The Alienware Area-51m's Upgradable Dream Has Failed in Just One Year (theverge.com) 76
Alienware has announced the second generation of its flagship Area-51m gaming laptop, the Area-51m R2. It's largely similar on the outside to the original Area-51m, but the specs are almost completely overhauled on the inside, with 10th Gen Intel processors, new Nvidia GPUs, faster RAM, and better display options. From a report: All of those upgrades will be limited to the new R2 model, though. Despite Alienware's goals for future-proofed upgradable parts, the Area-51m has failed to live up to its potential. One of the biggest draws of the Area-51m was the option for user-replaceable parts. Most modern laptops have nearly all of their internal components sealed in place in an effort to cut down on size. But the Area-51m took a different approach. It was big, easy to disassemble, and made it simple to replace nearly every internal component, from RAM to the CPU to the GPU to even the thermal cooling components. The idea was to make something more portable than any other desktop but more customizable than any laptop. Alienware's parent company, Dell, even built its own system for replaceable GPUs in laptops, called DGFF (Dell Graphics Form Factor) to make it easier to upgrade in the future.
Upgradability only works if supported. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would a computer manufacturer build upgrades when it can sell you a new machine at a higher profit? In general, upgradability only works when there are enough third-party manufacturers willing to put in the effort to build the upgrades. And that typically happens only if a large number of machines built by a large number of companies can be upgraded with the same upgrade hardware.
Re: Upgradability only works if supported. (Score:2)
Why would a computer manufacturer build upgrades when it can sell you a new machine at a higher profit?
Competition.
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for $6,800; it had better offer to have my children.
Couldn't you just put them up for adoption?
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"PC). The proprietary 51m slot was their attempt to recapture that crowd, but it appears they blew it."
Wow, this is a throwback to the 1980s when some PC-clone manufacturers were selling PCs that could be "upgraded forever" through modules/cartridges
Unfortunately, these modules were proprietary, and the company who supplied them also made the PC (can you say lock in?). These companies seemed to have completely folded a short time after.
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It's not upgradable if all the "upgradable" components are rare or custom bits that are single-sourced, and that source decides not to make new bits.
At that point, it's just marketing, and it sounds like a lot of suckers got suckered.
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They built it to be upgradable, but then they didn't build the upgrades, and that's the most important part....
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Upgradiblity is a feature that comes with its own costs and benefits. It is a feature not many customers want, and even fewer are willing to absorb the additional cost relative to the perceived benefit.
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Re: Upgradability only works if supported. (Score:2)
I will trade light weight and small size for toughness any day. So much money lost to destroyed laptops. All the thin light fetishism was about was the status when computers were coming down in size. Now they are small enough, and I value bulletproof metal shell rugged. Outside of a corporate setting thatâ(TM)s right for most people.
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My laptop is a 5-1/2 year old Dell Precision m4800. Over the past 5.5 years, I...
* Added a 500-gig mSATA SSD
* replaced the original 500-gig SSHD with a 2TB HD
* added another 8 gigs of RAM (total, 16gb)
* replaced the optical drive with a second 2TB HD
* upgraded the video card from the original k2100m to a k2200m. Not exactly groundbreaking, but it cost $70 (eBay) and took the original up a notch.
* upgraded the original wifi card to Dell's 802.11ad "wigig" card. I still haven't gotten around to buying an 802.
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Incidentally, I have another display idea that would be almost as good as Valerie's 3 full displays... possibly, even better, because it wouldn't require 4 feet of horizontal space: a central 3840x1440 display, flanked by a pair of double-hinged 1920x1440 displays that could fold out, forward (like window shutters) so you could close the lid, or backward (so they'd be facing the rear).
This would give you a big 3:2 primary display for things like an IDE, flanked by a pair of 3:4 displays... say, the one on t
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Incidentally, I have another display idea that would be almost as good as Valerie's 3 full displays... possibly, even better, because it wouldn't require 4 feet of horizontal space: a central 3840x1440 display, flanked by a pair of double-hinged 1920x1440 displays that could fold out, forward (like window shutters) so you could close the lid, or backward (so they'd be facing the rear).
This would give you a big 3:2 primary display for things like an IDE, flanked by a pair of 3:4 displays... say, the one on the left for a pdf document or web page that's being referred to, and the one on the right for something like the Android emulator, a window for whatever is being tested/debugged, etc.
When folded against the back of the middle display, you could either turn them off (say, if you're on a plane & don't have room to open them outward), or use them as a pair of 3:4 rear-facing displays (or, if a middle seam is tolerable, a rear-facing 3:2 display).
This is a very Interesting concept!
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A related question : why would consumers pay extra for systems that are heavier/bulkier with worse performance in order to gain upgradability they are not going to use?
I. ... errr. Let me quote a smart person: "Upgradiblity is a feature that comes with its own costs and benefits. "
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Why would a computer manufacturer build upgrades when it can sell you a new machine at a higher profit? In general, upgradability only works when there are enough third-party manufacturers willing to put in the effort to build the upgrades. And that typically happens only if a large number of machines built by a large number of companies can be upgraded with the same upgrade hardware.
So, all those people who continuously whine about Apple laptops not having upgrade-able internals have nicely proven themselves wrong.
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Why would a computer manufacturer build upgrades when it can sell you a new machine at a higher profit?
Because at the top end of computing you replace parts far more frequently than you replace systems. The point is not to let 3rd parties get in on the profit. You're going to be paying Mr Dell for the privilege of the upgrade.
Re: Upgradability only works if supported. (Score:1)
Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:5, Insightful)
Consumers (ie, regular people, people who think the internet is Netflix and Facebook and nothing else) don't care about upgradeability. Computers are already a magical black box to them, asking to open anything up to do anything on the inside is an automatic nope for the vast majority of people. Even for people willing to do that Alienware is a niche brand - so this product is a niche of a niche for a niche. It's no wonder it failed.
Most don't, but PC gamers, the market this was aimed at? Yea, most of them would actually care.
Re: Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:1)
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It's why I described it as mid-to-high end gamers earlier. People want to play an MMO perhaps with decent graphics at home or on the road, for example, and normal laptops with mobile GPUs just don't work that well much of the time. They've got to be serious enough to spend the extra cash, but not so serious that they have tower platform that sucks up more power than a washer/dryer.
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Stop conflating serious with wealthy. Plenty of people can afford high end but plenty serious about gaming and most idiots with high end gear could comprehend "serious" in any aspect of life because they've got a giant pile of money serving as a nice cushy net in their life to prevent ever needing to be or face anything serious.
Re: Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:2)
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"Wtf are you talking about? At no point did I say money."
No, you said "high end," which means expensive, which means money. You are repeating common marketing which equates seriousness with how expensive your gear is.
"And laptops cost more $ per unit of gpu/cpu power."
That's true... not particularly relevant but true. Actually they don't just cost more but top out lower.
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Not all games are online, though. You could bring along a copy of Witcher 3 to play, but I don't think most laptops would love that idea.
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Serious gamers who care that much about hardware upgrades buy a mid or larger box PC.
The no true Scotsman fallacy would work far better if there weren't entire companies dedicated to making gaming laptops and selling them to the large gaming crowd.
If they have a laptop for travel or something they're not doing serious gaming on hotel WiFi. I've tried. Tragedy ensued.
Pfft amateur. Personally I don't have a gaming laptop. I built a luggable gaming machine in a pelican case. The reason your hotel WiFi sucks, is because we premium hotel guests are using up your bandwidth.
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Consumers (ie, regular people, people who think the internet is Netflix and Facebook and nothing else) don't care about upgradeability. Computers are already a magical black box to them, asking to open anything up to do anything on the inside is an automatic nope for the vast majority of people. Even for people willing to do that Alienware is a niche brand - so this product is a niche of a niche for a niche. It's no wonder it failed.
Most don't, but PC gamers, the market this was aimed at? Yea, most of them would actually care.
How many PC gamers willing to spend as much as an Alienware costs would do so for a laptop? Alienware is overpriced and lack customization options(and I mean horribly lacking). Can get so much more for the price from smaller custom builders (or by building your own). I went with a small builder for mine and literally had 40-50 options just in graphics cards (on a budget build). Alienware gives you like 3 options.
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I think that you're confusing desktops and laptops after the first few sentences. Every laptop
Re: Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:1)
My first point was that no serious gamer is going to do serious gaming on a laptop. At least not at the prices Alienwate charges. My second was that in general Alienware is overpriced and there are much better sources that offer much more customization.
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Ah, so your point was merely a No True Scotsman argument. I guess I'll be retiring my Clevo now. Someone on Slashdot might think that I'm a casual gamer.
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Clevo all the way for me too! Yes, playing Overwatch on hotel wifi can be a bit dodgy sometimes (less so games like WoW), but there's always mobile tethering or, in the likes of Japan, the option of a wired Ethernet link instead.
My particular Clevo has a desktop CPU in it, too, but of course upgrading is limited to what the chipset and socket supports. I can't upgrade from my 9900K to a 10900K without throwing the whole thing away, but if I'd bought it with an i5 (to save money) I could have upgraded to an
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"How many PC gamers willing to spend as much as an Alienware costs would do so for a laptop?"
Most. Entire new generations who don't understand a laptop is just a seriously crippled system with a poor interface and that phones and tablets are the same to additional orders of magnitude in both cases is born every day.
That said why the hell can't you play the latest MMO on every system by now... hardware that performs well enough to do so is DECADES old.
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Not a surprise there. I bought a laptop in 2004 with the laptop MXM standard graphics that could theoretically be upgraded to another card at a later date. Only problem? Later never came. I couldn't even get reasonable driver updates without going through a third party, much less an entire graphics card update. The kicker? The MXM slot proved troublesome. Eventually, the graphics card heat warped the card ever so slightly, such that the machine wouldn't power up reliably anymore. It was an expensive
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Consumers (ie, regular people, people who think the internet is Netflix and Facebook and nothing else) don't care about upgradeability. Computers are already a magical black box to them, asking to open anything up to do anything on the inside is an automatic nope for the vast majority of people. Even for people willing to do that Alienware is a niche brand - so this product is a niche of a niche for a niche. It's no wonder it failed.
Most don't, but PC gamers, the market this was aimed at? Yea, most of them would actually care.
Then why didn't they flock to this machine?
You have already been proven wrong by the market; so give it a rest, willya?
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Based upon the ones that I have come across, if you actually use it for what it's marketed for, it's pretty much done after three years due to thermal failures from cooking itself to death.
I've never really understood these kind of machines. Besides the cost and the short lifespan (both in terms of failures as well as obsolescence), who wants to game for hours hunched over a laptop?
The trouble I saw was cost (Score:3)
Meanwhile I upgraded from a GTX 760 to an RX580 for $100 bucks.
Re: The trouble I saw was cost (Score:2)
*Which I just 'downgraded' from an hd7950 to an rx460 for... for a cool fifty bucks** on CL.
**partly Scottish with a possible crypto-Jew streak; should explain everything
You took a bit of a hit going with a 460 (Score:2)
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This is Alienware though, not your average consumer. Oriented to mid-to-high end gamers who want a laptop that can play the games they want without melting. They're expensive enough that people want them to be like desktops where you can upgrade parts over time. *Especially* if the laptop was originally advertised as being fully upgradeable and customers probably bought this based upon this claim, they're pretty damned disappointed to find out the Alienware lies just as much as any other company.
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they're pretty damned disappointed to find out the Alienware lies just as much as any other company.
You build up a good reputation, then sooner or later you get a CEO that finds he wants to increase short-term profit by burning through the goodwill then exit before the downturn sets in. And because he's already hired by the next company and seemingly do a good job there he can keep it up leaping from pillar to pillar as they crumble behind him. The best of the best spin it as if they were the only thing holding the place together and their successor tore it up. Some of them probably even believe it themse
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Re: Consumers don't care about upgradeability. (Score:3)
Alienware users DO care about upgrades, as evidenced by the number of upgraded used laptops on eBay
Pray tell how the fuck you're able to determine what percentage of [gullible] Alienware laptop buyers care about upgrading, from how many used, upgraded laptops you've spotted on eBay? Just curious.
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I *think* he's saying *as evidenced on ebay, some % of people are interested in upgrading laptops, therefore: some % of alienware users also care about upgrading laptops, as alienware users are a subset of *people.
But I'm not totally sure either.
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Just because people are unloading upgraded laptops on ebay doesn't mean that any meaningful % of laptop purchasers give a damn about the extra cost and bulk of socketed components that allow for upgrading.
After all, they're *selling* them. Presence on ebay is not indicative of a thriving market.
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It's a niche market and they should have known that going in.
I suspect they could have made a long-term moderate-risk profit by establishing themselves as a name and building trust, but management decided instead to just cancel the project after buy-in; it may even have been the right decision for all I know. Maybe this was all a cynical exercise just to estimate market demand, roflmao; this has happened before.
And if anyone bought into this scheme launched by "Alienware"/Dell, you deserve it lol.
Not surprising. (Score:4, Interesting)
I have an alienware M17xR3 which was also modular (CPU, GPU, Memory and even wifi card) The GPU required a custom card type that got 1 upgrade at best and was stupidly overpriced. The CPU was a standard intel CPU but, again, had an intel specific socket that was only good for a year or two and in limited quantities.
That said, I've managed to upgrade the wifi card from the awesomely fast and modern 802.11g to 802.11ac and increased the memory modules amount and speed (although these are buffer limited by the CPU unless I upgrade) and can run Windows 10 on it. It won't play top of the line games obviously and NVidia dropped driver support just after Windows 8 BUT it still runs, still handles many games and photo editing with ease. Not bad for a 10 year old laptop.
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If you've still got it you can find replacement batteries on the internet/amazon.
I've also replaced the keyboard (love this keyboard - both the style and the feel) once.
The fun part is, compared to all the newer laptops out there, this thing's a tank! :)
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Better question (Score:2)
Why would anyone upgrade an intel based system?
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That doesn't explain why anyone would invest additional funds in an Intel based platform when they could invest in AMD.
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"settle on an older chipset that has no chance for AMD Ryzen 4000-Series Zen 3 compatibility."
The fucking b450 only needs a BIOS upgrade to give you Ryzen 4 support. After that it won't matter as 5th gen will introduce the AM5 socket.
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What do you expect from expensive crap? (Score:2)
The primary purpose of these devices is to separate the gullible from tons of money. There never was any chance of something that would lessen this longer-term, because it is contrary to their whole business model.
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I object however to the idea that desktop-replacement laptops are all devices whose purpose is to separate the gullible from tons of money. You can get a good desktop-replacement laptop from other sources, and unlike desktops, it can be taken with you as a cabin bag in airplanes.
And I did not say that either, in particular as these are gaming laptops, not general desktop replacement ones. My personal choice is light-weight for Laptop, reduced mobile capability and the thing is essentially a terminal to the real infrastructure I have when Internet connectivity is available. Even something as low-end as an x250 does run Win10 with office in a VM reasonably fast. But that is a matter of taste.
Build a standard form factor desktop (Score:2)
If you want a usable upgrade path, submit to the horror of not having your device crippled for portability and build a high performance desktop.
If you genuinely need portable high performance to make money the cost of ANY notebook is a trifle. Mere mechanics routinely spend twenty or thirty or more thousand dollars on tools so if you're making tech money a few grand for a loaded notebook is background noise and you can afford to give it away (or shred it if hdd isn't removable and security matters) in a few
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It's not possible to upgrade notebooks much. (Score:2)
I'm also a Thinkpad enthusiast for their ease of maintenance and modest upgradeability, but I don't pretend that's remotely close to a STANDARD FORM FACTOR which does not exist for notebooks nor will it ever.
Notebooks are disposable consumer goods like all computers. Their real upgrade path is replacement. You can't have a standard form factor notebook in the current reality because the pace of technical change plus limited room dooms the idea to unprofitability. It doesn't work with phones either. Fortunat
DGFF, eh? (Score:1)
So you tried to ignore the standard MXM slot format and make your own shit which could easily have its acronym expanded to read Dumb Goofy Fucking Failure, which this non-starter of a proprietary mobile GPU slot is in reality.
No wonder this laptop fucking failed. Nobody wanted to shell out the guaranteed extra money for a non-standard GPU upgrade, and they walked away from the garbage, as they rightfully should.
Amazing features (Score:2)
Replacable parts in a laptop, that is some special in todays world.
It shouldn't be, this should be normal.
So now even though Dell has released a new model, you can still rest assure that you can upgrade your ram/hdd/...