*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

you seem to miss the point some of us are trying to decide what to buy
I was looking at the 17 with 780 or 18 with what gpu and what cpu
his information helped me decide that one 780 would not do the trick and the best option would be 770sli so M18
and that there is little difference from the 4800 and the 4900 so saved me alot of money
no body else seems to post any information to help in these decisions

 

glad i could help

 

Yes, this is basically what I meant. I was on a cell walking to class and made a quick post. Hope I didn't start this little debate, it wasn't meant to be offensive, lol.

Gotta work with what'cha got.

 

I finished with top of my department marks a Computer Science degree last year, now working as a Java developer. I believe I know a thing or two about computers and how they work. I don't every single model of CPUs and GPUs, how they scale etc etc, but I know there is a reason WHY we sometimes pay more for that extra performance.

Performance increases from one point and on, are not really in an almost linear increase, but more like exponential. However there are people who need that extra performance or got the money to justify the price premium.

Similar to cameras: Most people will be satisfied by their point & click camera or even their phone's camera -which should provide the best money value and yet we crazy people buy those expensive dSLRs!

V-Sync pretty much caps your FPS to 60, so disabling or enabling it won't make any real difference. I didn't try Crysis 3 yet, but from online benchmarks, etc, it is hardware demanding -and maybe badly optimised, If you can return the laptop and afford a few extra dollars/pounds upgrade to the 770Ms. Otherwise turn-off AA (most people at 1080p may not even noticed the difference in non-stills screenshots) and upgrade your GPU next year,

 

Or one can have it all. It doesn't cost that much money, $600 for a SSD. If you can afford to get the AW 18, you can get the SSD

Like for example, this gentleman above who got a distinction in CS, working as Java delveoper, if he's based in Silicon Valley, surviving on bread alone, he will have no problem getting the AW 18 spec'ed exactly like mine, in 1 month. It's all about priorities.

AA will become less needed as the resolution scales beyond 1080p. In Metro Last Light, I leave AA off but everything else maxed out.

Potentially one could fit 3 2.5 inch drives into the 18. Since there's technically enough space in the ODD compartment, but there's only 1 SATA II connector. Like someone mentioned before, maybe it was considered when designing it, but they decided to not go through with it.

 

Java developer?

Why on earth does someone voluntarily decide to work with that AWFUL code?

 

It pays the bills It isn't awful once you get the hang of it! I prefer it over .net and definitely over any scripting language.

 

I got no issues paying $600 for an ssd but dell didnt had a 256gb msata available

Yep its about priorities

You can actually put 4x 2.5" drives, or 3x 2.5" drives with one upto 18mm thick.

From what I have seen so far, Dell might have had considerations of having upto 4 2.5" drives in there, 2 standard bracket and other 2 in ODD slot but abandoned this for some reason. Even the connectors are mechanically same for ODD and HDD's.

 

10 print "I love my AW 18"
20 goto 10


The extent of my remembering programming on my Radio Shack Color Computer in 1985 before I went high tech with my Amiga.

 

I believe in the AW 18, not the older M18X, you can only put in 3 x 2.5" drives, with a MSATA. There's not enough connector for the last 2.5" drive.

 

Yep. Two standard HDD's and an mSATA, and if you want, a third standard HDD in the optical bay.

 

Hahahaha

The Java way: for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) System.out.println("I love my AW18");

 

public class WhyOnEarthWouldAnyoneWantToCodeWithJava{
public static void main(String args[]){
System.out.println("Seriously');
}
}

 

How you enjoying the new Alien 18 Cloud? :thumbsup:
Got any bench scores yet?

Cheers.

 

Because it has a clear syntax, with lots of libraries and the JVM doing all the garbage collection for you... Moreover it is portable!

Java Forever And Ever Movie (JAVA vs Windows .Net) - YouTube

 

This is what I am trying to clear. AW18 actually has space upto 21mm thick in ODD slot, and cable connector for ODD and HDD bracket is same mechanically, NOT electronically. This is why I assume, dell had considered giving us option to have two 2.5" drives instead of ODD but dropped the idea due to some reason. With standard ODD bracket, we can still add upto 18mm thick HDD in the ODD bracket using something like this, just need to disassemble the caddy and get the board out and secure HDD and board with double sided tape.

 

Not sure if a thick drive will fit physically, since the bay is screwed onto another metal plate, which is then screwed onto the chassis. You wanna try and let us know?

 

If you buy above mentioned odd adapter and take out the connector board, then you can remove odd and use same bracket to install upto 18mm thick hdd. I know this coz i measured it. I cannot make it any clear

 

I was fortunate enough to obtain the hd bracket to replace my optical drive from AW. It fits nicely and looks good. I am toying with a 3 x 512gb 840 pro raid 0 scenario. Haven't made my mind up yet.

 

It looks really nice there in its box on the table.
Still missing my SSD.
Will start using it on Saturday or Moday.

Meh, I had my share of this code.
Lots of stuff doesnt make sense, and it have to be completely correct code and syntax used or else it will refuse to compile.

But kudos to you for sticking to it. I rather use C++ or .NET.

 

And for you sticking with .NET! C++ is ok and a must to know -helps you learn real programming imo- but I would take Java over it any day

 

Hi

I bought an Alienware 18 on the 9/10/2013 and it's been in pre production for 10 working days now, not counting the weekends. I spent €3,695 on the darn thing and you'd think they start building it already?!

I rang them up a few days ago and I was told the Sata HDD is out of stock and so is the 780 Graphics card. I rang them again today (2 days later) still out of stock. They keep quoting my estimated arrival time is 7 days from now but there's no chance that's going to happen now as they haven't even gone through the stages of building/testing it. I live in Ireland and delivery alone would take 3-4 days minimum. It's Friday now so it's goning to drag onto next week now. Fantastic.

It's so frustrating. I understand that some machines take time and all but 10 days sitting in limbo?!

I've read all sorts of stories on the web about delays but I didn't think i'd be one of them.

 

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about stock shortages. You'll just have to wait like the rest of us...

I spent a lot on my Alienware as well, and I'm still waiting. The amount of money you spend has no influence on speeding up the production process. Look on the bright side, though: you should be happy that they build your machine to meet your needs instead of grabbing one off of a shelf somewhere and throwing it on a truck. This takes time on their part, and patience on yours.

Edit: Your best option is to have a representative open a case to follow the order and they'll contact you when updates are noted on the order.

 

I wouldnt do it. You will experience latency and higher access times compared to Raid0 with 2 drives. It will be faster with file transfers, but for 4K and normal tasks, the access times will slow you down.
Plus you increase the risk of a fatal error if any of those 3 drives say byebye.

Either do 2 x SSDs in Raid0 or a big single SSD imo

 

The ODD runs on SATA II, not III. Stick to using the SATA III port for SSD.

 

Hm someone told me it runs on sata 3... this is not good.

 

When did you order yours? what specs does yours have?

Overclocked 4th Gen Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4900MQ processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz w/ Intel(R)Turbo Boost)


16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz

750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching

Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW)

Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled

Operating System : English Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT)

-1 year of Next Business Day coverage included with your PC

-1 Year NBD with Premium Phone Support1 -4 Years NBD with Premium Phone Support

-4 years Accidental Damage Protection

I'm hoping to play the likes of Arma 3, DayZ Standalone, CS;GO and Battlefield 4 on max graphics.

I've been a console fanboy on xbox live since 2003 but I'm done with all that. I sold my xbox and solely want to play on pc and make videos.

 

I don`t think there are any SATA2 available on Series 8 chipsets. Pure SATA3.

 

It was super nice to see Alienware offering that option, since many of us have been using ODD-HDD conversion caddies for a couple of years now. RAID0 a pair of nice sized SSD for Windows. Put a 1TB HDD in the ODD bay for data, then use an mSATA SSD to cache-accelerate it. You can only use up to 64GB for caching, but if you grab a high capacity mSATA SSD drive space above and beyond the cache volume can also be partitioned and utilized. So, there is no down-side to getting a large mSATA SSD, too. If only you need to use a ODD once in a while, external USB will get the job done nicely without wasting a SATA port for something seldom used.

 

View attachment 102172

I stand corrected then. It says SATA/600, meaning SATA rev. 3, which is also SATA 6 Gbit/s, which is also SATA 600MB/s, am I right? I am glad the M500 (which I swapped to the ODD slot after I got the EVO) is running at full speed now. I don't really care as it's dedicated to keeping my music collection.

I guess sometimes you're right too. :thumbsup:

 

Im always right

Spoiler

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No seriously, I am

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Spoiler

Spoiler

 

If you're always right your AW would have arrived when I got mine.

So, are you gonna do the EVO in RAID 0? I am rather curious to see how it'd perform in RAID 0, unfortunately I have the 840 Pro, and because the 18 doesn't have space for 4x 2.5" drives I can't do EVO in RAID 0.

 

I ditched my whole Raid0 project. I didn`t see much benefit from using it. Atleast not with my user pattern.

Samsung 840 EVO 500GB is on its way.

 

Whats unfortunate about the 840 pro?

 

PRO is a little bit slower than EVO`s.
EVO support RAPID, PRO doesn`t.
EVO is a little bit cheaper than PRO

Thats the three things that pushed me to buy EVO

 

We'll see how long the tlc stands up... Im a personal fan of the pro... Not sold on this rapid stuff and the cheaper nand..

 

Because I have the 840 Pro, and AW 18 doesn't support 4x 2.5" drives, I can't try out RAID 0 with the EVO. Nothing unfortunate about the 840 Pro. The thing that's unfortunate, is that I can't get two EVO and try them in RAID 0.

It's MLC compared to TLC, I'd prefer to keep my OS on the longer lasting MLC drive. Another thing, the Pro should have better coherence than the EVO. But nothing beats the Corsair Neutron's LAMD controller in terms of coherence.

Also the performance of EVO could potentially drop below the Pro when you fill up the cache/buffer by transferring big files. As the benchmark which I linked in another thread shows, there're ways to overload the RAPID, so the performance could be less than without the RAPID enabled. Without RAPID, the EVO is just about as fast as the Pro.

I once copied like 400GB of stuff frrom the M500 to the EVO. The speed was about 400-500MB/s, sustained. Not sure which drive was being the limit there.

 

Especially notice Samsung 840 vs EVO. HUGE difference :thumbsup:


etc etc

 

is this correct as i asked tech support if i could do this and they said no
i couldnt split the msata for cash and general use

 

is this correct as i asked tech support if i could do this and they said no
i couldnt split the msata for cash and general use
cach locks the msata for its sole use

 

Good to see fellow software developers hanging out here making the same choice I did to buy an 18. Gotta have all that power so I can run multiple development environments, virtual machine for ubuntu, and oh yeah... gaming!

But I do have a question. I also have more money than brains and bought what I "needed" which was the top tier model maxed out - 4930MX, 780 SLI, 32GB, all SSD and mSATA - and although I am planning to run an external Blu-ray writer, depending on how inconvenient this is, I may consider replacing the ODD slot SSD with an actual ODD.

I know most people go the other way (replacing ODD with an HDD/SSD), but I wanted to know what would be involved in replacing that SSD with a Blu-ray burner. Specifically, does anyone know of a burner that fits and works in the 18, and will I have to remove a caddy and/or swap out a connector cable?

Since I don't have my machine yet, if I can get specific models or part numbers for the cable,caddy, and/or drive, that would be great!

 

Do you mean cache or cash? You could sell the mSATA for cash, or you could use it to cache the HDD. If you're use higher capacity drive, only 64GB at most can be used as cache. And that assuming you're using a feature of Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST), which is Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT). Sometimes I wonder which clown in Intel figured it'd be a good idea to call stuff RST and SRT.

The rest of space on the mSATA will just appear as a normal drive.

 

Of course it is correct. Otherwise, I would not have posted it. I am running a machine configured exactly that way. Look at my signature. The new 18 functions exactly as the M18xR2 does in this regard, except it has one less drive bay available than the M18xR2. I am using my excess (over 64GB) mSATA SSD space to store my Acronis disk images.

So, nope... that's baloney. The person that told you no is simply misinformed. What should have been said is "we don't offer that configuration and, therefore, cannot offer you any technical support for that setup" and/or "I have no idea" instead of "no" LOL.

 

great i will reconfigure my system immediately

 

Awesome... here's what my RST Control Panel looks like with this setup.


click to enlarge image

 

Samsung has stated that the RAPID technology will in the 840 Pro as well later this year according to this article:
A closer look at RAPID DRAM caching on the Samsung 840 EVO SSD - The Tech Report - Page 1

"As a result, we weren't able to explore thoroughly the EVO's secondary caching layer, otherwise known as RAPID mode. This optional, software-based solution commandeers a portion of system memory for use as a separate drive cache. It's also coming to Samsung's 840 Pro later this year."

My thinking is that it just boils down to how much you can get the EVO for and if you think 5 years of warranty (vs 3) and the benefits of the pro is worth the slightly added cost.. I've seen the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro sell for $199 or so. A quick search on slickdeals shows the 250GB 840 EVO went for $165 lowest with tons of thumb ups.

Is that $34 worth 2 more years?

I'd like to see how the pro performs with RAPID first, but for the 2 year warranty, I'm leaning toward the Pro myself...

 

Since the product is relatively new, I think the extra 2 years of warranty might be something good to have. On a mature product with a strong track record over time it would be less important. It should be solid and trouble free based on the brand history, but it remains to be seen. The 5 year warranty on the Neutron was something I took into consideration for the same reason... you never know. Early adoption always has risks and longer warranties are appreciated when things turn out differently than expected.

 

Geez Fox you need to invest in some External HDDs as I don't know how you "get by" with nearly 3 terabytes of disk space

 

O
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Not for Mr. Fox I would suspect that Professor Fox is working somewhere, as we speak, deep in his lair extracting more horsepower, torque and speed from his stable of speed kings.....


Edit: I wonder what benchmark he wants to obliterate next.....