*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

i just buy parts and build it myself lol, its more expensive at times but overall its great, at least i won't have bad quality laptop put together with different in palmrest height or partial light malfunctioning as i check them myself. im planning to grab an AW18 when broadwell comes out and mod the crap out of it, we'll see.

heres some extra of customizing, the alienware logo was from Aikimox! too bad don't see him around anymore.

 

I remember Brother Aiki's screen mod's - awesome!!

 

yes, his screen mod is fairly nicely done, could be better but overall i liked it. its basically like AW18 without the glossy, better brighter color and way less reflection. and of course logo is one and only!

 

Typically the intel controller is easier to manage though a full hardware controller would be superior that's not really doable in a notebook. The Samsung drive has its own chip as mr.fox says which handles the NAND in the drive.

 

actually, intel has their own controller. but im looking forward to sandforce 3700 for superb speed and cheap cost.

 

Replacement unit arrived finally and now i am able to enable crossfire but if i try to run any game or 3Dmarks screen starts flickering with blick bars running down the screen , if I run the same games and disable crossfire everything works fine so not a happy camper still :-(

 

First post,

Have been reading the Forums wanted to thank Mr Fox,TBoneSan and Meaker for all they do and write about, you all influenced me to buy AW even though it comes with a cost...lol an understatement....but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for...

So here are my specs:


Alienware 18 Base


16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (4x4GB)


Dual NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 880M graphics with 16GB total (2x 8GB) GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI(R) Enabled

Intel 802.11n/ac Wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 driver

1TB/5400 RPM + 80G caching mSATA

Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 @ 5GHz + Bluetooth 4.0

4th Generation Intel Core i7-4810MQ processor (Quad Core, 6MB Cache, up 3.8GHz)

18.4 inch (467.36mm) WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display

8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery


I know about the 880m's but it was either that or the m290x and I'm not a big fan of AMD.....I didn't think I needed a bigger CPU, 4810mq should be able to handle the 2 880ms right? Anything look wrong or I should change?


Thanks guys! =)

 

Please guys, I need a little help. I am looking to upgrade my laptop memory and I’m confused about what to buy to match my system specs.
I know someone with availability for sale the model Corsair Vengeance 32GB 1866MHz 204pin SODIMM (10-10-10-27 latency, 1.5V), but I heard this model is only compatible with Intel 2nd and 3rd generation.
Another question is whether the Alienware 18 accepts 2133MHz memory. Could you please specify a good memory model with full compatibility with my system specs?

______________________________________________________________
ALIENWARE 18
[email protected] / 32GB DDR3 1600 Mhz Crucial / GTX 780M SLI / Samsung 840 EVO 512GB / Samsung mSATA PM841 512GB / WD 1TB HDD / Win 8 Pro
CURRENT DESKTOP
i7 [email protected] / Asus R4E / 3 Way SLI EVGA GTX 780 SC@1120Mhz / Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (XMP 2400Mhz) / OCZ Revodrive3 X2 240GB / Samsung 840 EVO 512GB / Corsair AX1200i / EK Supreme Full Watercooling System / Phobya Touch 6 fan controller / Win 8 Pro

 

You heard right - at 1.5v, ram of that voltage will not work in any of the current Alienware machines - 14, 17 and 18 alike. You will need to get low voltage memory which runs at 1.35v - check the spec's when you are looking. As for 2133, although the sticks will run in the 18, they will not run at 2133Mhz....the maximum speed seems to be 1866Mhz.

Here are some suggestions (I'm not endorsing one or the other) based on you wanting 32gb - these are 2x8gb module kits, so you need two kits of any for 32gb.

Crucial Ballistix Sport SODIMM 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1866 MT/s (PC3-14900) CL10 @1.35V 204-Pin Memory BLS2K8G3N18AES4

Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance Performance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz Laptop Memory (CMSX16GX3M2B1866C10): Computers & Accessories

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Memory, Laptop Memory, 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM, 16GB (2 x 8G), DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000), 1.35V (4 results from matching search requirements listed)

Looking at the spec's of the machine you posted, if you already have 32gb of 1600Mhz ram, I'd be contemplating if you really need to drop a lot more cash for a relatively small increase in performance, however we are Alienware owners and we're all about performance, so if you're fine with it, go for it !! - personally, I'd maybe be thinking of adding more SSD goodness to your machine instead....

 

Turns out Dell is pretty expedient with system exchanges too. Picking up my replacement from the shipping facility today. Gotta say I feel very regretful and dicked over with my Alienware experience so far.

It's disappointing. I guess I have no one to blame but myself. I jumped on the 880m bandwagon too quick and it ended up being a slap in the face with all the throttling and other assorted issues. Follow that with the laptop just completely ting out any time I play something more strenuous than a 2-D game

I really hope this replacement works out. I just want the thing to work as intended without throttling issues.

Crossing my fingers.

 

Hi all.

as I currently have a base model AW18 with the i7-4700 and 765 sli, I am thinking of upgrading. I was wondering if it is still possible to get an AW 18 with the 780m's in it. Not sure I want to go the 880M route due to price and issues they seem to be having. I also thought about just buying 2 780's and maybe an i7-4900 but then I would need them installed. Though I have fooled around a bit I am not willing to try to install those things myself so I was wondering if it's possible to get a dell rep to install them. 3rd question is will we be seeing any type of refresh on these soon. Not build wise, but processor and video card wise? Thanks for any help and advice.

 

Maxwell leaks are hitting the web from other parts of the world now, which usually means they will be released here within 1-3 months (most likely the latter). You're better off waiting for Maxwell. So far, we've seen evidence suggesting more than 50% increase in performance over Kepler.

But no, Dell/Alienware representatives will not help you customize your laptop - you're on your own with that. But don't be intimidated. Take an hour or two and read through the owner's manual, and maybe even watch upgrade videos on YouTube. It's really not as scary as it seems.

Also, unless you're planning on doing some CPU intensive tasks like video editing or compilations with MSVC, the upgrade from 4700MQ to 4900MQ isn't worth the cost. You're better off putting that money toward SSD's and/or GPU upgrades down the road.

 

Did I miss something ?

 

The 860M is proof enough. It suggests the 28nm architecture provides substantial increases in performance due to the ability for them to have increased amount of cuda cores.

The last few pages of the Maxwell thread in the gaming forum talks about this. I might have explained it wrong.

 

Thanks for the response and sorry about where my question ended up. It was supposed to be a new thread. Seems I started it on the wrong tab while I was reading. Sorry again.

 

So far my replacement has been working solidly. Not a single crash and things seem to be running well. Haven't done any benchmarks yet but I'm just happy I can play games for more than an hour without worrying about a crash. I still have yet to talk to Dell about some kind of compensation for my ordeal. I don't want a huge handout... just something that says "Sorry you had to deal with a broken laptop for 2 months" and I'll be completely happy.

 

my advices are to wait, for Tonga and maxwell, other wise the GPU isn't even worth upgrading without some temperature/power efficiency improvement especially without die shrink its hard for them to fit more config cores. to make it worse, more haswell refresh =). i say wait for broadwell and new GPU with 2400mhz ram from kingston @ 32gb.

 

Hehe.. I'd genuinely love to share your 50% increase optimism. 860 Maxwell is impressive but things might not scale up linearly. If it scales into a higher performance card which I'm still waiting to see I'll be a very happy chappy.

 

hello i ordered aw 18 and it should arrive at 28th this month now i was looking around on net about its temperatures etc and thats how i found you guys anyway to make it short i have few questions i would want to have answer to.

Please note i would like answers on all questions its very important to me.PM me or replay here thanks


this is what i ordered:

Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT) - Deutsch
16 GB, 1.600 MHz DDR3L-Dual-Channel-Speicher
Interne Tastatur - - Deutsch (QWERTZ)
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M with 8GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Intel 802.11n/ac Wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 driver
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (9.5mm)
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0
Die vierte Generation der Intel® Core™i7-4710MQ Prozessor (6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Intel® Turbo Boost)
46,7 cm (18,4'') WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display
330-W-Netzteil


so here it goes:

1. can CPU i picked support this 2 GPU without being bottleneck?


2. has DELL/ALIENWARE fixed fan issues upon release of aw 18?i read ppl had issues with fans not speeding up to cool CPU in time and that result in thermal shutdown,and fans were locked on 500RPM less then its maximum.


3.has dell updated bios and fixed problems from my question number 2?


4.can my CPU run its max real boost speed with 330 power supply?i read here it was a issue also not running its speed that he was ment to,therefore having better CPU would be just money waste i guess?

5.what is normal CPU & GPUtemperature now?i cant imagine CPU running at 95-98 celsius being normal and not shortering life of my CPU.

 

1. yes it can
2. fan issue should be with hwinfo only, system auto fan control should be ok, wait around for more info on this part
3. bios update are for others stuff EC included, don't think there was any issue unless hwinfo was used
4. only if you overclock you GPU too much then your entire system goes over 330w, your cpu is fine
5. i'd say stay under 80c if you can, no need to OC anything just use it normally, your cpu isn't for oc anyway

 

Hi guys, I need help because I'm getting a little bit of tired of Alienware 18 now. I have bought one recently and all is fine except freaking WIFI not working at all. I've read about problematic broadcom wifi cards so I thought it might be it. I've bought Intel Ultimate-n 6300 which is recommended in other threads. After installing drivers I get yellow exclamation mark in the device manager, ??? This is really frustrating and I don't really want to send it back to dell and wait 1-2months for repair as I use this laptop in my work. WIFI is turned on i BIOS and I use fn+f2 to make sure it's enabled in windows 7. I use the latest drivers from intel's website. What do you guys recommend doing?
Is there a free pci-e slot that I can use to test it out? I think it's the pci-e slot that is not working...

 

Is it going to be possible to replace 780ms kepler with maxwell version once cards with substantial more power will come out?

 

thank you for ur replay,i do not intend to overclock anything cause i dont know to do it and i dont wanna experiment and ruin over 3,000£ mashine. im just asking for those temps cause i will play demanding games cause of that i wonder how much degrees C will my CPU hit if i leave it as it is..so it should be under 80 C you say?

 

maxwell should be mxm 3.1 connector which is compatible with current ones so yes

yours will probably stay under 80C no problem. unless there are fan issue that im not aware of otherwise it should be ok. don't use hwinfo fancontrol

 

Which fancontrol then? I find hwinfo just fine to use.

 

alright,thanks cant wait for it to arrive :F but damn china -.- i tought its being manufactured here in germany =) seams not

 

Yeah, HWiNFO64 fan control is excellent. That's what I use. If you don't enable EC support there will be limited available fan speed steps, but I don't really care. I usually go with "System Auto" or full blast anyway, so the in-between fan speed possibilities are irrelevant to me.

 

the in between is what makes it nice, too bad those freezes the software though. or if i can change the default 0 2k and 4.3k to something like 1.8k 2.7k and 4.3k then it'd be nice

 

Most of the time I don't have any issues with the EC Support being enabled. On the M18xR2 with NVIDIA GPUs the worst that might happen is hanging during Windows shutdown, but I have not encountered any hard lock-ups while using Windows like I did with 6970M, 6990M and 7970M.

 

Hey guys,

Does the new alienware come with dolby digital plus or home theatre V4 ?

Because I heard it comes with home theatre but mine has come with digital plus

 

I got my Broadcom working using the newest drive and AW18 BIOS.
If you've installed correctly and have the proper drivers, then it might be a hardware issue.
You have a friend who can let you try in their laptop?

Might be best to start a thread of your own.

 

sounds about right, which is why im currently looking at nvidia GPU. if i have AMD its on auto fan control, or 2k/4.3k EC disabled which isn't very good for my 4.7-4.8ghz heatsink mod. at 2k fan it'll just overheat and jump up to 4.3k and repeat constantly quite annoying.

 

It seems that Dell has taken down the A09 guys, I couldn't see it on the Support section anymore. BTW, I had downloaded and flashed it onto mine already. Have no idead why they've done that.

 

Hello,

is the alienware 18 comes with different CPU Heatsink like dual and triple pipes? because with my 4900mq cpu i can barely do anything and at 20C room temp my cpu easily goes to 90C .... so im guessing i have a dual pipe heatsink that would be upgradable... to triple pipe ? what would be the part number?

 

Alienware 18 "Viking" Parts List looks like all use the same CPU heat sink. You probably need to look into applying a better thermal paste, like Liquid Ultra, or at least IC Diamond.

 

alright, Liquid Ultra it is then thank you

damnit can't find Liquid Ultra in stock for now grrrrr


edit: bought it directly on maker's site... going to take 30 day to get lol but i will get some.

 

You can order it here: http://www.amazon.ca/Coollaboratory...8&qid=1405269423&sr=8-1&keywords=Liquid+ultra

 

Does anyone here uses Samsung Magician to improve 840/850 EVO/PRO SSD performance? I was using v4.3 and have updated yesterday to v4.4 both versions on rapid mode enabled. After this update, when the OS boot's up, I notice that CPU use is greater and so the temps too. Reading the Magician manual I found that RAPID mode starts its operation 45 seconds after OS booting using RAM as caching.
But the main issue of all this is that with v4.3 the CPU use when booting up was not greater than now with v4.4. After a few minutes the system stabilizes but this is pissing me up. Has anyone with same problem?

 

So happy, T - 6 HOURS to go! Gonna be the proud owner of a 12 pound beast, can't wait! Been without a computer for almost a month and its been kind nice but me and my wife are both sick of using her mac, its time for me to move on lol.

 

Hi all, I have a curious problem, well a question more than problem. I have AW18 GTX 765's with I7-4700MQ.

I was looking at my GPU temps with MSI afterburner, using HWin64 on System Auto the temps are a solidly stable 48 and 46c however using the HwINFO fan control, fans 1 and 2, if I manually set the GPU fans to spin at 7000rpm (I can hear an increase in fan noise) then after four mins, the temps are at 60c for GPU1 and 53 for GPU 2.....and are rising!!

Switching the manual fan control back to System Auto, the fan noise immediately ceases and the temps decrease, eventually reaching their stable temps of 48 and 46c after ten mins of cooling with the System Auto program. During the test, the CPU temps dropped over time, and once I reverted to the System Auto program, increased back to the level they were before.

So this suggests to me that the HW 64 fan control for 1 and 2 does not, or is not configured for the GPU fans but only the chassis CPU fan. Right?

I am looking to be able to control the fans on teh GPU's so is there a config setup for the HW 64? Or another bit of software that will allow me to do this?

Mucho Thankio.

 

Hi guys,

I'm about to buy an AW18 - either with 780m or 880 SLIed.

Am I right in thinking the feeling is still to go for the 780m SLI given the 880m throttling issues? (Or do the 780ms throttle too?). I've found 880m machines that are very close to the price of the 780s, so on paper the 880 is the way to go, but I'm holding back because of some of the issues I've read about on here.

Would these throttling issues be solved with a decent laptop cooler, or is the issue more fundamental than that?

I also think I read somewhere on here that the old M18xr2 will be faster than the new AW18 (with the same cards installed). Is that fair to say?

Oh, BTW, I just spoke to a AW tech support person, and he said there are no plans to add 880MX to AWs.

Cheers!

 

Whats up GUys.

I am new to this forum but i am considering purchasing an Alienware 18.

here are the main specs

Intel Core i7-4910MQ Quad Core processor
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M graphics with 16GB total (2x 8GB) GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled
1 TB RAID (7200RPM) + 80GB mSATA SSD Caching
32GB Dual Channel DDR3: at 1600MHz
Dual layer Blu-Ray Writer/Reader (BDRE, DVDRW, CDRW).

I have a Sager NP9380-S but it has been discontinued and its not really a looker so i wanted to get an Alienware 18 for the screen size and the fact that Alienware is also a BEAST of a laptop. I was considering getting an upgrade to the 880m for my 9380-s but i saw when the cards came out from JohnKiss's review that they throttle at real bad. Looking and researching the forums i guess the issue of the cards throttling has NOT been addressed. I am still thinking of getting the ALIENWARE and just use 780m drivers until the issue of throttling is addressed. How are the framerates for games with theses cards? How bad is it throttling now with new 880m drivers? I wanted 2 play watchdogs and hopefully GTA V when it comes out and hopefully i can get 60fps+ with these cards and a good vbios or driver.

 

Don't expect the Alienware to be all roses.. Dell has locked the BIOS down so any over clock is out of option and the CPU will give you problems aswell because the CPU tables are messed up.
Anyway. I own a Clevo P377SM-A with dual 880M's so yeah you will be able to play all current gen games at maximum without hickups of any kind. Just have in mind that there are currently games that are badly optimized (watch dogs *cough*) and yes at maximum settings the game stutters like hell and for graphics.. A big laugh at them..
Apart from that, consider the 16Gb of ram and buy yourself a bigger mSata or an SSD.

Enviado do meu SM-N9005 através de Tapatalk

 

Hi guys,

Im new to this post, i have been lurking for 3months. Anyway im the new owner of Alienware 18. I take delivery in 3-5 days.
My specs are 4710mq 880m SLI

My questions are

1. Will the 4710mw bottleneck the 880m SLI in anyway (e.g minimum framerate, dips, max fps compared to XM processor?

2. What kind of scores can i expect with 3dmark 11 and also vantage with this exact setup. I have seen conflicting scores posted. Some are just over 10000 (3d mark 11) to low 13000. Some are even into the 14000. Could anyone clarify what would cause such a big gap in scores and what can be done about it.

3. I also have some corsair vengance 1866mhz ram coming as well (8*2gig sticks). Will this bump up my scores or raise my minimum FPS in some games in anyway compared to stock dell ram

4. As a new owner do you guys or gals have any tips to making it run as smooth as possible out of the box (drivers, tweaks ect)

I thankyou all for your time and hope someone can shed some light and expertise on these issues.

 

Howdy! Welcome to our Community. Congrats on the new 18.

You probably won't have any bottleneck with gaming. In fact, all but the most demand games (i.e. BF4, Crysis 1/2/3, etc.) will play great with an ordinary i3 or i5 CPU running at a wimpy 3.0GHz, or even a notoriously lame (compared to Intel) AMD CPU. You really only need an Extreme CPU if you plan to do some serious overclocking and competitive benching... not so much for gaming.

3DMark11 and 3DMark Vantage both take full advantage of a very powerful and overclocked CPU. The Physics score weighs heavily in the overall score in both benchmark. A system with an ordinary QM/MQ CPU won't really be capable of getting an amazing overall score because they overclock far enough. In contrast, the new 3DMark (Fire Strike) all but ignores CPU performance and the overall score is hardly affected. (The Physics score is accurate, but it is given very little weight in the overall score, unfortunately.)

Operating system also has a huge effect on benchmarks. Windows 8 scores are very low compared to Windows 7 for many benchmarks, especially CPU dependent benchmarks like 3DMark11 and Vantage. I can boot from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and use identical CPU/GPU clock speeds and the 3DMark11 and Vantage benchmark scores (especially the physics score) are much lower with Windows 8. In general, CPU performance is poorly managed by Windows 8 and and it will show in CPU dependent benchmark. Conversely, the new 3DMark (Fire Strike) is usually a few hundred or more 3DMark point higher when run under Windows 8 versus Windows 7.

Tons of other things will also affect the variance between systems. To name a few, thermals, CPU clock speeds and GPU clock speeds, throttling due to improper power settings for the CPU will tank the scores. The 880M is a work in progress. Many are having issues with power throttling. I expect it will get fixed with a vBIOS and/or driver updates. NVIDIA is aware of it and working on a solution. Here are a couple of links about that...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...orums-about-880s-bs-there-doing-go-reply.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...xperiencing-problems-880m-list-them-here.html

The faster memory will have a negligible effect on gaming and benchmarks. It will be barely measurable except for memory benchmarks. Based on personal experience I can tell you that it is unlikely you will notice any difference. You can measure it, but cannot "feel" an improvement. Going from 1600 to 1866 or 2133 generally yield less than a 2% improvement in system performance.

There was an article on this in the latest CPU Magazine. Here is a link to it: Memory Matters | Computer Power User

 

Thankyou Mr. Fox for sharing your insights into the subject.

So with the benchmarks being lower on windows 8 then it is on windows 7 will that have any bearing on games seeing as i have ordered with windows 8. Will my frames be lower on my system as opposed to someone with the exact same setup with windows 7. Thats quite disheartening as windows 8 is supposed to be newer and more optimized for more modern hardware configs.

I am also disheartened to hear issues about the 880m in general. Keplar in general is very efficient and not overly hot (desktop) compared to AMD. Why is it so hot in Alienware? Shouldnt it be more mature silicon than 780m

I dont plan to overclock but i insist on cool hardware. I am also prepared and been working on modding my current SF19 cooler.

I plan to use the laptop on a cooler master storm SF19 with modified high-end aero-cool dead silent fans. I have also used the additional 3 pin connector in the SF 19 to install another two fans to stick to the rear of the alienware vents (with bluetack) to extract the hot air from the vents faster. My current asus G73sw uses this setup and it keeps temps lower by 3-5c.

Do you Mr. Fox or anyone in community have experience putting fans (in my case 12cm ) on the rear of the Alienware vents as to keep the heat away from heatsinks as quick as possible?... I have also tried putting a fan on the keyboard of my current setup and it works wonders for extracting heat away from the laptop as quick as possible

 

For your reference, here's the result (stock clocks) from my brand new machine with 4710MQ/880M SLI. Like Mr.Fox said, the throttling seems to be a bit irrational - you'll notice on the compare results page that clocks are listed as 993MHz for some and 954MHz for others, for example.

It's not that the temperatures run very high, but more that the cards / CPU throttles even when there is plenty of headroom.

*EDIT: Forgot the link: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8533580*

 

I've been researching a new laptop purchase and I had settled on the Alienware 18 with the 4910MQ processor and dual 880m graphics cards. After coming across these forums I've grown concern about the performance of the 880m and I have been wondering if I would be better off waiting for the next revision of the Alienware 18. What is the typical release cycle for Alienware laptops? Would I be better off waiting for the next revision of laptops, or could the problems with the 880m be resolved by future software updates?

 

It is very likely the problems with 880M will vaporize with a vBIOS and/or driver updates. If you have noticed the thread(s) on the subject, NVIDIA has recognized a problem exists, so it will likely be remedied soon.

If you are talking about a truly new Alienware product release rather than a simple component refresh, probably not for another 2 or 3 years. If you're only talking about simple CPU/chipset/GPU updates, that depends entirely on Intel/AMD/NVIDIA and their product updates.

 

Cheers mate, is that your best score at the moment. Do you think with our setup it would be possible to get into the low to mid 13000. I would be happy if i could there, any tips.Are your runs with any other programs open, power maximum ect