Let's say Alienware has an option to forgo LED lights for a discount, would you buy it?

Well, to put it in simple terms without scores, a single desktop 980 is about on par with a laptop with 980m sli, with 980m sli having a good edge over a single 980. Without Dells 'graphics accelerator' box, can any of Alienwares current models compete with a desktop 980? - nope. I imagine anyone contemplating a decent desktop build would be looking currently at single 980 as a minimum, so it's obvious that without the GA, Dells current best mobile gpu performance is a single 980m which would be blow out of the water by a 980 desktop.

Thus, it is safe to say that none of Dell's current line up offer true DTR performance (without the GA) where as something like a Eurocom Panter 5 or X8 with 980m sli would be a mobile equivalent of a desktop with a single 980......now that's a true DTR notebook.

Is BGA really that economical? - I mean, I've just hopped on the US web site and configured a maxed out 17 (1 yr warranty) with a GA and a 980 and it's running about $4,000 - actually $4,275 without instant savings. Compare that to the cost of a 980m sli machine (with sockets and slots) from the likes of Eurocom that comes with a 4930k desktop cpu and there really isn't that much difference between Eurrocom and Alienwares BGA offering with an eGPU and the 980m sli will perform better and is completely mobile.

Just sayin'...............

 

But when it comes time to upgrade my Alienware I can just buy a desktop GPU for $400-500 and bam I'll get better performance than your SLI setup.

But for you to upgrade your SLI setup will cost $1400+.

That's why I like the graphics amplifier. Sure the $200 upfront is a bit steep and the 4x PCI lanes is a bit limiting (granted this seems to be more of a technical issue because the ports and wires look like 8 lanes) but it offers you quite a lot of upgrade performance for significantly less than mobile chips.

Mobile chips just cost farrr too much right now. I've been hoping things would change but really the price hasn't changed very much over the past few years.

And well there's like 20millon Alienware coupons out there and the reps can significantly drop your price. Like I said mine was $2400 (2yr warranty) for maxed out specs and no GA/980. If I remove the extended warranty it would have been 2100. And that was just with coupons, no price haggling or anything. Granted I'm sure you can do similar with eurocom but I'm not sure how much.

 

@steviejones133

I honestly haven't looked at the top-end, maxed-out machines. I only look at what I'm interested in.

My Clevo cost me $1650 CAD after tax (roughly the same as what I paid for the AW17 R2 with the same specs). A MXM GTX 970M would cost me between $700-$800 CAD after tax.

I'm sure the economics change depending on what kind of machine you buy. That being said, I have a feeling a casual, somewhat-ignorant gamer isn't going to drop $4000 on a machine. Part of the reason the new AW are selling well is because of the price point (under $2000) for entry/mid-level specs. And those entry-level machines are what people are going for.

I would also add that a Clevo SLI machine is not at all comparable (in terms of styling/size/weight) to a single GPU AW or Clevo. And there are people out there who place a great deal of value on aesthetics and weight (though I'm not really one of them). The Eurocom Panther 5 is a beast of a machine, both in power and size.

I do agree that if you're prepared to drop $4k on a laptop, don't go AW - get yourself a maxed-out P750ZM. At that price point, the relative cost of the GPU is quite a bit less, and it makes more sense. If this is the segment you're looking at, I can fully understand being aghast at the idea of spending that kind of money on a closed, BGA machine. But I'm pretty sure the people who are ready to drop $4k+ on a gaming laptop are the minority.

It's again akin to a car - if I'm going to be spending $50k on a car, I'll be looking at a BMW or a Mercedes - not a souped-up Honda Civic. But I'd rather have a souped-up, $25k Honda Civic than an entry-level BMW1.

To give you an idea of the economics I'm looking at, I bought a used AW17 R1 for $1150 CAD (16GB RAM, 1080p, R9 M290X). New (last year) I believe that would have cost at least $2500 CAD after tax. Upgrading to the GTX 970M costs $800 CAD currently for me. So for $2k you get that machine with a GTX 970M. Or pretty much the same specs as the Clevo/AW17 R2, which cost $400-$500 less, and are new and have a full warranty. So at my price point (and my requirements) these new BGA machines make perfect sense.

It is sad to see Dell abandon the R1- such an awesome machine. Solid, sturdy, cool, quiet...

 

Yes because we all want to believe in the slippery slope conspiracy theory that the companies are all out to control us. The illuminati wants us to all have devices that are the exact same too. I'd have my tinfoil hat on but unfortunately Alienware soldered it to the motherboard.

What are these restrictions that are so bad? Besides lack of upgradeability?

Every BGA laptop I've had lasted over 4 years. Any computer that lasts that long is fine by my standards.

So what happens if BGA didn't change my purchasing patterns in the past? It's not an issue then, because I have never and will never replace or upgrade anything in my laptops. If I want upgradeability I'll buy a desktop.
How the hell am I ignorant to this? I know what the **** BGA and all this **** is. If they give me a design that has something that doesn't affect me and I don't use it then they take it away, I'm not affected. How the **** am I being fooled when it's nothing I cared about. That's a stupid statement to blanket everyone under, when it's the minority enthusiasts who upgrade things. I bet if you asked the majority of Alienware owners in the past what MXM was, they would look at you cross eyed.

 

I also made the configurations as you.

The R2 fully maxed out came upto $3924 and that's with the 4980HQ, 980 GTX + GA + 1 year warranty
The Panther X5 configured to be as similar to the R2 as much as possible came upto $4693. And that was with the 480GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 980M SLI, 4930K, 16GB DDR3 12800, and Windows

That's a difference of about $700. Now the 980 GTX cost me $600 so really the difference is $1300 and for that kindoff money I can get a Titan X and a new PSU to power said Titan X overclocked. Now the Titan X is definitely much much more power than a 980 GTX and even with the 10% performance loss due to the 4x PCI-E lanes I think it'll be able to outperform the 980M and that's at stock clocks.

Now in the future when I want to upgrade the GPU, I can upgrade it to another Titan for less than you can upgrade the SLI MXM cards.

Granted this is without coupons and eventually you will hit a CPU bottleneck that you won't be able to upgrade whereas the Panther 5 has a desktop CPU so it has more power in that regard. But in reality, how many people do you know who will actually do something like that? If you have 4-5k on a laptop then yeah I'd say the Panther 5 is a very very attractive offering. But if you have 2k then the Alienware is a pretty attractive option too.

 

Someone please tell me how Dell is going to lose a lot of money because of the graphics amplifier because customers won't upgrade. But on the same argument them upgrading their MXM cards to keep their laptops is good for Dell when the money doesn't go back to Dell by them upgrading? At least Dell sells the G/A/ to make money off that...then when the CPU gets old, the user buys a new system. That sounds like a better business model for Dell.

 

I love the flashy lights. Why settle for three levels of lighting off, dim and bright when you can also have colors and variable brightness?

Nowadays most customers of laptops want a keyboard that lights up. A laptop without a lighted keyboard will not sell as well as one that has a lighted keyboard, this would negate any cost savings by having no lights.

Besides.......I think I like a computer that whether it has power or not, that occasionally out of the blue says.....GO TO THE LIGHT......... KEN....... GO TO THE LIGHT.........

 

Well, my primary reason for buying the AW was the availability of i5 with a good GPU, for a good price. I do not need the i7, nor am I a hardcore gamer, so the price tag with i5 was a beautiful deal for me (875 dollars for i5, 8gb ram, 970m).

Lights are just a bonus. If I could have gotten a further discount for disabling the lights? It would depend on the price. If I would have gotten 75+ more off, yes, yes I would have taken it. Less than that... I'll keep the lights

 

The R&D for the keyboard is done and has been done for years now so for them it is just a drop in replacement. To remove the LED's would require more testing. And also Led's are pennies a piece. The software is complete with minor upkeep on that. The final expense would be the circuitry connecting the LED's and this also in mass production can be made for 4-6 dollars most likely.

Then it comes down to having 2 different keyboards during the build process. It would require more time to determine which keyboard (minimal I know) but still an expense. Is it worth it for dell to remove ~$10 from the cost... Probably not. Plus everyone I know who purchases Alienwares do it because of the colorful keyboard(Non-Enthusiasts)

 

Let's face it.
In the market for mainstream gaming laptops, the lights are one of the largest things that separate Alienware from the other laptops. They are what drew me in at first.
When you are stuck in a market where they all have similar prices and specs, you go for looks. I went for the looks on this laptop and I don't regret it one bit. Plus I have the warranty too, which helps my peace of mind!

 

Oh I do not disagree at all. One of the main factors when deciding on my clevo was if it had the colorful keyboard because I like them alot.

 

Why does that not surprise me. "Oooooohhh, look at the sparkly lights.....ain't they pretty....."

The largest thing that 'used to' separate Alienware from other laptops was not the lights (although some people more concerned with bling might have thought so) as they were available on other laptops besides Alienware. It was the fact that you could configure an absolute beast of a machine with dual gpu's and an extreme edition processor and you knew that the build quality (with at one time, a full aluminium casing) was going to be the only kind of laptop on the market like it. That, coupled with the fact that Alienwares used to be user upgradeable, made them the closest thing you could get in mobile format that provided the equivalent performance of a desktop machine.

What have you got now? - you've got a line up that is all single gpu, you've got a 15 and 17 inch machine that there really is no difference between other than screen size, you have lost the aluminium casing (replaced by plastic like any other laptop), you've lost any chance of an ODD, you've lost any chance of running more than 16gb memory and you've also lost any chance you might have had in changing a component such as cpu or gpu - wether you planned to or not. You've also lost any chance of having a true DTR without having to rely on an external abortion of an eGPU box of tricks.....you've also got a nice soldered on cpu which is gonna (at some stage) bottleneck that eGPU that you think is the answer to everything........you've also lost any chance of a 120hz 3D screen, lost any chance of an 18.4" screen that was brilliant for DTR. The thing that made Alienware totally unique was amazing build quality, aluminium casing and the ability to configure a machine to exactly how you wanted it - single gpu, dual gpu, monster processor etc.......now all you have left is very little choice, no chance to upgrade, a plastic laptop much like any other cheaper machine such as MSI and no chance of building a true DTR.

You guys think this is a brilliant move?

Sorry, if you think that this is a step in the right direction, you've been blinded by those twinkly lights that you placed so much importance on above the other criteria above.

 

Not one person here is disagreeing with that in the overall aspect of alienware. But this thread is specifically about those "sparkley lights on the keyboard" .....

 

Sorry, but this thread and this one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/contacted-alienware-to-configure-a-2015-alienware-17.774056/ have kind of run into each other in the discussion over Alienware and it's decision over the current line up.

 

You know, copper has gotten really expensive over the past few years due to the economy. If Dell replaced all the copper in an Alienware Laptop with cotten thread, maybe they could cut the cost of producing the laptops down to 1/3 of what they cost now and by charging the same prices, they would increase their profit margin by 2/3.

 

Actually if you read my post you would see I said " When you are stuck in a market where they all have similar prices and specs, you go for looks" so this was the right choice for ME. I didn't choose it because of the lights first, I chose it because ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, I LIKED THIS LAPTOP'S AESTHETIC MORE. Not to mention you're posting in a thread specifically about the lights. Out of the other laptops' systems this one looked best to me. Not that I should have to defend my decision to purchase to you, obviously you will still criticize it because you can't understand it satisfies my needs and that's good enough.

There's nothing wrong with single GPU laptops, the people who buy the dual GPUs are in the minority for a reason (they're expensive) and if Alienware doesn't wish to put the money into R&D for that, then it's their perogative. They didn't ruin the brand by changing, they changed audiences, maybe ruining it for you, but be realistic, the brand is still more or less the same except you can't upgrade your parts. It's a step I don't care about at all because it makes no difference to me if the laptop is upgradeable or not. I couldn't care less, but with the stupid comments you're making, you're not helping your argument, you're only pinning people with BGA against you.

 

When it comes to the alienware hate I have noticed it's a very vocal few who seem to stir up the most garbage. I generally ignore them because they are pretty much no better than trolls

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Personally speaking for each of you, but I really hope the angry vitriol doesn't get to your heads. Side and irrelevant comment, sure, but... yeah.

 

Not at all, its amusing for the most part because I have this laptop that I thoroughly enjoy using (and I have owned m17xr3 and also m18xr2 so I know the previous offerings) but apparently I'm enjoying it way too much and I should actually hate it. Doesn't mean much to me when a person dumps on it just because it doesn't offer them what they personally want from a laptop. I'm still going to be here enjoying my laptop regardless of what they say. Same thing goes to all the people who talk down about apple or razer because they are overpriced and don't fill their personal needs. Not my problem and I'm not really interested in hearing your opinion, but I will let you say it and won't try to impede you from saying it.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

It seems at this point they're just comments trying to make owners feel bad or make them feel like they wasted their money. We buy the laptop because it meets our needs, that's it. Anything else is irrelevent.

 

I think I am going to buy an RV just to haul around my new laptop....



http://www.cray.com/products/computing/cs-series

 

No that's not what he said. See above. Not ALL laptops have similar prices and specs at all - he just liked the lights......typical.

 

When you compare mainstream laptops they do have similar prices when configured equally. When you compare it to enthusiast laptops then things are a little bit different but even so you aren't talking about huge prices differences here.

He also didn't say he ONLY liked the lights, he just said the lights are what drew him in. And why not? Why can't you have something that you like and also look nice? I think clevos look boring and generic (well because they are) and the reason I never liked the original alienwares was because they were far too flashy.

If you gave me the choice between two laptops that are similarly specced and similarly priced, I'm going to go with the one that has the looks I like best. Its not the most important choice for me, things like specs and warranty are, but if those are similar then why not consider looks too?

 

Sorry mate - they were your own word from your own mouth - they are what drew me in first. I guess you are just a sucker for shiny lights. Can't really debate (or expect a reasonable discussion) with someone who then goes off on one talking about dildos and nut sacs. I guess that must be the immaturity coming out in you......

You guys really are in a league of your own......literally.

 

Just because something draws you in doesn't mean that its the thing you buy...

 

Please keep this on topic and civil, the thread has been edited accordingly. Thread reopened.