*OFFICIAL* M18x R1/R2 Owner's Lounge Thread

Hi everyone first time poster Im very soon to purchase the MX18 R2. My likely specs are (likely?) as follows:
-Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
-Intel Core i7-3820QM
-8GB Dual Channel XMP DDR3 1866MHz
-Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M - CrossFireX
-500GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD

I am a first time AlienWare purchaser but I did own some version of the XPS way back when, I dont recall what model however. I have a few questions I am hoping you guys can help me with.

1. The machine will be used primarily for gaming. As it stands I will probably go for the 8gb of 1866 DDR3 ram. I have been wondering if I should stick with that ram or would it be best to go with something for example like the 12 or 16 gb 1600mhz ram?

2. As it has been so long since I have dealt with Dell and their customer support, I am wondering if it would be worth it to go with the 2 year advanced plan or would I be just fine with the normal?

These are just a couple of questions I have been mulling over and was curious as to what others thought. Thanks in advance!

 

I recommend not upgrading the RAM to 1866. You will barely see a difference at all from 1600 and it makes very little difference in gaming (unless you're going to use your Intel 4000, lol).

Get the Advanced Warranty over basic - as it is only like $80 more and you get accidental damage protection. It's pretty valuable especially if you're like me and you sell your laptops every 8-12 months. The next owner will appreciate it and you'll get more for your laptop.

 

Thank you for the reply, I am not likely to be selling it anytime soon after I get it. I am coming off of a Gateway P-6831FX I bought new and put a 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo in, so I would like to squeeze out as many years out of the MX18 as I possibly can. With that said I will most likely go with one of the advanced plans. Thank you also for your advice on the ram, I will probably go with something like 16gigs of 1600mhz then. Really looking forward to getting this thing ordered and into my house

 

Good advice here... I use the stock Dell DDR3-1600 and it's fine. Also agree on the warranty advice.

 

My Crossfire internal bridge is not connected. This sucks. I just got this. Any advice.

 

No worries, and no offense taken. +1 Rep for being polite and caring enough to say so. I did not know of anything more specific to contribute in response to your question without having more information to work with. Sometimes being too specific can be right in one circumstance, but wrong in another. Based on your intended use, I agree that you did make the right choice. Good job. And, you're 100% correct about tone being easily misunderstood with written communication.

 

Hi Guys~!

I dont' know where to post my questions... so I'm writing here...
sorry if it's not proper place to ask quesitons..

I just got Alienware m18x but I accidentally format everything. nothing is left.

so..I'm trying to install all the drivers I have from the CD.
I didn't have a internet connection but now I got cable connection
but still can't have wireless connection. I install my wireless driver
Wireless N 2230 but... it does not search any wireless internet..

Can anybody help me to get wireless connection?

Also, I have amd 7970m crossfire and It is not showing up.

Before I format, two AMD 7970m showed on control pannel system

but now it's just standard VGA graphics Adapter.

I can't find 7970m driver on AMD website...

Please please help me~ I will really appreciate it.

 

Not from CD but get it from Dell .Com to for the latest....

 

thanks a lot clarify on such things and next time for sure i will be going for a 4 years full coverage warranty.

 

Once I got internet connection i downloaded from the webiste

but I can't find AMD 7970m driver

Do you know where it is?

 

Hey everyone, I am back In the alienware family.
i received my m18xr2 yesterday.

i added my m4 crucial 512 gb and a samsung 1tb 5600 rpm hdd.

The os is in the m4. During my re-install everything went very smooth, I had no problem for my 7970's to be crossfire as soon as I installed Dell supplied driver.
Right now I am downloading dozen of games through my origin and steam account.
I will be able to answer question about performance.
The bios was amazing for a notebook, overclock seems very easy.

So far I really like the screen, I played a bit with amd control center and it has good potential.

I use regularly 3007 whp screen and retina display ipad but the m18x r2 didn t disappoint me (my biggest fear as i returned my m17x r1 and m14x r1 for this reason).

Build quality is top motch and i didn t get any scratch.
The notebook passed my wife living room acceptance test, it is allowed outside my office, haha.

I was happy to see the msata was the amazing samsung p830. It is way above regular msata ssd.

Tonight is diablo 3 heavy play, i have been playing om desktop with 30 inch screen since release. I hope the experience will be positive.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I got the driver from one of the cd. It s the winbledon amd driver i think, it works for me.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Are you sure you re not using the hybrid graphic? Is your pc plugged? Can you try a manual switch? I format like you did and i had no problem. Let s figure it out


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Oh my gosh!! Thanks man!!

I just installed the 7970m driver from the CD you told me!

Really Thanks.. After format, I called Dell service and asked them to recover

as it was before, but they said since I did format the laptop, they will charge

me about 100 to recover everything..

It just tried do by myself and it was not bad just installing.. but I got stuck on video card and Alienware Command Center since I coudn't find anywhere..

but you saved me!! now my computer is just like before, works fine! ^^

yeah I found out the driver from the CD and installed

Now I see two AMD 7970m graphic card on the system

and system rating is 7.9 for graphic. Before AMD was set up it was 1. lol

 

I am glad I could help . At first I thought they only put nvidia drivers...it tooks me a little while to figure it out.

They put wimbledon instead of 7970m because it was the gpu chip code name. Not really user friendly if you are not aware of the latest tech news....

i will bench the notebook tonight maybe we can compare our results to see if everything is optimal .

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

@Natadiem
Very nice comment about your successful m18x R2 Story !

 

Is the m18x r2 setup for dual channel RAM?

 

Also your AMD 7970M drive will come from the dell website and not the AMD site. You can find all your drives on dell's site.

 

Yes it is setup for dual channel RAM.

 

Hi there, I'm looking to buy an Alienware for around $5400 or lower and I'm looking at the processors. How big of a difference is there between the i7 3920XM and the overclocked version? Couldn't I just get the non overclocked version and overclocked it myself and save the $250? Or how does the 3820QM compare?

Also, should I get 16GB of 1600MHz or 8 of 1866 (or whatever it is)? Would RAID be better (don't know much about it) or the single 512GB SSD?

 

I just called Dell, and I was handled by a girl this time. She saw that I called yesterday and told me that she will tranfer me to the customer service. But after a 5 minutes she came back and she told me that she will take my issue and that was exceptional. I was like "Ok cool".

She offered me a screen replacement, but I asked for a machine replacement. She took me on wait. When she came back, she transfered me to my sales person and I got my replacement .

Girls seem like more generous Haha I'm just kidding.

Thanks all for your help!

 

Good for you afterall it is a brand new expensive machine it shouldn't have any issues.

 

Glad you got it sorted out to your satisfaction! The Day crew do indeed seem more "helpfull" than the night crew I have found in my own experiences.

 

Cool !!!! Dell is the best

 

well your lucky guy
For me they advice me to return for full Refund, ive ask for replacement but they said they cant issues replacement for system which is less then 7 days old, its company policy They can only issues replacement after some repair attempts so so i have to return system wait for refund then order again

 

Hmmm - not sure that rings true. They shouldnt force you into having to return and re-order if you simply want a new system because of the lack of QC on your first one....

 

Not to be rude, but what about my post fellas?

 

There is no difference in OC xm an non-OC xm except Dell make some changes in bios to overclock it for you - nothing that you cant do yourself within a minute or so....save yourself $250 - the 3820qm won be as fully overclockable as the extreme as its locked down in bios.

8gb of ram is sufficient for most uses including gaming. Obviously more ram will be better but would you notice it? -probably not massively so - basically, if you buy ram aftermarket, you can probably get 16gb for the equivalent of Dell's price for 8gb........

SSD wise, Raid0 will give you the fastest option, but you do have the potential to lose all your data if one drive fails - if you keep images of your system, that wouldnt be a problem (also, even if you went for a single SSD, that obviously can still fail so I think the argument about "running into big issues" if a raided drive fails is thater a mute point). But with all SSD's, they are all soo superfast to the eyes, wether you could tell in real world useage if a raid0 is significantly faster than a single SSD, I would doubt.

 

Well its not about my old M18x R1 its already returned now, but about few days back i have received M18X R2 which is completely new order, and ive did informed Dell after 2 hours of receivin system that its contain some cosmetic fault and some other problem as well. So they said they Cant issue replacement for new system which is less then 7 days old ... Soo now i have to wait for my previous Refund then i have to order again, after gettin New system they will collect this (m18x R2), then i will get refund for this one.

 

Thanks for the information buddy. So should I go with the 8GB 1866 or 1600MHz? Also, would you recommend the cooling mat they sell or is it not necessary?

 

I'm pretty sure I know the anwser to this but, would I have any trouble using this along with the stock 8GBs of ram that came with the system, they both are the same MHz.

I would probably run into problems if I overclock the RAM though right?

 

what configurations, dual 7970m's?

and what price u paid out for it.

 

I was looking at the starting points and would it be wisest to start with the cheapest one and build from there? Or do they have different options? I want to make sure I don't pay too much money.

EDIT: if I start from cheapest starting point and skip on 7 Ultimate and Blu Ray drive I'll be able to get non OC CPU, Crossfire setup, 16gb, backpack, cooling pad, mouse for just about my budget.

 

I say, get the best Proc and GPU's you can afford and upgrade your HDD, RAM later. You will save alot of money.

 

Personally, I would not buy 16gb ram from Dell as its far cheaper to get it from Amazon or NewEgg etc...(keep the stock ram for warranty purposes)

As said above, get the best cpu/gpu you can afford right off the bat. Worry about the ram and HDD and accessories after you got the rig.

 

here it is....
anything add/subtract?
grand total is-$2,846.50
WITHOUT asking for school/military discount ( CAN i get more?)

PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit
MEMORY 12GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD edit
VIDEO CARD Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M - CrossFireX™ Enabled edit
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0 edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

 

just wondering, because 7970m alone is powerful..but with 2. the power is god like?

also for EXAMPLE when 7990m comes out, will it be good to have 7970m with 7990m? or will i have to buy 2x 7990m?

and how hard is it to exchange graphic card.
and will BASE i7 be good enough....for how long?

trying to make this m18x last long time.

 

Okay so say I follow your advice and get the HDD + RAM separately. Do you think you could help me find the best SSD and RAM I can get for that value? I wanna make sure I do this right and I'd appreciate the assistance.

 

This is what I did I called and talked to a sales rep and got the best cpu and gpu I can afford, bluray, and see what deals they can hook you up with. I got 5% + $200 dell coupon.
You can then wait for those coupon and use to buy backpack, mouse, etc. from dell.

Also buy warranty when you buy your system, upgrading cost a ton after you already got your system. I called in see the price it would cost me for 3 years, the guy quoted me $900 for 3 years of advanced warranty.

 

I received my XFire 7970m M18x a week or so ago. At this point I can only run one card, but I'm assured it is a driver issue. Even with the one 7970m framerates are fantastic (even with the Dell drivers) and I haven't had too many issues. Once the XFire issues are solved I'm sure this rig will be good for 2-3 years.

Just my 2 cents.

 

you have to do them with the same pair.

 

Dual XFire 7970m should last awhile
I weighed my m18x + the adapter on a scale and its like 16.xxlbs

 

LOL - awesome. Wow. I need to go lift some weights before this baby arrives.

 

how much was ur config sk3tch?

did u haggle them by how much discount u got?

 

That warranty seems a bit out of my league. I was just going to do a one year advanced.

 

Build it online and then call in and have the sales person quote you on the one you built and you can get up to 14% off. This is enough to get your win ultimate and blu-ray, so you don’t have to choose. Also start at the base build. So build it with everything you want online and take 14% off and see if it is within your budget, then call and have them quote a better price. If you have to tell them you have friends that have got 14% off. They aren't always willing to do it right away and check their math on the totals too.

 

Yes, I saved my cart and then called 1-800-ALIENWARE and I was able to get 16% off plus free two-day shipping. My estimated arrival bumped up from 6/11 to 6/8 today!

My config is 3920XM/6GB/500GB/2x7970M/Blu-ray/Killer 1103 - the SSD/HDD/RAM I bought separately.

 

Also like everyone else says get RAM and HDD's later and it will be a lot cheaper.

 

Do you think this RAM & SSD would be better than the ones supplied by Alienware?

Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-512G 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10

Also, the current build that I made, with Bag, Cooling Pad, Mouse & those above items came to $5383.69. That works for me

 

I cant really shop about for you but as an example, you could get two of these to give you 16gb 1866mhz ram: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 Laptop Memory Model CMSX8GX3M2A1866C10 or the one you linked above would be just fine too and it would mean you can install it without removing the palmrest/keyboard. The ones I linked to are 1866mhz, so slightly faster but you would have to remove the keyboard and palmrest to install them in all four slots - there might be other sellers who do the same products cheaper but just google it.

As for SSD's, you cant go far wrong with either a Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 Series - again, just google a bit to find the best price for your desired capacity.

At the end of the day, if your happy with the Dell price and getting stuff after, go for it!

 

I would go with this SSD
Amazon.com: Samsung 830 - Series MZ-7PC512N/AM 512 GB 2.5 Inch SATA III MLC Internal SSD Laptop Kit with Norton Ghost 15: Electronics

and this Ram
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EWUPOO/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

Thats just me though, it's all up to you.

 

I don't recommend paying extra for 1866MHz RAM. Unless you're going to game on your Intel graphics - there's not much benefit. I run 2133MHz RAM on my desktop PC and it's barely an advantage. Not worth the bang/buck unless you just wanna do it to "do it" - so, by all means, go for it!