*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

I was told it was a system issue on their end where the order has not been uploaded or something along those lines. Strange thing is my order was in production not pre-production I told them to just leave it cancelled. I am just going to see if I can get through the rest of the year with my M17x. It will all come down to how Battlefield 4 runs on my 6990m.

 

I was thinking of cancel my order too, and save my $5400.00. because my machine can play any games with no problem...

 

The system problem on the US side or on the EU side aswell?

 

It's really quite saddening to see such a massive balls-up of the ordering process. I'm sure that Dell are going to lose a fair amount of business from those, like you guys, who have simply had enough of getting the run around. -1 Rep, Dell.

 

To be honest, im in the same boat, im waiting for my machine and I hate waiting, but however, Dell did give a EDD of 26th july and its similar for everyone, we shouldn't be whining about it till that time, coz dell made the date clear and we where aware of it dureing the time of purchase. I knw we hate wating, I HATE IT ALOT!!!! but we cannot blame them coz we where already informed that the wait might take over a month. I am glad they where honest about date or took some buffer time rather then just trying to push machines off their pipeline and we getting poor machine that we endup sending back later. Just my thoughts

 

Well, I guess if you EDD is what Dell said it would be, can't really grumble. Good things come to those who wait, as they say....and you're right - better to have a longer wait that have things rushed through, kinda half-arsed.

 

There are no 400 NIT displays. All laptops sold globally will be 350 NIT.

 

I was given a EDD of July 22nd which I was fine with. I am not fine with Dell cancelling my order and giving me a lame excuse saying it was not uploaded mean while it went into production. I am actually wondering if my order was cancelled because I managed to talk one of the managers down on the system by $400. I will likely reorder one in the future, but I will wait until all of this craziness is over with and they start offering better deals.

 

Fair enough for u to be furious, what I meant was for those who are just waiting and stuck in pre-production / production. As far as I go, ill go furious if they cancel or change my order or is late then the EDD, but until then, I would stay put.

 

You and me both brother. I am in the SAME boat as you. Sadly my rep has decided to not answer any of my questions about production and gave me the "customer support" phone number to address anything. I was unable to get the free printer as I was out of town and it was returned. Instead of facilitating a new shipment she just pawned off the responsibility so I can start spending hours on the phone with people who don't know about my order. I am pretty sure they get commission and have serious thoughts of:
1. Cancelling completely and enjoying my still capable R1
2. Cancelling and reordering as the ship dates are still the same so that she gets NO commission from me and filing a complaint due to her deciding to not do her job as a REP and facilitate a smooth transaction.

I am very forgiving with technology and waits and what not. However, I am NOT forgiving with poor customer service. It seems to be getting more and more common with Dell/AW. We are a unique breed of buyers. There rightfully so, should be different tiers of service. If we spend 5X the amount of the casual buyer on a premium system, we should be getting premium service.

Dell SHOULD have made these systems a pre-order/pre-launch. They were a bit misleading and launched a system that wasn't ready to be made. Not cool.

 

I just received a phone call from Dell rep. He says they expect my order to be built in the next 24-48 hours. He says the EDD is still July 25th, and they cannot change that date, nor can they guarantee it will be shipped sooner, however, he said it should ship much sooner than that as it should be built early next week. Just hang tight guys! I predict next week will be a great week!

 

Well I am resting on this config: m18, 4900MQ OC 4.0ghz, 16gig ram, 750+64gig caching, 780m SLI and 3 year warranty. I get the 5% dell advantage coupon to spend, a free b/w laser printer, and about 430 off the price. My total after taxes is 3800.00 even. Not bad. (10% discount off system) plus the gift card of 5% and a printer.

Question: When can you use your 5% giftcard? It doesn't come in the mail. Its a product key which is your sign in email and password. How do you use the gift card? I go to checkout and it is basically not allowing me to enter any keycode for my $200.00. I was going to order the Orien backpack (99.99) and an external HD (99.99). Any help is appreciated.

Please no mass emails how I achieved my deal. I've had a longstanding purchase history with Aliewnare and some issue with my CS rep which has helped further my discount. It looks like a mid July delivery date so I feel this is just fine.

 

dave, in the payment screen after you click checkout and confirm your information, there is an option for "Redeem Dell Gift Card". That is where you put in the gift card number that dell sends you in the email. However, those GC's will not be sent until after the laptops have been shipped. in fact, while some may get their's sooner, I've been told that officially the GC's will not hit your email for 10-20 days after the laptops ship.

 

My order got changed without notice, the only difference I can see is to do with warranty
994-3730 WARRANTY SPRT,ANW NB,INIT YR changed to 954-1690 PPS TECH SPT,ANW NB,BAND 3,INIT YR
993-8582 WARRANTY SPRT,ANW NB,2YR EXT changed to 939-7682 PPS TECH SPT,ANW NB,BAND 3,2YR EXT

I don't know what those mean but everything else is the same, my order date changed from 6/16 to 6/28 and is still in production EDD is still 7/30
Canada

 

Wow so yesterday my order was cancelled, so I called up and cancelled the order for the backpack. Now there are two brand new orders on my account that say they are in production that I do not want haha. This is pretty funny and frustrating at the same time.

 

Thank you sir. Makes sense as it would be a bit weird to be able to spend a gift card prior to taking hold of a machine that could still be cancelled. +rep. On the plus side, the gift card, printer and discounts have added up to enough that I feel comfortable with my purchase. Now I just want to get this machine in house!

 

I'm in the same boat as well with the order cancellations going on. I had received a call from a Dell representative on Thursday. She told me that my 18 order will be delayed...... but she gave me the same EDD date July 23rd. Which was the EDD to begin with. So I was obviously okay with it. So I log in to check my order status today like I always do daily..... and my June 11th order goes from In-production to canceled!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now, there is a new order number dated as of yesterday and with a status of "Order Processing" with a EDD date of July 30th, with an additional week on top of my canceled order!!!!!

Obviously I can't get a hold of a Dell rep. on a Saturday so I guess I'm going to see what the hell is going on, and no email notification of this new order number.

What makes this worse is the week of this new updated EDD, no one will be home for that week and the following one to receive it since we will be on vacation to visit the in-laws in Toronto, ON.........

 

Please tell me the exact weight of the 330watt charger that comes with Alienware m18x.

 

1310g or 2lb 5oz.....just weighed it on some cooking scales

 

I wish Dell production and delivery was as quick as Dominos!!!!! hate this wait!!!!

 

I hear yah Vulcan03! I've been without my own laptop since May 25th and stuck sharing my wife's Lenovo ever since. My order went from a six week wait to a seven week wait......... oh yeah since they ed up.... add another two weeks on top of that since I'm out of town.

 

Just Got a package from DELL!!!!!!...... just got my Vindicator Backpak. Seems good as of now. Not sure if you guys will be interested in a more close details and pics of it. If so let me knw, ill upload it up here

 

That will be cool...!

 

Yes please, thinking about ordering it

 

Just ordered my 18 yesterday. Delivery date is set 7/25/2013 with 2nd business day shipping. Very exciting. I purchased the dual 770M setup. Will do a bunch of pictures and a video once received.

I've been scouring the internet looking for pictures and reviews with little luck. I guess we will be the first. Spending so much for a laptop thats brand new and not in the wild yet is concerning for me but I'm hoping Alienware put their best into this refresh using their years of experience building the best gaming rigs.

I am going to swap out the 750 GB HDD with a SSD. Looking for recommendations. I heard the samsung 840 pro was good? Was probably going to get the 256GB version. With the drive bay options in the 18 can i just add it and make it boot or will I need to swap the drive. Can I then move the 750 GB elsewhere? I won't really need the 750 as everything other than games go to my DS213J but if I can keep it in there why not!

Looking forward to being a part of the Alienware 18 community...

 

Stoyles,

That's what I plan to do with mine, put a 512gb 840 pro in it, install win8 on it, and switch the 750gb to the secondary drive with the 64b mSATA caching drive helping to accelerate it. This will be my first AW as well, so like you I am quietly hesitant about a computer that hasn't been "in the wild" at all as of yet, however, this forum seems to be a great community and will serve us well should any issues arise.

 

Hey Guys, ok, I just received the Backpack today and it seems a few of you would like to see a few pic and how I personally think it is. You can see the pics below


So the logo is Matte Black, for some reason I had a impression that it would be crome, but seems I was wrong. Looks great thou

That is my current 17" Dell XPS for a good comparison. So the AW 18 will fit quite tightly I recon, which will avoid it from flying around withing the bag. And to be honest it doenst look that massive of a bag. Certainly waaaay better then the previous AW bags.


The laptop Compartment. My 17" in there. My laptop seems abit small considering the space left, but the AW18 will be a correct fit. it has a Tablet pocket with a very soft protection. Shouldn't worry about any scratches or damage. However I would certainly like if there was a special pocket for the machine itself. Just so that it sits tight and snuggly in the bag. What do you guys think? Atleast I hope if they didn't give a specialised pocket, I still hope they provide the cloth protector for the machine, as they have provided with all the old models

The second compartment. FYI the wall between the laptop compartment and this 2nd one can be removed to have a bigger massive space. Still think the machine will fly around if that would be taken away :/


The final 3rd compartment. A lot of pockets for ur gadget drive, and also the hook for ur headphone!!!

The compartment wall removed. So u can see the space u will get

Ok this is a lineup with my other laptop bags. I am a massive messenger bag style fan, but I think AW18 will be tortureous to carry only on one shoulder, so went for the backpack. So there is the img of the AW 18" bag, Belkin 17" messengerbag, and a Storm15" Laptop bag

So that the complete package, with the separate power brick bag.

I hope these images helps out to make ur dessision. The padding is pretty good without making the bag look very puffy. I like the sharp sleek style and also ur are many small hidden pockets. so YAY!!

 

Welcome to the club! I look forward to seeing that video. :thumbsup: The 840 Pro definitely has my recommendation, I have several 830s and they are excellent drives. You should be able to just add it in and make that 750GB into a nice storage drive.

 

I updated the opening post...

Drivers & Downloads for Alienware 18

Alienware 18 Owner's Manual (includes illustrated teardown instructions)

I find the owner's manual particularly interesting. I really like the way the new 18 is built.

 

So I'm a bit of a semi-noob when it comes to these gaming laptops. So just how much faster are these dual 780m's in my ordered 18 compared to the 5650m in my studio 1749? Also should i get an 840 pro for my new rig?

 

Get ready to take a seat....the 780m Sli setup (according to NoteBookCheck, just for illustration) is around 1568% faster that your current card. Yep, one thousand, five hundred and sixty eight percent faster!

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 - NotebookCheck.net Tech

If you scroll down, you'll see various benchmarks etc, gaming FPS examples....look at the 3dMark11 tests....

I know we say 'night and day' differences when comparing gpu's, but this is like a total solar eclipse for a year followed by having your eyeballs burned out by a nuclear explosion...it's THAT big a difference!

Oh, and yeah, 840 Pro's are great drives.....

 

Haha!! Thanks insane. I'm finally gonna be able to play games on max settings without worrying about lag. And yeah im gonna get a 256 gb 840 pro for OS and programs

 

Hehehehe, yup...you're totally gonna be able to max things out now! - I think 780m Sli is gonna blow your socks off. I imagine your experience will be like this little blue faced fella when you see the differece: that's what it's gonna be like for you !! :laugh:

 

I purchased a Intel 335 Series 180GB Drive for £109 all in. Those intel drives have good reviews. Will drop my games on there and get a mSATA for the windows boot eventually.

 

If you guys want to see a unboxing video someone just posted one on youtube of the Alienware 14.

DELL Alienware M14 Unboxing - YouTube

 

Nop. Still dont get it why ppl do the "unboxing" videos. Ill go buy some ikea furniture and do a unboxing video of that.

Yes i know its more like to say "Haahaaa....Look what i got before you did"

But might be a good sign that they are starting to get the needed parts and will start sending out systems soon Lets hope for the best.

My EDD is still at the end of this month

 

My 18 got cancelled again. This is the 2nd time running. It is very unacceptable and I can't get anyone today cos its Canada day.

 

Did you already try? People in the US do not celebrate Canada Day. Does 1-800-ALIENWARE work from Canada?

 

Yes I did. It automatically directs me to the Canadian line and when I chose sales, the auto message said, "The sales team is unavailable at this time. Please try again at our regular office hours".

 

canadians can only be dealt with canada alienware for customer service. however for technical support i believe its for both US and Canada.

 

Wow that is some manual, after reading the setup this is going to take me back to the old days with my Abit BE6-II board.

 

I did not realize there was a sales outpost north of the border. I wonder why that is necessary. A centralized location like tech support would make more sense, since phone lines have no borders.

 

My salesman was NOT Canadian, I don' think I have ever spoken with a Canadian or U.S. with any of my Dell computers, support or otherwise.

 

I am planning to do the same thing as stoyles and Sligh. Just curious what would do you do with the 64b Msata drive? Can you use to help accelerate the 750gb drive?

 

Alienware North American Support has always connected me to US and Costa Rica employees. Dell is typically India. Thankfully, I haven't spoken to anyone in India for technical support since becoming an Alienware customer. XPS Support was based out of India, and I believe that all Dell/Alienware Support for EMEA is (unfortunately) based out of India.

Yes, absolutely. It is too small to be of any value for anything else, but using Smart Response Technology to cache-accelerate a HDD is very nice. A cache-accelerated HDD is not as fast as an ordinary SATA3 6.0GB/s SSD, but the improvement over an unaccelerated HDD is nothing short of amazing. 64GB is the most that can be used for caching. If you were to install a larger mSATA SSD, a maximum of 64GB could be used for caching and the rest of the mSATA SSD will be usable for storage. You could use a 256GB mSATA SSD and use the drive space above 64GB for your OS installation, using the cache-accelerated HDD for data only. This would allow you to enjoy SSD performance for the OS and reap the benefit of a data drive that performs nicely.

Here is an example of the cached performance of a HDD.

 

Mr. Fox, That is great! Thanks for your advice and the example.

 

hmmm dunno but i had that on my order : 391-BBDS, 18,4 pouces (467.36 mm) WLED FHD (1080p) TrueLife TN 400 Nit Affichage (1920 X 1080)

 

Just got off the phone after an hour of calling back and fourth. My patiences was wearing down and I had to hit my head with a pillow. Had to call them from Malaysia using my Canadian number so that the verification department can finally see my number appear on their phones. That phone bill is going to cost a bomb.

Below is the image of bad systems and incompetent services. Fingers crossed hopefully it will not cancel again. If it does, I might just wait till they can sort out their problem.

 

According to my Rep, the 400NIT displays were a mistake and I have it in an email from them stating that no laptops will be dispatched with the 400s but all will get the 350s......Globally. It used to say 400 on the UK website but has now been removed due to the error.

 

I just received a call from Dell representative. He mentioned that my system is nearly complete and they should be generating a tracking number today or tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed this is accurate. It looks like we are close to getting our new toys.