Yes, very very very very sad.

They are selling while supplies last.

I picked up an AW 18 with 4910QM/880M SLI/32GB RAM

Are you kidding?

The Alienware 18 is being discontinued.

Who's driving the bus at Dell, that's idiotic.

Discontinuing the most powerful laptop from a product brand that is sold for gaming. :(

Not a happy camper

Looks like they are trying to replace dual GPU's with this

ALIENWARE GRAPHICS AMPLIFIER

Once connected to the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, the Alienware 17 notebook can take advantage of the raw performance generated by a single discrete desktop graphics card installed within the Graphics Amplifier.

Connect multiple external displays to the Alienware Graphics Amplifier along with your favorite peripherals like a mouse, keyboard or even an external hard drive via the four, powered, USB 3.0 ports. With a single cable connection, your Alienware 17 will be amplified into an even more powerful desktop gaming battle station.

Purchase a standalone Graphics Amplifier for use with your existing compatible desktop GPU or combine your purchase with one of the recommended Desktop GPUs below. Your Alienware Graphics Amplifier and selected graphics card will ship separately.

Are you kidding?   The Alienware 18 is being discontinued.   Who's driving the bus at Dell, that's idiotic.   Discontinuing the most powerful laptop from a product brand that is sold for gaming. :(   Not a happy camper

I know right, the Amplier's connection is 4x PCI-e which cripples cards performance. It's so terrible that NVIDIA SLI on desktops cannot even work in 4x. 

The 18 will make a comeback, or at least dual gpus will. I hope it fails.

I suspect Dell is trying to market the amps as a replacement for dual GPU's that's why they canned the 18's

As a reseller I sell the 18 inch alienware laptops as a desktop replacement. They certainly are powerful enough (2 x GPU, 4 x HDD, 3x3 MIMO WiFi) and the semi portability of the unit kills desktops.

This "alternative" is short sighted and a second rate replacement, now if you want the same power the 18's had you need to lug around TWO large items.

I'm at a lose so I'll just say - DUM.

And they have bought back the 15 inch alienware laptops, probably one of the most unreliable and problematic laptops Dell ever made (If you go from the last 15 inch they released, what a lemon)

Join the discussion.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-18-m18x/768765-rip-alienware-18-a-9.html

Keep the 18 . Alienware 17 is garbage.

so im having a issue with the discontinued 18. im having mine replaced under warrenty right now and they want mme to replace it with a 17. I feel this is a down grade to what I originally purchased. so if they include this grafics amplifier with the new 17 is it a wise descion to do so or am I better off just keeping the 18. any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

that was my first impression of the down grade also.

but however I ve had the 18 now since augest and im on my 9 th one now due to massive overheating.

but there talking about including the graphics amplifier in with the replacement.

so im torn on what to do with it

the specs on the 17 their giving me are decent but im loosing 1 video card.

so like I said im torn on the decision

9? 9 replacements or 9 repairs.

I guess I'd take the 17 then with the AMP and a 980.

it was 9 replacements over heating horribly

the 17 their going to replace with has

I7 - 4980HQ

GTX 980M

1TB+256GB SSD

32GB MEM

grafics amp

so what you think

a lower I7

2 - 880m

32gb mem

 I have 4 8 gb boards

1 256gb ssd

1tb hd

32GB memory is impossible. what are your current specs?

You will notice lower performance in likely CPU/GPU and memory.

Okay, but are they including a graphics card with that or just the amp?