Where are the new Alienwares?

This is something we agree on. I personally believe the same underlying sinister motives driving BGA filth are surfacing with MXM now. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon. Yes, they do work in newer machines when there is space for them in the chassis. The problem is the increase in size either does not leave adequate space for it or an SLI machine that does have enough space is perma-gimped in a single GPU configuration because there is not enough room for two. Personally, I believe this is an intentional act of violence against customers with the highest expectations and biggest budgets to get whatever they want. They are doing highly unethical things to take advantage of us and I'm not going to put up with it. I will abandon notebooks completely. If this is the new way of playing "let's screw the enthusiast" they can ram it up their butt. I'll go back to desktops and use a sub-$300 turdbook, Chromebook or Android tablet for mobility. When it stops working, I will toss it into the trash and buy a replacement.

 

That's literally what I've done... Bought a Zenbook and am using it for school/work while I wait to see what's next.

Desktop is looking so good right now. But as of late, the P870DM3 has caught my eye. Not sure what to do, to be honest. Finding a new hobby is on my list as well.

 

Yeah, the P870DM3 looks amazing. Everything about it looks wicked, including the vapor chamber cooling system. But, the risk they will make it a dead-end product next year by redesigning the MXM form factors to block GPU upgrades like what they did to DM-G owners today is impossible to ignore. This leaves me with a nasty aftertaste and no appetite for another round of ridiculous nonsense. I won't put up with idiocy from BGA filth for essentially the same reasons. If I cannot buy something that I can upgrade GPUs and keep making it better and better for a fraction of the cost of a new machine for the next 3 to 5 years, then I won't waste my money on that kind of worthless piece of excrement.

 

Why not just buy something, Enjoy it, and when the next one comes out sell the previous one, get the new one cheaper because of the sale, rinse and repeat.
Not everything has always been upgradable. This happens with many other things like phones etc.
Its not a huge deal to do this and if you play your cards right you can sell it for a decent amount and get a good deal on the new product.

I mean the cost of buying one or two new MXM GPU(s) would cost the price difference doing my suggestion anyway so there is little to no loss.
Plus you new bonus goodies of new tech, like new versions of I/O ports or some new technology that came out.
For example technically if we follow your model then we should be trying to stuff 1080s into a M18x and im sure you could but then you couldn't get NVMe, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt etc.
I dunno maybe Im crazy.

P.S. I'm going where ever the 120hz / 5ms screen is at.
I had no friggin clue that 99% the panels on the market were 25ms+

 

dupe

 

Comparing high end laptops that start at $3000 go up from there to cheap crap like phones and $1500 notebooks is an apples to gummy bears comparison.

What you are advocating makes good sense when you are buying cheap devices, but it makes no sense with expensive ones. MXM upgrades are a fraction of the cost of a new high end system. Plus, all the new tech doesn't do anything for benchmark scores or the gaming experience. 980M SLI was a great recent example. $1400 for a pair of 980M cards is a lot of money, but it is less than half of what it cost to buy new systems with 980M SLI. And, excluding Alienware, older systems with 980M SLI ran just as fast and had benchmark scores and game framerates equal to or greater than the new systems with 980M SLI factory installed.

I don't buy cheap systems because they are disposable and without the ability to upgrade you end up flushing thousands of dollars down the toilet if you want to stay on top in the performance realm. Between the M18xR1/R2 I ran 6970M CF, 6990M CF, 580M SLI, 7970M CF, 680M SLI, 780M SLI and 980M SLI. I finally gave up with 980M SLI because of the problems it had working right in an Alienware and bought a Clevo. I only purchased an M18xR1. My M18xR2 was built from parts using pieces from my first M18xR1. If I had purchased a new dual-GPU Alienware every time faster GPUs came out I would have spent around $25,000 on new laptops. I spent less than half that amount over the years in upgrades, and always had the best performance available in a notebook. I only bought one laptop between my M18xR1 and the P570WM. I sold the two antique Alienware systems and spare parts for almost enough to pay for my P870DM-G. That represents great value to me and a much wiser use of my money compared to buying a new laptop every 12 to 24 months.

High end laptops with sockets and slots cost just a little bit more than desktops, but have almost all of the same advantages as desktops. And, all of my dual GPU laptops have outperformed single GPU desktops with the same generation video cards. I could not build an equivalent desktop for the cost of the MXM upgrade. Likewise, you could not build a new desktop every year for the cost of buying a new desktop GPU. Plus, it's fun and rewarding to kick desktop a$$ with laptops in benchmarks. Well, fun if you're not a single GPU desktop owner that got it's lunch eaten by a laptop.

Just as you are, I am very glad Clevo is releasing some nice 17-inch 120Hz 5ms 1080p IPS screens on their new laptops. That is really great news. Also, a good reason to not retire it just because more powerful GPUs are released. New life is only a Philips screwdriver and tube of thermal paste away. I should also be able buy one of those new screens for the P870DM3 and use it on my P870DM-G for a couple hundred bucks. From what I can see, the eDP cable is the same part number and the LCD lid and bezel are the same part numbers, so it should be a simple bolt-in upgrade. I'm just pissed that the GPU form factor has changed and I can only fit one 1080 in my dual MXM laptop that is 2.5 months old. They made it just a tiny bit different, but that tiny bit was just enough to block me from upgrading. That was really rotten of Clevo and I'm not going to stop being pissed about it for a very long time. Neither should anyone else that bought a P870DM-G. We all got stabbed in the back. Reminds me a lot of my recent experience as an Alienware owner.

 

Compare phones etc vs laptops? LOL. First time I have heard about this. OH' Yeah. I forgot..., Maybe with a BGABOOK, Oh' YES

 

Here in europe it is definitely not cheaper to buy a DTR laptop compared to a desktop. Did it in another thread once but i could buy a desktop with 4K screen etc and 2x a 980ti for the proce of these laptops with a 980 and have money to spare for a fairly quick laptop. The p870 costs me 3300 euro here. A quick desktop incl screeen can be build for 1500 euro if you go 6700K and 1800 if you go socket 201X and core hexacore madness.

Every decent MXM upgrade here costs more than 800 euro and now that is not even a sure thing anymore. I just want a product that is durable and reliable for a fair price. MXM prices are definitely not fair here. I wonder what will happen with the price of the 1080M since the desktop boards already cost a substantial amount more than their predecessors.

 

I shudder to think about that. Every non-standard desktop 980 GPU has been much more expensive than a GPU that follows MXM standards... absolutely INSANE prices for the 180W and 200W 980 notebook GPUs. Because of what Clevo has done to me, I am not intending to explore any GPU upgrades and most likely this will be the last high performance notebook I will buy. Since everything is screwed up now, I am almost positive that I will be abandoning high performance notebooks and going back to building my own desktops.

 

I was shocked to see the Titan X(P) GP102 this soon and If the rumors align properly this Pascal is just here to fill gap for Volta, the insane MSI prices and the Clevo against MXM3.0b spec is really unfortunate, when the HBM2 hits the mobile spectrum things will change for sure as all the electronic components will change again on the PCBs and god knows what will happen to this Intel's new strategy from post tick-tock adding WinblowsX to the scene along with the upcoming Kabylake optimization of Skylake and Skylake X as in E brand, Cannonlake - Coffee lake 10nm or 7nm ? what not. Things have turned to be very uncertain for everything...**** these corporates ! They are taking away the most essential thing being a human - Choice / Liberty.

Personally I blame Dell also AMD for their incompetence, for the MXM spec mishap, if they were in the scene with all 2 generations of socketed machines from 2014-2016, I'd bet MXM3.0b spec would be still here, let the BGA Intel push go alone...Since Alienware was king until 2012, Yeah the Dell privatization was unstoppable unless a miracle, In the end consumer is crushed with these colossal pressures / ploys which is not even perceivable by major % of users & that affects the power user community & slowly goes to the lesser ones but by that time things would have already spun out of control...

To justify the thread, I'd re-iterate with all this uncertainty-mess , even If I was paid back I wouldn't buy the Delllienware poop. Clevo is by far the most stable choice given the huge knowledgeable community, options to go & If you want a real beast notebook, Prema. Secondary option being MSI, they have the Optimus (for people who want that tech) as well with MXM slots.

Else HEDT all the way.

EDIT : To let people know the Pascal is just a Maxwell 2.0, Bumped clockspeeds with node shrink thus no crazy Ocing like Maxwell. Plus there was a test done by Dufus here showing the Pascal card vs Maxwell (On a 4710MQ with over 4+GHz OC on a special chipset) I presume it was some 980 or Titan vs Founder ED 1080, don't remember exactly for clock to clock the Benchmark score was SAME. Ultimate marketing feat by Nvidia, also the 970 Fiasco ended up 30$ to all 970 customers, this is what led to the insanse pricing on the Scammers edition, AIB pascal cards.

 

980 is good enough to next year. Why buy a new machine now? Old chipset and processor isn't tempting at all!! Upgrade to a single 1080 or keep your 980 is a much better/cheaper choice than go for new machine now. I would never ever purchased a new laptop now, although you can get 1080 Sli. Save up money for a desktop monster and use what you have. P870 is still one of the best laptops as DTR. No other laptops outside DM2-3 can compare if you want pure processing power if you travel or use it home!! A BGA machine can never be a replacement for desktops.

 

This laptop is a keeper for me at this stage. I don't think I'll go back to a desktop in the near future either. I'll stick a 1080 in here, call it a day and start reassessing things.
I'm not as devastated as Brother Fox since my intention from day 1 was to only go for a single desktop GPU after the refresh. What I am devastated about is that Clevo have pulled a slick one which means they've robbed me of options, and that I'll likely never purchase from them ever again because of it, just like AW.
Unless Clevo can somehow make good this leaves no choices going forward.
I despise planned obsolescence or any type of predatory business behaviour.

"don't bite the hand that feeds you!"

 

sli is pretty much useless anyways, unless your primary objective is to do benchmarks

 

And, yes... that is my primary objective. It's my passion and hobby, just as some are passionate about playing games. Nobody "needs" SLI... it's something you "require" to win at what you want to win at the most. Nobody actually "needs" to play games, but most of us want to because it is fun. To me, extreme overclocked benching is a whole lot more fun than playing games.

 

Looks like the 980M will be the latest GPU for the R4. TBH I started planing for a new desktop build yesterday.
R4,,,,,, you were a true companion, you never let me down, It's been a blast mate.

 

You don't know that yet...

It's been said that the MSI 1070 (SLI model probably) fits the P750DM. If this is true, there's a small chance 1070 will fit in the M17xR4. And since you have the 120hz display which uses an eDP connection, the only thing stopping you from upgrading would be firmware(assuming it physically fits).

 

don't know where you got this info, but the new cards have different shape and size, and do not match the older mxm 3.0B cards :S

 

The MSI GT80 Titan SLI uses 980m SLI. They should be providing a pascal upgrade kit per their 2-year upgrade policy.

980m is succeeded by 1070, so they must have some (non mxm or not) form that fits where the 980m fit.

Prema was the one that said they successfully fit a 1070 (MSI) into a P750DM.

 

They don't must. They can. Like Microsoft who promised WP8->WP10 ugprade they can just tell that they were wrong and screw users so don't be so optimistic.

 

And Dell will still have near $3,320 for their thin"Echo" models with 6820Hk, 32GB ram, 512 ssd and the old 980m. Do they know new graphics is out?

 

Dell oversleep like last year with GTX 9X0M series...The competition goes on and Dell doesnt release the new lineup... still waiting

 

Does not require a major refresh to put in 1070

 

i know while dell doesnt refresh their lineup . But 1070 sli in an AW18 would be way better. All we can do is waiting or purchace from a different reseller

 

Where is there any i formation they dont release there line up. Some laptops were presented at the nvidia show but those are definitely by far now als 10xx series laptops. Also remember that they presented the aorus x7 with a full size 980 at the end of 2015? It took them 6 months to release.

Just lets wait when which laptop becomes available. The 1060 is kinda neat though 980GTX performance in a very small laptop. Things sure change quickly.

 

last time dell waited 6! Month to refresh their lineup with GTX9X0m series.... thats way to Long. I do not say that they do not refresh...but i worry that they need 6 month again

 

In my memory it was shorter also. They announced it and it was pretty quick available. Last year I waited months to get the Maxwell equipped Gigabyte p34WV3. While they announced it a lot earlier. In The end it will take a long time in general. There arent even enough desktop Pascal cards available.

 

You mean this is the case for pretty much all outlets now? No 10XX laptops is for sale anywhere. This goes for every brand. A bit selective isnt it?

 

Nvidia announced the gtx 980m in the end of october 2014 and they where available in the AW Notebooks in march 15...

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Alienware-17-R2-Notebook.139360.0.html

test was in April 15

and clevo test in 10/10/14

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Schenker-XMG-P505-Clevo-P651SE-Notebook.127303.0.html

 

Its actually around the 980M .

 

I just remind how late Dell was with 980m. 3/4 month after other OEM's. But they should lower the price NOW!! But the laptop is portable and thin. Not the best base for new 1080 graphics

 

I could buy a 980M Alienware in December 2014/2015 already. How I would now? I was shopping for a laptop at that time and I almost bought the AW15 at that time already. I didnt because the GIgabyte was announced and I thought the 970M Gigabyte would be very nice to have. Boy was I wrong.

It is a desktop 1060 gpu right? Then it should be around a 980 desktop GPU.

 

They where later in terms of their announcement. Not in actual release date. MSI and Asus always quickly release a statement that it is available. But it takes a looooong before anyone can buy one.

That prices for old hardware are too high? I agree, for every brand that is. It is ridiculous how much money companies asked for Maxwell hardware that was released just past months.

 

ordered in december and shipped in january? still 3 to 4 month...and still to Long...

 

No I was looking at it in December or first week of January. My memory is not that accurate. But it was during my stay in Japan. I remember also that there where also no other laptops widespread available with the 980M at that time when I was looking. Announced yes but not in stock. So this goes for all manufacturers. Dont expect that you can buy an MSI with a 1070 for example today as well. WIll be probably be late September.

 

we will see

 

Clevo, Msi, Acer, Auros and Asus of the major big company is on the ball as usual . Dell live their own lives. As said, Pretty comon. I have not forgotten angry AW fans last time this happened. Especially when they discovered that new hardware was released and they self purchased discontinued hardware. Of course, All people should follow what is happening in the industri.

 

And i dont think dell put the 1080 in the AW17. I hope but i dont think so...and i look
jealous to clevo with 1080, 1070sli and 1080 sli....and i begin to think that i mybe order an Clevo this Year...

 

An announcement doesnt mean they are on ball. Aorus was more than 6 months late with the 980, Acer was 5 months late, Asus was 5 months late except for their 4000euro+ liquid cooled laptop which was 3 months late. MSI was fairly late. ONly Clevo was fairly on time with the 980.

Announcement are not the same as a release. ALl these companies sitll only sell 9XX laptops at this time now even.

 

and Dell was never on Ball with the 980 ... so far

 

Yeah but to be honest. would you buy a 980 laptop if it would be available past May while knowing that in the next quarter the 1070 and 1080 would be available? I wouldnt. Hell I wouldnt buy any 9XX GPU sicne the beginning of this year.

 

I talked especially about 970/980m...!! And yes, Auros and Acer was late with 980. But this is most likely a preparing for next gen Pascal 1080. This, you can see the fruits of their preparing now. Dell need a whole new line and will they put 1080 in Aw15? And will Aw17 get it?

 

LIke I said in practice they werent late. I was in the market for a laptop last year January. It took my 4 months to Receive the GIgabyte model at that time. Regretting my pruchase at that time I ordered an Alienware last year August. THe Alienware with a 970M and 980M where already in stock last year January or even December the year before.

I think Alienware will come with a release soon. According to Nvidia the gaming laptop market is not 20million units big and had a 30% sales growth. No company of that caliber will do nothing with that.

 

I had an alienware m14x, now have an alienware 15r1
I was planning to step off from laptops, because I didn't think the desktop GPU's would come to laptops + I really like the new Dan A4 SFX case.
So was planning to make a VERY small desktop, since the GTX 1080 seemed to be a lot more powerful anyway, and being able to buy the g-sync monitor I want.

However now I see that the desktop GPU's are coming to laptop I'm back interested in getting a laptop with the GTX 1080
Currently I only see the Clevo and MSI with a GTX 1080. There is also other brands but didn't see with the 1080. I'd love to see a Gsync asus one with a single 1080 and without that water cooling nonsense.

So at this point unfortunately I'm giving up on Alienware. Because they don't have gsync. Only if I see an alienware GTX 1080 with a gsync monitor I will get it.
But very unlikely that that will happen.

 

I am actually doing this, since I dont want a too big heavy gaming laptop I have a small desktop (Silverstone FT3) but going to build a new version with the Ncase which is in my opinion a much better case than the Dan A4 case which is only a tiny bit smaller but ditches a lot of options. But a 1070 though because I felt the 1080 was simply too overpriced. I am building this system because I want to be able to bring it in a cabin suitcase. Sold my old workstation for it as well. NO use for a too high end system anymore.

 

You mean above it at stock vs stock and max oc vs max oc?

1280*1.4ghz should > 1536*1.100/1.000

1280*2 > 1536*1.55

Don't they have to redesign the internals to fit the new 1080?

They might fit a 1070 using the older boards.

 

Even Aw reps said they was late with Maxwell if I remember correctly. Ok we don't need to mess more about this
But times with thinner and thinner lightweight laptops is finally ended. Especially if those models shall contain 1080. Thinnest and slimmest of models will deliver lower performance as I expected. What will Mr. Azor do now? He messed a lot about better battery power and thinner Aw models with nice portability will be the future. Yeah. He can rely on their GA and still create thinner and thinner Aw models. I will rather call it backwards. But a lot people want portability as you said. Maybe this will be Dell's year. They can offer portability and other brand better performance but in thicker not so portable models!!

 

What I really want to know is will the AW18 be able to use 1080 in SLI, or just a single 1080 upgrade? Same for 1070 in SLI, or just a single one? I'm looking for a GPU upgrade in that machine as my main gaming laptop, while the 17R2 & R3 do their jobs for all my other needs perfectly for the time being.

Personally I'm waiting on top tier HBM2 releases before I do a new desktop gaming rig. Highly doubt I'll need another laptop for at least 4 more years.

 

No laptop released prior to Pascal release date will support Pascal cards. Not even without SLI, even if it fits. Incompatible.

You can only count on MSI.

 

Don't think you'll get the 1080 in the 18. Maybe MsI with release a "special" mxm card for their promised upgrade path.

Even if you do the 300watt psu will not handle it. There is no power options for the 18 to supply the ample power needed for two 1080's and a higher end CPU.

 

September, pretty much confirmed.