Alienware M14x, M17x and M18x could be receiving 2012 refresh

The Alienware notebook lineup has been quite popular if not very well-known to the gaming crowd and has become one of Dell’s premier notebook series for gamers on-the-go. As a result, Dell has been selectively updating almost each model every year with up-to-date dedicated GPUs. New rumors are pointing to even more updates for 2012, with possible GeForce 600M and Radeon 7000M series GPUs.

The speculation comes straight from dell-lap.posterous.com, where supposed software engineer Eric G. has the inside scoop of the possible 2012 Alienware refresh. At least three models may be refreshed with new hardware this year as the M17x R4, M14x R2 and M18x R2.

Not many details are provided, but the new 17.3-inch M17x R4 is expected to have at least 3 GPU options with a Radeon 7970M, GeFroce GTX 660M or GeForce GTX 675M. The exact video card options for the M14x R2 and M18x R2 are still unknown.

The current Alienware notebook lineup includes many options such as a GeForce GT 555M, GT 540M, GTX 560M, GTX 580M and Radeon HD 6870M or Radeon HD 6990M GPUs depending on the model size. Sandy Bridge CPU cores also come standard, although it would be a pleasant surprise if Dell decides to include Ivy Bridge options as well to the supposed 2012 refresh.

With specs and hardware this high-end, we’d be surprised if the new 2012 lineup can make it to market before the end of this quarter. A Q2 2012 or even Q3 2012 launch would appear to be more reasonable. We’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled for any official announcements form Dell themselves.

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