*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

Nope this is due only to broadwell being delayed, so alienware had to choose an alternative, a weaker, more consuming "gap" the ulv haswell. Broadwell ULV look quite strong however

 

If that were true I would think the order sheets would show the Haswell part and not the Broadwell part, but time will tell. If I had to bet I would bet the Broadwell part shows up in the first shipped i7 units and not the Haswell part. If it's a Haswell part there are going to be a lot of upset people on NBR

 

Yea..i would be, good thing i can return it and wait again.

 

might have to return mine and wait now to or consider trying the hp omen again

 

CES (not to mention PAX later in the January) is right around the corner... I would seriously wait and see...

 

I have had the Alienware 13 for a week now and while I find it very satisfying, it was missing the key component that made me think "I have everything that I would be happy with." Since I play a lot of World of Warcraft, I found the game stuttering too often when fighting mobs and when I play Assassin's Creed - Unity, something similar happens during fighting sequences. And while I do know that the Alienware does have logistical challenges as a result of its form factor, I think that the i5 processor was the main culprit and the 860m to a degree.

Because of this, I decided to return the Alienware 13 and instead opted for the Alienware 18... now I have to play the waiting game again..

 

FWIW - I have an Area 51 with a 990x oc'd to 4.0 Ghz with Dual Titans - and AC:U is just slow, and in reading it is not good code or well optimized as a PC port. Considering how rigs like that are having issues I don't think the AW 13 is a slouch for not running that game. You simply cannot run most games at full tilt, that is not what the AW 13 is designed for, and I would suspect WoW needs some similar tuning. I found by tweaking a couple settings per game I can run pretty smoothly on most things so far but I haven't tried WoW. I do play Star Trek Online and Champions Online which are both CPU-bound games, and with a few settings adjusted they run well enough but some slowdowns are inevitable.

If you had the money and don't have portability issues then I am kind of surprised you didn't buy one to begin with

 

hey docsteel, do you have the Alienware Echo-Series Docking Station/Graphics Amplifier? I ordered one today and I don't know which graphics card to order if gtx 980 or gtx970!

 

No, I am up in the air on one. I really don't need one, but I am kind of interested in one just to play around with. I have about 130 in reward money, but then I would in turn need a desktop card to use. Kind of hard ot justify with my Area 51 SLI rig sitting there to the wife : /

 

@docsteel. yeah!

 

I can see how you could think that... any game or system can be slow or not run well enough if not properly tweaked but I wasn't running WoW on ultra or even high settings, heck I didn't on any on the games I installed on it like League of Legends, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age Inquisition etc.. but my old Dell XPS M1330 ran WoW quite well on full settings back in the day and even now; my MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K runs the current games also without much lag or slowdown/stutter..

 

i havent heard much on MassEffect 3..wht kinda frames were u gettin and wht graphic setting?

 

Hey doc, check your inbox, Im sending you a 15$ off coupon for dell that I will never use anytime soon.

 

As far as i have heard, the GTX 780 (ti) and GTX 690 are the safest bet for Nvidia GPUs, though people have gotten the GTX 980 and GTX 970 to work. ON the AMD side, I have heard the R9 280x and R9 290x working.

Might want to read the fine print on that $15 coupon.
I got one as well, and, well, it has limited use.

 

THere is no fine print on the coupon itself.

$15 off your next electronics or accessories
purchase of $50 or more at dell. Exclusions apply*

Coupon* code: XXXXXXX
use the coupon* code noted above when ordering.
visit dell.com/mpp/electronics or call XXX-XXX-XXXX for details.

EDIT, looks like its tied to my dell account... ignore that msg there doc.

 

There seems to be a fine print with that exclusions apply. I got the same coupon as you. Only thing that coupon is worth is if you want an SSD or HDD. Anything else, forget about it,

 

That explains why I couldnt get a logitech g402 mouse with it...
Into the trash can it goes!

 

Why... the coupon is not member exclusive or anything. It's out there to the public.

Coupon code: 7HSVG1KQWWWSLK

Details & Exclusions: Get $15 off your next electronics or accessories purchase of $50 or more. Exclusions apply. Expires 2/28/2015 Exclusions: Coupon does not apply to Canon printers, Logitech UE Boom & Mini Boom speakers, Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e, Dell cables, Dell batteries and adapters,all 3rd party software, graphic cards, Bose, Garmin, Skullcandy, Jabra, Acme, Klipsch, Mio, Polar, MisFit, Scochse, Sennhesier, gaming software and gaming consoles, all tablets and smartphones, cameras, camcorders and lenses, all TVs, home theater products, Dell branded external DVD drives, MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer, MakerBot PLA Filament, all warranties and gift cards.

Also it is not available to use with items that have discounts applied already. This means that the 15 dollars off is only applicable on items with full prices, and we know that Dell prices are ridiculous on full retail prices, and sometimes even more expensive than the retail prices.

Bottom line? It's still probably cheaper to shop at Amazon, Newegg, or Tigerdirect, whatever accessory that you are buying.

 

Hey guys!
Found new "benchmarks" of a I7 5500U ( Broadwell-U: Leistungswerte einer Intel HD 5500 aufgetaucht )
What CPU scores do you get with your I5 CPUs? (maybe this gives us a hint if the I7 will help solving the CPU breaking out the GPU)
How are the temperatures in the Alienware 13?

Greetings
Alex

 

Thanks for posting, that makes my purchase of the i7 more well worth waiting for.

 

No doubt it will help,I think the i7 Broadwell mated to the GTX 860 was the original plan, I think they had to produce the i5 Haswell part due to delays. This was essentially what happened back with the M11x-R1 which was followed rapidly by the R2 (and Alienware stated this pretty much was the case).

I will say though that if people are thinking the i5 is "slow" that is simply not correct, it is more capable for day-to-day work and gaming than I would have expected. More is always better though; if people start telling me that fps rates are consistently 30% better I will order one tomorrow

Thanks for the thought, much appreciated in any event. I'd like to whittle that G/A cost down before i consider picking one up. It might come in handy for a possible AW 15 in the future I really have no need for it, but it is just interesting to fool around with. The other possibility is using the same money for a high capacity SSD.

 

I have an i5-4250u in an Intel nuc with an SSD and it flies in windows and web browsing. And any applications I use. Thats pretty much the same processor as the AW13, except with HD 5000, it's also 15W, 2.3GHz dual core turbo, 2.6 GHz single core. It even feels faster than my Dell L502X with a Sandy Bridge quad core i7-2830QM.

So you won't be disappointed in every day use, the only time the quad core is faster for me is when rendering video. It is twice as quick as it has twice as many cores, but I don't render video very often so it makes no difference to me!

Saying that, I'm gonna wait for the i7 in January for that extra bit of power!!

3.0GHz on a single core would actually be the fastest processor I own!

 

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I am considering buying the i7 AW13 and will mainly use it for heavy programming(C, python and Matlab) and some light gaming (Counter strike). I use my desktop for heavy gaming. However, I was wondering if anyone here knows how the ULV processor performs in programming?

 

I'm returnig mine to reorder with i7!

 

Order with i7!

 

Thanks for clearing that up!

But in the end I decided like you that i will be waiting for the i7 version. Especially because it will be the only computer that i own(sold my desktop)
I hope the i7 version will soon be available here in the netherlands, because now when i go to the alienware website there is not a option to pre-order the i7 version yet.
Hopefully the AW13 wont become much more expensieve with the i7 processor.

 

I hope you are right. I was really fascinated of the M11x back when it was released and i saw the first benchmarks.
The AW13 is quite similar to that - Its a really interesting laptop!
Especially the GPU Dock is really nice, because AW actually managed to provide a GPU Dock that allows you to use the internal display!
The M11x R2 was really awesome because AW had a bios oc function in it.

OT: Do you think that there will be a AW 15? Are there any hints for a AW 15 release?

 

There is an AW 15, yes. It should be shown at PAX South on Jan. 23rd.

Every laptop they offer this year will have soldered CPU's and GPU's.

 

Taken as a replacement for the M11x, not he AW 14 the system makes sense. The AW 15 will be the real "replacement" for the AW 14.

I'm really curious to see the final specs on the AW 15 are like, after my experience with the 1440p True Life on the AW 13 I can't stand to look at the screen on my M14x-R2 anymore and would like an AW 15 with a True Life display I imagine the AW 15 will have the 3200x1800 screen currently offered in the 15" XPS lineup.

 

To be honest, this is one thing that has worried me as a CS student. Then again, the few years old desktops the computer lab went through Python just fine, and seeing as everybody has a 13" Macbook or a 14" Lenovo in the class (all should have ULV processors) and got through fine, I'm sure we'll be fine.

 

How sure are you with this info boss? Do you have links so I can read further?
This info may sway me to consider 15 and not get the 13.

Thanks and Happy New Year! =)

 

An Alienware Media Rep did confirm to me that there is going to be a 15, and the two times to show it off are CES or PAX South, the latter being the most obvious to show the new lineup at. So he's not wrong, but he's 99% right.

 

Interesting. I will Like To See the 15 one!

 

I'd like to start the Alienware 15 thread but I dont have further info / links / leaks to support it =)

 

there is an indian guy on youtube taking about it.

here is a link, What do you guys think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-O8ZSnMXec

 

Unless things have changed much since I was in college (lol about two years before the Internet became a phenomena to the public) I would think that compile times would be the only thing you would see a difference in, and that would be with compilers that are actually designed to utilize more than four cores (dual core counts as 4 virtual cores).

 

Guy bugs me since he used to be a member of AWA. No response.

That's good to hear. Though I'll be seing a first hand look this semester with Java and my HP laptop if this is true.
Or I could run my Python files when I get a chance.

 

The compiler speed is where I assumed there would be a major difference. Worst case scenario is that the ULV takes double the time but that's assuming that both the code and the compiler are optimized to use all 4 cores.
To me the best thing about AW13 is the 16GB ram, atleast I know I could 'load' my data without slowing anything down.

 

This thread is making me more depressed the more I read through the posts.

-Depressed AW13 i5 owner with no money left to spend

 

Looks legit! cant wait! haha

 

Depressed why? You have a decent setup already

If its the question of the i7 vs. i5 you really need to let that go; the i7's will be faster, but not blindingly so. Let's say you have a 40 fps scene in a game... best case likely is it's 52 fps on the i7 (with a 30% benefit), but odds are it's going to fall in around 18~20% on average, giving fps of say 7~8 fps difference. Now, that is nothing to sneeze at, but it's hardly enough of a difference to make most games playable or unplayable over the i5. Odd's are I will stick with the i5 still unless there is a seriously huge difference which I doubt. If you have one now you are better off holding it until Silverlake, then flipping it then to get the performance gains of the CPU, GPU and chipset, that is likely to make a big difference (that's what I plan to do).

FWIW, I am glad they are introducing the AW 15, but it is disappointing if they have no SLI rig in their lineup... beyond the inevitable move to BGA in the industry, the loss of an SLI rig will hurt them in the perception as a true performance player.

 

Thanks for the link.
Great, I might now have to wait again if the 15 is what I'm hoping for.

 

Hey, does anybody here know if the on-screen-display software for the Alienware 13 actually does anything?

 

ok just wondering has anyone found a way to overclock the CPU yet...software or anything?

 

Waiting for CES next week!!!

 

You can't overclock a ULV CPU. You can, though, undervolt it.

 

CES is this week. Starts tomorrow.

 

Starts on the 4th, which may not be tomorrow for some of us and still is next week.

 

Intel to launch Broadwell "U" series CPUs at CES 2015

Intel Core i7-5500U Mobile processor

 

I'm depressed because I was planning on buying Alienware 14, but then they immediately took AW14 off the shelves when I looked at it again 3 days after. I thought there will only be AW13, AW17, and AW18 from this point on, but I didn't realize AW15 is going out this year.

Bigger screen estate was my plan. i5 and i7 is more of a secondary priority.