*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18xR1/R2/18 Benchmark Thread - Part 3

We are not that lucky here in the UK, after I get slapped with import tax the price will be double that

I do have a search saved on ebay so yeah keeping a close eye already

 

So fresh and clean clean. I got one that is somewhat Frankenstein. Want to be it? Lol

 

I sold the one you sold me to a friend. So this is the last M18xR2 I have left. I've had it for maybe 5 years now?

Post a pic of yours lol

I'm looking at Dell Precision M4800/M4700 & M6800 right now. Idk why I wanna own one again LOL

 

Bro your pic doesn't show up for me, on my mobile, both Dolphin and Firefox. But I assume it's pretty well up

Mine also still is in a good condition, first hand from Jan. 2012, used it pretty heavily for about 5 years as my DTR, then it got half retired, due to both GPUs giving up one after the other and my purchase and upgrading of a m17x r4.

Still tried to max out my m18x over the time, favouring the 780m SLI over 880m, only thing missing is 1866 MHz RAM, which I purchased but not built in yet.

 

How much of a performance gain is to be expected from these higher clocked RAM chips? I wannabe max mine out too but want it semi cost effective too

 

Performance impact is minimal. 1866Mhz for M18xR1 and 2133Mhz for M18xR2

 

Yeah not much at all as far as I know, in real life it may be bout 2-4% over 1600 and 3-6% over 1333, not really worth it at all, but I was just in the mood.

 

Ok not worth the hassle then (at least the stage of upgrades I am at now) as I reckon they will be quite a bit more expensive.

 

Indeed, the faster the speed the more expensive they tend to be.

 

I guess 4.2Ghz on a 3920XM isn't enough to beat a 6700HQ. Although that will be an easy victory at 4.4Ghz.

 

I mean +1bin is enough
https://hwbot.org/benchmark/cineben...Id=processor_4428&cores=4#start=0#interval=20

 

Hello.
i have M18x R1 with 2720qm cpu and 6970 CF gpu. now, i will buy R2 motherboard.

can i use R2 motherboard on R1 case? Does is support R2 motherboard, 2720qm cpu, 6970 CF gpu and R1 SATA Interposer?

 

R1 --> R2 conversion requires:

R2 motherboard
R2 daughterboard (also called I/O board I think)
R2 SATA interposer

@Raidriar can correct me if I missed anything as he has actually done this.

Everything else can be reused

 

Missing the R2 bottom base + msata interposer.

m18x R1 SATA interposer will not work in M18x R2 motherboard, nor will the daughter board.

I have all parts available as I’m parting out my converted machine

 

How much are you selling the 980M's for?

 

Here is the thread from when I did my R1 -> R2. Note that if you want to add an mSATA, you will need the cable assembly for that. I didn't replace the bottom plane. Is that why you need the bottom plane to accommodate the mSATA?

Homer

 

If you want it to be neat and clean, yes. But, I ran mSATA with an M18xR1 bottom panel for a good while. I just stuck it in the area next to the RAM sticks until I found an M18xR2 bottom panel.

 

Thanks @MrFox!

As I'm switching from 980m SLI to 1070 MXM, I pulled the trigger on the cable and new bottom.

I want to do benchmarks before switching them but I can't get 3dMark to run. I get "valid" runs of 0 with a problem like workload produced no results. Anyone know how to get this working under Windows 10? I googled it but no direct answers... just lots of same here... nothing works.

Homer

 

A few things can cause that. If you are running the GPU stock, uncheck the hardware monitoring option in 3DMark. If you are overclocking, see if it happens stock. If not, the overclock is unstable. I cannot get the VRMark tests to give me a score (always zero) on my X299 Dark if hardware monitoring is enabled.

 

No luck. I turned off hardware monitoring and I got the same result. Running stock BTW.

Homer

 

Hmm. What about a different benchmark? Does everything in 3DMark do that, or just one of them? I've had the most issues with Time Spy and VR Mark. Fire Strike and Sky Diver are generally more stable, especially Sky Diver (the most stable benchmark in the suite).

If all of the 3DMark benchmarks do it, maybe instead try 3DMark 11 and Unigine Heaven to see if you get errors. I suspect it is 3DMark, since it's known to be buggy. 3DMark 11 is a lot better product, and more stable.

 

Hey,

Are you able to run Fire Strike on this with Windows 10? I'm trying on mine before I crack the case and install the 1070. Keeps giving me "workload produced no results" and a lovely score of zero.

Homer

 

Call me old school if you want to, but I still find this to be the most aesthetically pleasing laptop ever made in the history of laptops. I don't want another one, but man... still love how it looks. I'd love to have one with P870TM1 specs... 9900K and RTX 2080 installed in a replica of an M18xR2 chassis would be too sweet. But, I would want it to run like a P870, not be crippled like an Area 51m. That would ruin it.

 

Me also like the look and the feel of this old lady, the feeling of the pretty metallic surface and the ++size screen.

 

Yes, works fine. I've used 580m SLI, 680m SLI, 780m SLI, and 1060 all fine with Windows 10.

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/19775399
https://www.3dmark.com/fs/19436465
https://www.3dmark.com/fs/16862474

Agreed. Still my favorite design and I plan to keep this one for as long as I can. I haven't owned or seen any other laptop in this class with the same build quality and aesthetics even today. CPU is what's really holding it back in today's time. It can run 1070 and if we get a MXM of the RTX series probably that too.

 

Did it give you any issues? I might have a bad download even though I've tried several times. I can't even get the dang thing to run right under Windows 7.

Homer

 

No issues at all. What card are you running again?

 

980Ms in SLI. Same CPU as yours only at stock speeds.

Homer

 

Do games and everything else work? Just not 3DM?

 

Yes,

I haven't tried anything super taxing lately but I'm trying Jedi Fallen Order and it seems to be working fine.

Homer

 

...and the audio is unparalleled, at least in the r2 Klipsich version. The subwoofer is as good as you could imagine coming from a laptop. The AW18 has nowhere near the same sound quality.

 

Yes, it was awesome in many ways, including the audio quality. It was sometimes frustrating when the Recon3di chip would stop working. I actually had the audio amp on one catch fire.

Alienware Fire Hazards| Imgur - Mr. Fox

 

What's interesting is, I've never heard or experienced this myself until I saw the thread regarding this.

I've owned about four M18xR2, the one I have left works well *knocks on wood*

Seems like AW always had mosfet issues

 

Some M17xR4 owners had the same problem. And, there were some HP owners that also had it. It was some kind of defect with the Soundblaster Recon3di drivers. Sometimes I would go for 6 months and never have it happen, then it would start happening frequently. And, then it would mysteriously stop happening. Putting it to sleep by closing the lid for a few seconds, then opening the lid to wake it up would usually revive the missing audio device and make it work again. It was pretty strange. Creative eventually released a driver that was only available from the Micro$oft Update Catalog (had to be manually downloaded) that permanently fixed it for me. Never happened again.

 

Mr. Fox, I'm curious, when you were running your M18x R2 with dual PSUs what did you have to change to get the laptop to accept the voltage? I purchased a Eurocom 780w with the Alienware cable but no matter what I do, I never see it pull more than 300w before it starts to throttle back. I'm using dual GTX 980m GPUs as well. Thanks.

 

RTX meets M18X r2.

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/21660871
https://www.3dmark.com/pr/212435

 

Hi bro. Happy Saturday. I never saw your post until just now. Sorry for the delayed reply. I did not have to change anything. I think the issue you are having is 980M GPUs don't work 100% correctly in the M18xR2. I could never get my M18xR2 to pull half the watts it did with 780M SLI. Some kind of cancer in the EC was capping it to 300W exactly as you are experiencing. In fact, that was ultimately why I got rid of all of my Alienware stuff.

Wooo, nice! Did you have to do anything special to make it work?

 

Wow nice, is that the 115W or 150W one? What temps?

 

Where did you source the card from? Does it work in SG only, or also PEG? Any modifications to heatsink?

 

I modded the Mainboard and the heatsink.
Card is running at 80 Watt Bios.
With 110W it is not stable. I hope to fix this Problem.
Card is working in SG mode. In Peg i get 8 peeps like Pascal Cards.

 

Photo of the card pretty please

Could you also run Time Spy please?

Thanks

 

Where did y

Thank you for the information and for testing an unknown card

 

Time Spy:
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/10454350
3DMark11:
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13686437

 

Thanks bud, wow ~36% increase over stock clock 1070 in Time Spy! And that's on a crippled 80W TDP...imagine what it would do on proper TDP. I need to stop drooling. What temps did you get?

C'mon spill the beans, whered you get it

 

Yes , price as source of sleep.

 

@mrfox No problem, thanks for the info.

@Baddemichi Nice work. I'm also interested in exactly what you did here. Where you sourced the card, etc.?

 

The Card is from China.
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/4000...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_53

 

Long live MXM anyone? I know I know, but one can hope!

 

What mods did you have to make to get the card to fit with chassis/heatsink?

 

RTX in an M18x! I never thought I'd see the day! Congrats and thanks for pioneering this for us!

I know it's a lot to ask but an installation guide would be fantastic.

Are there any power throttling issues like with the 1070? I find myself having to do the iGFX/SG BIOS swap quite often to get the 1070 running right.