Thinking of buying an Alienware 14...

Hi guys, I'm looking to get a refurbished AW14 (i7 4700QM, 1080p, 765M) and I was wondering how current owners feel about it in terms of stability and any lingering issues. My main concern is whether I should wait for the refresh or not... Any advice and information would be appreciated, thanks.

 

I bought a refurbished one with those exact specs for $975 with a coupon and absolutely love it so far. I bought a Samsung EVO 256gb Msata SSD to install the OS and games on and am overall pleased with the build quality and how well it can handle every game I've played. I'm deploying in the next few weeks so I couldn't wait for the refresh on this system, but if I were you I'd play with what you have and wait and see what Alienware does. With Lenovo already refreshing their line and the new cards around the corner....it couldn't hurt to wait unless you need something now.

 

So far almost 6 months and my 14 has proven to be the most reliable AW I own. I even have it overclockex 175/200 and play bf4 for hours at a time.. Awesome awesome little machine. I just editing 1400 photos from a wedding I shot, never missed a beat...

 

If you can wait then wait and get the newest one when it launches. If you cant then the aw14 is a wonderful machine. Mine has been great, but is in for service right now (first alienware to have done this).

 

Thanks guys, think I'll wait for the refresh, the 860M seems most likely to be the new Maxwell architecture...

 

So when is the new refresh? I've heard rumors its either early March or June.

 

What's yours being serviced for? Mine is 3 weeks old and has been nothing but trouble.

 

That could be a good idea. Unfortunately we have no info about any new launches.

 

When you say that, do you mean Alienware or Nvidia launches? I've read rumors about Alienware 17 and 18 adding the 800 series but nothing about the AW14... I guess we'll find out in a week one way or another.

 

I mean that from our side, from Alienware.

 

Unfortunately, nobody here can tell you when the new Alienwares will launch. The general rule of thumb for electronic hardware (this includes laptops, cell phones, etc...), is "If you need it now, but it now. If you can wait, buy the upgraded model when it first releases". Nobody wants to buy a new cell phone only to have the upgraded model come out a month later, and the same goes for computer hardware.

From what I've seen with the 750 Ti benchmarks, the Maxwell architecture looks to be a big jump. Assuming the GTX800 series of Nvidia mobile GPUs (or at least what Alienware puts in the AW 14) is Maxwell based, they should be a pretty big jump in performance.

 

Look like the 860M and the the 850M are Maxwell. Therefore expect the 850M to be in the Alienware 14 at least.

The 860M = desktop 850 Ti

The 850M = desktop 850