*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

Just got my replacement laptop so no more AMD for the moment but Nvidia all the way since new beast came with the two 880s but do find it quite weird how gpu throtles so heavily even with low temps on the nvidia system

 

how do u exacly experience this throtles?fps degrese or what?my 880 twins hit +70,+75 and i dont see any performance degrese....

 

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 am ordering my alienware with dual 880m today with the specs above. i was browsing some of the reviews and ANANDTech reviewed the 880m and he said it throttles as some already knows. He said he applied a modified vbios to get the 880m to work correctly. The guys at techforum have a modified vbios for the 780m by JohnKss and SV7. I was wondering since the 880m and 780m use the same die is there a chance that could work.

Any thoughts?

 

After reading this guide by Brother shadowyani, I'm wondering If I should do this as a precaution to prevent the SLI cable in my Alienware 18 from burning up some point in the future, or from any issue related to heat. How about you guys? Did you apply that method?

If I decide to do some precaution, instead of Brother shadowyani's method, would it be OK If I wrap around the SLI cable, like several layers, of paper tape like this one or the heat tape (If I can find one in my place), at the points where there is a possibility the SLI cable comes into contact with the heatsink? I mean, would it be safe to do that? Because I thought that when exposing to prolonged heat, the glue in the paper tape may liquidize somehow and possibly damage the beast.

 

I think I have replaced over 10 SLi cabels on my 3 alienware over the years.

 

cant use vBios from 780, need to use the vBios for 880M.

 

Well after three years using my M18X R1 with the I7 2760, and dual GTX560M, 8GB ram, I just pulled the trigger on a new 18. Ordered today the new 18 with the I7 4940MX, dual GTX880M, 32GB ram, 2TB hdd. Hope that it will treat me as well as this one has. lol. It was kind of a shock not to be able to customize nearly as much this time around on order though. Would have much rather taken less ram and just do that once it gets here. Ah well. lol.
Any hints or advise on what I might want to look at out of the box would be more than welcom! ie... new paste to cards or cpu, or does stock work fine.
Thanks folks.

 

You should have ordered by phone. I'm prerrtty certain you can get exactly what you want by phoning

 

Thought about that, but ended up using AAFES, so still seems like a good price. lol. Then again I have been wrong before. :thumbsup:

 

Got My ALienware !8...pretty happy so far

 

Looking at the posts on techforum im going to try that 880m vbios update.

 

Hey guys. New on this forum.I decided to move away from the world of consoles and take the plunge into PC gaming. Figured the best way to do it would be with Alienware. I know nothing about building PC's, and had someone build one for me a couple of years back that has had numerous problems from day 1, so Alienware just seemed right for me.

For portability purposes and longevity, decided on the Alienware 18.

Thought I would share some of the specs. I didn't max it out, though, but went a little higher than I intended! (Sure I am not the first one to do that.)

4th Generation Intel Core i7-4930MX Processor (Overlocked, 8MB Cache, up to 4.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
32GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (4x8GB)
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Optical Drive : Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD/RW, CD-RW)
Windows(R) 8.1 (64Bit) English
Dual NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 880M graphics with 16GB total (2x 8GB) GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI(R) Enabled

I decided to increase the graphics cards rather than max out the processor, though am thinking now it might have been better to do the processor at build and consider upgrading graphics later.
Would there might much difference in the 4930 vs 4940, though?

Another question I have is around delivery experiences. have read on this forum and others some experiences that people have had or are having.
this is my current status, with the estimated date of delivery being 1 August (tomorrow)


Status Date
Order Received 22/07/2014
Work In Progress 22/07/2014
Production Complete 24/07/2014
Manufacturing Build Complete 25/07/2014
Arrived in Main Hub 29/07/2014

does it still look likely if it is still in main hub that a courier would be able to deliver it tomorrow? (I am extremely excited.)
I need to take a day off work to be at home when it is delivered but don't want to risk doing that for tomorrow if I will be left disappointed. It is still well within their Estimated Delivery Times so am not complaining with the speed of their delivery.

Cheers

 

(Would there might much difference in the 4930 vs 4940, though?)

No!
It is only 0.1 ghz difference between 17-4930mx vs i7 4940mx. This is almost not noticeable. All Haswell processors overclock differently. It is a very variable quality in this edition of Core i7 compared to previous editions. You can be very lucky with an i7-4930mx, which can overclock better than an i7-4940mx. Or it could be the opposite. Intel also has the same problem with the desktop (Haswell) i7 processor too. Some even overclocked at 4.6-4.8GHz while others only manage 4.2-4.3ghz. So there is a very big variation in these processors.

 

This is very true... and it sucks. The people that are responsible for Haswell deserve to be fired and then severely beaten.

 

Hey whats up guys. Im new to this site, but just ordered my new maxed out Alienware 18. I am now waiting for my order to hit pre-production and im sure itll take an eternity to get to my doorstep. Anyways just wanted to introduce myself.



4th Generation Intel Core i7-4940MX processor (Quad Core, 8MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz)

32GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (4x8GB)

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 SSD Quad Play RAID 0 (4x256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s)

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

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

 

( Hey whats up guys. Im new to this site, but just ordered my new maxed out Alienware 18. I am now waiting for my order to hit pre-production and im sure itll take an eternity to get to my doorstep. Anyways just wanted to introduce myself.
4th Generation Intel Core i7-4940MX processor (Quad Core, 8MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.4GHz)




Ps: Just remember that overclocking at 4.4ghz only effect one core, not all 4. This overclock is worth nothing. Only a good overclock on all four cores means something. This overclocked Alienware processor gives 4x40ghz. :-(

 

I dont know much about over clocking processors. That's kinda shady that they would only overclock one though. In all my research before selecting this model I didnt see anything about that.

 

Where can I find more information about them only over clocking one core?

 

I had a chat session with a dell representative and they are saying that all four cores are overclocked on the one im having built. I just wanted to ask definitively to find out how it was going to be stock. But I will be having a friend help me overclock them if they arent already. Im just kinda surprised to find out that news.

 

For some reason Dell/Alienware thinks it is OK to overclock just one core and advertise that speed rating when, in reality, the CPU never runs at the advertised speed using their default settings. It will in a single threaded application, but that doesn't count for much in 2014. That's an antiquated view IMHO, as the focus has been on multi-threaded CPU performance since back in the day that Hyperthreading was first introduced in 2002 for Xeon and P4 processors. Unless they have just recently changed their perspective, the sales rep you spoke with is probably misinformed or simply telling you what you want to hear. I hope the former is true, as it is time for a more relevant perspective.

Alienware 18 CPU Throttling - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

Alienware Aurora R4 2012 i7 3820 3.6GHz NOT 4.1GHz - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

Alienware 18, 4930MX Overclocked up to 4.3GHz only reaching to 3.9 GHz - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

You will most likely need to take matters into your own hands and implement your own settings. I think you'll get better results doing that versus relying on a stock BIOS preset (which was never ideal, even on previous generation M18x and M18xR2).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...actually-have-run-full-stock-turbo-speed.html

 

hey brother fox.. that usb adapter you linked me awhile back.. haver you ever gotten it to work in the new 18?

 

Okay so I have enabled desktop mode battery charging; i.e: keeping the battery at 75% to prolong battery life.

I find that every now and then the screen dims and the laptop registers itself as being on battery power - just for a few seconds - and then you see the plug come back to the battery icon in the task bar and the screen goes back to regular brightness.

Is this normal?

I know that the laptop switches to battery when it's at 100% and wants to go back down to 75 - but once already at 75, does it still do this on occasion - or is there a problem somewhere?

Definitely not a loose connection or something.

 

I don't know if I remember what USB adapter you are referring to. Are you talking about the card that adds an internal USB port in the DMC slot?

The Alienware 18 I have does the same thing using that stupid Desktop Mode charging thing. I don't use that "feature" any more. I found it to be too buggy and disabled it. Screen dimming on battery is normal. You would have to manually override it to stop that from happening.

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me. I read the links you posted as well. Either way I'm still super excited but I am disappointed that they advertise something and won't deliver to customers paying top dollar for quality.

 

with how many rpm can the fans spin during Load? With HWinfo i can set my Fan1 to 3700, Fan2 to 3500 and Fan 3 to 3300rpm... is this normal? Thought the GPU fans can spin with the same rpm?

 

Mine too, it's annoying!

I wish I could have inbetween speeds.

 

Ah the next stage of waiting begins. For the beast has shipped and should arrive Tuesday.

 

Congrats Kat wish mine was gonna be here this next week.

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on an Alienware 18" laptop purchase and I need some advice. I'm going to cross my fingers that the problems with the 880M will be resolved with a firmware update but I was wondering do I have any hope of hitting 4.0ghz with a 4910MQ processor or will I need spend the extra 500 bucks on the 4940MX

 

If 4.0GHz is a number you will be happy with, then there is no need to spend extra for the Extreme CPU. The 4910MQ should be able to run 4.0GHz all day long without a problem. If you think you are going to end up wanting to do more amazing overclocking than that, settling for something less than the Extreme CPU will end up being a waste of money. Only you can decide this part, and you know yourself better than anyone else.

Whichever CPU you ultimately decide to go with, you will have to identify the ideal settings for the CPU you end up owning through trial and error, as there are no magical BIOS settings that work particularly well (including the stock preset OC LV 1, 2 and 3) and there is a great deal of variance between Haswell processors. Some struggle with a minor overclock and others overclock with relative ease.

 

The system I ordered will have the 4940mx my plan as it stands is to run it at around 4.1 to 4.3, but wondering should I repaste for this, or will stock thermal paste be fine?

 

Bored-sounding dude tried to tempt me with $100 off, then $200.
I told him if he offered me $1000 off then we had a deal.

He proceeded to start the return paperwork after that

But he got back at me by making me wait for almost 20 minutes while he did whatever he needed to do.

Will take up to 10 days for them to receive and "process" it, then another 10-15 business days for my refund.

It was a thrilling few days of ownership.


My next goal is to be one of the first people here to buy the next AW18 iteration from Dell with whatever goodness Nvidia cooks up next.

A man needs goals.

 

Repaste...

 

Are any of you based in the UK? if so, what specs did you order, and what was the price?

 

Based in ireland and just got a new AW 18 MQ4710 with GTX880 dual and think price before discount was like 3600 euro

 

What is the best thermal paste to use? Is there any videos that would be a good tutorial for this. I have never done it before.

 

Where's the best place to sell an Alienware 18, in the UK? 4940mx, 880m, 4yrs warranty+Accidental Damage, Unopened, can't return it...
I'm using Ebay and Gumtree already.
Is there a market for people from the UK looking to buy this laptop at 80% of the cost? Most people on here are from America...
The same spec laptop costs just over £3800 in the UK currently directly from Dell.

 

Omen123, sorry but no, Im in the U.S.
Mr. Fox. Thank you for the advise. Made my first attempt at OC'ing, and well it didnt work. lmao. I screwed up but easy recover.. Back to the overclocking thread and reading somemore to learn about what I need to do.

 

Hey whats up guys,

I got an unexpected surprise today. My initial estimated delivery date for my Alienware 18 was August 14th. I just received an update saying my laptop is shipped (a whole week early). I paid for next day delivery so I should see it tomorrow. I am super excited. Maybe it was just luck, but I am currently on a week vacation (at home) so I will have plenty of time to get acquainted. In addition to my laptop, I ordered a couple of peripherals: Logitech G19s gaming keyboard and Logitech G700s gaming mouse. Does anyone have experience with these products? After seening some reviews of the Alienware 18 on YouTube, I thought having an external keyboard would be beneficial.

 

Hmm, are you based in America? Mine said shipped 1 week early, It was just held up for 1 week at the depo I guess. Tracking link showed 1 day before, and the laptop actually arrived 1 day late.

 

Yeah I am based in the US. Hopefully that doesn't happen to me. I have a tracking number that shows the package is in transit so I think that is pretty promising but I guess ill see.

 

If you have a tracking number which shows it's in transit that should be fine. I didn't see the tracking number until 1 day before I received my package. It showed as "Shipped" for over 1 week for me.

 

the Alienware 18 does not support the M2 form factor right? that's like totally different than mSATA am I correct?

 

Yeah, those are two different form factors. The Alienware 18 does not support M2.

 

hi a qst i have the oc level 1 ,,,, if i would install a 4930mx ,,,what will happend in the bios ?

 

The values will change based on the CPU installed.

 

i see this thread not as hot as the old one lol. hopefully we'll see some jumping in when new graphics card come out, or broadwell too. intel and GPUs basically killed it slowly.

 

First impression, this thing is a beast, not unreasonably heavy and runs a lot cooler than my old laptop. The screen is beautiful and the cache drive makes a huge difference.

I have zero complaints 2 hours in but a few questions:

1) I bought the 18 over the 17 for a few reasons one being a glossy over matte screen. Mine doesn't appear glossy or matter but almost a hybrid. It's sexy though. No complaints I'm just curious, did I maybe get an old matte screen or is this just an amazing glossy but not too reflective ips screen?

2) can I reinstall windows to use the Msata drive as a storage drive? Is it even worth doing for the speed?

3) what is this alienware arena thing that keeps popping up all about?

 

1 - I don't remember the AW18 having an IPS screen, but if you got glossy it's glossy. You probably don't notice the reflectiveness now, but in some situations you would. Most laptops sell with a TN screen unless otherwise advertised.

2 - Yes, you can, and it would make sense if your main install is on a HDD. I do not know your system configuration though, so I cannot say.

3 - *shrugs*

 

It's PLS not IPS.