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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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  • Founder

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).

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I am not opposed to the GA or the idea. I think having more upgrade paths is good. Thing is, their range are so weak now they can't function autonomously as a powerful machine without being tethered to a GA.

The other big problem I have with the new range is the BGA soldered disposable rubbish, this is the biggest deal breaker of them all. Additionally they have no SLI offerings either.

Wow AW have gone down the toilet.

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And I thought DELL going private is a good thing!!! This guy's insane!!! What Brian said is what they should've done. The XPS line was essentially rivaling the Alienwares of the time, they are so dumbed down right now, it's not even funny. So a kick-back to life, like Brian suggest would only make more sense, than what it currently is. As for Alienware... It's pretty damn stupid to claim yourself enthusiast manufacturer, yet not thinking about enthusiast at all.

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fully uprgadeble thats what we want.....but the down side is that sells are going down due longer lifespan by user........and that is bad for Alienware it self and it means they have to go mainstream. The sad thing is that was the only thing that made us buy a Alienware was upgradeability.

Alienware is gonna lose a lot of modders but mainstream i think they wil be ok..........for me Alienware is a no go from this point.

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Voted the last option. Sad, sad times we're living in guys. The death of a once great brand is upon us. The decision-makers are clearly out of touch with people that <del>love</del> loved the Alienware brand. From what I can tell, the mainstream are the Alienware haters and trolls. Not sure they will survive without enthusiastic brand advocates. They might be OK, but it won't matter. Divorce papers will soon follow.

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  • Founder

Just yesterday I've discouraged a friend of mine who is looking to upgrade his m14x to one of the new alienware offers.

Convinced him go go with a Lenovo x1 carbon + desktop for gaming.

Sent from my SM-G900M using Tapatalk

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My favorite part is they have the nerve to offer the top end 17inch for 2.6k... and it is using last years tech, with the RAM, Display etc. If that is not bad enough, they are trying to bleed consumers dry with their stupid AMP. here is an option AW, allow an option of purchasing the 17inch with everything but the soldered 980m and instead allow for the amp to take its place to include the purchase of a 980 for for the 2.6k price tag (since i know you guys are greedy bastards), if we need to use the laptop as a mobile workstation then we have the HD4600, lets be real, soldered 980m or upgradable 980...

Edit--------

I just noticed they allow the purchase of the AMP with the 980 for an additional $614 bringing the total to 3.2k... Unless they somehow engineer the 980m to run in a sorta hybrid SLi config with the 980... there is no reason to need both 980m and 980... If im on the road, i am still taking and using my AMP.

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  • Founder

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.

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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.

The funny thing about this is...In about a year or two, this will be considered a budget laptop with super sub par components....

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  • Founder
The funny thing about this is...In about a year or two, this will be considered a budget laptop with super sub par components....

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".

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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".

True, but I forsee compatibility problems in the future with GPUs in older machines, particularly because Pascal seems like it's going to be quite different from previous cards - it's gonna have an ARM CPU included on the PCB for example, which makes it seem more 'different' to the GPUs that have come before it - perhaps more incompatible with old systems. Also, seems like there's a move away from MXM, so maybe in a couple of years they'll be no MXM, just soldered?

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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".

It is falling from that now. it can not run 980m's right. One would be better sticking with 780m's to get the most out of that system.

And so is the m18x if you run one 900 series card. Which is what the m15x is doing.

I hear ya on that.

I had to take it off the shelf. Else my kids would be saying...why their phones are faster than my old generation laptop. LOL

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  • Founder
True, but I forsee compatibility problems in the future with GPUs in older machines, particularly because Pascal seems like it's going to be quite different from previous cards - it's gonna have an ARM CPU included on the PCB for example, which makes it seem more 'different' to the GPUs that have come before it - perhaps more incompatible with old systems. Also, seems like there's a move away from MXM, so maybe in a couple of years they'll be no MXM, just soldered?

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.

It is falling from that now. it can not run 980m's right. One would be better sticking with 780m's to get the most out of that system.

And so is the m18x if you run one 900 series card. Which is what the m15x is doing.

I hear ya on that.

I had to take it off the shelf. Else my kids would be saying...why their phones are faster than my old generation laptop. LOL

Ha..at the rate phones are going this might be true someday.

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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.

Exactly! If Alienware's new model is too pack a GA for home use with desktop power why not allow to us upgrade the CPU if need to down the road? I am definitely lost on what Alienware is doing.

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Saddest day ever when I heard about this.

I loved my M17xR3 until nvidia drivers popped my 580m, and really enjoyed my AW18 (even if it was sub par to the AW18xR2 in terms of what could be done) and I was looking forward to upgrading to 980m's. But this move is just wrong, especially as there is finally a competitor in the new MSI Titan. Whatever happened to competition making one stronger!! :53_002:

The MSI fans have been loving the new Titan so far, do you think it is worth switching to MSI rather than Clevo?

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I was looking at my logon background where it says: "Alienware High Performance Systems"...... Its sad to think that they just killed the High Performance options and went the other way. I thought that I was never going to buy a desktop, but well.... I don't have many options left.

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