haha! yeah there is hope at least lol

oh it works for m15x too then great!

i think a viable option is to swap the display panel. (Make it a non-3d) To run igfx it needs 60hz on POST.

Yeah r4 is good

lol! if you have a 680m/780m in it you will not think like that. it's still for another 12 months. 980m will be much better.

wow this is a great deal this is by far the best upgrade for those base models. painless

what i meant was that this is the confirmed working card. it still have some kicks in it.

well you are comparing entry- and mid-tier cards with it, surely they lose to 680m at stock.

check the dell support site for driver updates. normally the steps are install new drivers then update to w8.1 to minimize issues.

it's likely driver issues. maybe you can try revert to previous restore point, or do a refresh.

previously i had sound issues because i installed the wrong driver. note that not all drivers provided by windows updates work for a system, because it depends on what options that you used when you installed old one.

this is kind of disappointing. this new batch of aw has everything slimmed down, cpu/gpu are soldered (980m 4gb version), m.2 slots are sata-based, not pcie-based, 2x ram slots, and 18 model is discontinued.

what?

sources:

http://www.alienware.com/landings/laptops.aspx
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/alienware-15-17/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2865181/ali...not-enough.html


This post has been edited by horns: Jan 7 2015, 11:08 AM

just like msi. i might as well go for msi. they have a dedicated game box for desktop gpu also. seriously. their gt80 titan and up-coming gt72 are OP this time around. they sell official upgrade kits for god's sake :/ why didn't dell think of that?

i agree that after the old m17x r4, there is nothing impressive from new 17 models in terms of customizations.

reading the r2 manual, there is no pcie-based m.2 slot (all 4x are sata-based. come on); no usb 3.1; and why did they make it 2x ram slots for 17 instead of 4x?

aga is no doubt a solution to laptops so that they can run desktop gpu's. that's fine. in fact, they should do that to all dell laptops that meet system requirements. you get one aga, you get desktop gpu performance for all. (minus the portability when you do that)

however the soldered cpu and 16gb ram max are not ok. games these days start leveraging on cpu and ram also. even desktop i5 cpu was reported to become a bottleneck to highend gpu's in bf4 (especially large maps with 64 players).

that's the way most laptops are going to be. i just can't believe aw is one of them.

in size it is, in specs no it's not. it's discontinued by the way.

yes, using z97 chip some more. you can have 15.6" and 17" (15.6" screen can be 4k type). i think it can also run 2133mhz g.skill ram.

in terms of power, from what i have read, clevo also sells a power converter box to combine 2x 330W adapter as a single power source.

imo for those who wanna customize stuff and take risks by themselves, aw is not ideal. however for gaming and common usage purposes, i actually think it's still good to go for some times. 4980hq, 16gb ram and 980m are fine for these things. to many 16gb of ram is still excess hehe

taking into accounts of dell warranty service, i think it's still a viable option for normal users.

it's too bad they take away 2x ram slots and use sata-based m.2 slots. i need more processing power and speed so that i can get things done faster during work.

i think it's better to follow the current settings and find compatible gpu's, or maybe consult dell about this.

no it's not about worth it or not, it's because there are already a number of other brands offer the slot already. you can still make the similar speed with 4x sata-based m.2 ssd raid0 if you want (to me it's a waste of some sata slots).

to some extents, you're right, maybe people will feel upset because of this. however, they will most probably not get pcie ssd's because of the price.

i think there will be more options for you soon, like 960 variants. this is why i think it's fine to just stick to the same connectors. of course if you can modify it that's even better lol!

i know. in terms of performance, actually only customizations can survive that long. without it, i doubt so.

we all know this is how business works. they don't really intend to build and sell something that last forever like m15x. rather than making one for us to use for a long time (less money come in for them), they choose another trend: making sure you come to them again every 2-3 years.

(now assuming i speak in their tones ya?) the advantages? every 2-3 years your computer has brand new design, has spanking new components, comes with new technologies, and you don't need to worry about wear-and-tear of internal components anymore (you know lah, electronics. your m17xr4 although outside looks good, but internals i don't dare to say loh. spare parts? very sorry to say, bo spare parts liao. nevermind we steady one mian kia mian kia. if your r4 got problem, we replace a new one for you. a latest model. cantik bo? ).

as for lifespan of new models, yes durablitiy is one of the concerns about soldered stuff. i had the exactly same issues in my grandaddy old laptop lol! but let's see how well they can handle the warranty. (this time they have to change the whole mobo; so every time they will give you new windows product key if they don't change the current practice)

how about 4x m.2 ssd and 1x hdd for 17r2? (15 has 2x m.2 slots)

you know the answer right

just grab whatever that fits your needs. normally people don't go for customizations.

asus is actually not bad in terms of build quality. the thing that is bad is their service center.

one thing that i think why aw keeps that thickness is that they wanna provide better cooling. until now i am still quite skeptical about the capability for slim laptops to dissipate heat efficiently without appropriate cooling systems. usually this is about the laws of physics, the larger surface area the better. this is also why i still choose to have a high performance laptop with a bulky design.

i think aw knows that they can put desktop cpu into a laptop a long time ago. their x51 is one example. however, putting in a desktop cpu might means much shorter battery life. for normal users, who wish to have longer battery life, this option is not really good enough.

however for those who are more enthusiastic, and look for a relatively portable desktop replacement, they will choose something that are more powerful and more customizable. clevo has long been in the scene, supported and adopted by many VARs to provide their own laptops. their models with x79 desktop cpu and dual ac adapters have been released since a few years back. they really know their stuff. (even without desktop cpu, they score much better than aw in performance benchmarks in similar configurations)

with aga, and their great warranty supports, i think aw will survive. (it's mass-produced electronics, we cannot leave warranty out) however they really need to be more creative to be competitive.