Worth purchasing now or keep waiting?

Hi guys, I got a coupon worth 20% in my email valid for another day and was wondering if it was worth pulling the trigger on an AW 15. I owned four Alienware laptops before and was pleased with all of them but I have read mostly negative comments on here of late and that makes me apprehensive...

The only thing keeping me from buying is the 5th generation processors on the horizon. Would you say it's worth upgrading now?

 

You could try it now, if you don't like it, go for a refund within the time period. No loss on your end for this.

 

CPU generations don't really have much of an impact on gaming performance.

 

True, but higher efficiency and lower heat compared to 4th generation are kind of a big plus for me. That is if the theory is true...

 

If you always wait for new tecnology you won't buy anything
20% discount??? Buy it!

 

20% off is a lot. Just grab it.

 

Or, upgrade your M17xR4 and have a better product than the new machine for a fraction of the cost. Bear in mind, the new machine is a dead-end street. No meaningful upgrades are possible and repairs will be cost prohibitive with all of the important stuff welded to the mobo like a MacBook. Even the best CPU available is a poor excuse for an i7. Don't let the "newer is better" bug bite you in the butt. It's absolutely not accurate right now. I'm not normally an advocate of waiting, but I am also not an advocate for downgrades.

 

If you want an example of an upgraded R4, see mine.. I came from a i7-3630QM, 6GB RAM, AMD 7970M GPU and 500GB HDD... I've put in almost twice the amount I paid for the laptop initally but it maxes out everything.. Even better then the BGA turd R2...

 

Thanks guys. My sig is actually incorrect, I switched about a year ago to an MSI GE60 and am definitely not happy with it at all. But the AW 15 looks more and more like a no deal... I'm shocked they removed the slot load optical drive for almost no difference in size and I do need an ODD from time to time. I'm not too put off by the soldered issue, I don't have the skill to upgrade CPU/GPU components anyway. Just the general comments on here about the recent AW trend is worrisome, especially since I owned and was happy with four AW machines in the past... And what the fudge is up with no RAID support in BIOS?!?

 

There's basically nothing worth waiting for anymore. Everything is moving toward BGA. You have a chance to save 20%. Hate to say it, but you may as well dive into the abyss and drown with the rest of us, lol. However, in my opinion, it's not worth it for you. The performance difference isn't justifiable for BGA crap that's not upgradeable. When soldered components outperform your system by a good 100%-200%, then it may be time to grab something new. So, I guess there is something worth waiting for? Not really. It's more like kicking the can down the road.

For the record, I would say it's not worth it for you to purchase a new computer, in general. Not only a BGA laptop.

 

Then buy a used Alienware M17xR4, M18xR2 or Alienware 17 or a new Clevo that has a real socket-mounted CPU and MXM GPUs. Please don't dive into the abyss and buy a BGA turd from any company. That kind of surrender is exactly what they are counting on. They (all OEMs) need to lose as much money as possible trying to peddle BGA garbage. Let that trash rot on the warehouse shelves.

 

Geez, why not buy at a good deal and then sell for a profit towards upgrading?

 

Well, I can get a AW 15 with 980M, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD and 16GB RAM for $1500 after tax... took a bit to haggle

 

That's not a much of a deal. If you used the 20% coupon and the ongoing $60 coupon (if they can stack), then you can get the 3rd config option for the AW15 (upgrade form m295x to 980m) for the same price (pre-tax; if we used 10% tax, then it would cost $1650), and it comes with a Roccat mouse that is FX enabled and a Roccat mousepad. The mouse costs about $80, and the pad costs about $30. So in a way, you save between about $40 to $110 dollars.
Now, if what you haggled for comes with the 4K panel, then that would be a good deal. But if not, then... yeah.

 

I used the 20% coupon on the 3rd configuration with the 980M and asked a rep to remove the mouse and pad, that's how I got to that price. The $60 coupon doesn't stack...

 

I forgot something silly. Taxes are pre-coupon.
Huh, it turns out to be a better deal than I thought. I would just get the mouse and mousepad to sell them for a profit (may not be much, though), but it's up to you if you want to get the laptop.

 

Not sure I understand you. I did exactly as you said: used the third configuration and removed the accessories. The total, tax included, was just over $1500.

EDIT: Just saw your post I went with removing the accessories for their full value, didn't want the hassle of selling on eBay or something

 

You could always sell that bundle you got at a profit, and use the proceeds to buy an older model (like the R1).

It's what I did. I sold my 2-week old R2 for a $100 profit, in addition to the neoprene sleeve, extra 240w PSU and the $76 gift card, all of which I got to keep. So I figure that I made around $300 on that entire deal.

My display panel and GTX 980M are arriving today. I'll get it set up, then I'll run some benchmarks with both the 180w and 240w PSU to see if the throttling issues that affect the R2 also affect the R1 when running the 980m.

 

If you have an XM CPU with that 980M, you may be better off with a 330W PSU.

Sometimes I wish I had kept my good ol' M18x R2. Had a maxed out one, and it would be awesome with 980M SLI.

Mr. Fox made all the right moves in that regard. Follow his lead, fellas.

 

Looks like the 4700MQ which should be undervolted/overclocked