M18xR2 Pre-Order Configuration Questions... Ask HERE

I responded in the other thread

 

Thankyou Mr. Fox. Heck.. you sure know your stuff don't you! - once again you've been such a great help. :thumbsup:

 

Ready to pull the trigger:

3720QM, 7970MCF, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, BlueRay (the rest will upgrade on my own down the road).

2,417$ before taxes. Not sure about the price, but that's the best I was able to get so far.

 

wow nice very cheap. is it new?? where did you get it from??
and gratz

 

That's directly from Dell Canada, through my rep. I got another offer from a business channel - 2,352$ but the problem is they don't offer 12 months no interest and I'm not willing to pay the whole amount in one blow...

 

Aiki, did you try the us/Canada Sales thread?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/669327-alienware-sales-assistance-thread-redux.html

 

Thanks for the link, Bro! I've just emailed the Canadian rep, will see if he can help.

 

Nice system Aiki!

Welcome back to the m18x.

 

No probs. Let's hope they can reduce it some more for you

 

I never truly left, lol. We still have a M18xr1 in the house

 

What's the difference between the
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7970M - CrossFireX Enabled
and the
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce (R) GTX 680M

since they are both the same price in the M18x configurer?
The point of reference for me is that I don't do much gaming, but I do a lot of CGI work: Modeling (3DS Max Design 2013), Rendering Maxwell Render), some animation (Max again) and a lot of graphics (Adobe Master Suite) and sound (SonarX1). I realize sound isn't really relevant here, but just giving some context.

 

The Dual 7970m is two AMD 7970m cards with crossfire enabled. This allows the two cards to work together to make games faster. For the stuff you're doing, it shouldnt make any difference.

The 680m option is the nVidia 680m card, but only a single one. A single 680m is faster than a single 7970, but two 7970's are faster than one 680m. Two 680m's are the fastest setup. For what you are doing you may be better served by a m17x, as you won't really be taking advantage of 2 cards with those apps, and that is kind of the whole point of the m18x. If you are looking for something even more pro-oriented check out the Precision M6700.

 

Thanks for this info. In a way I'm not so much pre-ordering as re-ordering. I had a M18x R1 which was essentially a lemon. It was replacing a M17x which I've had for 3 years and very happy with it. Since the first M18x R1 was declared a lemon, I'm finally geting my replacement, but since my original configuration wasn't the available, I had to take comparable or better if there wasn't a 1:1 comparison/compatability. So in this case I think your advice for the 680 is good solid advice.

BTW: I did a comparison with the Precision M6700. If I got all of the same components (processor, SW, RAM, SSD, etc), it would cost about $700+ more and with the 17 inch screen. Additionally, two of the features of the MX18 (and 17) which I wasn't sure were on the Precision M6700 were the backlit keyboard which is essential for me since I often need to work in a darkened room. The other is the standard numeric keypad on the right makes the numeric aspect of my work so much more efficient. Since I never work literally 'on my lap' the weight and heat are not an issue for me.

Thanks again for a really useful response!

 

Can someone please explain the differences between i7-3920xm 3.8ghz and 4.1ghz...? Same price but I'm ignorant ... I'm assuming that the 4.1 ghz overclocked is already overclocked and 3.8ghz is stock? What does this mean for both longevity and performance?

 

The 4.1 is the factory overclock, surprised it's showing the same price. Longevity shouldn't be an issue provided your cooling system maintains good temps. On another note, you can use the BIOS to do your own overclocking and maybe have a bit more confidence in what you're working with. Either way you can make the changes in your BIOS no matter what box you check.

 

Thanks man...if that's the case tho why would anyone opt for 3.8 over 4.1?

 

The main reason I can think of is that Dell charges $250 for the factory overclocked version in the USA. Their pricing obviously varies from market to market, though. I believe on the UK website it is a free upgrade. I'm not sure what their pricing strategy is there, really. Anyway, if it costs more, why pay more to have Dell do something you can do yourself?

 

My next laptop will be used for gaming only. So my question is, besides storage space, are there any other cons from going with a SSD only system? Thanks.

 

Frank, there are no disadvantages to an SSD-only system other than storage space. If you can live with selling the soul of your first-born child for a couple of 512GB SSD in RAID0, even that is not much of an issue.

 

How about the soul of my second born? I can actually play games with my first born and I like him better. JK. Anyways, thanks for the response!

 

To Joce21, I'm having the same problems in the bios that you were. Did you ever get it sorted out?

 

I ordered my M18x R2 on Thur. Expecting it 1st week in October. Can't wait! It's coming with the 500gb hd but I purchased a Vertex 4 256gb. I would purchase another Vertex 4 but don't know how to configure a Raid 0 array.maybe someone could help me with that.

 

Guys, anyone of you getting only Radeon on the config of M18X R2. I am trying to go with a dual gtx 680M. But it is not available anywhere, none in the Canadian nor the US site...

DO I have to order by phone to get it? I would rather not go with AMD because I always seem to get the lemons when I buy from that company...

 

I just checked alienware and I can see the option for the 68m SLI same price $1,100. I'm in the US.

 

Hello all you M18x geecks, can I join your club?

I have been looking around for a year or so at the 18 inch models out there and I keep ending up at the M18x
I am a heavy gamer and always a bit disapointed when I install a game and can't play it on the highest settings. Am I crazy for thinking this way? Do I always need it at the top? Or was I spoiled by playing WOW for 5 years with settings maxed and now that I retired and moved on to other games I am shocked I can't do the same?

Having a budget and blowing that budget is pretty easy when trying to use the M18x configuator, ''OMG my wallet shouts as it runs and hides!!''

I listed the specs to my current system below to show you what I would be upgrading from...

I have read in a couple different places from a couple people who stated they would be happy with certain hardware but said they could upgrade later on. I thought laptops were made so you couldn't upgrade the parts as they were imbedded into the motherboard per-say cpu or graphics chips, or are the Alienware designed different than the HP's I'm used to?

I have a question regarding memory. When buying a gaming system, how much memory is too much and what is too little?
I think the i7-3820QM should be fine but do want to go the dual graphics just not sure which.

As far as the hardrives, I currently am using a Crucial 512GB SSD CT512M4SSD2 that got onsale that is awesome so how should I configure the hardrives on the confuguator thingy so I can use this?

Ok I think that is all my questions so far...

Current system....
HP Pavilion dv8t Entertainment PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 1TB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (500GB x 2) with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M
• 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Espresso Black)
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter 2010
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

No such thing as too much memory I would say get at least 8GB and would suggest 16GB. You can play games at max settings with one of these machines. Avoid the GTX 675, as it is a bad value for money. GO with dual 7970m's for the best bang/buck and the 680m's are a bit better but a lot more expensive.

 

Welcome to the club, prospectively, of course and to NBR!

For starters, you are making the best choice with the M18x when it comes to laptops of that size....they are simply awesome beasts and IMHO, completely unbeatable.

Alienware systems are designed so that they can be "user upgradeable" in various departments such as cpu, gpu, ram and hdd. Coming from the HP to virtually any spec M18x is gonna be a huge jump in performance - you will be going from a class 3 gpu to a class 1 gpu regardless of which you choose and the performance difference when it comes to gaming will be quite simply leagues apart. If your wallet stops screaming at the thought of blowing a few thousand on a machine, the best choice for gpu right now would have to be 680m Sli.....if the wallet doesn't like the thought of opening THAT wide, 7970m crossfire would be your best bet as mentioned before.

For memory, 4gb is adequate for gaming and general stuff....more is obviously better, but you can buy that yourself "aftermarket" much cheaper and install it yourself quite easily. For HDD, as you have a nice big SSD, you could order with the base level HDD and when the machine lands, install the OS to the SSD and use the Dell issue HDD for additional storage should you need to. It's quite a simple process to perform a clean install to a new drive and I am sure you would be up to the task. Bear in mind that IF you go for more than 16gb ram, you would need Windows 7 Pro or above to utilise it - Win 7 HP doesnt not allow use of more than 16gigs.

For cpu, if you plan on using for mainly gaming and general use, I would skip over the 3820 and stick with the 3720 as you can overclock that up to +400mhz more anyways.

With the cash saved by avoiding upgrading the HDD/Ram/Cpu at the outset, I would throw that towards a nice long extended warranty as these high end parts arent cheap to replace outside of warranty.....Dell warranty is second to none in this respect. I would advise ANYONE to get as much warranty as humanly possible from the get go.

 

Hey all :hi2:,

Brand new to the NBR forums, though I have been a lurker here for most of this year.

I am a recent EE grad living in New Zealand but will be moving to the States soon for work/internship. Sadly for me this means leaving behind my current rig: i7-920, 8gb CL8 Dominators, P6T Deluxe, GTX 580 SLI, FT02-R. I have decided as a present to myself to get a m18x (the P370EM just doesn't look very nice at all) after a few months of research (well mainly just browsing NBR, notebookcheck, and reddit).

So lets get down to it, the key specs I want are:

• i7-3820QM
• Dual SLI 680m's (or crossfire 7970m's if they fix driver issues before I decide to purchase)
• Possibly the Blu-ray drive (although if its cheaper to add it on later then I might go that route)

Everything else I'm looking to leave stock (RAM, HDD's can all be easily replaced by the looks of things). I do however have a few quick questions:

1) Regarding the wireless options, is it worth getting the Killer 1103 upgrade over stock wireless? I'm used to playing on 40-80ms pings in BF3 and I do fairly well (rarely ever notice lag/rubber banding). Does the Killer offer better bandwidth (assuming you not limited by router/isp) than the stock Intel unit?

2)Purchasing, I've seen quite a few people ask about buying through a reseller like xoticPC (I myself am quite interested) but people have said that it generally isn't a good idea (mainly in regards to the warranty transfer/duration). Others have also said that Dell often allows haggling on systems, but it still seems that the lack of sales tax from sites like xoticPC makes the end price seem quite a bit lower. Any thoughts on resellers?

3)I'm a mid-level audio enthusiast (I don't really like to think of myself as an audiophile) delving primarily into headphones. What exactly is the Soundblaster compatible 3D audio? Is it a Creative sound card/dac (better than generic onboard)?

Thanks for reading through my post and I hope to be an active member of this community.

Cheers.

 

Hey thanks for the replies,

I think the best option is the i7-3720QM, dual GTX 680M-SLI with standard HDD and 6gb ram and extended 3yr warrenty which puts price at 3618 before any sales or promo's added at the end or selling my right arm. I want to get price to 2500 if possible.

Question I have regarding upgrading the memory after the fact. How many dimm slots are on this beast and what are my options to get it to 24gb buying from amazon or other?

I will be ordering this once windows 8 is out here next month so I'm planning ahead. Cloning it to my SSD is about a 5 minute process.

Also is the blu ray rom worth an extra 100? would love to record movies off my HR34 directv receiver

 

Quick question for M18x owners here.

Thinking about one, former M17x-R1 owner. How's the graphics switching? With my R1, if I started it unplugged on battery, I'd have to reboot to switch to dedicated graphics. Is it the same this time round?

Oh, also, how's the audio of the M18x? I can't find details online. The documentation list the speakers as 8-ohms, 5W per channel, though nothing on the sub, which makes me think it was a copypasta job from the M17x-R4 specs. I've used an XPS 17 and an Inspiron 17R SE if anyone else can compare.

 

See answers below...

 

There are 4 sodimm slots on the 18x, 2 located under the keyboard (simple enough teardown to get to) and 2 located just under the bottom access cover (4 screws and she's ready for install). If you are wanting 24gb exactly, I think your best bet would be to get x2 8gb modules and install under the KB and then x1 8gb "kit" which is x2 4gb modules and install in the "easy to get at" slots just under the bottom access cover. It's advisable to NOT mix and match memory for maximum stability - I'd buy all new, same brand etc and stash the Dell factory issue modules away should you need to send the machine away for repair or whatever...fingers crossed, that won't happen but if it did, your aftermarket ram might not get returned to you......heard that sort of thing "happen" in the past from depot repairs.

Like I mentioned earlier though, if your Operating System is gonna be HP, max supported ram is only 16gb. You would need pro or Ultimate to run more. Not sure what memory config's are supported by Win 8....might be worth a google to find out to save buying more than you can actually utilize....I think Win 8 Pro would support that amount but not sure about basic Win 8 - I think that is the same as Win 7 HP.

Personally, I think the upgrade for the BDr drive is well worth it. Playing movie/tv content at 1080p/24fps is much more enjoyable...it would probably cost more to upgrade the drive afterwards and it would also add a bit to the resale value/appeal of your machine should you choose to sell it in the future....a Blu Ray drive is more appealing than the normal drive....just a shame Dell canned the Blu Ray Rewriter drive....

 

It certainly is a shame. I still have my Panasonic BD-RE UJ235A (carried forward from the M17x R2) and it is awesome. I don't understand why they stopped offering it. It appears to still be in production. Sony also has some nice slot-load BD-RE drives that work nicely. (MonnieRock installed an aftermarket Sony in his M18x R2.) This is not only great for playing BD movies, but 25GB (50GB DL) backup is also outstanding. You can create a Alien Respawn backup with just one Blu-Ray optical disk.

 

Thanks for the feedback Mr Fox. Just to confirm: are there any conditions for graphics switching under which a reboot would be required? I don't mind having to close applications in use, etc. but the reboot on my R1 I always found a pain in the balls.

 

To switch from Intel gfx to discreet and vice-versa requires a reboot no matter what. Same as the R1's switching. No way around that.

 

Is it "better" to get the 2 or 3 year complete care warranty during the building process, or get the 1 year advanced and renew it IF something happens? I plan on using the M18x as a desktop replacement, so it'll rarely leave the desk. I don't exactly eat while on the computer and haven't ever needed to utilize a warranty since my first computer in high school, and that was a hard drive issue - it failed.

*They don't offer the 4 year CC warranty anymore.

 

J.Dre, I would recommend getting as much warranty as you can afford at the outset - yes, you can upgrade it when your term is coming to an end but it's always more expensive than getting it right away when you configure your machine. You may be very careful with your machine like I and others are but there is no accounting for hardware failure and that can be VERY expensive to put right outside of warranty - if a gpu dies outside of warranty, you would be looking at several hundreds to replace it yourself. Sometimes the warranty options you see on the configuration pages are not ALL the options available. If you talk to a rep there is a good chance they can offer you more options - I know, my rep can offer options not seen on the website including 4 yrs warranty...even 5yrs I think is available if you ask.

 

Hello guys, rhis is my first post, so be polite . How do you see this quote?


Item Number Quantity Item Description Unit Price Extended Price
225-2944
1 Alienware M18X R2 - Direct $3,183.02 $3,183.02
317-9729
1 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3820QM (8MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
317-9706
1 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
331-6910
1 English Keyboard, 101 Key, M18X R2
320-3263
1 18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED WideFHD (1080p) display (1920 X 1080)
320-3624
1 CrossfireX 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M
342-4399
1 256GB Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s
313-8792
1 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
421-7437
1 AW Command Center M18XR2
421-5789
1 Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
318-2318
1 Space Black Anodized Aluminum
410-0548
1 Adobe Acrobat Reader
318-2003
1 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
421-5106
1 Power DVD 9.6, 3D
318-0770
1 Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
430-4709
1 Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming and Video and Bluetooth 4.0
430-4704
1 Internal Wireless Bluetooth 4.0
331-6854
1 Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter
331-6865
1 Alienware Documentation
331-6858
1 Placement, M18X R2
331-6915
1 Shipping Material, M18X R2
461-8389
1 NO VIRUS PROTECTION REQUESTED
331-6908
1 Resource DVD, M18X R2
331-8045
1 Windows 7 OS Label, Alienware Notebooks
420-9691
1 DataSafe Local BackUp
420-9956
1 PC Restore
421-0092
1 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
421-3874
1 Camera Software 2.X, Factory Install
421-4289
1 Dell Support Center Software 3.0
421-7438
1 Quickset, M18X R2
421-4047
1 Dell Digital Delivery Client
421-9378
1 Windows 7 Browser Search for Alienware
312-1333
1 96WHr 12-Cell Primary Battery
421-8801
1 Microsoft Office Trial
995-6083
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
995-6103
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
950-3337
1 1 Year Limited Warranty
950-9797
1 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
421-1723
1 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
994-3730
1 Warranty Support, Initial Year
331-2425 1 Standard Nameplate
469-2456 1 $200 Dell Promo Gift Card-Arrives in 10-20 days,carries a 90 day expiry. Terms at Dell.com/giftcard
* -DISCOUNT/COUPON APPL
A5750525 1 Your Dell Advantage benefits have been applied and $1 discounted from your primary order. $1.00 $1.00


Subtotal: $3,184.02
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Tax: $254.73
Environmental Disposal Fee: $0.00
Total Price w/Discounts: $3,438.75


The price i got, 3084 plus taxes, 2 year warranty, 5% coupon plus 20% gift card. Should i try again?

 

20% off? How'd you get that? I want to get that!

 

You think is a good deal? I'm totally lost. Thanks

 

Well, 20% off in general is always a good deal. Care to share how this occured? Did you ask for anything specific? Help me out! :thumbsup:

You can send me a PM if you want.

 

Send me a PM with your quesrions, I'll try to help you.

 

I'm unable to. You may need more posts or you might have it disabled.

 

Feel free to ask here then. :thumbsup:

 

Just curious how you got 20% off the M18x, so I can save some money.

 

I gave them the configurarion asking for advise, being polite, sometimes droping otherbrands names... It has been a quite cordial speech and negotiation, the drop came very early, and the man was very kind. Im quite happy, willing the beast to arrive as soon as possible.

 

Hi,

I have a question regarding storage options. want to have two WD Scorpio Black 750Gb drives i my M18X and ideally would like to have W7HP installed on a SSD but, as you all know £360 is lot of money. I know I have the option of using the WD's and re-loading/installing everything but, that is going to delay using my shiny new M18X, whereas if I buy the SSD I can boot up and go, after replacing the RAM for 16Gb HyperX 1866hz and adding the HDD's of course.

Basically is it worth the hassle, to avoid paying the the expensive SSD?

Oh and also If i chose to have the SSD and then add the two WD drives, can I set the wd's to Raid 0 for better performance?

Thanks

OB

 

Hard drives will get the job done, but the more of them you have, the worse your battery life becomes. SSD's are always better to have, not only for performance, but efficiency as well. If you can purchase a single SSD for the price of both of those HDD's, I suggest you do so. (Note: I believe HDD's are a lot more likely to crash than SSD's.)

You can have one SSD and two HDD's in RAID, but you may be better off having an mSATA Caching SSD and have two HDD's in RAID instead.

Hope that helps.

 

^^^^^ I agree. The "value" option would be to have a cache mSata drive and raid the WD's on the two sata III ports = fastest non-ssd setup and most affordable as it provides near ssd performance at a fraction of the cost. If you were to buy a ssd and still utilize the WD's, remember that you want the ssd on a sata III port...meaning the other two ports in the caddy are x1 Sata III and x1 sata II = Raided WD's will run at sata II, not III.

 

Thanks guys,

I have now decided and after talking to a very helpful representative from Dell, ordered my new M18X R2...

She will have :-

Processor : Intel Core i7 3920XM (8MB Cache, up to 4.1GHz Overclocked)
Display : 18.4" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
Camera : Integrated Skype HD Certified FullHD Camera with dual digital microphones
LCD Back Cover : Nebula Red - Anodized Aluminum
Memory : 16Gb (4x4096) 1866MHz Kingston HyperX DDR3 Dual Channel
Hard Drive : 256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive 6Gb/s
Optical Drive : DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
Graphics : Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
Audio : Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
Wireless : Intel 2230 Wireless Card + BT
Operating System : English Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Avatar : Alienhead 3D
AlienFX Colour : Plasma Purple
3 Yr ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service
2Tb WD USB External Drive 5Gb/s

I decided that performance was better for Windows and games whilst media can run from the external drive.

OB

P.S. I'm now counting the days until 26th October...