In regard to RAM and CPU upgrades, please note that those parts can be easily purchased in retails stores. That is not the case of mobile GPUs, hence the proposal.
In regard to very good PR this presents, think about so many Clevo/other brands users switching to Alienware simply because their laptops can be upgraded next season. Every revision could have one 'next season upgrade' if that would be technically possible, e.g. R1 released in 2011 gets its 'upgrade kit' in 2012, R2 from 2012 in 2013 and so on.
Naturally there is the question of price of such an update kit. 580M SLI costed $1200 with new laptops, so a kit would be prolly in similar price range. Nonetheless, it's subjective what is affordable in this terms and what isn't. The package may actually be more expensive than the cards as sold with a new system and people would still buy it (I would). Note that this would involve paying not only for new hardware itself, but also for things you don't have to do, what means peace of your mind and saved time. Replacing R2 with R1 means selling your R1, re-ordering R2 (this is tricky, you wan call several times before actually hitting a wise rep), waiting for weeks for it to arrive, worrying about it being in good condition, then testing, configuring everything from scratch etc etc.
And with a kit? You get new cards, you open up your R1, replace the cards (or have a Dell tech to do that for you ~ again, more money for Dell), close your R1, boot up, reinstall drivers, play. 15-30 minutes and done = your R1 is rocking 680M SLI.
Dell could offer "GPU upgrade kits" for M18xR1 (and perhaps other models, e.g. M17x)
Sat Apr 28 00:25:05 GMT 2012 - Apr 28, 2012
Posted By: DarkSkies
In regard to very good PR this presents, think about so many Clevo/other brands users switching to Alienware simply because their laptops can be upgraded next season. Every revision could have one 'next season upgrade' if that would be technically possible, e.g. R1 released in 2011 gets its 'upgrade kit' in 2012, R2 from 2012 in 2013 and so on.
Naturally there is the question of price of such an update kit. 580M SLI costed $1200 with new laptops, so a kit would be prolly in similar price range. Nonetheless, it's subjective what is affordable in this terms and what isn't. The package may actually be more expensive than the cards as sold with a new system and people would still buy it (I would). Note that this would involve paying not only for new hardware itself, but also for things you don't have to do, what means peace of your mind and saved time. Replacing R2 with R1 means selling your R1, re-ordering R2 (this is tricky, you wan call several times before actually hitting a wise rep), waiting for weeks for it to arrive, worrying about it being in good condition, then testing, configuring everything from scratch etc etc.
And with a kit? You get new cards, you open up your R1, replace the cards (or have a Dell tech to do that for you ~ again, more money for Dell), close your R1, boot up, reinstall drivers, play. 15-30 minutes and done = your R1 is rocking 680M SLI.