AW17 R2 - No more MXM?

So I've been half-assed trying to sell my new AW17 R1 that I got from Dell in exchange for my AW14 that is destined for a scrap pile. I've been looking at what I'd buy if I sold it and I was looking at the new 15/17's. Are these no longer MXM machines? They certainly simplified the bottom access panel. What else did they change?

 

Everything is now soldered. you can't swap out the CPU or GPU anymore.

 

No 7.1ch audo support (removed the extra 3rd jack), no dvd/blu ray drive, one hdd slot and four m.2 msata ports at 3.0 which cap out at 512 gb ( down from two hdd and up from one msata to four ), hdmi in does not exist on these models (no longer can attach a console or other device), two memory slots have been removed (down from 4) max amount of ram 16gb, 3d screens gone (no 4k screens either on the 17's), smaller psu 180W then the 240w previously. hehe tell if I missed something.

Edited for corrections*

 

Smaller PSU

 

looks like ill be using my m17x r4 for a very looong... loong... looooonggggg time.

 

On the 17 R2 you get one HDD bay and four M.2 SATA SSD sockets. All at SATA 3. Don't know yet if all can be used at the same time or if a SATA channel is shared on the HDD? Physically, looking at the model line-drawings there are no physical reasons not to use them all - I hope!

MSATA was a short lived development for notebooks that M.2 has superseded. This is what my order lists as the drive: http://www.samsung.com/us/business/oem-solutions/pdfs/PM851-SSD-ProdOverview.pdf?v=1

 

They boost the price for less upgradability.

 

I think you have that backwards. mSATA is still very much in use/development. People are trying to dump M.2 because the cost is ridiculous and it caps out at 512GB. You can get 1TB SSD's for the cost of some of the M.2 512GB. Yes M.2 is spec'd faster but it has a very low adoption rate and probably will be going the way of RAMBUS

 

They have their PCI-E port or whatever so you can connect their GPU box to it. At least then you could game on a full GTX 980 on the built-in panel.

 

MSATA is simply the form factor and also limits to SATA 3. The M.2 form factor comes in both SATA and PCIe protocols. The PCIe bus appears to be the fastest. AW have gone for SATA, these drives are cheaper .

An mSATA bay can house two M.2's. Dunno about current adoption rates but there are a TON of M.2 SATA drives available. I've just picked up a 64gb M.2 to use as a HDD cache for £40.00 including shipping so not too painful.

SSD Guide: M.2 PCI-Express, M.2 SATA, M-SATA And SATA Express - The Differences Explained!

 

Most desktop mobos support M2 and not mSATA if they have one or the other so things are swinging the other way bud.

 

Thanks for that I added the corrected information.

 

What desktop motherboards are you referring to? I haven't seen any >_>

 

ASUS X99 DELUXE 2

ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO

msi z97 gaming 7

Gigabyte GA-X99-Gaming 5

Pretty much every higher end mobo supports m.2. I just chose a few at random minus the first one.

 

The SATA slots offer more capacity over the PCI-E versions and allow a larger number of lanes to the external amplifier.

 

don't forget, that not only are things soldered on, but half the cache and stuff is disabled too.. the 980M for instance are about as good as a 780M but with an extreme price tag instead !

 

Please explain this I didn't know that the 980M was gimped as well xD.

 

I don't think its gimped.... its the same one they use in the clevo 15 inch soldered machine seems to run just fine even while playing games with an 180watt psu. No overclocking headroom though.

Thread: Sager NP8652 / Clevo P650SG with 980m Initial Impressions and Review by HTWingNut

 

That's handicapped aside from being gimped due to no head room for being overclocked. Anyway thanks for the clarification.

 

I think that might be my next machine just because of how cheap it is. I'm definitely gonna get a 240watt PSU for it though.

 

In my eyes cutting the vram in half is gimping it.

 

The video RAM information guide - Graphics Cards - Linus Tech Tips by D2Ultima

 

The desktop 980 is not gimped by 4GB and neither is the mobile version.

 

The PC industry is essentially like the free market. The issue is regulation and monopoly. Regulation is in the form of BGA vs. MXM, etc. and monopoly is in the form of Intel vs. AMD, Foxconn vs. etc. If these big guys go BGA, everyone is going BGA.

Now, OEMs work with vendors to manufacture laptops. They want to minimize their costs and maximize their delivery times. I don't blame them for going BGA. The benefits are many for both the OEM and the vendor.

It does seem quite odd, however, that just as smartphones are voyaging into the modular world (think Google), laptops are seemingly moving away from it. I would suspect that all of this is just a phase, and that MXM and other formats are here to stay. But...I know for certain that Alienware is no longer in the niche market of gaming laptops. Consequently, AW18 is gone, and the AW15 and 17 that we know and love is fading away.

This AW community on NBR is pretty big though. We should look into getting some universal thread to serve as a call-to-action, like a Change.org petition or something. Let AW wake up and hear the news that the niche market from which their business was built is now fed up and losing loyalty. Will it matter to Alienware enough? That's a business call. If their market is 80% out of the niche now, then we don't exactly matter. The niche market probably isn't even growing, but the general market is. Gaming is booming....But if we don't try to stake our claim, then we will never know how much of an impact we can have.

 

The cpu is a lost cause but I think the fight is for an mxm gpu with good soldered cpu options.

 

CPU's for the last few generations are fine. The limiting factor has always been GPU. They are trying to remove this issue by doing everything soldered on and giving you a little PCI-e x16 BUS to connect a full size graphics card to but they don't realize this isn't what ANYONE wants. I would much rather have a 980m in my notebook that I can upgrade in 3 years and continue to be portable than to have some large external box that requires separate power + cables. It's just not mobile anymore. The funny thing is they are doing what we have been modding for years using those mini PCI-e slots to connect to an external graphics adapter.

 

Look at what happened in the last few years of gaming. We went from 1-2GB cards being needed to now, at minimum, 3GB being needed for some AAA titles. Wolfenstein requires 3GB minimum for Ultra settings. I see in the next 2-3 years it being around 4-6GB minimum being required especially since the move is towards 4K which will result in (hopefully) higher quality textures which will most likely be (not absolute) using more vRAM.

 

I have to agree exactly with you..

I think especially with Maxwell, performance wise, the desktop 970 performance should have been possible with 980M but NVIDIA always gimps the mobile GPU's although there is plenty of thermal headroom for more performance... This itself would make the GPU's last for longer...

 

MXM is out in Alienware? What the hell?
You do realise there are just 2 brands/producers left on the market that still make MXM notebooks?

Clevo and MSI.

I remember back in 2009-2010 when MXM was everywhere, even Acer and HP had MXM.

 

Yeah these are sad days.. I hope Clevo still makes MXM cards even if MSI stops.. They really are looking like the last gaming enthusiast brand out there..

 

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