When are the new Alienwares with Maxwell coming?

I don't think the heatsinks are the same, I think they're interchangeable between R3 & R4, but I think the A17's have a different heatsink. I think I also read that the A17 never runs at max fans no matter what the temperature (instead to run max fan rpm you have to set it manually in HWInfo) - think I read this in the forums here, and reported CPU & GPU temperatures always seemed higher to me when I heard people stating their temperatures.

 

Sorry typo, I meant the i7-4980HQ but think you guys caught on to that. Here's a link to a pre-order page on a UK website.

MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro Dragon

There were pics but they are not there anymore, so I'll link one.

Laptop pic

Looks like that.

I thought the whole point for Intel was cost cutting, or do you mean it's stupidly expensive for us? T_T

"My laptop is better than yours because I spent a lot of extra money on BGA filth CPUs, and to top it off it's an extreme."

 

People are going to take this as potentially racist or bigoted, but Asian tastes in what is "cool" are often quite different from Western.... you see this reflected in cars from Asia all too-often. The "special" package usually end up looking quite gaudy to our eyes in the West. It's all relative, but.... i have often suspected that the Alienware designs look a bit "flat" to their eyes as well, at least when all the lighting is turned down

 

Well if there is a sign of anything happening in the coming months, heavy discounts on Alienware computers, including the 13.

 

Yeah - they usually do this like six to eight weeks ahead of a release, I just hope it's not just a Black Friday sale and nothing more.

 

Nope, a single GPU laptop will never be good enough to appear on my shopping list no matter how nice or how powerful it is. I have no use for single-GPU systems... desktop or laptop. Needs to have a minimum of two before it holds any interest for me. It also must have a socket-mounted CPU and PCI-e slot/MXM GPUs or it's garbage as far as I am concerned... I won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Fine so long as you are OK with being told what CPU you're allowed to have, OK with being told what clock speeds you're allowed to operate it at, and being willing to live with it forever. Nothing "HQ" is fine for that reason... it's garbage. I'm not OK with them owning me or my property.

Well, fajitas, chile verde, carne guisada, lengua tacos, enchiladas and tamales are among my all-time favorite foods. Some of my best friends in the world are Hispanic and I have immediate family members from Mexico. However, I don't appreciate the looks of fringey, hangy-down things across my windshield header, bobble-head Chihuahua statues in my rear window package tray, horns that play La Cucaracha or low riders with hydraulics. But, disliking those things and mentioning that I only see them in certain places doesn't make me a racist. It only an observation of fact about where those things are easy to find.

Life is too short to be worried about babysitting people looking for lame excuses to act offended. I mentioned a specific geographic region. I could have said "Bad Part of Town" and some would still take issue with it. It is what it is... I am Native American, but I do not take offense to being called an Indian. I someone chose to be offended I will apologize. If not, we won't need to worry about it.

 

@Mr. Fox


FWIW, was agreeing with you, not sure it read that way; I was referring to my similar observation as potentially sounding bigoted in some folks eyes...

 

Ironically enough there are most definitely people out there just as passionate about low rider hydraulics maxing as Mr. Fox is about laptop maxing lol.

Everyone has their thing.

 

The problem with the cooling of the new Alienware 17, is that the fans (especially the processor fan) do not go at the speed it is intended and that the fan does not manage to start up when the temperature rises. It often starts when the temperature is well down and stabilized at a low temperature. Under flashing the bios is the cpu fan at a much higher speed. If you use Hwinfo64 fan controller with only one fan, cpu fan runs at maximum speed, but not with both fans on. This is a fixable error if Dellienware could fix bios as it should be. Dell has delivered a garbage bios for both the new Alienware 17 and 18. It is a shame ..

 

It could also be related to Windows. Windows has stupid energy saving features that mess with the fan in the power options. I think it's a combination of both.

The "issue" (if you want to call it that) existed on both the M17x & M18x as well. The thing is, Ivy Bridge is a lot cooler than Haswell. So, by the time the fans kicked on with Ivy Bridge systems, it wasn't a problem. Haswell is a furnace compared to Ivy Bridge. The issue stands out much more with Haswell.

We should time it for comparison. It would be interesting to compare the time it takes for the fans to react to a temperature load.

 

In the case of the m18x it's no biggie since the bios can be unlocked and then whatever settings dialed in.

I didn't realize the AW17 had the same problems as the AW18 though.

 

One of the problems is that if you apply a high load let's say 85w instantaneously under bench, then the temperature goes up so fast that the CPU fan does not reach and go up to maximum speed before it is too late. It is just and apply very much watts immediately, we see that the fan control in the bios does not do its job.
Everyone knows that Hotwell processors becomes very hot even Dell's engineers know that. Rapid rise in watts= Equals= the rapid increase of heat. It is not very hard to let the fans start faster, but Dell's technicians want them to start when watts and temperature has already gone down. The laptop does not get any quieter, if the fans start when the temperature has already gone down to 45 degrees celsius. This is a technical mistake by Dell's engineers, and that they will not admit it.

 

You must remember that Alienware 17 also in addition to a rotten fan profile also has only two heatpipes on CPU heatsink.Should you overclock a bit you must use Liquid Ultra because of the rotten job Dell's engineers have done with bios.

 

Yep, The fans only run at full speed while flashing BIOS otherwise they are on that broken stupid fan profile and If we use the DellEC we can't control the fans at max RPM, only the Compal EC mode works better...
This stupidity from Dellienware locked BIOS is just BS.

 

I had pm with some Alienware reps, who did apologize this delicate issue. But they said that Dell's engineers are not interested in doing anything. The engineers said that the so it will be .. This is a sad reality for us Alienware owners .. Future Alienware laptops, is going to get updated crippled bios in all updates forever.

 

I'm not sure that this is a problem that occurs in the M17x, it doesn't on mine, I get full fan speeds if the temperatures ever get hot enough (full fan speeds in relation to the max RPM that can be set in HWInfo) (I always have Windows Power Plan on High Performance anyway, so no idea if fan speeds affected by that, but I have a feeling the Power Plans only influence CPU frequencies and other power saving options for other components).

EDIT: Ah, I remember now, on Power Saver plan it will reduce CPU frequency instead of ramping up the fans as temperature increases - at least I remember it saying that in the Windows Power Options, but I never tested it.

 

Yes, it all seems to be a symptom of taking control & ownership away from the consumer & cutting down the configurability (maybe in a sad attempt to simplify & remove 'problems' that people can introduce into their own machines by doing so - recent 'Alienware Think'), which is what has been floating around these forums recently with Mr Fox being particularly adamant about.

 

There are several that have tested Alienware 17 with Cinebench 11.5 benchmark test and got a crash during the test because the fans do not reach and cool the laptop. Hotwell processors are of variable quality, so with an Overclock can this happen. Does anyone have a bad processor, they must use hwinfo and Liquid Ultra for conducting such a benchmark test. If one is unlucky and have a bad processor, poorly applied and poor standard thermal grease, the rotten overclocking profile and a useless fan profile so it is not strange that there becomes full crash under benchmark tests ..

 

The issue is Dell engineers do not see it as broken. They think the way the bios/fans/control is a feature. They probably have cut down on machines being repaired from end users not knowing what they are doing and melting down or blowing up their machines.

 

It's designed that way to save battery life. It's dumb - sacrificing performance for battery life. I'm so sick of it.

 

They should put all components in alienware laptops to work to their full potential and the have a setting to put it in battery save mode when you want to save on battery. Not cripple it from the get go with little to no options . It's just Redickulus on a high performance laptop.

Where the hll are the darn 980 and 970m cards from dell. This is also ridiculous. Dell is just being absolutely Redickulus latley.

Ok I feel better . I vented a little of my frustration with dell.lol

 

The one good thing about the AW 17: All of that power saving crap goes away with the 3D bundle. However, the fan profiles are literally retarded on all of their systems.

Hopefully they get Maxwell working soon and also somehow make 3D/120Hz work.

 

I have the 17 with 60 hz screen and 770m. And people say they got the 980m to somewhat work on a system like mine but I'm still hesitant to buy one until it's proven to be 100% percent functional . Mine works problems free right now and I just don't feel like dealing with the headachs and bs that the card are giving alienware machines right now. If I can't plug it in and use it with out doing all kinds of modications to my system and only being able to use it in certain modes I don't want it. And I will sell my alienware and give the money to someone else who actually makes a system that works properly as it should with 980m or just go desktop instead.

 

I would not recommend purchasing the 980M just yet. All of the people selling it do not offer returns, and you don't know if it will work or not.

Bad idea.

 

3D is definitely not going to work. NV (gits) have dropped the code altogether for the 9xxm cards. Guess the OEM's didn't want to pay the license fee - and with dell not bothering, the 'm' chip market is tiny now. Back in the day the mid-range 'm' chips were bread-and-butter for NV. Once Intel went on-die with a game-possible GPU - market death .

120 hz might work but that depends if they have included the 120hz boot code? So far if you don't have an iGPU they won't boot, more NV shenanigans.

 

They used to - it was called "Stealth Mode"....

 

I remember playing playing on my M17x R2, I was playing Batman Arkham Asylum and forgot my stealth mode was on, so for the duration of my play up to the final boss it was in slow-mo, I thought it some amazing game effect lol.

Also, I caved and bought an MSi GT72 with 980M. I really could not be bothered to wait anymore. I am the result of Dell's incompetence, aka, losing customers. I'll probably come back next time around, hopefully when they are actually doing their job properly and treating us with respect.

 

I take it Mr. Fox will not be happy till he can have a 4790k in his laptop with sli 980m

 

I still have my aw14. Great little machine for work and occasional gaming. I'm not going to hang around and wait for Dell to upgrade and or keep screwing us with crapoy bios/firmware etc. I jumped over to a Sager 9377 with 980 sli cards for now. It'll hold me over while piece together my itX system and my next monster build..

 

FTFY

10char

 

No extreme processor = no new pc

 

HQ processor = desktop. Bye bye, Alienware.

 

So what do you guys plan on doing when desktop goes full BGA? Skylake has been spared for now but who knows when Intel is going to push their BGA agenda again...

 

Intel relies on enthusiasts who can showcase their best technology, therefore there will always be a variant of Intel processors that are not soldered.

 

But what will Intel charge for them? $1000 for a quad core in a future where only highest end chips are socketed doesn't seem too far fetched to me. And you can bet your butt Intel's going to make sure the mobo costs too.

 

This being so, if you're getting the best that can be purchased :laugh:

 

It's very unlikely desktops will be soldered. All those motherboard manufacturers would have to sellout to Intel or the other way around. I don't see how that would work.

I think it's more likely that mobile "outlives" desktops (maybe 20 years from now). Laptop GPU's are already pretty close to their desktop counterparts, performance wise. And that gap is only getting smaller. It seems to be an inevitable trend toward small, powerful and mobile. Even Alienware, the one company I'd never thought would join the "ultrabook" crowd or offer soldered components, has done just that... The end of the good days is near.

 

Simple. Not upgrade any more, or a lot less often. It's been a really long time since I 'needed' an upgrade. It's generally only because I want more for number-chasing and that sort of thing... rarely because my current hardware can't already handle everything I need it to do really well. My old 2920XM CPU still stomps the life out of most <del>mobile</del> desktop CPUs and probably will for a while yet, and the 3920XM is even better. I could easily see myself only buying a $1,000 Extreme CPU once every 4 to 6 years rather that supporting Intel's energy-efficient BGA butt crust garbage. When you can get that kind of mileage from a CPU, $1,000 isn't that far out of line in the grand scheme of things. Even the majority of the most popular games carry "recommended" specs are far less than cutting edge and the "minimum" system requirements are what many of us would consider pathetic.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	Battlefield 4
Crysis 3	Titan Fall

 

LOL, that's great stuff.

Spoiler

I agree, it's trash.

 

If all enthusiasts boycotts and buy new hardware in 3-4 years then will manufacturers guaranteed notice it. When they see that it sold only cheap hardware, they understand it perhaps. Should they sell only cheap hardware, then they must sell very much cheap hardware to earn what they lose on sale to the enthusiasts

 

When have enthusiasts ever "needed" to upgrade something? 95% of the time the upgrade is because of want and not need. :laugh:

That being said I'm quite sure the enthusiast products make up less than 10% of Intel's revenue, if even that. I guaran-damn-tee if all enthusiasts stopped buying their stuff they wouldn't bat half an eyelash and think more of it. Sure they won't have the free showcasing and what not, but their marketing focus would shift to their products being "extremely efficient, green, and environmental", and "imagine the annual savings on your utility bills" or some nonsense like that.

 

Enthusiasts give a nice margin and help create a good reputation. Most money is made in enterprise/low end though it's true.

 

Seems like it already has to a greater extent that desired.

 

Yeah, (re the good reputation), I see the enthusiast market as F1 is to car manufacturers - there to advertise the brand and it's status and also to help push forward envelopes of performance & technology advancement. Speaking of which - COME ON LEWIS! Rosberg is evil!!

 

No spoilers please I cant watch the race until tomorrow night

 

Lol I was waiting to read "BGA filth" but got an even better quote.

 

Haha, ok, I'll contain myself!

 

I've had a few driver crashes as I have tweaked and I have had no throttle imposed on me yet

 

My main problem with the R4 has been that its been a pain in the .. I've never had to have motherboard replaced in my Asus ever and in fact, I didn't need to do anything to maintain it for 4 years but with this Alienware, I have to repaste evry 6 months, its so fussy when it comes to things and if it breaks down, I'm screwed as I don't have any warranty.. I can't wait to get a job, dump this and get a Clevo P771... Its seems Clevo + desktop CPU's + Perma BIOS mods is the future for me...

 

The Clevo sounds like an interesting setup for a power user. You'd have to agree though that your experience with the R4 has been an outlier as most folks don't have m/b replacements for it much less frequent re-pastings. Good luck with the Clevo though, it should be a nice upgrade.

This is exactly it. The percentage of all sales of game/performance laptops is piddling compared to the rest of the market, a couple percent at *best*. It does however provide a good margin (thought tiny in total sales) and lets Intel charge exorbitant rates for the best yields. Expecting some performance-oriented consumer movement to result in a substantial change in Intel's business model is just pissing into the wind.... now, boycotting a particular design decision, like the use of the Graphic Accelerator, or use of ULV chips, will impact a vendor substantially. Just make sure you understand who it is you really need to go after if that's your thing.