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

Dunno, IMHO, the quality of AW sound system is pretty good. It's better than in any other notebook I have ever seen (And I've seen many). I don't feel like needing an external audio system at this point.

 

I have a Bose Companion 5.0 that I use for my M18 and it's fantasic. Worth every penny I spent on it. Two speakers and a sub but it sounds like a true 5.1 system when watching movies or playing games. I use a Companion 3.0 on my M17 and it sounds great as well but there's no comparison between the two.

 

I have this monster down with my desktop Amazon.com: Logitech Z680 5.1 Computer Speakers (5-Speaker, Silver): Electronics

Totally rocks, equivalent to the almost $400 systems logitech puts out these days but the speakers are all mounted and I don't feel like taking everything apart and hauling that up, plus limited space.

I've tried some usb speakers and an ipod dock but neither puts out enough juice.

The m18x isn't so grand acoustically and it's even worse if the lid is down. Since I use mine with an external monitor (hopefully soon to be 2 of them) the sound can get to be awful and tinny.

With the Fiio E17 and DT770's I get good isolation, comfort and rich sound. That's a great set up for in bed or at my desk but extended period of time like that is not so much fun.

That's why I'd like to find some sort of audio solution that works with a multitude of devices.

How is the wireless HD on the m18x? Shame it's so expensive.

 

That's not so bad just not sure it'll be a robust solution since I have so many devices I need to connect it to. Thanks for the heads up though, it'd definitely be a space saver. I'll consider it as a possibility.

 

Personally I see no reason for a set of external speakers, especially in a busy household... can't even turn up my system to full capacity, let alone speakers heh. So I went for these:

Logitech - Wireless Gaming Headset G930

They should be arriving in a couple week's time, looking forward to use them

 

totally agree with you.

I Have The Bose Wave® music system III With The Bluetooth music adapter, and Companion® 5 multimedia speaker system. they are great!!!

 

Mind hooking me up with your reps info?? I'm looking to ordr a enew systm efirst week of Feb

 

I also had a malfunctioning system to begin with, so they were nice enough to offer additional discounts.

Order now, there are huge savings at the moment. Check out the site.

Edit: If you need a rep., contact Luis, he can help you out. He helped me get things in motion.

 

what AW need is to have few good Canadian reps, and canadian sales/deals. seriously, alienware.ca almost never change, promotion is almost always the same.. so sad

 

That does seem to be quite unfair. But you're Canadian, so... j/k!

Edit: Just got an email saying my laptop shipped. Guess it'll be here this week instead of by Feb. 4th!

 

did you get a better config this time? free upgrades always good

 

Hey guys,

Quick question: I have an M18x R1 that had 6970M's. One of the GPUs died and I figured it would be easier to just upgrade to a 7970M or GTX 680M and go single GPU (and avoid dual GPU headaches for now) since a single 7970M or GTX680M can match the dual 6970's.

I know the GTX 680M requires at least a 580M's heatsink... and some driver text file change info. Is the 7970M pretty much plug and play? Especially with the 6970M's heatsink?

I don't game as much as I used to so I'm not worried about dual GPUs at this time and would prefer to savee money if possible (7970M is cheaper and possibly compatible with my heatsink). Anyone gone that route before?

 

I believe, althought different heat sinks, you can use them.
I know our resident enthusiast Mr Fox has done a 7970m CF upgrade. I would highly recommend watching his m18x tear down video where such an upgrade is well documented.

 

Better? No, I had the same specs before except the SSD's.

System is due to arrive tomorrow! But I have class... NO!

 

Hey J. Play Hookey and stay home and wait for that Bad Boy!

 

I think you had that bad boy just about maxed out except for the SSD anyway.

 

Hmm, I do feel a cold coming on... <cough>

 

I have the Klipsch Promedia 2.1, picked up on sale at a Local bestbuy for $135 they sound amazing and can be extremely loud. My friend was playing Crysis the other day and blew up a gas tank or something and it shook the whole house with the subwoofer at 1/4 and the master volume at 1/4.

 

ugh I called AW canada again to purchase parts where I was told 3 weeks ago they would be in stock, and 3 weeks later they are still out of stock. the sales rep I spoke with this time told me the part number (Mr Fox listed for me) are all changed to another number.. LOL? that those number are always changing and they may have same parts with different part number.

just wth..?

 

It's here! Just did a lame unboxing video, might upload it after some editing.

Time to install my SSD's and RAM.

 

Hi,
please help. I have the AW TactX mouse and I am playing Path of Exile and I wanted to bind the keys "SHIFT" and "ALT" to the two thumb buttons on the left side of the TactX Mouse - but with the AW program MouseCI I am able to create profiles but did not check how to or mange to bind any keys to buttons. Please don't tell me thats not possible because I bought the mouse only for this purpose and did not chose the Razer mice due to the fact that I wanted everything from AW itself.
Thanks for the support.
Best regards
Nathan

 

I loved watching your video. Congrats on a beautiful machine. It really looks great in Nebula Red and you'll be enjoying it for many years

 

were did u find the video harlon i want to watch it too

 

It's in his sig.

 

guess i should have looked closer thank you very much

 

Glad you thought it was good. Yeah, hope it lasts at least three. I also hope in three years the M18x is still around (new revisions). :thumbsup:

 

Looking forward to some benching results with that BEAST

 

Review Update: Radeon HD 7970M vs. GeForce GTX 680M - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

way to go AMD!

 

pros? the competition benefits us all... :thumbsup:

cons? six months worth of public beta testing and mostly kinda sorta maybe "budget-conscious gaming enthusiasts can now go for a 7970M without hesitation or anxiety from poor drivers."

 

Windows 8 Keyboard arrived today. New windows button looks a lot nicer than the old one.

 

I think i'll still keep my low budget, under performing gtx 680M's.

 

Fixed that for you John.

 

Why thank you Brother Slim!

 

Ordered my R2 parts today brothers! Now just need the 680m cards but will wait until R2 parts arrive

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

 

Anyone here use the MSI Afterburner recording with Guild Wars II?

It really kills the FPS, I'm not sure why. I mean, it's real bad. It goes from 100 FPS to 25 FPS in some instances. Even Battlefield 3 doesn't dip that much! Anyone know any solution to this? I'm recording in 16:9 1080p, 80% quality, 30 FPS (MSI settings). I've tried recording with lower quality, and that didn't help much. Do I need to lower my settings on GW2? I don't understand why it dips so much.

Could it be the NVIDIA driver? I'm using the latest BETA - 313.96 I believe.

 

MSI Afterburner doesn't use your GPU, it's heavy on the CPU and HDD. What is your processor running at while you're recording? I think GWII is processor intensive in itself, as it has to handle all the game environment data you're receiving from the cloud. The two together may be bringing your systems processor to it's knees.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD

 

GW2 may be a lot more intensive as there is a lot going on, more so than BF3. But I don't see how this is possibly crippling my CPU. I've got a great CPU, and it's slightly overclocked. I've set my processor up to 4.5GHz on a single core, and 4.1GHz on all four cores. This only happens when I record. Without recording, it runs smoothly on max settings (100~ FPS). I set it to level 3 of 3 in the BIOS and adjusted it.

When I get home I'll run CPU-z & HWMonitor and see what's going on.

This sucks. I wanted to do some game-play videos and my system can't even handle it?!

 

That would be a good start. I know your proc is a good one, but it wouldn't hurt to monitor it while you're running both at the same time. Something you also might try is to disable any AV you might be running, it may be trying to scan all the data you're writing to the hdd in real time, adding to the mix.

I feel your pain tho. :banghead:

 

I may have found a solution for this: Afterburner Lag (Only in certain games) - Guru3D.com Forums. I'll have to mess around with the settings more when I get home, and I'll report back if I fix it. I'm experiencing almost identical issues as this guy was a while ago. It may be a simple fix.

 

Sounds like a good plan of attack. I didn't think the beast you have could be the problem!

 

I've changed settings around and don't see any differences.

Here is what my CPU is doing during game-play: Notice the power max (while recording).



Maybe the latest MSI has a compatibility issue with GW2.

 

i personally dont trust afterburner, i just use powermizer when it works it works. powermizer you cant manually change voltage though

 

Notebookcheck is often off base in their findings. I notice they did not delve into the fact that CrossFire functionality continues to be a problem for many. They only tested single GPU configurations. They highlight a $400 savings, but forget to mention that NVIDIA 680M owners mostly enjoy a hassle-free experience without bugs that have not been resolved in 9+ months of 7970M being released. I think it is $400 well spent for the enhanced experience. As many users plan to run the same machine for at least a couple of years, $400 broken down is only a difference of $16.66 per month spread over 2 years. That's a pretty affordable price for overall superior quality, proprietary benefits like PhysX and drivers that consistently work correctly. There is no good excuse for this type of result on a now-mature GPU like 7970M. The excuse that it is "new" and AMD needs more time to work the kinks out is no longer valid.

Wow, is there a new version of PowerMizer with a screen capture feature now? If so, I'll have to try that out. Otherwise, Afterburner and Fraps will continue to be the only decent options.

 

its been a while since I last checked, maybe there isn't a new one as I don't tend to update my drivers very often. as for 7970m vs 680m, I can't argue for the most part. single card performance is different than crossfire it is unfortunate two GPU doesn't work like two HDD/SSDs, they are more driver dependent unlike HDDs could work with just window default driver. last I heard dual 7970m gives only 30% over single 7970m where as 2x 680m gives about 50%. not sure whats going on now, someone will have to test it to find out.

that article itself doesn't justify everything, but it did a good job making its point saving 300$ off on a single card simply because single card still unable to max out most games. wit that table in place, I for one do not switch back to intel graphics, period but thats just me. anyone who doesn't max out their settings or uses enduro should have no issues there and that elminates 50% of the problem.

its just unfortunate AMD is unable to give it's best performance and stability in all games. how many games do you play? I play maybe 1 or 2 out of the 10-20 they listed/tested with their card. no doubt in my mind 7970m cfx owners will have the same issues notebookcheck mentioned but they may never come across it if they don't play those games though.


everything aside, even though I am more of an AMD fan I do realize issues outside of gaming. this I confirmed with Mumak from techinferno and ran a few tests myself because I now have 6 laptops. M18x with manual fan control doesn't seem to have multiple issues with machine with AMD cards, driver conflict? I remembered I asked you if you had those issues and you said no, and you had 580m/680m. theres also this HD video I play crashes 80% of the time during a section but only happens on my M18x, all other machines are fine.

I value cooling more than gaming experience so next time will make me go for nvidia im sure. depends on what you want I guess

 

With latest drivers crossfire scales very well - and afaik better than SLI. The biggest problem of CFX-configurations is the micro-stuttering issue - so you need more FPS for a smooth gaming feeling. The only solution is using radeonpro, which unfortunallity runs unstable on my AW.

 

That excuse is never valid. If Nvidia can resolve their problems fast than AMD should as well. The premium you pay for Nvidia is well worth it for the headache free operation no matter what the AMD fanboys say.

 

It's OFFICIAL! I am part of the M18xR2 family! YEAH! I am so happy to be a proud owner of the M18xR2. Coming from a M17xR2 will be a huge improvement. The replacement laptop is brand new by the way and hopeful I will receive the laptop on 02/05/13. But I am a little disappointed with Alienware for not giving me the 680M Sli instead they gave 660M sli...BOO! So I've decided to purchased 680M sli from Dell....man! $1,100.00 bucks just for 680M sli..I hope the graphic cards are worth the cost. Well I got a free m18x-r2 backpack for extending my accidental damage warranty for another year and bought Intel Ultimate-N 6300 card. So once I receive my laptop, Dell will send a technician to mine house to replace my graphic cards. Here are the Specs:

Quantity Item Number Description
1 Y5G3F Base,Notebook,Configure To Order,M18XR2
1 2FDNJ Module,Information,Audio,M18X
1 38TR2 Module,Liquid Crystal Display,18.4FHD,White Light Emitted Diode,M18XR2
1 4WYVT Module,Software,Quick Fix Engineering,WIN7SP1,No Bios
1 6JY27 Module,Software,Soft Contracts,Qualxserve,Alienware
1 8CT07 Module,Shipping Material,System,ANW NB,M18X
1 8GGM9 Module,Information,Artwork,NAME-PLT,Generic,M18X
1 8VWCN Module,Software,Certificate Of Authenticity,W7U64,Alienware - Sweet!
1 995JJ Module,Adapter,Delta - Ac Adapt,330W,3P,World Wide,Alienware
1 D1MN3 Module,Card,Network,2230,Consumer Notebook,World Wide
1 DV88G Module,Cover,HUG-UP,Black,M18XR2
1 F52YT Module,Keyboard,Alienware,6,ADDL,WW,AVGR
1 F928P Module,Cord,Power,15A,3M,C13,United States
1 FHYDV Module,Solid State Drive,512G,S3,#1,7MM,PM830 - 1!
1 G71MJ Module,Keyboard,Alienware,101,ENG-US,AV MLK
1 GV0CP Module,Software,WINDOWS-LIVE,WAVE4,Consumer
1 J0CKX Module,Software,W7U64,ConsumerDesktop,English,Dao/bcc
1 JY579 Module,Information,Software, Alienware,ALIENFX,Blue
1 K68JV Module,Dvd+/-Rw,Hitachi Lg Data Storage,BARE,Alienware
1 M239M Module,Software,LTG DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
1 M4YW6 Module,Solid State Drive,512G,S3,#2,7MM,PM830 - 2!
1 M4YW6 Module,Solid State Drive,512G,S3,#2,7MM,PM830 - 3!
1 NX4CN Module,Placemat,Alienware,Avenger,M18XR2,World Wide
1 P6XPR Module,Software,CRRS,Multiple User Interface
1 PJGG2 Module,Battery,Primary,97WHR,12C,SIMPLO
1 R8GHP Service Install Module,Software,Alienware,M18XR2
1 T72YP Module,Information,Alienware,Processor,OVER-CLK,LVL1 - What?
1 V9KPP Module,Label,Intel,No Bios,CI72
1 VP83H Module,Assembly,Base,Alienware,M18XR2
1 VXC7Y Module,Processor,IVB,I7-3920XM,2.9,AMLK - YESSS!
1 W3HMK Module,Label,Microsoft,Notebook,Windows7
1 W753G Module,Information,Direct Ship,Compal,TSINGMA
1 WF2X0 Service Install Module,Software,2230,Alienware
1 WKG48 Module,Software,W7U64SP1,Digital Video Disk Drive,MUL17,Alienware
1 XM544 Module,Software,PC-RESTORE Transactional Line Of Business
1 XNR8G Module,Card,Graphics,NV13E-G,DUAL - BOO!
1 Y4M1H Module,Software,BROWSER-SEARCH,Artwork
1 Y9YJD Module,Documentation,AW SERI/WSI,DAO/BCC
1 YG2GN Module,Software,Alienware,COMMANDCNTR,M18XR2
1 YY3D8 Module,Dual In-Line Memory Module,32GB,4X8G,1600MHZ,Double Data Rate - WOW!
Can you guys confirm mine system comes with three SSD? If so that's 1.5 TB! I knew I was getting two SSD, but not a third SSD. Does my system have a three piped XM cpu heatsink?

Rated my M18xr2!

 

congrat Jubei

if you find anything faulty with your system, do call AW and have them replace it for you. DELL have quality control issues most of the time so chances are if you get something that looks "not new", get it replaced to save time for future issues. sniff inside the bag when your new beast arrives, smell of new laptop owns hard, the same as running people over in grand theft auto.

 

Thanks man for the tips! Hopefully my new m18x r2 won't have any problems.

 

Thats truly an impressive replacement machine Dell gave you - you've had some incredible upgrade there over your previous machine in your signature! - It might not be "brand new" as if it were, the cpu would be a 3940xm and not a 3920xm - if all is well with the replacement, no big deal there.....it does say "configure to order" at the top so maybe Dell are just building you a great machine with what they have in stock that needs using up.

x3 PM830 512gb SSD's , 32gb Ram , 3920xm which will come with a triple pipe HS , by the way (the = just the level of cpu overclock set by Dell at the factory - you can change that really easily later) - the only thing that is maybe a little upsetting, as you say, was no 680m Sli, but saying that, 660m Sli would have still been superior to your 5870m's (you got the 680m's anyway, I see ).

One thing I did notice is that you have been downgraded from your Blu Ray drive to a normal one by the looks of it....otherwise, phenomenal replacement! - congrats!