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

Hi All,

Right here is my situation and would like some feed back ...

I currently have an m1730 AKA the Beast but it getting very old now and is always overheating - i have underclocked everything now just so its stays alive so i can play SWTOR (wont even bother with new games now as i know it wont be able to take them)

i have about £2500.00 (no tax applicable for me) (and that is a large amount of cash for me to spend in a single go) to spend on a new laptop and i want an Alienware however here are my issues ..I have had 2x Alienwares in the past and i had issues with them with overheating or HW failure and i dont want to spend all that money and for it break with a few years (and i do take take exceptional care of my equip by cleraning them out on a reg basis etc)

First off - I know the m1730 has had issues with over heating but that was due to the graphics card and coolers ... so does the m18x r2 have good cooling? does the back have to be raise of the table to get good cooling?

Can i utalise my older ram (8gb) in the new m18x even thought the clock speeds will be different?

I have two hdd in an ATA formation - can i place those into the laptop as well so i am not spening a load of money of HDD's when i can get 1 SDD for Win and then use the other HDD for my storage?

is R2 better than R1 as there is a £400 differ in starting price alone?

Is there much difference in i7-3720 and i7-3820 as the is a £230.00 diff (OMG)

Anyone tried out the Geforce GTX675m SLI? (and i will be getting that)

any advice would be great

Thanks in advance

Fatch

 

it does nothing for gaming. the entry level cpu offerings for the system is more than enough to tackle any game without a penalty. it's all gpu nowadays.

 

the cooling is superior to the m1730. The 1730 had many issues (which this isnt the place to get into that) I have had no overheating issues with my M18x as I did with my old beast. The old "book mod" never hurt a cooling solution on these things hehe

yes but you'd be crippling the m18x. truth be told, 4Gb higher speed ram is better than 8gb slower speed. I dont advise it.

No reason not too here. I did a similar thing, my system had 1 HD, I added a SDD as a boot drive and voilla!

Debatable. the R2 is an upgrade, 3rd gen processor, more upgradable graphics options, ability for 3 7mm SSD's and a mSATA port for a SSD too. Which leads to the previous section, add a mSATA SSD boot drive and use both your old drives.

the processors are debatable. If budget is a big issue, stick with the 3720, obviously the faster processor is better, but coming from a guy with an xm processor, these i7's are fast and do not bottleneck the video cards even at the base processor level. if your a gamer, not worth it, if your a video editor then maybe it is worth the upgrade.
the 675m's are exactly the same specs and performance as the 580m's and from what i have seen so far are cheaper than the old 580m's.

I feel for you in the UK, prices are obscene compared to over here.
Cheers mate, enjoy your purchase whichever route you go. you wont go wrong.

 

patiently waiting for an update as well *crosses legs; drinks a cold one*

 

He is on vacation til the 21st of the month...

 

I believe Mr. Fox sent messages to a group of them Dell Alienheads on the 6th. Hopefully soon someone might be able to enlighten us on the issue.

 

Just wondering, would there be a big difference between the XM and regular CPUs for game development? So far my M18x has been to handle what I throw at it and it's been running at good temps considering the highest room temperature I get in my place is 36 C.

 

All,

I confirmed today that the listing in the specs pdf is missing the following data -
three solid-state drives SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s)

Now, as to if that PDF will ever get changed, your guess is as good as mine. Mr. Fox has the parts list and will be posting it.

 

Chris - thank you for confirming this information with engineering for us. I know everyone will be extremely pleased to know that the three solid-state drives will run at SATA 3.0 6GB/s speeds. Also, thank you for the parts list. A link will be added to the opening post of this thread.

We appreciate you, bro. Have a great evening. +1 Rep

 

excellent news, and good part list, thanks so much lol and now i will be ready to purchase this laptop in about half a year from now =)

 

That is indeed great news. Thanks Chris.

One wonders why the middle port is clearly labelled as "Sata 2" though????

 

Hold the phone. As of 7:26am I got an email from the head writer for the M18x-R2 OM. He said the middle port IS going to run at SATA2 3Gb/s. Let me sort through the discussion and debate here and report back later. If true, the sales site is not clear about it at all.

 

Thank you again. If that is true, we certainly appreciate you stepping back in to straighten it out quickly for us. We will wait to hear the final word. Have a great day. Of course, we hope the person that wrote the manual is mistaken.

FYI... posted in the main forum.

 

Thanks DELLChrisM..

This is going to ruin a lot of alienheads' day if anything.. hopefully not

 

You might want to check the intel website, it shows the H67 and H77 as only supporting two 6GB/s for that chipset. On a lighter side, you still can do two ssd's in raid 0 and a large storage drive.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/mainstream-chipsets/chipset-h77.html

Not sure I can post this link, but here is where I found the information.

 

It's hard to understand how inside people can mislead their own people (and the costumer too). First they tell Chris that 3 ports can work @ 6Gb... then other (@ the same org.) say different... and the Tanderson link from Intel clear say only up to 2 ports can work @6Gb...
That bring us back to that old simple statement regarding the aparently lack of an Advanced Integral (instead of 'total') Quality Control Systems... also in the management, understanding and provision of reliable information to the inside people as well as to the potential costumers...
Sad, very sad indeed.

 

And if you go to configure three drives when your ordering a new M18X R2, it clearly says 3x256 sata at 6GB/s ssd or 3x512 sata at 6GB/s ssd. Which the H77 chipset built for the Ivy Bridge can not support that unless there's something special about the MSATA or they found another south bridge chipset?....or I'm not reading something correctly.

 

Exactly.. Paying extra.. well... way extra for a triple ssd config on Dell's website will actually set the performance back. Doesn't make sense at all..

At least a disclaimer should have been posted and what not.

 

On a more upbeat note, I wonder if its possible for Chris to tell us if it is feasible to look at raiding the two Sata III ports in the caddy with the mSata port (assuming Dell would provide/sell a Samsung PM830 mSata Drive or the equivalent) to physically achieve a 3 drive raid at 6gbps.....effectively same as raiding three ssd's....

That way, owners can still use the middle port on the interposer for a traditional large storage HDD.

 

That was the only way I was thinking you could do it but is it using the same H77 chipset and bound by it's limitation? Don't get me wrong, it's a nice move in a right direction, no longer needing to remove your dvd drive to add a third drive and the prices are not too much different between MSATA and SATA ssd's, so two sata ssd's and an msata raided at 6gb's /s would be nice if it's an option. Or you could go with the msata 256 ssd as the boot and raid three 750 wd black drives in raid 0 at 3gb/s for your storage, which is still a nice option.

 

Yeah - I am not 100% wether its possible, would be nice to think it is because although we have been told the caddy only has x2 Sata III ports, the mSata is listed as Sata III capable, meaning all in all, the M18x R2 should (according to up to date info) support x2 SSD's at Sata III speed AND the mSata at Sata III speed too.

The question is wether or not they can be raided I imagine.....

 

Well, with all his good will to inform us, Chris has been already misinformed. But... according to Intel chipset, is the mSata really a SATA III @ 6Gb? .

 

Good point Bro....at this moment in time, could even be Sata I LOL

 

According to the list of parts:

D5CRN 32GB SSD- S2, 3.2", Mcard, Samsung PM810
7C4P7 64GB SSD- S2, 3.2", Mcard, Samsung PM810
JMK81 64GB SSD- S2, 3.2", Mcard, Samsung PM810​

and there is just another one:

0PM10 64GB ???- S3, Mcard, Samsung PM830​

So, those ready to pull the order trigger, becareful!

 

I thought mSATA was PCI-Express

 

On a side note that intel page also only says PCI express 2.0 thought we were getting 3.0 now :/

 

Someone must bring order and provide reliable information on the specifications and their particulars. I believe that this someone must be Dell. It's called good business practice, no?

 

I can sympathise with the fact that in such a large firm communication may break down but I'm pretty sure someone in dell has to know for sure .. But then again reaching that target might take some time and hence all we can do us wait..
Gives green team some extra tome though ..



~PS : If my posts make even less sense than before its cause university exams are eating my brain so apologies for the nonsense if any ~

 

This is mighty confusing for the buyer.....

If you look at the bottom of the list, all the 128gb+ SSD's are indeed Sata III PM830's or the like - its just the smaller mSata cards that are the older PM810 Sata II drives.....seen as how Dell dont offer any different than 64gb mSata, I see two "mcards" on the list - one PM810 64gb Sata II and the other is PM830 64gb Sata III - how does a buyer know or specify which they will get????????

 

I think it's the caching and boot drives

 

Edited my previous post.....

 

k some people seems to be confused so i will clear some stuff up, although i donno much myself lol

the caddy will not be able to hold three 2.5" 9.5mm HDD, 9.5mm is pretty much the standard size everywhere you go for HDD. whether or not you can raid 0 the non boot drive for storage (my guess is yes) that will have to be tested and most likely dependent on the m18xr2 bios.

it is likely (99% chance) the middle sata slot is SATAII 3gbps because of that person showing it in the picture. some techs from within wouldnt have design the laptop the way it is, its there for a reason.

its true the chipset for m18xr2 supports only two sata 6gbps however i would like to believe msata is different, its a different connector. however, if the msata is then linked to a sata port onto the motherboard, then its a sataII speed.

on dell's website, it says 3x 256 gb SSD at SATA 6gbps, dell is telling the truth, anyone should be able to know that. those drives are indeed and can run at SATAIII speed cause they are SATAIII SSDs, however its the port within this laptop if it can supports three slots at SATAIII speed. if you take those SSDs and put them into any laptop/computer with sataIII port, you get sataIII speed.


anywayy.. at this rate i will probably have to wait for m18xr3 =( haswell cpu, hopefully a 12 threaded mobile cpu will be out next year lol, along with multiple sataIII ports to support raid 0 triple SSDs, or i could just wait for sager's laptop with desktop CPU ivy-E =)

 

True enough about having 3 6Gb/s SSDs.

It is but misleading having it as it is posted on Dell's Config:

Triple Drive Options
1.5TB SSD RAID 0 (3x 512GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD) [Add $2,300.00 or $69.00/month1]

Again, as I have mentioned previously.. I'd assume that by Paying an additional $2,300.00, I would get 3 x 512GB in Raid 0 with 6GB/s speed.

Bottomline, it does not make any sense at all to pay a big chunk of extra mullah for that config if it'll will only benefit you with the "Extra Storage" and not the Speed at all..

 

Welcome to the club! ( and hopefully a new display screen with much better pixel density...)

BTW: A Sager? Never! IMHO they do not provide the overall quality nor the international warranty & NBD in site support service.

 

This is what happens when a launch gets rushed. It should have been held back until Ivy was fully out of NDA and that would have given Dell some time to focus on the small bits that arent "small" but pretty "huge" in the grand scheme of things.....

Yes, the website does tell you that the raid consists of Sata III capable drives but it fails to inform you that when those drives are raided together, they will ALL default to Sata II because of the middle port. In my book, thats sneaky and underhanded advertising - or just plain sloppy.

I fully appreciate that orders were to be fulfilled with Ivy anyway but such errors and misleading info regards to the very expensive SSD setup is way too un-informative.

As unityole said, the interposer is clearly labelled as Sata II so its not like this is a sudden "reality check" for Dell - it's been built in the design for many months and as such, the advertising is just plain sloppy work....

I hope this gets ironed out one way or the other and clarification is made crystal on what the R2 can and cannot support....at the end of the day, we are the guys who will be forking over hard earned cash for these babies and as so, I would expect them to do "what it says on the tin" so to speak....

I have great faith in Chris and Bill and all the Dell guys that help us out here on NBR - I am sure you guys will sort this one out for everyone!

 

Totally agree!

 

If a 3 SSD RAID0 array cannot actually operate at 6GB/s, then all they need to do is fix the order configuration page and update the specifications in the edocs so that is crystal clear to the buyer.

Having a 2 SSD RAID0 array at 6GB/s plus a third SATA 2.0 port to attach a HDD for data storage plus the optical drive plus an mSATA port are really nice features that the M18x R1 does not have. I wish it did.

 

any word on drivers yet for the 7970m? i need them lol got 7970s cf in my r1 as we speak and I need drivers..

 

Received official word from Dell this morning on the M18x R2 SATA port speeds:

M18x-R2 has two SATA3 (HDD0, HDD1) and one SATA2 (HDD2).

• Single drive = 9.5mm or 7mm on primary HDD-0 location
• Two drives = two 9.5mm or two 7mm or 9.5mm + 7mm on primary HDD-0 and secondary HDD-1
• Three drives = three 7mmm on primary HDD-0, secondary HDD-1, tertiary HDD-2

Dell will update the Sales page to clarify.

Two things we can be thankful for: (1) Dell listened and we have a third SATA port for a data HDD; and (2) Dell listened and is pointing out that their SSD drives are SATA 3.0 6GB/s on the configuration page. It was not long ago that they were shipping Samsung 6GB/s SSD drives and only indicating SATA 2.0 in the configuration page. (A three-drive setup is also something we asked for, so this is mostly good news even though 6GB/s SSD RAID0 is not in the cards.) A third thing we can be thankful for is the Dell/Alienware reps that are serving members of this community so well.

Links to the Dell recommended drivers are in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/661822-new-dell-recommended-video-drivers-new-models.html thread, or you can go to support.dell.com and manually select M18x R2 for driver dowloads.

 

The new setup is really tempting, I got that faceplace for the external drive and it still doesnt fit my dvd drive, so my external drive is faceless once again but I'm used to it. I like the idea of even getting the msata ssd at 6gb/s (if it does those speeds but even 3gb/s per second is over the top with ssd's) which is still over kill and then you can raid two or three drives for data, more than enough and still have your dvd/bu-ray internal to the laptop...plus the 7970 is out performing everything right now....plus i'm down to 2/3 of a year of support left, cost of upgrading support would be a third of a new laptop....

 

Thanks Mr. Fox for the prompt information.

Just BTW: Did they say something about the port mSATA? Is it mSATA 2 or 3? Since they are publishing their "official words", well might have presented the relevant apologies for the 'incomplete' (and obviously misleading) information so far.

(" There is no second chance to make a first good impression ... but if you did fail, do not miss the opportunity to apologize and correct yourself as soon as possible. ")

 

Ok then for Dell's Triple Drive Options:

768GB SSD RAID 0 (3x 256GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD) and 1.5TB SSD RAID 0 (3x 512GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD), these configs will run at 3Gb/s and not 6Gb/s...

So for those who were misled and got the triple SSD drive option, would it be wise to Return it?

How significant is the difference between Dell's 2 SSDs in Raid 0 VS 3 SSDs in Raid 0 configs?

 

You're welcome. I don't have any info on the mSATA drives at this time.

Responses in bold blue text.

 

anyway, 7970m cfx is out on alienware US configuration page.. so i was doing the customizing and processor part hits me, for those OCers please give 2cents on this.

it has option of 3920xm stock and 3920xm OC to 4.1
both are the same cpu so i would imaging that dell perhaps give out different bios to these two types of configuration. although im not sure just my thought. so what i think was the stock cpu config one come with a non-overclockable bios while the other options which dell OC for you, comes with an overclockable bios.

can anyone confirm this? or tell me how it works lol. i really would not want to pay dell 300 more if i could learn to OC myself.

 

Learn to do it yourself. You can do better than 4.1GHz and have more fun in the process. It's probably the exact same BIOS, but another persons hands touched it in the process to change settings, which costs more money for Dell/Alienware. There are a number of adjustments available with the stock BIOS, it just not as robust as it could be. (The standard BIOS protects incautious people from breaking things out of ignorance.)

May need to wait for a new unlocked BIOS for the Ivy Bridge mobo before you can reach full performance potential with hidden features, but definitely go with the XM proc. Good choice.

 

I'm not 10000% sure but it sounds to me like the old "Factory Overclocked" scenario where by last time with SB cpu's, you could choose to PAY to have a factory applied overclock - Dell make a few changes in Bios to OC that you can easily do yourself.

I can only imagine that there is ONE bios - doubt Dell would do a OC and Non OC bios version for the XM's - they should have OC ability regardless but its just that Dell like to charge a bit more to make those changes for you....

 

Hey I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy an m18xr2 or an m17x r4, and one of the things that is a deciding factor is battery life. I dont intend of playing games without being plugged in, but there are always those times when I wish to surf and chat on the couch.

I know on the old m18x that to switch to the integrated GPU that you needed to restart, and i was wondering if that was still the case.

Also I was just wondering, for anyone who knows, what the battery life is that they have found for say just being on a web browser off of the cord for the m17x r4 and the m18x r2.

 

OMG, I certainly hope it has not changed. Having to manually switch and reboot makes for a more stable system and ultimately improves battery life. I would be very displeased to have a true hybrid switchable system. There are zero headaches with graphics switching on the M18x, and I am sure that would introduce unwanted issues, especially with CF or SLI.

I never use it except while traveling on planes and sitting in airports, but I get just under 5 hours (like 4:52) on my M18x running on IGP and power saver profile with AlienFX lighting turned off.

 

One other thing, following in from Unityole's question....

I can see that you guys in the states have the two options for XM cpu. One for the 3.8ghz and one for OC'd 4.1ghz.....I know that it was the same kinda setup with the SB cpu's wherby you could elect to have Dell apply the "Factory OC" for you and charge you I think it was like $50usd....... so is this purely Dell wanting to charge a WHOPPING $250 more to simply adjust the bios settings for you??? - if so, thats crazy cocunuts right there.....

There is an asterix right by the OC option but for the life of me, I can't see any small print that relates to that asterix........another nice touch from team Dell Marketing.....

 

The asterisk is because it is "special" LOL.

(I looked for the footnote myself, and there ain't none.)