Cast your vote or opinion on the new Alienware 2015 model line up!!

Thanks for the update and info - very useful . It was your sig that surprised me - of course you haven't gone to the dark side haha.

 

You're welcome. I forgot to add, it seems like the 330W AC adapter is best utilized when connected before powering on the machine or after a reboot. Switching AC adapters without shutting down and letting the BIOS detect it does not work consistently. That should be useful to know, because hotswapping the AC adapter did not add 1000 3DMark points to my benchmark score. Cold booting and rebooting did, without any other tweaks involved.

 

Doesn't surprise Mr Fox. It appears that the throttling algorithm simply uses the BIOS report of the PSU wattage connected and stays below that. Another test I can skip! Cheers .

Edit: You need to borrow a GA (empty) to see if power is supplied over it's interface thus allowing overclocking? Another user suggested it was because the on-board dGPU is disabled and not drawing current, which makes sense if a card is installed.

I've just ordered a 330w PSU so by the time mine arrives I'll have the full set .

 

It may not be best to say that too loudly. One of the genius's at Dell may take note of that and "improve" the next bios revision by locking it out to only accept the standard "approved" AC Adapter.

 

That would not be too surprising. The best approach to BIOS updates any more is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The people that have blind trust in their OEM to do the right thing for everyone except for the OEM are crazy. They do what is best for their agenda first and if it helps customers then it is a win-win for everyone. For the trusting customer, applying BIOS updates for no valid reason other than a newer version is available has the potential to translate into, if it ain't broke yet, we promise to try harder... just wait until the next update.

 

When you hover over the Alienware forum title, you see this:



Should probably change that description now. Remove the "and enthusiasts" part, or say, "having used to offer high-performance systems for gamers and enthusiasts."

 

That is just total crap these days. 'Worlds largest boutique brand'? I think not any more.

 

Mr. Fox, Papusan, and all the other numerous people who aren't happy with Alienwares direction you're gonna love this!:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/dell-alienware-tablet-alpha-steam,news-49651.html

 

Yeah, I saw that right after Frank's forum appearance at Alienware Arena. "Gaming Tablet" is an oxymoron. I was somewhat surprised that some dipstick didn't ask him when Alienware was going to release a "Gaming Smartphone" LOL. Some of these people that proclaim to be gamers are turning out to be a scourge and give the real gamers a bad name. I saw a post in another forum the other day where a new Alienware 13 owner referred to himself as being a "hardcore gamer" and I think it must have been a typo. The "g" should have been an "l" in his case, since there is nothing that can accurately be described as "hardcore" in the new product line. Maybe fancy or nice would be appropriate, but "hardcore" is definitely a stretch. We cannot even say "adequate" because that is subjective and dependent on individual needs.

 

An Alienware gaming tablet would be amazing. I have been looking for a device to replace my NVIDIA Shield Tablet that I bought after selling my Razer Edge. It just wasn't thin enough. Maybe it will even allow me to remotely stream stream my OUYA games. Fingers crossed. Seriously though, considering how sad that AW 13 + GA event was, I can only imagine how ridiculous the launch of an Alienware gaming tablet will be.

Haha maybe he only plays League of Legends. I'm in college and some people have thousand of hours spent on that game. I have to say that the worst thing about the AW13 is that not only does it fail at being an ultrabook but it performs worse than other gaming laptops with the SAME GPU. It has crappy battery life and it's twice the size of other ultrabooks. Lol it even has less processing power than a 13 inch macbook pro. I'm in a place where I need a very portable machine but I seriously can't find a single reason to consider it. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

I've just read that AW 2015 models won't have SLI suport and will have soldered CPU and GPU to the MoBo. IMHO it's a total failure and disaster, alienware sales gonna go down by 60%. What's the point of buying 3000$ worth DTR if you can't upgraded it lol? It's pointless. Also no SLI configurations? Is that a joke? Do i have to buy desktop GPU and transport it everywhere with the laptop? That's a nonsense, I want mobility and performance. Also what if I would like to SLI two cards in amplifier? GTX 880M is a full desktop 680 chip so if I would buy graphics amplifier and plug desktop 680 there it's still will be about two Times slower than having two GTX 880M in my laptop, what the heck?

Have Clevo plans to release 18 inch model finally? Im tired of this miniaturisation ********, i hate small screens and will never like them.

As far as I know MSI is going to release MXM compatbile GT80 18 inch DTR and if Clevo won't release anything like that MSI will probably release next model with this BGA crap too. Im very dissapointed.

 

@ChrisAtsin - Yeah, but what you are talking about essentially amounts to a mini wireless monitor, not a standalone machine that does an excellent job of gaming all by itself. I think there are actually some numbnuts out there that want a tablet that replaces a competent high performance gaming machine and that is an unrealistic (to use a polite word) expectation.

The Alienware 13 will have a loyal following for the same reasons as what I just said in the paragraph above, only not to that ridiculous extreme of wanting a gaming tablet. Some people really do not care about incredible performance as long as it will do the basics. That's OK as long as there is something for everyone. The problem that we have is the fact that there is not something for everyone. Their flagship 17 R2 falls short of meeting the expectations of many.

 

Unrealistic is very polite indeed. I'd love to hear what their definition of "basics" is. I'm not sure what kind of settings an 860m performing at an 850m level (so basically an unoptimised PS4 with a screen) will allow you to run your games at. I have to say that I am confused with the new AW17. I rarely see 17+ inch laptops even though I'm surrounded by tech everyday. Most people that I know (and I assume most people outside this forum) if given the choice between a 15 inch and 17 inch laptop that practically perform the same will go for the 15, hell some people will even say that 13 is ideal. I've always associated 17+ with the absolute highest mobile performance but now it's "just" a bigger screen. I guess they're counting of the unwavering loyalty of their fans. But then again , Frank Azor knew who you were and he still lied to you so who knows. Maybe next year's lineup will be the Alpha, the Pro (9.7 inch iPad alternative), the 13 and the 15. Hardcore Enthusiasts like you will definitely not buy the 17, people like me that need portability will buy the 15 (at best), people will also buy the 13 since it's cheap, I guess. I don't see how they'll get enough 17 sales.

 

I cannot relate to anyone being willing to pay a handsome price any "high performance" system with the CPU and GPU welded to the motherboard.

Yeah, I love gigantic laptops. They need a CPU socket, fully unlocked CPU and dual MXM slots or they automatically fall into the jokebook category as far as I am concerned. If I needed something truly thin and light that I could tuck under my arm and run a 100-yard dash without slowing down, it would be inexpensive, disposable and only exist as a supplement to my "real beast" machine. But, different strokes... the part that I find disappointing is having nothing acceptable to choose from for folks that share my interests. Having a diverse product line is fine. Having an incomplete product line is sad.

 

Yeah Dell is trying to tell us that they knows better what is good for us than we know.

 

I hate thing like this. More and more trash from Dellienware. I have never owned a Xbox or PlayStation. I hate it.. I love Big gaming rig or a nice gaming laptop. All small tablet, mini pc, Aple pc, Xbox, Ps or BGA trash. "I hate it" I never come to buy trash.... Hate it........

 

Haha, I thought you would have something to say about that article I linked papusan! I agree, I'm not interested in a gaming tablet at all, and I think it's sad that they seem to be catering to this more casual thin & light crowd without having anything at the top end (like Mr Fox pointed out) with sli.

 

Why? I just own jailbroken xbox 360 and no other console and I don't plan to buy one. I want to play on my laptop and they really messed up things now.

 

I have an Alienware 15 and I like what it offers with size and performance. Like everyone else I am upset as well for missing the socket GPU/CPU. I would have at least expected the flagship model to still offer these options. Honestly I feel that the direct Dell is taking Alienware is more or less watering it down to make it more mainstream, unfortunately I doubt we will see them going back to socket cpu/gpu options as clearly they are looking to cut costs as much as possible.

 

I'd fight that if that idea even bleeped out of someone's mouth.

 

The industry is going to be adopting that form factor. If it's something that fills your heart with unbridled rage with this generation of Alienware's notebooks, write it out here, or PM me. I'll gather your rage and turn it into feedback for industry decision makers.

 

Funny you should mention that ... since that's exactly what Dell has done with earlier Inspiron/Latitude series. The center-pin of the plug did not provide voltage or ground, but was merely there to ID the adapter. It would run/charge fine without identifying, but the BIOS would force a much lower cpu clock (forcing the user to buy 'authentic' Dell).

• Latitude D620 extremely slow when charging
• Dell laptop DC power jack pinout
• Bypassing the DELL unrecognized adapter issue

 

I think that Mr. Fox's post (quoted below) from earlier in this thread sums up a lot of 'feeling' towards this 'industry move' towards BGA soldered on crap. You simply cannot give the customer less choice and expect them to be happy about it. Not being able to change or upgrade the two most important components of our machines to maximise their useful lifespan is simply not acceptable, in my humble opinion. I imagine that your average Alienware laptop owner has scrimped and saved big time to buy their dream machine, only to have it ham strung by the fact that once its internal components are no longer cutting it, they HAVE to change the entire machine to keep up to date. I guess Dell will say "Oh, but we have this super dooper GA that will allow you to remain current......." but that ain't really gonna work in the long term. As desktop cards become more powerful, the soldered on crappy CPU is gonna be a huge drawback. Upgrade the GA to keep up? - not gonna work, long term. We also have the fact that the GA is a great big lump that we would have to carry around and the entire reason for having a gaming laptop is portability, right?

 

And I'm saying I'd fight that decision on Alienware products unless there was some big picture I didn't see. And by big picture, I don't mean $$$. I'd also take this profound new understanding and educate the community on what led to that decision. Though, from my current stand point, that'd be annoying since I swap AC Adapters from all over the place all the time. It would drive me absolutely mad during my tests.

I totally get where you're coming from and I understand people's concerns. I've gathered a lot people's thoughts on BGA and will see where I can go from there.

 

Unfortunatly the bigger picture comes from compliance and regulatory affairs. By limiting the power draw AND the ability to use a cheap non-standard PSU they (you) are protecting the customers from the potential of a disaster/fire/overheating. Best endeavours and all that ...

 

They removed my review comparing the R1 & R2 on the Alienware 17 product page.

@steviejones133

It had more than two dozen "helpful" likes, so I guess it got too much attention.

 

Yeah, they discovered you are not an owner and reviews are for owners. Well see when I've finished with one

@steviejones133 I see Frank run away and closed the thread after your last post. Maybe he'll come back when they figure out the least objectionable answer...

 

I followed all of their "writing guidelines" for publishing of my review, and so it was published. You don't have to own something to be knowledgeable of it. That's a lame excuse to remove a review.

The truth is: The R2 is not an upgrade to the R1, and they don't want customers to know that.

 

Of course you're right, I was being sarcastic. Devils advocate and all that. Of course it's lame!

 

I'm pretty confident they didn't remove your post to censor that. I believe you actually have to own a unit for your post to be up there. I think they look up the user/email history and search for your service tag. I could be wrong about that. I'll ask Monday but I'm clearing up that they aren't censoring you. Take that as you will.

 

He didn't run away. Come on. The AMA was a two hour endeavor and was closed after the two hour mark. Frank even posted here on NBR yesterday. The PSU question was answered by him earlier in the thread but the answer was blocked by a spam filter which was fixed the next morning.

 

Do you really believe that ********? He didnt knew how to reply to this that's why he said that spam filter blocked it...

 

What would be perfect (for us, not necessarily Dell) is if the new BGA product line was only supplemental to the pre-existing 17 and 18. They could come up with another source for the 18" LCD or some kind of modification for the 17 and 18 to use the same LCD panel, just a wider bezel or edge-to-edge glass (my preference) for the smaller LCD to fit the 18" lid and still look good. Then those that are OK with BGA filth could go ahead and forge that dead end street and those that are absolutely unwilling to accept it regardless of industry trend could still have a real beast machine. Assuming Compal would still be able to produce the 17 and 18 for Alienware, everyone would have an option that is pleasing and palatable. It would be a winning situation for previous 17 and 18 owners to have the 980M bugs fixed, they can upgrade and extend their warranty in confidence. They would still need to fix the 18's power-handling problems and do whatever it takes to make the BIOS/EC compatible with the new Maxwell GPUs or that would be a failure. Not many people are interested in 880M because it is obsolete and riddled with functionality and performance problems.

 

OK point taken on the timing, I was not aware of that. So instead of saying 'this has been answered' which is totally insufficient tell us again, in detail. His response was ambiguous and time wasting for frustrated users - bad all around.

Steviejones133 was trying to get more details and got your (AW mod) stock reply of see Mr A's post. Pack it in dude, you messed up and now are trying to damage limit. If your technicians cannot repro this problem and identify the cause that's YOUR problem and not something you can play onto the users.

Thanks for inviting me to vent

 

I am okay with Alienware 13 being BGA, but for the 15 and 17...it's a bad move. There are other companies that made the laptop thinner and uses socket.

 

Frank mentioned in a PM to me that they are going to investigate the PSU matter. "If we're wrong, we're wrong" then they'll fix it. I posted the PM message in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ager-frank-azor-anything-on-awa.770195/page-6 thread.

 

Yup, that just says we don't see it and you must be doing something wrong. It takes 10 mins to prove this issue. If it's not happening for them then we must be the culprits. It all time wasting while his guru's thrash around trying to get it to work on a 180w PSU.

Investigate? That's just weak. Had he said 'we see a problem and are looking for a solution' I would have accepted it. An 'investigation' just delays us getting the machines we paid for, and some sort of cop-out can be found.

 

IMHO they are going to release some VBIOS or BIOS to throttle GPU/CPU so it won't get so much power and this 180W **** will be sufficient. They're doing it Dellienware 2015 way.

 

Seems we think the same. He has to delay things while the coders work. Another option open to them is battery boost. Somehow prop up the PSU with the battery when gaming. Nobody will notice until after an extended gaming session it throttles?

 

Micky is spot on, as usual. The way I see it is that Dell has done little to no tests to warrant a better PSU.....as long as it works at the factory, ship it out and let the end customer deal with the fallout of a machine that doesn't perform within its capabilities as it should do. Heck, does it matter to Dell?.....nope, because as we ALL know, when you call in to tech support to complain, you'll get the standard "Sir, it suffices for the use we validated it for"...................then you will be up crap creek without a paddle.

 

I think they'll just start shipping it with the 240W power supply, but only if it doesn't invalidate whatever standards they have set for noise & temperatures. Maybe they will need to test that out first, before deciding. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they've not already tested it with a 240W adapter at some point, and then just decided that the 180W would be 'adequate'; there's no way in hell they didn't know how the system performed before putting this laptop on sale - they already knew all the in's & out's - the test results they're seeing aren't a surprise to them, their engineering team would be a joke otherwise.

 

I certainly would hope they do this. Otherwise if I have to continue with a 180W supply when it should have an adequate supply for maximum performance, I'll be returning the underperforming $2500 piece of junk back to their idiot factory.

Yes Alienware, I am now starting to get a little annoyed with your company and this is the first product I ever bought from you. If this issue isn't fixed, it will be my last. I bought the laptop in good faith after hearing recommendations, then now after all this PSU bull, I'm losing my confidence in your customer service AND your brand. High end gaming laptop my ass.

You have a problem, man up, FIX IT.

No doubt in my mind when using the 240W, they would have to run tests and get the device/PSU certified for temperatures, etc before they can considering including the 240W regularly or providing it to people.
I don't know how anyone who has designed a computer could mess this up, I'd like to think it was innocent stupidity but there's probably more to it.

 

Dellienware could have used soldered hardware on the new Alienware 13 and 15. Alienware 17 and 18 could only have upgraded graphics. Manages Msi obtaining a 18.4 "WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display screen should also Dellienware managed this. It's just a horrible new Alienware laptop 17r2(Model BGA).

 

Dellienware could purchased the patent (the battery turbo boost Technology) from MSI .. MSI has chosen a more powerful 230W power supply now instead of the old at 180w. They have gone away from the battery turbo boost while Dellienware considering using it ..

 

A Good thing that you have woken. You gave me harsh criticism earlier because I criticized the new Alienware ...

 

Honestly who's playing demanding games on battery? I doubt 90% of AW17 users will ever need battery boost technology. Alienware m17x was designed for maximum power and NO COMPROMISES. That's why you can have two GPUs in m17x which will kill most of desktops available. How long do you want to play games on battery using two gpu's? That's for rare emergency situations and I don't think you want to sacrifice second GPU so you can play longer on battery when you use it four times in a year.

That's just another dellienware "standard reply" which helps justify big cuts to the quality of new models and cost of production with same price for customer(!)

And i doubt they will ship new 240W to every customer. They already lowered build quality of 2015 models very much to get more money so 100% no.

It's probably also my last dell product bought. I presume that I'll just change my MoBo to M18xR2 one after 4 years or something like that, install new gpus and stick with this awesome machine until it will die.

 

I wasn't referring to Nvidia's battery boost technology but some sort of reverse engineering for it to kick in the battery, in addition to the PSU. Seems from Papusan's post that this has already been tried by MSI...

Since mine will (eventualy) come with the top CPU I'm going to test with my R4 220W psu and a 330w I have purchased.

 

Battery turbo Boost is a perverse invention from MSI. Created because MSI failed to use a larger power supply. The motherboard to the previously MSI gaming laptops could not use bigger than 180w power supply .. Msi used 180w power supply in both revisions of GT70, which was their top model (gaming laptop). They used the same 180w power supply on the GT70 Golden Dragon with i7-4930 Mx. Quite perverse. The extreme processor was even overclocked from the factory... MSI had to use the same power supply due to the use of the same motherboard in both revisions of their motherboards.

 

New lineup is a joke. Instead of buying a new machine which I was thinking to do in the near future I will stick with the M15x.

Detachable watercooling + 16GB cas 7 DDR3 ram, new SSD and a new GPU and it is effectively a new laptop for less than the new 15 and will be quicker! Dock it to overclock it. Detach it to go portable.. at least Alienware have made the choice easier for me.