*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

Heh, I sent Saltius a ton of messages here when the first vbios was revealed since I was in the process of getting the 680M myself plus I wanted to learn a little about what vbios modifying was all about.

It was posted on a chinese forum, not here. He talked about what he did to make it. So unless svl participate on that chinese forum and Saltius lie, I suggest you take that back Joker. Stop taking credit for something other people have made.

"The first vbios came from marco"
Seriously, is he your idol or something? I was there, on overclock.net, on the forum, participating in the discussion regarding overclocking, SVL wasnt present there, at all. There was user(s) there that did all of this work themselves and I followed GTX Titan owners lounge from the minute it was created..

Like I said earlier in my previous post, SVL is far from the only one that can modify vbioses.

Im not going to keep the discussion going about me calling people a liar or not, since I have already responded to that. Start reading posts instead of repeating yourself,

As for dandan post, since its still there

And there you go with the personal attacks again "even a third grader would understand"

If the chip reaches 70-80C, it is what it is. You cannot say that the chip doesnt run hot if it reach lets say 90C once in a while. I dont care about average. Thats why I asked about graphs from a temperature log from an overclocking session.

So please stop with your silly personal attacks and start thinking outside the box.

 

dandan was clearly out of line there... and his comments are a personal opinion. I suggest ignoring him, just like I am going to ignore your instructions to stop repeating myself.

 

Its not personal opinion when he speaks for the entire forum Fox.

Im not easily offended and frankly I dont care because I have been around users like that for many year on the internet. I know their characteristics which I tried to explain on my previous previous post. But if I ran a forum I would not allowed posts like that because it had nothing to do about the discussion we had nor was it on topic.

It was posted to offend, and you could see how it derailed the whole thread.

 

He is not speaking the entire forum. He may presume to, and make a statement of such, but that does not make it accurate. I thought you had thicker skin that that, dude. I see that kind of behavior more as men acting like unruly teenagers.

If you or anyone else see something you feel is a personal attack or violation of forum rules, please click the link to report the post and state your reason. That's why we have that link available. Those reports do get read and if the mod(s) reading it feel your complaint is justified action will be taken. I don't (and can't) see every post in every thread, and what one mod might view as only too much testosterone and an exhibit of socially retarded behavior other mods might consider a violation of forum rules.

 

I actually reported the post, I even said so here. You were active in the other threads in this subforum at the same time.

I think its very strange that you missed it. And it is extremely bad if a moderator let it slide.

I dont want to be on a forum where posts like that is accepted. And it derails threads, so I dont understand why its accepted on NBR side either.

Anyway, im done discussing this. Enough energy spent from my part on TechInferno and temperatures.

Im getting my Alienware tomorrow actually and cant wait to use it

 

Hmm interesting

 

That's too funny, Bro.....gotta have a +rep for that.

 

I have no dog in this fight Cloud, I don't mind what you or anyone really posts. I have respect for pretty much everyone and I have had problems with only one member I can honestly think of on this forum but that was years ago and he has since been long gone (as many members fade away). I've disagreed recently with Brian and I think he may have thrown an insult my way, or a presumption, but I don't really care nor remember. I don't take it personally. Sometimes, we have to remember that we are all behind a keyboard so it's a little easier to be ruder, more to the point or just plain type something that gets completely misinterpreted.

The reason I am posting this is because of the concept of 'perception.' You are feeling, based on perception, this member attacked you and insulted you. You went back, found the post and highlighted it. However you didn't highlight the actual insult. The insult was "Cloudfire, your weird bro." That's an attack. The bold part is just that user make an untrue statement that really makes him look worse because the whole forum doesn't dislike you. You stopped the bold without finishing the sentence "and try to stir stuff up." That totally changes the sentence.

So this comes to perception and while being attacked is not fun, it's important to really see where the attack is specifically and without inference. You can't infer an insult if it's blatant and that is "your weird bro." Personally, I just would have continued on or said something to the effect of: "strong grammar bro." Then be done with it.

"Even a third grader would understand" is pretty condescending but it's not really a personal attack. Actually I think that is indeed the line I got fed to except you at least got to the 3rd grade level with him. I was left at Kindergarten. Those type of comments I wouldn't say are against forum rules and really reflect worse on the person writing them then on the person receiving them based on how you respond. I'd say just brush this off and move forward in the way you feel necessary with the forums. You have total control of staying or leaving but I hope it's not based on the perception that "the whole forum doesn't like you" because that's just the perception of one user.

 

are you guy serious?

 

Well condecending or just personal attacks. I don't understand why people need to post them.

This discussion, temperatures on the GPUs when overclocked, and pretty much everything we discuss in the threads at NBR, is technical and therefor it should be easy to stay on topic while talking about it.

I guess youre right, people are much ruder on the internet. Especially when it involves some pretty big ego's that need to be nurtured.

About being called "weird", that could both be interpreted positive and negative, which is why I didnt bold it. I didnt personally feel insulted by his comment either, since Ive been around for quite some time and had my share of this turd tossing that happens everywhere. It was more of a "what if someone else get this thrown in their face that doesnt take it, should it be allowed?"
---------------------------------------------------------------


Anyhow, on topic: Should I go for 750GB Samsung EVO, 512GB Samsung PRO or 2*256GB Samsung PRO in Raid0? What do you guys think?

I get my notebook tomorrow and still havent bought any SSDs yet. Been too buisy to pick one up

 

You're right. They were inappropriate words to use. That kind of commentary is useless and there is no valid reason to be a jerk to anyone. Whenever I find someone extremely annoying, online or in-person, I generally pretend they don't exist. That allows me to get even with them silently, as people like that generally thrive on the emotional responses their agitating behavior elicits and the silent treatment deprives them of any satisfaction. It also sends a loud and clear message that their opinions are regarded as worthless and irrelevant.

Back on topic... If you have the discretionary funds, the 750GB EVO would be a great choice, but I really like SSD RAID0 and I would choose the 2*256GB PRO in RAID0.

Maybe if you get those and go with a RAID0 setup we can compare notes on performance with the two drives that I ordered today, as I mentioned in this post. They have been running pretty close in the couple of reviews I have seen.

 

Cloud - what happened to the 1tb Evo in your signature? - or are you just after more storage on top of that?

If you are running Win 8, you might wanna think about TRIM and RAID.

 

@Fox: Finally ditching those pesky OCZ drives ey? I avoid OCZ like the plague since they have a big history of unreliable drives.

Corsair Neutron is an excellent choice. I think your right, they should be pretty much equal to the PROs and the best there is.

Its just that I have never used Raid0 before. How does one make a configuration like that? Plug in the 2 SSDs, go to BIOS and select Raid0 under "SATA drives", reboot, plug in USB with Windows7/8, format the SSDs, and install Windows? Is that it?

@Stevie: I originally planned to buy it, but way too much space for me. Feel like its wasted money on something I will not use anyways. The thing about EVOs is that you need atleast 750GB. That and 1TB are a good deal quicker than 250GB/500GB according to specs

Edit: I will be using Win 8 yes. Is TRIM and Win8 a problem? Why?
*off too google*

 

The easiest way is to install Windows on one drive. Get everything set up without RAID0, drivers, the whole shebang. Then use Intel RST within Windows to create the RAID0 membership. When it finishes the migration you can either create a separate partition in the unallocated space or use the Windows Disk Management Utility to "Extend Volume" to use of the disk space. Intel RST will actually tell you this when you create the RAID0 array. The RAID0 array is initially the size of one drive with 50% being unallocated disk space once the conversion is finished. This works extremely well, and it gives you the opportunity to create an image of a non-RAID setup in case you ever need it.

This is the method I am going to use to set up the Neutrons. The other method is similar, but slightly more involved and you don't have an opportunity to create a non-RAID image for future use.

Either way, the BIOS is set to RAID, not AHCI. The other method involved pressing Ctrl+I at POST, creating a RAID0 membership on RAW drives, then installing Windows. You may need to use Intel RST F6 drivers during Windows setup (not a big deal). The Windows way take a bit longer, but it is easier. Regardless of which method you use, set 128K stripe size. It is really easy to miss this when you are setting up RAID using RST in Windows because it is not jumping out in front of you during the process. You have click on another tab ("Advanced" I believe) to set the stripe size. If you don't do it, it defaults to like 16K and you have to start over from scratch.

Yeah, I made a stupid mistake on the Agility 3 drives. They are still WAY BETTER than spinning platters. I got them dirt cheap so I can't complain too much. But, I would never recommend them to anyone else, or go buy them. Actually, I don't really like any Sandforce controller SSD. The newer OCZ SSD drives using the Indilinx controller actually seem to be pretty decent.

Edit: In regard to RAID0 TRIM in Windows 8, this seems to be kind of a mystery. It sometimes works and sometimes does not, and I don't know why. It's not the end of the world. I ran SSD RAID0 with the older RST OROM that does not support TRIM for a long time. Native GC and other SSD tools have worked nicely for me with Crucial M4 SSD RAID0 and the Agility 3 RAID0. You can run a manual TRIM operation with Windows 8 as well. (Windows 7 does not have native support for a manual TRIM command, but you can use other methods if necessary.) Trim Check used to work for me consistently under Windows 7. It does not work under Windows 8, or under Windows 7 when it is dual-booted with Windows 8 on the same RAID0 array. I have no idea why that is and lot of what I read about it online I think is questionable. But, it still does not stop me from using SSD RAID0. I am also not entirely convinced that Trim Check is a 100% reliable indicator of whether TRIM is or is not functioning.

 

I'm sure Fox can elaborate on TRIM and Windows 8 - personally, I've not run Win 8 for much more than a week or so, therefore my knowledge of it's limitations are somewhat 'limited' themselves....however, I did pick up on something Fox said about Win 8 and Trim....

 

@Fox: wow thanks for the guide. Really useful
Question though: you say 50% is unallocated after doing the IntelRST thingy? This will still be used by the Raid array right? Also, only 1 drive will show up after doing this (512GB) or 2 drives (2*256GB)?

Yeah the Indilinx is generally better than the Sandforce drives in reliability. But not much. Here look at the NewEgg ratings of OCZ Vector 256GB. 30% rating it 1 or 2 eggs.
Samsung/Intel is generally around 5% ish on their drives...
Im still very sceptical to anyting they make to be honest.

@Steve: Well according to me quick googling, Win8 should support TRIM under Raid0. I was gonna give Win8 a chance after last time I almost puked when using it, but will now use those third psrty apps like Stardock if 8.1 is still yucky

 

That's what I thought too, Cloud - regarding Win 8 and TRIM for RAID0. Maybe Fox can elaborate on what he mentioned regarding TRIM and Win 8.....I had thought it worked by default, but his comment made me think twice....

Edit: Just read Fox's edit lol....thanks, Bro.

 

Glad to help. When you create the RAID0 membership in Windows using two matching drives, the partition created is the size of one drive (50% of both combined), but the rest of the disk array is available. You can create a partition using the other 50% or simply expand the existing partition to include the unallocated space. This takes a minute or two to set up after RST converts/merges the two drives. Also important to note, if you have data on both drives, one will be erased. You instruct Windows/RST which drive to keep the data and which one to erase. This makes sense when you understand the process, but it is important to know in advance. If you choose to use two dissimilar drives, you would have a usable volume capacity equal to twice that of the smaller drive. The excess disk space on the larger drive would be unusable.

If you create the membership using the Intel RST OROM at POST, then it uses the entire capacity of both drives by default. If you RAID0 more than two drives, then the volume is the entire capacity of all drives combined if they are all the same size. If they are dissimilar sizes, the combined capacity is a multiple of the smallest drive in the array times the number of drives included in the array. The same applies to speed... the slowest drive in a mismatched sets the bar on the speed of the array.

If you bump into any issues setting it up, let me know and I will help more. The opening post here has some obsolete links, but conceptually should prove useful as well: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...es-sata-iii-ssd-upgrade-raid0-discussion.html

I am by no means an authority on the subject of SSD RAID0 TRIM. That has not been in existence for very long, and I think little is understood by most people about that technology. I am primarily saying it does not work based on complaints of others that it does not work. I am suspicious that in some case it may actually be working fine and the Trim Check utility so many people rely on is giving misleading information. Trim Check used to work consistently for me under Windows 7 running the exact same hardware. It stopped working when I installed Windows 8. However, I notice that some of the SSD documentation I see online also makes comments to the effect that TRIM under RAID0 is not supported by the SSD manufacturer on systems running Windows 8, so there may be some truth to it. It may also be an inconsistency issue that causes them to not support it, rather than a 100% failure rate.

In some ways my comments about ditching Windows 8 are made in haste, although they are reflective of my periodic frustration with the product. I have mixed feelings about ditching Windows 8 completely. It's a love/hate relationship. Personally, I see it as being a piece of absolute trash in its default form from Microsoft. To put it very bluntly, the Modern UI sucks like a big dog in my opinion. Cloud, your feeling about the aesthetics of the M18xR1/R2 is similar to the way I feel about the aesthetic of Windows 8. It's like, "Wow, I died and woke up in a cartoon world composed entirely of 32 pastel colors." Life with the Windows 8 Modern UI is like living in a box of 32-count Crayola Crayons, LOL. You can customize it however you want, along as it is within the parameters provided. It's terribly ugly and boring, and it is extreme inefficient to use... even with a touch screen. I use two different Windows 8 systems with multi-touch displays. It feels more natural, but it is still very inefficient to navigate through layers of junk, swipe this, swipe that, rigmarole to do very simple tasks. Using keyboard and mouse on the desktop is a LOT more efficient than using the Modern UI. The Windows apps are mostly adware and a revenue generating scheme. I find none that of them offer any discernible value to my PC use experience... not even one. A few are fancy toys that have limited value, but look nice. (Weather app is a nice example of this.)

With the extensive tweaks I have in place, I have transformed it into a really decent OS and it is much like Windows 7 with extra features. The one Windows 8 feature that is totally awesome is the Win-X menu. The part of it that I truly loathe is that Windows 8 impairs CPU performance. It can often be more frustrating than Windows 7 to use.

Because personal preferences vary, I would encourage anyone that has never used Windows 8 to try it. Some people really like it, even in its default form, so what matters most is how you feel about it. If you like it, that's awesome. If not, either tweak the living daylights out of it like I have, or go back to Windows 7. Just don't skip it and wonder. Learn to deal with it now. Windows 7 support will be gone at some point, and I expect Microsoft to support it for less time than they have past versions of Windows. They have an agenda to get as many screwed up machines with the next phase of the UEFI lock-down and Secure Boot into circulation as fast as they possibly can. That will mean forced upgrades (hardware and OS) as they deem appropriate, and zero opportunities to run Linux or a Hackintosh setup. I hate that aspect of Windows 8 with a passion... their underlying intent is not honorable IMHO.

Sorry for the rant. Nevertheless, manual TRIM does work really well with Windows 8 and RAID0, so don't allow this to be a reason to avoid Windows 8 or RAID0. See screen shot below.

 

really. I'm using an ocz vertex 4 256gb with no problem.

 

any one playing outlast? very nice game!

 

That one have pretty good rating. Not amazing but very good
Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-256G 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Not yet, but I plan to. It looks pretty freaky. I love games that put me on edge like that. Not one you want to play around little kids unless you like staying up all night because of the boogie man, LOL.

 

Why the arguments about temps all the time. I meant to ask you that the last 15 threads started about it? Way to many variables to be 100 percent sure across the board on this, but that is only my opinion.

As to this 580M/680M/780M stuff. Sorry but I was the one who put the final nail in all these gpus. And you have to know that is a fact right cloud? I mean you act as if the man deserves no credit at all. Come now. Im pretty sure I can dig up quite a few post of you backing him on many occasions. And salitus took a vbios svl7 and I worked on. Took what he needed and added it to his paid version of his software. Which is fine if he gave credit to where it actually came from first. How do I know this? Because while you guys were "running around like chickens with your heads cut off (LOL)" I was the only person sitting with a working copy, remember? And i did that for a straight 2 weeks to be sure that it was svl7 and myself that did it. And during that time, not one person on the face of the planet had anything working. Everyone was waiting for the beta testing to end, remember? Now after we publish this everyone else starts showing up with working copies? Why after the fact? The challenge was set already. I tip my hat of to anyone in the game of bios/vbios editing to make life much more easier for the rest of us!! Because without there help, we would be no where at the end of the day.

Im only speaking truths about what is what and not temps and graphs since that's pretty much useless at the end of the day. If it gets hot, cool it, if it doesn't, enjoy it.

The rest of that other stuff...just sort of comical.... tisk tisk tisk.

 

Just freaking great, as if dell didn't made me wait long enough, I took the day off, sat home for delivery guy to arrive, he was suppose to show up more than 2hrs ago. He rings me and tells me, dell gave him an address completely opposite side of town and now I have to wait till monday or goto there depot (90min+ away from me) to go and pick it up tomorrow.

This is after the fact, i confirmed the address with courier company on monday and again today in the morning. Great, just freaking great

 

I need to correct this. It is only partially accurate. The portion is red is not accurate. I just checked again this evening and RAID0 TRIM testing using the TrimCheck utility under Windows 7 DOES show to be working consistently (see screen shot), but this fails consistently under Windows 8. Both OS are installed on the same SSD RAID0 volume, so it's not an issue with the SSD drives. Whether it is an issue with Windows 8 or something about the TrimCheck utility itself that does not work correctly and gives misleading information with Windows 8 is unknown. It looks like there is a possibility that RAID0 SSD TRIM support is unreliable with Windows 8.



I need to run the same tests with the Alienware 18 (which boots Windows 7 exclusively) to confirm it functions equally well, but I do not expect the result to be different than it is on the M18xR2 as shown in the above example.

 

Finally after almost an hour arguing with dell customer service, laptop is on its way to me with after hours delivery. Hopefully this time they bring it to correct address.

EDIT: Woooooohooooooo just got me aw18 delivered and following are first impressions.

- Damm those images don't do any justice, whatsoever to the laptop. Its jumps right in the face. My experience with apple is, usually macbooks feel premium product on unboxing and AW18 feels same if not better. Good one AW.
- Very easy to upgrade major components (that usually get updated), super easy access to bottom ram slot/hdd's/ODD/msata. ODD usually being my biggest gripe and is the hardest to update but in aw18 its super easy to change.
- Color is not silver and not gold, a bit mix but looks very good.
- I was skeptical on the leds, but so far they seem very good, I usually have majority of them off on my M17r4 but in Aw18 they will stay on.

From modding considerations.
- Plenty of free space inside, if someone wants to do major modding, similar to the one done on eepc701. More than enough space to add internal usb-hub, extra items.
- The way AW designed the ODD bracket, its genius. It would be super easy to replace ODD and add a thicker HDD. With my measurements, it will be ok to add 15mm thick HDD in there, WITHOUT the ODD adapter frame and with flex. If one can get hold of ODD adapter cable, then it will be super easy to add upto 18mm thick HDD in the same bracket with a bit of double sided tape.
- The connecter for ODD is same mechanically as connector for HDD's, not sure if electrically its same. To me it seems like, somewhere in the pipeline AW thought about adding 2x HDD's in ODD slot but abandoned the idea. There is enough space for 2x9.5mm HDD's in ODD bay.
- Running mpcie-to-dual-sata can enable twin msata or twin SSD' in ODD space, just need to work out the cables.

- From modding point, it will be super easy to remove ODD and add a HDD upto 18mm in thickness, using same bracket. Just need to work out the connector.

Personally I am considering running 2x msata and ODD in the same space as there is enough space (6mm thick) under the ODD bracket, using following.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laptop-Mini...ptop_Port_Expansion_Cards&hash=item1c35c6a79e
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140993488679?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Already got these on order, so will post further if I can get this running. Obviously this is not bootable but good for adding more storage. Also I will try running a bigger HDD off usb if I can.

The biggest point for me is, Connectors for ODD and HDD's is mechanically same, just not sure if electronically its same. I will try swapping these tomorrow. To me it seems, AW had considerations for having 2x 2.5" HDD's in ODD place but might have abandoned this.

All in all, alot of experimenting to be done and AW18 has crazy potential for upgrades

 

Great news buddy. Love your enthusiasm! Keep us posted about your ODD plans. It would be really good to get that extra disk drive space we miss from the R2.

 

I just tested the height and the fact that aw18 uses cable for odd, combined with extra space at the bottom of odd, we can fit any 2.5" hdd in there.

I just disassembled a generic ebay, odd to hdd case (from e6420) and I was able to install a single hdd and stack another one on top. Both fit perfectly, which indicates we can add a hdd upto 19mm in thickness, all we need is to disassemble the generic odd to hdd adapter to get to the board and then a piece of plastic to insulate the hdd from short circuiting with the bracket. The way the bracket is made, we can just use double tape as spacer, so hdd doesn't move around.

Installing hdd bracket and cable into odd spot doesn't work, laptop goes dead and needs complete power drain, battery and CMOS battery need to be removed and power button needs pressing for 30 seconds before it comes back to life.

Once I order msata ssd, I will move the 64gb caching drive under the odd. Afaik no one has tried booting from mpcie-USB-adapter in aw18, so not sure if that's possible or not.

 

Oh well! My order has been delayed.

 

What about using the correct bracket and cable available from Alienware to install a 2.5" HDD/SSD in the ODD bay along with one of these Dual mini-SATA to SATA RAID Adapter?

 

Hmm, interesting!

 

That will work but that takes space of ODD. I don't wanna loose ODD, especially considering, I just updated BD-ROM to UJ235A.

With this, I get 2 Usb slots and with this, I convert those usb's to msata slots.

And this way, if I need more storage later down the road, I still have the option to remove ODD, although I don't want to do that.

 

Ah, OK. I missed the point that you were trying to keep the ODD inside of the chassis.

 

Oops its seems I misunderstood too. I thought you were intending to take out the ODD for 2 x HDD/SSD.

 

Sweet! It finally arrived

 

Soo, cloudfuego. Why did you order with the 770M?

 

Yep, thats right, the thingy next to the power supply for the Alienware 18, is, indeed an iPad




And, not just americans get that cool little tag underneath the notebook either.
(Im missing some of it on the photo, but it says "DEPLOYED" on the far left.)

 

I'll just say that you and SVL was not the first one with the GTX 680M. He worked with someone else in this forum which I cant remember the name of. He got his 680M (I think it was Clevo) a long time before anyone else. The two wasnt even remotely close to the scores we had once Saltius came in the picture.

Now, Im not sure if the three of you (I cant even remember you were active here...), SVL, you and Saltius were working on the same vbios, but it was a chinese guy who posted a new vbios with higher voltage with pretty awesome score. Not someone from TechInferno, not this forum. I cant remember the exact forum, but it might have been benyouhui. So sorry if I find it strange if SVL was behind all of this.

From there, the guy who SVL had been working on, got the vbios through ME, because I got it from that chinese forum.

I specifically remember SVL responding to me that I shouldnt post the vbios for everyone to use, since Saltius might not like that. So I shared it through PM (after asking Saltius) and said that everyone who posted scores should acknowledge that it was Saltius masterpiece.

From there, Meaker got involved, he worked with SVL and they unlocked the clock slider.

As for your "I have the best score, therefor I was the original one" regarding 680M and GTX Titan. I didnt say Saltius made the very best vbios with the highest scores. I said he was the one who really unlocked the potential of the 680M. Before that, it was throttling and stuff like that with the attempts SVL did.

Just because you have the fastest cooling Titans doesnt mean you were the one who made everything happen either. I dont think that SVL is bad at tweaking the video cards either. He is prosbably really good at it.

Now can we please drop this discussion and move on?
Well I will. Maybe Im wrong, maybe Im right, I dont really care anymore.

I wont be posting anymore about this. And I'll ignore any post that continue the discussion.

 

You should work for fox news with the amount of bs you make up.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

​

 

I really like my 18...

 

That would be the best thing to do....

And I will say this in open forums.....When you beat my scores with your own version of the vbios other than ours, then i will submit. Untill that day happens, never. And the funny thing is...it's kind of easy to tell when you steal code and use it else where..Exactly why the 2 week delay in releasing.
To make sure people don't come along and do exactly what you just did. LOL

 

Hmm, I thought this thread was supposed to be about the Alienware M18? C'mon gents, rest your cases or flame each other using PM.

 

ummmmmm, yeah...okay. not!

 

Quick question: The AW 18 has a headphone and a headset jack. On the headset jack, is it normal for a 3.5mm headphone not to go in completely?

 

Ok, I have to ask:

The people who say the Alienware 18 is too big and weigh too much, have these people only been using Ultrabooks?

I find the Alienware 18 to be almost perfect size. I didnt find it too thick, nor was it too big. Also the weight wasnt that bad. Yes its a bit heavier than the rest (like my GT70), but I had absolutely no problem carrying it around in the house.

The PSU was a little wide, but it was remarkably light (compared to the size) and luckily its not very high.

I was pretty concerned after hearing people being shocked when unboxing it, but it was actually a pleasantly surprise for me

 

Hi. New to the forum, and planning on buying my first Alienware (going with the 18) after MANY years of simply building my own desktop. I have to ask to confirm is the Ethernet (not the WiFi) the Killer networks one. I saw it on the first page of the thread but That was back in June I think, and I just want to know if that is still the type that is on the system say when I buy next week.

 

Yes it is.

 

I find aw18 a teeny bit thick, but that could be the design making it feel thick.

Psu is same as m18xr2 or my ancient m1730, so pretty heavy, lol

Same here, unboxing was pleasant and surprising, different to pretty much everything dell/aw ever did.