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

or you put it all back together and your ready to fire her back up, and notice one little part missing, nothing important JUST THE FRICKIN' SLI CABLE!!!!!!!! lol that sucked.

 

guys, i have a really important question, how does the touchpad in m18xr1 feels like? does it feel like m15x(rough surface) ? or > m17x r3(really smooth to use)?

 

Not sure for the m18x r1 but my m18x r2 has a smooth surface, unlike my m17x r2 which had a rough surface and was kinda hard(er) to use.

Not like either touchpad got much use anyway ...

 

Although I usually use a mouse as a matter of preference... much better for gaming, I have to say my M18x R1 has the best touchpad I have ever used. I expect it is the same touchpad on the M18x R2

 

Hi,
I have the recuring problem, that after a complete shut down of my AW I sometimes don't have a "sound system" installed. I read that this is a bios issue and should be solved with bios A03 - which is installed on my system according to the hw info but I still have this issue.
Any advice?
Many thanks

 

Reflashing A03 over the top of itself should fix your issue

 

I tried to quote Postal, but it won't let me do it.

I've currently got two 580's and 2920xm processor in the mail and I plan to paste everything with ICD 24...how often does one have to repaste?

 

It depends on a lot of factors, how high (overclock) and how hot you run your system (ambient temp), the quality of paste, the paste application procedure. If its a good paste job with quality paste I've seen personally anywhere from 3 month to a year with out degradation of paste.

 

My wife surprised me and told me shed pay for a new AW when she saw how sad i was selling my Area 51 M17x.

Im no noob, I was able to get gtx280m's to run with sli . We recently had a baby and i havent used it so I thought it was time to sell.

But I digress, other than installing games what do you recomend I do?

Specs -

Stock cpu, ram, and hard drive with 7970 cf. Ill be getting ram and a sata from new egg on a latter date. Hope I get a good batch of 7970s!

 

Have fun with it! And game game game!

Congrats on your new system!

 

:hi2:Hey friend, all the best of luck with your new rig. Mine should be in next week also. Like you I'm hoping for 2 good cards.

 

I'll probably stay OC'd to around 4.3 4.4 for daily operations and I'll just have to monitor the temps and when they start to rise it'll be time for a repaste.

 

Hi,
a question about the Raid0 System - in the Intel RST there is an option to activate "write-back-cache" - should I do this, is this recommended??

Many Thanks!

 

Yea you should, btw I found 11.2 RST driver is more stable for Raid 0. 11.6 would occasionally cause BSOD referring to some hard disk error on wake from sleep.

 

Im going to purchase a game today. I currently have:BF3, Crysis 2, Far Cry 2, Duke Nukem, and Need For Speed Shif 2. Which newer game that I dont own will flex the muscle of my cross fire 7970?

 

i havent used sleep mode for the longest time lol. i dont think sleep work well with SSD but that would maybe for last gen solid state drives.

 

Sleep work perfect for me on 3-way raid 0 ssd- RST 11.2 and stock dell driver

 

The only thing that messes sleep up for me right now seems to be Intel XTU. Been through all the video drivers and RST Drivers to see if they were maybe responsible but I eventually black screen with every combo coming out of S3. If I uninstall XTU, it works perfectly. I was wondering, any one know if the latest version of XTU is compatible with the R1? - my understanding as of now is that it's only 2.1 (currently used) that works and not 3.0+. I would dearly love to have XTU working but if it messes up resuming from sleep, I might have to give it the heave-ho.

 

steveie does throttlestop accomplish what xtu does? I know me and unclewebb together fixed the bug where it would reset settings upon waking from sleep. That is fixed now.

 

I was told that I needed to use 2.1 with my M17x-R3 as it wouldn't work with the M18X-R2 but nothing about it not working the other way around.

 

Not sure. I havent played with throttlestop yet. I do like the XTU interface and being able to OC within windows. I will have to look into TS a bit more in depth to see.

Yeah - I posted on another thread the other day for someone to use 2.1 but was promptly told that it was not compatible with IvyBridge....aparrently, 3.0 upwards works for Ivy but not for Sandy afaik....

 

heh samsung going to be releasing their 840 series SSD. looking forward to 840 Pro "Samsung Announces Release of SSD 840 Series SSD Family - 100,000 IOPS Performance Achieved - The SSD Review". Compare to 830 iops were 80k and 30k, this new one is 100k and 90k. hopefully samsung can keep their high QD1 read performance and lower it's write latency. it'll be good to compare this drive with new OCZ bigfoot, intel 525 SSDs and SuperSSpeed SLC SSD.

hopefully when R3 arrives AW will choose to use 840 Pro instead of 840 and 830.

and heres a bit of SLC S301 "S301 SLC" looking forward to reviews on 840 Pro when comparing to the SLC sandforce drive.

 

Just ordered my R2 with stock config and dual 7970s last night and figured I would start by saying hello here. This is my first real gaming laptop. I had the ASUS G75 with the 660m from bestbuy but returned it and said screw it time to get something worth keeping. I'm new to AW so I have been doing a ton of research on the M18x which inevitably led me here. I really don't plan on using it for much besides playing a few games. Going to start with guild wars 2 once I get my R2 around Oct 5th. Going to grab a samsung ssd from newegg and have it waiting. Other than that I don't think I will need much more. I used to build my own desktops years ago but have been out of the PC game for quite some time and am just starting to catch up on all the cool new parts out these days. Look forward to chatting with some of you on the forums. Albeit mostly to have my questions answered

Joe

 

The HM67 chipset can only use XTU 2.1 and the HM77 (M18x R2) should be XTU 3.0 (but might work with 2.1 also, not sure).

 

And there you have it. This evening when I'm back from the shop if I have time I'll install 2.1 on the 18R2 and see if it works or not just to get some confirmation one way or the other for you.

 

My m18x R2 runs its RAM at 1600MHz, and I've got a 7.9 for memory.

Albiet it's at CAS8.

See pic.

I don't know about 'newer', but Metro 2033 should suitably flex the muscles as you call it. And as far as I can see, the graphics in this one are wonderful.

I even bet you will eventually be turning down graphical settings, just to get smoother gameplay. Bet you $5...

Been there, done it.

BTW, I've also found the included 'Metro 2033 benchmark' will only run at an average of 47 fps (everything maxed out, except (DOF) draw-every-frame), but when I run it in 'high-power mode', I can get 67fps...

I've also seen significant fps increases keeping the laptop in high-power mode in MW3.

 

Just a heads up for anyone interested. My UK rep told me Today that he can manually take orders for new machines that include the new Intel cpu refreshed processors.....3940xm, 3840qm, 3740qm and 3630qm. They should be available to configure on the webistes within the next few weeks. If you are looking to order, maybe you can speak to a rep in your country and see if they can do the same. Obviously, YMMV depending on how good the rep is LOL.

 

I tried installing iXTU 2.1 on my M18x-R2 and got an "unsupported platform" error so it looks like 2.1 for the Sandy's and 3.0 for the Ivy's.

 

that will not work.. you need the newer one.. 3.1

 

Didn't plan on using it, was only testing it to get confirmation for Mr. Fox. I use 2.1 on my M17.

 

I can confirm that 2.1 indeed does work on the R1 HM67 chipset and the 3.0+ versions don't - they install fine but the only thing adjustable is the baseclock. There are also several "options" omitted too, such as memory OC etc....

 

So my rig came yesterday.The Fedex guy just rings the doorbell and leaves a $4000+ computer at my door. I thought I'd have to sign for it.Anyway I am very happy and was surprised that it wasn't heavier. The build quality is excellent. I'm really impressed with these Vertex 4 ssds in RAID 0 they really fly. A big thank you to Mr. Fox, who by the way missed a great lunch and everyone else who helped me out.

 

I got mine also yesterday, although i did have to sign for it. Mine had an ever so tiny scratch on the upper lid near the edge, but hardware wise seems ok so far, so I'm going to call that little mark my hopeful 'pre-disaster' and a lucky charm. I have the recon3d sound with the software enhancements and am experiencing some choppiness on youtube/streaming, but not in games , as referenced here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-problems-alienware-m18r2-strange-noises.html

EDIT: I am going to to test with an audio CD next, i think my choppy sound/stuttering may be more related to flash 11.3.x at this point. I played WoT last night and no sound issues were experienced.

I may follow suit and remove the driver/software and let win7 do its thing to 'just have sound' somehow it also seemed to improve as the night went on.

I did apply some windows updates but so far have skipped the C++/.net ones, and made sure to run to create respawn discs and set a system restore point, since my m15x and others have reported the alienspawn c++ error after updates in the past.

HWINFO 64, with the compalec monitoring disabled showed no fan speeds, but they seem to work when needed. I ram heaven to check my video card since my m15x had a bad one when it was new and would die running heaven, and this one, well it survived and scores 1584 if i recall. I never managed to get the 680m to over around 71C. I later realized i have yet to tell win7 to be in high performance mode. The fans worried me at first since my 15x always sounded like a hurricane, the m18xr2 idling in windows is very quiet.

m18xr2-i7-3720QM-8GB/1600-WLED WideFHD-680m-Killer Wireless-N 1103-Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro-500gb+32gb msata

 

It was probably this guy delivering to you....... FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor - YouTube

 

WOW, what a beast. I received my M18x a few days ago and Im floored. In my opinion I got the "base" model. It has all the basic stuff that you start off with when you start to configure one online, the only thing I splurged on were the dual 7970s and warranty.

Im using the 12.8 driver with the latest Cap installed. Crysis 2, BF3, Duke Nukem , Need For Speed Shift 2, and Fall Out New vegas fly! Ive been using MSI with in game onscreen info for the gpus enabled, all games using cross fire, had to force cross fire for BF3 and Crysis 2. However even on one card BF3 and Crysis 2 were maxed out easily.

Only issue ive had is massive flickering when AA was enabled in NFS Shift 2 and BF3. Im in love, totally enjoying max settings in all games, lowest fps has been in Crysis 2 with 77fps! Love the detail of Crysis 2 with DX 11 and High res terain.

Temps stay >70.

Good job AW!!!

 

My sounds stutter was latency, but it has but all cleared up with high performance power mode enabled in win 7. Latency mon showed it most attributed to Nvidia (using the stock dell 680m driver), so far much better.
I did discover i have one dead pixel, right above the clock in the taskbar, I dont think i'm going to let that get me down either.

 

Hi,
still have the issue with the sound system, that even with reinstalling A03 Bios I don't have a working sound system after the first start up (after a complete shut down). I have to start the AW, than it makes no noises and shows a non working sound system. After that I have to make a complete shut down again and than restart the laptop - with this second start up the sound system works properly.
This is annoying. Any advice??
Many thanks

 

Hello guys, I have a few questions regarding new ownership of a m18xr2 with nvidia 680m on SLI.

It is my first time with an NVIDIA GPU and I wanted to know what do I need to do in order to have my laptop running in optimal condition?

I have read some guys flashing the vbios and stuff like that but I am not very confortable doing that and don't even know if I will benefit from doing so.

The machine is running fine in my eyes, just wanted to know if is there anything I should be looking for?

Also I used to use RADEON PRO to track my FPS and take awesome pics of my games, what program can I use with NVIDIA to accomplish the same goal?

Lastly is my CPU overclockable?
How do I overclock it slightly?

Thanks as always guys!

 

straight out of the box the machine runs well.
i did format and reinstalled everything from scratch though. i didnt like the bloatware with only 64Gb on the msata drive. also to have the lastest drivers/software install from the start
i wouldnt be flashing the vbios unless you had some specific issue you needed to fix or want the absolute highest performance you can get.
i would recommend running temp monitoring software but other then that, just enjoy the beast when gaming.

 

Concur, I just got mine, installed the 12.8 drivers and Cap3. Ive been enjoying playing all my games maxed out including Crysis 2 and BF3.

 

Articsoldier have you overclocked your i73720? I have no idea how to do it

 

Its easy... just set it to 40/39/38/38 or whatever the max values are.... ran fine for me... the 3720qm chips can OC 400mhz+ above stock clocks.... so whatever that is (can't remember the max). Keep flex at 0 and test for stability... raise by 5+ until stable. For limit =99/56

Enable overclocking function in bios and max it out.... its locked to 400+MHz anyways.

I'm running the triple pipe heatsink and its fine... Dont know how temps are with single pipe... so you might wanna keep an eye on temps.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

its fairly simple to overclock on the m18x R2 with i7 3920xm. You can just use the default setting in the bios with OC settings 1 , 2, or 3. They all run stable. The problem you might have is maintaining the CPU temperature below 90c. At OC setting 3, I easily hit mid 90s C on prime95. My ambient room temperature is 85 F, which we figured is a big contributing factor on that high temperature.

 

Wow, I would never let it get that hot. Please buy a laptop cooling pad and get your laptop re-pasted!

 

I need help guy's. I am getting blue screen every time I try to start laptop when hooked to hdmi display. I uninstalled new drivers and went back to stock drivers and no problem. I want to run the new drivers because I am playing borderlands 2. I am also back to stock vbios. Any ideas??

 

Hi guys,

I have now decided and after talking to a very helpful representative from Dell, ordered, my new M18X R2...

She will have :-

Processor : Intel Core i7 3920XM (8MB Cache, up to 4.1GHz Overclocked)
Display : 18.4" WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD
Camera : Integrated Skype HD Certified FullHD Camera with dual digital microphones
LCD Back Cover : Nebula Red - Anodized Aluminum
Memory : 16Gb (4x4096) 1866MHz Kingston HyperX DDR3 Dual Channel
Hard Drive : 256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive 6Gb/s
Optical Drive : DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
Graphics : Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
Audio : Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
Wireless : Intel 2230 Wireless Card + BT
Operating System : English Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Avatar : Alienhead 3D
AlienFX Colour : Plasma Purple
3 Yr ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service
2Tb WD USB External Drive 5Gb/s

I decided that performance was more important for games, whilst media can be run from the external drive...

OB

 

Great monster dude :thumbsup:

 

Has any one else tried the "steam big picture beta". I love it. I'm playing borderlands 2 hooked up to the plasma and sitting on the couch. What's your thoughts on "big picture"??

 

Best way to do it is - use 302.77 driver with SLI profiles imported from newest driver.

 

So can I download sli profiles like you can caps for ati cards?