*OFFICIAL* M18x Owner's Lounge Thread

I'm happy everything go ok. As I told you before, that Dell's address as always helped in serious / ridiculous burocratic cases. Hurrah for Michael!

 

Yeah, that email addy is good for all sorts! - oh, and I love that quote in your sig SOS....

" Due to the highly confidential nature of my job, I am not allowed to know what I'm doing."

Brilliant! + rep!

 

Thanks pal! I will give you a new paraphrase of it: " due to the highly confidential nature of my existance, I'm not allowed to know what the heck I'm doing with my life..."
(You can change 'with my life' with a simple 'here'... Shakespeare would say: "As you like it"). But, anyway, always remember: Madness is the only 'sane' way to live this life...

 

Haha - quite true.

 

Have you tried updating to the latest 11.6 drivers? If you are up to date on video drivers then you have to make sure the bridge is connected between the two cards. If it is connected properly, then you have bad cards.

 

i know that problem, i had it before. its your crossfire cable. its either damaged or defective. u will have to call dell to change it. definitely not driver problem

 

Man, we're definitely a rare bunch. $4k for a laptop would make most cringe, yet here we are, like loyal enthusiasts, foaming at the mouth every time a refresh rolls around and eagerly scheming our finances to make room for the necessary purchase.

Gotta love it.

 

Without a doubt. I would have sponged off the processor power to pay for it depending on the price difference.

That said, the screen absolutely isn't a disappointment which is damn cool since it was the only thing that seemed like it might be a downgrade from the mighty M17x-R2.

 

My company just informed me they want to buy a Monitor Calibration tool for the office. What brand/model do you guys recommend?

 

This is reassuring coming from an ex R2 owner.

I know I'm going to miss the RGB should I decide to sell it, but as long as the m18x has a good screen it won't be as gutwrenching.

I just kind of realized as much as I value the screen of my machine, really the bottom line is performance. SB and 4/5series Nvidia/6000 series AMD is just too large of a performance increase from the previous generations to ignore on my personal flagship machine.

And really, the 6970m is a damn fine card. Any of you reading this who haven't purchased and are undecided on which route to go, there is almost a 0% chance you will be disappointed should you decide to go for the 6970's.

I had one briefly in the m17x R3 and it was an utter monster. One of them. Two I can't even fathom, in a laptop no less.

I just have that nagging bit of Nvidia fanboism that is making me want to get Nvidia cards this time around.

 

Trust me, regarding the M18x screen, its damn good. Its not RGBLED but it is a very good screen. I too had the RGBLED in my R2 for almost 12 months....coming from that to this M18x is NOT like dropping off the edge of a cliff.....its maybe not quite as vibrant...though some of the colours on the rgbled were over saturated at stock, its still very good. Brightness is pretty good too...it wont burn the backs of your eyeballs but its good nonetheless. All in all, I was dreading the change of display too.....after seeing this M18x screen, yeah, there is room for improvement but in no way is it bad....sometimes I actually forget its not my old R2 screen.....as others have said, with a bit of calibration, it is great. Certainly not a reason to NOT go for an M18x.....

Regards the gpu's...both are great options...both are fantastic in terms of performance and will satisfy the majority of gamers with ease...the only real choice left to make in that department is wether or not you really want either/or and what you own personal budget can stretch to...either way, you wont be disappointed!

 

If it's for a company, I would recomend the Spyder 3 Pro ( http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3pro.php)

 

Spyder3 PRO/Elite would be awesome. Our company has a pending order for one of these and as soon as we have it, I'll post a guide with comparison pics before/after on both the stock and RGBLED panels.

 

Oh la, la!: "That's the way... I like it!"

 

Really glad to hear your news - that's a great result!

 

For Amosingh.....

Amo - here are some pics of my M18x sat on the Notepal U3 Cooler...hope you find 'em helpful mate....

 

thanks alot stevie those pics really help.

 

Great pics, BTW! So M18x is even bigger than a laptop pad for up to 19" laptops, curious) I love it too, and custom fans placement is awesome! How much does it help for temps reducing? Can you run a few benchies with fans off/max, please? What's your clocks for GPU, any OC, besides factory 2920xm 4Ghz?

 

I really hate to ask "what about in the future" questions, but I'll try to draw on the past to make it easier.

Question1: What are the basic guesses as to how likely that Dell would come install a screen upgrade when the RGBLED becomes available (the question assumes there will be one, so not trying to bring that into the discussion, simply whether Dell offer's screen upgrades where their tech comes and installs the upgraded screen or you send the machine in to get the upgrade).

Question 1b: Was there an ability to upgrade the R1 to the first RGBLED if you got the CCFL screen? (via Dell not via Ebay)


Question 2: Is the WLED screen on the M18x a bit "cool" in temperature? Many WLED screens are, and I tend to prefer a bit cooler temperature, but wondering from those who own them.



Note: someone above mentioned the 6990. Remember that the 580's are likely to drop in price when the 6990's show up. Classic Nvidia to grab high pricing as long as they can till the competition makes a move then they drop the price. I don't consider the 6970's performance inferior enough to notice, but pricing generally follows that if it's 2% faster, it needs to be 20% more expensive. But if you are thinking 580's sometimes waiting a few weeks could save some $. I'm not sure I'll wait that long or not, just sayin the option is possible.

 

No problem Amo, glad to help mate.

Thanks!

Well, it overhangs the sides a very small amount...other than that, its a great fit. Temps are pretty good with it. Ran some Cinebench 11.5 with multipliers set at 45/42/38/38 and cpu maxed out at around 84-85c with cooler on full tilt. Cpu was running 3.8ghz during the test.

Havent done any serious benching/OC-ing yet...the cooler seems to make a good difference though, and I am still on stock Dell thermal compounds and drivers atm.

When I get the chance, I will try and post up some figures for some popular benchies like mark'06, vantage and '11 with cooler off/max.....

 

I am also experiencing flickering with GTA IV, the game forces me to use the lowest graphical settings. How did you fix that issue? What else did you do besides using the command.txt? And which ATI driver are you using? Thanks

 

Nice Pic but , You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to steviejones133 again.

 

Awwwww.....better give someone else some rep quick LOL....then gimme some more hahahahaha

 

HAHA lol I get that same message all the time LOL. Shoot the rep my way then to Stevie LOL

ahhaah

Cheers.

 

HAHAHAHAHA...you're tha man chief....repped LOL

 

What's all that with the 'reps', do you guys buy lollipops with them? ( or maybe you get a free M18x when you have 10000s?)

 

Well, it arrived, so now I can finally say I'm an m18x owner, and damn...

This thing is beautiful!

To be honest, I actually expected it to be bigger (that's what she said) but it still feels lighter than my m1730 so that's a huge plus.

It's a bit thick, but I like the way it elevates itself over a flat surface and look forward to playing with it instead of working today

 

Got a call from the shipper, mine arrives tomorrow between 8am and 5pm ...

How am I going to sleep tonight ?

 

Happy 4th

 

Literally as I said, the drivers weren't updated in device manager - once I did this, it ran fine. Since then there has been another ccc update which also runs fine. Pm me if your still having problems and I'll have a look at my drivers and settings - won't be with my pc till the wkd.

 

I cracked...

2 wks to wait

580 sli
2920
black

 

Wow that system is BEAST. I'm waiting for 6990 and then pulling the trigger. Gotta keep to 3k.

 

Dammn powerful. Congrats on leaving the fence!

 

I ultimately decided on upgrading my R2 with 6970's. This is merely a short-range solution. My end game is and always will be the m18x.

In the meantime, I hope I can hang with you guys benchmark wise!

 

BTW congrats FXi. Awesome system. Really. That's the config I came very close to pulling the trigger on.

 

Well I pulled the trigger; will change order if 6990s become available.

Previous system: M17x R2 with RGB 920xm and 5870s CF 4 gig ram.

New: m18x 2720 2.2ghz, 6970s CF 8 gig ram.

I am guessing I should see a nice jump in gaming performance? I have to give my R2 to my Ex in a divorce settlement (don't ask me why she doesnt even use that or game). So I figured why not get the newer system.

Did anyone skip the HD wireless because i did. I just didnt want to spend 300 on something i don't plan on using...at least for now. Is it something that could be added externally later?

Finally I know my processor is not an extreme but is the one I got the good "bang for buck" and will it bottleneck my 6970s in crossfire? It seems to be a good speed.

Thanks all.

 

You have to understand that I don't replace these very often. Current "laptop" is a 6.5 year old M1710. It too, was a very pricey machine way back and it continues to serve family quite well. So I tend to leap at particular points in time for a bit more. We'll see if I'm satisfied when it gets here

 

Ya I know what you mean I've had my xps since 06 its time for an upgrade!

 

Hi there,
did u manage to find out about the M6600?

thanks!

 

Hey, I'm not alone! I thought I was the only one who kept laptops this long!

 

Yes, I checked the BIOS and there was no special settings for Pro A/V.

 

ok. i think im gonna go with an audio specialist.... thanks man!!

 

You're welcome!

 

Ordered mine yesterday also...

Black
2820QM
Nvidia 580

Went base on hard drive and memory. Already have NewEgg sending 8 GB HyperX 1866 and Intel 510 SSD. I can't wait to unleash this beast!

 

I'm torn between the m17x with a 580 or a m18x with either 460/580s kinda breaking the bank going with 580s. I need a new school and gaming laptop...

 

For your records, beside the M18x sent back, I keep with love, proud and pleasure my maxed old Inspiron 8600 from 2004... that's 7 years and counting! It's a rock!

 

SOS, gotta love those warranties!

 

Hehe, I still keep my 8.5 yr old IBM R40, not a single hardware failure/replacement from the day one! Even the battery is still functional - 3-4hrs

 

Well, well, well... what about my Toshiba, Tecra 730CDT with Windows 95 and a mamouth 28 Kg. base... from 1996...? (I also have somewhere an old Sinclair...)

 

still rocking my inspiron 1720 that I got custom built with dual core t9300 processors and the 8600GT ... its pretty sweet, can actually run most games on low or even medium settings SC2, CoD Black Ops ... that kind of stuff .... mind you, I have been playing them in extreme settings on the m18x .... no comparison