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

The general 'feeling' among those expressions (of my colleagues and mine) was that as far as those are the (so low & limited) PPI... we all are out of the buying game .

 

Yea they are cheaper in Poland

M18X Crossfire HD7970 = 11,439.00 PLN = 3,601.24 USD

 

This is by far the biggest of the few flaws I can find with the M18X platform. It is especially disheartening when the M17X-R2 had a better screen. I haven't received my M18X yet but I am sure I will be happy with the screen coming from a Dell Studio 17.

Has Dell ever made any sort of announcement or comment on why there isn't at least the option of a better quality screen in the M18x? Maybe it's cost? Are better quality 18 inch screens difficult to find or produce? Maybe power hungry?

 

Whatever the "reasons" the people that rely on those high quality state-of-the-art DTRs (and do more than gaming) will be always ready to pay the premium cost/price: just and simply because they need it.

 

I think it has to do with the logistics of finding a manufacturer/provider to supply and produce, say a 18.4" RGBLED screen. I dont think they are very common place and as such, pricing may be high.....that's the only valid reason I can think of that has stopped Dell putting one of those "quality" screens in the M18x.

It's a shame because ANY laptop is only as good as its screen, in reality. I know we can hook up better external monitors (as I have done) but if you are on the go, you cant tote another display around with you - you are stuck with the internal screen. Basically, that's the main reason I think it is one of the foremost factors that sells laptop computers.....no point buying a beast if the display is crap....

My M18x R1 screen is ok...I would say better than average, but not brilliant....certainly not as good as the screen I had in my old M17x R2.

Dell should take note of this as its a HUGE factor that most people consider when shelling out thousands.....

 

I can see that as a company stand point and I totally understand their point of view but IMO its just one of those markets that only be created by a single company pushing into it and letting others follow suit
Whether this company is dell or clevo resellers or even apple we can only riot more and more

 

It's availability. There just aren't a lot of 18" screens to pick from.


Anybody seen any benchmarks posted of the R2 yet? Here's a couple of screenshots from a guy who has one on the internal beta team. Is this good? I have no idea. The "score lower than similar systems" could be because of the driver?
CPU: i7 3920XM
GPU: 2 x Radeon HD 7970M
Memory: 16GB
SSD: Samsung PM830 512GB SSD

 

The gfx score is lower cause someone got their 7970 running @ 1Ghz or there abouts and got 25kish
Edit: heres the link : http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4054556(Geocake)
Double edit just saw that Bill posted with 2x 7970m ..thats defo low thats giving the score equiv to 1 single card
Triple Edit: Incase that above link isnt working : http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...0m-xfire-gtx-680m-sli-when-8.html#post8492051

 

^404 on that link^
Edit: it hyperlinked "(GeoCake)" Took that out and it's good.

 

to be honest I don't think crossfire is even working

 

Thats probably what the driver qualification is about then..

 

I have a feeling you're right. Hence, not yet released.

 

Yep. Something is wrong with them scores....my 580's and 2960xm score better than that at stock clocks with stock Dell Drivers....given the scores for ONE 7970m, they are far too low for crossfire....

 

Ah well least you guys found it out before sending them over to us xD

 

well I am sure they will get it straight one way or the other at least we know they working on

edit@ BlackStar2012 you beat me to it

 

Yup but at least we know that a single 7970m should perform somewhere in the 22-25k ballpark
Edit: some benches are up on notebookcheck : http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970M.72675.0.html
Also they have somehow got a bench for gtx 680m..no idea how but its a bit lower than you'd expect :/
Dont know about their xfire 7970m benches either seem a bit low compared to a single card..
Major Edit: Double checking the ID from Bill's post and checking the results on the 3dmark website it does show that there was only 1 card being test : http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4059459 scroll down about half way : says 1 card , no xfire and the clocks seem quiet off...

@ speedy I'M HERE TO TAKE YOUR SPEEDY TITLE !

 

Maybe he didn't even connect the Crossfire cable. It's not like this hasn't happened before.

 

ha ha ha for real ? I like your Avatar

yeah you must be right I wish we can see the lower portion of the benchmark where it says if 2 cards are enabled

 

Read my "Major Edit" in my post above
And like your Gonzales avatar too ;p

 

Well, as it appears that only one card was working, that's a pretty nice score for a single 7970m....makes me wonder what 2 would pull in at stock....maybe 37k ish? - I imagine its AMD drivers that are holding those babies back and not hardware....as we all know, AMD have really sucked at driver support of late and its of no suprise to me that crossfire isnt working with their driver....

No point owning two Ferrari's if they can't get off the blocks....

 

Ah nice Ferrari analogy XD
But yh I expect a xfire 7970m to easily pull off 40k soon as drivers kick in maybe even 40k-50k <--
On another note anyone received their m18xr2 yet?

 

I'm just hoping that AMD get their act together for anyone who wants those bad boys....during my painful experience of AMD, it was a major factor in my disappointment with their hardware. If it all comes good, then WOW....such performance in a laptop will be amazing....truly!

 

Yes, I agree. The performance I am seeing is extremely tempting. The memories of what used to be in the 6900M series offset the temptation. Haven't decided whether to take the risk on more disappointment, especially with unacceptable drivers. I'm thinking it best to wait and see what happens with the user experience from the outside looking in and decide later.

 

That would be the logical way of going about things..good part is we can test on the m17x peeps

 

It will be fine. I'm running 12.5 Beta drivers right now and it works flawlessly with 6990Ms. I'd imagine the 7970s to not really have any really bad kinks.

 

Judging by how delayed the driver qualification has been so far I'm slowing losing a bit of my soul..I mean hope :/

Edit: ~cough yay 100 posts /cough~

 

Have faith brother B-Star. ATi is back.

 

My thoughts exactly, Brother Fox....

 

hey broter Fox what you think, should we move to the red side again?

 

I'm going to keep my 675 sli config so I can get mine 10 days earlier XD but the benches coming out of the 7970.. One of those almost puts the 675 in sli to shame lol. Let's just say I'm going to be broke when those come out on the older topic of no "uber" screens on the m18,, anyone know of mobile screens like the kind toshiba** makes but with better resolution? I've tried a few searches but they don't appear to be very popular.. Which is sad because if I ever find an OLED in 1920x1080 I'll buy about 5 of them XD

 

Headed to Fedex to pick my r2 right now!!!

pick up** im excited!

 

Gratz!! (Be sure to post something about the screen he hopefully whispered~)

 

if you didn't get the R2 with ivy brige you might qualify for, Dell to upgrade unshipped Alienware orders to Ivy Bridge CPUs for free -- Engadget

 

I wish Bill could've told us that

 

I didnt notice any Major differences in the R2 screen. Just got mine last night but havent had a chance to mess with it.

 

Does that mean you're at work now and can't tell us?

 

Bill from Dell already said that all M18X will ship with the Ivy Bridge cpu.

 

Alright fellas! I'm typing on my baby right now. I never saw the screen on the R1 but This screen doesnt seem like anything crazy. The picture is very clear and the colors dont really seem washed out. I have an IPS monitor for my desktop so I know what good quality is. Im totally happy with the screen on here though Also, I DID receive the IVY bridge upgrade even though when I put the order in it was sandy. I'm gonna take some pics and upload em!!

 

Does the R2 come with an msata drive or just the option to put one in? Can you put one into the wirelessHD slot of an R1?
What is the benefit of installing an msata???

 

Sweet.. waiting for the pics

 

Unfortunately yes.

 

The only benefits I can see right now are that you can run it as a boot drive or a cache drive, and that it takes up hardly any space. I don't know if it will fit in
The wihd slot.. The 18x r2 is my first AW,,

EDIT: ps it doesn't come standard it's an option when choosing your storage drive configuration

 

idk if its just me but the keys on my keyboard seem cheaper for some reason? If I slide my hand its like I can get under the keys and easily with enough pressure Its like Id rip it out.. :/

 

^Really? I don't think I ever noticed that with the R1.

 

Engadget's choice of wording kind of clouds the issue. It's not that we took the order for a Sandy Bridge, then when Ivy Bridge released we said, "Hey, what if we stop ship on all current orders and upgrade them to Ivy for free?" We knew all along what we were doing. If you ordered a 17R4, 14R2 or 18R2, you were going to get Ivy Bridge all along. We held those orders until after Intel lifted the embargo. We were just forbidden to say so by Intel until April 30. We were running low on Sandy Bridge stock in many regions, so we were faced with a decision to delay the announcement of the new systems, announce and ship with Sandy Bridge, let stock deplete and gap out on the websites in regions where we ran out of Sandy Bridge, or announce with "Sandy Bridge" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and announce the happy joyful "free" upgrade to Ivy Bridge after embargo. Pricing was adjusted for Ivy Bridge from the get-go (and it was lower than it normally would have been). The big risk was taking criticism for a few days about why the price increase for the same CPU, which never really happened, thank goodness.

*exception is the base 14R2 with the i5. That will remain Sandy Bridge until further notice.

 

Are we still on for May 10 AMD's? Let us know if you hear something signaling a slip in the date.

 

Officially, I've heard no updates either way, but I have a feeling it may slip. I can make a better guess after the internal beta program manager replies to the tech's who ran those benchmarks request for a beta driver to test CXF. Doubt I'll be able to say anything definitive no matter what the reply is, though.

 

And... by May 10 you will be enjoying your freedom with wife, kids and a couple of german beers...

 

Indeed. Do you think they have Der Weinershnitzel over there?

 

Of course! (and much more! )