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How do you feel about Alienware's recent changes? Vote here and sound off!


Brian

Do you like the direction Alienware is headed?  

77 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you like the direction Alienware is headed?

    • Yes, even though I give up MXM and the freedom to upgrade my CPU, I like the Amp + 1" profile.
    • I'm not sure yet, I need to read up on it some more.
    • No, AW has gone too mainstream. I'm done with gaming laptops (hello desktops!)
    • No, AW has gone too mainstream. Clevo here I come!


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Really disappointed the way AW is going with them limiting upgrade possibilities. But what has me even more upset is that they discontinued the AW18 line. I have had three generations of 18.4" laptops and don't know where to look when I need to upgrade my current AW18. Hopefully AW will bring it back in the near future.

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I'm fine with Dell offering BGA smaller models (13/15), but their flagship, larger models need to adhere to the expandable/upgradable model from their previous lines. Even if they have decided to move away from the AW18/M18 behemoths of awesomeness, their 17" model should be an SLI/Xfire thing of beauty. I am 100% sure my AW18 and M18x r2 are the last of my AW laptops with their current direction they are taking.

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Dell/Alienware are making a big shift from their past line up. Adios CPU/GPU upgradability. Adios BD/DVD reader/writer. Let's see where have I seen that before ... ? ... A.P.P.L.E of course !!!

A couple of years ago Apple decided to remove the DVD unit and solder their RAM in their Macbook Pro line. Many users complained about their decision. Now Dell is following their path.

Dell is clearly moving away from the hardcore market towards the consumer market. Upgradability is sacrificed under the name of cost reduction and simplification. The killing blow was the removal of the AW 18 line.

I am happy being an owner of an AW 17 (R1).

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It's a shame, but I am sure Dell has the market data to back their decision to press forward with these consumer grade laptops that happen to have the Alienware brand egregiously stamped upon their chassis. :( I hope the sales at least bring forth the possibility that they may augment their current line up with a big box beauty.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I own one of the new models. After a lot of stress getting the sales team to talk to me and get things right, I spent hours on the phone. Then a lot of issues arose during each stage after. Then I got my laptop in the mail, it was broken. Long story short, the customer service was rude and I can't say anything nice about this company. It seems their service in the past used to be good but not now, so I guess I have to give them and their new line up of laptops a poor review here.

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I was able to borrow an Alienware 15 with 4710HQ | R9 M295X and carved out a few hours to tweak it as much as I could. I ran some benchmarks for anyone that thinks they might want to opt for AMD instead of NVIDIA. I tried several versions of Trixx and Afterburner and the GPU clocks are locked down. So, at this point overclocking the GPU is not possible. I updated to the latest AMD driver. Futuremark does not have this GPU in their database, so it shows up as "Generic VGA" (which is typical until they add it).

The 4710HQ has more or less zero overclocking potential. I cranked up the voltage a bit and set all multipliers as high as they would go, then bumped up base clock and cache and did manage to squeeze a few more clocks from the CPU. Not much, but every little bit helps. It's everything one might expect in a low-TDP consumer-grade BGA notebook CPU... meh.

I hope this will help some folks make a buying decision based on performance. There do not seem to be many benchmarks out there, especially with the AMD R9 M290X. Rather than comment further, I will let the numbers do their own talking.

I have to give it back to the owner tomorrow. So, here you go...

XTU Benchmark: Mr. Fox`s XTU score: 685 marks with a Core i7 4710HQ

xtuprofile-168406.xtu.zip

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3DMark Suite: Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Alienware Alienware 15

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3DMark 11: Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Alienware Alienware 15

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3DMark Vantage: Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Alienware Alienware 15

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The whole reason I bought my M18x was because I knew I can upgrade it in the future and breath new life into it. Kinda fun to mess with a laptop instead of a desktop. Sad to see them mess with a good thing when they could have just changed up the XPS.

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That GPU score of the M295x is really not very impressive. Only 30% better than my overclocked 670MX on Firestrike, only 7% better than mine on Skydiver, and only 23% better in 3DMark11. Not worthy of an upgrade, especially while being a 125W GPU.

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Yeah, very unimpressive. I suppose for someone on a limited budget that is OK with a BGA junker that just wants to play games it might be OK.

That AMD Gaming Evolved thing bundled with the drivers is also a joke. I thought GFE was bad, but that bloatware piece of crap takes annoying to new heights. If I were an AMD user, that would be off my system in two winks.

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Yeah, very unimpressive. I suppose for someone on a limited budget that is OK with a BGA junker that just wants to play games it might be OK.

That AMD Gaming Evolved thing bundled with the drivers is also a joke. I thought GFE was bad, but that bloatware piece of crap takes annoying to new heights. If I were an AMD user, that would be off my system in two winks.

Yeah, if it's priced very competitively then it would be ok if the system can keep it cool, a lot of if's & but's though! Looking forward to seeing some notebookcheck.net reviews on it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Yeah, very unimpressive. I suppose for someone on a limited budget that is OK with a BGA junker that just wants to play games it might be OK.

That AMD Gaming Evolved thing bundled with the drivers is also a joke. I thought GFE was bad, but that bloatware piece of crap takes annoying to new heights. If I were an AMD user, that would be off my system in two winks.

It's quite a shame that AMD hasn't evolved to get with the program enough yet.

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It's quite a shame that AMD hasn't evolved to get with the program enough yet.

It is a shame, and sad. It would be nice if we could at least give them credit for trying, but there's not really even any evidence of effort on their part. The lights are on, but nobody is home.

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Honestly I feel like they just didn't want people upgrading any more. They see us creating walkthrough's and helping people upgrade their laptops to get more life out of them, including people with R3's and even earlier and I think someone finally went why are we letting people do this. If we lock down the systems then people have to buy new systems more often bringing in more revenue. What they apparently didn't factor in is a lot of people bought Alienware BECAUSE we could do these things, and locking them down has only forced people to look elsewhere so it will be interesting to see in the long run how this affects the sales numbers. Will this actually create more system sales or will it actually hurt them due to the amount of people who packed their bags and went to another brand. I have yet to come across a forum were the majority of Alienware owners past of present have been like "Gee thanks Alienware! I didn't want to upgrade anyways, and I sure as hell never used that second HDD bay, or the 3D screen , or the DVD Drive....etc."

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Alienware is probably making the wrong move here and will probably lose a lot of customers. At the time when I purchased my Alienware 14 in 2013 it was the perfect laptop and had everything I wanted. The other brands at the time did not and I also have a dell preferred account so that at the time made it easier. Will I buy Alienware again I do not know depends on what they are offering when I need to upgrade and what other brands out there are like.

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I don't understand why they've gone completely "mainstream". Nothing says they couldn't have made the new 13 & 15 models with this new philosophy, while keeping a bigger 17 model that would stay somewhat true to prior AW designs and philosophy.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I dont think Alienware 17&15 are doing greatly atm, so its a good thing they are losing money now....

The real question is why they dont keep 17&15 as it is ( soldered chips) but making 18 with mxm card and removable CPU ?

This way they win both enthusiasts and mainstream fans.

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I dont think Alienware 17&15 are doing greatly atm, so its a good thing they are losing money now....

The real question is why they dont keep 17&15 as it is ( soldered chips) but making 18 with mxm card and removable CPU ?

This way they win both enthusiasts and mainstream fans.

Its a way to force consumers to buy new models in the future instead of upgrading and also their amplifier.

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  • Moderator

Imagine if your machine with soldered GTX 980M and i7 4980HQ is out of warranty and something major breaks, not a cheap repair to say the least.

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when dell bought them out they cut the staff in 1/2 half to dell xps and the other half remaining at alienware, so now they have half the brains and they are to use Dell items wherever possible, makes a mess and they fell apart as soon as they did it.

they should have left them alone, and they would have continued making money rather than rubbishing their name. well thats my opinion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I come from a m17x R4 and really can not be more happy with it. So I decided to buy a Aw18 and..............what a disappointment!

1º A disappointment to see how such an expensive team gamer is so low table fans "3700Rpm Cpu, 3500rpm Gpu1 and 3300Rpm GPU2," and I got so thanks to the tutorial HWiNFO a user of here "when it should be" 4100Cpu, and 4000 Gpu´s".

2º Tremendous disappointment as capada this bios is not able to keep my 4940Mx stock at 4,0Ghz

3º I put the Corsair Vengeance of 2.133Mhz and are unable to move from 1866!

4º Not permitted Psu mod 660W

5º It is not plug and play with Gtx980m.

Discard the Msi Gt80 by Cpu welded, if I buy a computer of these characteristics, I want to update all components.

I am clear that my next laptop will be a Clevo!

Pd:Sorry for my english, regards

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I will hug my R3 system, put it inside my display cabinet, and treasuring my signature name plate since it will be my last Alienware laptop. Some of my friend already used the 13 new model without knowing how to get into the BIOS..... :( This franchise supposed to be for Gaming Enthusiastic, not for people who wants to look cool for using it on public area.....

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It's very sad but the 'enthusiasts' (and by that I mean the type of person who swaps out CPUs GPUs drives etc etc ) are a tiny minority, even of AW owners - I would imagine that the massive minority see AW as a brand, in the same way that they see Adidas, Converse, Burberry et al.

The fact is, AW is nothing more than a brand now that can be sold, resold and resold again, as the hardware becomes too outmoded to use - after all, Dell will sell the brand-conscious buyer a new AW every 3/4 years, whereas there's people here who still own cherish and upgrade their six-year-old M17x, and probably being more savvy don't pay Dell prices for components......

In reality, there is very little profit for Dell in continuing to manufacture machines with any notable upgradeability versus flogging a brand-new sealed-for-life unit every three years.

Much as I love the aesthetic of the Alienware, my wife would beat every last shred of life from my vile body if I spend the kind of money it would cost to be on the leading, bleeding edge of Dellianware technology every other year or so, so I'll be building a gaming desktop over the next year, buying the best I can afford, and when the 17 finally dies, I'll be looking at a Clevo - possibly some sort of barebone unit that I can spruce up over a period.

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