*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

I think you should have saved your money and waited.

 

Please explain why.

 

You should have waited a few months for more information on the next generation of Alienware laptops. The new systems will be coming out in a few months. They usually come out in April, May or June. The second revision will have new hardware and will be better that the current systems.

Also, there will be two mobile GPU's this year: the 880M and 880MX, the latter performing better and on a new architecture known as Maxwell. And AMD seems to have finally come out with their R9 series mobile cards.

 

Very true and I did think about that as well, But I got impatient and the price for the new ones will be higher I am sure . I read about the 880m stating it is just going to be the same as the 780 just more ram. I read it hear in the forums.. that kind of convinced me that the upgraded version will only be slightly better. than the current one. as far as Maxwell it is more about energy efficiency than performance. I will not ever use anything from AMD IMO they suck.

 

The 880M will basically be a higher clocked 780M (e.g. GTX 780 to GTX 780TI), but the 880MX will not. I would at least wait until there's more information.

 

To late for that all ready ordered and in production , thanks for you input whish I could have talked to you before hand might have changed my mind . But no regrets now what is done is done. and later I would hope I could up-grade to the 880 if the performance increase will be worth the cost.

 

It's nothing to worry about, though. Your specifications are great and will play any game on Ultra with ease. All that matters is whether or not you're happy with it. There will always be new tech around the corner. That's just how it is.

 

It's a awesome machine you ordered. Do not regret it one but. For gaming and applications you will not be disappointed at all! Awesome machine, absolutely love mine.

 

Thanks . How long did it take from the time you ordered it to the time you got it. ? the eta for mine is 3Feb

 

Hey folks , with all this talk about fans kicking in quite late, what temps are you seeing on the gpu s when playing a demanding game like crysis 3? Do the gpu s and cpuget really toasty?
Just curious.

 

Yes... 90°C and higher sometimes.

 

90 Degrees !! It sounds like a V12 Ferrari stuck in LA Freeway traffic, and overheating from lack of movement. Maybe someone at the engineering dept at DELL AW18 can convince accounting to plug in a module and uncork this (potential beast) to make the AW18 crazy good. Make the fast even better. Whip those fan tables into shape, with a new improved BIOS, all it takes is a little effort, you guys can do it, we are pushing for it. We are your fans...ok. (I know they got this message, now its up to them, the challenge is on the table.) You just have to talk their language if you want to get things done ...OUT .

 

On that basis you could spend forever waiting and never buy. Tech is always getting better, but lets face it with dual 780m he is not going to struggle for performance for a few years

 

I think Dell/AW has gotten the message. Problem is there are reports that there will be a mass layoff within the next few weeks so the employees are more worried, (Rightly so) about whether they will be around in the next few days than fixing some laptop problems. Dell went private last year and typically, these deals results in a lot of cost cuts.

Some of this maybe redundancies, poor sales performers or what not, but having gone through these before, it's still a huge distraction until it's done and even if it doesn't affect you, it destroys morale in the short term while everyone waits for the axe to fall. You're also never really sure who's going to get cut since if they drop their consumer division, you're pretty much all done till someone buys you out (probably a good thing actually)...

I do wish all the employees best of luck and pull through it ok having gone through this stuff before...

 

That isn't true. I suggested he wait for more information on the new models because we're only a few months away from their release. If there was just a release and I suggested this, you would be correct, but I wouldn't even suggest this if there was.

 

Does anyone know where the factory is that makes the 18 , and how long it takes to get it from time of order.
Thanks in advance.

 

Alienware and many Dell laptops are made by Compal Electronics and they are in Taipei, Thaiwan, China. I don't know how long it takes. It probably varies by how busy they are. Unless a part is on backorder, most orders ship within 10-12 days if I am not mistaken.

http://www.compal.com/default.aspx?Lang=en-us

 

Thanks, is there any type of factory tour video that can be viewed?

 

Thanks, is there any type of factory tour video that can be viewed?

 

I have no idea, Ammo7. Maybe check the link that I gave to see. I haven't looked for one.

 

I did look at the link but no mention of alienware , also is there A parts list out yet ? for the new 18.

 

They do not disclose anything about their private relations with Dell, Lenovo and other manufactures they build laptops for.

Look at the first page of this very thread for a parts list. With a specific part number you can look up prices and availability here: Dell Spare parts - order and info site

 

So they make it over seas and it come strait to me from there or does it go to USA location for final QA then to me?

 

More or less, straight to you. They come to a centralized distribution center in a batch shipment straight from China for re-labeling to individual delivery destinations (I believe Northern California and Tennessee are two such locations) upon arrival in the US, but there is no QA process or inspection by Dell/Alienware employees before it is delivered to your door.

 

MR, Fox you are the man with the answers. Thanks for all your help, I have A 1TB ssd on the way along with the Mobile Edge Alienware Vindicator Backpack - 18" is there anything else you may think would make a good accessary, Sorry for all the questions really hate waiting for delivery , I had to do the same thing for my car about drove my friends crazy waiting for it to arrive., with my car I was able to track each process of the build is there any way to do that with the 18.

 

i think its about time dell release a proper working bios at this point to support CPU and GPU overclocking but if according to haswell OC runs at higher wattage is true then theres most likely no fix. its funny when intel mention broadwell will be 30% more power efficient than haswell but haswell consume easily 30% more power than ivybridge under load.. they lower the standard just to raise it back up to show us they did something LOL

 

I am having problems with losing my bluetooth. I use a bluetooth mouse and I just lose it some times all of the sudden. To regain it removing and reinstalling only works sometimes. If I close the lid and let the lights go out an reopen it always works as the bluetooth services window comes up. I am not sure of my support but I bought the 3 year. I am from Canada, is there a separate number or some good way of contacting support without a huge hassle? I have not yet contacted support on this computer for anything.

 

I believe Dell Tech support for Canada is 1-866-287-6727

 

mine was manufactured in California as per shipping details are you referring to sub assemblies

 

No it wasn't. The factory and assembly line are in China. A lot of people are confused by seeing that on their shipping labels. See my reply to Ammo, above. There is a drop ship location in California and, if I am not mistaken, there another one is in Tennessee. Unless something recently changed, this was confirmed in a conference call the NBR Community had with two Dell/Alienware employees. Your shipping label says that because that is where one of the distribution centers is located when they arrive from China.

I take it you have not see the video of the rough handling by the Chinese workers. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...are-production-line-rough-handling-china.html I do not necessarily put a lot of stock in the video representing the norm. After all, he is on-camera and probably just goofing around to get attention. I only mention it since it relates to the machines being manufactured in China.

 

Does anyone have a link to a production video for the Alienware 18?

 

Would Corsair 2133mhz(1.5v) modules run fine in the M18?

 

If you are referring to the new Alienware 18 with Haswell, (which is not an M18,) no that will not work. This system will not POST unless DDR3L 1.35V memory is installed. It will fail with beep codes indicating memory failure. A couple of new Alienware owners have already tried upgrading their Haswell machine using DDR3 1.5V memory pulled from their SB/IB machines and that is what they experienced.

I believe the M18xR1/R2 are capable of using DDR3L. The new RAM is backward compatible, but the old RAM is not forward compatible.

 

Finally , after 5 days of receiving my maxxxxxxxed out unit from Dell Outlet , I had wrong parts inside than what was showed , Then the correct parts was replaced , and two days later it died. Today a brand new replacement arrived , wrong parts was configured (Hard Drive) , Call up Alienware Tech , told him the issue of the replacement. I then asked the Alienware tech that I will transfer my hard drives (3 SSD) to the new replacement. I was given an O.K. to swap on my own. I'm loving it. Now onto figuring out how to make this baby scream. AW Support never fails me from my m15x days.

Oh, and I love the AW 18 the more I spend time with it.

 

Hey guys I need some help with sound on My 18.
The Dolby Home Theatre V4 Software does not work with HDMI Connected to my TV.
I had seen on the Dolby website that it encodes Dolby digital in realtime but It doesn't even dtect my Sony TV which is further connected to my Home theatre via S/PDIF optical out.
and my TV can only take 5.1 dolby input.
PC games are not encoded in Dolby by default and the software itself doesn't encode 5.1 on my Hometheatre

 

I think ht_addict is talking about the M18xR2 in his signature, not a new AW18. It looks like he has a M18xR2 with 1866 RAM now, and I'm guessing he wants to upgrade his RAM to 2133.

The answer is YES, 2133 is fine. I have 4 x 8GB 2133mhz Corsair Vengeance RAM in my M18xR2 just fine. I have not tried pushing it past 2133, but it runs at stock fine, so I bet there is a little headroom. My modules run at 1.5V.

 

Can we have the model of your TV?

 

Yeah Its A Sony Bravia EX520 Capable of taking inputs of 2 Channel PCM and Dolby Digital.
My Set top box sends Dolby Digital to the TV via HDMI which further sends it to my Home theatre which supports S/PDIF Optical Input.
SO my TV is hooked up with the home theatre with s/pdif and via HDMI to my Alienware. Basically what I want the Laptop to output Dolby 5.1 which is the only 5.1 format it supports.
I think the Dolby Equaliser is supposed to work with the HDMi output

 

Actually I'm selling the memory and have had people ask me if it will work in the new M18's.

 

Hello all . My order has been over a week now and no more info other than in production. what is the average time for delivery from the time of order ? I am on the east coast in GA. talked to dell and all I could get out of them is that it is in process and I should have it before ETA of 3/2,

UPDATE: At 8pm EST I got an email saying shipped and a delivery of 1/25 which would be so awesome , but since I did 2nd day business I really think it will be Monday or Tuesday, I may have to take a day off of work for that

 

Hi guys - it's been a while......

Anyway, gonna be selling off loads of my M18x 'memorabilia' as I'm not re-entering the gaming laptop scene. Many of you will know my story....so.....I will be listing lots of goodies in the Marketplace soon....just wanted to give you a taster of what is up for grabs. PM's welcomed.

x1 512gb Samsung PM830 - brand new and sealed
x2 256gb Samsung PM830 - used, working unsealed
x1 NotePal U3 - fully retail boxed and working
x2 8gb kits of HyperX 1866 - fullyo working, full retail packaging
x1 Harmon Kardon Soundsticks III - pristine, fully working, full retail packaging
X1 Logitech G19s (not G19 - the new one) factory sealed
x1 Wireless XBOX Windows controller & Quick Charge kit (used, perfect condition, fully retail packed)
x1 HP HD5210 Full 1080p Webcam (sealed)
x1 Netgear WNDR3700 Dual band Router (sealed)
x1 Dell 30" UltraSharp U3011 Monitor - light use, full retail packaging, zero pixel problems, zero defects, 100% as new, fully retail packaged - long warranty remaining.

And anything else I can think of........

Keep an eye out in the Marketplace or shoot me a cheeky PM - bear in mind, I'm in the UK for shipping.

Cheers,
Stevie.

 

Probably irrelevant, but why did you leave the gaming laptop scene Steve?

 

Let's just say that Dell and myself had an 'indifference' over what would be a suitable replacement for my defunct M18x.....they 'low-balled' me BIG time on the spec of a replacement machine (I'm talking here that I had a M18x R1 with 2960xm and Dual 6990m's as my original purchase - Dell offered me an R2 with a 3630qm and a single 675m), I argued, they told me to get lost, I argues some more, they still told me to get lost, I argued more.......finally got a bit of satisfaction. A refund.

Don't wanna go through all of that again....hence jumping ship......even after Dell offered me a £250 discount on an order over £3,000 because they FINALLY acknowledged that the spec they offered me was suspect, to say the least...

A little to late after months of dispair fighting a global giant......

 

Update As I thought my new Alienware 18 did not get delivered today it will be Tuesday before I get my new beast machine. it is going to be a long weekend LOL.

 

yea I remember that, it sucked but I treat dell as a company that just sell things and do everything else myself exclude the warranty hardware replacement. if you think of them as McDonald then its ok.

 

Having read through Stevie's story before, one thing which probably was against his casewas that he had an earlier issue and got a replacement once already. This is why I'd recommend that if you can either get a refund or a replacement, you may want to get a refund first and repurchase brand new later since it looked like the earlier replacement may have had an impact on whether Stevie would get his fixed/replace to spec.

This could be also due to the UK being a smaller sales market so for the country manager, he didn't have any "room" to do anything else or is less flexible than the US market.

All my guesses of course...Just seems safer to take the cash though if you got a lemon early on.

 

yes, Canada is a bit better than UK, mainly the fact that we have more people and closer to the states. it sucked we called Dell looking for our case rep which was very professional in assisting us with our issues but was told he got promoted to USA support team by a manager, that made me laugh. so we get the newbies, while USA gets the excellent ones lol. also the fact that they sent two tech to service machine, one of them was under training LOL while the other one watches him to do work, on my friend's $3000 brand new machine.

@stevie, go for broadwell when it comes out with AW. may solve the heating issues lol

 

Pretty much spot on, there.....just that I actually had two replacements - all down to the same problem and there was nothing I could have done about it. I'll explain.

I originally had an R1 with 6990m's - suffered from the infamous 'cold boot' bug where the machine would shut down due to overheating. Dell agreed to replace with exactly the same spec, but this time, they changed me to 580m's, which was great of them to do so.

Anyway, that machine landed and was DOA - totally.

Dell elect (not me) to build another replacement from scratch.....with 580m's....and that one landed and worked just fine up until my last 'can of worms' erupted.

Part of Dell's case against me was based on these 'replacments' - they argued the fact that they had already replaced the machine twice and would not entertain throwing more replacements at me as it was not their practice to carry on replacing replacements with more replacements.

I tried explaining that the first machine was replaced due to Dell hardware issues, that the second was a complete lemon on arrival, but all of that made no difference.

So, yeah.....Dell did use the fact that my machine had been replaced before against me....even though it was their fault twice.

They also argued about depreciation and took the stance of 'why should we give you a 4930mx when your aging 2960xm is now only worth £xxx' (same for gpu's and everything else I originally had). I tried explaining 'like for like or better in the absence of true like for like' but that fell on deaf ears.....all the Exec team kept repeating was the depriciation factor and that I'd already had two replacements......

And that is pretty much what happened to me......sucky, eh?

 

What's really sad about that rationale is the fact that a 4930MX CPU is inferior to a 2960XM. Yeah, it's newer... but, not better. But, I'm sure the person presenting that rationale was not an enthusiast and did not have a clue about real world performance. Heck, there are people that consider themselves to be enthusiasts that don't know that the 4930MX is a functional downgrade.

 

Let us know your thoughts once you get that rig!