Brian

Yeah NVIDIA is lagging with DSR. I still can't use it in SLI mode with my Titans.

Well if the laptop trend is to move away from MXM, then AW's move to the e-GPU may be the next logical step. Although I still fail to see why they would opt out of a socketed CPU. Even if they had soldered the GPU but offered socketed CPU + GA, then at least people would still have a good upgrade path albeit a more limited one. Ha..at the rate phones are going this might be true someday.

Well as long as you can continue plugging MXM GPU's into it, it should hold up fairly well. The M15x seems to be still going strong after 5-6 years. The CPU on the other hand will be very outdated but given the slow progress we're making on that front, it won't be a huge problem. But more than that, I'd just like it as a collector's item, something to put on a shelf and point to when I say, "this is how gaming laptops used to be from AW".

I kinda wish I had the extra cash laying around for an AW M18x-R2 (red) just so I could hold on to one of AW's last great laptops as a collectors item. Too bad, a once great brand that will now fade into the sea of mainstream mediocrity.

Hey great job w/the mod, that's the kinda out of the box thinking we like to see around here. Hope to see more details on it in your follow-up posts.

The socketed CPU part kinda sucks if you like to buy the system w/a cheaper CPU and use an aftermarket socket one from eBay. However, as long as the initial purchase has the top end CPU then I don't see a problem for using this laptop long term, especially with it's MXM GPU support.

With Alienware now fully becoming mainstream by discontinuing their enthusiast M18 and shifting focus to BGA soldered CPUs/GPU, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think a slightly slimmer notebook that requires the AW Amplifier (its a proprietary e-GPU solution) for expandable performance is a wise decision or something that will cost Alienware customers and good will in the long run? Personally as a consumer and enthusiast, I think they made a big mistake. I'll copy/paste what I wrote on another forum here: There just doesn't seem to be any logic behind what they are doing. Being over 1" thick still makes them too big for the Apple oriented consumer and their "bling" makes professionals shy away from the brand so WHO exactly are they marketing these pieces of junk at? Certainly not the old AW enthusiast crowd. What the geniuses at Dell have done is effectively cede a good chunk of sales and good will to Clevo who still seems to be catering to enthusiasts w/out any serious compromises. If AW had a smart management team and wanted a bigger market share, then they could have taken this solder BS and applied it to their XPS line and make them sub 1" and sell a Dell equivalent of the AW amplifier to them. Then their customer base would have more choices - those that want on board performance 24/7 w/out compromise and aren't afraid of some extra weight, bling and dimension w/the option of the AW amp for added desktop performance or the XPS customers that could get a nice Apple wanna be laptop and also have performance on tap at home. Sadly Dell will eventually fade away as another wanna be IBM (but never be 1/10th as successful) after they spin off their notebook divisions. I knew AW was shifting in this direction back when they started cheapening out on the packaging w/the new AW 18s and jumped ship. AW is done, time to move on to either desktops or a Clevo. So let us know what you think and if you do decide to bail as an Alienware customer, do you plan to purchase a Clevo? If so, Tech|Inferno recommends purchasing from Mythlogic since they offer discounts to T|I Elite members and non-Elite (see their subforum here).

Well those cores are desktop ones at a lower clock so it's not surprising. Have you considered building an itx desktop? The foot print wouldn't be much different. You'd just have to pack the monitor on your trips. But a 19 inch monitor these days is very slim and light.

Alienware charges for name, slightly better build material and better warranty. As of now though it seems Clevo is the more configurable and expandable of the two.

Welded CPU? Nasty..wonder why they'd go that direction...

Looks like MSI is going all out in the notebook gaming space with their new GT80 Titan SLI. This beast features a mechanical keyboard with cherry switches, a trackpad (that also has touch buttons), a top panel that's removable for quick upgrades and a pair of 980M GPUs each with their own cooling pipes. Don't worry about a pussy PSU because this thing features a massive 350W supply which should keep it fed. The panel is a 1080P Samsung PLS which will have nice viewing angles but is NOT ideal for gaming despite many people's love for all things IPS/PLS. IMO, an 8 bit 144 Hz TN panel would have been far superior to a PLS panel for a gaming system. @Mr. Fox what do you think? Is this your next beast now that AW is disappointing?

Are you able to run the 980M's in the R1 as well?

Once again our sincerest apologies to the community. We're going to be working overtime tomorrow to speed up our plans to migrate to an entirely new software platform and are re-writing our backend from scratch. We anticipate a complete upgrade of T|I in about 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, the data we lost is not recoverable by us so we'd appreciate it if you could repost any relevant threads. We are taking steps to ensure this does not happen again. Thanks

Yeah it doesn't work well for me either and I use wireless ac. The connection just drops out completely after a short time, pretty disappointing.

I'm just going over some of the Guardians of the Galaxy music cuz it brought back memories as a kid: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guardians+of+the+galaxy+soundtrack

Congrats on the upgrade and nice run there.

Try resetting the CMOS and if that doesn't work, boot using igpu and reflash it.

BTW for those of you that don't know, Popcorn Time is a great application - just make sure you use a VPN if you're in the US/Canada since it uses a torrent system to stream the movies. Saw Guardians of the Galaxy the other day and THAT is a great movie (going to buy the Blu Ray)! Loved the retro 80's music (grew up on that shit) and the general campy feeling the movie conveyed, definitely one of the better Marvel movies in a long time. Kinda sad that I missed out on watching it in the theater when it was released since I initially thought the idea of a raccoon and talking tree were stupid. :\

Not really, the entire premise of a dusty world ignores top soil management that's been around for decades. In addition, their 5th dimension of manipulating a dark hole was also completely made up. It tries to be a deep movie and to the layman it comes off that way but it's really a pretty weak storyline - I've seen more interesting stuff from Dr. Who.

Sweet! Nothing beats desktop gaming.

Saw interstellar and thought it sucked a fat one. The story wasnt very imaginative and the premise was based on flawed science. Just an overall shit movie with too much hype behind it.

Congrats on the win buddy, looks like a very nice prize!

If it's below $1000 it may not even be worth pursuing because you'll end up spending that much in lawyer fees. What's the amount you got ripped off? If you sold something to a business or individual, a better recourse might be to hire a collections agency and send them the outstanding bill but even that is a bit tricky and the worst it would do is affect their credit score.

Someone should try this with the Windows 10 technical preview. It's far nicer than Windows 8. Anyway, glad to see you guys at least have the option of using the 980m now - the Maxwell upgrade is far superior to the older stuff and what's amazing is it's all built on the same node. Almost makes me miss having a high performance notebook...almost.

Wait for @svl7 to work his magic before buying those.