Thin, Light Alienware 13 Gaming Notebook Coming With Intel Core Processors And NVIDIA 860M Graphics

[exfileme]

Alienware has introduced its lightest gaming notebook to date.

Thin, Light Alienware 13 Gaming Notebook Coming With Intel Core Processors And NVIDIA 860M Graphics : Read more

 

[airborne11b]

I'm not buying a gaming laptop again until there's one with Gsync or Freesync. My Gsync modded monitor is amazing, and I couldn't imagine gaming without Gsync or something similar ever again.

 

[Blazer1985]

Still on the not so thin-and-light side imho but at least for now the cooling department of the alienwares has always been flawless so the small added weight and size compared to the competition could proof itself more than worthy.

 

[TechyInAZ]

I like the silver finish, however I still think the alien look is goofy.

Interesting to finally see alienware stepping it up a notch, since I haven't heard of any new slim laptops from Dells gaming line.

 

[jasonelmore]

dear oem's.... please stop using killer nic. Intel nic much better, intel wireless much better.

Thanks

 

[envain]

I have the r2 of the mx14 and its a great laptop. I run multiple vms for testing, some gaming and it holds up quite well my one gripe was the weight. Dell seems like they have indeed improved over the past few years from what i experienced in the past and i buy a lot of their stuff for my clients. Would love to trade in mine for something like this.

 

[Kraszmyl]

dear oem's.... please stop using killer nic. Intel nic much better, intel wireless much better.

Thanks

And how do you figure? Every review of it shows it beating or equaling intel nics. Not a huge fan of the software so I don't load it but the nic itself and their firmware/drivers seem rather good minus some of the weird problems that seem to crop up with Intel nics and tethering.

 

[LummusMaximus]

I've been waiting for Alienware to release a thin and light. I always hoped/knew that they'd have to eventually.

 

[razzb3d]

There's nothing "gaming" about the 860M. It's miles away (performance wise) from it's desktop counterpart - being closer in performance to the GT 750 (non-Ti). See for yourselves. http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-860M.107794.0.html

 

[edwd2]

Thin and light gaming laptops... better wait for 14nm broadwell + 20nm maxwell

 

[chicofehr]

These would be great for those who are traveling allot and not home much and live in hotel for work like me. But if you go home everyday, then use a proper 3 monitor desktop setup and nice sound system. I miss my desktop and something like this will never be used when I am home but great when I'm not.

 

[soldier44]

As usual opting for the highest res 2880 x 1620 and an SSD will be well over 2 grand nearly 3 grand for a laptop that can barely manage 30 fps at medium settings in most games with that 860m. If you want thin go with a Razer blade laptop.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

There's nothing "gaming" about the 860M. It's miles away (performance wise) from it's desktop counterpart - being closer in performance to the GT 750 (non-Ti). See for yourselves. http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-860M.107794.0.html

the desktop counterpart of the 860m Is the 750ti. they are LITERALLY the same chip, just clocked a little lower. a desktop 860 does not exist. do some research next time.

 

[photonboy]

It's perfectly fine to call an 860M a "gaming" laptop because it is. It's common knowledge that laptop GPU's don't have the same performance but an 860M in a laptop is probably within the top 1% of currently sold laptops for game performance (comparing all).

I don't get why people think laptops have to compare in performance to a top-end desktop to be considered "gaming" machines especially considering the limited space. This GPU will play any game on the market quite nicely provided you've properly tweaked the settings.

 

[airborne11b]

It's perfectly fine to call an 860M a "gaming" laptop because it is. It's common knowledge that laptop GPU's don't have the same performance but an 860M in a laptop is probably within the top 1% of currently sold laptops for game performance (comparing all).

I don't get why people think laptops have to compare in performance to a top-end desktop to be considered "gaming" machines especially considering the limited space. This GPU will play any game on the market quite nicely provided you've properly tweaked the settings.

This is true, but I'd also add that 860M GTX is still more capable than the next gen consoles are (considering XboxOne and PS4 games are rocking 790p - 1080p, no AA, high settings, 30fps / 60fps) which an 860m GTX is capable of delivering on a mobile laptop, I'd say that qualifies it as a "gaming" laptop.

FFS the 860m GTX gets 55fps on BF4 on high at 900p.

That's pretty damn solid for a laptop.

 

[PossumJones]

I like the new $2500 Razer. I wont buy it, cause i dont need it, but i do like it, a lot more than any of the laptops mentioned here.

 

[nforce4max]

Not bad for a modern laptop, I wonder what materials the body is made out of. Those like myself who have or are currently working in a shop know just how common it is to see laptops with broken plastics and cracked screens. The cooling is likely better than most that it has dual fans with a proper cooler layout. If the coolers are like anything before the fins are aluminum and there is likely only two copper heatpipes.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Still on the not so thin-and-light side imho but at least for now the cooling department of the alienwares has always been flawless so the small added weight and size compared to the competition could proof itself more than worthy.

I don't know how you figure that. If you had any idea how many of the Alienware so called "Gaming" laptops we've seen with overheating issues, I don't think you would make that statement. Even stock clocked units with no turbo core or turbo boost enabled have presented heat issues. Fix the heat issues BEFORE you cram more, better, faster and hotter components inside the cases.

 

[shobab]

Thin gaming notebooks are great. I have the GS60 3k Edition from MSI and it is the best thing for me. I am not a fan of Razer's keyboards on their laptops, but the MSI's Steelseries is very nice. I work overseas, and travel around a lot so it helps having a powerful computer that is 4lb.

http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GS60-2PE-Ghost-Pro-3K-Edition.html#hero-specification

 

[jimhood82]

And how do you figure? Every review of it shows it beating or equaling intel nics. Not a huge fan of the software so I don't load it but the nic itself and their firmware/drivers seem rather good minus some of the weird problems that seem to crop up with Intel nics and tethering.

It is obvious you have never used a Killer nic card. The limited testing done for reviews doesn't show the weaknesses that show up under constant usage. For example, I often find the Killer software memory usage growing to out of control levels. After about 2 weeks without restarting the machine, you end up at nearly 750MB of ram used for the nic cards. And by that point, the software is simply unusable. The "packet prioritization" is entirely garbage. I tried it a couple times, including over different software versions. In the end, the system was nearly unusable due to buggy software blocking random things from using the internet entirely.

Trust the people who have used recent Killer products; they aren't worth it.

 

[jimhood82]

I'm sure it will be overpriced and poorly built like the rest of Alienware's offerings.

Coming from someone who obviously doesn't own one.

 

[jimhood82]

Still on the not so thin-and-light side imho but at least for now the cooling department of the alienwares has always been flawless so the small added weight and size compared to the competition could proof itself more than worthy.

I don't know how you figure that. If you had any idea how many of the Alienware so called "Gaming" laptops we've seen with overheating issues, I don't think you would make that statement. Even stock clocked units with no turbo core or turbo boost enabled have presented heat issues. Fix the heat issues BEFORE you cram more, better, faster and hotter components inside the cases.

As an owner of the AW 14, I strongly disagree with you. The temps on this machine are more than reasonable. In fact, the Bios/Firmware are explicitly set up to keep the machines temps too damn low for my own taste. 80C on the CPU is an immediate throttle to a 70C target, and 67C is the limit on the GPU.

 

[Kraszmyl]

[quotemsg=13938922,0,278175]

And how do you figure? Every review of it shows it beating or equaling intel nics. Not a huge fan of the software so I don't load it but the nic itself and their firmware/drivers seem rather good minus some of the weird problems that seem to crop up with Intel nics and tethering.

It is obvious you have never used a Killer nic card. The limited testing done for reviews doesn't show the weaknesses that show up under constant usage. For example, I often find the Killer software memory usage growing to out of control levels. After about 2 weeks without restarting the machine, you end up at nearly 750MB of ram used for the nic cards. And by that point, the software is simply unusable. The "packet prioritization" is entirely garbage. I tried it a couple times, including over different software versions. In the end, the system was nearly unusable due to buggy software blocking random things from using the internet entirely.

Trust the people who have used recent Killer products; they aren't worth it.[/quotemsg]

Actually most of my Asus and Alienware laptops use KillerNic products and I've been actively replacing the Intel cards in several latitudes and precisions with them due to the better stability for connections.

I already said the software was garbage and that I didn't use it. So perhaps you should try unloading their software if it is giving you that much of an issue. However even with the software never had a problem , just don't like it.