*Official* Alienware Launch Discussion Thread

Very helpful - thank you.

This will sound unusual but one of my other considerations is battery life b/c I will sometimes use the computer for basic word processing at the local coffee shop, etc.

I understand that it will be possible to manually (though not automatically) switch to the integrated graphics on the 18 to conserve battery life but, of course, no one publishes exactly how much that would extend battery life on the 18...

 

I wouldn't hope for too much battery life. Considering they shrunk the battery a considerable amount. Sure you can turn the video cards off, but it is still an 18.4 Inch display that it has to illuminate. However with haswell it might be better off. Hard to say.

 

I agree with your performance arguments, but saying it's just "an inch and a pound" is misleading. I don't think it was by intent. In reality its 3 LBS heavier and 1.5" wider and deeper. With the power brick (3lbs according to reviews) it will be something like 4.5 LBS heavier (I'm guessing the power brick will be about twice the size of the AW 17's). Thats Weight some people can't afford for travel/school purposes.

 

Battery life should be superior with the 18. The M18x R1/R2 has better battery life than the M17x R3/R4 because it does not use Optimus or Enduro. The 18, like its predecessors, has manual graphics switching. This completely powers off the discrete GPUs and leaves only the low power Intel HD graphics functional. I am able to run 5:15 on my M18x R2 using IGFX. The decrease in battery size for both systems should still allow the 18 to edge out the 17 on battery life by a small amount the same as the last generation. They were very similar before, with the M18x being a little better on battery run time. It won't be as good as it used to be with a larger battery on both of the older systems.

Battery life is subjective depending on who and how it is being measured. Power profile, display brightness, active components, etc. all play into that. You will want to shut down AlienFX, turn the display brightness way down, turn off the LAN or WiFi (whichever you are not using), turn off Bluetooth, etc. to see what the maximum potential is. If battery life is important, you will want to steer clear of the 3D 120Hz display because there is no way to access the Intel HD graphics and graphics switching is not an option.

No, that was being "poetic" or using hyperbole so to speak. Anyone that buys a machine without an awareness of the actual specs will potentially be disappointed with the outcome. If you place them at opposite ends of the same room, they will both look about the same size. Neither one is a small machine. The 17 is not much smaller than the M18x and the 18 is a tad wider than the M18x. The new models use the same AC adapters as last generation (240W for single GPU and 330W for SLI). The power brick used for the 18 is thicker, but length and width is similar. The 330W AC adapter is roughly .75 inch thicker, so it's not a massive difference. The Alienware X51, M18x R1/R2/18 all use the same 330W AC adapter.

 

They only reduced the battery size on the AW 18 (96WHr to 86Whr) the AW 17 increased in size by 1WHr (woohoo ) 85WHr to 86WHr

 

Right... the 18 is more efficient with manual graphics switching, so it should slightly edge out the 17 same as last generation. If both machines are set up with similar power profiles, components powered off, dimmed display, probably about 15 minutes in favor of the 18, but that is just a rough guess. There are too many variables that come into play with different people and different settings to give a precise answer that would be the same as a controlled environment.

I added images to the above post showing the AC adapters.

 

STOP THE PRESSES!!

You mean I might be able to get better battery life out of the 18 than the 17? Battery life was one of the key reasons I went with the 17!

Why would being able to manually turn off the dedicated graphics cards on the 18 improve battery life relative to optimus on the 17?

 

Yes, that is what I am saying, Runna. When you turn something off completely it uses less power. Optimus does a fantastic job, but the discrete GPU still receives a small amount of power so the driver can stay active and prevent the Windows "Install Hardware Wizard" from running every time Optimus flips the 3D to GPU. When you switch the M18xR1/R1/18 to IGFX, it reboots and the GPUs are more or less dead. They are not even visible to the BIOS. When you switch back to discrete graphics, the Intel HD graphics is not accessible. Neither graphics system interferes with or influences the other in any way. Optimus is good, but hardcore performance enthusiasts and old school techies will typically prefer manual switching because it puts the user in absolute god-mode.

You're probably going to be looking at very similar battery run times between the 17 and 18. So, compromising performance and size for extra battery run time probably did not yield much of an advantage, or maybe none at all. More on this will not be known with great certainly until we have a bunch of machines in the wild that we can compare with. I am basing this on the last two generations of similarly equipped M17x vs M18x using common sense. Same CPU, same internal components, same battery, no power to GPU (electrically disconnected) and almost the same display size, the 18 on IGFX should be equal to or marginally better that the 17.

I can't locate the original video on the web, but here is a snapshot of the 17/M18x/18 stacked together.

 

Yeah, just spoke to Dell about it and they told me to ring customer care to send it back... awesome! Also spoke to them regarding the cancelation of orders and like others i was told roughly 700 orders were cancelled today by dell and rebooked due to a stock shortage on some of the hardware parts. I now have an EDD of the 31st rather than the 19th and after cheekily pushing for some discount i was pretty much told to get lost, it was worth a try though!

Im still toying with the idea of ditching the 770 and getting the 780 instead although im way over budget already. What do you guys think, not sure if i can justify the extra? Maybe steviejones133's guy will come through and sort something out for me

 

You think July 4th independence day holiday being in the middle of weekday has something to do with the delayed shipment of US customers?

 

This is one of the most popular weeks in the year for family vacations, and I do not believe FedEx delivers on Independence Day. Probably a safe guess.

 

Upon further inspection of my bag I have noticed a small scuff/scratch on the front cover. Although it is only small it still leaves me feeling disappointed. Do you think i should do something about it or not? It did cost me £85 after all...

 

Might be worth giving them a shout, its a lot of money for a laptop bag so the quality should match the price. The customer care number I was told to ring is 0844 4444712 (hope posting the number doesn't break forum rules, if so i apologies)

Its an awesome bag though, worth the money in my opinion

 

Cheers! I shall call them tomorrow.

 

My delivery date is July 4 so im being careful not to get my hopes up to high, but still hoping FedEx comes through

 

Mine went to "in production" same day. As soon as I called their verification department and verified the order. Been in production since 27 June. EDD is 22 July. I hope it doesn't take that long since my old laptop has been in limp mode for the last week or so only able to run on iGPU.

 

Mine went into prod on 6-20-13 and is still in prod as of 7-3-13

 

Just got done with a chat with an order team manager at Dell. I was told that none of the US orders for 18s have shipped, and that the EDD for my order was the 15th of July. Don't know how accurate that is, I hope I get it sooner but it is what it is.

 

Same here.... Mine went into production on 6/20 too but it's still in production as of 7/3. I'm hoping it will ship before the end of this week.

 

The accessory battery for the 18 is a 12 cell battery, but only a 9 cell for the 17. Given the earlier discussion re the manual settings for the 18 possibly enabling better battery life than the 17, it stands to reason that the 18 with the 12 cell accessory battery would definitely outlast the 9 cell accessory unit on the 17.

 

Quick video from an Alienware 17 owner with a comparison against the old model

YouTube

 

Good God Cloud, the guy filming it looks jittery and nervous/anxious like he is having withdrawals from caffeine or uppers and it explains why he dropped his brand new m17x that damage his lcd lol. Anyhow, i agree with him in regards to the keyboard, it looks so much better IMO and it looks cleaner overall and the matte bezel and the anodized aluminum of the lid is way way better compared to the rubberized finish that easily smudges.

 

Here ya go!

 

I don't like how the lights aren't as bright. I also thought I'd be super wowed by it, I kind of like the older one. But, it does look more professional and that is nice.

 

Here ya go!
There is suppose to be a small pouch for a Tablet on the Blue side of the bag
View attachment 98494 View attachment 98495 View attachment 98496 View attachment 98497

 

Lol I can't believe I watched the entire thing. The high school level commentary was hilarious "if you know what I mean".

Shenanigans aside the video does get me more pumped for mine to arrive on Monday.

 

Lol yeah, prety clumpsy guy. Luckily for him he bought an alienware with good warranty, because he mentioned someone is coming over to replace his screen. I totally agree, the keyboard looks waaaaay better than the old one.

I think its like my MSI. You can see the lights much clearer when the lights are much more dim. You can see how good the lights on the newest models realy are with this picture. Looks good to me

 

FedEx do not deliver on July 4th. Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

he dropped it the moment he open it????

 

I figured. It could be worse so might as well make the best of it.

 

Anyone had an 18 ship yet in the US?

 

Hey all,

Last year I bought an M18X R2 and although I have been happy with it thus far, im giving significant thought on buying the new 18. I'm looking at treating myself since I just got retired from the Air Force My question is the most expensive model they have right now comes with 1 TB SSD, I really like the thought of having that much capacity for SSD's in Raid 0, but will the performance really be that much better than lets say a 256 SSD with 1TB HDD as storage? Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

Typically the performance from a single larger SSD is better on most tests than two in raid 0.

 

I thought the same thing however Alienware is advertising 4xSSD in Raid 0. Just wondering if anyone has had that kind of setup or if it's even worth the extra $$

 

There were several different tests that were posted including at Tom's hardware i believe that showed that 1 bigger SSD is better than two half that size in raid 0. I can't speak to 4xraid0 though.

 

Well, with 2 240GB SSDs in RAID0 my drive performance is almost doubled. Same has been true for most members of this forum running SSDs in RAID0. I haven't tried 2 512GB SSD in RAID0, but I am skeptical it will be slower than one 512GB SSD. Just get it and if it is too slow you can run them in a non-RAID configuration. But, I anticipate it will work really well in RAID0 even if it is not substantially faster as the case happens to be with smaller SSDs. Or, get it with 2 750GB HDD in RAID0 with plans to use that for data storage and add a 256GB mSATA SSD for the OS drive. No matter how you do this it will perform really well. I cannot see a down side to any of those options.

 

I can say with certainty , 2 x M4 Crucial's SSD's in Raid 0 is quite a bit faster than 1 on its own. It would be the same with 4 x SSD's in Raid 0. However, the speed gain becomes less dramatic with each addition into the Raid array.
If we are talking about sticking to a similar budget, Id personally go with 2 x 512 instead of 4 x 256 mainly so I'd have room for a storage drive.

 

Thanks for posting, I can see exactly what is missing from mine. It'll make it easier to explain later when I ring customer care. Appreciate it :thumbsup:

 

Hey Sullimil,
I did a bunch of research myself before I bought my 18 with just the 750 HDD + 64 gb cache. The reason I ended up going with just the one HDD was so that I can use it as storage and use the 512 GB Samsung 840 PRO (I bought on Amazon) for my OS. There are tons of benchmarking sites that compare single SSD's to RAID (or "striped") SSD's, like this one at Tom's Hardware. In the end, it will be up to you as for what you will need the speed. If you are using and transferring workstation type loads, then the RAID may be a worth-while option. However, if you are like me, and just want awesome performance from your OS and applications (without overkill you'll never use), then consider this paragraph from the linked review at Tom's Hardware:
"One SSD on its own scores again in the contrived tests we put together. The performance differences when we boot up and shut down Windows 8, then fire up different applications, are marginal at best and not noticeable in practice. Single drives actually manage to outperform the striped arrays some of the time, even.
If you're planning an upgrade and want to know whether to buy a couple of 128 GB drives and put them in RAID 0 or just grab a single 256 GB SSD, for example, the answer still seems clear enough to us: just grab the large drive and use one. Using Samsung's 840 Pros as an example, a pair of 128 GB drives will run you $300 on Newegg right now. The 256 GB model sells for $240 (maybe that's why it's out of stock currently). There's also the issue of reliability. If one drive in a RAID 0 configuration fails, the entire array is lost. At least for a primary system drive, one SSD on its own is safer."

Honestly, it would be far cheaper to just buy your own SSD's than the near $1,000 that AW is charging for their quad play. That way you have control over what brand you get and how you want to set it up. Also, you will have the optical drive to re-install should you ever decide to un-quad play your drives (as the quad-play version does not come with the optical drive).
Just my two cents worth. Everyone has their own opinions on this sort of thing, and they all rest in how we use our systems. In the end, it's up to you. I have faith in you being the best judge of what you need.

 

Nice computer you ordered there in your signature. It sounds quite familiar...

 

Yeah...I hate to side with the devil on this one...lol
I mentioned in an earlier reply that you and I had ordered virtually identical laptops (the context was EDD for stock 18's vs. upgraded 18's i think).

Wait...maybe it's the devil siding with me this time...either way, when me and Satan agree on something, bad things happen. I say this from experience

 

Looks like He opened the wrong side and it dropped. His other video shows some damage on the left side of the screen :|

 

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Thanks for the post. This actually helped make my decision. I think I'd rather go with the 750 + 64 Cache and put in a samsung 512GB 840 Pro with keeping the 750 for storage. My next question would be is how would the system use the 64 GB caching? Would it still be relevant?

 

Just to update I decided not to cancel my order as there are no other laptops that match the Alienware

So I've continued with my order only to find that due to the cancellation it's EDD has been delayed by a week, just cant believe it. I hope they ship it out earlier.

 

I know this has been discussed in this thread in the past but wanted a little advice re. Installing another SSD. I am getting the 256gb msata boot and a 750gb hdd. Is there a free slot to just install an ssd bought on amazon? And is it as easy as just slotting it in for the computer to recognise it? Also are there any disadvantages to leaving the hdd in? I am taking more damage while moving if the laptop is on - not sure this is a problem.

 

My recommendation is to get a matching HDD to the 750 and raid it. Thats my plan.

 

Honestly, it depends I think. Mr. Fox will probably be able to answer your question far better than I, but if the drive is shipping as one (in other words, the 64GB SSD cache on the actual HDD) then I think the msata will only cache data you frequently access from the storage HDD, like music files, or games, etc. My Dell rep said that this is how the drives ship, all in one, like a hybrid. However, I don't think my rep knows what he's talking about because the only hybrid I know of is the Seagate Momentus, and I don't know if Dell would be using that drive or not. Maybe there is an OEM version? But if the msata is, you know, like an actual msata in the actual msata slot, then I honestly don't know if the msata cache will be used, or if it would even be useful if it was. Having an SSD for your OS and most used programs pretty much negates the need for the msata cache. Mr. Fox, do you have any thoughts on this?

 

There a four total drive slots. 1 Msata, 2 HDD bays, and the optical drive bay which can be turned into an additional HDD bay. So yes, there will be a free slot for your SSD. As far as the ease of getting it recognized, if you are only using it as backup (which would be a complete waste IMO) then it should just show up. You can check your BIOS immediately after install to make sure it is registering. It would be a little more complicated if you are transferring your OS to the SSD, but honestly it's still pretty easy. As far as disadvantages to leaving in the HDD, honestly, I think the best setup you could give yourself would be to let your msata run your OS, install all of your games to your SSD (depending on the size of the SSD), and use the HDD for music, videos, and other non-program related files. Just to be clear, 256GB will be more than enough to run the OS and install programs, so really, your SSD may not even be necessary. It just depends on what you want to do.

EDIT: Vortex, there are 4 drive slots on the AW 18 and AW 17, sorry should've mentioned that. Which version did you order?

 

Would it be possible to get two 750gb hd in RAID 0 and two 480gb (msata, ssd) in RAID 0? In a 18 of course.

 

Yeah, theoretically, it should be possible i think, assuming the msata and ssd are the same size. Keep in mind you will be limited by the slowest of the two drives.