M18xR2 Pre-Order Configuration Questions... Ask HERE

what price did u guys get your systems at?
i just received mine. i got 30% off, however dell agent promised me a refund of some money after i get the system and i didnt yet get that, maybe he cheat me, then ill just refund it.

 

After deciding it was time to come back to Alienware (taking break from Apple stuff) I had a few questions:

1) Are there any discounts on the M18x (not outlet,new)
2) What are the differences in the R1 vs the R2?
3) I'm thinking base config with few upgrades. Gonna be used for some gaming, office stuff, etc. I'm more interested in the awesome LED screen size and the overall power and options than the GFX, so i will probably stay with the base gfx card.
4) How long have these taken to ship?
This is my first AW since I got my AW desktop before it was officially Dell.

 

1.You can call a sales rep and haggle, when you have to think about that price ask for the quote to be sent to your email then call another rep. This Link should help.
2.Basiclly chassis wise they are the same.

• R1 uses Sandybridge cpu & R2 uses Ivybridge cpu
• R1 only has 2 USB 3.0 ports & R2 has it on all ports
• R1 has 2 SATA ports & R2 has 3 SATA ports & a mSATA port
• R1 has 3.0MP camera & R2 has 2.1MP

3.I would say, keep everything base, but upgrade your gpu I recommend the dual 7970m for the price. Then you can add some ram & HDDs or SSDs yourself.
4.If they have parts ready its pretty fast. Mine took 2 weeks to arrive. (When haggling for the price make sure you ask for next day delivery, usually they throw it in for free)

This might be helpful to get how Alienware is now since Dell bought them. Alienware vs Dell/Alienware

Hopefully I answered your questions.

 

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They just released the refreshed ivybridge cpus so Im guessing the i7-3940XM will be taking its spot.

 

Well, they are up on Dell UK website - £890.00 Non OC'd - no OC'd option showing yet - a bit cheaper than the previous 3920xm though, which is nice.

 

Hmm, has anyone else noticed they aren't offering 4 years of warranty support anymore? I only see 3 years as the maximum. (USA site)

 

+$1150 in US for the 3940XM? Yikes!

 

R1 does not have msata

 

Wow. Makes a change for us in the UK to not be soooo far the mark, after currency conversion of course we still pay around $1436usd - on a side note regarding cpu's, it reads as if Dell are "Factory Overclocking" ALL of the new chips:

 

Oh didnt catch, edited it. thanks!

 

I have an M18x r1 but i have a question for those who think an R3 might be coming out:

Should I tell my R1 (with these specs):

Alienware M18x Specs:
1 Alienware M18x Space Black Anodized Aluminum
1 Intel Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
1 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
1 Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter
1 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED
1 Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M - AMD CrossFireX
1 1.5TB RAID 0, 2x 750GB, 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
1 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
1 Roxio Creator Starter
1 Internal High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio with SoundBlaster MB Software
1 Intel Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology
1 Bluetooth 3.0

AND GET AN R2 with these:


Or just wait for the R3. Advice pls.

 

as you already have R1 with moderate specs, me being your place would wait for R3

 

I think you should save money, not much difference, except videocard is a bit faster (but not so much).

 

I would suggest just selling your Gpus then getting better ones, Crossfire 7970m or GTX 680m SLI. Your current setup is still excellent, going to the R2 with the specs you mentioned isnt worth it in my opinion.

 

Yeah, just put SLI 680m's in your current system, that will be faster than the R2 you configured, and cheaper.

 

I might just do that. How much do the SLI 680ms cost?

 

Unless you find a better price elsewhere, typically around $900 each for the 4GB Clevo cards. ALIENWARE M18x R1 VGA Upgrade Kit - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M; 4GB DDR5; MXM 3.0b

The 7970M are around $675 each for the 2GB Clevo cards. AMD Radeon HD7970M (WimbledonXT) MXM 3.0b 2GB GDDR5 - Upgrade Kit for Alienware

If you have 580M SLI, the heat sinks and SLI bridge cable with work with the 680M. If you have 6990M Crossfire, the heats sinks and Crossfire bridge cable will work with the 7970M.

 

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3840QM (8MB Cache, Overclocked up to 3.8 GHz)
Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit
18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED WideFHD (1080p) display (1920 X 1080)
8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1866MHz
1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA 3B/s 7,200 RPM) + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD
Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - SLI® Enabled
1 Year Essential Support
11.93 lbs

I need it to run bf3 on high with 60fps or more and the following games with 60fps or more at med-high settings,
far cry 3
warfighter
crysis 3
bf4 when its out
3 future call of duty games
and most single player games at 60fps at atleast med settings

 

Should be fine playing ultra on all current games, not so sure about future ones though as tech is rapidly advancing these days. What is the price difference between getting a SLI 680m or CF 7970m variant of this system? Cause the 675m is just a rebranded 580 and therefore uses older architecture, so it may be better to get one of the other graphics cards with it.

 

You might want to get the 2Gb Dell versions http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/690921-nvidia-680m-gtx-memory.html#post8874247, otherwise there may be heat issues.

I agree with brother Fox though ,the better option is to upgrade your R1 to R2 specced graphics...

Just my 2p...

OB

 

Spring for an extra year or two of warranty. You'll be glad you did.

 

I am wanting to purchase the M18x mostly for CAD. I am a printed circuit board designer by trade and will use the laptop for circuit board design. I don't play games but I do have a 12 year old son that does so and I am factoring his desire to play games when making my purchasing decision. The 7970M performs much better than the 680M when running CAD applications. Here is a quote from the review concerning the better CAD performance of the 7970M:

*****If CAD performance is of utmost importance, then the Radeon HD 7970M takes the cake. The AMD model is almost 200 percent faster than the GTX 680M in SPECviewperf 11. While the Nvidia GPU can still keep up with the AMD model in Catia and May" &nbsp a, it is considerably outperformed by the Radeon GPU in Tcvis and Siemens NX (-90 %). Meanwhile, the HD 7970M is between 60 to 160 percent faster in Ensight, Lightwave, Pro/Engineer and SolidWorks. It’s no secret that Nvidia is focusing less on non-gaming &nbsp computational power with the Kepler series compared to the previous Fermi design, and our CAD results below really exemplify the outcome.*****

Link for the actual review:

Review GeForce GTX 680M vs. Radeon HD 7970M - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

I can't configure the M18x with just one AMD 7970M on Alienware's site. It is only available as dual 7970M's. I really don't want to pay $550 for dual 7970M video cards but I would like to have the option of getting the on 7970M now and adding one at a later date if needed. I have read that in dual mode, the 7970M has issues, can anyone confirm this? I would like to purchase the M18x with one 7970M card instead of the 680M but it's not an option. I have considered upgrading to the single 675M for $250 more then later on adding another 675M. I can't bring myself to upgrade to the single 680M for $550 when I can get dual 7970M's for the same price though, especially considering that the 7970M appears to have much better CAD capabilities.

Maybe the R3 will have the option of one 7970M.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Roger

 

Buy it with dual 7970M since it is not offered with a single 7970M. It's not a consistently bad experience. Some folks don't have any issues with them. If you end up having problems with Crossfire you can disable it in Catalyst Control Center and run on just one card. Your son can re-enable Crossfire for gaming if and when he needs to.

NVIDIA seems to be focusing their efforts on gaming performance more than anything else with Kepler Geforce processors. For those that primarily care about having the best gaming experience and benchmark scores, the drop in computational performance from Fermi to Kepler really isn't all that relevant.

You could also opt for a Dell Precision with an NVIDIA Quadro if good driver support is important for your business. Your son would be able to play games with that as well.

 

I read in a review of the M18x at Notebookcheck.net, that drivers which would allow the particular application whether it be a game or PCB design software (which won't happen) that support Crossfire have to be available. Paying the extra $550 for dual 7970M when he or I may not be able to take advantage of it may not make sense. Is the potential problem of not having drivers that will take advantage of Crossfire a real problem or is this exaggerated?

 

I think you may have misinterpreted to some extent, but I have not read what you are referring to. It might just be rubbish or misinformation, which would not be all that surprising coming from Notebookcheck. I am on my 7th generation of dual-GPU systems, four of which have been AMD/ATI and three NVIDIA. For Crossfire or SLI support, the driver needs to provide that and the drivers always do.

The issues usually come about more from sloppy software programming on the game developer side of the house. Most games do provide Crossfire and SLI support, but some not so gracefully. This usually gets sorted out with a patch for the game or addressed in a driver application profile. In some cases a temporary workaround solves the problem by using a profile for a different game to run the one that behaves poorly. Any perception of a widespread problem with Crossfire or SLI on a wholesale basis is due to exaggeration.

The harshest critics of multi-GPU systems are often those that (A) have not even owned one, or (B) maybe did once upon a time, and had a an experience they did not like. They assume it is always that way for everyone and throw the baby out with the bathwater. (Kind of like the anti-Alienware trolls.)

I've never had a problem that was serious and I have no interest in owning a single-GPU gaming computer because multi-GPU is vastly superior in terms of performance everywhere it is supported. Under the rare circumstances something pitches a major fit with Crossfire or SLI, the fix is almost always a matter of simply unchecking a box or moving a bullet to a different radio button to switch to single-GPU mode.

What you have been reading specific to 7970M Crossfire is a bit of an anomaly. It works fine, except for when it does not. I think this is partially attributable to inconsistent hardware quality. A percentage of the 7970M GPUs in circulation seem to have issues, and it seems that most of them that do are the earliest hardware release. It is also partially attributable to slowness on AMD's part to release good drivers that fully support the 7970 chipset. In the first 90+ days of release, AMD Support admitted to not having released any driver with proper support for the chipset. From Catalyst 12.7b forward, that has been slowly improving. Unless you get a crappy pair of video cards, which is probably not likely at this time, I think you will find them acceptable for what your planned use will be as a CAD machine that can game well.

 

"Mr. Fox", I truly appreciate the replies to the thread. You took the time to write very detailed, informative replies which many people won't take the time to do. There is so much bad information out there mixed with the good that it's hard to decipher the good from the bad.

Thank you for your help,

Roger

 

Hello everyone, I have been searching around the web for deals on laptops and Alienware and I ended up here Did not know about this forum with all you Alienware users in it! I was looking at purchasing a Alienware laptop ( m18 one ) and I was wondering if there is a time of year when it would be less expensive to do so. Do they have a Black Friday sale, or holiday sales?

I see a lot of people saying they got a deal for x amount etc for their laptop and I can not for the life of me find any deal, coupon code, etc that would even remotely bring me to the price they got on theirs from the Alienware website. Any info would be appreciated! I really would like to go with a Alienware but would like to save a few pennies if I can.

Thank you!

 

From what I've been told, Alienware is making a stockpile of the M18x's this month - they're sending out inventories to all of their resellers. Now is the time to prepare funds and bring out the bargaining cap.

Cyber Monday is next month.

 

Although I have a 6k unused credit with Dell, I also have cash saved in my checking waiting for this. Also waiting for Black Friday or a deal starting above 25% off

 

You can usually get 20% off just by talking to someone on the phone with your order.

 

do you have the phone numnber for the us?

 

Question here guys, if Im about to place an order for M18X R2 and there selecting Wireless-N 2230 , which is if Im correct 2 aerial wlan card, will the M18X R2 still come with 3x aerial equipped or will it have just two because of the wlan card selected? I would be installing Intel Ultimate-N 6300 after hence interested in aerial setup.

Thanks

 

Yes, all three antenna wires are there regardless of whether the system has 2x2 or 3x3 MIMO WiFi card installed.

 

Excellent, good to know, thanks mr.Fox!

 

1-800-ALIENWARE is the phone number. There is an menu option for sales.

 

I'm confused on something here I'm trying to figure out my layout for the m18x and I notice that Alienware for some reason have 2 i7-3940xm for $1150 which makes no sense to me. I have seen other companies have 2 one over clocked and one stock and they be 2 different prices I was hoping the stock would be in the $900ish. I'd this something that someone missed cause all other companies seem to be charging a lot lower for the XM processor then Alienware.

 

you should already notice the description, the lower option of 3940XM is factory overclocked to max 4.2GHz with turbo Boost, where un-overclocked standard boosts max to 3.9GHz. Price however is high, but its for AW to decide... I admire how EUROCOM in example charges for upgrade CPU option, they minus the actual price of 3630QM cpu which would come as default for the total cost of the laptop, and then charge the difference for 3940XM in example but its out of topic.

 

Hey guys,

So I was originally thinking about getting the M17X but am pretty sure that I'll change over the M18X - size doesn't matter (I'm a big enough person) and build quality/performance do (so dual 7970Ms for the win). Just wondering, I'm seeing the 20% off is a good deal thing - do you mean a 20% gift card or 20% off that actual order? If it's the latter then hell that's awesome - wouldn't mind $600 or so off..

Cheers

 

It's usually the whole order...

 

Awesome! I'll shoot for that and update as we go!

 

Just remember that 20% is on the highside and you may only get 15%...also don't forget if the first person you're working with doesn't want to help you, try another. They work for commission, so having a little is better than none.

 

Get an M17x more cash for CPU, SSD, (120Hz + 3D?), RAM, etc on top of a slightly smaller/thinner/lighter case. The 680M and 7970M can play all current games maxed out, no need to go SLI... especially on a 60Hz monitor......

 

I am ordering a dual 680M and the trimmings and adding my Raid0 SSD later....

Question, Which is better performer: two SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD512BW, or a two 830's. I have seen the 830 get high marks but would like your input.

Thanks

(And glad to be here).

 

I don't know about those particular SSD's but I just installed the Intel 520 serries SSD and it is smoking hot. Blew away my previous Corsair but to be fair it was aging. I understand and agree somewhat with the common opinion that WIE isn't a reliable benchmark but when I'm busy with work and don't have time for time consuming tests WIE is better than nothing. It rates a 7.9 (highest available score) And @ a price that's acceptable.

Sent from my Android using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey guys this is my first post, I'm getting my first alien ware laptop. However I'm a little bit out of my of league with customizing. These are the specs I have my sights on:

3740QM
Crossfirex HD 7970M
20GB RAM (for some reason they're the same price as 16GB???)
64 GB mSATA crucial drive
500GB (7200)
Blu-ray reader.

I will using this laptop mainly for gaming and watching movies.
Does the killer wireless make that much of a difference?
Total price for this is around 3100 dollars

Any advice would be appreciated.


Ps. Is it at all possible for Dell to ship this to Thailand? Otherwise I will have to use a website like Xoticpc

 

Guys, I was looking at the M17x but then came across this monster in the refurbished alienware site. M18r2

for 2750 USD, I get
Intel 3820QM
16G ram
256 SSD + 1TB
blu-ray BD-ROM
GTX 680 SLI

If I buy with my AMEX card, I get 2 years warranty too. Too good to pass? Anything I should know? thanks!

 

Earlier this year I was due for a laptop replacement I had the quote and was ready then our backup team ran into a problem and it used up the budget we had for our new video work stations. So i was told to get my quotes inline so they can order our new hardware on January 1. Is there anything in the works I should hold out for between now and then or can I just build it now and submit the request? I will be selecting the dual video cards, dual ssd's, 16GB of ram and of i will be selecting the Extreme Intel processor. Anyone have a opinion of the best choice of video cards? any other autosuggestions i am all ears

Thank you in advance.

 

Hey, welcome and great choice on the system.

Install RAM and SSD's yourself to save up to $400 depending on the brand you buy. Make sure to get the "advanced support" warranty, it'll be wise for a laptop of this size and value. I've also heard about people purchasing the Killer Wireless-N 1103 on Amazon and installing it themselves, along with BD-RW drives to save even more money. This is up to you though, I understand that a lot of us don't want to risk damaging something or putting something back in the wrong spot and the system catching fire...something catastrophic. I personally see the extra cost as a form of service charge for the professional installation of such components. As for waiting, you should wait until December 12th (give or take a few days), upon which time there will either be more information about the new GTX 680MX, or it will be available to replace the current 680M. There isn't going to be a huge difference in performance, but in my opinion, it doesn't make sense to spend a ton of money on something outdated. I myself am currently waiting for this GPU.

As for the processor, getting the extreme edition will be best for intense gaming while using both GPU's at full capacity, and working with other CPU intensive programs. However, is it worth the extra $800? Some of us may say, "yes", some may say "... no?" I myself don't believe it's necessarily worth it, although, the performance is outstanding and can be easily justified with simple benchmarks - it depends mainly on how much you're willing to spend.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Edit: I did not recommend, nor mention anything even remotely related to AMD because of their horrible driver issues which can cause some serious issues - stick with NVIDIA, it's worth the extra money.

 

I'm getting ready to order a M18x but I'm not sure what video card to get. Seems the consensus is the 7970's are the fastest but have issues in crossfire. I will game with the laptop somewhat, mostly with NBA 2k and the new SimCity in March. I also need to edit HD video with Sony Vegas. It's a work computer so reliability is more important than have the latest drivers. What do you guys recommend for the video card? Also are any of the processors worth the upgrade price? I plan to get a SSD on my own and install it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.