Alienware 13 R2, 17 R3 and 15 R2 Refresh

The current AW15/17 already has spare 4x lanes that are not being used by the GA. Notice the internal gpu runs at 8x, so there has to be 8x lanes remaining. AW opted to use 4x lanes in the GA ports on both ends and the cable. I wouldnt be surprised if the mainboard from cpu to the GA port and the pci card in the GA dock only had 4 physical lanes as well. If they were to use 8x lanes in the new AW, they would need a new port, new cable, and new GA. Most likely they will want to use the same existing systems and cables.

Kicking myself for not waiting for TB3. It remains to be seen whether TB3 egpu solutions would be better than the GA. Besides the 32Gbps 4x pcie bandwidth available to both TB3 and the GA, TB3 does support an additional reserved 8Gbps just for display signal. This would definitely help with limited bandwidth when using the internal notebook screen. But it remains to be seen if TB3 egpu protocol is designed to only use external monitors or not. Although TB3 may support direct display signal to the eDP, so we could even get egpu + laptop gsync.

 

Yes, UHD,GTX 980M, 1TB PCIe SSD...

 

So I just cancelled my order on the new 17 for two reasons.. I called twice and both times they screwed up the order.. I don't understand how hard it is to get right. After that I talked to them about skylake in it and they confirmed that it is not there yet (at least the guy i said did) and that, while it has happened in the past there is no guarantee that you will get the free upgrade.
I'll Keep checking back until I see the new processor on there before I send money their way, last thing I want to do is spend 2 grand on a laptop to get the old outdated processor.

 

You have 30 days to return the notebook and sales reps are not good sources of info for hardware changes (or other alienware features at that). Alienware@pax did tweet that any new system ordered and a new CPU is released within 30 days, it will be upgraded. 30 days return policy plus this tweet should give you ample security that you will not end up with a 4th gen cpu. I ordered a new 17 with all the features mentioned (which would not be possible with a 4th gen cpu thunderbolt 3, ddr4 2133 etc). In all likelihood, skylake will be under the hood and if by slim chance it is still 4th gen, use for two weeks and return.

 

Sales people are not going to know about new products until 24 hours before they launch. Don't expect anything else... They're just taking orders like a waiter/waitress at a restaurant.

Skylake is coming Sept. 18th. If you order a system now with Broadwell or Haswell, it will automatically have Skylake upgraded in the production process. You don't have to cancel the order.

 

You two should work for alienware, now I feel like I need to deal with their sales people again and try to get the correct iteration of the 17R3 ordered again.
Is there any talk of a new GPU to replace the 970/980 anytime soon? Or did I misread something and am way off..

 

Sales rep are clueless... If you look at the previous page in this thread, I ordered mine with CPU listed online but it shows i7-6820HK when I pull up my order online.
Laptop will be stuck into pre-production stage until they have the parts. That's a good indication.

 

I suspect they already have the parts but can't release until the 18th. If not, they would not manage with the queues of orders in time for the 18th. It went into production on 9/3 ordered 9/2. My delivery date is scheduled for the 18th hmmm?

With the 990M will take a whole redesign due to the required wattage need for that monster and I doubt they have a ready model for that for release right away in two-three months. Next year perhaps another refresh likely? Battery life would be very marginal unless they severely throttle or nerf it on battery. Who knows? But with the GA, that gives you added insurance for future proofing since the world of desktop GPUs is your oyster. If you need a system now, get one. If you can wait until next year, then wait. Depends on your needs. I know I am tired of waiting and I need to upgrade my 5-year-old rig.

 

Alienware with 6th gen processor is selling at Japan. Check AW Japanese website. Western Hemisphere have different launching schedule


Boring boring Chelsea

 

Yikes!!! 3,000 for the top model. http://www.dell.com/jp/p/alienware-17-r3/pd