Yes!!!! I'm now in the 18 club, with a few questions.

Bought the Alienware 14, roughly 5 months ago, which served as a gateway drug for more power. I finally got the opportunity to pull the trigger on the 18 inch monster, today. I read all of you guy's great analysis posts on the various models and concluded that the 860m sli model was 'broken, repacked crap" . I really wanted to try the AMD m290x crossfire cards, but the sticky conversation post on these cards really scared me off with remarks such as "crossfire can't be selected." "lines are appearing on the screen," and "drivers show older card." The 14 was my first gaming capable PC, so I chose to go with the hopefully user friendly 770m sli. I grabbed it off Amazon for $2200, as well as a Samsung Evo 1TB SSD. The 14 has been properly bada$$ , so I know this new addition should rock. Next tax return period, I may spring for the 880m cards....

question
- It only came equipped with 8gb of ram. If I stick 16 more (8 x 2)(either hyper x or corsair veng.) in the bottom slots will it throw it out of sync? The two top slots, I believe, is coming with a 4 x 2 config. Should I just do the duty and attempt to take the keyboard off and just put in 16 - 24 of aftermarket ram?

- Where do you guys buy those thermal pads that many have placed under the sli cable to prevent the heatsink from frying it?

- I'm obviously a rookie and benching isn't in my future. Will some basic overclocking be fine with these cards. With the 14, I entered the nvidia control panel and bumped the graphics clock from 405 to 725 and memory from 2000 to 2200. I'm not knowledgeable in the voltage aspects, but will this mild boosting be cool for the 770ms?

Thanks for all of you guy's knowledge, as it has aided my path to the 18. Mr Fox, I used your youtube breakdown video to gauge the size and ease of operation. Notebook review crew, rock on!!

 

Concerning the ram question, I remembered that my model comes with a 80gb cache ssd. With the addition of the 1tb ssd, this will force me to open up the laptop for removal of this mini drive (answering the ram question, above). I think I'm going to buy 24 hits of this Corsair Vengeance Performance DDR3 1866MHz, any reviews/comments on its quality? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FMRV7R6...UTF8&colid=4LKVJWIMNBQ8&coliid=I2TRIKBNLV9SP7

- Any tips or write-ups on this extra procedure (removal of keyboard) would be appreciated.

 

Grats on the purchase The memory you are looking it at is on a different timming than what comes with the laptop. The system will automatically scale back to the 1600 speed and the timming that the other ram is running. If you use the original ram that came with the PC. But it will work. The Samsumg Evo drive that you bought is it normal SSD or a Msata? If it not a Msata no need to remove the Cashing drive as that is not part of the ram it is a 80gb SSD that they use to cache your most used files.

 

I think I will go ahead and remove the slower ram and put in the 1866, so it should auto run at that tempo (correct?) I noticed that the Corsair vengeance had a variance in the timing with one listing at 10-10-10-27 and another at 10-10-10-32. What do those numbers mean? Both are vengeance 1866. The Samsung SSD is the regular SATA 3. I have a 500gb one in the A 14, with a 250gb msata. This time I'm glad that I don't have to split things up, again, using the 1tb.

 

One of the Corsair memory is rated for 1.5V which is NOT supported by the current Alienware 18. You need to choose the one with 10-10-10-32 at 1.35V.

 

Oh no, that is the one that I ordered. There were several Alienware people that reviewed it and said it worked. They had the last models though, so that led me on. Are you positive this won't work, before i order the other? One commenter said that 1866 wasn't even compatible, only 1600..........

Amazon.com: Questions And Answers: I buy a corsair vengeance 1866 16gb for my new laptop Alienware 17. But i have a problem when i install the ram and try to power up the laptop it turn on but i only see a black monitor and then it make a noise

 

If you ordered on Amazon, exchange shouldn't be an issue. Short of personal experience, I am positive that you will not be able achieve stable operation with 1.5V RAM. People have reported occasional success at booting the computer with a single module of 1.5V RAM but never with two modules running in dual channel (without which your performance will be noticeably handicapped.)

The review you linked is for the 1.5V version. Of course it won't work in Alienware 17 which has the same low-voltage requirement as the AW 18.

 

It will not even start up with 1.5v memory. You need 1.35v memory (DDR3L).

 

Thanks for the headsup, I reordered the correct version. Anyone have a link for those thermal pads for sli cable protection?

 

You can use any kind of thermal pad. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. Alternatively, you can use some rubberized mounting tape from your local hardware or department store. This is a thick rubber double-sided sticky tape, but you leave the protective plastic layer on the outside surface and only stick the tape to underside of the SLI cable. All you are looking to accomplish is insulating the cable to keep it from from having direct contact with the heat sinks. Here is a link to a product like what I am referring to: Scotch 1 in. x 60 in. (25,4 mm x 1,52 m) Outdoor Mounting Tape

 

IT's great to have you on the Alienware team! If you need any technical support related help, or you need to let us know anything feel free to contact me directly anytime!