New Alienware 18 Config and Order Status Thread

Well I'm not sure what's going on at this point. Yesterday I was sent an email giving me a new order number, which included the same specs only with a free game coupon as well. The only issue was it wasn't under my name, but the previous owner of the laptop which they have mistaken me for a few times already, even after the transfer of ownership. Anyway, so I responded to the email to try and get some clarity as to what is going on with this order not being in my name and today I received another email saying disregard the one from yesterday. So now it's REALLY confusing as to what the heck is going on with my order. So now I'm waiting on a response from my rep, because I said I know they messed up sending me that under the wrong name, and I want that free game coupon or something else because this is just ridiculous. I'm going on 2 months without a working computer, one month without a machine all together. So something needs to be done; now. Hope that makes sense, even though it might not be the answer you were looking for.

 

In my order I have the mysterious "800-BBKV FREE game with purchase of a GeForce GTX 700 GPU-powered desktop". I just assumed it was another Dell mistake (Same order includes "NAIDIA GeForce SLI(R) Enabled"). There better not be a 700-series GPU in there. If it is indeed a free game, I'd be quite pleased. Let's hope both our cases get sorted out soon. I'm interested to here the response (when I finally get one) from my rep...

 

It's the "Bullets or Blade" game promotion which come with all 970m/980m purchased laptops right now. You can choose between Assassins Creed: Syndicate or Rainbow Six Siege once you enter in the code. They just haven't bothered to update the specific details.

http://www.geforce.com/BULLETSORBLADES

 

Yep, same here. If that's the case, and my only options are Assassin's Creed or Rainbow Six then they can keep the code. I figure it was just like a code to apply on Dell's website to pick a game from it. So lame.

 

In that case I'd actually be really excited/pleased since I plan on buying Syndicate this coming summer. I've been buying all the AC games once the deluxe edition with all the DLC hits $15, which always happens sleds than a year from release. Only problem is a season pass is going to take about the same price to drop to that point, so not much of an advantage.

Anyway, I'm going to call and see what is going on. I'll let you guys know in a couple hours or whenever i get disconnected or hung up on.

 

Well I hope you have better luck than me. I can't get anyone to answer amd I'll wait over a hour. Chat is the same, so emails are all I can do to get through and even then I get only bull crap answers. So, may the force be with you!

 

Are you guys using Dell Home and Office or the Member Purchase Program through your company?

 

I called, pressed "2" said "speak to a rep" and the went and took a nice long hot shower. Then waited on hold for another half hour. They just got me into a chat with an exchange specialist, who I am still speaking to. Their excuse is that when I changed the shipping address, they started it over like a whole new order. I checked with multiple reps multiple times that this would not happen. So somebody is lying to me and I am very angry now. I am doubting this thing will come before the end of the year at this point.

 

Wow you got a good deal are you in the USA?

In Canada our dollar sucks so the same configuration is a $1000.00 more and the reps don't want to give you any break on the price.

 

Yes I am in Texas.

 

Ordered Oct 23, arrived today, Nov 4.

I haven't checked it as I'm at work.

 

Apparently my order was just cancelled for the third time...pretty crazy guys, never experienced anything like this

 

Well it's a bit crazy. I guess all the new orders are going through just fine. It's the older orders that are being cancelled and reordered that are taking longer because they clearly don't know what they're doing. Those of us unfortunate replacement orders, well we are just screwed I guess.

 

Just received this email from what I'm guessing is a customer service supervisor, never seen their name before-

"We hope you are doing well.


We are contacting you today to inform of a delay with the replacement order.


We are experiencing some issues with some new orders being processed incorrectly,

Yours and a few others orders have suffered these errors and have started the build cycle, once we fix this problem we will proceed to expedite the process and provide you with the updates.


We are sincerely sorry for this inconvenience and we want to apologize for the length of time taking to resolve, we are aware this is urgent.


Please let us know if you have any feedback/concerns"

If that's not vague, I don't know what is. I am so fed up with this whole process that at this point I'd rather have my R1 back and just replace the GPU's myself. I'm going on 4 months without a decent machine, just my (very dated) backup machine. I'd never have sent that repair request had I known this mess was going on.

 

Looks like i'll be returning my AW18. GPU1 temps reach 92c throttling point on stock clocks with prema mod after 5 minutes of Valley benchmark, and 90c within the first test of Firestrike.....and that's with all 3 fans blasting at maximum RPM in HWINFO64. GPU2 temps hover around 82c.

My previous GT80 had no such problems, and never reached 80c.....even during 4K testing. Have an odd feeling they aren't using the correct heat sinks and/or extremely bad paste job, at least on mine.

Going to buy another GT80. Good luck guys, hope you get your builds soon!

 

16.8K in 3dm11

28.3k or so gpu score
Crap cpu score

Card 1 gas 68% asic
Card 2 has 73% asic

That was at 150/350

My cards don't really go any higher without problems. Temps arent the issue either. The clocks just drop. Voltage is 1.087v for both cards.

I'm disappointed.

 

Liked your post because you checked and reported. Sorry to hear the cards don't overclock any better than that.

 

Where do you get the code?

 

Thanks. Pretty obvious this machine has had its run. I'm getting weird glitches in 3dm11 as well. Even on the original VBios' without overclocking. NOV4 nvidia whql drivers 358.87.

It just feels dated or my cards are super garbage. 980s and 980ti have less of a silicon lottery issue. Not pleased at all with the quality of the 980Ms.

I can hear clevo calling.

 

I think Eurocom needs to send me a Sky X9 free of charge, and in return, I'll make a nice video about what I really thing about my Alienware 18 and Alienware 17 R2 (hint, it would involve 7.62x54R ammunition and various explosives)

Really am fed up with Alienware.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10494241
Prema vbios 180/220 1.075v for both GPUs

I was able to trip the 330W using 1.1v and a modest GPU overclock. This is why I didn't opt for a better processor . Max GPU overclock for MAX potential game performance.

 

Decided to keep my AW18. I was offered a $200 discount (plus tax) to keep it which more than makes up for having to take it apart; $3175 total for a tier 3 is pretty damn good.

I'll be applying Liquid Ultra to GPU's and CPU early next week. For reference, GPU1 has a 76.0 ASIC, GPU2 has 76.4 ASIC...stock load voltages of 1.062v.

Haven't pushed my overclocks much due to the horrible stock thermal paste job, but the highest I've tried is 150/300 on stock volts with the 4910MQ @ a constant 4GHZ...completely stable.

Just did a Firestrike run a couple minutes ago: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9180796

Note: Run was not on a fresh boot, and had some programs running in background

Once my Liquid Ultra arrives, I'll push it more!

 

What temps are you getting that makes it so bad?

 

GPU 1 temps get up to 92c with the overclock (90c without) by the end of first strike graphic test unless I lift it a couple inches off desk. Throttling will occur on GPU1 on any modern game within 10 minutes without vsync. This is with fans on MAX rpm.

GPU2 temps hold steady at 84c.

So it's definitely a bad stock paste/mount job which I'll remedy Liquid Ultra and U3 cooler.....must be why I got the AW18 so fast!

Granted I do live in Southern California, so it's definitely hot over here with ambient between 24c-25c....but I should be good to go once everything arrives.

 

Yeah, definitely a bad job on that. I'm at 80c load for both GPUs in 3DM11. Only 3D app I've run so far.
_____________________________________________________

Windows 7 Pro + Alienware 18 with Prema vBIOS, no GPU overcock

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10494770

Windows 7 Pro + 180/300

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10494797

Not sure why my CPU dipped in the combined benchmark (last one in 3DM11)

 

Can anyone who's recently received their machine clarify what this game bundle is? It wasn't listed in my September 22 order, but is listed in the October 19 and 30 ones, so if you ordered before mid-October, this probably doesn't apply to you. It should show in your order as "800-BBKV FREE game with purchase of a GeForce GTX 700 GPU-powered desktop". I don't see any information on Dell's website about this. It makes sense to be the Bullets or Blades bundle, but I don't recall Dell ever actually including Nvidia's current bundle, which always kinda pissed me off.

 

Don't know since that's for USA only

 

It's not listed in my order but I should qualify. Just not sure how you get the code.

 

If you didn't get the bullet or blades voucher with code (and it was included in order info) then you have to call up Dell to complain and ask for your free game via code over the phone or e-mail (depends on the rep you get).

 

Well to add to the the confusion with my order, they are canceling it again and my order number before this one is still in production? Anyway, I told my rep that it doesn't include the free game and he said where he is a technical support rep he could offer me an external hard drive or mouse instead. So I asked for either the TactX keyboard or an 18" briefcase just for the heck of it.

 

This is why I'll never buy second hand Alienware anymore. They are treating you like a second class citizen... or an Alien!!! ZING

But really, you would have been offered a refund if you were the original buyer .

 

True, and my replacement is taking much longer than I'd like. However, for what I paid for the M18X, plus $350 for renewing the warranty and all, it's worth it. I used to work at a thrift shop, and bought both a M14X R2 and my baby, the M18X R2. Crazy they both were brought to the shop and I got both. After getting the M18X, I sold the M14X and used that money to buy 2 680m's and pocketed the money for the 675m's I replaced. I probably have 2 grand in the M18X including the warranty, so $2000 for a $4700 laptop, I'll take it. Sure, some people don't like the 18 over the M18X, I was the same way at first. But if it gets here and runs like it should, I don't really care.

 

Nothing compares to the red M18x R2. The 980Ms should double the performance in games over your 680Ms though.

 

They offered me a hard drive too and I just politely said I already have a 1TB external I am using to transfer all my data to the new machine. He didn't follow up with any other options, so maybe I should have just went for it. A backpack or game or something would be nice. I have a briefcase from my old M18x, but a backpack would be really convenient.

 

I still think the looks of the M18X are much better than the 18, but performance is what matters. I'm not going all out with overclocking either, especially since I don't have the experience and many are saying it won't do much good anyhow, atleast with the 18's.

 

Yeah, I have no use for the external drive, I use the Logitech G700s so no use for the mouse, and I have the vindicator backpack I used for the M18X. I don't have a real use for the others but it's better than a mouse or external drive.

 

Well, I was just informed that my laptop has reached shuttle stage. It is supposed to ship this Thursday, 11/12/15. It is being shipped with next business day so it should be here on Friday. We'll see though.

 

Awesome! Be sure to report on it. My rep got back to me yesterday letting me know my machine was still "on hold". I asked for the specs of that hard drive. I'll take that now and then speak to a manager because this has gone beyond any possible stretch of reasonable business behaviour.

 

I just emailed my rep and his manager for my game code for Bullets or Blades. Hopefully they will get me one.

 

Another poor attempt to pacify the frustration of this ordeal arrived in my inbox today. To say I answered with cordial agitation would be putting it modestly. We're now in the 5th month of my adventure with Dell; I'm almost curious to see how far the rabbit hole actually goes.

 

Gosh man that sucks, I'm sorry to hear that.

 

Haha, they are completely ignoring me emails now. They were supposed to replace my system, but apparently they ran out and don't want to build me a new AW18. Every time they respond, they say they will have info in 24-48 hours, but we know that's not the case.

 

It's quite obvious this is what they are pulling. Next comes the AW17 R3 offerings.

I guarantee you a MEMO from higher up went to the system exchange department to prioritize new orders.

It's funny because the Win10 issues arrived JUST before the revival of the AW18.

We can thank all the people who abuse the warranty.

 

Man, this is such a ridiculous situation. Did they have you send your defective system in first? They demanded mine up front, stating the repair/replacement process would take 7-10 days (ha).

 

Ive had my AW18 for just over two weeks. I have a few friends that also purchased a AW15 and AW17. I'm going to have my friend benchmark his fully loaded AW17 with the 4gb 980m. I'm maybe thinking of changing to the AW17 with the new 980m 8gb card and adding an amp. Here are my benchmarks for my AW18

This one is with the fire strike 1.1

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9254352?

and this one is fire strike extreme 1.1

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9254527?

 

Well they must have run out of parts for the new Alienware as my ETA has now changed to Jan. 6 2016, I ordered Oct. 30 2015 I guess I will call them today to find out what part is on backorder.

Anyone else have their ETA changed again? BTW I am in Canada.

 

replacement or new order?

specs?

 

new order

i7 4940mx
dual Nvidia 980m
32 gb ram
512 ssd + 1 TB hdd

I called yesterday they couldn't tell me anything but said they would contact the factory to get an update should here from someone in a couple of days.

 

Wow, another Dell disaster. After being available for 2 months or so now, how many people have actually received the new 18? At this point, I hope those that ordered one still end up getting it but it sure seems strange they would all be unavailable. Something is going on and I can't imagine that supply issues would make them all disappear at once unless it's casing or motherboard. Interesting.