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

Almost too good to be true.... Especially with that cpu...

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

I feel this is taking forever to get here!!! Anyone get theirs in yet with a 680m(or anything) how long did it take? and how are you liking it?

 

Double post, please disregard.

 

Hi all ,



ok so i have cancelled my order for a m17x r4 and decided to go all out and go for the AW mothership !! m18x R2 . Now when i was configuring my system i really wanted the 3920xm but was not going to pay the massive high premium AW wanted ! so i researched into the build etc .


as i am aware after researching the 3820QM uses a 2 pipe copper cooling system , where the 3920xm uses a 3 pipe cooling system



My question silly as it sounds , do i need to get this 3 pipe cooling system ( dell part number 0MXJ5 ) or can i run it without upgrading from the 2 pipe system already supplied ? reason i ask i can get the 3920XM for £460 and really want to get it , but worried i will burn it out with incorrect cooling .

Any help would be great guys , if i do need a 3 pipe cooling system can anyone point me in the right direction ? many thanks

 

SchneebalL,

If you do end up with the 3820, the heatsink will be fine for that cpu. Sufficient cooling for your needs right there. However, if you upgrade afterwards to an extreme, you WOULD need the three pipe heatsink (that they ship with or you can purchase on its own) to keep your cpu temps in recommended thresholds. If you ran it on the dual pipe, it would probably get too hot for comfort and you could risk damaging the cpu, especially if you OC the XM - and that's why you would be buying one, right?

 

Hi Stevie ,

well i have a m18xR2 order and is currently in production with a 3820qm , i am not a massive overclocker ! but i am one of these people that like the best , i know stupid as i aware for gaming and bluray etc the 3820qm is more than enough .

is it best just to stay with the 3820qm as i have read on this forum i can overclock that to 3.9ghz anyway ?

 

If you arent chasing bench figures and dont use your pc for cpu intensive tasks, I'd personally stick with the 3820 - even 3720 would suffice. For gaming, cpu power is nowhere near as important as gpu power...it may help out with a few titles but 99.9% of the time, gpu's rule the day for gamers. I dont know what gpu you ordered but if you DIDNT go for 680m sli, I would probably say ditch the XM and throw the extra cash at the 680m's....if you DID order with 680m sli, might even be worth taking the saved cash and throwing it at warranty - these machines ain't cheap to put right if you need to after 1yr (if thats all the warranty you elected to have).

If you have the cash to splurge, by all means, the XM is a nice thing to have...I would personally be looking at the above things and weigh it up carefully as to wether you will actually use the XM to its potential or not.

On a side note, I notice you are in the UK too.....you might find my thread of interest....see my signature for the link. If you are thinking of cancelling your order, My Dell guy can probably help you out with a better deal - who knows, maybe you can have the XM and it wouldnt cost that much more....have a read and PM me if you like.

 

+ rep you are always willing to help people with their system and help them get the best price for their computer it is nice to have people like you on board.

 

Thanks Bro...just "paying it forward" LOL ... +rep back atcha.

 

well my current config is , 3820QM , dual 7970m's , 16GB vengence ram , 2 x m4 256GB SSD , bluray , killer N and 2 yr NBD warranty + accident damage

think i might just stick with the 3820QM , thanks for the advice +rep when i figure out how to do it lol

 

No probs. You must have ordered via HIDevolution, right?

 

no direct from dell , 6gb , 500gb hdd from dell the vengence and m4s i have here waiting which was going in the orignal R4 i ordered ..

 

hey guys, im enjoying my m18x very much !! using it for work all day , and for game all night! lol. here is my setup @ work !

 

I see. Well if you were thinking of cancelling, you could always have my guy give you a quote for what you ordered. He might be able to save you some cash....I will leave it with you.

 

New Bios version for M17xR4 M18xR2 M14xR2
Link
Audio Issues and other changes addressed. Find your platform listed there.

 

for Alienware M18x R2 - Bios A01
this is still the original bios...

 

Yes. I saw this on Twitter (Alienware). The Date Published : 2012-07-12, but the files are all older.

 

Hi Guys

Can I take these crappy 7970's out of my machine and put Nvidia cards in? Where do I buy the Nvidia cards from dell themselves?

I am SICK of every game I want to play does not support Xfire. Loaded up secret world last night and yep you guessed it does not support Xfire.

Flickering in game, text in game is all pixelated blah blah. I did not spend £4000 on the best gaming laptop you can buy to actually not be able to play the games I love at full chat.

VERY unhappy AMD prisoner

 

to the post #1248

installed unlocked bios, switched to internal IGFX and after reboot can't see anything on the screen. The keyboard lights on though. any solutions? thanks

 

how many times have you tried to reboot?

 

Red could be BCLK too high, it affects igpu.

 

Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD® RADEON HD 7970M CrossFireX™
240GB SSD SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s)
14GB RAM 1600Mhz
2x750gb HDD 7200RPM RAID-0
BluRay Combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write)
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO with Bluetooth 4.0

I do wish i could have got the 680m SLI but it was way too expensive...

Love the rig and it keeps soldiering on!

 

Johnksss, littleone 562

Tried to reboot it like 100 times. No overclock was done, due to 2630qm cpu! Tried the end key flash throught the usb bootable stick (extracted the .fd file from the 05 bios) but nothing happens. Removed the cmos battery - nothing, 30sec of power on button with the main battery and power cord unpluged - still no go... weird! Possible a bad bios flash((

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1: did you rename the fd file?
A: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...overy-process-all-m18x-case-corrupt-bios.html

2: you will need to take the laptop apart if all else fails.
3: remove the video card
4: turn on the laptop and wait to see if you hear like 3 beeps. then turn it off and back on again. it should come on.

 

Here's a short video of my babies.

<embed src="http://img411.imageshack.us/flvplayer.swf?f=Pse1" width='640' height="380" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

will this process work if i try the m18x-r2 bios on my r1 or will the rs bios completely brick my machine?

 

now that i dont know...
but you still wont get the features of that bios without running a 3920xm or any other ivy bridge cpu to activate them. provided it works...

 

Hi. Been lurking for 2 weeks now. Blindly ordered the
m18x with the 680m's in sli. A first for me to order
anything without first seeing results.

That said, does anyone know if a review exists or
a benchmark? Or, is it all speculation as to
performance? Also, where are all of you people
who said you showed getting yours today?
Typing this on my galaxy nexus so apologize if
format is bad.

 

I think most are still waiting on their system to be delivered...Im still waiting and it will have taken a whole month to arrive.

 

I havent seen any user reviews either but supposedly according to jonkyssss or whatever there are some on here who have 680m cards ( no sli for sure). However, i havent seen anyone and when i questioned him or her as to where they are i didnt get a response. So i think you will be a pioneer like me as i ordered the sli 680m setup too.

 

Ordered mine on speculation too. July 23rd expected ship though

 

Mine is due on the 27th , patience is a virtue so I'm told

 

As far as my system goes, the EDD is 23rd. I don't look for it to be anywhere near that date.

Primarily i started this thread in hopes that someone may have come across benchmarks or RWP for the Dual 680m. I have literally scoured Google, and other search engines, browsed through countless forums(while keeping a close eye on this one as well) for any breathe of life concerning benchmarks. No dice on futuremark either.

Secondarily there were a few people in here, such as Marinesniper who posted that fedex had their system and was scheduled for delivery yesterday morning. Therefore i was actually very excited and looking forward to "anyone" receiving their system and reporting on it's performance. Maybe they're off having too much fun fragging or capping? lol

At any rate, i wish all of you a speedy delivery and praying that SLI does not see the problems that Xfire has with drivers and/or game support.

 

Hello Everyone,

Well, the laptop arrived yesterday afternoon with no problems, and after taking it out and examining it everything looks great (except for a problem where the "." key is not responding very well and appears to be set in a little lopsided). As I was updating my drivers however I came across something interesting. I ordered this system with the GTX 675m Nvidia card, but when I went to try and update the drivers it told me that I didn't have an Nvidia card installed. I went into the device manager to confirm the video adapter I have installed, and sure enough there is no Nvidia card listed. The card that is listed is called the Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000, and I can't find a GTX 375m listed anywhere. Can anyone tell me what this is and is this another name for the GTX 375m? Maybe I'm just looking at things wrong. I tried calling customer support, but they will not be in for another few hours. I'd appreciate any help you can offer as I will be calling them ASAP to get this figured out.

On another note..Everything seems to be running pretty smoothly, although I can say for sure that I could NOT play games at max setting with the currently installed graphics, as FRAPS says I am getting about 30FPS playing Everquest online. I'm not getting a lot of lag, but the frame rates are pretty low.

Thanks for your help, and I look forward to trying any suggestions you might have.

 

Discrete cards dont show whilst you are running on Integrated Graphics onboard the cpu - 'aka' iGPU (HD4000). Try initiating a 'switch call' by pressing Fn & F7 to switch back to your Nvidia cards as it sounds like you are running on the iGPU at the moment, and not the Nvidia cards. Then check Device Manager and you should see your Nvidia (discrete) gpu's showing up.

 

johnksss extracted the lates A05 bios and renemed the file, the fans gone wild after the end key combo, but nothing happens, no beeps... I told my friend to take out the GPU, will see if it works. thanks

 

I believe that Marine's laptop was ordered with a 660m and not dual 680m's, and that is why his has already shipped. From what I have seen, I believe the people that ordered dual 680m's in late June had an EDD around the 11th but were pushed back to the 17th or later. I ordered mine on July 2nd and the EDD is the 23rd, but I imagine that mine will be pushed back along with everyone else. Might see some scores posted on here by Wed. of next week.

 

Here you go (Not an alienware though). HTWingNut down in the Sager forum have benched his to hell and beyond. A pretty good read

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo-reviews-owners-lounges/677055-htwingnuts-sager-np9150-clevo-p150em-review-lots-680m-benchmarks.html

EDIT: SLI yesss. Sorry, thats a single 680M.

 

I am willing to wager that 680 SLI will muster 35k in GPU on stock clocks in 3DMark Vantage depending on the CPU.

My R2 is set to arrive on the 19th, I had some issues with my M18x R1 with GPU failures (old configuration still in sig) and after 3 attempts to replace defective GPU's with refurbished (read: defective) GPU's they decided to do a system exchange, at this point I negotiated a full refund for said system ($2800) which I put towards a new R2 with a 10% discount and a few extra "goodies", totaling $4k: M18x R2 Nebula Red 3920xm sans factory OC, 680 SLI, 8 GB RAM.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. I told the Dell Technicians that they were insane to think that the solution to a component failure is replacement with failed components and after two weeks of these shenanigans I decided that I didn't even want to repeat the same logic with a system exchange.

I could totally picture my old GPU's that were non-functional coming out of the computer and going into a "magic bag" where two other GPU's were retrieved and installed. I then could totally see the same technician either going to the next person with the same computer and same problem and taking their failed GPU's out and putting them into said "magic bag" replacing them with the "newly refurbished" GPU's that just came out of my PC, either that or the technician sends the entire "magic bag" to dell where a certified dell technician gives them a once over and puts them on a shelf titled "newly refurbished".

I am not kidding. And no I didn't have a motherboard problem. After the second GPU exchange they both worked but one was running about 20 C too hot. The 3rd pair I had to do system restore to an earlier configuration where SLI was disabled as it wouldn't boot. GPU 1 was DOA.

Fortunately I kept my M17x R2 as a spare and for the time being have been playing the original Dead Space, still a good game. Thinking about taking the 5870's out and putting in a single 7970 M. It has a brand new 920xm CPU, it still is a great computer. Wish I knew how to get it to work with the battery though, it was originally configured with a 720qm and a single 5870, but after upgrading the CPU and adding 2nd 5870 it wouldn't turn on solely with battery power. If anyone knows what the solution to this is please let me know.

 

make sure the flash drive is formatted to 16 or 32 bit...if you didnt do so already.

 

hey mr fox, how much did the dual 7970m cost you?

 

go with dual 680M

 

I just ordered mine! Very happy with my choice. Originally, I would have went with Clevo but at this point they don't have any options with SLI/CF. And to be honest, whenever someone mentions Alienware I would usually steer them away and tell them to go with a cheaper brand. But after seeing one in person, the build quality alone is worth the premium.

The only downside I found was that the 680M SLI option was $1000 more than the 7970m CF! But to be honest, I really, really can't be bothered dealing with driver issues from AMD. I think I've saved myself some time and a lot of headaches by going with the 680m SLI option.

Not sure when it will arrive. I might post benchmarks and what not but I'm sure many other users will receive theirs before I get mine.

Edit: I don't know how to edit my signature, but here are my specs

i7 3720QM
Nvidia GTX 680M SLI
16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
3 x 512GB Crucial M4 SSDs (Purchased directly from crucial. Probably won't go into RAID because of the SATA 2 port)
Blu-ray Combo
Killer Wireless-N 1103

Edit: Another thing I would love to change is the screen on this thing. From the videos and pictures I've seen, it looks like a mirror. I never use a laptop outdoors (I carry an iPad for that), but still..very glossy!

 

I wish I could afford to go out the door with the dual 680m SLI configuration, but I just didn't have the extra $1,000 lying around the house begging to be spent so I decided to go with the single 680m card so that I can save up for the second card and hopefully purchase it when the price drops.

Can anyone tell me what program you are using to monitor CPU/GPU temps? I didn't notice any software that came with the computer, and I'm really interested in keeping an eye on the temps as I play my games.

It looks like you have a great Rig Musti08, I hope you enjoy it!!

 

I can't blame you, the cost is pretty high right now. I'm surprised I managed to negotiate it with my rep. One 680M should be more than enough to eat up games right now. No promises that there won't be a new shiny GPU on the block before you pick up the second, though.

I use HWiNFO64 in "sensor only" mode. MSI Afterburner is another good choice.

 

I got my Used m18x last week upgraded the ram, swapped SSDs, reinstalled windows and didn't really get to game on it until yesterday afternoon... Crossfire 6990s is enough for Diablo 3 on max settings to run great, and BF3 on ultra gets 45-55 FPS and on auto setting it sets everything to ultra/high and I get 60+ FPS the whole time. Its so smooth too!

A 680m or single 7970m will crush just about anything, I can't imagine what 2 of either card would be like.

This is the coolest computer I have ever owned, and faster than the desktop I sold off before buying it.

I LOVE the lighting changes when playing BF3. I get shot up and make it out alive and it turns red and blinks? so awesome!

Also can I just say, I Love the Nebula Red?

I can't believe it took me this long to buy alienware. The M18x build quality is amazing. My NP8130, while a great machine feels like a toy compared to it!

good stuff, good stuff indeed.

 

What's up, folks! So, after ordering an M17x on July 5 and having a change of heart yesterday, I was able to cancel that order today to go all-out on an M18x. After what I ordered from Dell, as well as the upgrades I ordered from elsewhere to put into the system, here's what I'll have:

CPU: Intel i7-3920XM
GPU: Dual NVIDIA GTX 680M (SLI-enabled)
RAM: 32GB (4 8GB sticks of CORSAIR Vengeance DDR3 1600)
SSD 1 (mSATA): 60GB (Dedicated OS drive)
SSD 2: 256GB
HDD: 750GB
Optical: Sony Optiarc BD-5850H-01 (Blu-ray reader/writer)
Wireless: Killer 1103
Display: 1920 x 1080 WLED WideFHD (1080p)

I'm totally stoked to see what this puppy can do! I'm hoping it can chew up and spit out any game I throw at it with not only ultra settings, but full AA, filtering, etc. enabled.

 

StephenChapman,

Excellent choice for your optical drive. I will be using the Sony Optiarc BD-5850H-01 too.

Will be interested with your results using 32gb of corsair. Some are having problems. Wish you luck and post results.

I am sure you will be happy with your new system.

 

A fellow guitarist? Noted the JEM in your avatar.

I've heard good things about that optical drive! Can't wait to check it out. As for the 32GB RAM, it's primarily for my DAW software and plug-ins. I got the base system from Dell with 12GB RAM, so if I have to stick with that until problems with the CORSAIR get worked out, that's fine, too. I haven't heard of any issues, so I'm kind of glad you mentioned. I'll have to check around to see what people are running into. Thanks for mentioning!

 

USB 3.0 users, you might be interested in this. Turbo Mode: Faster USB, With A Caveat : Faster USB 3.0 Performance: Examining UASP And Turbo Mode

the one by asus needs supports in firmware, motherboard chipset, usb 3.0 device etc so its likely harder to get. the USB turbo software to disable/enable BOT can be used and its there, just need some reg edit to boost usb 3.0 performance. article was just out last month.