When are the new Alienwares with Maxwell coming?

* deleted, weird double post

 

It may sound ridiculous on the surface, but it happens all the time in industries with far more on the line than Dell with Alienware. Stories of petty divisional politics and its negative impact on both consumers and corporations abound, and they are confirmed events across all types of companies. I am sure not everyone at Dell was pleased with the acquisition of Alienware back in 2009 and the diversion of resources to it afterwards and probably would be very happy to see them spun back off.

Personally, I am kind of getting the itch for them to be spun off...

 

If AW 15 is coming with a body of AW14, I might have to stop my AW13 order and wait for it.

 

Why will Dell selling Alienware 15 with a touch screen? All the major laptop manufacturers are moving away from selling large laptops 15-17 "with a touch screen. These laptops are dumped out cheaply on the market because no one buys them longer. This is confirmed from several.

 

The whole lineup has a touchscreen option. Don't want it? Don't get it.

 

Its quite funny because both MSI and Alienware is using GPU box with their GS30 and AW13.
MSI got a huge advantage with the CPU though.

Alienware 13
i5 4210U

GS30
4870HQ

 

Dell goes the wrong way with the Alienware brand. Dell keeps on destroying the brand

This writes Notebook Check about Alienware 13:

Apart from the processor, which is debatable, Dell offers an excellent 13-inch notebook with the Alienware 13. Besides the build quality and the nice design the display in particular is a highlight. It is rare that we review such a high-contrast IPS panel with wide viewing angles. Color accuracy, black value and luminance are also superior to the majority of rivals.

Another convincing feature is the illuminated keyboard that leaves a great overall impression. You should not forget the battery runtimes, either: Hardly any gaming notebook manages more than 10 hours. However, the mobility is possible because of the weak CPU. The Core i5-4210U is a limiting factor in many games, so the GTX 860M cannot utilize its full performance.

Therefore, we cannot say that the Alienware 13 is really future-proof. Upcoming titles might not run smoothly – it does not matter what settings you select. This is also the reason that Dell could have waived the Graphics Amplifier. The external graphics box would only make sense with a more powerful dual-core processor or a quad-core. Desktop chips in particular suffer from the 15 Watts CPU.

That the final rating is just 82 % is primarily caused by the CPU. The rough touchpad and smaller issues with the sound affect the rating as well. Still, the Alienware 13 is a good solution if you are looking for a compact gaming notebook. High-end laptops with 13 or 14 inches are still rare.

 

Wow, this thread really make me feel sick inside. This is like an Alienware harakiri ritual or something, and I cannot believe anyone is actually drinking this poisoned Kool-Aid with a happy face. Stooping to the point of paying money for this BGA filth for any brand of jokebook is just way beyond nuts. It's even more disturbing to see a few examples of advocacy surfacing.

Maybe they will step up their game with a high performance Android Ultimate OS option to help their touch turd <del>smartphones</del> BGA jokebooks load apps faster.

 

Different agendas for the two systems, but it's natural to compare them as such since they share the same screen size. The G/A is really aimed at the AW 15/17. It will have thermal issues in a relatively short time (9-18 months) like so many of these ultrabook style systems, not to mention being heinously loud and hot to the touch.

 

Oh well, at least MSI are kind of, sort of, trying to do something right instead of stuffing an anemic <del>Core2 Duo</del> i5 4210U smartphone-grade CPU in their laptop. Better to be hot and loud than pathetically lethargic. At any rate, both machines are worthless garbage, so six of one, half-dozen of the other.

 

MSI uses at least a stronger processor than Dell does. This is starting to get ridiculous. I have a new score on my extreme processor (post # 3941). http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...enchmark-thread-part-4-a-395.html#post9877218 Do you think the new BGA processors for the new Alienware can do the same?

 

A mobile quad with a 980 would be pretty potent I think.

 

A fully unlocked mobile quad (Extreme CPU) would be, but even if they made that in BGA you'd be looking at a mainboard swap if you drew a short straw in the silicon lottery... and, if you did get lucky you would not be able to keep the nicely binned CPU in the event of a mainboard failure. This is absolutely unacceptable technology.

Alienware needs to learn from its past successes and stop pandering to the wishes of wimps. They know how to do the right thing and are choosing to do wrong on purpose. That's what I call betrayal and being an Intel BGA shill. They used to produce awesome products, but they have become a de-clawed, neutered, toothless lion with a muzzle.

 

In one sense yes, but OTOH it is their willingness to put components into too small a space that is actually helping to drive the move to BGA on the performance end of things. We both agree that a quad in the AW 13 would be preferable, but it is an M11x replacement, not an AW 14 replacement - that clearly as I had a suspicion before it was ever announced or hinted at was a new AW 15. Essentially the same processor and graphic card combo in the AW 13 is in the entry level AW 17 currently... to me that is a real joke, it makes far more sense in the role the AW 13 is designed for. As a work machine doing office duty and mid-range gaming the AW 13 actually works pretty well. Having steady 60+ fps is just not a hard requirement set in stone, that is just arbitrary.

You may feel the CPU is pathetically lethargic but it gets the job done in most cases based on reports and first hand experience. I can't argue with your opinion that they are worthless garbage, that is just one point of view.

I would be interested though in how you would have built the AW 13 component-wise?

 

It amazes me no that Dell is going to lock bios even more than what they have already done with the latest version Alienware 17 and 18. If Alienware comes with soldered GPU (103w) and cpu (47W) with a 180w power supply, there is no room for overclocking of this laptop. A 180w power supply is enough to operate such Alienware and perhaps with MSI its famous battery turbo boost ..

 

Yeah that does suck. Having seen AW go back and forth on overclocking options over the years it doesn't bother me quite as much, but still... they locked the AW 13 down so that it only overclocks with the G/A added... annoying

 

All New Alienware 15-17 and perhaps 18 if it comes will be likewise as Alienware 13. The bios are totally locked in all models.

 

Maybe, although the simplest explanations are often the most likely - either way I'm sorry to see the direction Alienware is headed, competition in the enthusiast space can only be a good thing for those buying them, so for Alienware to be distancing themselves from that then that's not great news for us. I don't mind so much the BGA CPU's, but I do mind the non-MXM GPU's and increasingly restrictive BIOS & limited GPU upgrade potential in the future.

At least MSI got the CPU halfway right!

 

You can't miss something you don't have any experience with. Work machines can use anything that works and is reliable as long as it is fast enough to not slow down productivity. I won't even consider buying or building a pleasure/play machine unless it has an XM, K or X CPU. Settling for less is like trying to feel good about driving a crappy hybrid car when you are used to driving a muscle car. Once you get a taste of real CPU performance, anything less is almost impossible to be happy with. Even the QM/MQ CPUs seem pathetic in comparison, but these low-TDP mongrels are absolutely horrible junk. They are barely adequate to "get the job done" on a work machine that is not used to play games. To some degree this is an opinion, but I have owned and used tons of different configurations for work and pleasure, so there is a very objective element to my hatred for low-TDP BGA garbage. You can feel the lag sometimes in normal use once you have been spoiled with the performance a bonafide enthusiast CPU delivers.

 

I think an Alienware spirited machine would have had a socket with up to xm support down to dual core if that's what you wanted. Practically the same machine would then be able to fully drive a titan ii.

 

Yes, but at what price? That would not work for the price point AW can sell them at. I also shudder to think of the thermals even in the AW 13 case...

 

With a socket you can suit a range of prices, you would develop a cooling system to cope. It's an Alienware, they know how to design such systems.

 

Indeed, they have done a marvelous job of that in the past. They cannot get away with pretending to be dumb on us now. If they are trying to deploy a form factor that is too diminutive to support good cooling of high performance components (something we have seen with many competitors' lame Ultrabooks) then they are deploying the wrong form factor. Such a product will never be worth a darn. If they are going to compromise performance for form factor, then they should fold up shop, sell the brand off to a company that is willing to live up to the legacy, and stop cluttering the enthusiast landscape with more lame jokebook garbage. The market is already saturated with a plethora of options for those willing to sacrifice performance for the sake of form factor.

 

A $1300 Alienware 15 was mentioned on here earlier. Any guesses as to what it's base specs will be?

 

960M/965M (and maybe the 970M) with some guaranteed HQ crap.

The 17 will maybe have the 965M, and will most likely have the 970M and 980M. The 13 will most likely have the 960M.

Spoiler

Crap, crap, and more bottlenecked crap. But hey, longer battery life.

Oh, and don't forget the "Graphics Amplifier."

 

GPU that is soldered to laptops are disposable and should not be bought by us gamers.

You want soldered GPU? Just get an Apple laptop or something.

I mean, you want to keep your expensive laptop and just upgrade your GPU.

 

Any idea if these will be shipping sometime in February?

 

Yes, thanks, it never occurred to anyone here that Alienware knows how to design socketed systems with good cooling and socketed systems There is just no substantial market for a 13" system with those kinds of specs and costs that people won't turn around and take a 15, 17 or 18 in lieu of, that's why different lines exist in the first place with different specs and system designs.

The point is they have settled on a form factor, right or wrong, that the market is more favorable to. It's just absurd for people to throw out designs like 13" thin systems with socketed extreme overclockable processors and 980m's in it, this a bit like the kid drawing his dream car on his notepad in middle school. Yeah, would it rock? Sure, and be prohibitively loud with heat issues at any kind of reasonable price and sell very few in the market even with the best designs possible because almost anyone spending that kind of money is going to go up in size to help justify the cost. If you have to nerd-rage against that supposition I can't help you, it's just a fact of life in today's market, just as (unfortunately) BGA is.

We're it only that simple going forward... then it wouldn't be an issue. You do understand that it's looking likely that in a very short time BGA and soldered GPU systems will be about all there is right? Sometimes I wonder on the me-too comments if the people even grasp what is happening out there...

I have a feeling the AW 13 isn't going to get the 960m until the Silverlake revision. Just a hunch, but I don't think they are in rush to do more than get the 860m-based systems stable with the G/A myself.

 

Actually, i would disagree with you on this point as on notebookcheck it shows that a 980m sli setup is about as powerful as a desktop 980 anyway, give or take a bit of margin of error. This would mean that if alienware could finally figure out the mess that is the GA at the moment, the GA and alienware laptop could be a serious torchbearer for the end of sli'd laptops, how often will you be gaming or doing intensive tasks that require both gpu's away from home or station as it is anyway? i feel that this might be a good answer to the old massive tanks of sli'd laptops.

 

I hope the prices go down as their production costs will dramatically decrease with all of this BGA crap. You would be a fool to spend $4000 or more on a laptop that cannot be upgraded. It will begin to depreciate about as fast as a Mustang does (as soon as you drive it off the lot).

Extending the warranty may help, but who knows what they've changed in their warranty now that everything is soldered. Are they going to just start throwing system replacements at customers for GPU or CPU failures? 2015 is going to be an interesting year. I think they're making mistake after mistake - repeating the most unsuccessful lineup (form factor) in the history of Dellienware, dropping out of the SLI market, and topping it all off with the inability to upgrade such expensive machines, lol. Great plan! :thumbsup: They're putting way too much faith into that Graphics Amplifier... I wouldn't be surprised if Dell cut ties with Alienware and it was sold off to someone else.

Unless they cut production costs by nearly 50%, this path doesn't make much sense. Talk about a money pit.

 

You speak of the old massive SLI laptops as if they were a bad thing...

I'm sorry but why are these "tanks" bothering you? You want a slim easy to carry around notebook by all means go ahead and get one, but why put an end to the only machines that offer a full throttle performance without any compromise? Does the need for slim portable laptops have to come at the expense of those large machines us enthusiasts have fondly fallen in love with?

Sadly I'm afraid the answer might be yes as far as profitability goes in the eyes of the big companies who, with total disregard to the enthusiasts' demands, have decided to go with the masses in order to maximize their profits.

Fortunately some companies are still willing to offer some uncompromising machines, that's why as soon as I have the financial means I will be getting a Eurocom Panther 5 with a 4930K processor, a 120Hz screen and two 980Ms.

You might wanna check this tank out, it's a thing of beauty

 

By no means am i saying that the big tank sli setups are bad in any way, although i do see what alienware is trying to accomplish by moving away from them and placing focus on the GA. In my group of acquaintances not many use their systems outside of their home or in their workplace anyway which makes the whole need of having the power "inside" of the laptop for some individuals kind of unnecessary. This seems like an alright-ish compromise from alienware and if they play their cards right a decent market should come from it.

But hey, how can i deny the beauty of the old m18x's or the clevo spinoffs (eurocom/metabox/etc) with their designs amirite haha

 

With their problems.

 

And uber-kneecapped performance. :thumbsup:

 

And have a crippled Alienware 13 with low end soldered gpu and cpu is one thing, and do this with an Alienware 17 and 18 are a disgrace. When these Alienware 17 possibly 18 comes with soldered processor, GPU and a shrunken power supplies then there is a free-to go over to Clevo. This are no another option. Alienware is dead. RIP

 

They have no choice but to do full m/b replacements, there is nothing wrong with that as a long as the warranties are reasonable. If they aren't.... that's another story

The Graphics Accelerator in and of itself is not a bad idea, but they are banking on it precisely because of the need to adjust to a BGA-world and this is one of their few ways of creating variety and adding some value over time assuming the kinks get worked out (recall when SLI truly sucked in terms of issues, not all that long ago in reality, it will improve as well).

I think you hit the head on the nail: one would be a fool to spend $4K on a laptop with no ability to change it. This is why the AW 18 is probably out of the picture going forward, and SLI in general practice may disappear from laptops. I have to disagree on it being a money pit, you can be sure they have bean counters galore who are telling them statistically this whole move makes sense, and truthfully it probably does over the long term and with sufficient volume, which the new designs are in theory going to provide. I do agree that with the move to soldered components I can't see paying more than around $1500 for a laptop though under any circumstance.

And where will you go when Clevo is in the same boat, declare them dead and RIP as well? Eurocomm? It's an industry wide move, the small players are either going along for the ride or are going to get shut down. I defend your right to choose, in fact I encourage it, but its getting a bit absurd how people are laying this on the head of AW without looking at the big picture. The fact is with their scale and ability to have some input in to the process AW might actually *gasp* come out ahead of some of it's competition when all is said and done in a couple of years.

I really need to accept the fact humans are mainly feeling creatures that happen to think, not the other way around unfortunately : /

 

I had not paid $ 1500 for such rubbish. I had spent this money on a gaming rig. This is to throw away their hard earned money ..

 

Nice to see Alienware 15 making a return i like the 14-15 inch range, hopefully we will see the detailed specs and release dates soon.

 

There's always a choice. If they cut production by at least 50%, then it's not a money pit. But if they did not, it will become one over time.

I've read of companies in similar situations making such drastic changes in my studies and have noticed they all return to previous practices as if they are stuck in a inevitable cycle. They are using the Graphics Amplifier as an excuse to ignore large sectors of the market. They may be profitable for a year or two, but with new products, there is always competition. As they arise, the "Amplifier" will be nothing but a target for those who can't help but complain about Alienware, as Alienware products are marked up so high - they charge $300 for the Amplifier, which is just a fancy box and PSU, and then ask another $500-$700 for a desktop GPU. All-in-all, it's probably marked up more than 100%.

They're offering us less and asking for more. It won't last. Even Alienware has seen that the 15" market has too much competition, ending the M15x so soon.

 

Dell could upgraded the earlier version of the Alienware 17 and 18 with gtx970 / 980m instead. Nor waited to upgrade the whole motherboard with this nonsense soldered to autumn when the Intel launches new prosessorer..Dell should do as Clevo and waited with the upgrade with soldered hardware.

 

Well, i just want to wish all of you a happy new 2015 Alienware year..

brace yourself

 

While the new alienwares that have soldered components are causing an uproar, i do find it curious as to how asus who has sold soldered laptops for about 3 generations now starting with the g74 i think, or at least from the g75 line, yet asus has not gotten much flak for it.
If alienware really does price this right i think the majority of the market may let it slide.

 

I think it's right that Alienware is getting a lot of stick over their recent moves, because they used to stand for the enthusiast & high end performance, they're changing that so there's bound to be back lash - let people complain I say, that way maybe some of this unrest will get through to them & they might steer in a slightly adjusted direction!

 

Yes, and it is probably reasonably safe to say that many Alienware and Clevo owners have regarded the ASUS G-series as garbage for many generations. They don't get any flak for it because people that buy them do not know any better and folks that do know better do not buy garbage... therefore, they don't buy ASUS laptops, or anything else with soldered CPU and GPU.

Yup, if Clevo goes down that road they'll be declared dead and RIP. That sentiment is universally applicable. If they all go down the garbage road in laptop-land, I'll just go back to building my own desktops and buy a cheap Chromebook for web browsing in my easy chair before I succumb to purchasing trash. Bottom line is if I can't have what I want and how I want it, I will go do something else rather than compromise. Looking at the big picture, it doesn't make any difference to me if Alienware comes out ahead in a race where all of the entries are viewed as losers.

As hard as some many find it to accept, there are some people that take a stand, draw a hard line and absolutely refuse to surrender or compromise. I say let the trash rot on the shelves in stores and warehouses until the CMOS batteries are dead and the heat sinks are full of cobwebs, then they can focus on figuring out the most cost effective way to dispose of millions of dollars of electronics waste product too few people were dumb enough to buy.

 

As bleak as the future looks, i think if they perfect the graphics amplifier alienware could be one of the leading brands with "upgradeability" because of it, potentially contested by msi with their dock too if they play it right. In the long run the cpu doesnt affect gaming too much so on that front it has that going for it, but that does also mean people who do processor intensive tasks get shafted in this new direction.

 

The eGPU is merely a fa çade and smoke screen that gives a false impression of something great. It's like offering a V8 conversion kit for a Yugo, LOL. It's still a Yugo. No matter how slice it, low-TDP BGA processors are turds and no amount fancy accessories, gimmicks or gizmos will change that. They might have the fastest Yugo on the block, but who cares? The rest of the machine is not build well enough to fully exploit it.

The only way the eGPU would be something nice to have as an add-on toy gadget is connected to a dual GPU behemoth laptop with an unlocked mobile XM, or desktop K or X CPU. Kind of like adding a nitrous kit to a CC8S or 427 Shelby Cobra.

 

hmm is there confirmation that the 17 and supposedly 15 coming with the ulv/low tdp core i series? i would imagine at least the 17 having a proper broadwell processor and the GA compatibility, although broadwell has so far been disappointing on the performance front as well.

 

Those docks are so gimmicky and just mock the mobile platform. Just buy a desktop . That idea was thrown around a few years ago and quickly faded.

So tempted to order a AW 18 to just have a trophy laptop even though it's haswell mobile. Ugh. Wish I knew what AW were going to do.

 

you could always wait for the new alienwares to come out and see how much of a disappointment they are, and then theres bound to be leftover stock of the "good" 18 and 17 still left that you can bag for a bargain, or ebay can be your friend haha

 

There isn't a good outlet for Canadians. Unfortunately the last of the 3920XM with 780M SLI were sold about 2-3 weeks ago in USA. If I waited and wanted to purchase, I'd likely wake up one day to find the AW18 removed from the website without warning.

Dell makes decisions quick and without any discussion to the public. :/