M18x Makes Landfall! Pictures, Videos, Unboxing Thoughts, etc. Share away!

Laith- Here is a link to the Jordanian page from the Dell country dropdown list. Indeed your country is listed, when ordering you will be for ordering for the "Middle East".
Dell homepage - Computers, notebook PCs, printers, servers, and more | Dell Middle East
Also here is info on Jordanian support:

Jordan|الأردن
1 8800 0000 / 8885785446
Monday - Friday
9AM to 5PM Local Time

And a link to international support:
Dell - International Laptop Warranty Contact Information

Also, Micheal at TechInferno has some good info posted here.
How to order from Alienware US for non US citizens
Good Luck

 

Thank you so much for the info
but M18x isn't available at middle east website ....

+rep

 

There are no 'stupid' questions pal, there can be only stupid answers

When you buy, as I always did, the full 4 years advanced complete care on-site NBD warranty, then you call them to transfer the warranty you buy to the international level since you travel a lot, etc. (unless you live in Iran, North Korea or alike).

It's simple as that. Personally I never have had problems with Dells warranty services (besides some long free-call phone chats!

BTW: Eat a good humus with falafel and tehina in pita in my name and cheers for your new acquisition!

 

So i should choose the advanced warranty
Thanks very much for being helpful...

Ps: it seems you have tried humus with
falafel and tehina before ?

 

...and also lamb with tehina on the oven

Here you have a link with useful info regarding the international warranty (and also the phones in Jordan)...
http://support.dell.com/support/top...dellcare/international_travel?c=us&l=en&s=gen
Hope it can help.

 

Of course it can help
Thanks alot

Ps:i've never heard of a lamb with tihina in the oven ?! Where did you eat it ?

 

Somewere in the middle east, I can't reveal But believe me it can be enough a reason for any alien (with or without an M18x) come to mother earth...

 

IT IS HERE!!!!! it sucks that I had a 12hour day so when i got home I fell asleep........... SMH but not before I copied all my files from my external so I guess I was multi napping......................

its sad IDK how to upload an image............. SMH

 

wow.......fail

 

Off topic but Patch 1.8 is available for Crysis 2.

- Patch 1.8 features added Advanced Graphics Options


Crysis_2_final_1.8n_Patch.exe

 

Well, before I send this mothership back - I figured I would take some pictures of the system.

​

 

I have one and still like seeing pictures of it haha

 

Yea me too, and to be honest i love the red but the more and more i see gunmetal i think about re ordering and am seriously considering it, at my time of order i was expecting a space black r2 look or the red so i went with red however after the first black ones started showing up some of those gunmetal pics made my jaw drop so i may order another one.

 

Finally some takedown shots. Rep+1

 

What happend?Why are you returning?

 

What happend?Why are you returning?

 

Is someone going to be @ E3?

 

I imagine Charles would be there and others maybe from NBR.....they will probably report back here with any breaking news......

 

My red went back because of a bad keyboard and other problems. Waiting for E3 to reorder. Thinking about black this time and HD?

 

Do we have (anywhere) any stats on how many systems are going back for technical, assambly, etc. reasons?

 

Not many. There's a small group of people on the forums that are aware of the upcoming GPU refresh and a couple of unlucky ones with loads of issues with their systems. The overwhelming majority of customers are very happy. From the moment the M18x was announced we (Fortnax) have sold ~50 units and had zero returns so far. I'm sure Dell has similar statistics.

Personally, I consider myself a very picky customer but I honestly can't find any serious CON's to abandon the mothership.

 

Thanks Aiki! That's some reference. But, still, if I may, would be interesting if we can have some stats...

I have seen in this forum, in T|I and others that people are, in general, more or less satisfied, but many of the (I don't know how many) have a diversity of 'complains'... ( even if not all of those are returning their systems).

 

At the same time I would imagine forums like this are generally a small percentage of the alienware consumer population. As we all know you never really hear from the people who are elated with their purchase, mainly because they are too busy with it. All forums on the internet are usually filled with the people who have complaints/problems with whatever they purchased.

 

You're right! That's why I'm so interested in those stats...

 

Its always good to hear people moan and complain about small things! - I do it regularly lol - seriously though,....it lets everyone know of the problems (or potential issues) that people DO experience with these systems. I noticed that some people on here dont even know they have problems because they are oblivious to the fact they exist. Its only people bringing them up that helps them get remedied.

No matter how big or small, I say its all welcomed. On the whole, Im happy with Alienware, but there are niggles that drive me nuts. If I sat and said nothing, they would never get adressed. Im the kinda guy that will speak out about anything thats bothering me, especially when ive lashed out a few grand. I think that paying so much gives us the right to voice our concerns.

I guess you could argue the fact that small things dont affect the overall performance etc etc etc.....but when you think about it, these are top flight systems. If anything bothers you or if you think anything isnt right, its best to speak up about it.....'cos its for sure that if YOU dont, no one else is gonna do it for you, right?

 

Very true Stevie. I don't remember my desktop having the little quirks this thing does but it seems most are associated with the dual-gpus. It's my first dual gpu system so Im clueless on all of this! lol I have to play Empire Total War in windowed mode or itll screw up. Textures will flash, screen tearing, etc in full screen. Windowed it works fine. So weird.

 

Hey there buddy,

Congrats on the new system!

Playing in window mode essentially is not utilising the dual GPUs. So that is why you are not experiencing the issues. There are some weird bugs in certain games when using dual GPU systems.

It would be pretty awesome perhaps if we could get a similar variant of GPU like the desktops. You know the ones where they bung together like 2 GPUs on the same board and call it a single GPU however essentially it is just 2 GPUs mating together LOL!
Then we can SLi and Crossfire them ey and essentially have 4 GPUs LOL!

Eliphion try changing around settings in the AMD CCC control panel.
Catalyst AI is one setting where you can change from Standard to Advance or turn it off completely. When you turn it off completely that essentially does the same thing as when you are playing the game in window mode. It means you are not utilising your dual GPUs.

Give it a go for now if you like until you can fix up the driver issues which are causing incompatibility with your total war empires game.

Cheers.

 

Thanks reborn but its a driver issue with the game itself. It's well known with any crossfire setup after 10.5 drivers. No clue why they won't just fix it but oh well. So if playing in window mode is only utilizing one gpu well dang I love these 6970s! lol It plays it relatively smooth on high settings! Hopefully theyll fix the issue sometime in the future...

 

Cool Cool! Enjoy the new system and gaming Eliphion.

If you ever do want to try full screen again you can try and disable Catalyst AI in the CCC AMD GPU control panel. That should also make the game run as it if you were running it on one GPU or in window mode.

Cheers.

 

Here are some pics of the inside of the system/various bits that I took while I was stripping things down to re-paste, re-mount, etc.

 

More than right! I totally agree with you! One of the 'things' that bother me is the quality of the screen... the lack of configuration choices... etc. etc. etc.
But for Dellienware it's seems that those 'niggles' and our facts about them are for them (as Hamlet would say) "words, words, words..."

 

I'm very happy with my M18x. The only problem I see is a small section where the keys obviously touch the display panel when folded, because any oil left on the keys (from touching them) are transfered to the screen. Not a big deal, but it's a bit annoying, and calls attention to the one section where the keyboard isn't vertically aligned quite right. Also, my touchpad doesn't automatically disable itself with my bluetooth mouse like my M17x did, but that's a minor gripe, since I can turn it off manually.

As a previous owner of a M17x-R1, I can tell you that the M18x doesn't have anywhere NEAR the early-adoption problems that its predecessor had. The M17x-R1 had serious issues until well after the R2 came out. I've heard of very few serious issues with the M18x, and most of those are due to build quality, which doesn't affect every machine. I think the only "across the board" problems I've heard about have to do with the ATI cards (mainly driver or Xfire related), and since I have the nVidia version, I'm not affected, so that may have something to do with it.

 

I have the same issue with the screen touching the keyboard. I just put a micro-fibre between the keys when I close it at night.

 

Same here. I think it's totally ok for the keys to touch the glass cover. Using micro-fibre is a good way to avoid the oily prints on the screen.

 

My KB doesn't touch my screen at all luckily. At least I haven't noticed it.

 

They should have kept the rubber stoppers, it's not like they looked bad.

 

I have noticed I have one long rubber stopper running the length of my display on both sides of the laptop. It is curved and protrudes the most about the middle of the display. Are people missing these?

 

no it just doesn't work that well lol

 

mmm ive had mine for a week now and its frikin awesome!!

and the screen is great! i love that too. no complaints here

 

I also agree. I find the screen to be "alright". Certainly disappointing for Alienware's flagship laptop.

 

Any news from Alienware at the E3? Charles? Brian? anyone?

 

Considering what just came out in May I highly doubt anything big is coming out a month later.

 

It has landed

Here are my initial impressions:


Outside Build Quality:

When closed the m18x is very solid, there is no flex and no creeks. Opening the display, you can feel the quality of the hinges. Again there isn't any detectable flex while opening the display. There is some slight flex when applying good pressure to the palm rest areas right above the two speaker intake grills; very minor.

The under side has several rubber feet and fixtures, and the main body is slightly raised by the bottom cover and these feet to allow for ample breathing room for the 3 fans. The rubber grip on the back bottom of the display feels good and aids in carrying this beast. The power hole securely holds the massive power plug. (my previous m17x r3 had some play room).

The keyboard does have some give to it, not much at all on the wasd key area, but several millimeters in the center ghj key area. That said it feels fine while typing. I think the keyboard play is about the same as on the m17x r3. The area surrounding the keyboard has the same rubber type materiel as the m17x r3. It feels very comfortable and pleasant to the touch. The touch-pad feels and tracks great. The two buttons have some minor play room.

Overall I think the outside design works well and looks good. The color is gun metal as many have pointed out.


Display

I have not noticed any banding and the display is crisp and colors seem vibrant. My comparison is a old Dell 2405PW (my main display) and a newer LG E2360. It looks much better then both of these, and maybe one of the best displays I've used. I've never used an RGB display.

I've found no dead pixels, but it appears there is one off color gray pixel in the left quadrant. I've also found a color anomaly on that same left quadrant. It looks like a little cloud of light bleed though (the size of a small lady bug), and it is only visible on white or very light backgrounds. I attempted to take some photo's of it.


Acoustics & Fans

The m18x is quiet when web browsing and does get very warm on the bottom back where the air exhaust are at, defiantly not hot; this is running on the ATI CFX cards. I have not ran it yet on the IGP. I also have not fired up any games to ramp up the fan speeds.


Audio & Speakers

I listened to some of my favorite songs with volume up to 75%. The speakers where clear, there was no crackle. The bass did sound slightly hollow, but there was good reverb even though the m18x was positioned on top of the carton box it came in. It seems load enough and very clear, most of the time I'll be using a headset when gaming however.


Weight

This monster is heavy. I was able to easily manipulate the m17 r3 one handed. This one requires both to safely handle it. Additionally it fits well into the Orion m17 laptop backpack. The backpack straps seem to be able to cope with the weight.


Power

The power brick is fairly heavy, but is also flatter, so it fits in the bag well. The AC power cord is a thick 15 amp / 125 volt rated cord. Together these add substantial weight to the backpack.


Dell Factory Software Load

There is really no preloaded junk. Although I will uninstall the Alienware backup software and Roxio software. Once booted there were 80 processes running.

As many people have expressed, Dell seems to be incompetent as to setting up a RAID 0. I ordered 2 x 750 gig drives, and while they were set to RAID in the BIOS (not AHCI), they were not Striped in the Intel Ctrl-I RAID utility. To resolve this, I made an Acronis disk backup and restored to the RAID 0 array after setting it up correctly with the Ctrl-I utility. Took about 35 minutes to do the image to and from, so it was a very minor issue.


Final Impression

Other then the display issue, (which so far has not bothered me, as I can't spot the gray pixel easily nor the white spot unless on a white background), I'm fairly happy with the system. If the display does bother me I'll take advantage of the CC warranty and ask for a replacement. Which I don't think they would object to.

I'll have some pictures up shortly. Let me know if there is anything specific you want me to test or check (other then taking the keyboard off or the GPUs / FANS off ).

 

Nice review! - the only thing I would say is that if you arent happy with the pixel situation, personally, I would be looking at a whole replacement system rather than a tech visit and a replacement screen......your probably within a return period. Just sayin'.......

 

Here's a quick video and some pics:

http://youtu.be/Sv_QzW1wpFQ?hd=1





























I couldn't get the white spot in a still picture, and you can only barely make it out in the video when I pause over that section of the display... so I don't think it's a big deal, you probably won't even see it.

 

Great pics man, thanks.

+1

 

wow those pics are amazing and make me extremely happy LOL

 

Congrats man !!!!!!!!!
your pics and video was professionally taken , they are outstandingly great!!!!!

Cute cat , she/he looks nice
+Rep and enjoy it man

 

Pics should be no larger than 500x500. If larger you should link thumbnails per forum rules.

Other than that pics look great.

 

Great pics, I love cats too