*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

Thank you roughavoc.. I just want to make sure that 18.4" does NOT include the frame of the display (the borders). If someone who owns an Alienware 18 could answer this, I would really appreciate it. Thank you all.

 

U3 + 8k rpm amc fans is the way to go, abit loud but very good, I have been putting the review and images off for some time but once I get my aw18 (in 3 days), I will post some pictures and temps here

 

The screen is an 18.4" visible display...just like you would measure a TV for screen size. Dell advertise it as such, as you can see from the Alienware landing page for the Alienware 18: Alienware 18 HD Gaming Laptop Details | Dell UK (scroll down, select tech specs tab).

The measurement is taken diagonally, from a bottom corner to the opposite top corner of the display. This measurement is for the screen only and does not include the bezel.

 

yeah otherwise this would be a 15'' laptop....

 

Just got my replacement 18. No SLI option. Phone tech couldn't fix the issue so they are sending someone to my home with an SLI cable.Ugh!

 

I've had this on my Amazon wish list forever:
Over Bed Table: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

When you have 12-13 pounds on you, I figure this is the best option if you need to get up every so often,,,Also better if you need to use a mouse, etc...I can't stand using the touch pad only.

I haven't purchased it yet, but I haven't had much of a need yet.

 

I ordered the LapGear, I'll give some impressions once it gets here and I've used it a bit

I use my mouse on my recliner's armrest already so that was never a concern for me


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

 

If I order an 18 with 4930 and 780M sli how long is the build time? Are they out of stock of the 780s?

 

Mines went into production on 9/4. It was delivered on 9/13. Next business day delivery.

 

It's looks like they maybe short on the 780m's for the 18 I tried to order a 18 and 17 yesterday and it won't let me order the 18 with the without going with the top tier setup which I don't need. I wanted to get the 4930MX with 16g and 780m's with 750 HDD seeing that I already have the SSD's but the option has been removed
The 17 still has the option to upgrade to the 780m though.

 

I guess their supply fluctuates. That option was available the other day.

 

Where is the SLI option supposed to appear, so I can check when I get mine - BIOS?

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

 

There should be a nVidia settings icon in the notification area, you can click on that icon to view and modify the settings.

 

Nvidia control panel. This is located in the Windows control panel.

 

Yeah I saw that it was available but I was trying to figure out what my fiancé wanted I'm her 17 and I went to place the order last night and it was only showing the $5199 model, I was so pissed but I guess I'm back to the waiting game

 

see that's the thing, I'm not sure if the dimensions are including the borders or excluding them.. I'd feel much better if an Alienware 18 owner could measure it and let us know. I chatted with the customer service and they told me 18.4 includes the borders, which is not good news. But I don't know if he knew what he was talking about, because the comments above says otherwise.

 

Whoever you chatted with is clueless, the screen is 18.4 inches. Screen measurements never include the bezel and this is true with TVs, laptops, monitors, phones, and handheld systems.

 

Will there ever be an unlocked bios for the 18 or does Dell have it so it can't be unlocked? Is the only thing you can presently adjust the cpu multipliers? No flex or priplane settings?

 

It is, definitively and exactly, 467.36mm (18.4 inch) viewable area.

 

AnandTech | Alienware 18 Gaming Notebook Review

Anandtech's review is out. For the most part, I agree with what the reviewer says. We need to have the CPU options in BIOS unlocked, and we need switchable/manual fan control. The screen's measurements seem to be underwhelming. Oh well...

 

The 18 and 14 being my first Alienware I have owned and kept because I like them both so much. Ive had two other AW systems back in early to mid 2000. Not sure I completely agree with all the assessment by AnandTech. For one they complain about the screen being glossy. I dislike glossy screens being a photographer. the screen on the 18 isn't that bad of a gloss. Plus as stated elsewhere they just don't manufacture a 18.4 matte panel so there really is no option for AW but to have this one. For a laptop IPS panel i think it is very nice as I do my 14. It could be a little brighter, yes but i have definitely seen worse. When doing my color sensitive work I use an external display anyway especially when Im going to print with the photos. I have calibrated my 14 and 18 with my Spyder 4 Elite and it has made a difference color accuracy for sure. I have and will edit on laptop lcd when traveling.
Performance wise this thing is a beast IMO, I went with the lowly 4800 and I love it. My 14 has a 4700 and it is PLENTY fast. The mistake people make I think are trying to compare these things to desktops. yes you can build a desktop for less that will out perform. Spend 30 minutes bundling cables, making 3 trips to your car to load up. Spend 30 minutes setting up somewhere. The 18 offers insane performance, yeah AW is a premium brand and they charge for it. But in the end from my experience, you pay for what you get. The sound is GREAT for a laptop. The only other laptop ive owned that sounded this good and maybe a little better was my MSI GT70 Dragon. In the end with that machine it just ran to hot for my taste.
I personally like the touchpad. I think the whole thing lighting up was ingenious and how it will turn off. Honestly i am not trying to be a AW fan boy, I havent only owned these machine for 1.5 months but it is probably the best windows based touch pad I have used. I am coming form using Mac machines and their hasnt been a windows based manufacturer been able to come close (again my opinion). The AW as come close, much much better than my Asus g75vx i just gave my son.
In the end it is a notebook and IMO one of the better looking windows PC's and high end desktop replacement laptops you can buy. The 18 is built like a tank, it is SOLID. You know you have a quality machine when you hold, open, look at and use this beast. It seems AW is having trouble keeping up with demand on these things. Now that is bad for the end user and the potential buyer but also good because they have hit another home run from what I have seen. I like my 18 so much i have decided to sell my desktop and move completely to my 18 and 14 solutions...
This is my 2 cents worth of my opinion. Glad everyone has an opinion and is entitled to their own opinion. I have a lot more to say and am planning on a complete more in depth write up of the 14 and 18 soon.

 

I disagree with a great deal of the AnandTech review, but I typically do not agree with many of their computer system reviews. They always overly seem biased against big laptops and that personal preference always diminishes their credibility in my eyes. It taints every review they do on big laptops. I always find it irritating to hear the comments about it being too big or too heavy, and the notion of having a m-ITX and monitor as an option is downright stupid. I can take these 18" beasts anywhere and everywhere a 15" or 17" laptop can go, but you cannot use a m-ITX system with an external monitor for travel. The author seems to not recognize that the people most interested in a review on an 18" SLI beast really don't give a rat's bottom about his "weapon of choice" or his personal preference to compromise performance in favor of a smaller and less powerful system. I think it also diminished the author's credibility to restate what he did not like about the M18xR1/R2, as if that has any bearing on the review of the new 18. So, just because he did not like the previous 18" model--an opinion which thousands of happy M18xR1/R2 customers disagree with--this new 18" has an uphill battle to overcome with the reviewer instead of an open mind.

But, I'm glad they actually noticed how poorly the Haswell CPU performance is. That part of the review I do agree with. It's too bad their review unit did not have 4930MX because it would have been even more apparent that there is a CPU performance problem that needs to be fixed. That got missed in a lot of reviews and it should draw appropriate negative attention. It's a serious problem. I know they are working on fixing it, but the sooner the better on the BIOS update. It can't come a moment too soon.

I do agree with the author's observations about IPS displays not being all that great compared to TN. I also agree with the observations about AMD, but here again I find myself questioning the value of those comments. The former was an effort to try to appease an overly-verbose set of customers that were incessantly whining about needing a better display, and the latter probably didn't need to be mentioned at all because AMD doesn't have a place at the table. I think the comments about last year's AMD product diminishes the credibility of the reviewer also, just as his big laptop bias does. I would be fine with criticizing AMD if they had a GPU competing with 780M that failed, but comparing 780M with AMD's mistakes of 2012 is a dirty punch below the belt IMHO.

 

they advocated building a mini-ITX desktop and buying a monitor instead... I can't take that review seriously with that because while I don't know a lot about building a desktop I find it highly skeptical that you could build one with mini-ITX that would be thousands of dollars cheaper yet as fast or faster

 

In addition to that.... it would not be a system you can use as a laptop. Can it be transported to a friend's house for the occasional LAN party? Sure, it can. Does it fit in a backpack and go on business trips? Absolutely not. That was an extremely stupid comment in the review. That option is really not even portable enough to move from room-to-room multiple times in a day.

 

I found that this comment in his conclusion was a bit harsh:

Not only does this comment fit the reviewers 'personal favouritism' to the 17, it also ridicules anyone else who opts for an 18x that can't quite stretch to 'the full monty' if you will....obviously the reviewer does not know (or perhaps does not care) that these machines are upgradable aftermarket for those who want to do so.

It's a bit like saying, if you cant afford a Bugatti right NOW, don't even bother - take the bus instead.....when that really couldn't be further from the truth. Although it's 'nice' to have a 4930mx and 780m SLI, and yes, you would benefit from them, it does NOT make lesser specifications 'a waste' and I am sure that machines with 4900mq/770m SLI (or lesser) will still perform very nicely - sure, they might not be world record holders for benchmarks, or have THE very best FPS, but they WILL fit a market for those who cannot/do not want to blow $5k+ on a machine...and they will do so in style, as well.

What a tool that guy is.....

 

I don't even remember him being that favorable towards the 17 in his review of it, as I recall he said the keyboard a step back which is odd since I've seen quite a few people on hear say how much better the new models keyboards are compared to the previous ones

 

The 18 is a niche product where people need a gaming like solution in something that they can carry in a backpack or briefcase.

My current job has this demand if I want to be a gamer, so the 18 is the only game in town for me. Sure, the 17 could probably suffice, but, the 18 does everything that I want it to do... if they happen to release a new BIOS update that fixes a majority of everyone's' concerns.

 

Yup, I hear you. Why "settle" for less if you can afford the better product and want the most performance available in a laptop. That whole rationale is too silly.

 

what can he possible know about the m18/m18xR1/2.

 

Bro what configuration in your new 18 and best of luck with it

 

What's interesting is that they prefer the 17 yet fail to note that they are 'almost' the same size. And personally, I think the 17, based on it's size, makes less sense to purchase as there are other smaller alternatives that can give the 17 a run for it's money (value/performance wise). However it wasn't a bad review but I did find the 'glowing aesthetics' review almost a paid advert from AW. No mention of the ridiculous bezel and the main nitpick was the track pad which is one of the nicer design moves AW did with the machine in my view..and most others views as well. Just weird. I am glad they pointed out the Haswell issue but wished they used an R2 with 680s when comparing the machine. Again...seems like AW may have had more influence in that review than we think....

 

does anyone know how to make it so the num lock is on by default?

edit: checked in the BIOS but if there is a setting for it I missed it

 

Everything can be unlocked by modders, even if it's "locked".

 

It is actually a Windows setting for the default user (logon) or current user.

Extract the .reg file inside this zip and merge it into your registry - this is how it is done on Windows 7 and I believe it is still valid for Windows 8.

 

The Anandtech review

Performance
"Good performance, but unfortunately its only as good as GTX 780"

Yeah poor us, its only as good as a GPU that master 1080p gaming. Here is a newsflash for you: The notebook actually have a 1080p display. It isnt a 1600p display like you have on desktops.

Display:
AW 17 vs AW 18:
Contrast: equal
White: AW 18 wins
Black: AW 17 barely wins
Colour accuracy: Equal, but AW18 is the best out of all the notebooks they have tested.
Colour gamut: AW 17 wins
Summary in my opinion: They are equal

Alienware 17 review: "It is an amazing display."
Alienware 18 review: "It is a poor display"

Comment: Previous review said AW 18 display have 72% AdobeRGB (Anandtech found 64%), and previous review said 98% sRGB (which is the most important), Anandtech didnt even test it.

Price:
"Alienware 18 is expensive. You can build a mini-ATX for half the price. The two are comparable. Buying Alienware 18 is just silly"


Seriously, what a bunch of clowns.

 

Dude, why are you still here? All empty words as usual?

Spoiler

 

What made me laugh about the Anandtech review was this part:

Good job Dell P R, keep sending Anandtech more review units. Seems to be working out great.:thumbsup:

 

Well, it's not like the NBR 'review' of the 17 was any better...

 

Yeah, I really have little respect for Anandtech. It's hard to give much credence to their biased reviews. You can make any review turn out as good or bad as you want it to when you have an agenda. The only part I was glad about is the evidence that the BIOS needs to be fixed. Theirs is the first review I have seen where the system was pushed enough for that problem to become evident in testing. It cannot hurt for the urgency of the need for a good BIOS to be brought into the limelight.

The mini-ITX comment was more evidence of an agenda. That's probably one of the most idiotic comments that I have ever read in a review. I'd like to see someone packing a mini-ITX desktop and LCD monitor in a backpack on a cross-country plane trip.

 

She will come with 4930XM,780M in SLI, etc.

 

Thing is both Dustin and Jarred have a huge bias against big gaming notebooks like the M18. They are more of the engadget type of editor that enjoys crappy tablets and MB Air as opposed to using a powerful system. Now I personally fall into that line of thinking as well lately (small notebook for travel + desktop for gaming) but I also see the value in a notebook like M18 and if I were reviewing it, I wouldn't inject my own personal preference and bias into said review. I just don't understand why Dell keeps sending Anandtech unit after unit, it should be pretty obvious to them that they will never get a good review there. The other sites they send units to (including NBR) do really poor reviews.

 

The problem with reviews (and I LOVE reading them all!) is that sometimes, I can now see why people hate them as well. This review is like me reviewing any Apple product. As I've never actually ever bought an Apple product, having someone review something they would never use or would ever buy seems like a major fail by Anandtech...At least he starts off by saying he was not a fan to begin with putting the whole review "in doubt" IMO.

I love their SSD reviews, but this is like if I were to review first person shooters (or apple stuff) having never played much of them and not having any interest in them...It's just someone "going to work" and "putting in their hours" and why it shows that enthusiasts like some of the folks here will probably always do a better job than Dell themselves on some of the tweeking.

Same goes for people without kids talking about how to raise kids or someone never having a g/f giving relationship advice...

All that said, I suppose if you are in the market for an SLI mobile platform, the AW M18 is still the only game in town...

 

There's the Clevo NP9570 (Clevo P570WM) too

Once upon a time I was looking at Clevo too, since they are cheaper.

 

Totally agree. I really hate it when (any) reviewer who is reviewing a gaming notebook (note the emphasis on notebook) decides to compare said notebook to a desktop - wether it be mITX or other. These guys simply just do NOT get the fact that people, like the people in this forum, buy said notebook for PORTABILITY. I very much doubt that you would see some dude lugging around a mITX case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, power bricks etc on a casual impromptu basis.

The beauty of a powerful gaming NOTEBOOK is that you CAN take it anywhere (even if it's just to the crapper, whilst you pinch one off! - not something I do, but hey....I COULD if I wanted to!) and you can do so very easily without putting your back out.

Comparing to a desktop is absolutely ridiculous. I could walk into a store and ask for an orange.....I personally want to buy an orange because it is just that...an orange. If I wanted an apple (yes, pun intended) I would freakin' well ask for an apple, wouldn't I??

These reviewers really just do not understand the concept of wanting to own something powerful and portable.....which is a shame because that type of 'argument' is always raised...the "coulda got a desktop for $xxx....." comments that we all see tossed about when talking about Alienware. I am pretty sure that the majority of Alienware owners are quite aware of what they could have bought....I very much doubt that they need constant reminding by some muppet who thinks he knows best......

 

Strictly saying, I would consider the AW 18 as 'transportable' rather than being 'portable'.

 

Just my 2 cents for their review:

I am an advance amateur photographer, as I used to work part-time, before and during my University times. Personally due to the later, I am addicted to good screens; I found Mac's screens to be the best so far -especially their late 17" Anti-glare 1200p monitor, which is my holy grail in laptop screens.
The AW17 screen is definitely much better than most Windows machines. However I found it far for perfect as it has an insane amount of gamma in it, fails to show blacks and producing a little-bit wash-out blues-purples. The biggest issue I had with it, was the moire effect.
The AW18 in my honest opinion is much better than the 17, while it is less bright the contract and colour reproduction in stock-config are better. The 18 doesn't have any moire effect issues -maybe due to a better A/A filter on the panel. While not on-par with the MBP17, it is one of the best ones in a 17+" machines if you ask me.

Comparing the AW with a desktop -regardless if it is mini-ITX or not- in raw performance charts is a good move. Shows how much power Dell/AW packed in a mobile system However the claims and comparisons later on are just stupid. It is like the reviewer can't afford one for himself and tries to give reasons, why the AW18 is not worth it.
For the performance, the AW18 in some games outperformed the desktop and that is without a custom vBios, any OC or the -hopefully- soon-to-be-released BIOS update for the GPUs by Dell.
As for the price issue: actually the desktop specs they listed, if bought from a systems' builder in the UK will only save you maybe less than 3-400 pounds with a cheap monitor and no keyboard/mouse/speakers -talking after all the discounts someone may get for the AW18 with 2x780Ms and the 4800MQ.

I was debating before getting the AW18 whenever to get a mini-ITX or not, until I thought: the mini-ITX even if it is remarkable small for a desktop, it is still a desktop. You can't carry it to a friend's house, abroad or to work as you need a monitor, speakers, mouse/keyboard as well on-top of the machine. If you want/need portability more than once a year, the AW18 is a much better choice.
Now that I am using the AW18 for almost a week, I am more than happy with my choice

 

I was gonna leave this forum actually. That M18x vs 18 thread was the final nail in the coffin. But I have talked to several people on this forum who wanted me to stay because they appriciate my posts.

But atleast I have figured you guys out. Mr Fox was a disgrace because he ignored a discussion that kept heating up. On top of that, dandan posted something really bad, and it Mr Fox again ignored it. Now I dont know what happend here but Im pretty sure it was because he acted like a user, and didnt do his duty as a moderator. No mention of infractions, not even a edit of dandan's post where he attacked me. I was gonna send Charles Jefferies a message telling him about what happend, but only if I decided to leave this forum.
That Mr Fox didnt intervene against you or dandan is pretty revealing. Me and the people I spoke to know that Fox, you and Joker hangs out at TechInferno. I know you make Vbios for the majority of people here, and because of that, Fox is afraid to speak up against you. Because that, maybe will result in a bump in your friendship, and also in the contribution from you on the vbios part.
As a moderator, its sad to see a moderator taking parts in a discussion, where I wasnt attacking anyone, let personal attacks slide through because dandan just happend to say he "adore Mr Fox".
Ego aside, his duty is to be unpartial and moderate this forum according to the rules, not his feelings.

Now I dont know what policy sticks underneath these shallow rules in this forum, but this is certainly not the first time this forun have been pretty sloppy moderated. And moderators have taken sides.

As for you SVL, Im not afraid to speak up against you. Same apply for Mr Fox. I even had this long discussion with Jarred and Sklavos, where they bashed GT70 in a review and claimed 96C for the CPU was perfectly normal. Like MSI designed the cooling system to allow these temps. Temperature was rising there too, but in the end, Jarred agreed that yeah, the unit had probably a bad paste job and they would try to get MSI to send them another unit to review. Also there we had people with dandan characteristics. They bashed and hurled personal attacks against me because I dared challenge Anandtech's review. "Paid by MSI" "You are stupid" etc. Oh poor precious Anandtech, how dare I speak up against that mighty site.

Its the exact same here too. Dandan, Mr Fox, Joker, they all come and try their best to help each other against an enemy, which happens to be me it seems. You are nothing special SVL. You mod bios for video cards. Oh great. There is like thousands of you all across internet that can do this. Go to overclockers, there you find many that will help you. There are mutliple sites that make changes for you. There are software that can do it which are easy to understand. You are nothing special, but you absolutely believe that based of your post history. You have this superiority problem, but it is actually unwarranted.

I've been here for a while now. You even took the credit for what Saltius did. You had no clue how to make the GTX 680M fly. You tried multiple times with another Clevo user, but had major problems with throttling and everything. Then Saltius came along. With a new vbios with the right amount of voltage across the board. We got massive increase in performance. All you did after, was add your little unlocked slider, and suddenly you were the hero. The only hero there, was Saltius. Without him you would have continued to fly around with your head chopped off like a chicken.

Same with removing GPU Boost on the 780M. You did nothing original here. Everything was fixed and ready, by the people who worked on the GTX Titan. They removed it because it interfered with overclocking.

So yeah, I have a perfect understanding of your little group now. I had way better belief in Mr Fox that he would come through after my last post regarding that I would delete my profile if nothing happend, because him and me have been around for quite some time in this forum. We shared some secrets (he knows what Im talking about) on private PM etc.

Oh well.

 

Well, I agree with Jarred that there are no real innovators in the "gaming laptop" market with the possible exception of Razer. That alone is almost enough frustration to buy a desktop. It was easy for me to recommend AW over competitors a few months ago. Between the BIOS issues, QC, and always playing second-fiddle to Dell's mobile workstations--no 180 degree hinges, inferior screen options, no WiGig options, no mil-spec testing, build quality is probably not as good as Precisions, less connectivity, more expensive warranties with inferior customer service, no Intel wi-fi, more locked-down configurations, and the "AW design" and packaging don't cost nearly as much as they did a few years ago, but we get more lights--despite the similar prices, AW has a few issues.

Maybe Dell is taking advantage of the lack of competent gaming laptop vendors.

 

Cloud, I don't consider you an enemy at all and I am sorry you think that. I did not see a post where you were attacked by someone else.

You make a lot of bold comments and often state strong personal opinions that can be taken more than one way. Sometimes other members of the forum feel the need to challenge your statements. Personally, I don't have a problem with your comments or opinions. We all have personal opinions and ideas. I do remember posting (don't recall which thread) a comment recently that something was not appropriate or impolite in response something you had posted and it ended then and there.

I enjoy many of the things you post and have told you as much through rep, likes and a few PM. I certainly don't agree with everything you post, but lively debate keeps things from getting boring. So, in response to your comments I am making a public declaration that you're not an enemy and I am glad you are here. (And, I think I already said that once before, in a different thread.) If you choose to go on believing otherwise, I won't be able to help resolve that issue.

 

This quote comes to mind: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt". Mr. Fox had no reason to intervene in that thread because no rules were broken, its YOUR ego that is the problem, not svl7's, not Mr. Fox's or anyone else. You were the first one to call Mr. Fox a liar and when I followed up with a similar assertion, you called BS on my post. Then you pointed out the TI review and somehow failed to even interpret that correctly--and I'm sorry to say that even a third grader would have understood a simple bar graph and realized that when looking at min/max/avg, that avg is the most salient point, not the single tmax.

With regards to us "hanging out" at Tech|Inferno, that would include a large part of the people that read the AW forums here on NBR. Does that mean all of us are in on some conspiracy? T|I is open to anyone to visit and post, including you and it isn't some secret society and what happens there certainly has no bearing on NBR.

As far as saltius, why don't you e-mail him and ask him who did what? I guarantee you he would never take credit for Marco's work and vice versa. These mods were done by Marco because he pioneered almost all of it and it cannot be found anywhere else, certainly not on OCN like you claim. The first unlocked Titan vbios with no boost came from Marco but if you actually knew what you are talking about, you'd have known that. You would also know that raising the power limit on a vbios and removing boost are completely different animals--that's why nobody on OCN knew how to do it until Marco unlocked it for them.

There's no conspiracy and certainly no failure on Mr. Fox's part to intervene, the problem is that you have a tendency to irritate just about everyone around (including NBR admins from what I remember) with your nonsense.