*Official* Alienware Launch Discussion Thread

anybody else disappointed in the lack of customizable nameplates? that was one of the alienware "custom" things that I enjoyed and set them apart.

 

The 3D panel is listed as 'Truelife' - a different anti-glare technology. Dell TrueLife™ LCD Screens - What is it?

 

Sorry, nope. Couldn't give a hoot.

I'm much more concerned about:
-The power button no longer being a lit-up alien head.
-The front grilles no longer being there (or looking good anyway)
-Lack of 3 monitor outputs
-The 780m scoring 5600 in 3Dmark 11
-The price going up
-The screen issues
-The keyboard no longer having the same amount of lighting coming through (toned down LED's but also no square outline around each key)

 

Coincidence! - I was just looking at that very page! - so, safe to say the 18x uses the same kind of "truelife antiglare" technology, whilst might not be a true antiglare coating, should be a balance of somewhere in between the two, as far as I can tell.

 

Hello.
First time poster, but I would really appreciate some ordering configuration help. You guys are really amazing with helping people and I really respect that!
I currently have an M17x R1 with 280 SLI and Q9000 2ghx CPU and 4GB, and was wondering how much of a % upgrade a new system would be from my R1. I use it for both gaming, AutoCAD, and Adobe (I'm a landscape architect). So for design work it seems the ISP screen has the most accurate colors (which is important to me). Also, should I buy RAM separately from AW? Might get 16GB aftermarket?

Torn between these three options and would really like to spend the least amount of money, but this will be a 4 year investment and really want the best bang for my buck in the long-term (really don't want to spend too much though). Really don't want to spend more than $2k, but I might if it is really worth it over 4 years. I really appreciate the help! Here's what I'm thinking.... What would YOU pick? (from what I can tell the M14 runs too hot eventhough the screen is quite nice, and the GPUs suck?)

Option 1: M17 with 770m for $1,900 with upgrade screen and 8GB
Option 2: M17 with 780m for $2,200 with upgrade screen and 16GB
Option 3: M18 with 765 SLI for $2,100 with 8GB (so does the 18 have the nice ISP screen, or no, or just a rebadged ISP of some sort... kinda confused)
Which option is the best for performance/value????

Many thanks! I really hope to get some good answers, as I hate bothering you all.
Take care!

Last thing... I have a 256GB SSD from my R1, is it a good idea to put it in my new system, or is it too "old"?

 

Woot,

On the 17 and 18 there are the option for a total of 3 HDD bays. 2 standard and the 3rd if you opt out of the optical drive. It also has the mSata drive option for a total of 4 storage devices.

They are easy to access. If you are not getting help on quotes, you can call in or configure online @ Alienware - Custom Gaming Computers - PC Gaming At Its Best.

 

From what I can interpret about True-Life it isn't anti-glare as in Matte but rather a shiny screen that attempts to let as much light pass through and reflect a minimal amount. So it is good in bright light but still a smooth rather than rough surface.

 

That would be good enough for me, especially with ditching the plexi. Dell must have fought hard to get an 18.4 IPS derivative, so hat's off to them on that one....go team Dell! - if I were contemplating an 18x, that screen would certainly make me VERY tempted.

 

Anyone else stuck in pre-production??

 

I have just bought an M18x r2 with dual 7970 from ebay (refurbished) in very good price. Very happy with it and after all those new alienwares presented today, I am thinking if the m18x r3 screen will fit my M18x r2. I like the screen of R2 but an IPS/PLS panel will be always better in color reproduction and viewing angles. Anyone expert here to reply? I think maybe both screen have the same connector at the back.

 

Ha ah, it's all about smart searches

I read it the same as you, better than the old glossy but not the best available in anti-glare. Id' like to see a flash photo of old and new to see if it shows up.

 

probably won't fit because of the difference in the lids between the two revisions.

 

Not sure, maybe wait for an 18x r3 teardown. I'd imagine stock for buying just the screen would be a real problem to start with anyways.....

 

Would not likely work. 2 different frames and a different lighting system.

 

In that case, your best bet for improving the R2's display is to mod it! : http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...odifications-custom-builds-9.html#post7798598

 

Still no option to customize an 18 on the UK site?
If the price is mad may still go for an m18x r2

 

I was playing with one not too long ago....hmmm, if you go via DMXDimension, you can play about with it: http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/alienware-m18x-deals-offers-coupons/

 

The Alienware 18 has one hell of a screen!

 

Yeah that was the m18x, tbh even with 3840qm base ram, base hdd and 680 sli its still nearly £3000, the new 18 might not be as expensive as I thought. Although over $5000 for 780 sli on the US site is scaring me :S

 

yes the frame maybe its different, but the internal panel seems to be exactly the same 18.4 inch 16:9, as also in the R2. So if the plug is the same (40pin), I dont see a reason why not. I have tried upgrade screens in the past on other laptops, but the main problem was the lack of dual LVDS cable. it had a 1366x768 vs 1920x1200 resolution of the upgrade screen. But in this case we have the same resolution on both laptops, so the dual lvds cable is already on the R2.

 

The 17inch anti glare screen in the M17x is more then likely the Chi Mei screen they use in the MSI machines 300 nits and around 70ish% color gamut. Not a bad screen but nothing to lose sleep over. Atleast now you can easily put a better screen in the machine if you are not satisfied without hours of work removing the glass like i have done a few times .


Clearly the M18x is the real flagship machine here with the best screen and the price premium comes with it .

 

FWIW, I haggled ~12% off with the 5% gift card on a 17. Seems like they're fairly motivated to shift these already.

Specs are:

1
210-AAPS
Alienware 17 Base
1
370-AANN
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
1
580-ABEG
English Keyboard
1
490-BBGQ
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
1
658-BBOD
Broadcom 4352 Driver
1
400-AASX
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
1
619-ACNF
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, English
1
429-AAFS
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW)
1
555-BBEQ
Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
1
470-AAKG
US 125V Power Cord
1
340-ABEU
Documentation, English
1
421-1723
Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
1
950-3337
1 Year Limited Warranty
1
950-9797
No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1
994-3730
Warranty Support, Initial Year
1
954-4168
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
1
954-4191
In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
1
338-BCHV
Intel Core i7-4800MQ (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
1
391-BBEI
17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle
1
451-BBCB
8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
1
450-AAJI
240W AC Adapter
1
354-BBBC
LCD Back Cover (3D) Alienware 17
1
640-BBLC
Alienware Command Center 3.0
1
658-BBNS
System Software for Alienware M17xR1
1
340-ADEN
Alienware 17 Anodized Aluminum - 3D
1
389-BCCZ
Windows 7 Label, OptiPlex, Fixed Precision, Vostro Desktop
1
430-XYGR
Power DVD 9.6 BD, 3D,V2
1
340-ADEV
Setup Instructions English
1
332-1530
Dell.com Order
1
332-1530
Dell.com Order
1
658-BBNX
Additional Software
1
630-AAAU
Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
1
817-BBBP
None Required
1
730-5504
Thank You for Choosing Dell

 

Edited my post. Follow the link above and you can configure a UK 18x R3 by going through DMXDimension's site. Don't choose the top configuration as that is clearly an R2 with an Ivy cpu, the rest are R3's....not sure why the Dell UK link is showing as unavailable...as usual, the UK messes things up big time....

 

780sli can be confirmed around 3k USD from 2.6k base.

 

In the UK, you can get a M18x R3 780m Sli machine for £2,748.99 - if you go through the DMXDimension link I posted earlier, and apply the two codes to the basket, you can get it for £2,537.98 delivered. (be quick, the 7% off voucher expire soon....14th June.) Just had one in my UK basket for this price, so it does work :thumbsup:

 

Freaky! I just checked that from your link!!!!!

 

Spooky!! maybe we got some kind of telepathic psychic connections going on!! LOL - good price though, eh?

 

Sure seems that way
Yeah v good price for top end sli, if I wasn't so sold on my 3D it would be ordered now!

 

Ah for I get a sneaky feeling that the PLS display will be connected using eDP rather than LVDS because of 10-bit support. Same goes with the M17x R3/R4 where the 60Hz display is connected with LVDS and the 120Hz 3D version is eDP and they aren't interchangeable. This is the case with the M6600 and M6700 and the RGBLED as well. Luckily the R3/R4 have both connectors but the M18x R1/R2 don't so I don't see a transplant begin a possibility.

 

My shipping date got bumped from July 2nd to July 18th. It still says I have next day shipping, which I paid $0 for. Now it's listed as $25 extra. I guess I got away with that...

 

That is a good price for the 780 sli. Although I would like the 4900mq cpu. Do you think we will ever be able to build them from scratch so we could put in our own ram and hdd's but select high end gpu's and cpu's like with the m18x?

 

To quote Brother Luis from his opening post, I don't think so. It's likely to remain like this, as far as I know.

I imagine Dell have 'wised up' to the fact that people buy their own aftermarket upgrades, so to limit that and maintain profit, pre-conigured machines are the only option. They automatically include the components that normally you could elect to buy after, and the price is reflected in such. That way, Dell can perhaps offer a slightly cheaper 'overall' price (when compared to previously customised machines) to the masses, they make the money from the components in the pre-configured machines automatically. Therefore, I think we have seen then end of the days where you could buy top end gpu/cpu and do the rest yourself 'on the cheap'.

 

Any word on why the UK 17 doesn't get the 4930mx? I know it doesn't have a triple pipe heatsink and all but I would still love to tweak.

 

Maybe that's why mine is taking an extra 2 weeks now. They just added 2 weeks to my delivery estimate.

 

Hmmm. The US version does..... http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-17/pd.aspx?dgc=SM&cid=249387&lid=4822415#TechSpec there is not gonna be any regional difference to mean the UK 17x can't handle that chip.

 

Exactly. And he could have said 'We can get them out the door quicker if we stop messing around giving you the machines you want'. Yeah, this is annoying me

 

Has anyone been able to configure a M17x R5 with the 3D bundle on any of the country configurators? I keep getting compatibility issues. I could probably do it fine over the phone but I'm not quite at that stage of ordering yet and am busy trying to sort some money out for one of these machines Hopefully it's a bug they'll look into and fix soon.

 

Luis, does the 14 have a mxm card?

 

Just noticed another possible error. M18x display. UK says 400 nit, opening post says 350 nit....which is it? LOL

 

2 quick things:

What company manufactures the mSATA SSDs?
I assume the RAM is Samsung/Hynix/Other Dell generic, so does that mean it is still CL9 or 10? (Please let it be 11...)

 

Same here. Got bumped from the 2nd to the 19th though. Mine is now listed as $1 though.

Did it on the US site and all was fine, though I finalized my order over the phone.

 

It's a bug on the UK site. I reported it this morning after trying the US site where it works.

 

Going by previous history, drives are probably Samsung or LiteOn, maybe Crucial/Micron too. What you get can be a mixed bag, depending on stocking issues.

As for the ram, Samsung and Hynix are the generic stuff - why would you wish for higher CL figures though? - lower is generally better, afaik.

 

Isn't the lower the CL the better?

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one.

 

Maybe I am in the minority in this, but I'm optimistic that even if they included some higher components in the system, with a decent discount, it won't be that bad to get some higher memory, etc...built in.

SSD tends to be very expensive, but if you scored a 20% discount in a couple months, it's not that bad to get something included/warranteed with Dell directly...With some discounts now at around 12%, 20% should be easy. In the end, Dell wants to sell these machines and since it's a new refresh for both Intel and Nvidia (sorta <laugh>)...people will buy machines if they need machines. Add in options for a bonus giftcard offers and back to school, maybe it won't be that bad to "upgrade" a few items to get that gfx card. I never cared for the top CPU, but that maybe tougher to avoid packing in 32GB, etc...I think later, they will still have more options if people wait/demand it...They need to sell machines which in the end, is just a commodity product I still think.

Since it's all new, it's just harder to see as many options.

Pricing from what others have been actually buying doesn't seem "that" bad. I've been reading this thread and there have been numerous people who posted saying they cancelled their say M18x R2 order and just reordered for less..."score!, etc..."

Can't be that bad/crazy I guess.

 

Higher CL tends to run at lower voltages, but after doing some quick reading, it appears I am remembering antiquated technology. Apparently integrated memory controllers have made RAM timing obsolete unless you are doing your own clocking.

 

Aren't they DDR3L? in which case they may be Kingsington

 

I can only select win7 home premium and not ultimate. I keep getting compatibility issues when selecting 32gb ram, and theres no way im having win 8, its a disaster! I think we need to give the UK site a few days to sort itself out. Also the 18's display is listed as TN isn't it supposed to be PLS?

 

The ram is DDRL. The L means life and it runs at lower voltage. That's about all I know about this ram.

If you get Windows 8 Pro you can dual boot with Windows 7 hassle free, that's what I'm going for. Also consider Windows 8 is a lot faster with boot times ect. I've used both quite a bit, it's not really that bad after you get used to the new interface. The boot times are insane, like 5 seconds compared to 30 or so.