Dell has unleashed new gaming monsters upon the laptop crowd

Aug 28, 2015 15:58 GMT  ·  By

With the arrival of the new Z170 chipset and the new Windows 10, Dell felt compelled to update its gaming laptops and also bring back the super sized Alienware 18.

As any technology update cycle occurs, new features have to be added, like support for new CPUs, support for the new USB Type-C, and even Thunderbolt 3. However, the surprise is that, although new CPUs are coming to the new Alienware machines, they will still belong to the previous 5th generation of CPU, ranging from the Core i7-4720HQ to the Core i7-4870HQ.s.

While they will be coming in three flavors, Alienware 13, 15, 17 and ultimately 18, the last one will be a complete monster, carrying an Intel Core i7 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM, and a dual GTX 970M graphics chip in a Graphical Amplifier that is basically an external graphics card box. All new Alienwares enjoy expandable storage space available via various PCIe SSDs of different sizes. Display-wise, the laptop will start from a non-touch 1,920 x 1,080 resolution to a respectable 3,840 x 2,160 (4K) in the top Alienware 17 and 18 models.

If mobile graphics is not your thing, how about dual graphics cards in a box?

All the new Alienware laptops feature NVIDIA cards that can start with mobile versions ranging from a GTX 960 for an extra $400 (358), all the way up to $1,200 (1074) for a GTX Titan X, with the top-specced Alienware 15 including a GTX 980M. The Alienware 15 is, curiously, the only new Alienware laptop that has the option for an AMD R9 M395x.

The new laptops will arrive with Windows 10 as standard, while the Alienware 18, the top of the line, will arrive with Windows 8.1 installed, which is another weird thing. One explanation for this choice by Dell is to avoid any possible issues regarding the compatibility between Windows 10 and SLI operating graphics cards.

The new Alienware series, the 13, 15 and 17, will start at $999 (893), $1,999.99 and (1,790) $1,499.99 (1,341), respectively. The top-of-the-line Alienware 18 monster will take the prize in cost, prompting clients to empty their pockets of around $2,499.99 (2,236).