RIP - Alienware 18

So now we know why we haven't seen the 9xx series offered on the Alienware 18.

Alienware unleashes a pair of slimmed-down gaming laptops

It is a sad day!

 

Yeah. I was watching those AW machines. An AW15 and the AW17 R2 I suppose we should call it. 3GB 970Ms, 4GB 980Ms and HQ CPUs. I guess this is the end of alienware. At the prices they charge, having such sub-par equipment is not worth it.

ALSO THEY STILL HAVE NO OPTION FOR A 7200RPM HDD. IT'S ALL 5400RPM 1TB. COME ON. NOBODY WANTS THOSE.

 

7200RPM 2.5" HDDs have all but died out in the last few years, it's not just Alienware.

 

Ya, I just read this one myself. Well, Alienware has officially lost me as a customer, it looks like my next beast will either be a Clevo model, or the new MSI GT80 Titan. I'm simply not going back to single GPU laptops, EVER.

What's even worse, go to their homepage and browse their new lines. Every single laptop from Alienware, minus the soon to be gone AW18, is using the HQ-series processors. Yup, even the AW17 has it's heart SOLDERED in there permanently. This is a truly sad day, I have a feeling this might cause some serious backlash. I, for one, will be selling my m18x R2 and jumping ship.

 

RIP Alienware and the 18

 

AW has never offered one, but MSI and Clevo offer them on all their systems... hell, even ASUS machines come with em

I don't see why selling the R2 is a good idea for you, unless you need the money for something from Clevo or something due to wanting fully working 980Ms

 

well then definitely my next system will not be an Alienware!

what other gaming laptops have an 18.4 screen or bigger?

 

I want fully working 980m's, simple as that. I've been waiting to see what's going to happen with the 18 inch line before making my next purchase, and it looks like Alienware totally dropped the ball. I'd rather sell now and move on to my next machine.

 

The only other screen as big will be the new MSI dual video card. But that thing is ugly as s%^t...

 

Guess I won't own any "new" aw models. I'll be content with my "new" r2's for a while then hope clevo/sager offer a build quality model I like.

 

Ugly is an understatement brother pathfinder..

 

I'm just saying the industry seems to have moved away from advancing 7200RPM tech in the mobile space. It's mostly focused on 5400RPM and 5400RPM hybrids now, and SSDs. 7200RPM topped out at 1TB a while back and has been stuck there. Hybrids and 5400RPM are up to 2TB now. The higher platter density of the 5400RPM drives has made up for the speed difference, plus being quieter, using less power, higher capacity and costing less $/GB it makes no sense to go with 7200RPM nowadays in laptops.

Here, you can see the number of currently available 1TB+ 7200RPM drives is vastly outnumbered by the number of 5400RPM and hybrids, and it gets even more lopsided when you exclude the enterprise and >9.5mm drives that don't fit in laptops.

 

That's true, but hybrid drives have limitations like incapability of RAID-ing etc, as well as I've heard a LOT of things about them not lasting very long. Blah. I just hate seeing 1TB 5400RPM as the only option for sale when 1TB 7200RPM exists and is like only $5 more expensive.

 

This is exactly the thing that bothered me the most when I was looking for a laptop 1.5 years ago. None of the avaible Alienware laptops had a 7200RPM HDD. The avaible options where either too slow, or too expensive. Not to mention that if I wanted an Alienware 17 with 4800MQ I had to spend €300 more than for a Clevo (and yes, I get that Alienware is premium and their build quality is heaven-like, but €300 extra didn't seem worth it to me). This could be somehow avoided by going to sites such as XoticPC, but being an European, ordering from the US wouldn't be wise with all those crazy taxes here.

 

This is a sad day indeed for M18.
I had just got a M18 refurb exchange mid December. I was thinking of asking for a warranty extension but not sure if its worth it now.

 

Ain't this a B***h! I just got my 18 late last summer, and its gone from the landscape. Jeez, in hindsight maybe I should have gotten that Panther from Eurocom.

 

Ive got my m18x R2 and I love it and have been using it for almost 2.5 yrs years now. I'll wait to decide if I want to stick with a 17 or wait to see if the 18 gets a diet a well. I don't need dual gpu while Im on the road and the m18x r2 is really heavy so I would prefer a 17 with graphic amplifier at the office. But that's just me.. As for SLI, well, I guess that means Ive got more cash to purchase a desktop GPU.

Ice

PS: also read somewhere the the broadwell i7 won't be Quad core until middle or end of 2015

 

It makes me slightly concerned for the future of mxm as a whole.

 

Then I'd be slightly concerned for the future of high-end laptops as a whole . But I agree. I don't even think Pascal will get MXM.

 

They should just revise the mxm spec, maybe come out with mxm 4.0 finally. If they get rid of it completely then high end gaming laptops will become soldered laptops. Don't really wanna see that.

 

Why not. NVLink might only be used in Pascal Tesla cards for supercomputers. Consumer notebook and desktop Quadros and GeForces might still stay with PCIe. We already know about PCIe 4.0 being in the works. Maybe MXM standard will be updated as well.

 

well if true i now own a legacy system

 

Definitely agree with you on that end

 

I have a m18x r2, was thinking of upgrading to something further in the 18 inch line. I guess I will go with my other idea of getting a desktop and a 14 inch laptop with mid specs gpu while on the road.

Or I'm going back to Clevo. My last one was a Clevo p150hm. Looks like Clevo has my money in the next upgrade.

So long Alienware......

 

If anyone is serious about selling it's M18x R2, I'm still looking , no dying to get one. I'm in europe tho, but have a shipping adres in the usa.

 

Its a damn pity that the only SLI notebook capable of cooling components without sounding like a jet engine is discontinued. There was numerous hints that it would be killed, but I had some small hopes that it would continue on.

I think I did a smart thing getting that Alienware 18 I guess. Or it was a bad move if parts suddenly dissapears and I cant replace them

 

They'll have to honor warranties for the next few years so I think they'll keep parts around.

 

dang sad news..and no more hdmi input as well! That eliminates my mobile tv/monitor for my xbone when I'm on the road.

 

Well if MSI is giving us leaks and hints this is great news.

If you watch Linus Tech Tips here going over the new 980sli Fuggly laptop he says MSi promise atleast two user upgrade revisions of GPUs for the future with mention of MXM modules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIE8h45r9Pk

I blame Apple for creating the disposable thin laptop consumer throw away garbage trend. I am ashamed Alienware that was founded on enthusiast making computers for enthusiast has became part of the flock of sheep and becoming just another general consumer based and driven company. It's like the windows based computers in general and Alienware can now be lumped in with the general everyday computer base and not the stand out sought after company that once was. they just want to ride the Apple train and fad. I hope this bites Alienware in the so hard they either have to re-group and go back to its enthusiast roots or as much as I hate to see job loss these days it makes them close up the division... Harsh but my thoughts...

 

Say that to the guy who had to pick a 720p display for the AW17 when his display broke because they were out of 1080p displays lol

 

I guess they'll replace the aw18 sli with 880m's with a thin and light applealien 17 980...

 

I've been reading alot of people saying that they wanted 980m sli to work correctly and were selling the m18xr2s and jumping ship, but I thought people had 980m sli working fine in the m18x r2? why is everyone selling it to get another laptop with 980m sli instead of upgrading?

 

It absolutely requires windows 8.1 which is a deal breaker for me and others like Brother Fox and Jonksss who overlock their cpu to extreme high levels causes the 980m to throttle down like crazy. If you run standard cpu clock or slight over clock and like windows 8.1 your golden..

 

Exactly what brother patherfindercod said, I refuse to use windows 8.1 on a daily basis and I refuse to have $1500 worth of GPU's handicapped. I also refuse to have to reinstall drivers every time I boot windows, or is that fixed yet?

I'm thinking the NP9377-S is starting to look like the frontrunner for me right now. Packed with a 4940MX that actually WORKS PROPERLY as well as a couple of 980m's, it may not be pretty like the Alienware rigs but it sure has the chops to fr@ck up the benchmarks. :thumbsup:

Sager Custom Laptops

 

Ironically enough, looks like that little alien leading of the AW logo and the 60' ufo sightings really is a race in extinction. Guess I'll enjoy the 18 the best i can,when the time for an upgrade will come,it'll be a vast plain of disposable laptops with lesser utilities and soldered parts

 

I have no idea what you are talking about when you say OCing the CPU causes throttling. As far as clevo users have seen, this is not the case. It is a problem directly with Alienware laptops, apparently. At least, unless we find a few clevo user who has the cards instantly decide throttling is a good idea once they run throttlestop with a high OC. I assume as soon as Mr. Fox gets one of those machines we'll know firsthand, because you can bet $5000 his CPU isn't sitting non-OC'd.

Also, Who the hell told you you need to reinstall drivers every time you boot windows? Windows 8.1 would not have passed QA if that was the case. You are extremely mistaken about that OS, sir. There's some complaints I have about it when you are the kind of user who will get nitty and gritty with a system, such as incapability of permanently disabling windows denying non-signed drivers without doing an "advanced" restart. Or how vsyncing windowed mode programs seems to not be a thing. But for general usage once you install classic shell/startisback/start8/etc (have your pick, they basically are the same) you get back a start menu and can boot to desktop and whatever else like normal windows operations do.

 

This is very disappointing indeed. The 18 was one of my very favorite gaming notebooks of all time. It's one of the exceptionally few models I reviewed where I had basically nothing to complain about. We gave it Editor's Choice.
Alienware 18 Review (Early 2014 model)

RIP!

 

Actually, this has been true for a number of Alienware owners trying to upgrade to 980M. Whatever kind of "flag" or trigger is set off to cause throttling is often temporarily cured by clean installing the drivers. I actually imaged my OS drive at a point in time where severe throttling was not present because of this situation, and restoring the image fixes the issue with it dropping to 400MHz or less on core clock. Gee, sounds awfully familiar... like 880M behavior.

Word! +1 Rep ...a terrible shame, indeed.

 

Easy there, chief. There's no reason to get so snippy. If you'll take a few minutes to read pages 165,166, and 167 of the benchmark thread, you'll see exactly what we're talking about. As it is now, since Alienware is not officially supporting the 980m's in the m18x machines, Mr. Fox and others have only been able to get them to partially work. This includes the GPU's throttling when OC'ing the processor, drivers having to be reinstalled on reboots, and other crazy issues.

Next time, please ask for clarification instead of spouting off like an A-hole and getting all defensive.

 

I was not spouting anything like an a-hole. I said simply: it's the ALIENWARE machines that exhibit this throttling. It does not exhibit this behaviour in the Clevo shells as far as we have seen. Therefore it is not a fault of Windows 8.1.

You should read what I typed first.

 

Does anyone have experience with OriginPC?
I understand it was started by people who left Alienware, after the sale to Dell.
They are showing a new (thinner) EON17-X with a single 980M (8GB) with a 4790K cpu (desktop).
Also, they have an EON17-SLX with 980M (SLI) 8GB with up to a 4940MX

 

I will treasure mine forever. Never going to sell it.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

It's a clevo

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Those are Clevos. P37xSM-A is the SLI machine and the P770ZM is the 17" with the 4790K. Sager is offering them too.

 

I read what you typed perfectly, I think you're confusing the issues. I know that it's the ALIENWARE machines that exhibit this behavior, that's well established. I know that Clevo machines don't do this, hence why I'm thinking of getting one (see posts above, again). The only way to get the 980m's working even partially in the m18x machines is by using Windows 8.1, I understand it ISN'T the culprit. However, I don't like Windows 8.1, as a matter of personal preference, so I refuse to use it daily in order to get something to work half way.

Seriously, broseph, calm down now and let's get back on track... whining about the death of the AW18 and where we all go from here.

 

I'm really sad and disappointed. There no longer seems any true value for the tinkerer, performance- or even gaming enthusiast in these new batch of Alienware machines.

One of the video cards in my M18x R2 just died a week ago (just outside warranty) so I was waiting to see if the Alienware 18 R2 would be a beast like the R2 again. Now I don't know what to do. Alienware seems out of the question with these expensive "cheap" turds.
I've toyed with the idea of upgrading my R2 to 980s or 970s, but over here in Europe they seem to be insanely expensive and the upgrade would cost well over half of what a brand new Clevo or MSI laptop with the same video cards and warranty (even though the warranty sucks compared to what I'm used from Alienware and the build quality is nowhere near my current machine) would cost. Since there is pretty much no warranty on the video cards themselves, it could turn out to be a really bad investment if one or both of them fail well before their time. Not to mention all the problems many seem to be experiencing with 980M SLi upgrade. Or perhaps I could see if I can get a set of 780Ms for a cheap enough price somewhere, but the warranty worries still remain with those.

Perhaps I'll just give up on semi-mobile gaming and get a small, cheap laptop for my mobile needs and upgrade my laptop with a bunch of the next most powerful video cards instead. I don't travel as much as I used to anymore anyway, so that may be the best option.

By the way, do those new models support this little "Alienware Graphics Amplifier" box that can house an external Desktop video card like the 13 does? How well does that thing work anyway?

 

All laptops support external desktop video cards. ALL. They use USB to connect, usually. They've been around since 2008 or before; I was considering buying one for my old HP Pavilion in 2008. Only this proprietary stuff like what MSI and Alienware are trying to show off with their 13" is what might be difficult to use on other machines.

 

The concept is similar, but there is a huge difference in the eGPUs we have seen in the past. These are not USB or PCMCIA connections, and the 13, 15 and 17 all support this cool device. They use a direct external full-speed PCI-e connector, exactly the same capacity as a normal MXM slot. It's not something you can use on any laptop, because there is no way to connect it unless it is designed for it.

I'm not sure the other guys can make such a bragging right, but laptop is pathetic with low-TDP BGA crap CPU, so the value, awesomeness and uniqueness of the new Alienware eGPU is diminished greatly. As they say, can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. It would have been nice if they had released this as an accessory for the M18xR2 and AW18, but I suppose they didn't have it back then. I expect that feature works very well, at least to whatever extent possible with such weak CPUs. One step forward, two steps back.

 

Only two steps backward? Come on Mr. Fox. You know it's about 25 steps backward. Just moving to soldered CPUs for thin/light machines in itself counts for at least 10 steps.

 

I stopped counting. Even just one step back is no bueno. All I know is that I find it unacceptable.

No flagship machine should be made EOL unless something stronger and faster replaces it, or they run out of parts to build it. If CPU and GPU are welded to the mobo, even stronger and faster would earn zero credits in my book. "Socket and slot, or my answer is NOT."