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

anyone running at 32gb at 1866mhz rather than 1600?

 

I've been out of the loop for quite a while. Would anyone happen to know if it's still possible to get an R1 battery in the near future?

 

yea, you can find them quite easily on ebay.

 

The tech identified himself as Miguel both calls before forwarding me on.

 

Would it be possible to get them from Dell directly? Or are they phased out?

 

You should be able to quote Dell a part number and buy one. Apparently, there were two batteries made and here's the part numbers for both:

FCPW3 Battery, 97W HR,12 Cells, SIMPLO
V48RM Battery, 97W HR,12 Cells, SANYO

They should be the same for the R2 as well, maybe if you can't get a good price from Dell, you can grab one off Ebay - just seen a couple myself for around £60gbp:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/96Wh-Orig...cessories_LaptopBatteries&hash=item4ac1fa9871

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-Cell-O...cessories_LaptopBatteries&hash=item35c4f733f0

 

View attachment 93586

Love the new monitor and the 120hz.

 

I see you have the sensei mouse. Do you have trouble with the steelseries engine crashing all the time?

 

I have an M18xR1 and I've tried A04 unlocked and A05 unlocked, did a fresh windows 8 install, and started installing drivers in the proper order. When I get to the Intel HD 3000 dell graphics driver install, I install it (restarting in between each driver install), reboot, then change bios settings from IGFX to auto, save settings, reboots, then gives can't read disk error, press control alt del. No matter how many times I reboot, it gives the same disk error.

I've replaced the HDD with brand new one and have done 7 clean windows 8 installs and every time I try to switch to discrete graphics or do into the unlocked bios, I get the same error. However, running the OEM bios never causes the error, but there's no way for me to switchfrok discrete to binary graphics on the OEM bios... whole reason I wanted the unlocked bios.

I first got my 18xR1 in march 2012 and I was able to switch to binary graphics using fn + f7, but it stopped working after a month or two... so I thought since the unlocked bios allows you to manually choose in the bios itself, that would be my best bet, but every time I even enter the unlocked bios on the fresh install, even if I don't change anything, I get a disk errror. This isn't a problem with my HDD obviously, but I'm at a loss at to what's causing this or how to fix it without going back to the OEM bios.

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

Still waiting on R2 parts and dell keep putting to too parts shortage grrr. Is there any rep here that can check my orders as its been 2months now

Thanks

 

Still waiting? It has been quite a while, haha. It seems like it's a lot harder to get ahold of parts than I imagined it would be.

 

How many DVD's to make recovery discs?


Brad

 

Depends. If it's to make recovery disks/USB of your factory recovery partition, it will probably be two DVD's or an 8gb USB, but of course it might be more if you have a lot of software bundled with your machine - if you bought Home Office etc. from Dell.

Also, if you are creating a user recovery image (which is basically after a clean install, installing all the stuff you want to have on the machine and THEN downloading and running AlienRespawn to create a new recovery partition that is your "user" image") it could be much larger in size. I'm in the process of setting up my machine from a clean install and installing stuff I want on it and I am expecting that when I re-download AlienRespawn and it creates a new partition for me, my recovery image will probably require a 32gb USB or 7 DVD's. Good job I have a spare 32gb USB lying around!

 

Thanks for this. Would I notice any difference between Simplo and Sanyo?

 

No, they are both the same capacity, just different cell mfgs.

 

What parts are you waiting on?

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Hello guys,

Quick question. Are the R1 and R2 palm rest parts compatible ?

I know that they are different part numbets ,but i coudnt find out if they are compatible?

The reason i am asking is ,because i managed to damage mine i am looking for a replacement and found a good offer for a R1 one.


Thank you,
Hristo

 

As with most things, Dell can (and does) use different part numbers for the same thing across revisions of the M18x. I don't see any reason why an R2 palmrest won't fit an R1 and vice-versa.

 

Hey guys,

I'm looking to get a second hand M18x R1 from someone who is selling it in my city. I have a Lenovo W520 at the moment, and although its a fantastic machine, 2 things are really bothering me about it.

1. The W520 body cannot handle 2820QM on turbo boost, gaming results in a lot of throttling unless I disable turboboost in Throttlestop.
2. The temps remain around 89C with above measures and a cooling pad and are easily 93C-95C with turboboost enabled, and 97C mark with rendering of footage going on.

I am not really that much of a hardcore gamer to go with SLI, but my main purpose will be using the M18x for non-harcore gaming and video editing/post production (the increased screen size and added capacity for more storage are big pluses, but mainly I hope that I will see lower temps.

I will also be using only one GPU (has to be nVidia because Adobe is only CUDA compatible).

I was hoping for some help regarding a few issues that would like to get cleared up:

a. Can I assume that the M18x R1 with only a single gpu (for now) be able handle heat from a 2820QM on full turboboost and 3 harddisks?
b. How many harddisks can the M18x R1 accomodate in total? And can the optical drive also be replaced by a HDD in a caddy? How expensive would that caddy be?
c. Can the M18X R1 have optimus or GPU switching, as in is it possible to use intel HD 3000 as well?

And most importantly, since I will be getting this second hand, what are some general things I need to be aware of with this laptop to check to make sure that everything is OK? By that I mean any known faults/issues that I can check at that time? What kind of stress tests do I need to run? And also, how much would a new battery cost in case I needed it, and about the general cost and availability of spare parts on ebay.

Thats a lot of questions, but then again, the M18x is not really a cheap machine, and I could really use all the advice and tips from experienced users. Thanks in advance.

 

short answer to all a b and c. A and B yes C is no.

A. easily handle the cpu even 2960xm at 4.5ghz will be no problem if you have triple or dual pipe heatsink. if you have single pipe heatsink, should be just fine for 2820qm even with turbo boost, fan in alienware is amazing. GPU heatsink is triple pipe, same powerful fan, no problem there

B. optical disk can be replaced with HDD, total of three 2.5" drives, M18x R2 can have total of 5 storage bay with optical drive bay replaced. caddy is around $12 cheap, $20 expensive on ebay.

C. if you have dedicated GPU, HD graphics is disabled unless you're nvidia I think. not entirely sure on this but mine is disabled cause im using AMD cards.

and finally, how much are you buying the used R1 for? at that config, I'd say at best I'd not pay more than $1100 for it, but of course depends on what your graphics card is. I recommend you go for R2, more storage bay it's real nice to have.

 

Just to add to the above, there's no Optimus support for the M18x - if you want to run Intel HD graphics, you have to reboot - you can't have both running at the same time - it's one or the other. Unfortunately, there is no "on the fly" switching between the two, a reboot is required.

 

any R2 owners with 3820QM? this worked for me and other CPU might work too just have to try it out though.

I heard from somewhere 3820qm was basically 2960xm with lowered multiplier limit. in BIOS level 3 overclocking for 3820qm gets 43, 41, 39 and 39. then install XTU change clock FSB or w/e its called from 100 to 103 can run at 4.1ghz, idle at 35 C with cstate on. changing that 103 to 107.8~108.1 will let you run at 4.25ghz stable if you give enough voltage. now setting it to 107.8~108.1 with a restart, enter XTU again CPU gets bugged and multiplier limit opens up to 47, 45, 43, 43 and I was able to get it 45 across all core at 4500mhz, only thing is FSB clock adjustment disappear from XTU and if going into bios under CPU overclock section will freeze computer.

 

Hmm i have the 3840QM and got the clock running at 102.5 no issue's i have not tried to push it any higher as of yet , How is the stability under throttle stop test and Wprime ? also what kind of temps are you seeing ?
Thanks in advance

 

with 108 FSB it was at 4.24ghz temp at 81C max with intel XTU stress test for 15 minutes but that isn't the point. when CPU bugged out, that 108 is revert back to 100 but with multiplier limit lifted or some kind and I was able to adjust it to 45. during 4.5ghz I could get it to run under 80C during XTU 15 mins stress test, ran cooler than at fsb 108 which make sense.

 

Also no Optimus at the new R2 with 680SLI?

I want to order it and Optimus is important for me!

 

Even with the R2, if you want to switch between discrete gpu's and the iGFX HD4000, you HAVE to reboot.....

 

Ups ... this is ... sad ...

Because the machine will run up to ten hours every day (work and private) and I use both Cards ...

 

Why is Optimus so important for you? It has been proved that Optimus is not as beneficial for battery life as simply running off the integrated graphics card only, and it causes some software problems from time to time. Also, if you install an SSD in your setup, you can reboot in 10-15 sec flat.

 

Much thanks for the very useful replies guys. (@steviejones133 as well)

I am kinda surprised that the M18x R1 only holds 3 HDD's, and doesnt have mSATA as well. This could be problematic. Definitely going to look at the R2 now, and I think Alienware doesnt give the option for optimus probably because of the SLI and the driver issues. Using the intel HD graphics does affect my battery life a lot on the W520, so I assumed it would be helpful with the M18x as well. Restarts are ok as long as the option is there, and Quick Sync is useful as well.

The person I was going to get them from imports stuff from abroad and sells it here. I was basically going to trade in my present W520 (2820QM, 8gb ram, Quadro 2000M) plus an old MSI gx600 I have for an M18x R1 (2820QM, 16 gigs ram and crossfired 6690 radeons) and some cash over that. I was going to negotiate but thanks to the info I got from here, that does not seem to be a very wise option.

Is there any possibility of installing the R2 mobo into an R1 shell? I read on these forums that someone else was able to pull that off. And if possible, would I then have the option for 5 HDD's in the system? I could now try talking that guy selling into just selling me the stripped down shell of the R1 and if he agrees, I could get the R2 mobo. Is that a viable option?

 

Yes. This is very do-able. Mr. Fox and Johnksss and maybe a few others have done this exact thing. I'm sure that Fox can shed more light on the in's and out's of the procedure but you certainly can put an R2 board into an R1 machine. If you wanted to fully all of the R2's potential storage, ideally you would want an R2 bottom base too - that's only because the R1 chassis does not have the space in the bottom chassis for the mSata drive. You can still put an mSata in without having to do that, just that it will have to find it's own space as shown in this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/702500-m18xr2-msata-port-mystery-11.html#post9124731

 

I recommand not to put R2 mobo into R1 because you'll need 6 different parts to have 5 storage bay. R2 motherboard, R2 HDD caddy, R2 HDD sata cable, R2 daughter board and cable, msata cable, msata bracket and R2 bottom chassis. it's a real pain to get them all and not worth the trouble, Ive been through it, same with MR fox, im sure he would tell you it isn't worth the trouble lol.

just get a cheap R2 off the start from ebay or something for 1500, all the parts should be inside including msata cable and bracket, then just put HDD/SSD in yourself and you're good to go. those above mentioned parts probably total to around 800 easily, so no point getting R1 and upgrade to R2.

 

(@steviejones133 as well, I still havent figured out how to quote multiple people in the same post so I'm mentioning by name)

unityole, that whole process of transplantation actually sounds painful, and as you said, I think it would just be for the best to go for an R2 route. The most I've ever done is repasted my CPU/GPU, and that too could have gone wrong in many ways, and i definitely would not want to try much more complex alterations on these machines.

Thanks a lot for increasing my understanding of these things, and saving me a lot of time and headaches.

+rep for you both. Hope that one day I can also own this phenomenal machine. For the time being I'll have to setlle with setting up a diy egpu I guess.

 

FYI, prosetheus, if you wanna multi quote, hit the icon to the right of "reply with quote" on as many posts as you want to quote in your reply and when you get to the final one you want to quote, just hit reply with quote instead. You can then type your message. Your post should then include every one that you wanted to quote and your reply and that should be it!

 

Thanks once again steviejones133, been trying to figure that out for a while.

 

No probs, glad to help!

 

Stevie is the MAN!

 

You're too kind, Harlon - thanks for the compliment!

 

Hey guys, I've got a few questions for all the XM owners out there (particularly those who ordered through ebay.) Would you recommend ordering an XM through ebay? What about reliability? I know processors are one of the most reliable PC components, but have any of you had an XM die on you? Any other tips or suggestions for an XM noob?

I've been trying to get in touch with Dell about buying a 3920xm or 3940xm from them, but each time I call I get transferred to 5 different departments before finally speaking with a rep who tells me to call back the next day lol. I've tried sales, parts, customer care, etc, and I've been perpetually blown off. I'm beginning to think they don't want my money, so I figure I'll try my luck elsewhere lol.

I'm looking at a few SR0T2's on ebay in the $500-700 range, and I'm strongly considering picking one up from a US seller. I've already got a triple pipe, so I'm assuming that's all I'll need if I get one.

One last noob question: SR0T2's are OEM 3920XMs, correct? Do all 3920XMs plug and play with our laptops? Any models I should avoid? I'd like to stick with OEM if at all possible.

 

I'd love a 3920XM, it's pretty expensive and not sure what Dell/Alienware charges for that part. However buying it through them would give you warranty if you have it.

How do you fit 5 Hd's into the R2? 3 via hd bay, 1 via optical drive... what am I missing?

 

Hey FWD, I upgraded my 3610qm to a 3920xm I bought it from Shirley's on eBay. They delivered it straight away. I got a QS for $520 delivered and its been perfect since and a valuable upgrade. ST02T's are the OEM's. if you're abit lucky and patient you can get an OEM for not too much more, I know Mr Fox got his OEM for $600 which is a steal, and a little rare ATM. They are 100% PnP.
For me I was originally shopping for a budget upgrade to a 2960xm so for a touch more I thought I'll try on a QS 3920xm and max out my MB.
I would avoid a ES sample as they sound a bit too lucky dip and variable with what they do and read in CPU-z.
If your budget is $700 I'd imagine you'd be able to snap up and OEM.

Perhaps someone could chime in on the practical differences between an QS and OEM other than them being pre-production samples, I'd like to know. If I can't discover a difference im inclined to do it again on my next AW

 

+ the MSata slot

 

hay guy just about to buy a R1 for £1150. just wanted to see what you thought?

spec i7 2920XM,

2GB GDDR5 6990M CrossFireX™

-Kingston® HyperX™ 16GB

-Corsair® Force Series™ GT 2x 60GB

BluRay Combo Drive (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM) Drive including software

 

msata slot

 

Got ya self a nice deal there ! jump on it !

 

Yeah, that's a pretty sweet deal! :thumbsup:

 

Thanks guys collecting it tomorrow. even comes with a years warranty. and its boxed, only down side is its red not a fan of red alienware.

anything i need to look out for? such as faults/common damage areas? seem like the owner looked after it well. he said he will put the latest divers on. (will dell be able to know use my warranty worry)

even got some pics.






then next year 7970m cf time.

Time to welcome me to the club :thumbsup:

 

If you intend to keep it and then upgrade to 7970m CF - since you got such a nice deal, it's really advisable to extend your warranty once the ownership transfer takes place. Even if it costs you around 400 GBP to lengthen warranty by another 3 years - trust me, do it. You have top-specs on your machine (the 2920XM processor still beats the crap out of most Ivy Bridge processors) and it would be a shame not to have them covered - a total of 1500 GBP for an Alienware M18x R1 with top specs is still a fabulous price. If you're looking to buy an R2 next year, then ignore what I just said

 

Welcome to the club !

I'm not a fan of red Alienware either, but I'm sure it's an acquired taste

Or if you REALLY hate red you could look for the Bottom Chassis and LCD back cover and replace them. Just a heads up in case you decide to do it, the bottom chassis will take some time and expertise.

122RP - Assembly, LCD Cover, Black, M18X
13PC8 - Assembly, Bottom Base, Black, M18X

Sweet deal by the way

 

Hey guys

Just picked up some Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 8x2 16gb memory ( CORSAIR Vengeance Model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10 Laptop Memory - Newegg.com) for my R1.

I can't get this stuff to run at the advertised 1600mhz.. the BIOS and CPUZ keep showing 1333mhz even after messing with the XMP profiles. I am running the unlocked A05 BIOS.

Greatly appreciate any help