Well I splurged and got myself a new Alienware laptop.
- Thread starter JCitron
- Start date
Sorry for not getting back sooner... I will post pictures soon(tm) when I get a chance. 
I will say that this is a great laptop. It works well and is quite light considering the hardware inside.
The big drawback though is it does get a bit toasty. There's an option, only in the BIOS though, to set the fan to performance mode. This does the cooling job, but the downside is it's very noisy. I got family complaining that the fan was like water running, or causing too much noise to hear the TV. Now this is from my elder parents so it could be them complaining because that's what they do at that age.
And yes the power draw... When not running anything graphics-intensive, the system will get 5hrs and 30 minutes on battery. Running T:ANE, Arma3, or Cities: Skylines, will suck down the battery in about an hour so the power pack is needed for that. It's not a big deal and only an inconvenience.
Does it handle T:ANE?
It sure does and without a stutter. I tried the sliders full stop and the machine ran well, however, even on my desktop I set things about mid-range for draw distance with shadows on high, rather than ultra, with all the other settings set to high. With the 8000m draw distance with lots of trees and stuff, I find that having a super high draw distance does nothing more than heat up the hardware. When trees are nothing more than a few pixels of smudge at 15km it's not worth setting everything that high anyway. Two each his own, I guess. The bottom line is it runs T:ANE without stutters which is what I was looking for and it's portable so I can sit on an airplane for 4 hours at a time without going out of my mind. I may not be able to use T:ANE in flight if there are no power outlets on the plane, but at least I can read and do other things during that time.
As time goes on, I will post other thoughts on the machine.
Thank you all for the kudos. Yes, I am really, really excited about my purchase and hopefully I will get at least 6 years out of this beast like I did my older Alienware laptop. As far as price goes, it's no more than the ASUS ROG high-end machine, and a lot lower than some of the others out there such as the MSI beasts. The good news is I can trade in my old machine and receive a rebate for that on top of the rebate received during the purchase so it brings the total cost of the machine well below the list price, and this is something that was not available for other brands.
John
I will say that this is a great laptop. It works well and is quite light considering the hardware inside.
The big drawback though is it does get a bit toasty. There's an option, only in the BIOS though, to set the fan to performance mode. This does the cooling job, but the downside is it's very noisy. I got family complaining that the fan was like water running, or causing too much noise to hear the TV. Now this is from my elder parents so it could be them complaining because that's what they do at that age.
And yes the power draw... When not running anything graphics-intensive, the system will get 5hrs and 30 minutes on battery. Running T:ANE, Arma3, or Cities: Skylines, will suck down the battery in about an hour so the power pack is needed for that. It's not a big deal and only an inconvenience.
Does it handle T:ANE?
It sure does and without a stutter. I tried the sliders full stop and the machine ran well, however, even on my desktop I set things about mid-range for draw distance with shadows on high, rather than ultra, with all the other settings set to high. With the 8000m draw distance with lots of trees and stuff, I find that having a super high draw distance does nothing more than heat up the hardware. When trees are nothing more than a few pixels of smudge at 15km it's not worth setting everything that high anyway. Two each his own, I guess. The bottom line is it runs T:ANE without stutters which is what I was looking for and it's portable so I can sit on an airplane for 4 hours at a time without going out of my mind. I may not be able to use T:ANE in flight if there are no power outlets on the plane, but at least I can read and do other things during that time.
As time goes on, I will post other thoughts on the machine.
Thank you all for the kudos. Yes, I am really, really excited about my purchase and hopefully I will get at least 6 years out of this beast like I did my older Alienware laptop. As far as price goes, it's no more than the ASUS ROG high-end machine, and a lot lower than some of the others out there such as the MSI beasts. The good news is I can trade in my old machine and receive a rebate for that on top of the rebate received during the purchase so it brings the total cost of the machine well below the list price, and this is something that was not available for other brands.
John
So we're not going to get any moans about how T:ANE doesn't work? :hehe: Seems it really is the hardware when it comes to this type of software. Did you have a look at the latest video: "Trainz - Content Creation - #9 - Understanding trainz settings & Level of Detail on assets" it really demystifies some of those settings and how they influence the performance, even of a machine like you now have.
LOL, Martin.
It's the hardware and the assets of course. Modern GPUs horse the data around which allows the stuff to load but not necessarily optimally. If the data its self is optimized then we will see even better performance.
John
Yup. I've got one and it works great.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks it sure is a pleasure to use.
John
steamboateng
New member
Just found this thread, John (Sorry!).
John took this sweet machine to the show in North Adams several weeks ago. He plugged it into a 32" HD TV and ran our Hoosac East Route in T:aNE (a literal jungle of hundreds upon hundreds of bushes and trees). I will testify that this machine ran the program and the route flawlessly; drawing oooh's and aaaah's from the viewers.
Of course, I like to think it was my 'Surveyor' work that drew the response; but I gotta give John credit for picking a fine machine.
John took this sweet machine to the show in North Adams several weeks ago. He plugged it into a 32" HD TV and ran our Hoosac East Route in T:aNE (a literal jungle of hundreds upon hundreds of bushes and trees). I will testify that this machine ran the program and the route flawlessly; drawing oooh's and aaaah's from the viewers.
Of course, I like to think it was my 'Surveyor' work that drew the response; but I gotta give John credit for picking a fine machine.
Hello My Dear Friend, Ben ---
How does trainz, and gmax run? I bet super fast!!!
Having a great time --- shows is a screenshot! LOL
Ish
Hi Ish:
Don't know yet. About three days before the Nvidia GTX 1080's came out I looked on the Alienware site and saw Area-51's were shipping in 3 to 5 days. Three days after the GTX 1080's came out estimated shipping dates were 30 to 35 days. Apparently I was not the only person waiting for the new GPU's to become available before buying a new computer.
I ordered mine on the 7th. Monitor arrived 3 days later but it ships from a different location (Dell). Computer is in theory not due for 3 weeks but I happened to look on the Alienware site this morning and saw shipping dates are 10 to 12 days so perhaps it will arrive a bit sooner (beats staring at a blank monitor, lol).
What did I buy? I went way beyond splurging ($8775.86 worth):
Area-51
10 core processor
64GB RAM
dual Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU's
500GB SSD
Two 4 TB SATA's.
1500 watt power supply
34 inch curved monitor with built in sound
Windows 10 professional
The usual odd-n-ends
Overkill for T:ANE? Probably but like I told my wife - you can bury it with me (now if she will only wait until I am actually dead, lol).
Ben
Don't know yet. About three days before the Nvidia GTX 1080's came out I looked on the Alienware site and saw Area-51's were shipping in 3 to 5 days. Three days after the GTX 1080's came out estimated shipping dates were 30 to 35 days. Apparently I was not the only person waiting for the new GPU's to become available before buying a new computer.
I ordered mine on the 7th. Monitor arrived 3 days later but it ships from a different location (Dell). Computer is in theory not due for 3 weeks but I happened to look on the Alienware site this morning and saw shipping dates are 10 to 12 days so perhaps it will arrive a bit sooner (beats staring at a blank monitor, lol).
What did I buy? I went way beyond splurging ($8775.86 worth):
Area-51
10 core processor
64GB RAM
dual Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU's
500GB SSD
Two 4 TB SATA's.
1500 watt power supply
34 inch curved monitor with built in sound
Windows 10 professional
The usual odd-n-ends
Overkill for T:ANE? Probably but like I told my wife - you can bury it with me (now if she will only wait until I am actually dead, lol).
Ben
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Hello Ben --
Congratulation on your new baby there, my good buddy! I know you well enough to say that you deserve such a beast! Me think you will not need anymore pc's, ever! LOL ...
You know, as crazy as it may sound, it can be upgraded --- I've been looking at videos at YouTube, and it has helped me understand how it works, like how it looks inside, and how to upgrade it with more stuff, etc .... -- If you're curious just type :alienware area 51 --- plenty of videos there, Ben!
Now, was it easy to break the news to your dear wife that you're getting this pc, or were you nerves, Ben .... LOL .... I get scare myself if I ask for anything above 50 dollars! LOL
I know it's going to keep you up all day long --- At least it's nice you are no longer living in Florida due to this heat -- Up there where you are the alienware area 51 will be just comfortable.
Take care now, Ben ... be safe!!! :wave:
Ish
Hi Ish:
I didn't get quite all I wanted. I would have preferred a 1TB SSD and 1 TB SATAS. I have three 1TB external hard drives connected to my old computer and in 11 years of Gmax/Trainzing I have finally gotten them to about 25% of capacity (so 4 TB is way beyond overkill, lol). However the price differential is so small it wasn't worth the effort trying to special order them.
Something else I would have liked is the 2-Drive RAID system using 1 TB SSDs. I know it can be done using SSDs. My old computer has it (tho not with SSD's of course). They no longer offer it but said I could install it myself (which would have been way out of my league). Would have been nice but I didn't need it that bad.
I only got 2 GPU's but it can accommodate 3. I thought that was a bit much even for me, lol.
It has room for one more SATA HD tho I can't see it when I have 3 external drives already.
I considered a 32 inch 4K monitor but with my (almost) 73 year old eyes it would have been a waste (it didn't have built in sound or a curved screen either).
I was a little worried about the 34 inch monitor fitting into my U-shaped computer desk but its has a large amount of height adjustment. I have about 2-1/2 inches to spare. Modifying the desk wouldn't have been difficult but not having to do it is easier yet.
Oh - the wife was very understanding (because I told her via telephone so as to be outside the circle of total destruction, ha-ha). In reality it wasn't a problem. I never spend anything. In the 8 months we have been here I've bought a new front tire for my motorcycle and a pair of boots. That's it (really).
I see Alienware has brought the Aurora (my old computer) back in an upgraded version. Not as fancy as the Area-51 but still a great hunk of iron and considerably cheaper.
O-well - back to watching out the window for the FedEx truck.:hehe:.
Ben
I didn't get quite all I wanted. I would have preferred a 1TB SSD and 1 TB SATAS. I have three 1TB external hard drives connected to my old computer and in 11 years of Gmax/Trainzing I have finally gotten them to about 25% of capacity (so 4 TB is way beyond overkill, lol). However the price differential is so small it wasn't worth the effort trying to special order them.
Something else I would have liked is the 2-Drive RAID system using 1 TB SSDs. I know it can be done using SSDs. My old computer has it (tho not with SSD's of course). They no longer offer it but said I could install it myself (which would have been way out of my league). Would have been nice but I didn't need it that bad.
I only got 2 GPU's but it can accommodate 3. I thought that was a bit much even for me, lol.
It has room for one more SATA HD tho I can't see it when I have 3 external drives already.
I considered a 32 inch 4K monitor but with my (almost) 73 year old eyes it would have been a waste (it didn't have built in sound or a curved screen either).
I was a little worried about the 34 inch monitor fitting into my U-shaped computer desk but its has a large amount of height adjustment. I have about 2-1/2 inches to spare. Modifying the desk wouldn't have been difficult but not having to do it is easier yet.
Oh - the wife was very understanding (because I told her via telephone so as to be outside the circle of total destruction, ha-ha). In reality it wasn't a problem. I never spend anything. In the 8 months we have been here I've bought a new front tire for my motorcycle and a pair of boots. That's it (really).
I see Alienware has brought the Aurora (my old computer) back in an upgraded version. Not as fancy as the Area-51 but still a great hunk of iron and considerably cheaper.
O-well - back to watching out the window for the FedEx truck.:hehe:.
Ben
Congratulations, Ben on your new machine!
I wish you well with it and I'm sure it will be more than you expect it to be when you get it. My laptop did that for me as it loaded up and ran a rather taxing route I've been working on without an hiccups. With a $300 gift card I got from Dell, I got myself an 8TB external backup drive. This drive replaces an ailing 2TB drive I had for ages. The timing is perfect and the cost was super at $18.44 which was my sales tax since the drive was $299.
John
I wish you well with it and I'm sure it will be more than you expect it to be when you get it. My laptop did that for me as it loaded up and ran a rather taxing route I've been working on without an hiccups. With a $300 gift card I got from Dell, I got myself an 8TB external backup drive. This drive replaces an ailing 2TB drive I had for ages. The timing is perfect and the cost was super at $18.44 which was my sales tax since the drive was $299.
John
Hi John:
Yah - sales tax. I paid $820.41 in sales tax (ugh). Its 9.25% in Tennessee but because of that we have no state income tax unless you make more then $500,000 a year (definitely lets me out). What a relief.:hehe:
I didn't get any freebies (that I know of) but got a $452.86 discount in "order level promotion" (whatever that is). Did your gift card arrive with or after the laptop? Perhaps I need to keep an eye on the mail box too.
That 10 core processor is listed at $1582.76. Gadzooks! I paid $99.95 for my first Commodore-64 (the whole thing). Ain't progress grand.
8 TB external drive??? (and I thought 4 TB was overkill). Do you use it as is or split it up into several partitions?
The new one can't show up soon enough. The old one is definitely on the way out. Turns itself off at least twice a day. Takes 2 (sometimes 3) tries to get it started up properly in the morning. Runs some sort of disk check program once a week (not one I have scheduled). It hasn't been the same since it was completely turned off and unplugged for 10 days during our move from Florida to Tennessee.
Ben
Yah - sales tax. I paid $820.41 in sales tax (ugh). Its 9.25% in Tennessee but because of that we have no state income tax unless you make more then $500,000 a year (definitely lets me out). What a relief.:hehe:
I didn't get any freebies (that I know of) but got a $452.86 discount in "order level promotion" (whatever that is). Did your gift card arrive with or after the laptop? Perhaps I need to keep an eye on the mail box too.
That 10 core processor is listed at $1582.76. Gadzooks! I paid $99.95 for my first Commodore-64 (the whole thing). Ain't progress grand.
8 TB external drive??? (and I thought 4 TB was overkill). Do you use it as is or split it up into several partitions?
The new one can't show up soon enough. The old one is definitely on the way out. Turns itself off at least twice a day. Takes 2 (sometimes 3) tries to get it started up properly in the morning. Runs some sort of disk check program once a week (not one I have scheduled). It hasn't been the same since it was completely turned off and unplugged for 10 days during our move from Florida to Tennessee.
Ben
We're 6.25% on anything but food and clothing but we also have an income tax of 5.25%. I suppose the money has to come from somewhere so it's probably a break even situation. If I want to not pay sales tax locally, I shop in New Hampshire. I live right on the border so going to BestBuy or Staples means a trip north about 20 minutes to Salem.
I got a $350 order promotion in addition to the $300 gift card, which came after I traded in my old Alienware 17Mx. The "gift card" came in an email from dell so it wasn't a real "card" in the old sense.
If I had traded in the old laptop first, I could have used that as an additional savings, but the website was very vague about it, besides the whole gift card thing took about a month, long after both of n trips in fact, and that would have been too long anyway because I needed the laptop for Mike's trip west. I wonder if you can't trade in your old system as well. Check out Dell's website for more information. You might get $100 for it and the good news is they'll provide shipping labels; you provide the packaging, and you get rid of the old junk too so it doesn't pile up in your basement like a lot of stuff does here. I have shelves of computer parts, displays, old cases, ancient hard drives, and you name it. I could start my own computer museum probably.
In addition to the laptop, my order came with a free 32-inch TV, which worked out well for the trip as I used that to display the route and video loop on. There's a nice HDMI port on the back of the laptop and I used a cheapo HDMI cable to plug into the TV. Everything came up and ran without issues.
You might still be in luck though with a gift of some kind. In addition to the above, I got an additional card for $141 from DELL for "Being a good customer". This card runs out mid-August so I have to find something to spend it on.
The 8 TB Seagate drive might seem overkill. I thought about a 4 TB, but what the heck right! The new drive is really, really fast even for a USB 3.0. When I copied over my old 2 TB drive to the new one, which took all day, sigh, the old drive was pretty full so I'm already part way there to begin with. I use the drive strictly for data downloads, and backups and it's the full drive and not partitioned. I also do not keep the drive running and only power it up when I need to use it. This saves the drive I think from wear and tear since it is an external drive and doesn't have the cooling advantage the internal ones do.
10-cores! Yikes!!! I surely hope that your programs use all of them at that price too! I feel the pain as well. I paid about the same for an Atari 800xl from the same period, and learned a lot too about BASIC and 6502 programming. I then went on to CP/M on a Visual V-1050 and the rest is history...
By the sounds of it, I think there's either something loose inside, or there is a more insidious thing happening like failing components. With the age of the old system, I agree it's time to upgrade and you won't regret it. Get read to hijack that Fed-Ex truck when it shows up!
John
I got a $350 order promotion in addition to the $300 gift card, which came after I traded in my old Alienware 17Mx. The "gift card" came in an email from dell so it wasn't a real "card" in the old sense.
If I had traded in the old laptop first, I could have used that as an additional savings, but the website was very vague about it, besides the whole gift card thing took about a month, long after both of n trips in fact, and that would have been too long anyway because I needed the laptop for Mike's trip west. I wonder if you can't trade in your old system as well. Check out Dell's website for more information. You might get $100 for it and the good news is they'll provide shipping labels; you provide the packaging, and you get rid of the old junk too so it doesn't pile up in your basement like a lot of stuff does here. I have shelves of computer parts, displays, old cases, ancient hard drives, and you name it. I could start my own computer museum probably.
In addition to the laptop, my order came with a free 32-inch TV, which worked out well for the trip as I used that to display the route and video loop on. There's a nice HDMI port on the back of the laptop and I used a cheapo HDMI cable to plug into the TV. Everything came up and ran without issues.
You might still be in luck though with a gift of some kind. In addition to the above, I got an additional card for $141 from DELL for "Being a good customer". This card runs out mid-August so I have to find something to spend it on.
The 8 TB Seagate drive might seem overkill. I thought about a 4 TB, but what the heck right! The new drive is really, really fast even for a USB 3.0. When I copied over my old 2 TB drive to the new one, which took all day, sigh, the old drive was pretty full so I'm already part way there to begin with. I use the drive strictly for data downloads, and backups and it's the full drive and not partitioned. I also do not keep the drive running and only power it up when I need to use it. This saves the drive I think from wear and tear since it is an external drive and doesn't have the cooling advantage the internal ones do.
10-cores! Yikes!!! I surely hope that your programs use all of them at that price too! I feel the pain as well. I paid about the same for an Atari 800xl from the same period, and learned a lot too about BASIC and 6502 programming.
I then went on to CP/M on a Visual V-1050 and the rest is history...By the sounds of it, I think there's either something loose inside, or there is a more insidious thing happening like failing components. With the age of the old system, I agree it's time to upgrade and you won't regret it. Get read to hijack that Fed-Ex truck when it shows up!
John
As I said the old one still works (sort of). Once its up its ok - getting there can be a problem tho. What I'm planning on doing when the new one arrives is dismantling the old one and move it to the other end of my computer desk (its big, lol), set it up and get it running before doing anything with the new one. That way if I do have problems or questions I can easily get in touch with Alienware. Then set the new one up, run through all the initialization stuff with M$, McAfee, and so on. After that its transfer everything time. Having almost everything backed up on external drives should make that fairly easy as its just a matter of plugging the external disk into the new one and copying everything from it into the two 4TB internal drives. Take a while of course.
I have enough TV's already thank you, lol. Vizio makes a 120 inch flat screen TV (for $120,000). Methinks I'll pass on that. Years ago I plugged a Commodore 64 into a Mitsubishi 60 inch rear projection TV. Worked of course but was so blurry playing pong was about the limit. I was a whiz at 6502 machine language for a Commodore-128. Not much use for that today. A lot of folks I talk to today doesn't know what machine language is.
I called the Alienware help line about the old one and got very little help. First of all it was long out of warranty. Second I got what can best be called BS in return. Guy kept saying you couldn't unplug an Alienware tower for more then 3 days or some little battery inside would run out of juice and the computer would effectively be dead as a door nail. I found that hard to believe. How could they ship a new one to the middle of Wyoming in the dead of winter? It would be dead before it even got there. Think the guy was just giving me the bums rush.
The hard drive may just be worn out. I'm on my computer 8 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week. Rarely less then 10. Tis all I do other then an occasional get a new cup of coffee break (and an equally occasional drain an old cup of coffee break, lol). I might toy with the idea of replacing Drive C with a 256Gb SSD if I can find one cheap enough. Hate to put much $$$ into what may just be an old and worn out machine. I have all my old Windows 7 professional disks so could re-install it. Something to think about.
To me an 8TB hard drive is a hoot. Back in my Commodore days I had two 1 Gb hard drives for Commodore computers. $999.95 each. What's a 8Tb drive today - a few hundred bucks at best? 8000 times the capacity for probably 1/4 the price.
Nah - I don't want the FedEx truck - just what's in it.
Ben
I have enough TV's already thank you, lol. Vizio makes a 120 inch flat screen TV (for $120,000). Methinks I'll pass on that. Years ago I plugged a Commodore 64 into a Mitsubishi 60 inch rear projection TV. Worked of course but was so blurry playing pong was about the limit. I was a whiz at 6502 machine language for a Commodore-128. Not much use for that today. A lot of folks I talk to today doesn't know what machine language is.
I called the Alienware help line about the old one and got very little help. First of all it was long out of warranty. Second I got what can best be called BS in return. Guy kept saying you couldn't unplug an Alienware tower for more then 3 days or some little battery inside would run out of juice and the computer would effectively be dead as a door nail. I found that hard to believe. How could they ship a new one to the middle of Wyoming in the dead of winter? It would be dead before it even got there. Think the guy was just giving me the bums rush.
The hard drive may just be worn out. I'm on my computer 8 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week. Rarely less then 10. Tis all I do other then an occasional get a new cup of coffee break (and an equally occasional drain an old cup of coffee break, lol). I might toy with the idea of replacing Drive C with a 256Gb SSD if I can find one cheap enough. Hate to put much $$$ into what may just be an old and worn out machine. I have all my old Windows 7 professional disks so could re-install it. Something to think about.
To me an 8TB hard drive is a hoot. Back in my Commodore days I had two 1 Gb hard drives for Commodore computers. $999.95 each. What's a 8Tb drive today - a few hundred bucks at best? 8000 times the capacity for probably 1/4 the price.
Nah - I don't want the FedEx truck - just what's in it.
Ben
Hi Ben
You know, it weight about 50-60 pound good buddy, so careful --- I say, let your kids help with it!
I'm the same way here, I don't spend all that much -- Happy to read your dear wife was onboard with it!
Show us a picture of it when you set it all up, including your monitor!
Thanks for sharing --- I can read from your words that you're very excited to get it -- I know the feeling waiting for the FedEx or UPS!
iSH