*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

Hey TBone, Here you go these are the max on each core.

 

Mine is shipped partially.???

 

Yours will probably ship within 24 hours. They are most likely generating a tracking number.

 

I never had such a difficult time taking in game screen shots. For whatever reason, any time I took screen shots in game it would take a picture of my desktop menus ? Anyways, had to rely on Steam screenshots. Metro LL with everything maxed with AA applied is around 50 fps.

 

How's Crysis 3 running?

 

Crysis 3 is running pretty smooth. All settings maxed out , MSAAx2, I am averaging 45-50fps.

 

Congrats on the new beats, brother

Are you running your 780m SLI at stock clocks?

 

Keep in mind, all settings stock for 780's.

 

Much appreciated Rafix73. All settings stock . Any suggestions for overclocking the gpus?

 

Well, I know that slv7 at T|I recently released a new vBIOS for the 780m. You may want to give it a try. Once you flash it you can start overclocking with either Afterburner or EVGA PrecisionX.

 

I will probably do that to get the most out of these beasts. I am new to overclocking gpu's in laptops (Desktops not a problem). If I flash the VBIOS is it reversible? I can slightly overclock the core and memory with Afterburner as is. I don't know how much of an effect this is having as the voltage and power limit are locked.

 

Thanks for that Blackjack. Are you able to confirm its hitting those clocks underload at this stage?

 

Yes, stock vBIOS limits the cards; reason why flashing them with slv7 vBIOS should unblock them and allow you to tweak and unleash their true potential. Flashing, if done correctly is a quite simple, straightforward, and relatively safe procedure. Many of us around here have been flashing our GPUs trying the various vBIOS released by slv7's genius. If a flashing goes bad there are ways to recover its original vBIOS, which you will save as first thing once you decide to flash them.

 

Thank you, great tips.

 

If I go according to CPU-Z, yes it hitting those numbers. I am seeing as high as 4.3-4.4 speeds. I will do more tests in the coming days with the tools brother Fox sent out. Keep you posted.

 

Hey bro. You do not want "Non-Turbo Flex Support" set to enabled. Change it back to disabled. Having it enable provides no performance benefit. All it does is let you lower the CPU non-turbo speed below stock clocks. The reason you want it disabled is because if you switch to the Intel HD graphics and try to switch back to discrete graphics, your machine may fail to POST and start beeping. If that happens, you will end up having to clear the CMOS in order to boot again.

Did you get a chance to run wPrime and see if those clocks ratios hold or throttle down under load? If you have CPU-Z open you can watch as you run wPrime.

 

Thanks, will change right away. I am learning so much by the minute thanks to all the support. :thumbsup: I will be downloading wPrime in the coming minutes and will most likely need to run tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

 

Couldn't resist, running wPrime now.

 

I ran the test and it looks like the overclock was not holding under load. Multiplier dropped to 31, bringing clock speed to about 3.1. Any recommendations? Take it back and get an extreme processor?

 

While an Extreme CPU would be nice, that probably is not a solution to the issue. No need to send it back. There is nothing wrong with your hardware. It is likely CPU is not getting the power it needs to hold clock speeds higher than non-turbo speeds based on BIOS settings. The BIOS settings controlling power limits are not accessible to change them because the menus are hidden, so we will need to try to tweak a couple of things within Windows to help stop that from happening.

First, for good measure, use the CPU Core Unpark utility to ensure all cores are employed. Sometimes they like to take a nap and not wake up when you need them to. You can download that here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwdqi25LDwZyVExIUV9HS045RDg/edit?usp=sharing (from top menu, select FILE, then DOWNLOAD for the zip file)

You can install Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 4.1 (XTU) and see if changing some settings helps with that throttling issue. Here is a download link:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22835

After installing XTU, try this...

LOWER the " Core Voltage" setting to 1.180v

INCREASE " Processor Current Limit" to 112.000A (I am guessing it may be set at 55.000A by default)

If you want to go slower and test along the way, try 90.000A, then slowly work your way up to 119.000A if necessary. You can stop increasing this when the throttling stops or diminishes to a tolerable level. No need to go up any more once the CPU starts holding clock speeds under load.

No reboot should be required to make these two changes. You should be able to test without even closing down XTU after applying the settings.

Then try running wPrime again and see if it holds steady or drops less. These settings are temporary and if they are not the best you can make small increases or decreases to fine tune. And, you can always revert back to defaults. Don't mess with other settings for the time being, just the two mentioned above in quoted blue text.

(There are settings with similar names, so that is the reason for emphasis on what setting with special text color... just to be clear. For example, there is a "Core Current Limit" but we are not changing that. Doing so will require a reboot and the setting will revert to the original after reboot, so it is pointless trying on that one. Ideally, that would be the setting to change if we could.)

I will check back in this thread tomorrow morning to see if you found this was helpful.

Once you dial in the right settings, check out the XTU benchmarking tool and let us know the score.

 

Thanks for the detailed advice. I am glad I don't need to drop another $500 or so an extreme processor yet. I need to get up early to go to work, so going to catch some z's. I will definitely download all the software tomorrow after work and follow your advice exactly as described. I am confident I will find some performance gain. Have a good night.

 

You won't need an XM CPU ( yet). I suspect you will soon want one in a month or so, once you get the OC bug and watch the XM craziness that will soon surround you. 4.1-4.2GHz is really nice, (and EXCELLENT for gaming) but it's not quite the same as 4.8-4.9GHz. Sleep tight, bro.

 

So I will be ordering the AW 18 soon but I am debating between two options:

4700MQ with 780M SLI, 8GB RAM no bluray VS 4800MQ with 780M SLI, 16GB RAM with bluray.

I don't like the idea of having 4 sticks 4GB RAM, so if I get the 8GB version I will replace it with 2x8GB 1.35V RAM. I don't really need the bluray drive, partly because I don't like vibrations from any mechanical parts. I have read what Mr. Fox said about cache accelerated HDD, and I think it's good, but I am rather anal about any sort of vibration and sound. My ears are too sensitive for my own good and pick up all sorts of noises, probably because my dad's a musician and I got it from him.

Anyway, I will be planning to get either the Samsung 840 500GB or the Crucial M500 960GB as storage drive, and transplant the Samsung 840 Pro from this Lenovo to the AW, then sell the Lenovo. Unfortunately, it seems that the M500 is out of stock at most places. I could get one from Ebay, but I will have to pay a $100 price premium over the $600 price on Newegg.

I don't play BF3 or any MMO much but I want to have the 4800MQ. So in the end, I think my best options would be getting the cheaper AW18 with 4700MQ + 780M SLI (the one without bluray), then replace the CPU and RAM and HDD.

I read about someone saying that the Dell stock TIM is some phase change TIM, is that true? Will my paste job, assuming it's well done, be able to rival the stock paste?

Not sure if I should/could post it here or at the launch discussion thread, but I put it here since some of my questions are rather specific.

 

Order is partially shipped with nbd I have an edd of tomorrow. I pray that my schools mailing center is open when it gets here. Ill post plenty of pics and stuff.

 

Same thing here!

 

and the insides if you can please with part numbers for heat sinks/wifi card/ please show pics of the ribbons for the lcd.. unplugged if you could and in detail(some of us are trying to see if its compatible with the R2)
and any thing else you think would be awesome

 

Ordered June 13....
"In Production" on June 21st....
Still "In Production".....
Other people are getting there 18's.....why can't I Dell?! Whhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy?! (Dramatically screaming to the sky) :thumbsup:

 

4800MQ with 780M SLI, 16GB RAM with bluray.

This is the better thread. The launch thread is helter skelter trying to cover too many machines and configurations at once.

 

+1

The 4800MQ is the lowest CPU I'd recommend for dual 780M's.

 

Sure, I will.

 

I feel you, bro. You must be really excited. I'd send a PM to a representative here on this forum. These guys are great, and they're not level 1 reps either, which means they can see details others can't.

Here's the link to one of their profiles: http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=508846

 

Has anyone's shipping information ever updated from "partially shipped"? Mine still says that and is currently sitting on my desk (my wife just signed for it while I'm stuck at work). Is it just that fedex has issues with sending Dell information? Or are they planning to ship something else?

 

It's a time delay. No worries.

 

I just got mine and dell still says partially shipped.

 

Sigh, so I checked my shipping info with FedEx and it now shows: At local FedEx facility - Package not due for delivery

Called FedEx to see if I could pick it up and they said no because it wasn't officially in their system and I'd have to wait for delivery. What a bummer.

 

Hello guys,
Im pritty dissapointed to dell, I made an order on 2013-06-28 and the dellivery at 2013-07-29, Today after work, i went home and checked my order status its been cancelled andno information at all... i made a credit order, and aswell as today i recieved letter from the bank says that theyr accepting my payment, just need a sign to finish everything for construction level for my orderstatus, but its been canceled?? lol so dissapointed to get theese as i was really exited to get this computer, i can barely wait for it, and now this... : (( /Cry

Spec alienware "viking" : BXT i7 4930 XM 32Gig Ram, Dual 780M sli

Anybody else got the same thing?
Replys are appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

Whoops! Spoke too soon! Shipped!!!!! EDD 7/11!:thumbsup:

 

Mine shipped! Due to get it tomorrow, 7/10.



I ordered 6/18 for those interested in knowing.

It seems a lot of people that order in June are getting their orders shipped.

 

Mine got cancelled last week and i was pretty hacked off too. Managed to reorder mine today and haggled 3 years warranty for nothing Although my edd is now 30/7

 

Cancelled last week too, re ordered yesterday, got a really good discount thou around 500£ and strangely my EDD is still the same, 26th July , Try your luck out, it might endup proving to be a better deal

 

same thing here!

 

I just won a 4800MQ on some unknown online auction site, so I have decided to just get the 4700MQ + 780M SLI without the bluray, and then replace the CPU myself. The price for the 4800MQ was good at first, as I thought nobody was going to bid on it, but it turned out that there were "players" watching it closely. Luckily I won it just by a hair, following the wise advice from Ken Rockwell.

I shall get another 16GB of RAM to make it 24GB, or I might just decide to sell it.

Now, could anyone be as kind as to PM me one or two contact info of US Dell rep that gave you some sweet prices? Thanks guys :thumbsup:

 

Does anyone know what SSD is shipped with the 18? I asked my Rep and he said he was unable to find out. He said it could be any make they have available at the time.

I he pulling my plonker?

 

i think they are Samsung mate.

 

Liteon or Samsung.

 

Thanks, Apparently I'll find out next week

 

Hmmm my order got modified, and they replaced win8pro for win7 home premium. That gonna be helpful for metro app development, or any developpement for that mather, ... been a week I kept asking for explanation via email to my dell representative, no answer. Hopefully at least I'll get credited for that os change.

Starting to get cold feets about this order. :/ still in production tho, and EDD still 07/29 since 06/20.

 

Well, I got it, and man it's sweet. Freaked me out a little bit, cuz the bottom of the machine says 4800mq with sli 770's, but system diagnostics show everything is as ordered. Sure enough, no copy of windows 8. Bummer. My weekend is shot, now.

 

How big is the power brick of this thing??

 

Yes, please share some pictures/information. And congrats on the new beast!