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Dell Alienware Area-51m Packs Desktop Hardware Into Powerful, Upgradeable Laptop (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Dell just unveiled its latest desktop-replacement class notebook, the new Alienware Area-51m. Unlike most other notebooks, however, the Area-51m is actually packing an array of desktop-class hardware. Intel's Core i9-9900K is an available CPU option, for example, and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 will be offered in the machine as well. The Area-51m also supports up to 64GB of RAM via quad SO-DIMM slots, multiple NVMe M.2 solid state drives and a SATA drive can be installed, and numerous 17.3" display options will be available as well, including a 144Hz IPS G-SYNC model. The Alienware Area-51m is also upgradeable, thanks to the use of socketed desktop processors and a custom GPU module. The machine will be available starting January 29th in two color options, Lunar Light and Dark Side of the Moon.
which probably equates to a good uninterruptible power supply (UPS), giving about 30mins to 1 hour of battery time if this bad boy runs at full overclocked and full power speeds.
Why doesn't this have the banner color indicating it is an advertisement?
Is the slashvertising all that's left now? And why would it be worth advertising that you cram desktop parts into a laptop when it's just going to thermal throttle itself all day long anyway? What about the idiots in Florida who will buy this boat?
There's a rather notable tidbit I didn't see in this article that I saw from another: "Alienware is using its proprietary Dell Graphics Form Factor (DGFF) cards for GPUs in the Area-51m, and since neither Nvidia nor AMD has promised that they’ll make future chips compatible with that format, Alienware can’t promise future upgrades either."
An advertisement!
Starting price of $2,549.
Screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
No nipples.
It's really sad older laptops had better vertical resolutions and input controls. Thus this machine won't tempt me to upgrade from my aging frankinpad (a type of modded thinkpad). There's a market need not being met...
The worthwhile upgrades will be on another socket and chipset anyways. It will be interesting for like the 2nd or 3rd potato gamer owner down the line though.
Also - laptops have had tried to have standards for upgrading gpu for like 16 years now with little success - availability of an upgrade when you would want it is very unlikely.
It does offer more cpu options though. But that's about it. who cares? there's several laptops now with 2080 if you want that.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Damn it, someone finally came out with a laptop that has good specs, a G-sync 144hz display, and a RTX videocard that ISN'T a Quadro... then ruined it by using a keyboard that doesn't have a pointer stick. :-(
Why is this thing capped at only 1TB of storage? That's how much I have in my 7 year old 10" netbook that I upgraded. The laptop in the article is a fucking beast, there are 5TB SFF drives now, why don't those work?
and now slashdot is getting blocked on my computer.
It will be obsolete in less than 6 months.
For those that have liquid cooled laps of steel I guess. For everyone else, it's an expensive slim portable desktop computer.
'Nuff sed.
Why bother with NVMe on an Intel CPU? There are insufficient PCIe lanes to operate them.
*click*
MXM GPUs where not really that changeable and this seems to be the same way with the custom to the system cooling setup.
Years ago I bought an alienware because the job I had refused to replace the faulty sony vaio they gave me. The alienware had a replaceable video card, as far as I know no replacement cards were ever made. The video was a joke, it overheated at settings well below what the specs on the card should be able to handle. Beyond that alienware had made a very poor design choice on the LCD backlight switch would would stay stuck down after the screen was opened. Alienware also refused to let anyone send their laptops in for repair even if they were willing to pay for it. They did honor extended warranties but that was it, if you hadn't bought the extended warranty you couldn't pay them to repair it. The reason I think for this was they had a new model coming out that they wanted to ramp up production for.
They put it into a "laptop". With huge "finger doing the air quotes thing" around that word.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
isn't the reason I need a big case with big fans all about cooling?
Do they throttle this?
Does it sound like I'm clinging to the chain link fence on Mako beach as the jet engine wash blows over me?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The implication from the summary "packs desktop hardware into upgradeable laptop" while TECHNICALLY accurate is misleading, in my view.
It implies strongly that the laptop is using desktop-components to be upgradeable. It isn't.
It has a swappable module that contains desktop-caliber graphics modules...not like the bog-standard video card you could buy from Microcenter. Certainly, these modules have to be crafted and sold to you solely by Alienware. At Alienware prices.
This is expected to retail for $2549 but that's going to be the bottom-end, bare bones system. You can easily get a gaming system of that caliber for $300-$400 less at Sager, and you're not buying into 'upgradeability' that is going to be a premium price, either.
-Styopa
At 410 mm (16.1") wide, 402 mm (15.8") deep, 43mm (1.7") thick and, according to the product page, and average weight of 4.4 Kg (9.7 lb), the term "laptop" seems to be a bit of a stretch. Perhaps "transportable" might be a better term.
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
Right.
Let's put some of the hottest high-end compooter hardware in, but in a laptop form factor, so you've got power, but you only have a lilbitty lappy screen to view it. That, folks, is an excellent example of sad.
People, if you're gonna spend all that money on your machine, put it in an -adult- compooter, not some cheezy laptop. Shitty pointing devices, teeny lil screens, pathetic keyboards, and teeny lil screens. Oh, you want a 4k display in it? Suuuure, OK. You'll never see the benefit on a lappy screen, but hey, we'll take all the $ you're willing to hand over, dumbass.
Commercial
Cool. 300 watts. Huge heat blower in the back. You can even dry your hair with it or blow away fellow coffee shop guys yacking on the phone opposite to you. Nice is the small form factor graphics cards. Maybe that technology will also transfer to desktops.
This laptop weighs almost 9 pounds and has a price starting over $2,500. Who exactly is the target market here? It doesn't seem that it would be very practical for anyone at that point. I'm surprised it isn't sold with Porsche, Lamborghini, or Bugatti logos on it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
the reason replaceable desktop grade graphics never caught on in gaming laptops wasn't just the proprietary form factors it was that if you did even moderate gaming then after a few years the heat made the PCB warp and the memory chips came loose. Then you could bake it for 10 minutes and then throw it up on ebay since it would work for the 2-4 weeks their guarantee lasted.
There was some standardization around replaceable cards but they were still expensive as heck because of fewer sales and the added cost of miniaturization.
I know nVidia & ATI have improved desktop PCI-E card's reliability (I've got a 760 that's going on 4 years old while the last 2 cards barely got 18 months), but I'm skeptical they can do the same in that tight a space and match full on desktop support. Something's gotta give. Either the chip throttles (like they do in those Gigabyte "Brick" small form factor PCs) or PCB warping.
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I really have to wonder who's buying these machines. They are quite expensive for the specs. I understand the need for portability, but you could easily build something that fit into a briefcase or two for good portability while still keeping the cost more affordable and getting much better performance. It's not like you can really plan them unplugged anyway. Most of them required dual external power supplies and don't get more than an hour unplugged, if that. We used to have LAN parties just fine when all we had were CRTs and Full size towers. It's not like you actually can use most of these machines as you would a normal laptop, so you might as well stop trying to make a laptop form factor machine and just go for something that can be moved easily.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It probably sounds like a 1U server when running too.
90Wh battery?
Should run the cooling fans for oh, about 2 hours. :p
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Trusting Dell hardware is like trusting Facebook anti-malware. Once customers can't trust you not to deliberately and repeatedly screw them, your brand name has been permanently poisoned and the kiss of death *should* follow.
Regardless of the wishes of the many, for me, Dell is forever dead.
It's a shame Alienware too was lost to the Dark Side of Dell.
a vulnerable cpu with a backdoor and some slaveware pos GPU. fuck off with your bullshit.
An actual desk. Four legs unfold from the bottom of the laptop ... Pretty fancy if you ask me.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
...and the same stuff will be available in a Clevo chassis for much less than Dell are charging.
I use one of Clevo's previous generation machines with an i7-6700K and a GTX 1080, with a 17" 4K screen. It's absolutely gorgeous, even if it does weigh half a ton!
The price of that was something like £1000 (~$1270) less than the big-brands were charging.
(And yes, you're lucky to get an hour out of it on battery, even just surfing the Web. It's designed to be plugged in, perhaps in an airport lounge or a hotel rather than used on the bus!)
My next laptop will be another desktop-replacement from Clevo. Once you've experienced the power of a desktop CPU in a laptop, as opposed to the constantly-throttling, castrasted "H" series chips, you won't want to go back
So what, it's still a Dull.