When are the new Alienwares with Maxwell coming?

They are not relying to my emails anymore.
Probably having a crap load of problems and there for won't tell? I have no idea

 

Exactly, if you are sensible even a long session is going to do no harm, just take the odd break for the toilet, drink/food and stretching and you will be fine.

 

Yep gotta balance your fluid intake/outake and those electrolytes.

 

Brain damage is often very subtle and can be difficult to diagnose, but there are telltale signs such as irrational behavior. Maybe electrolyte imbalance also explains why some people think it is OK to solder a CPU or GPU to the motherboard.

 

Or think a Graphics Accelerator makes sense paired with a dual-core chip

 

They clearly aren't drinking enough Brawndo.

 

If I just could get an all clear from anyone with 970M, I'd be all over an AW18 upgrade this weekend.

SVL our best hope of getting 970M/980M to work is currently away for a few weeks, and that suck

Eurocom said today they are still working on AW18. With their half finished solution with 980M and AW17 I'm not super positive on a quick solution :/

 

@Cloudfire
Not a good idea to purchase something that is not guaranteed to work.
Or you have to work all by yourself as I did with 980m.
And if you were the first one or near to test maxwell in alienware, I'd be glad to hear that.
However, I really dont think they would work without a mod vbios. So think again before you spend your hard-earned money.

 

hard-earned money? NO ..Cloudfire EARN ONLY EASY-EARNED MONEY ...

 

They can play games if you insist on doing so...

Listening to people whine about imac's not being great gaming machines is like like listening to a person whine about a tractor not being a roadworthy vehicle. No dip, it was never meant for transportation (even if it is capable of it) and has never been marketed as such. Its good for certain tasks, some of which Window's PC's are not as good at.

Its an all in one, not a super machine. You can literally count on one hand the number of windows all in ones that are worthy of being called good for gaming. All in ones have always been about doing work in office spaces with little room for a tower or the powerful components you would find in a tower.

 

Its got what plants crave!

 

It's hilarious how many people totally missed the point of the video and are all like "yeah but my $550 budget machine can game better than this hurr durr". Nobody (in their right mind anyway) buys a Mac for the sole purpose of gaming, the whole point was to show that yes you can game on a Mac if you had to, and the experience can still be rather smooth. So if you're the designer-hipster-gamer type you don't have to have a dedicated gaming rig alongside your workhorse for those gaming sessions.

In any case, I have to laugh at those who suggested doing a $1000 budget build for gaming. My desktop isn't even that great but the CPU + GPUs alone is worth more than that, and I still can't max out every game and push 120 FPS at 1080p, nevermind higher resolutions. But clearly their idea of "performance" and "good" is very different from mine.

Incidentally I should probably stay off the AW forums because my perceptions have clearly become very skewed over this past year lol.

 

Being here may have saved your brain from turning to oatmeal like what seems to have happened to so many Ultrabook jockeys that are OK with BGA filth. We're very glad you're here with us.

Those retards that slam Alienware all the time for being overpriced are frequently the ones bragging about $1,000 budget builds being so special. Where component quality and performance matter most, there is no cheap way out. You get what you pay for. Those social misfits often do not have a clue what it costs to scratch build a monster desktop (which can often be more expensive than an Alienware). I also suspect that many don't have a clue what kind of performance they are missing out on by being a cheap dime-store gamer. If being cheap is a personal choice, that's fine. We all have our preferences, and many of us have to exercise restraint where our wallet is concerned. Being cheap and posing as a subject matter expert is a <del>troll</del> horse of a different color.

 

Indeed, I don't fault people for being cheap or budget conscious (otherwise I'd be a hypocrite), but claiming that a $1000 budget build is the best thing ever is just plain wrong. Although for those who find 30 FPS acceptable I guess that's fine. But sometimes I feel these comments are being made because they lack the proper frame of reference. I thought my Toshiba laptop was the best thing ever since I survived on an AMD single core laptop for 6 years, then came my Clevo and I finally got a glimpse of what "high performance" really meant. Then I built this desktop and can't game on my Clevo anymore. I fear for my wallet down the road :cry:

As to the "but you can build a desktop for much cheaper" line, I think I've finally found the perfect answer to it. Yes you can indeed build a desktop for much cheaper, if you don't mind limiting yourself to laptop level performance. You're always going to pay a premium for mobility and more intricate engineering, so that point is kind of moot to begin with. But as I have already shown, to truly unleash a desktop's potential, you simply cannot get by with spending anything less than $5000, otherwise you'd simply be making compromises on that "ultimate beast" desktop of yours.

 

There are some forums, especially on reddit that would rage soooo hard after reading this page lol.

Quit a few budget desktop gamers get EXTREMELY defensive if you point out deficiencies in their build strategies or sacrifices. Its hilarious to watch them dance around and say stuff like "These refurbished parts are fine, look how low the cost is!", "I didn't even want a CD/Blue Ray drive anyway!", "SSD's really don't make much of a difference", or (and I kid you not) "Windows Vista is fine, recycling my old computers OS saved me money on having to buy Windows 7/8!". LOL.

To be honest when you are trying to get a rig for only 400 bucks (or even less than that) I feel like a console would seriously be better. At least then you don't have to constantly fret about upgrading. and in 8 years its still going to be chugging along able to pay new games (not prettily of course) but that budget PC is going to be in a landfill somewhere or have had at least a thousand dollars put into it for upgrades over the years (and still plays games at a 500 dollar level) which negates any savings you got on games over the console. And the Console will still function as an excellent media machine. I know people who still use their old Play Station 2 as a DVD player!

 

Ha ha, yeah. And it would be so easy to show respect if they just said something like, "Hey, money is really tight and this is the best I can afford at this time" or "This is adequate for my needs until I can afford something better."

 

The thing with that is that there will always be those people who would feel uncomfortable about admitting that they cannot afford a $5k budget for a machine - as much as they would like the performance - so, by human nature, they will make do with what they can afford and make those comments like "SSD's don't make much difference" to justify their actions to themselves.

It's like the "rich kid, poor kid" scenario at school - there's always a rich kid who has everything and the poor kid who would like to be the same.....admitting they are not is a no-no, but justifying what they do have is the next best thing.

 

I have come to the conclusion that Alienware is far from the upgrade friendly gamer brand I thought it would be.

That old and new models refuse to work with GTX 980M/970M is unheard when they boast that they use MXM modules in their notebooks. What's the point with that if you can't use it as plug and play?

Second, the lack of updates from Alienware about these new GPUs show how little they strive for excellence among dozens of other OEMs that not only have sold these GPUs for a month now, these do also use MXM modules and unlike Alienware is easy to upgrade. Like they should be. They do reckognize and support the new Maxwell GPUs.

The only thing that's missing is Alienware using soldered CPUs, which they will most likely judging the leaked 3DMark benchmarks. Then Alienware is down in the bottom, barely above Asus (which can't upgrade the GPU).
I had two options when Maxwell launched. Buying new AW18 R2 with Maxwell. If not within a week, surely they must start selling these within a month?! Nope. Upgrading the ones that are on the market now was my backup plan if AW failed. But not even that is possible. The hell?!

Dell 980M cards are nowhere to be seen, Dell do not help existing users with supplying the vbios or even issue out a new BIOS if that's the problem we can't get the cards to work. Dell isn't even willing to sell new 980M cards for those who need them.

I'm extremely disappointed. The reps here should be ashamed for working for such garbage brand. Horrible. From A to Z.

 

Dell is a massive company that has a ton on its plate, unlike Clevo (which I'd argue is a very niche laptop maker). Dell simply cannot throw itself at the card as soon as it comes out, it probably has a testing/QA procedure it has to follow through. My guess is, they will release the systems in December, or they found a serious issue using the 970M/980M in their current computers that requires a motherboard redesign. That being said, Dell has no excuse to make crappy computers. I'm still very angry with them for the way they chose to avoid handling the Recon3Di defective sound card issue that plagued the M14x R2, the M18x R2, and the M17x R4. If I'm paying 1500+ for a computer, it better damned well work longer than my 1998 IBM 600E (which is still in service, by the way. Pentium II 366Mhz and Neomagic MagicMedia256AV with 2.5MB VRAM shows a long way from what we've come haha).

And please, leave the reps out of this. You cannot fault the reps for doing their jobs for a crappy company. They don't have any control over the big decisions and are simply responsible for relaying the information they receive and are authorized to give.

 

Thats a non valid excuse. OEMs doesnt recieve the cards after they are launched. They get them months prior to that to prep and be ready for launch. MSI recieved theirs in August (I have my sources). We had entries in 3DMark from many OEMs in September, most likely both resellers and technicians working for these companies.
MSI and Asus and Clevo are all selling brand new notebooks today with a new design and with these Maxwell chips. They have done their job properly and was ready with their notebooks for launch.

Whats the point of having Alienware brand with dedicated team working solely on notebooks for Alienware, away from Dell and the rest of the mediocre $50 Inspiron notebooks, when the Alienware team are failing bigtime like this?
Horrible. There is no point denying it

 

In my opinion, if you go with Alienware, you have to understand it's performance but bounded by practicalities that Dell who now owns them enforces.

This means not being the first to market (usually) with tech; and 2nd that tech isn't (usually) going to be pushed to the limit, and it means systems are designed with support through a 4-5 year range. All these things combine to create a higher cost product that isn't as extreme, but it does mean better value over a period of time. If you have to have the latest and greatest, then you probably should be with a smaller pure gamer-oriented laptop vendor now.

I still contend that the majority of the delays are to some degree of reworking the lineup to support the "Graphics Amplifier" along with Broadwell. Call me an apologist for Dell if you want, but there's just no reason to believe this is not the case based on all the details at this point. I too am frustrated with some of their design decisions that come out of them being held by a larger company these days, particularly with all the potential the AW 13 had, no formal declaration the AW 14 is out or not, and simply being kept in the dark when at least shedding some light on the direction they are headed in couldn't really hurt; the 2014 launch was a joke to say the least for example.

The one thing that keeps me on the ranch is that I can travel in many parts of the US and outside and get a Dell tech onsite within one or two days, you just can't say that for MSI, Gigabyte, Nvidia and Asus... I can't wait two weeks for some heavy-handed tech in a depot to jack up my system further then send it back, at least not as a first step (yes, I hear and know the horror stories some have had with Dell on this too). That being said, the lack of insight into the market desires that led to the decision to use ULV processors in the AW 13 show me they are out of touch right now, and that concerns me greatly. I am starting to consider just getting an XPS for work in the future and one of the "turn 'em out, burn 'em out" gaming laptops for the first time from another vendor and flipping it after one year to some kid who only reads specs who doesn't know any better.

 

Not the whole AW team but the strategic controllers at the top of the food chain who are looking to a future we have little idea of. Along with a P R department that seems to think that keeping quiet is the best policy (yes we like surprises but TIMELY!) and we are here today .

Dell purchased Alienware as a niche market described as a 'boutique brand'. So what does 'boutique' mean. To me it's low volume, high quality products aimed at a very specific market.

Over the past two years dell have gradually eroded the original concept of a highly configurable machine aimed at the enthusiast, towards mass-market pre configured options. Even dumping all the marketing toys they used to give away with every machine. Personalisation? naa, no new customer is going to be attracted by a nameplate and a confusing array of component options. This all makes production slower and more expensive so lets milk the market while we can.

If the writing is on the walls for a specialist gaming OEM then this maxwell business is a clear first indicator of the future of AW.

The total lack of official communication is astoundingly arrogant IMO. The problem stopping the cards just working, whatever it is, should be told. But I doubt it is dell's fault alone. NV did something to break them when used in AW. The only OEM missing from the NV literature announcing Maxwell - AW.

All these guys have serious NDA's, how many times has MicroShaft messed up third party products (usually video OEM's) and nobody points the finger where the fault lies. Publicly say M$ messed up and that's the end of your developer status and access to M$ resources. The war of words between M$ and AMD/NV over the HAL introduced with vista was more like handbags at dawn - and we gamers are still suffering from the OS refusing to allow direct hardware access. As soon as the Video OEM's figure out how to stop all the crashes a new version or update messes it up again.

Sob...

 

I think it's fair to say that most of us here are not "rich" by any stretch of imagination (and if you are a spoiled rich kid make hasty egress ), and we'll all understand when you say you have a budget you have to work with. No that's totally fine, and as Mr. Fox said we will respect that. Hell even if you told me "it doesn't matter because I can't feel the difference" I'd still let that pass.

But that's rarely the end of it though. Comments like that are usually followed up with something along the lines of "you're a brainless moron for wasting more money on stuff that doesn't matter". And that's what really gets me. There's 3 things to be said here: just because you can't feel the difference doesn't mean I can't, just because you don't think it's not worth it doesn't mean I feel the same way, and just because you're ok with X level of performance doesn't mean I am. If you're happy with your purchase then great good for you, enjoy what you have and let me "waste" my own money.

The other side to this is, the money you spend on making X number of budget builds, you could probably use to put together a truly awesome build.

 

Well said, n=1. Loving beastly products is great, but I have a lot of respect for people that live within their financial means and are honest about it. People that criticize things they are jealous of are simply stupid and immature. So are people that live beyond their financial means and need "stuff" to help them feel important or accepted in a particular social clique. Smart people decide what they want and buy the best they can manage, but don't give a rat's tail what others have to say about it. Great point about the money wasted on multiple low budget builds instead of one excellent build. I think that can happen by accident or poor judgment, by being a cheapskate or the need for instant gratification instead of saving a little more, a little longer, for something a whole lot better.

 

Agreed. Passing nasty comments about how someone else chooses to spend their money is not on, and is not acceptable in terms of trying to justify their own actions. I would never stand for someone telling me how to spend my hard earned, and if I wanted to blow it on what other people may deem frivolous or unnecessary hardware (or anything else, comparatively speaking) that is their problem and not mine. I was merely saying that those people who come up with those kind of statements can be in one of two positions - they are either trying to convince themselves that what they have is acceptable and 'powerful' and equal to a much more powerful and/or expensive machine, and they often lash out at others because they cannot justify or afford the same level of performance -OR - they are just plain jealous and malicious and we all know what happens when that happens. The third option is that they might simply be uneducated in what performance actually means and actually be under the misconception that their $500 machine is actually on par with a high end laptop or desktop.......

You could also say that the saying of "buy cheap, buy twice" could be relevant to this same subject. People do it with all sorts of things....tyres for their cars, household products, blah blah blah......they *think* they are getting a good deal at the time, but when they need to replace the 'cheap' product, others that paid for the 'better' product from the get go will be saying "I told you so....."

Bottom line is that their is no excuse for criticizing anyone for their own choices, as those choices are personal to that individual.

 

Edit: the video was pure crap., just low res pictures of the AW18 and some cheesy music. Probably not HID that uploaded the video.

I think HID Evolution have managed to get GTX 980M SLI to work on the Alienware 18. If you search for "Alienware 980M" on google you get this result. https://www.google.no/search?site=&source=hp&ei=RMVgVNWuOYXXOKSWgcAL&q=+AW18HID19A1+&oq=+AW18HID19A1+&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.12...8154.8154.0.9388.3.3.0.0.0.0.174.327.0j2.2.0....0...1c.2.58.mobile-gws-hp..3.0.0.0.DB_Z2bjmQXE

Based on the name "AW18HID19A1" its obviously HID and their 980M. The video was just uploaded and is set to private. Someone should contact HID and ask them

 

I got results like this troll..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1enOFGrsA

"Alienware 18 gaming laptop

CPU: Intel i7-4950HQ
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz
GPU: GTX 980m SLI
Secondary GPU: Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics 5200
750 GB HDD + 512GB SSD
18,4 inch screen 1920 x 1080 TrueLife Display"

 

Yeah that guy is a troll. Unless he works to AW or know people there and got it from them so early.
I tried searching 3dmark for that CPU but no Alienware notebook is found with that CPU either.

 

He just put 980M in the tags and on the title to get views.

 

Well at least they are being honest about it

Me:

A well known company

FANTASTIC

Thanks for your wonderful upgrade friendly notebooks with MXM ports Alienware. Go to hell

 

Just hope Dell would take a step to sell a 970 980m laptop again. I dont know whether this is a vbios or bios problem but since it works as optimus I think it is vbios problem.
No solution means I am outta notebook world. Will use m18x r2 780m sli for a long time and pass it to my son for doing his homework

 

How many laptops with gtx 980m, do you think Msi-Clevo-Asus and other PC brands have sold already? This is a lousy strategy made by the development department of Dellienware.

 

It may be due to the recent internal changes or the validation they do on it. It does seem like there is some bios work to overcome though.

 

Really?
Ah.. that's too bad

 

If Dell is going to launch the Alienware laptops with gtx980m after the New Year, they have already lost gaming laptop sales to other PC brands in three months. There are probably many who buy a gaming laptop with gtx980m for Christmas. This money will be lost forever. There is surely a sales decreased already by the Alienware 17 and 18 with gtx880m.

 

Perhaps the delay has more to do with making their new graphics extender play ball with 900 series mobile cards...?

 

Should I have a gaming laptop that is portable, then I will have the graphics card inside the laptop and not lug around with a big gpu box as well.

 

Yeah that's same here.
I'd rather buy a cheap desktop to play game at home.

 

what if...they release all new 17's, 18's with the new graphics adapter AND the 980M's aye ?

That would be friggin awesome. Would only need 1 card, forget SLI, cause if your not going mobile or really need the external monitor hooked up, just use the graphics adapter.

If they do not allow the use of the graphics adapter on the new laptops, Im not buying them - cause simply straight up, the 13 would essentially be more powerful with a pimped out 980 GTX FTW watercooled or something... and cheaper, then a SLI 980m would be. (the difference in CPU would be semi made up for by the lack of SLI using it too..)

So... could be they are working on that. I really hope its that, seriously. I've been toying with for the longest time, setting up an external Videocard to a mPCI-E adapter kit , even if its only 1x just for the sake of it. Im very impressed DELL/AW did the adapter , Ive almost been convinced to outright forget the 18/17 and just buy a 13.



now if they could only realise how much we actually LOVE real docking stations, where the laptop gets to actually MOUNT onto the dock... and has internal space for pci cards and HD's, like in the good ol' days. they haven't done this in...sake..15 years?

 

I agree some like you would like it. But not me.
What's the use of external GPU if I can't bring it with my laptop?
Really, I'd just build a desktop at home if I want to play at home rather than that GPU dock.

 

To add to that. If you're going for 980m or SLI it's pretty pointless.

 

They actually aren't losing out on much (except maybe the hype train?) because they're still selling the R1's. There are billions of people on this planet. It's not just the people on this forum who buy Alienware. When it comes time for them to launch their refresh, they will definitely make an entrance and everyone will hear about it.

EDIT: If I were Frank Azor, I'd just hold out until PAX South in Texas on the third week of January to launch the R2's. It's going to be a huge event. If they do something earlier, they will not have anything to present at any of the main events next year. So, they'll lose much more on that hype. People from all over the world come to those events.

 

This is what I have been saying for awhile now... the delay is quite possibly a combination of the two... to what degree it's the introduction of the GA to the rest of the lineup or the 900-series, or both only Dell knows, but it's likely somewhere in this range of issues.

I bet that's what they are shooting for then; maybe some leaked details this month or next with a full on intro at PAX South... makes perfect sense.

I think Dellienware is feeling out the market to see if perhaps the trend is away from desktops towards mobile solutions but for folks who still want the graphic "oomph" of a desktop, or at least trending in that direction. This only makes much sense however if you couple the Graphics Accelerator with a decent CPU. Not sure how it will play out, I think most hard-core gamers will always depend on a desktop, with the lappy as a secondary gaming device (hence AW 13, etc). the other set wants a full-on SLI in a laptop, and the 900-series brings them closer to a desktop than before. That only leaves a niche in the middle... those who don't want (or can't afford) an SLI rig and a laptop who want the added graphical capability. Maybe that's a growing segment, or they are trying to create one? Given that the AW 17 sells the best from what I have heard, and it's not SLI, this might be a great boon to those folks.

 

There are billions on this planet. How many % buy notebooks?
How many % of these buy gamer notebooks? How many % of these again are so loyal Alienware fans that they are willing to wait 3-4 months and disregard Clevo and MSI which are selling their 980M notebooks on full force?

I think you will be surprised how much they will lose if you look how small the notebook gamer community is, that are wiling to spend 2x as much that a superior desktop would cost you.

 

They are about to lose me but this forum is keeping me in check. Gonna wait it out.

 

How many percent of people know of what I just bolded? Not very much in the market. I would suspect, what, 10%. Maybe a bit more.
Some people who buy the most expensive configuration are those who know little about computers and expect it to run through the sky. It wouldn't surprise me that the "less-informed" buy the more expensive models than the enthusiasts, who know computers and warranties in and out.

 

They would lose much more if they do not have anything to present at all of the major events in 2015. I just said they're not losing as much.

I'm going to wait until the end of January. I think Pax South is going to be huge for NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Alienware. NVIDIA may talk about 20nm Maxwell or Pascal . AMD plans to launch 20nm (or so it's rumored). Intel will announce Broadwell. Thousands of people will be there from all over the world. All of the major magazines will probably be there to review the products. Most of the new games for 2015 will also be announced... Pax is always a huge event. http://south.paxsite.com/what-is-pax

P.S. It is the only major event in early 2015. So, I'm just guessing here.

 

What about CES 2015? That happens in January 6 - 9, and Intel has said to show off Broadwell-U then.

 

Yeah, CES is probably for Intel. They're already on the keynote speaker list.

PAX is focused toward gaming. CES is different.

 

PAX that you guys refer to is the South PAX right?