R1 Eol?

Just went to the Dell site and noticed the R1 says "limited quanity sale" when you try to configure one. and also the Lunar Shadow option is gone...

it would make sence that this would happen but just fyi for those on the fence about getting one before the sale is gone.

 

That just means the units they have for sale are limited in quantity, it doesn't mean the units are eol.

 

yeah its not the first time this has happend..

 

Ahh, Gotcha. Have they stopped production on one colors before also?

 

I don't recall seeing any dropouts of specific colors before, but again that's probably just stating that this sale does in fact have a limited quantity. A couple of months ago people were posting screenshots of a similar sale that was supposed to last through a given date but that didn't stipulate any sort of limited quantity. Well (shockingly...) they ran out before the end date. I expect Dell sales staff had quite a few people giving them a ration of dookie over that.

 

I still think R3 is coming sooner than we think. This along with the sale this past weekend are pretty good indicators.

 

They've been having these sales very regularly for months.

 

Just go back to posts in the beginning of december when Dell had that R1 fire sale, fuelling speculation of an R3 release at CES 2010. Some people were positively certain it was going to happen that week. =)

 

i5 for $660-$700 with 8GB / 320GB?

I am sure you are referring to the R1 sales. I'm just speaking about M11x as a whole.

 

"Limited Quantity" is a marketing ploy. Think about it.

 

They've been having frequent sales on the R1 for the past 7 months. Each and every time people want to point to this as a sure fire sign that Dell is clearing out stock in order to make room for a new revision.

The only thing you can take away from the fact that the R2 is going on sale (with any amount of surety) is that Dell would like to be the one that's taking the money that's burning holes in people's pockets.

Eventually those who think this is a sign of the R3's eminent release are going to be right.

 

I highly doubt it

Seriously, we're not going to see an M11x R3 until *AT LEAST* Q4 2011. It's not happening in February. It's not happening in March. If it does happen in March, you're not going to see a Sandy Bridge part in there. And even if it does have Sandy Bridge, you're not going to see any performance difference with just a simple CPU upgrade.

Why do I think that this is all just wishful thinking by enthusiastic forum members? Because they are asking for Alienware to release an Alienware M11x R3 immediately (Q1 2011). That would mean three product releases / revisions within 12 months. No laptop manufacturer on the entire planet refreshes their products that frequently. You might see a new display hinge design for current M11x R1 and M11x R2 models, but you're not going to see an M11x R3.

I was right when people were certain Alienware would release an M11x R3 in time for Christmas 2010. I was right when people were certain that the M11x R3 would be announced CES 2011. And I'm willing to bet that I am right that you're not going to see an M11x R3 in March 2011. I'm basing my predictions on trends and data, and not hopeful thinking.

 

Yea. To be honest 1 major rev in less than a year is pretty crazy. A complete redesign of the whole lower assembly aside from the keyboard. Is no overnight slap together project.

No wounder the hinge diesgn was jacked for so long.

 

To add on top of this, why would Alienware release a revised product that doesn't have a obvious advantage over it's predecessor, especially in a key area that it's being advertised in (like...gaming?)

 

Well, if R3 does come out soon, it won't just be a CPU refresh. The GPU will be the primary new part, that's for sure.

Also - Apple releases new revisions every 8 months or so. So there's no reason to think a new R3 in the March/April time frame is absurd.

 

There aren't any GPU's out that would be a significant upgrade to the nVidia 335M in terms of performance or power consumption.

And Apple does not release new product revisions every 8 months. They may refresh *A* laptop revision every 8 months (just like how Alienware recently refreshed their M17x R3). But they refresh their individual laptop models about once every 2 years - which is in-line with the industry standard.

 

Their refreshes contain updates like new CPUs/GPUs even if they share the same basic construction. Something very possible with the M11x R3 (i.e. similar design, new hinges, etc.).

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying I'm right. But I am saying there's a chance. And not a bad chance.

 

Apple was pretty slow to adopt Arrandale chipsets, and even then it only put them in their bigger laptops. The 13' is still running old- C2D silicon, with minute upgrades to the GPU as Nvidia makes them available. The rest of the upgrades are largely cosmetic...which doesn't warrant a redesign, and the MacBook Air went for 2 years without a major redesign.

Lastly, Alienware is pretty slow to refresh their laptops. Look at how long it took for the R2 to finally get the 5870...and that's just a drop in card. Unless an amazing card comes up that supersedes the 335m, the M11x is going to need a thermal redesign, and the M15x has yet to be refreshed, so that's another thing to keep in mind.

 

Except that a Dell rep had unintentionally let it slip that the release date for the R3 is March 10th. This is completely in line with Apple's refresh of their MacBook Pros which feature Sandy Bridge processors (AppleInsider reports they've already started production and will ship first week of March). So there's no reason to think that the Sandy Bridge flaw is still holding other vendors back anymore, Alienware included.

 

How did this turn into a R3 discution?

Mod closes thread in 3.... 2....

 

What is the source of this information? Is it just some random sales rep or someone higher up? No point in keeping my R2 (that is set to arrive at the end of February) in that case.

 

No doubt I dont even see a need for a revision right now the R1 is still flying off the shelves.

 

Ggo

The person who leaked this info is Chris, a forum moderator over in the Dell / Alienware forums, who was referring to fixed hinges. It is not an official announcement or press release. It is as unreliable of a source as saying "I have a friend that works at Dell, and he said blah-blah-blah." How many tmes in the past 4 years have you heard about "guys" that work at Apple / Verizon, who said that the Verizon iPhone was just around the corner? How many of those rumors were reliable?

Furthermore, I never based my claim that an M11x R3 not coming anytime soon because of the Intel P67 Cougar Point flaw. I based it on historical trends in the consumer laptop market.

If we take your claim of Apple refreshing their MacBook Pros... lets see what they are doing. Apple is refreshing SOME of their laptops with new technology (like Alienware did with the M17x R3). They will EVENTUALLY refresh the rest of their laptops over time, and pull in whatever technology enhance,emts were released since the last refresh. They are not going out and immediately efreshing every laptop from every model line they have, just because Sandy Bridge is out. Alienware refreshing their M11x (which received a refresh just 8 months ago) for Sandy Bridge would be like Apple throwing their MacBook Air out the window for SB. It just isn't going to happen.

 

I think some of us are saying the same thing.

I don't understand why you think Apple's refreshes are not applicable to the potential refresh of the M11x R3, kent1146.

 

Because Alienware / Dell never used the same schedule as Apple. They have always used a schedule more in line with the rest of the industry. Which is a refresh about once every 2 years for consumer grade laptops. And there is no evidence that indicates they would change that policy anytime soon.

 

Yes...other than R1 to R2. Heh.

 

I think you misunderstood my reference to Apples production of Sandy Bridge laptops. I was just using them as an example that the whole SB-flaw has come and gone and units are now in production. So anybody still claiming that SB laptops are still a ways out (I think someone said Q3 '11 if not 2012) are just plain wrong. In no way did I mean that Alienware shares the same production schedule as Apple.

 

Makes sense.

You are correct that the Sandy Bridge / Cougar Point flaw doesn't really affect laptops. Cougar Point natively supports 4x SATA channels... 2x SATA-3 (6Gbps) channels, and 2x SATA-2 (3Gbps) channels. The flaw only affects the 2x SATA-2 (3Gbps) channels.

In a laptop, all that you would need to do is to just design the laptop so that you use the 2x SATA-3 channels (1x for SATA hard drive, 1x for optical drive), and avoid the 2x SATA-2 channels altogether.

Only in extreme rare cases of high-end laptops w/multiple hard drives would you need to use more than 2 SATA channels. And in those extremely rare cases, I'm sure that the laptop designers would simply just wait for the fixed Cougar Point chipsets to come out before putting them into their high-end laptops. Every other laptop can simply use the existing "flawed" Cougar Point chips without ever running into a problem.