New Alienware 17, no optical drive?

The online configurator never mentions an optical disk drive. The sales site states, "No OS Recovery Disc Included". Those now go out as a bootable USB key.

...   I am a little perplexed though with the decision to not support an optical drive.   While the machine is billed as a gaming computer, and Steam is included with the initial install, you must realize that CD/DVDs are ubiquitous as a software delivery mechanism and an absolute requirement for anyone doing any serious computing.   I have licensed software for engineering packages that are delivered on DVD.  It is a bit of a slap to the face to have to go out and purchase an additional piece of hardware, that I will now have to lug around with me, after spending a premium to get a top-of-the-line laptop.   While I did not see an optical drive in the feature-set, I did assume it would be present as even the very low-end laptops feature this capability.   Had I known in advance that there was no optical drive capability, it would have weighed heavily in my purchasing decision.   ...

I'm with Dell on this one. They definitely got this right.

IMHO you are out of line, blaming Dell for an error made on your part. I'm happy to rag on Dell when they make mistakes, but that isn't the case here. It is pretty clear that an optical drive is not included, which anyone following market trends would have been aware of. Even their Precision workstations no longer include an optical drive.

While obviously, YMMV, the absence of an optical drive was one of the factors that weighed in the 17r3's favour. I neither want to pay for, nor lug around something that, like many people, I will never use. Full credit to Dell for excluding it.

Optical drives are almost obsolete; I have a USB connected drive for this system, and guess what? I never use it.

I also note with interest, the lack of a floppy drive, a modem port, and any serial or parallel or PS/2 port (all once an absolute requirement for serious computing).

But look at what we have now - USB 3, USB C Thunderbolt, M.2, we really have never had it so good. Dell have just released a Thunderbolt dock, which hopefully will work with the Alienware laptops.

There are a lot of issues (that I really wish Dell would address), with what basically, appears to be excellent hardware; lack of an optical drive is not one of them.

Pretty good work from Dell, from my perspective. I'd just like them to know that.

All most game cds/DVDs do now is install steam anyway. Plus they clearly mark no optical drive on the order site. 

This ones on you. 

I have to confess that I didn't note the ABSENCE of anything on the site about the optical drive.  Since I DO have to regularly burn CDs for clients, it would have been nice to have it be stated that there wasn't one, but it's just ordered an inexpensive USB burner. 

I believe Dell could have made it more obvious that there's no optical drive so "normal" people would be aware, but I'm not sure a lot of "normal" people are out there buying Alienware laptops, so it's most likely not a huge problem.

I've found this to be nothing more than a minor annoyance; however, Dell could certainly have made this absolutely clear by merely stating in bold clear language, "The Alienware 17R3 does NOT include an optical drive."  Saying  that "No OS Recovery Disc included" does in no way cover that.  It is simply illogical to suggest that the latter implies the former.  In fact, the XBox controller that accompanied my laptop did come with an installation disc.  D'oh!

OK, now that you've said that, I"m laughing.  I forgot that - my controller ALSO came with a CD for installling on the laptop that doesn't have an optical drive for reading the CD. 

But, then, as was said earlier in this topic "nobody NEEDS an optical drive any more..."

Dell can at least state "NO OPTICAL DRIVE" as discs are still in use so users can decide how to watch all their movies or listen to their cds.

We are not going to add a "NO OPTICAL DRIVE" notation on the sales site. It is clear from the specifications and pictures that an optical disk drive slot is not there.

On the sales site, all can see from the initial leftside and rightside pictures that there is not an optical disk drive slot =

When you click "Customize & Buy", it also presents a picture showing no optical disk drive slot =