The new direction Alienware has taken

well they were(probably still are) available at Tiger Direct stores(used to be Comp USA..........)

 

Yeah there are also Alienwares on display at Fry's Electronics and Micro Center. But these are niche PC showrooms, not a ubiquitous department store such as Walmart. Even Best Buy makes more sense as it mainly carries electronics.

 

Yep I was so very jelly of my buddy's XPS in college, until he almost flunked out during his first year LOL (true story sadly )

 

Isn't it illegal to make marketing claims about a product being "the most powerful" when it actually isn't? From what I understand advertisers can make claims like "coolest" or "the best" but can't specifically say something about the product that can be disproven in real life.

 

No - they can use what amounts to empty rhetoric all day. Manufacturers do this all the time, just think of "best cold remedy" or "best car in class"; it's not off a real metric but some subjective evaluation they can point to.

 

Marketing people are like politicians. Lies, distortions, fabrication, hyperbole and spin is all they know. You can always tell when they are lying because their lips are moving. The proof is always in the pudding... what happens when we work our magic on the machines is the only measurement that matters. When they start blocking us with firmware write-protection and soldered BGA crap, it is a blatant show of disrespect and contempt for their customers.

 

Personally I seen it was downhill with the AW17. They cut costs (but not price), dropped all the AW boutique coolness and built a clevo with a wrap around light. Moving to mainstream was inevitable on the downslope. However, business wise, this all may work in their favor.

I still maintain that the R4 was the last "Alienware" to be bought.

/ puts on flame suit for AW17 owners (not trying to dis you buyers, just expressing opinion)

 

Just want to comment on this a bit. Some Reps (I say some loosely) have appeared on AWA, so it should be reasonable that NBR should see a rep soon as well.

 

Probably means they're back from <del>gulag</del> <del>brainwashing</del> new release information sessions

 

There bro... I fixed that typo for you. :thumbsup:

Should make their jobs a lot easier. Want to know how a new Alienware runs? Simple, pick any BGA jokebook with an HQ and 980M and there you go! One size fits all. Pick the badge (and price tag) that your Facebook buddies have decided is the best one for you to have... all the same at the end of the day... BGA is BGA. Don't forget to rinse off the cookie-cutter before you place it in the dishwasher.

 

Mr. Fox I have been enjoying your comments for a while now. I feel like I don't have to comment because of you.

I might get an 18r2 soon btw.

 

The M17x R4 is great for portable power you can take anywhere, if you can find one without audio issues. The M18x R2, is just a mobile beast. Not portable, but mobile, and the embodiment of what Alienware's flagship should be. The M17x R4 is also a venerable laptop.

 

I tried to sell my AW17, geting an M18xR2 but some serious constraints didn't let me. I will try again in 2015 if there's any machine left out for....

This Alienware and their deviation from the mainstream track, Damn them...Because of this stupidity most people are opting for Clevo P7xx or the older machines...what a shame

 

You can always try ebay?

 

He won't get squat selling his laptop on ebay in India..

 

People who get Alienware machines here are very few & they hardly know these brands Clevo, Sager, AW. Plus the Indian govt.'s rules against PayPal are restricted & If I ship internationally the added customs from here are skyrocketing...

 

Ah didnt notice you live in India. But its the buyer that pay customs, not you right?
Well try your luck at the marketplace again in 2015. Or why not just upgrade the GPU to 980M?

 

I am not entirely worried about Alienware and it going down the drain. Dell and other big companies always do this because they can afford too. They Buy out something that has value as a brandname and mass market it, which lowers the quality severly and then they make it mianstream in the process, but this leaves room for innovation and competitors to come out with a new and exciting product that is actually worth it once again. Eventually when it reaches a plateau, they will sell thier brand out for alot of money, to Dell, and the same process will happen again. When these things are happening, its always when there is a pause in the field of electronics too, a slowdown of innovation. Just as the next exciting platforms (Alienware) took off last time, DDR3 and i3/i5/i7's and SSD's and SLI all hit the scene. Before that, rememebr when nVidia and ATI came out with DDR/DDR2 platform with cpu's other then celerons, that actually had 1-2mb L2 cahce (rather then the garbage that for tyears was all over, with like 128k-512k L2 max..) pci-e graphics cards and wifi a/b/ and G speeds.

What I see around the corner, is Alienware getting slicker and more silver, much more mainstream and almost losing the alienware head logo somewhere... then DDR4 and 2nd gen Maxwell cpu's and 200-300 series nVidia/AMD, pci-e express SSD's, UXWG or wtvr and 4K screens on laptops, synced with the refresh rates of the monitor/LCD too. ANd guess what - Sager, Asus spend real bucksm on thier design look and logo and compete with Alienware, and steal the market. Only Asus is not going to do it, but Maybe another company , one thats smaller will really come out with something slick that we all want. maybe they will be the one and ONLY laptop gaming company that goes non-BGA and offers everything we're looking for. XPS becomes generic brand thats forgotten, alienware becomes a toy/mainstream brand of DELL, some new brand takes over market share form enthusiasts and is getting bids from DELL to sell out... and somewhere in the world, some IT grads from some tech universitity are brainstorming a neat idea that might be the next generation, in late 2020's...

But one thing for certain is this. Alienware's are all of a sudden, not cool. The only people wanting them, are posers who couldn't get them back in the day, and just want to have them now, since they're cheap and everyone's getting one. They want to fit in. They're also angry, cause the cool kids all of a sudden don't think Alienwares are hot anymore either. The vets have moved onto a different brand yet to be known.

 

I would agree with much of what you have said, but to say Alienware's are not cool all of a sudden, I would have to disagree. For most of the folks out there Alienware was branded as just another Dell back in 2009 when they got bought and immediately ceased to be cool at that point for many performance folks who just had to buy something more exclusive (well, at least in their minds). In truth, buyers looking for a cross section of performance, reliability, build quality and support focused on Alienware until recently, at least in laptops.

The new folks in the last few three years bought into the "it's just a Dell" nonsense and focused on "sexy" designs like the Razer and MSI products... only helped facilitate the move to BGA in the performance space. The constant deriding of Alienware that didn't jump on the flawed trend when it's clear they were bucking the trend to their own detriment says a lot about Alienware's (former) commitment to performance but with Intel making the shift and all their competitors (and yes, give it a short time and Clevo/Sager are going there too) to thin BGA-based systems they have opted to follow the market. Alienware may no longer be "cool", but to say the "cool" kids were buying Alienware over the past five years just doesn't hold up, nor the idea that it's suddenly not cool, it ain't been cool since 2009. The truth is the buyers who were smart enough to not go with what became popular stuck with Alienware even though it was no longer cool, which is frankly a dumb reason to buy anything in any event.

I'm convinced now that the AW 14 might have been a test of the waters... if offered good performance in a great package but in a thicker design with more reliability than the turn em out, burn em out bunch... but the market frowned at this design in favor of ultrabook-like designs (AW 14 sales were good but no great) and since Dell is not going to create thin laptops with thermals that result in maybe 12 to 19 months before component failures, instead is going the cool, thin route and they are adjusting with the BGAs that are going to rapidly become the norm. I also believe they are counting on enough of a performance gain with Silverlake coupled with newer Nvidias down the line to jazz things up. For the next year though, it's Broadwell BGA+900's.

People flocking from Alienware because they think this is just some bad business decision and plain mainstreaming is one thing, but be sure you understand that wherever you go will in a very short time end up being the same game so it's not just riding the name into the ground, it's more complex than that. The real culprit is Intel, who is under the gun with mobile devices (tablets, phones) creating a world of throwaway electronics... so, they are morphing their PC-business to match it and hoping to keep their margins up with throwaway computers. They are the ones everyone should b* ing about ultimately.

 

It all boils down to the question of whether one wants to be part of the problem and contribute to the dumbing down of enthusiast products or take a stand based on principle. While the brain-damaged monkeys will be happy to buy the soldered crap, the genuine enthusiast will understand that the best thing to do is act decisively and vindictively... buy only used laptops with beasty specs, a new Eurocom Panther 5, or just wipe the debris from your posterior crevice with an ultrabook turd and switch to desktop computing cold turkey. Let all the mobile panty-waisted sissy-boy garbage rot on the shelves and inflict all the financial harm humanly possible on Intel, Alienware and any other so-call "high performance" laptop maker peddling this worthless BGA filth by refusing to pay money for their pathetic and ultimately worthless trash.

 

@Mr. Fox - of course, the problem with switching to desktops is that 1) BGA is headed there as well, and 2) the market is shifting (finally) towards laptops as the greater norm over desktops in the private market, which is going to shrink (as will the number and range of produced parts) as the desktop market transcends it.

I am tempted to pick up an AW 17 (R1) or 18, but then the question arises, just how long will you be able to get parts? As a holding action I guess it makes sense, but in a very short time (3 years?) there won't be any parts to upgrade to, and with advances even on BGA systems will they really result in significantly more powerful systems for long?

 

This is golden xD this is actually the entire American philosophy now.

 

Simple solution: <del>Alienware</del>

 

Alienware is hilarious. They focus so much on "closing the gap" between desktop and mobile gaming, they lose sight of what they're known for and end up destroying their entire mobile lineup in the process. I suppose "being first" in line to do something is more important than respect, reputation, quality, and customer loyalty. Are we back in fifth grade? "I was here first!" "No, I was!"

All they do in their promotional videos is advertise the Graphics Amplifier: "The Alienware 15 is just amazing. We've got the latest technology from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. You don't have to compromise on the desktop level performance anymore. You can have an Ultra HD 4k experience unlike any other. It's really the only notebook that allows you to play your games at 60 FPS or faster...thanks to the Alienware Graphics Amplifier."

 

I like what the alienware 15 brings to the table for the most part minus not being able to upgrade pretty much anything. Anything else coming out that's a reasonable size, has decent screen options, and has a 980m? Just looking to see what else is available. Might have to buy one of these anyway with the extended warranty just to see how many motherboards I end up getting replaced.

 

anything clevo (eurocom, sager, origin) Msi, gigabyte i think

 

So they decided to kill off the slot-loading DVD-ROM/Blu-ray drive? Well, then I'm out in terms of buying a gaming laptop from Alienware. I've got a AW 17 R1 with three years of warranty attached, and we'll see how things go between now and the end of the warranty line. After that, I'm going to take a very long, hard look at options, including the option of downgrading to a simpler laptop without all the power and instead glomming onto the living room PC I'm going to build for my wife (and that I have already been granted full access to, provided she doesn't have to use it).

The central problem I have with what Alienware is doing is that no longer is my laptop's present and probably future generations will be the all-in-one solution for entertainment that I am looking for. I am not a hardcore enthusiast who overclocks everything up to the bleeding edge, due to a simple fear of bricking my laptop. I know, I know, there's tons of guides on how to do it... not interested, honestly. The base performance works well for what I require, and I like having something different than the legions of Macbooks and cheap Chromebooks I see everywhere I go. I used to be able to win the arguments of entertainment platform by saying, "Yes, and how many movies do you own? What do you do when you go on the road?" At this point they usually sputter something about digital downloads, and I smile in a very superior manner. "Ah, but what happens when you run out of SSD space?" Sure, you can upgrade that, at a cost of about $500. Egads! (I always lost the part of the argument about display panels, though; Mac kicks the crap out of Alienware with their screens. So, so pretty.)

What's also crappy is that now the Macs are just configurable as Alienware's products. Yes, their graphic cards options are awful in terms of raw power, but Alienware is also not providing decent support via BIOS releases in order to support emerging technologies. Have you seen the hoops you have to jump through in order to successfully set up a 980M card? Once again, egads. What we're left with a is small group of people who are a whole heck of a lot braver than I am putting literally thousands of dollars on the line (and the very real threat of bricking their technological terrors) in the attempt to MacGyver a solution to the problem. That's lame, Alienware. We paid, on the average, probably about $2,700 apiece for our systems, and having some more aftermarket support would be awesome. If nothing else, we certainly forked over enough dough to qualify our systems for better-than-average updating; it's not like I picked up at $299 Chromebook at Costco, right? Unfortunately, that has been a recurring problem ever since I bought my R1 back in 2009; the 260M graphics drivers stopped being updated about a year after release, and from there on out it was nervously hoping I'd gotten all the steps right and clicked at the right time in order to squeeze the square peg (updated Nvidia drivers) into the round hole (my now-resentful R1, who responded by occasionally BSODing me).

And for those who say, "Well, just get an external Blu-ray drive and stop being a long-winded whiner about it!", I have two things to say:

1) I will never stop being a long-winded whiner, but at least I'll try to make you think while I do it, and...

2) You don't put a rusty sidecar on a classic Harley. That's just God-awful, and definitely not when I paid as much as I did.

Here's hoping the R3 gets back more to the roots, but I'm not holding my breath. Cheers, brothers and sisters.

 

Seriously. I can understand getting rid of the CD/DVD/Blue Ray drive on a 13 inch laptop; even a 15 inch laptop. But a 17+ inch screened, over an inch thick desktop replacement should totally still have one. These things are literally supposed to replace a desktop. Be a powerful mobile jack of all trades, and at that size you shouldn't need to also carry around a bunch of USB peripherals for it to do the job it should be able to do by itself.. like watch a movie from a disk.

 

The thing is, at some point the cd-drive will die, just not yet. Especially when you have blu-ray drives and 4K cd's coming out. But it's one more thing you have to carry around with you to install even the simplest of stuff. I still use my drive quite often, whether it be for re installing Windows or watching a film. And there lies the issue it's a laptop, it's designed to go where I go, not to be put on a desk, then start plugging in all sorts to do what I want it to do. Often I am at a place without a decent connection and it's dead handy, I need to install a printer? No problem, I'll just use the cd that came with it!

The thing is maybe Dell is trying to start a trend, as I mentioned before their latest new laptops such as the inspirons and latitudes no longer come with a cd-drive. That alone will be a IT's worst nightmare with the amount of drivers/images/programs they have to install.

If my laptop ever went bang, I'd love to see what Dell/Alienware would consider as a suitable replacement.

 

Indeed. Physical media is still very valuable to have access to for a variety of people .From IT personnel to Cinephiles with giant DVD/Blue Ray collections and even your regular joe who just wants to be able to play his Band of Brothers box set. Its not going away for a LONG time. Especially when 4k blue rays are going to be coming out this year and most people can't even get Netflix to stream in 1080p on their connections. We're talking about files in the tens or even hundreds of gigabytes here.

 

I also, cannot believe they nixed the optical drive on the 15 and 17" models. FFS, even the 300$ laptops still have them. Why would you EVER get rid of a critical component like that? How am i supposed to print music CDs? Or rip my DVDs/BluRays? Stupid Stupid Stupid.

 

I can justify the move to BGA on 13 and somewhat on the 15. But Alienware still needs a no holds barred 17+ monster that carries the Alienware reputation of power and expandability. I use a Optical Drive regularly, usually burning recovery, media and driver discs for clients after working on their systems. I also use my BluRay RW for movies too and ripping discs when needed. Like I said before, there is no logical upgrade from my 18x r2 and AW18 now, but they are plenty powerful for the next 2-3 years easily for what I need them for.

 

I honestly haven't used cds or dvds in years. it's a welcome addition ( or subtraction rather). Real estate inside has been increased for more power/more cooling. Which i believe is more important in a Gaming Laptop. It's not like you cant buy an external drive. This isnt just alienware doing this. The industry is moving away from physical media, and you don't have to like it but it's going to happen. As for BGA, thats more of a grey area. Companies want to move away from socket to make more money, not because it's obsolete which i think is wrong

 

I agree for the most part. External DvD drives aren't to pricy these days.

 

Your guys are totally missing the point. So Alienware removed the ODD. What did they get out of it?

*crickets*

Exactly.

 

I haven't seen the actual layout of the laptop. You sure they didn't add a bigger battery or something?

 

They added a bigger battery (92 whr as opposed to the 86 whr).

 

That's hilarious.

 

ah thanks for the info man

Yea I'll give you that one. They could have made better use of the space the optical drive would have taken up.

 

Well they are lighter/smaller which does matter if you are taking the thing around a lot. I would still like an all out built in beast though too.

 

And speaking of ODD bays, http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...alienware-desktops-optical-drive-or-expansion.
(Okay yes, it's for desktops, but it fits with the topic at hand.)

 

I don't like it and I'll tell you why. The ISP's (which are far too often also content creators) are going to own you. There was a short period in time where I was buying digital content (movies/tv shows) from Amazon and realized, why am I locking myself out of my collection. A person can rack up a huge collection for major $ and then can only access it with an ISP, therefore, as the internets get more expensive to connect, your collection is held hostage to them. Meanwhile, I'm pushing play on my physical media. Data Caps? 50GB game downloads? Net Neutrality is more important than ever when I look at the future landscape of content creation and distribution. All those ISP's and/or content creators will be writing the laws with their puppet installed lobbyists at the FCC, you bet, just like Citi-bank wrote the legislation for leaving the taxpayer on the hook in the last budget bill.

I have no doubt the industry is moving toward it, they'll claim all friendly consumer reasons, possibly environmentally friendly reasons, but like going digital, the change is all about control.

I cut the cord almost 11 years ago, only in the past couple years has the concept become mainstream. Seeing what's coming, I'm already contemplating when I'll be cutting the internets.

/tinfoil hat removed and polished

 

If Dell / Alienware is so concerned with cutting costs, they should focus more on their support. Situations like this cost Dell lots of money. Imagine this on a global scale - millions of customers - and we're talking about millions, maybe even tens of millions of dollars, wasted each year due to poor workmanship. They probably waste just as much money on repairing/replacing parts as it costs to manufacture an entirely new laptop because their technicians are untrained or careless and do not know how to properly diagnose a system.

Stop taking away from the products and start better managing your employees. Train them properly; have certification/re-certification programs; do something productive!

 

Since when does Alienware need to start lying and misleading customers to meet sales quotas?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...enware-17-3dmark11-results-2.html#post9898192

 

yea it really doesn't add up to me. I'd be all over them to get them to tell me why in the hell my GPU can't get over 540mhz

 

It honestly doesn't bug me that they're in wal-mart, it doesn't change my perception of them at all. It's still a niche brand. If you look at where they've gone since the Dell purchase, their elimination of MXM is really just a natural step. They know that they need to be smarter and sell units and to do that they need lower prices. To attain lower prices, they need to solder chips to the board and get rid of some of the fluff. The build quality (and overall quality) has dropped since the M__x series, I noticed this especially after having an M11X, then an AW, and now an AW17. I'm curious to see if they can use some of the things they've gotten good at (strong chassis with minimal flex, LED customization, over-clockability) and still compete with the other brands in regards to price. Let's step back here before we all get upset. They may still return with an 18" fully aftermarket upgradable machine to appease our (high-spec gamers, super-users) rather unique usage requirements.

Let's also not forget, we live in the age of consumerism and capitalism. There are plenty of other options out there.

 

They did WHAT with the heatsink?

It's almost as if they're trying to kill the Alienware in every which way possible.

 

They weren't kidding when they said Full Throttle Gaming Performance. :laugh:

 

hard to overclock something you can't modify cause its so locked down. but yea you're right for the most part though... and a lot of people are going to be probably running to sager here in the near future that's for sure.

 

Im on the fence the changes could be good or bad but the 180w brick is just such a kick in the nuts I want to pull the trigger and buy it, but that is not enough power to fully maximize the potential of the hardware. Every benchmark I have seen has the 4710hq w gtx 980m reaching 210+ watts meaning this is going to throttle ... And no one has reviews or benchmarks yet.....