Alienware 2012 Notebook Refresh Rumor: M17x-R4, M14x-R2, M18x-R2

[Guest Frontpage News]

In a not so surprising move, Dell will be updating its Alienware notebook line for 2012 to coincide with the release of the new *Ivy Bridge mobile processor along with the the new AMD and nVidia GPUs.

According to our friend Eric G., the M17x-R4 will be getting some [...]

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[mw86]

Great news and nice article Brian! The Nvidia 675m is that what will replace 580m?

[widezu69]

Well the 675m will probably replace the 580m performance wise. Maybe it will be a bit quicker than the 580m. The 680m is what I is wai'ing fo'. If we take a look at nvidia track record, the desktop 580 had 512 shaders, rumors say that the 680 will have twice that amount. I doubt that will hold true with the mobile cards but I'm hoping it will have 448/480/512 shaders

[0x29A]

AFAIR, talking mobile GPUs, the point of the whole 40nm -> 28nm switch is first and foremost getting more performance per Watt. This means that indeed a card like 675 may be expected to have similar performance to 580, yet it will require way less power to achieve it, say 60W instead of 100W+ 580m likes. If you look at the specs of desktop line you can easily see that the Wattage requirements remain generally the same but GFLOPS number is at least tripled, so this in syn what Nvidia said some times about getting ~x3 more performance per Watt. However, just as well we may see 680M still running at 100W and reaching 3x the performance of 580M. Who knows.

It feels undeniably good to be sporting the best mobile GPU SLI setup on the planet. It feels less funny being aware it will soon be over Hmm... Well, as longs as my 580M SLI runs any game maxed out I am fine with it.

Edited January 26, 2012 by 0x29A

[mw86]

It was just the other year i had a M17xR2 and last year the m18xR1... Now a M17X R4 and M18x R2 coming out it goes so fast... I can almost safely project M18x R3 and M17EX (who knows maybe they drop the X line after what would be 5 lol) will come out around the next cpu and gpu generation introductions. Lolz these M18x are getting age lines already haha lol. You know the one intriguing aspect is the m18x R1 owners could possibly drop in ivybridge... But this is completely undetermined if all the required parties allow the update to be made for the r1 owners... Yes the gigaflops of power are what truly measure the gpus up... The die shrink is already showing great temps and power this coming shrink should be shocking. If it will be amd 7990m and nvidia 675m as suggested perhaps there will be a 680M who knows maybe they release a 690m... Or a 7990X and a 7990EX these names are just that names and gimmicks by team red and green. As noted in any case both GPU comanies top model mobile cards will be truly amazing for being a mobile card at all i mean a 5870m crossfire ~ 5750 desktop card in some aspects. So i can only imagine 675m/7990m sli/crossfire could equal one of the current generation top model desktop cards well maybe half lol those 580 desktop cards are supercomputers themselves.

[unreal25]

From Eric G blog:

M18X R2

GPU options:2x Radeon HD 7970M (CrossFire)

2x GeForce GTX 675M (SLI)

GeForce GTX 660M

[Brian]

I'll hold out for 680M SLi before I upgrade again.

[mw86]

I'll hold out for 680M SLi before I upgrade again.

might not be a huge difference in games over 580m currently... Might want to wait for 780m haha

[Staff Sargent]

granted I liked having the best and semi fastest laptop avail. but I won't upgrade until this sucker dies or can't handle the software any more. I still have upgrade room as is and might just have fun doing that over the next year or two. really can't wait to get a SSD drive and see what that can do for me.

[Staff Sargent]

was just messing around on Dell and Alienwares sites, dell doesn't list the M14x as for sale right now. It also took me jumping around different pages on alienware to find the M14x. I also noticed that the m17x has very limited options at this time. Granted they might just have supply issues but I think the web sites are getting ready for this years models.

[mw86]

thats what it is even M18x flagship model the 2900XM processor is not even an option on it now.

[svl7]

Yep, it seems with Intel's official announcement of their "Ivy Bridge" CPUs coming closer (latest rumor says it's going to be at the 23rd) Dell seems to clear their stock on "old" hardware.

[mw86]

Glad I have what I have since now its vanishing. I love the unlocked bios of the M18x. The Next gen IVY Bridge will be truly powerful but even more powerful if the same bios methods can be used to unlock it.. as we know the next gen may be locked down even more so than sandy bridge but not if bios is unlocked. Up to a challenge SVL7

[svl7]

I'm afraid the next BIOS might be a true UEFI... and this could make things really hard. There are very few good BIOS mods for true UEFI BIOS around as far as I know. We'll see.

[mw86]

I'm afraid the next BIOS might be a true UEFI... and this could make things really hard. There are very few good BIOS mods for true UEFI BIOS around as far as I know. We'll see.

Truly will hinder things if it cant be cracked Putting this gen close to next gen :0 but next gen will blow last gen out of the water if tapped into with an unlocked bios

[svl7]

We're definitely getting closer to the release - if you look at the tech specs of the M17x / M18x on the German AW site you can see the GTX 675m, 660m and AMD 7970m listed as GPU options, for the M18x it even already lists one Ivy Bridge CPU.

Not possible to order it now though. There's nothing new mentioned so far for the M14x, but that's probably only a matter of time, the site is quite a mess atm with several M14x, M17x and M18x categories.

Also there's some change on the .com site of AW, GPUs and CPUs aren't listed anymore when you look at the tech specs. And it's possible to order a current system with 1866MHz RAM, though I'm not sure whether was already possible before.

Edit: The M14x GPU is the 650m GDDR5 , it's listed in the specs.

Edited April 19, 2012 by svl7

[Rypac1502]

Poor old M11x got cut from the line up. Oh well, it really couldn't compete against those wafer thin ultrabooks.

I'm still hoping for a refresh on the screens for the rest of them. Both a quality and resolution bump would be nice.

[unreal25]

<header>

</header> Alienware M14X R2 preliminary specs

AC Adpater: 150W

Battery: 8Cell, 63Whr

CPU options:

Ivy Bridge i5-3210M, 2.5Ghz, 2 cores

Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM, 2.3GHz , 4 cores

Ivy Bridge i7-3720QM, 2.6GHz, 4 cores

Ivy Bridge i7-3820QM, 2.7GHz, 4 cores

GPU options:

GPU with 1GB VRAM soldered to motherboard

GPU with 2GB VRAM soldered to motherboard

* sorry, no info on which exact models those GPUs are. Most likely to be NVIDIA 6xx series.

LCD options:

14" HD, 1366X768, White-LED, Anti-Glare coating

14" HD+, 1600x900, White-LED, Anti-Glare coating

*Sorry guys, no FullHD option and no RGB-LED option

HDD Storage:

1TB 5.4K 2.5" SATA2

750GB 7.2K 2.5" SATA2

500GB 7.2K 2.5" SATA2

SSD Storage:

64GB SATA3 mSATA, Samsung PM830

256GB SATA3 mSATA, Samsung PM830

256GB SATA3 7mm 2.5", Samsung PM830

512GB SATA3 7mm 2.5", Samsung PM830

512GB SATA3 7mm 2.5", Micron C400

RAM options:

2GB / 4GB / 8GB, 1600MHz

Webcam:

HD H.264 webcam + mic

Includes Facial Recognition software for auto-login to Windows

Wireless options:

Intel 2230 WLAN

Killer N1202 WLAN

WWAN

Bluetooth DW380

WiDi (DMC / SiBeam)

Speakers:

2x 2.5W Speakers + sub

Color options:

Red, Black

[from Eric G's blog]

All I can say... nice GPU but meh.

[Staff Sargent]

Alienware Laptops they have been announced on the site now!

[StamatisX]

Yeah I saw it on Facebook too, thanks for the heads up!

[unreal25]

All I read was "sorry no RGB LED".

[Staff Sargent]

Looks like the web admin should check the site, reading things about the M17x that were in older models and specs from older models. Very strange to me. almost want to take screen shots of the errors just to lazy LOL

[mw86]

We're definitely getting closer to the release - if you look at the tech specs of the M17x / M18x on the German AW site you can see the GTX 675m, 660m and AMD 7970m listed as GPU options, for the M18x it even already lists one Ivy Bridge CPU.

Not possible to order it now though. There's nothing new mentioned so far for the M14x, but that's probably only a matter of time, the site is quite a mess atm with several M14x, M17x and M18x categories.

Also there's some change on the .com site of AW, GPUs and CPUs aren't listed anymore when you look at the tech specs. And it's possible to order a current system with 1866MHz RAM, though I'm not sure whether was already possible before.

Edit: The M14x GPU is the 650m GDDR5 , it's listed in the specs.

yeah the 1866 ram has been there a bit but the rest has not been there.

you wont find 2133 ram there

hmmm looks like they want much less for 32gb of 1600mhz ram... it was a $1000+ upgrade in past might want only $300 now when going from lowest ram option on M18x but guys check this out where are they putting this 3rd HD? in the optical bay like users in past or what they are advertising full raid not mention inf third HD runs in Sata 1.5?

and upon further inspection if you look at this list it says the optical drive is included an it has 3 hard drives... where is this did they add a 3way sata connector and find a way to stuff a 3rd drive in not in the optical bay?

ha ha and even funnier look what it says the system color is "m18x R2" hhahaha epic fail website mod for Dell

Edited April 24, 2012 by mw86

[jnman]

It was just the other year i had a M17xR2 and last year the m18xR1... Now a M17X R4 and M18x R2 coming out it goes so fast... I can almost safely project M18x R3 and M17EX (who knows maybe they drop the X line after what would be 5 lol) will come out around the next cpu and gpu generation introductions. Lolz these M18x are getting age lines already haha lol. You know the one intriguing aspect is the m18x R1 owners could possibly drop in ivybridge... But this is completely undetermined if all the required parties allow the update to be made for the r1 owners... Yes the gigaflops of power are what truly measure the gpus up... The die shrink is already showing great temps and power this coming shrink should be shocking. If it will be amd 7990m and nvidia 675m as suggested perhaps there will be a 680M who knows maybe they release a 690m... Or a 7990X and a 7990EX these names are just that names and gimmicks by team red and green. As noted in any case both GPU comanies top model mobile cards will be truly amazing for being a mobile card at all i mean a 5870m crossfire ~ 5750 desktop card in some aspects. So i can only imagine 675m/7990m sli/crossfire could equal one of the current generation top model desktop cards well maybe half lol those 580 desktop cards are supercomputers themselves.

Gigaflops of power??????WTF? Do you even know what a flip-flop is? I had to register in order to comment on the statement. Flip-flops are in no way related to power, at least in the way you seem to think. Please elaborate on the three words you typed out "gigaflops of power". I would describe a flip-flop to you but I want to know what you think they are first.

[svl7]

Gigaflops of power??????WTF? Do you even know what a flip-flop is? I had to register in order to comment on the statement. Flip-flops are in no way related to power, at least in the way you seem to think. Please elaborate on the three words you typed out "gigaflops of power". I would describe a flip-flop to you but I want to know what you think they are first.

You should shut up and start reading posts properly before you write bullshit. Gigaflops and flip-flops... seriously, I doubt you even know what a flip-flop is if you can differentiate between those two (completely different) things.