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

probably wont have a 7990m because there are no more cores can be unlocked in the 7970m. these are based on the desktop graphics and you can look at the desktop part to get a better understanding. that been said, heres another glimpse of hope for a 7990m or 685m, nVidia GTX 680M Performance Review | Tech|Inferno. they also said something about m18xR1 bios dont support 680m or something and it seems 680m can OC quite a bit =/

 

I have issues with blue screening , no crossfire support for the games i play. I find it sad that my asus g74 that i have for work with a nvidia 560m plays games with less issues than my m17x-r2 with crossfire 5870's and my m18x-r1 with crossfire 6990's.This is why i have given up on AMD gpu's for the moment. Great cards just no driver support!

 

No need for concern. My OCZ drives do not seem to have a temperature sensor.

 

wait for sandisk to release firmware thats with 5.0.3 sandforce firmware, 5.0.2 having issues with trim, drive will be much slower after intense work.

alright could someone please explain to me ive wanting to ask for a long time but now i am just confused.
AMD graphics core and memory clock seems to be w/e it is, but as for nvidia, memory clock seems to be halved for w/e reason and people saying something about DDR so its halved. well, AMD also uses DDR memory so how does that work?

for 680M
memory clock 900mhz nVidia GTX 680M Performance Review | Tech|Inferno
memory clock 1800mhz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
memory clock 3600mhz Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(and search for 680M)

on all website, AMD card memory clock stays the same, need some explanation..

 

Juliant, if this is accurate, it is a change in process that recently began, as they never used to be touched by Dell/Alienware employees prior to delivery. I would applaud this practice and be happy to know they have put this into place.

Assuming it is true, I find it very puzzling that they would allow any systems to go through their checks as happened in your case. That would suggest a QC process improvement that is not as robust as necessary to ensure every system is delivered exactly as intended, at least cosmetically near perfect.

Other than the folks that are starting to get fed up with Apple (such as vulcan78) it seems rare to find a die-hard Apple fanboy that would be willing to acknowledge a problem with the product or service concerning their sacred cow. Some of them possibly are not able to recognize any shortcomings. To an extent, it may be that they are keeping quiet about their issues. That said, they generally are built well and their build quality is not, by any means, a fault. It's the things vulcan78 mentioned and their limited use potential for enthusiasts and power users that are not satisfied to stick with Apple's draconian vision of what everyone's ideal belly-button computer (or other device) should be, and what they should be allowed to do with it, that I find most objectionable in their products. For some people, their products are a good fit. For others, not so much. Some just like being part of the yuppie brigade and that aspect of ownership is not any different than the way Alienware lovers feel about our products. "Birds of a feather..."

 

Is there a way to start the computer in integrated graphics and vice-versa? I know you can do Fn+F7, but let's say you turn it off, and at that time it's running on the dedicated GPUs. To switch to integrated you would have to turn it on, then restart it with Fn+Fn. Is there a way to have it switch at boot time? Maybe via the BIOS or holding a key or something?

Thanks

 

So I've been trying to figure out how things are so messed up, score dropped massively and all the problems I sent the system remain. In fact it seems even more unstable than it was. It looks like they might have replaced one of the graphics cards with a different model.

Score
X600 3DMarks

Graphics Score
533

Physics Score
5138

Combined Score
684

AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M(1x)

Supossedly they're gonna send out a tech with 580's since I'm absolutely sick of the ATI problems. Can anyone say whether the 580's are stable?

 

My 580m's are rock solid.

 

so does anyone know what 680M's memory clock actually is? regards to my previous post..

 

BSOD's on Dell stock drivers out of the box? I'm asking because I haven't seen a single BSOD issue on the systems that came by our office.

 

I loved GTX 580M SLI. Rarely ever had a glitch and they ran great. Congrats on finally getting some good cards sent your way. WATCH LIKE A HAWK and be sure the tech installs the insulators in the corners of the back plate or your cards will be shorted out by the plate grounding against things. It usually doesn't damage the cards, but it creates serious usability problems. Refer to this post for details about what needs to be done. The tech can use the mylar plastic off strips off of the thermal pads for the back plates or use electrical tape in the corners. This is often overlooked during assembly.

Also, the left and right back plates are not the same. If you receive one with thermal plates for both memory banks, it belongs on the right GPU. The back plate that only covers one bank of vRAM belongs on the left (primary) GPU. For months I had the incorrect back plate on the right GPU (had 2 left side parts installed) and it did not cause any problems at all. I got the correct back plate for the right GPU and installed it myself. It made a very minor improvement in temps, but the right GPU never got warm enough to be concerned... so nothing to be worried about.

Mine were rock solid, too.

There are some 7970M GPUs in circulation that have more significant problems than others. If you get a good pair of video cards, they work pretty sweet. It is a completely anecdotal observation, but it seems like the earliest R2's with 7970M CF had greater frequency of issues than those that have shipped more recently. A few of the early adopters had their GPUs replaced, and others opted for 680M instead.

 

I received my m18x r2 yesterday. I contacted Alienware sales through this site, and spoke with a very helpful rep. He scheduled a specific time to call me and we worked out what I consider to be a good deal on the system. I went with the red cased win 7 ultimate, 3720QM, dual 680m, intel wireless controller, 16 gb 1600 Ram (this comes as 4 gb sticks of ram, in case anyone wondered ), and a 256gb SSD.

The machine shipped early. ( originally scheduled for delivery 8/8/12 per Dells site ). No major issues. Based on unboxing videos that I have watched I can confirm they have seriously decreased packing materials for the system. My system arrived sporting a wide puncture tear in the box. I made the FedEx guy wait while I poked around inside to make sure the laptop wasn't under the hole. There was no interior box, and the laptop itself was just held in its red bag with styrofoam. There was no damage to the laptop itself. It booted OK, and the only issue I had was that I couldn't open nVidia control panel. An install of the latest drivers didn't fix the issue. It turns out it is a common issue, and once I stopped and restarted the nVidia Display Driver service it began to work fine. I was then able to enable SLI, and tested that it is functioning in games. (as tested with the display SLI/Physx activity option in the nVidia control panel. )

The machine boots to the desktop and runs so quickly. I never really expected the laptop to be so BIG. You sit so much closer to the laptop, so its 18 inch screen seems about the same size as the 24 inch LCD I usually use. I just hope it isn't too much of a hassle to get out the drive caddy and install extra drives. I hate ribbon connectors with a passion.

I don't understand why they have a SP/DIF port on the laptop, but don't include the part needed to convert that nonstandard miniplug to a regular TOSLINK or even full size digital adapter. It seems they used to include the dongle with the r1, but I didn't get one with my laptop. I can't find any for sale, even on Alienwares site, and it is going to make hooking the laptop into my surround system problematic. Oh well, back to 'testing' I go. Sorry if I don't make much sense, I haven't had much sleep, too much to do.

 

They probably stopped including the TOSLink adapter because it was breaking laptops. You can get an aftermarket adapter for it. Have a look in this thread and maybe someone has posted a source for an adapter. You will also quickly see why they don't send one with a new system.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...g-after-using-optical-external-audio-out.html

 

Congrats on your new machine. Even though my M18x is an R1, I had a relatively easy time upgrading my SSD. I have to warn you in advance though that it's rather easy to disconnect the ribbon connector for the HHD. It's quite easy to put it back though.

 

so it seems ivy not compatible with h65 and h67 chipset, i would assume the same goes for mobile. pretty lame unable to upgrade =/

 

well i've finally brought an ssd, and did the install over the weekend, i'm very happy with the improvement to boot time and the speed that everything opens at. previous with the 2 750gig's raided was around the 50sec mark to be logged and all apps loaded (windows circle stop spinning) now i'm at the 22- 24 second mark from pressing the power button, one thing i want to know, i noticed that the R2 has 3 hd bay where the r1 has only 2 hd bay, does anyone know if it's possible to put the r2 hd bay into an r1 ?

 

The R1 and R2 hard drive ribbon is different.

 

Correct, the SATA interposer cable is wider and the SATA controller connection on the motherboard does not have a port for a third drive at that location. So, no, that is not possible. I wish it were and so do a lot of other M18x R1 owners.

 

After trying unsuccessfully to buy an M17 with the 7970 in it here on the boards (lost in the mail apparently) I've given in and went ahead and ordered the following through the Outlet. Price seemed right for what I'm getting, just hope I don't have the nightmare issues some have had with the AMD cards.


Alienware M18x R2
Date & Time: 8/7/2012 2:29:50 PM
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
Alienware M18x R2 Qty 1
Alienware M18x R2 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium Unit Price $2,309.00
Estimated Delivery Date 8/14/2012

Alienware M18x R2 Y5G3F
Information 00009
Information 00009
Information 00009
6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory (1X2G/1X4G, 1600MHz) 14Y4G
Service Software 1CVJ3
Information 21VR0
Information 2FDNJ
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 2J4FR
18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED WideFHD (1080p) display (1920 X 1080) 38TR2
Certified Refurbished 3E476
Internal Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 3XT2R
Software 4WYVT
Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware 6JY27
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M - CrossFireX Enabled 7DD7F
Shipping Material 8CT07
330W A/C Adapter 995JJ
Space Black Anodized Aluminum DV88G
English keyboard F52YT
Powercord,125Volt,15Amp,10 Foot F928P
English keyboard G71MJ
Wave Systems Software GV0CP
Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0 H9XM4
AlienFX Color, Terra Green JY624
Alienware AVATAR 5 JY635
Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) K68JV
Software KP776
Software M239M
Software M3T3T
Software NVN98
Placemat NX4CN
12 Cell Battery PJGG2
Service Software R8GHP
Service Software RW2FT
64BIT Operating System TG4MT
Processor Label V9KPP
Base Assembly VP83H
Label W3HMK
Information W753G
Processor: Intel Core 3rd Generation i7-3720QM Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) X355W
500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM) XJG4G
Image Restore Software XM544
Documentation Y9YJD
Software YG2GN
Alienware M18x R2 : 1 Year Basic Plan (In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis) (Included in Price) Qty 1
Unit Price $0.00
TOTAL: $2,309.00

 

Nice system, SlimShady. I also hope you are lucky and don't have any trouble with 7970M CrossFire. Seems the horror stories are affecting all brands of laptops with 7970M... some more than others.

 

So my m18xR2 shipped about a week early and has been delivered since I live about 20 miles south of Hawthorne...

Bad news is I just went on the road for 2 weeks...

Its going to be a painfully slow 2 weeks waiting to get my hands on that thing...

 

Just placed my order its shipping today!
M18x 3610QM 8GB 1600CL11 680m SLI 256GB Crucial M4 Killer 1103 Wifi
it'll be here tomorrow!!

 

well that's no good would been nice! mmmmm well i suppose i can upgrade in December for the new one, that will mean it's a year old!

 

Welp .. took my mom to the hospital today .. she is 87
Popped my m18 on mylap while I waited...
Got 3 hrs on the intel HD4000 ... my sli 680' s were sleeping.
folks really liked what they saw ..
I am proud to have my Alienware...

 

Yes it's really quite impressive, before mine starting going crazy I took mine to several trips to a hospital. Brought my brother great comfort/distraction while he was suffering through his treatments.

Wish your mom the best.

 

Anyone else with an r2 got a noisy headphone jack - by that I mean static in your headphones when no sound is actually playing? I would normally turn the volume way down to minimize the noise, except this new audio chipset is really loud. Ive already got it set to 10 in the windows settings and it's plenty loud enough for music listening with low impedance headphones, but you can still hear static when there's silence.

 

Just got my M18x R2 3720 680m SLI 8gb ram 256 SSD Killer 1103 system, and all i can say is

W O W its absolutely the fastest thing i've ever used!

By the way is P9899 normal for my setup?

I'm so giddy, this thing is destroying my desktop! haha

 

just curious, the esata port on R1 and R2 is 3gbps or 6gbps? the same goes for the expresscard slot and usb 3.0 ports, they 2.5, 3 or 6gbps (for usb they 5 correct?)

 

Congratulations on your 680M SLI setup! How awesome... very happy for you.

Yes, with your 3720 CPU and no overclocking, 3DMark11 P9899 is typical for both 680M SLI and 7970M CrossFire. That is an outstanding score, too. Take the Futuremark comment about your system running slower than it should with a grain of salt. Many people running benchmarks do not do so with a stock configuration, so it tends to skew the average and is not an accurate reflection of what one should expect running stock.

 

It is indeed really nice to see NiNoDuKEz's honest excitement. So many of us got so spoilt by all the 'fanciness' of our systems... I just went RAID on R2 and my first reaction to a benchmark (showing 970MB/s sequential read) was "huh? where is my gigabyte!?" :-/ I am not trying to sound pretentious here. It is just a year ago I'd prolly be unable to sleep for another two days after seeing that, and now? Chasing BS artificial benchmark scores

BTW, 680M SLI score should get higher when the 'boost' option becomes available long with (hopefully) next BIOS update.

 

Thanks guys! yea this thing is a beast, it handles everything, i dont see a reason to overclock unless for benchmarks at this point, and after 2x Anti-Aliasing, you dont see much advantage so at the moment it runs everything solid no hiccups, from
World of Warcraft to Metro 2033!

 

lol you wont get the raid0 gigabyte benchscore unless you go sandforce drives at this moment which got a tons of trim issues. what are your SSDs for raid anyway? still the default old samsung that came with it?

try going for intel 520 120gb/240gb raid uses sandforce firmware 4xx prob yields good result.

 

mmMMMMMM haswell cpu + Lynx pt chipset

haswell probably better in both performance + cooling than ivy > sandy so gud
ummm thunderbolt fasta than usb3.0 and esata MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Lynx chipset seems to have all sata ports at 6 gbps, time to wait for R3 and RAID ZERO

Intel "Lynx Point" 8-series Chipset Detailed, Completely SATA 6 Gb/s | techPowerUp

hopefully at where R2 is going, m18x will keep its 3 drive bay + msata and maybe throw in a thunderbolt lul

 

I was being sarcastic. You didn't get it did you? Ugh kids these days...

 

sure tricked my brain bro. i have hard time understand people's tone of voice over internet =/. i like your avatar btw, nice collection lol. wondering if anyone had m11, 14, 15, 17 18x >.>

edit: nvm i saw your sig now.. =( obviously i was blind and did not see.

 

Well I finally got my m18x r2 680m sli system. I just have to say that it rocks. I can't believe how smooth it runs compared to the 7970 xfire rig I returned. Running stock clocks and stock drivers with no issues on all my games. Crazy smooth on crysis 2 ultra with high rea and direct x11. I was going to try to overclock but no need yet. I have been an ATI fan boy forever but no longer. 3d mark11 stock run out of the box was P10150.

 

Hi!

When I placed the order for the m18x, I forgot to upgrade the shipping. The default shipping is for 7 days.

Does it really take them 7 days to ship it? Is it possible for me to receive it maybe 2-3days after they ship it?

Thanks

 

Man, that's sweet! Very happy for you. I was blown away at how much better (smoother) games played with 580M SLI compared to 6990M CF. It was remarkable, so I'm sure the improvement you noticed is very similar.

 

i aswell just recieved a very similar system and very pleased, cheers! hopefully these systems lasts us longer then we need them to!

 

i think i should be more picky, radeon pro showing 40 fps on my 6990m cfx on high settings but still stutter, but i donno much about graphics card at that point so i thought its suppose to be like that and lived with it lol.

 

I'm hoping for the best for the life of the 680's but time will tell. For now I couldn't be happier.

Ya I can't get over how smooth the games are compared to the ati cards. Nvidia may be over priced but the seem to have done a good job on the cards and drivers. Hope they last a long time.



Stock run out of the box. 680m sli.

 

Any other R2 owners get constant static noise through the headphone jacks? It's driving me nuts.

The new Recon3d doesn't allow you to adjust the power saving settings (not sure it'd make a difference anyway) which is a backwards step from the old audio chipset / software.

It's the most disappointing aspect of the R2 for me by far as the R1 didn't suffer from this really annoying issue. A USB DAC is on the cards I think.

 

looks like no one posted about this issue, maybe ask for an exchange from dell?

 

I cannot remember who it was, but one member with an M18x R2 was having some sound issues and simply uninstalled the Recon3d software and things started working properly.

 

For me my m18x r2 sound has been great - through headphone jacks or built in speakers. Better sound than the r1 and no audio disappearing issue that some have had.

 

I have zero issues with my audio. I have been trying lot of audio devices in last couple days (tac x headset/creative speakers/hdmi out to stereo system), as well as the laptop speakers are not to bad.

 

Oh well. I may be a one off case. I rang Dell about it and they wanted to send a tech out to fix it up. Looks like the audio jacks on the R2 are on the motherboard itself I think. I told them i'd call them back. I'm a little wary of getting a motherboard replacement without new heatsinks for the TIM. I know they'll just pull the originals off and reinstall them which is pretty dodgy.

 

dell actually does repaste when they replace the mobo. They have some alcohol swabs which they use to clean and they also have some shin-etsu paste packets which you can request to send out with the techs. Although not the top of the line shin etsu but not too bad either.

 

Bricktop , one thing as far as the audio goes , this might be your issue. When i plug my external speakers in and 3d soundblaster pops up for connected device it defaulted to head phones under input device. The sound quality was kind off crappy and then i selected (stereo and line in) in the drop down box and then it sounded perfect. Hope that helps you.

Posted a quick video of my m18x r2 with battlefied maxed , not the best quality but ok i guess.
m18x r2 680m sli battlefield 3 max settings v-sync off - YouTube

 

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread but I was able to snag an R2 from the outlet with 7970s with a 25% off coupon, just wondering if you guys think I got a good deal or not. I was hoping for 680s but those are probably non-existent on the outlet. Unfortunately (I think) it is a scratch and dent.

Item Description:
-- Alienware M18x R2 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Unit Price: $2,509.00
Quantity: 1
-- Alienware M18x R2
-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
-- 18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED WideFHD (1080p) display (1920 X 1080)
-- Internal Wireless Bluetooth 4.0
-- Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M - CrossFireX Enabled
-- 320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
-- 330W A/C Adapter
-- Space Black Anodized Aluminum
-- 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4X4GB)
-- English keyboard
-- Information
-- Killer Wireless-N 1103 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO for Gaming & Video and Bluetooth 4.0
-- Processor: Intel Core 3rd Generation i7-3820QM Processor (8MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
-- Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
-- Scratch & Dent
-- Save 25% on any Dell Outlet laptop or desktop priced at $1,000 and up!
- $627.25
-- Alienware M18x R2 :2 Year Premium Protection Package (Premium Phone Support + In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis + Acc Dam Svc)
Unit Price: $447.00
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $447.00Subtotal: $2,328.75
Shipping and Handling: $19.99
Shipping Discount: -$19.99
Sales Tax: $139.73
Total Amount: $2,468.48

I'll have to replace the crappy HDD of course and I hope the scratch/dent isn't too bad.