Alienware M18X R1 V2 Project

Had to stop it since I got a real coding project which is sucking all my time and mind, basically at the end of the day I don't have mind for the fiberglass.

 

do with polyurethane foam, alot easier and according to mixture ratio can be had as first final total material to the very surface, very sandable and rubber-like properties. works and profits first, true.

 

I haven't seen many threads about 680M issues... at least nothing that compares to the plethora of threads about 7970M problems. But, really there is no contest here. 680M is the only good choice if you want the best overall performance and reliability. 7970M will save you a few bucks if performance and reliability is secondary to cost.

 

^^ to add, single 7970m doesnt OC anywhere close where 680m does, and not even talking about OC'ed SLI vs whatever you get lucky to squeze out of CF when OC'ed performance (if it will work well at all)

 

I was going to buy the keyboard, when the seller told me that the M17x R3 and the M18x one are the same, could anyone confirm this? Also I found two "different" keyboards:




As you can see they have a different arrows design, which one is the correct one?

 

The one on top is the old style kb, the arrow keys should look like little triangles)

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Yes, Red Line is correct. The one with the triangles instead of arrows is a newer keyboard that also appears to have the newer Windows 8 logo. (Thumbnail is really small, but it looks like it as best I can tell.) These keyboards should interchange without an issue. The M17xR3 and M18xR1 share the same keyboard part number. The M18xR2 and M17xR4 keyboard had a part number change but they should be swappable among all four models.

 

well, one here:

is the photo of M17X_R2/R1 , and I doubt these are the same connection/fitments to M17X_R3/4 thus may not work either for M18X_R1/R2. However, I have looked at new AW18 keyboard and to me it looked identical size and if connectors are the same it should fit the M18X_R1/2. Only question is the thickness of the keyboard but I feel it should be somewhat the same. Buttons of course have some different layouts for the meanings of functions on the F-Line but there's nothing that some software cant patch things

 

The M17xR3/M18xR1 share the same keyboard part number. The motherboard connections are the same. The M18xR1/R2 keyboard are exactly the same other than aesthetics on a few keys changed. I have both M18xR1/R2 keyboards. The only one I was not 100% sure of was the M17xR4 (I did not know the M17xR4 part number) but a quick Google search answered that question. The part number for the M17xR4/M18xR2 keyboard is also a shared part number, which is PW56N.

So, long story short, all 4 machines have interchangeable keyboards. Personally, I like the look of the newer keyboard better, but not enough to justify paying more money for it having a Windows 8 logo and triangles versus arrows. I would buy whichever one I could get at the best price.

Alienware M17xR4 / M18xR2 Backlit Laptop Keyboard Assembly - PW56N

I am almost positive the M17xR1/R2 keyboard will not work in any of the newer machines. I just had the M17xR2 apart last weekend for fan/heat sink cleaning, HDD and RAM upgrades. I did not set them side-by-side to compare, but based on memory the cables are also slightly different.

 

^^^ can you check and compare M18XR1/2 keyboard vs AW18 keyboard? Since you got both on hand would be very interesting to know if they are interchangeable and if it physically fits and works in m18xR1/2 ??

Thanks

 

I can already tell you that will not work. There are significant design changes. It was one of the first things I examined.

Have a look at the photos here (specifically the photo showing the underside of palm rest) and you will see what I mean... they have no similarities.

 

totally get ya now bro

 

If I turn on the system without any GPU installed, will it run? I will be able to buy the mobo with this month payment, but won't have the money for the GPU so I was hoping to be able to use it without the GPU. I'm pretty exited right now!

 

Yup you can run it off the onboard IGFX.

Cheers.

 

Then I will have it up and running at the first weeks of December

 

you'll not only be pleased it runs as great standalone computer with IGFX but it can also run most games on low-medium GFX settings in 720p-1080p range too! some games as DMC and GRID2 Ive been playing on IGFX without realizing I was not on my SLI setup, only after I was wondering system was relatively quiet and went to check NVIDIA GPUs temps, but noticed they were offline and only then I understood I was running on intel GPU

 

So even without GPU it will kick my M17 R1? lol

 

should be close to that

 

To support what's being said here... Have a look at this post regarding IGFX performance.

 

That's more than impressive!!

 

Getting the memory speed up really helps with the igfx too.

 

So I'm going to buy the last peaces RAM, HDD, SSD and, perhaps mSata. I have a few questions about last one.

I saw this RAM: Kingston HyperX Model KHX16LS9P1K2/8 Laptop Memory - Newegg.com

This SSD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

and I will be getting 2 x 1tb hdd.

The setup is going to be: SSD for OS, 2 x HDD for storage and I'm pretty sure that 8GB ram is more than enough for me.

Questions

Are those RAM good?
Can I put the 2 x 4gb ram in the slots that goes under the keyboard? (I know that the bottom ones are more accessible)
Is that a good SSD for OS? (It will be Windows 8)

Now a big help about mSata drive (I have never bought one of this). What would be a good size for the mSata? How do I set it up? Can anyone tell me any good mSata? How does it help for the system overall performance?

NOTE: I will do some, literally some, benchmarks so I don't want this system for benchmarks.

 

as mSATA goes, I suggest you use a smallest one and cheapest one you can gether and use it for your HDD RAID0 setup accelerated caching, will make your HDD's feel almost as they are as fast as SSD's IMO.

For OS 120GB minimum I suggest, recommend 250GB or more but hey, what do I know you should be fine. SSD is great for OS and such

8GB RAM would be alright for most if not everything you're about to do with the machine but I think for CL9 1600 DDR3 100$ is bit too much bro... may be wrong..?

 

What about installing the OS in the mSata and use all the HDD for storage? Something like 3*1TB HDD?

 

yea that would work, could also make 4 x 1TB and all in RAID0 (using ODD bay) but mSATA is not 6GB/s channel so you'd miss on some larger file transfers with mSATA, but that doesnt matter that much once its SSD for the main drive and not that would really concern you for regular stuff since main storage would be RAID'ed 1TB drives (3-4 units) and could expect to have pretty good speed increase raiding four of them, especially if they are all 7200rpm, because 5400rpm 1tb drives are slow

 

I was also thinking if those generic 1TB HDDs are becoming waste of money to be spent on, comparing to performance and price to one of these, and now four of those would do some serious data transfer speeds:

Seagate ST1000LM014 - LAPTOP SSHD 1TB SATA - 2.5IN HYBRID 8GB MLC SSD 9 5MM ... | eBay

 

I saw that one, then I called Seagate technology to ask info about that. They told me (I don't know how much of this is true) that those Hybrids works pretty odd. The data that you store will be there forever, so if you erase the data those B will be lost... So that's why I'm going for 3 x HDD.

In other note, if I try to install the OS in the mSata (lets say that it's 120+GB) the installation disc should show it when choosing where to install the OS right?

 

Nothing stays forever, otherwise you could quadripple the space on the same drive sacrifying just some % speed with no real feel of a loss of a performance. These are just like all other SSHD's we've seen before, 500gb 750gb etc etc. When RAIDED in RAID0 all data is stripped, ad trueCrypt simple password and your data is locked forever, the only way to get the code off is format each drive individually and even then if you attempt to scan the data for "lost data" scenario, nothing will be readable in a proper manner as all data is stripped via 3 drives or even 4. so 1 kb file is literally being stripped to 3 x ~333kb files or if 4drives to four ~260kb files and so on. Stipping gepends on the initial setup youre gonna do, I know default is 128KB striping, however you can always choose. And if you in the future wanna sell drives etc, you can use ccleaner and use 32pass erase methods, not that you really need that but after this recovery of data is impossible.

In my experience you have to not have any raid memberships created prior installation of OS if OS is not being installed on RAID system. Then once you OS is installed, you can simply and easily create your 3 or 4 HDD RAID0 from windows environment via IRST manager simple

I'd personally go with SSHD's , not only because there many times faster vs standard HDD's , there re-sale value would be alot better for what they are, even if you choose to use one of these as OS drive I bet you'd be surprised how quick they are. Just my 02 cents bro, ofc you do what you feel would work the best for you

 

Well after a lot of time and things I'm still working with this. I just ordered the mSata for the OS and 8gb of RAM. Will be buying the MOBO by the end of the month, I need this baby to be running by mid September and by November with at least 1 GPU, pretty excited .

 

I can not wait to see what comes out

 

I finally bought my MOBO! Now the waiting game... As soon as the laptop is on and running I will start with the alien logo LED mod.

 

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! I CAN'T BE MORE EXCITED!!!

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AOp_0hXfdIa0CzI&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

 

Nice job buddy! Happy times!

 

Almost done installing drivers. When updates finishes, benchmarks will come

 

Well everything went perfect. Benchmarks gave me good results for the CPU. I was playing with AlienFX, but I couldn't understand what the applications event does, could anyone explain?

I thought that the event would be called when the application was running, but I couldn't get any to work. I still have a lot to learn about this new Command Center...

 

It is supposed to either flash or change colors (however you choose to configure it) when a specified event occurs. For example, when an event such as a new email is received, you could set it to flash the AlienFX lighting, morph to a different color, etc. I have never been able to get it to work correctly on a consistent basis. I see examples where others have not been able to make it work consistently as well. It may have something to do with the software that is suppose to trigger the event rather than AlienFX, as Windows Media Player and WinAmp plug-ins work fine.

Look in this thread and see if maybe someone figured it out: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/496156-alienfx-problems-questions-thread.html

I never spent much effort on it, since I prefer my lighting to remain static at all times. I even disable third-party AlienFX access because I do not want anything changing from how I have it set.

 

Well I will start playing with the sdk then. I still can't make it work so I will make my own theme event handler program.

 

Well after playing around with the SDK I currently have a working system that changes when the selected program is focused. I'm working with the fade in/out effect and blinking effect right now. Then I will start adding my own events like CPU temp GPU temp, etc...

Preview of current version. NOTE: I tried to make it look like the stock AlienFx (at least the logic behind it).

Any suggestion?

 

This is great man. I'm going to have a good think about things you could add.

 

Here's a short video showing how its working right now. The color picker dialog will be changed to a custom one that will include the option for blinking and morph(fade).

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...025&authkey=!ALbqh6jpO2RltBI&ithint=video,mp4

 

Alienware should hire you to fix up their AlienFX app. :thumbsup:

Computer is looking great. Glad it's up and running. Now to get two 980M.

 

I thought about that, but its going to be a lot of money. I will be fine with two 780m :thumbsup:

 

You can always get two 970M which should be the same price as 780M and will be faster. :thumbsup:

 

Thought about that, but I don't feel confidence with experimenting with new hardware in my recently build machine .

News about the software. I have a full morph system with multiple themes that can be saved, opened and edited. Right now it only works with application event since I haven't worked with any other event, but I will. I only need the service to run on the background changing colors and then will upload it for some beta tests.

If anyone is interested in beta test the software let me know :thumbsup:

 

It will depend on shader/CUDA core count and vRAM bandwidth. I can tell you from experience with GPUs that can be overclocked like crazy but have low shader/CUDA core count and lower memory bandwidth, they are definitely not more powerful. Having faster CUDA cores is nice, but it does not make up for a lack of them, or a lack of bandwidth. High bandwidth is why GTX 780M SLI has no problem keeping up with a single high-end desktop GPU like 780 Ti.

 

I have been trying to use the HDMI in without any luck, I also searched and some people said to update the GPU drivers. That's what gets me to post this: Since I don't have any dedicated GPU can I still use the HDMI in? The HDMI out works perfectly but I don't even listen to the connection sound when I plug my xbox to the HDMI in.

 

You should be able to use HDMI in on intergrated graphics. I can confirm this.

 

HDMI input often does not work with aftermarket GPU upgrades. It worked fine on the M18xR1 with 580M SLI, but stopped working when I installed 680M SLI. It does not work with M18xR2 with 780M either. I have not tried it using IGFX, but if Brother TBoneSan says it works, it probably does. Not sure why it is not working using IGFX unless GPUs need to be connected to the motherboard for the circuit to complete.

Edit: try merging this with the registry and see if it works even without a discrete graphics setup... it might.

 

I will give it a try. Thanks

Edit: Tried that but i still don't get any connection, not even a connection sound. I thought about needing a GU connected to complete the circuit too. So I wont be able to test that until I buy my GPU. :\

Will try making a partition and installing different windows version. Do you know what drivers I need for it to work, OSD?

 

I am not sure if the same problem is present on the HDMI in port, but the HDMI out port is too deep and you have to trim back some of the plastic on the end or the connection does not fully engage. This is mentioned in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...sues-look-answers-ask-new-questions-here.html in case you have not already seen it.

Here is an example of how I have trimmed back the plastic tip on my HDMI cable to make it work consistently and not intermittently drop connections. You may want to give that a try. I think OSD is the only software you need to activate the switch for the HDMI in port. It probably does not require drivers because it is simply a pass-through type connection.