*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

If it's a single or dual pipe heatsink, it won't support the more powerful CPU.

Am I getting things right?

 

Apparently I doesn't come with the triple pipe Heatsink. Not to worry, if you were to upgrade your CPU you can just buy a triple pipe HS too. They aren't too expensive.

A 4700QM will bottleneck Crysis 3 to a certain degree.. But depending on your settings you may not notice (eg. If you are using vsync and 60fps is your cap anyway). Don't worry too much yet. If you are having trouble hitting 60fps on max setting have a read through the * OFFICIAL* Game Settings, Tweaks and Tips Thread - M18x R* and we'll help you out

 

Thanks a lot for your response. Where is the like button?

Is there anyway I could OC that CPU?

I'll run some benchmarks and see how it goes, but reading through all the pages of this thread, I feel the urge to upgrade

I wasn't aware I can a tripple-pipe heatsink though - that's great news. Would you tell me the character strings I should use when searching for this part?

For example would this part for R1 & R2 also fit the new 18?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-M...eme-Copper-CPU-Heat-Sink-00MXJ5-/150946557412

Thanks in advance TBoneSan

 

I had a quick look on eBay and I couldn't see one selling...yet. It's a touch early. The character string would be something like 'Alienware 18 CPU triple Heatsink'. The R1/2 HS is different.
You could alternatively ring Dell and they should sell you one anyway, atleast if your in the US. But try Dell Oz anyway - that would be my first point of call.

The 4700qm won't overclock. That one is unfortunately fully locked down.

 

Best bet if someone opens there's and note the part number from triple-pipe heat sink and posts here. That way you can search and buy exact part.

 

4700MQ comes with triple pipes heatsink. Can't say for sure for everyone but that's what I got. I went from 4700MQ to 4800MQ to what I have now. The 4700MQ shouldn't bottleneck much, if any at all. With a bit of tweaking, you could probably get it running at 3.6 GHz with boost. 4700MQ benches better than 4800MQ and probably 4900MQ for now, till a BIOS fix is released. I have been waiting for quite some time now.

 

Actually you could get the 4700MQ running at 3.6GHz. The multiplier is partially unlocked.

 

You sure about that? I was sure the base CPU was locked down the same as 3610/30qm was last gen.

 

Well I had the 4700MQ...

 

No kidding. That's pretty decent then. The base 3610qm last gen was void of any such joy.

 

So I am very excited to say I have received my new AW18!!!
Dell screwed me over by not giving me the 64gb ssd drive that suppose to come with it.
Any suggestions on what should I do? I know I definitely should contact dell but my question is should I tell my sale rep what happened or just a random tech support person?
My hopes is they upgrade my ssd or even upgrade my video card for the frustration lol. I know its farfetched but I gotta hope

 

I love windows 8 except the stupid start menu UI.
So I just went and purchased start is back. I personally think its the best start replacement program for windows 8.
Since then, I never had problems with win8. I'm loving the fast boot up times.
I am going to install it on my AW18 soon.

 

Dunno about US, but in the UK for stuff like that they give you cashback 5-10% of the total cost! Based on my AW17 coming scratched: Call the customer care to complain about it and then to a random tech support to send you the part asap.

 

really? they give that much cashback? and thanks for the reply

 

Are you sure they didn't give you the 64gb mSata?? - it's not visible under 'computer' because it is not available/shown because it is not able to be used as storage. Did you check in disk management or maybe even physically by removing the base panel?

 

I can send you my 64GB mSATA when I recieve it. It will end up in the trash anyway.

Also, congrats with the new machine. Make sure you write what you think about it when you have tried it out for a while

 

Yeah I first checked device manager then I opened up the computer and the only hard drive I see is the 750gb

@Cloudfire

Thank you, but I think Dell should pay for their mistake. I know 64gb isn't a lot but its the principle.
and thanks beside them messing up with the SSD, I freaking love this machine. Its truly a beauty

 

What was your first thought when you saw the size?

 

I was not quite shocked by the size because I own a Dell Precision M6700, but I was shocked by the thickness. I definitely need to look for a new bag that can carry this beast.
Even though the M6700 is a 17.3 inch workstation, it weighs 4.2lbs less than the AW18

 

Check App: AlienAutopsy>System Info> scroll down to Hard Drives> Liteonit should be viewable under Hitachi HDD. Let me know what you find.

 

Thanks for all your help regarding the 4700QM!

The lappy should be here within a few hours :smile:

 

I'm in Australia and managed to get a very decent refund (around 600 bucks). Took a lot of complaining and plenty of time on the phone, but hey... it was worth it.

There was nothing broken or missing in my case. The issue for me was, that I ordered my lappy, was told by the rep it should arrive in 2 (3 weeks tops) and then a week later they posted a note under each model regarding part shortage and delays in production (the eta expanded to 5 weeks). They've also offered an upgrade to 780m SLI for free, where I had to pay for it.

It was a long shot, but it was worth it! They're basically refunding the price difference. Unfortunately there was no option for me to take that money and put it in the CPU that's something I gotta do on my own.

Bottom line: it's worth fighting for it and you've gotta talk to customer care, forget the rep. He/She's made the sale and moved on

 

Hello, everyone! Long time reader, first time poster here.

I'm happy to finally report that my order is finally in production (for good) this time. After a pretty terrible first-time buyer experience, I was able to save over $600 on the pre-configured Alienware 18 GTX 770M model listed on the Alienware site.

Long story as short as possible, I originally placed an order for a barebones AW18 system only to find out that a few days it had inexplicably been cancelled without my knowledge and the balance had been refunded to my credit card. When I was finally able to get in touch with a customer service representative (which in itself was a task, as I'm a US citizen making a purchase from South Korea - the time difference is insane) I explained the situation and was told it was some sort of verification issue. I was then transferred to the verification department that told me the order had been restored, a new order number would be generated within 24 hours, and no additional information from me was needed. Two days later, I still had no new order number, nor had I heard from the sales representative I originally made the purchase with. The next day the order was finally restored, but I went ahead and cancelled it. The last lady in the verification department that I spoke to ignored my questions and really didn't seem interested in anything more than getting me off of the phone. Ironically, just before my order was cancelled the first time, I was going to call and make upgrades to my system (i.e. spend more money), but because it was cancelled without my knowledge or explanation, I was turned off. Even afterwards, no one would explain what happened. They just continued passing the buck. It wasn't until a few days later that I found out they weren't able to reach me by phone, so they cancelled the order. I understand now that this sends up a red flag and all they need is you to pick up the phone (despite being on the phone to make the purchase) or someone pretending to be you to verify the order (hurray for security measures, right?). I'd rather be safe than sorry, but considering how many times I called back and tried to verify my purchase, it all came down to that phone call. I ended up having them call my mom in the States and had her told them it was me and that was magically the solution.

After reading about people's positive experiences here and spending so much on an Alienware product, I honestly expected more. But it's not all bad. I was finally able to get in touch with my original sales representative and I have to say, she was awesome. She explained the entire situation to me, apologized, and told me that she would do whatever it took to get me the best deal on the system I wanted. And she did just that. At the end of the day, I got a phenomenal deal on the 2nd configuration on the site with next business day shipping to boot. It sucks that it took something going wrong for me to get the experience I was looking for the first time, but I'm glad that it worked out in the end!

TLDR version - If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Lol.

 

I have been replacing my wireless card several times and I am almost 100% positive my cpu heat sink is 3 pipe. My Video cards are 2 pipe. Either that or the other way around. I will pay attention more next time around.

 

Thanks!! yes I definitely intend to complain and let them know about this situation.
I tried calling the customer care line but all the rep does is send me to the member purchase line (because I brought the laptop with student discount) which ends up to be an automated machine. Even after entering my order number and such, the automated machine brings me BACK to customer care number.
From being a minor disappointment, it became a frustration. I know the member purchase line is only form 7-7, but I called around 5ish.
If you can please let me know what number to call that would be greatly appreciated.

These are the numbers I called.
General Customer Service Questions for Employee Purchase Programs
1-800-695-8133
Alienware TechSuppot
(866) 287-6727

The "chat now" is also useless. All the reps do when I chat with them, they say "sorry your laptop was purchase though the employee purchase program please contact them"

 

When did you place your order - was it in early August?

 

The 64gb msata its not a regular HD, so its no placed where the 750gb one is When you start your Alien right when bios boot up yuo can see two HD listed, one the 750gb and other 64gb Samsung p800something... Check it bevore you make a mistake and call CS (sorry for my englisch)

 

Ps: can someone put me out of my missery and take off me the post approval? Be very gratefull!

 

Man I`m pissed off.

First, when I ordered from Dell, ETA was September 10th.
Then they shipped it, ETA was calculated to September 12th.
Now they post-poned it even further to September 18th.

I made a map, to show how short it is from where the package is now to my house. 12 days is what they calculated. Yeah right.

 

Fly there and pick it up. Airline tickets are cheap in Europe, or so I've been told.

 

ETA's are just that. Estimated. Dell normally err on the side of caution, so I wouldn't be surprised if it turned up early or the EDD got updated along the way...

 

Its not the ETA function iself that me off. Its the fact that the package have been sitting in a post office in Denmark for 2 days, and all they have done is calculated new ETAs. If they used those two days to actually send the package, it could already have been here.

It takes 2-3 days max, to send my package from Denmark to Norway. Not bloody 12 days!
Either ETA is very wrong, or Schenker is run by a bunch of complete morons.

VERY tempting actually.but I cant

 

If you go to the bottom right corner there should be Intel Rapid Management software running in the background. Open that up and see if it lists the msata drive in raid configuration attached to the 750gb. Or as mentioned pay attention to post it will show it listed and should have two hd's listed under the intel raid post info.

 

Fox, you got a shout out on the AW Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Alienware?hc_location=stream

 

anyone that got a config with 16GB of RAM can you confirm if it was 4x 4GB or 2x 8GB? I'm curious

thanks

 

Stock config is 4x4GB.

 

hello

Yes 4X4

 

Hey guys! First time poster and soon to be a member of the Alienware family. I placed the order Sept. 4, 2013, went into production on Sept. 5, 2013 and is expected to deliver on or before Sept. 20, 2013.

To say I'm excited is an understatement, as this will be my first Alienware machine! I wanted to share my excitement, but none of my friends are really into gaming. So I found you guys and read through this owner's thread (not all of it, 180+ pages is a lot!) and thought I'd chime in (need to release this excitement! :laugh . Congraulations to all of those who have received their Alienware 18s and to those who are waiting to get theirs, I share your excitement and agony lol.

I have a question for you guys. I'll be getting 5% eGiftcard on my purchase and was gonna pick up a Targus HD3 Gaming Chill Mat. Are cooling mats worth it? Are they effective? Or will regular maintenance be enough? I just want to ensure I take proper actions to make my Alienware 18 last as long as possible. I'll be getting the Vindicator backpack for sure though.

Thanks for reading and I hope to contribute to this community. Seems like a good community to be a part of

TLDR; I'm so effin excited, I just wanna run around in my Spider-Man underoos!

Oh my specs as well

• Alienware 18 BTX Base Mod
• 16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
• English Keyboard
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled
• Broadcom 4352 Driver
• 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching
• Windows 8, 64-bit, English
• Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW)
• Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
• US 125V Power Cord
• Documentation, English
• Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
• 1 Year Limited Warranty
• No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
• Warranty Support, Initial Year
• Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
• In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
• 4th Generation Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4800MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Intel(R)Turbo Boost)
• 18.4 inch (467.36mm) WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display
• 8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
• 330W A/C Adapter
• Alienware Command Center 3.0
• Anodized Aluminum
• Shipping Box Alienware 18
• Resource DVD
• Thank you for Choosing Dell
• Cyberlink Media Suite Essentials DVD
• Placemat English
• Dell.com Order
• Dell.com Order
• Additional Software
• Os Media : Windows 8 64bit, MUI Resource DVD
• Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
• None Required
• Thank You for Choosing Dell
• State Environmental Fee for display 15 inches, less than 35 inches
• Dell Advantage benefits have been applied. CashBack eGift card arrives in 10-20 days & carries a 90 day expiration

 

Niiice. Congrats Fox

 

it's half tempting to call and upgrade to 32GB then just so I never have to mess with the RAM...

edit: oh wait I probably can't since in order to get the 512GB mSATA I had to go with Win 7 Home Premium and Dell won't let you get 32GB of RAM with it since the OS won't recognize more than 16GB

I still don't understand why their configuration system thinks the 512GB mSATA would conflict with Windows 8...

 

Please no!!! I ordered the Kingston 2 x 8192 MB 1600 MHz DDR3 HyperX Non-ECC CL9 Low Voltage (KHX16LS9P1K2/16) and now i have to get under to the keyboard to take out the whole old ram? Nooooooo!!!!!!
Have someone a manual to take the Alienware 18 apart?

 

Because SSD caching is restricted to max 64GB. Its a limit on the software side (SRT).

Alienware sell bigger mSATA SSDs but that is for storage. You can see on the configurator they write this as well:
64GB mSATA SSD Caching
256GB mSATA Boot

EDIT: LOL I can`t read. Sorry, misread your question.

 

Well you could upgrade to Win 7 Pro later on so you won't have the limitation ( Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows)).

Also, upgrading the RAM yourself is quite easy. Just be sure to get low voltage 1.35V RAM.

 

yeah but 32GB of 1.35V RAM is quite pricey right now from what I could find on Newegg oh well 16GB will be plenty anyways until prices come down

edit: gonna create a Camel Egg alert on this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231709 and hope it drops below $100 sometime around Christmas

edit 2: oh boo I didn't realize Camel Egg no longer worked because Newegg screwed them over, wonder if Amazon carries them so I can just make a CamelCamelCamel alert instead...

 

You only need 32GB if you know you need it.

 

What do you do with 32GB of RAM? Do you run a lot of intensive stuff?

 

actually I'd probably only buy one set of it now to have 16GB at 1866

 

i was just checking out my 770 in sli and they seem to be pci @16 but alienware is running the @ 8 again
is this the case

 

Hello everyone. Glad to report my alienware 18 arrived today. For some reason it didnt come with alien fx command center, currently trying to get it downloaded now. Is that normal to not have it preloaded but steam was??

 

Hmm, nope, not normal. But it's nothing to worry about. The AWCC (Alienware Command Center) is an application that can be easily downloaded through Dell's website. If anything, this may prove a human being actually installed Windows and tested your system, but forgot to install that.

Hope all goes well, good luck! We're here to help.