on the watt-hour measurements, doesn't that mean the new models actually have a larger battery capacity and we should, therefore, expect more battery life? Although, unless battery tech has improved within the past year, I'm a bit puzzled on how they could reduce the size of the battery by 3-cells while still increasing watt-hours. I'm probably misunderstanding something so if someone could explain how these measurements are done, that'd be great :thumbsup:

 

Agreed. In fact if you watch the video from laptopmag, you'll see they basically were thrown into the room with the pre-release models at E3. The reviewers were given a limited window to write down their impressions, run benchmarks on pre-installed software, and post their 'Review' online.

In comparison a site like Toms Hardware or my personal favorite Anandtech, will take their time with the machines, typically a week or two to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of the hardware. This of course gives them more time to run their own test-suites, and address any initial software / driver concerns.

That said, I've already bitten the bullet, so here's hoping that new models come out of the factory with little to no QA issues. :thumbsup:

 

Just ordered mine. Ended up taking the base config.

1 Alienware 18 BTX Base Mod
1 4th Gen Intel Core i7-4700MQ (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost) (Standard)
1 18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED FHD (1080p) TrueLife 400 Nit Display (1920 X 1080)
1 Alienware 18 LCD Hinge Up
1 8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
1 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
1 Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVDR/RW)
1 330W A/C Adapter
1 8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
1 Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled (Standard)
1 Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
1 5G WiFi Broadcom 4352 802.11n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 driver

Website Price £1999.99
Discount Price £1721.74 £278.25 off

14% discount not bad for 2 days haggling.

 

I was speaking specifically about the M17x R4 Vs the new AW 17. You right right though, I thinking about # of cells not WHr. Some research shows the R4 had a 9 cell 85 WHr battery and the new one has an 8 Cell 86 WHr battery. All in all the battery life should be very close.

 

We give both options, standard drives are SATA II and SSDs are SATA III.

I don't think we do this.

You can upgrade your laptop through Dell and the new parts will be covered under your laptop's warranty. You can also buy parts from a 3rd party vendor (or ebay and such for that matter) and upgrade it yourself but you'll want to keep the original parts around in case you need to call in for support as Tech Support will only troubleshoot the original configuration you purchased.

However, from previous experiences I've seen that generally new cards aren't available for purchase through Dell for a while.

The order can be placed over the phone.

It depends on the configuration you chose, it also varies from one country to another. Base models will likely ship faster.

You can check your order status here, make sure you sign up for email notifications.

 

Video: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...00mq-magnesium-alloy-frame-aluminum-body.html

says that m14x R3 can have 3 drives? How? Specs tell different story?

 

Do the new models not allow customization for the AW card on the bottom? I know during set up you used to have an option to put your name in or game name or whatever you wanted on the bottom, and going through the set ups now I don't see any of these options. Are they all generic metal plates on the bottom now?

 

Afraid it's another thing dell have dropped from the AW. They only offered it to US customers and now they have no reason to charge you guys extra 'next day' postage. You should get them delivered directly from the factory in China like the rest of the world does - but they are ripping you guys off right now with this spurious charge by importing them to a central depot and then sending them on 'next day'(IMO)

 

From what I've heard, it just shows the computer specs. Kinda annoying, but probably lets them manufacture the laptops faster.

 

I dont mind the nameplates having the system spec on them. UK didnt get option to specify our custom nameplate anyway so we havent lost anything

 

Yeah, I couldn't care less about a bit of metal with some engraving on it. In the UK, we've never had that option anyway, so I'm not missing anything. Of course, if you are in the US an used to the option, your feelings may differ. If it's that important, I suggest that you detach the plate when it arrives and take it to an engraver. Hardly worth worrying over. Job done, time to go down the pub.

 

One hd is in the optical drive (ODD). One is mSata and one is Sata.

 

They're offering overclocked processors again. They took the 512 mSATA/750GB HDD down though.

 

Okay, so that's no improvement upon the M14x R2.

Haswell is supposed to be able to have 6 SATA III ports, they should have added another MSATA.

 

the mSata is Sata lll now though. So faster.

 

Hopefully there is an order list so that the early purchasers are getting systems a bit earlier than people ordering a week later. I'd imagine they aren't building enough at one time to deliver to everyone. ETA is still the same today as it was a week ago.

 

May have something to do with stock availability. That happens now and then, and that is most often the reason.

 

Aren't the stock vs OC packages exactly the same.
Just the OC has changed the same chip to a level 3 OC in the Bios for marketing purposes ?

 

I believe you're correct, you would be paying for someone to fire it up and make a single BIOS change. Dell are only going to use pre-sets provided by Intel on specific CPU's.

I saw some discussion re SATAIII and Haswell. IT is confusing but Haswell supports six x 6gb/s channels. It is up to the OEM if they are interfaced with SATA for SATAIII or USB for USB 3.0. USB 3.0 ports are often referred to as 'fast usb' and the icon on the port has 'ss' in front of it. HTH

 

Honestly I found the nameplate a pain in the hind parts when coming to resell the units. Who wants their dang name on the bottom for future owners to see?

Besides I realized quickly the only time you see the nameplate is the day you get it and anytime you make repairs. So not what you call a real vanity item when said item is face down 99.9% of the time.

 

@ Micky : lol that means I currently have the 4.6ghz package /J

 

I know this is an alienware thread, but can any computer experts tell me the main differences of a GT70 MSI and an Alienware gaming system?

My dream has always been to get an alienware, but since they aren't allowing you to custom configure your GPU and CPU without adding extras, I've been looking into alternative solutions... and I can save over $1000 if I were to get a bearbone GT70 from xotic pc, or I'd save over 500$ if I got a Dragon Edition MSI mostly maxed out.

I'm wondering if there are any performance differences between the two brands? Like, I know MSI offers super raid 2, and Alienware offers dual GPU on the 18, but I'm not sure which is best :/

 

I haven't looked at what OC's they are offering I can't say for sure as the dell bios will be critical in what is offered and how you get to it. I'd need to see one . And the options are CPU specific, the better the CPU the more options there are for pushing it further. I have 3 levels to choose from, the highest is listed as 4.1ghz so only a small increase. The hardcore overclocker will ignore those and use their own settings (or an unlocked BIOS)

 

I debated a number of configurations but ultimately went with the 17, i7 4800, GTX 780m, Blu-ray, 256 ssd, 750 hd, 16 gb ram, 1080p anti-glare, accessory 9 cell battery and 4 years support / 4 years accidental damage coverage. $478 dollars of price concessions were offered.

The amount of discounting varied depending upon configurations. Technical support and accidental damage must be priced at high profit margins compared to hardware upgrades b/c they offer more discounts with configurations including support / accidental damage.

Would have liked the 18 or the 120hz screen but battery life matters to me, as does anti-glare. Time will tell whether I made the right trade-offs.