Curious if anyone has info/experience with the new Alienware line
I'm considering a new laptop, and want something with a decent amount of power, and the OLED screen on the new 13 is pretty tasty looking.
Does anyone have experience with the newest alienware laptops? I assume much of the experience of, for example, the 15" would transfer to the new 13". I specifically want TPM and would plan to run Arch on it.
Thanks
Posted Nov 11, 2016, 1:22 PM UTC
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According to the Arch wiki, there are a few tricky bits, but none of it looks insurmountable. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alienware_13
I'm having trouble because there have been 3 versions of the "alienware 13" so unless the documentation says "R3" on it I'm not sure what version is being referenced.
I dug around a bit more after you responded and I think the issues around the editions will be approximately the same. The problematic parts, where they exist, appear to be very similar(the wireless card might have had a revision, but it's still QCA/Ath10k, and it still uses Nvidia switchable graphics). I don't know much about the special stuff it has, VR wise, but as a laptop with a TPM it should do okay.
Thanks for the feedback, it matches what I've been able to find so far.
Just to piggyback this, the VR stuff has more to do with if the Vive or Oculus are supported than anything with the actual laptop. Plugging those in is akin to plugging in a second monitor and a few game controllers. Whether those are supported or not, I have no idea. Maybe some info on that topic in the SteamOS documentation?
Mixed messages on the vive so far, but the Arch Wiki is great. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Oculus_Rift https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Virtual_reality