Alienware's CRAZY upgradeable laptop #Helpful Post

his video from CES is brought to you by

D brand their prism screen protectors

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pretty much all there is to it check

them out at the link in the video

description so let me put it this way

this is the Alienware

area 51 m and in the words of our

Alienware rep which if he wasn't such a

nice guy who's very credible i would

find very hard to believe

yes linus it has a full in core i 999

hundred k processor in and I went really

because everything that I know about

size and heat and how much you need to

get rid of how much of it a ninety nine

hundred K would produce would indicate

that that sort of thing would be

basically impossible and that's even

ignoring the rest of the completely

over-the-top specs of this thing so it's

can be equipped with up to a an RT X xx

atti graphics card with six gigs of Gd

dr six memory that's GD r six right yes

it's got what I'm assuming dual nvme

boot drives in raid 0 do you have a two

and a half inch expansion driving here

surely not that's two and a half inch

drive in here okay it's it's cut at

1080p 144 Hertz panel which might not be

that impressive today but it's thin

bezel and there's a plan for later this

year to upgrade it to 240 Hertz and

they've done all of this within like I

would say a fairly slim desktop

replacement form factor but it gets even

crazier because while desktop

replacements are kind of a replacement

for the performance of a desktop they

have never been a replacement for the

upgrade ability of a desktop and that is

where they really surprised me they're

actually gonna allow me to open this so

I need my toolkit where to go got it

and they're gonna let us crack it open

to see how they have achieved

upgradeable graphics on this machine

actually we're gonna move over here

so a couple things jump out at us right

away that's a 90 watt hour battery so in

spite of the size we are still getting

right up against the limit to what you

are allowed to put in a laptop in order

for it to be able to be carried on an

airplane there's that two and a half

inch drive bay that we talked about

before they somehow managed to put four

dimm slots on the bloody thing even

though with 32 gig dims up coming that's

not even entirely necessary we've got em

got 2 expansion slot right here number

one and then I don't see number two

here's an MDOT 2.5 something label I

don't know what that's to do with but I

guess we'll find the other one a little

bit later and we've got cooling fans I

think we're gonna have to go deeper so

Dell says I actually won't need help

with that because they've provided a

handy-dandy little key here for all the

screws that I need in order to remove

this what what is this called again

ok the ribcage ok cool so we need 14 L

eights here we go one do okay so now

we're pulling off this back shroud here

that covers up the rear i/o as well as

these incredibly beefy looking heat

sinks so you can see they've got support

for their external graphics not that

there's anything much more powerful than

what's already in here external display

Ethernet dual power inputs because hey

that's the thing let's go ahead and

remove some more screws get that rib

cage off so we're just connecting the

battery now this is an important first

step so we just pulled this appears to

be what the display output for the

built-in display I don't know I'm kind

of guessing at this point but we're

actually getting very close to being

able to get a better look at where we're

going with this here

okay so these Wi-Fi antennas do I need

to pop these off it looks like I might

be able to hold on a second hmm this one

no this one's got to go shoot harddrive

okay this one we're good that's when I'm

getting caught but it's on with this I

think we're good on that this guy's

gotta go webcam oh we're getting close I

can feel it

oh this hard drive cable management

actually has to come out there we go

whoa these Wi-Fi antennas we may end up

needing to remove those but not a

hundred percent sure yet I think that's

all that's holding us in right now yep

okay well there goes the cable

management for that sorry guys if it

helps at all I feel really really bad no

I don't that was a lie there's lies

damned lies and then there's what I just

said then there it is so this right here

thank you so this right here is the

secret sauce so here is and this is not

a standard desktop socket did you guys

create this socket standard this is a

standard socket under here it looks so

low-profile you're sure right no yeah

the the LGA standard yes but this

retention mechanism this is not standard

it's a veritable bounty of exciting tech

things so first of all I don't know what

I was expecting

well I do know what I was expecting

because we've seen desktop processors in

laptops before and typically they have

just used the same mounting mechanism as

desktop motherboards because it's a lot

of work to engineer your own and Dell

actually the folks that I'm talking to

here don't actually know if they made

their own mounting mechanism but I can

tell you right now that that is not a

standard one and

so that would lead me to believe that it

is entirely possible that they have

actually created their their own hold

down for it here now the LGA itself so

that's the little socket that the CPU

sits into that is standard so

theoretically there is nothing that

would prevent someone from buying a

lower-end processor out of the gate and

then actually upgrading it down the road

a service that Dell plans to provide

either themselves like you'll have to

pay extra obviously but where they come

to your house and install it for you or

as a kit that you can actually do by

yourself this is a really different way

of thinking about laptops you're coming

out baby yeah you are you want to yeah I

got it all right here we go

I was totally wrong so it's just this

arm that's been changed I guess they

just wanted to save a little bit space

here so how does a standard desktop

socket and check this out so all these

thermal pads around here those are for

the vrm because as you can imagine

cramming the right kind of power

delivery for this is a like intel has 95

watt processors and then they have 95

watt processors cramming the kind of

power delivery you need for a proper

desktop cpu into something like this is

not trivial and of course you're gonna

need all of that cooled by the same heat

pipes beefy fans and beefy heat sinks

that you have for the CPU itself but

this this right here is the proverbial

money shot because I think that most

people over the next few years are not

really gonna need to upgrade a core I

nine ninety nine hundred K for gaming

but the graphics cards those keep moving

and that's where you're gonna see you

know a 30% or 40% uplift and performance

generation over generation that is as

long as Nvidia has their way and this is

the piece that Dell says they would like

obviously bad stuff can happen the spec

could change to such a degree that it's

impossible but that they would like to

be user upgradeable in the future now if

you're familiar with milk book graphics

you will already know that this is not

and mxm module so that was the previous

standard for upgradeable or modular

graphics and laptops but Nvidia in their

infinite wisdom is trying to kill it or

not trying to kill it they have killed

it so Dell actually leaned on the

engineering prowess of their precision

team to just go well if you're not going

to support the standard then damn it I

guess we'll do it ourselves so the idea

here is that you could remove this with

a couple of screws and not only you

remove this right here and not only

would you be able to change the

performance you could even change the

outputs on this thing so you could

support future display standards like

HDMI 2.1 for example pretty flippin cool

now all that's left is to leave you guys

to put this back together because I've

got another appointment thank you guys

and also to tell you guys about our

sponsor D brands B brand is sponsoring

our trip here to CES 2019 their grip

cases as you can imagine it very grippy

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realistically they wouldn't let me

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the other big thing this year is their

prism screen protectors they've got an

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you got a perfect fit every time and the

impact resistance of this thing is quite

frankly it's you have to see it to

believe it you put this thing on you

hammer a nail into a piece of wood with

the face of your phone you take off the

prism you've got a dented ass prism but

you've got a pristine screen it's pretty

much unreal you can check them both out

at the link in the video description so

thanks for watching guys we are on our

way to the next suite here at CES 2019

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