which one should i buy alienware 17 or 18?

So what you think about the dual card on alienware 18? it is too much problems as others are saying?
Thanks

 

I haven't had a single problem with SLI in the last year or two. It's come a long way. For games where it's a problem, it's easy enough to turn off in the Nvidia control panel. And any games that don't have a solid SLI profile usually don't need all of that GPU power anyways.

 

It is when you factor in the PSU, which is basically required for the AW18. But like you said: they're both huge. In my opinion, the extra 5lbs (AW18 + PSU) is a pain in the butt. That's like carrying around at least one extra textbook, compared to the AW17.

 

EXACTLY!! I feel like I am carrying a brick around, and I am 6'6" and 250... I can't imagine what it would be like for someone smaller.

Bob

 

I don't bring my power adapter for the 18 to campus. Though I just run it off the iGPU when I'm there. Most time I'm there is ~6 hours in one day, with a max of 15 minutes between classes, so I never have a chance to game. I did have to bring the adapter with me when I had a 17 though, since the 120Hz screen/lack of Optimus led to a sub 2 hour battery life, so final weight is really almost exactly the same for me. I have brought the adapter with me a couple times, and it's really not that much worse. The Texas heat bothers me considerably more than the weight on my back.

 

I carried my M17X with me to China which involved some looooong walks, so many flights, bus rides etc. I'm not a big guy and my back ain't too great either and the weight crippled me. I remember thinking... good thing I didn't get the M18X or I would be in deep @#$%.

The next time I travelled there, I left the alienware at home and bought a slate tablet @ 950 grams (about 2lb).

I think the M17 vs M18 debate should come down to how big and strong and healthy you are for carrying it. It seems light on short trips but after a day of lugging it around, it can get reeeeaaal heavy.

I would have loved the power of SLI etc. Plus, half the time I plug my laptop into external monitor and gaming keyboard and its those times I wish I had the extra power of the M18 SLI so I didn't feel like having a laptop instead of a desktop was a compromise.

Go the 18 if you are 75kg+ and muscular!

 

Well the 18 is more for desk to desk activities. Probably with a car taking you both

 

This can be subjective to an extent and it can vary based on individual customer needs, expectations and experience. If you have any kind of physical impairments, carrying anything (even some comparatively lighter machines) for an extended period could become problematic. There is not a huge weight difference between the 18 and the 17, so if packing an 18 is physically more than you can tolerate, a 17 is likely still going to present some physical challenges. The small difference in size and weight are probably going to be less noticeable using a backpack compared to a briefcase or messenger bag.

If you have never done a lot of gaming and benching on a high-end desktop or a very powerful dual-GPU laptop like the 18, and you have mostly used average systems that were capable of gaming, a 17 with an i7 CPU and single 780M will likely be satisfying and seem very powerful. If the opposite is true, you may find that a single-GPU laptop, even with a potent component like the GTX 780M, could be somewhat disappointing. If you're really a power monger like most of us M18xR1/R2/18 fanboys are, traveling with the relatively minor increase in size and weight of the slightly larger machine is a non-issue that is a more than acceptable trade for the huge performance increase. I guess another way of looking at it is that you cannot miss something you have never had.

 

IMHO　you should get the 18inch Model, big is always better
Also, I am living in south China right now, and the cooling system of the 18 hasn't failed me yet.

Don't forget that you can always upgrade your video cards later on. Next year the AMD 9970m is supposed to totally kick nvidia´s . (Even though this belongs in a different thread )

 

Don't be so sure though, it's still 28nm. http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...725226-incoming-amd-9970m-14.html#post9375291

 

Yeah, no.

 

I have to agree. Nothing is impossible, but I'm thinking to myself, "Uh huh. Yeah, sure, yabecha." As the elephant that took a dump on the sidewalk said, "This remains to be seen."

Sorry to be a doubting Thomas, but there is no reason to believe it until it is demonstrated. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. (Actually, I've been fooled 3 in a row. So we're using the 3 strikes rule here.)

 

One can still dream

 

Well, if it turns out well it will be nice for everyone regardless of brand preference. It's not good to have only one superior option available. I liked it a lot better when there was fierce competition and they were constantly inflicting serious damage to each other. There is a real danger that both will become lazy and mediocre if one of them stays that way for a long time.

 

Agreed. Also, if for example AMD will stop producing GPU's, nVidia will probably raise their prices to an insane level, which is something nobody is waiting for (except nVidia of course).

 

know what I can say . . .

the m18x-r2 so far was much more powerful and faster then the new 18 is.

I had m18x-r2 with a 3820qm (3.7GHz x4) 16gb ram and a 2x 256gb ssd raid, and SLI 680m.
I now have new 18 with 4930mx(4.3GHz x4) 4x 256 raid ssd and 32GB ram and SLI 780m

The cpu, no matter how I work this, is about 40% slower then how I ran my 3820qm 54GB/s vs 78GB/s bandwidth when I test it..

The RAM, on the new 18, no matter what I try, it defaults to something the bios forces, and winsat reports 22,000MB/s though oddly, in tests I'm getting 48-49,000 MB/s. But in the old m18x-r2 - I was getting 32,000MB's and it was consistent in tests.

In games and benches, my modded vbios 680's (no OC mind you) perform EXACTLY as these 780m's do. I've seen the exact same fps, using the new 327.xx drivers OCing them, I could get abit more, but nothing too much.

Temp wise, well... the fans don't go on very often on the new 18, and it will crash if temps go up fast, like, if they rise steadily over 45 minutes the fans will go on, but if its over 3-4 minutes, the system will crash instead.

My RAID's array is faster on the new 18 by far, pretty much doubling its speed, which translates to very very little in loading times. Maybe 10-15% faster on average, though I'm getting 1.2GB/s from these, and I used to get like 650-700MB/s.

Now, windows 8 seems faster then windows 7. When I run windows 7 on the new 18, its actually slower in all regards by a small bit, and its noticeable.

So, my m18x-r2 with windows 7 (never tried it with windows 8) was faster then the new 18 with windows 8, and windows 8 seems noticeably faster.

 

That's nothing new for most of us...

That's why a lot of us are waiting until next year to buy a new 18" laptop. This is a green year for Alienware, so to speak. Everything is low voltage this, conserve energy here, etc. The hardware itself is better than last year's, but it's all limited by the BIOS and stuff... I'm not sure why Alienware decided to go this route. I thought the whole point of an 18" gaming laptop was to be a high performance machine that replaces a desktop.

 

Thank you for confirming my observations, as it seems like very few 18 owners are drawing attention to this. I realize you just got your machine, but most of the people that have had theirs for a longer period of time aren't saying much for some reason. Perhaps it is more powerful than what many are used to and they don't recognize the performance deficiencies compared to the last two generations. The 18 can and should be more powerful than its predecessor once we get a good BIOS for it. I trust that will come in time, but I hope it is sooner than later.

I have found that Windows 8 actually impairs CPU performance, but it is not easy to notice unless you are doing benchmarks on the same hardware on a before/after basis or dual-boot. Although it gives an impression of being snappy with a transparency-free pastel GUI that is less demanding, it's a false impression. Something about Windows 8 hinders the overall system performance and that is one of the reasons I ditched Windows 8 on the 18. All of the benchmark results improved with Windows 7 on the 18. I think you will find the performance gap is because the BIOS power settings totally cripple the CPU and Windows 8 actually exacerbates this problem for some strange reason. It probably should come as no surprise that Windows 8 is not an optimal solution with the "one experience on every device" model they aspire to?

Please continue to post similar feedback in the Alienware Club threads at the Dell Community Forum so the people at Alienware that need customer pressure (leverage) as support for escalating the fix will have the support they need. If enough people complain about the BIOS and fans not working correctly it will be easier to justify escalating a fix on a urgency basis. Even for those that have already posted, a reminder in their forums of a need for a BIOS/EC fix can only help. If everyone quietly waits for it to happen, it could be a much longer wait... especially, if there are other important irons in the fire. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I agree with you J.Dre... it should be all about high performance, period. I don't really care how much power the system draws from the wall outlet as long as it is running crazy fast and its primary mission in life is to exude performance at extreme levels. It does not need to be green in any aspect, nor do many of us want it to possess any green features. I want it to have extreme beast features regardless of what kind of hit it needs to take on power conservation to accomplish that. I have a hunch the big guys at Alienware really want that for their products as well, but they may not have unrestricted permission to act. We might be waiting for permission to be granted... and those of us that work for huge corporations with a political hierarchy machine know exactly what I am talking about here. Most actions, even the obvious on face value things, require a business case. If you want to remain employed you get permission first instead of asking forgiveness later in a huge corporation. We live in a mediocre computing world where thin, light and anemic is quite the fad among ordinary tech users. If someone (or a group) in a position of authority and control thinks that having a quiet and balanced machine that is light on power utilization is a good model for everything Dell sells it may take some time for their enthusiast colleagues to convince them that kind of production model is worthless as far as many Alienware customers are concerned. They can, and certainly do, offer lower specs to those that want some level of compromise. Most of those people are buying something other than an 18" monster.

Bottom line for 18 owners is that no compromise in performance is welcomed for any reason. There are other models available for purchase that are oozing loads of compromise and we would buy one of those options if compromises were something we felt offered value.

We want this...​ <iframe width='420' height='315' src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IiruM693iZ4?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

...not this.​ <iframe width='560' height='315' src="//www.youtube.com/embed/U5C_7zHTFUU?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

Less green; more mean!

 

Amen to that.

 

Post #35 really sums it ALL up in a nutshell, regarding the 18, from where I'm sitting - which is currently on the sidelines looking in on AW as a whole.....gonna have to owe you a rep, Bro. VERY well said indeed. :thumbsup:

 

Wondered if you were still lurking around here..get back on that horse you miss the ride..:hi2:

 

Still kickin' about! - taking in the 'scenery' before I decide on a ride.....

 

If you are sitting pretty on a 680M setup now, no reason to rush into anything.

 

Hi, it is very interesting.. I have similar doubt . I need a very good screen ... now I have a old hp envy 3D and the colours is really nice.. I dont use the 3D .. I bought this one because the 120Hz was a nice frecuency for a screen. Now ... .I dont know what I to do. My problem is 17 one with 120Hz or the 18.. can you recomended the best screen?? I looking the best colours the best bright.. etc.. thanks in advance

 

The screen on the 18 is nice. The 120Hz screen on the 17 is designed for 3D fans, but for anything else it is not especially useful and you are sacrificing both performance and battery life by choosing a 17 with a 120Hz display. Having used the 120Hz 17 and 60Hz 18 side by side the difference between the two screens was nearly imperceptible except for the 17 screen was smaller. You sacrifice battery life because integrated graphics are not compatible with the 120Hz screen and performance is sacrificed choosing the 17 instead of the 18. It boils down to what you want personally, so you have to make that decision and ignore the opinions of others. Only you can decide what is most important for you. What your experience was with an HP Envy might not be applicable here.

 

Yes , it comes down to what you want personally.
Well to be frank, if you dont use SLi regulary or you dont need that much power, might as well go for 17 , as im even in M18x i rarely use SLi configuration due to so many problems with it, and broke my gpu .

just from my point of view.

 

I haven't experienced any problems with SLI ever before, and seldom ever with CrossFire. I have found both to work excellent, but if you have a messed up GPU I can see where that could be a problem.

 

Ah but at least if one of them breaks you can run with the other one in the mean time

 

Only it the slave craps out you need the master.

 

Just swap 'em around

 

Yeah, they can both operate as the primary card these days

 

Bigger is better. Get the 18. Also, the huge size will help reduce any overheating issues.

 

Hey Hey great AW Comunity,

I need your help in deciding between an AW 17 or the 18, I prefer the 18 but the configuration of each makes me slip into the AW17. Attention both laptops are pre-configurated so I cannot change since it's retail mode and not shipping. So without further a do here it is:

Alienware 17:
I7-4900
32 GB
750 GB HD
256 GB SDD
Nvidia 780M

Alienware 18:
I7-4800
16 GB
750 GB HD
64 GB SDD
Dual Nvidia 770M

So you can see the 17 is more pimped out from stock, of course I can pimp it myself, but one of the major doubts I have is the difference of performance between 770 sli against a single 780, I couldn't find anything in NoteBookCheck about 770 sli. Also there maybe be more differences between them so please I m all ears

Thank you for reading

 

Have you seen a AW 18 in person? It is much larger than the 17. In fact it's positively enormous! Personally, I like non-sli better (heat and driver concerns), but I do believe the sli 770's will be quite a bit faster.

 

Dual 770M SLI will beat a single 780M anyday. Besides, if you get the AW 18, you get the luxury to upgrade both your GPU's later on. Having room for 2 GPU's is already realy rare in laptops. Also, the size difference between the 17 and 18 realy isn't that big/enormous as some people claim it is.

 

I agree with 1nstance, size-wise, 17 and 18 are only a few inches (centimeters) apart. 18 is a few pounds (or around 1 kg) heavier, but that's because it has a 3rd heatsink assembly. The point is, if you don't move the laptop a lot, the size is irrelevant and the 18 would be a better choice.

770M SLI is better than a single 780M and is enough for almost all games at max setting for now; most new games support SLI anyway. Also, Alienware laptops are known to keep things cool in heat of the battles.

 

I'd grab the AW 18 if size does not matter and you plan to actually use it as a desktop replacement, more so than a laptop. Member's here say size is negligible, but this differs person to person. The AW 17 is perfect for me: size, cost, performance, and quality were my main deciding factors. You can see BF4 pictures I released here to get an idea of what you would see, performance wise, on the latest and greatest games.

Basing this decision solely on performance: I'd take the AW 18, hands down. Both systems are upgradeable. The AW 17 requires a bit more patience, but it is not of greater difficulty to upgrade.

 

Until now all what you said guys are great advices I thought about it before and now I m thinking in it and it's a hard decision because I love them both, I really do but I sincerely want the one which has more raw power I m only sad I don't have the possibility to have dual 780M but I live in a country where they sell it stock wise bahh. Sincerely I m going to move the laptop around the university, I don't mind I think but apart from the graphic cards which laptop has the advantage, what about the throthling problem is it fixed? will it affect both laptops or only the 17 with 4900 ? I'm full of doubts

Edit: Btw, plus one J.Dre for the pics and your opinion in the 17 I find it very thruthfull

 

A few things to keep in mind, which may or may not matter. Someone who has these machines next to each other might contradict me.

The AW 17 has more screws, particularly those attaching the palm rest to the frame, and a metal frame of similar strength to the 18's. Typically, more screws means fewer latches and tabs and more durability. The 17's display cable bracket is screwed onto the case, and the 18's is not, which is a baffling decision on Dell's part. (That is what I gathered from the owners' manuals.) It is also cheaper and smaller, and I expect better engineering on the whole for a common chassis size.

The AW 18 has better CPU cooling, better performance, and (I think) a better screen.. I would not buy one unless Dell were to fix the fan profiles and CPU throttling.

 

The problem with the 17 is that the 18 exist. I'm not tall/big by any stretch, but like many say, any heavy AW 17 or 18 laptop is just big compared to the world around university of macbook airs and lightweight slimbooks nowadays. The downside I think with a 17 purchase is that you "may" always look at the 18 and think that you "could've" gone that route, but went with the 17 instead. There's always that feeling that yours isn't the top dog, etc...especially when looking around university and your roommate or neighbor has the more powerful 18.

As others have said, the 18 in your spec above is already faster than the 17 and SLI isn't a problem for almost everyone so you're losing out on potential upgrade potential if you went with the 17. Also, if price isn't a major concern, I think human nature will always dictate people having that small "desire" to get the 18 if they went with the 17 since the 18 is more powerful no matter how anyone debates themselves.

Just go 18 and forget about any of that minor issue. Or...find a way to get the 18 with the 780ms and have the best of everything.

 

I don't regret getting the 17 at all. It fits who I am, met my budget, and performs as I want. With a modded vBIOS I can reach 10,000+ on 3D Mark 11 with a single 780M... There's no need to have another 30-40 FPS in games when I'm already seeing 50+. The display is nice and the size is perfect. It's already the largest 17" laptop on the market.

As for that "feeling that you could have gone with something better" - it will always exist, no matter what product(s) you purchase. He may even feel this way about the AW 18 when he realizes how much better dual 780M's are over 770M's. It just happens...

You need to really take a look at both systems and weigh the pros and cons of both.

 

Question: If I have Dell in my country and if I want to exchange the graphic cards later, in this case upgrade them can I do it? I m asking this since its retail mode and not configuration.
Also if I change the ssd, put more ram there is no problem right ? I know Alienware has no problem but in case of garanty I don't know because I m used to see the repaix and fix in countrys that have configuration not retail

 

Dell doesn't sell GPU's often, especially if they're still in production. You'll have to go aftermarket through eBay and other retailers.

 

Aye, there are always people who the 17 will be a perfect for. Though, think how much you get with a modded vBIOS with the 780M in SLI. Since I'm very cheap, I actually play very old old games so the 18 is an overkill for everything I do so that wasn't even a factor for my purchase of what it can do or what it benches at or what FPS I get. It was just the biggest/most powerful at this time. I also don't change or upgrade machines very often (going on 6 years+) before this purchase...so if you change every 2 years, then yeah, maybe get something else since in 2 years, you'll upgrade anyways.

For the OP, if the 770 SLI is faster than a single 780, and you don't care about the small size/weight difference and money is probably similar, my point is that going with the 18 is a better option for you. I think the 18 also has better resale value as there is simply less competition (none in the 18" segment at all?) compared to 17" notebooks.

Everyone needs to do their own decision making based on their own requirements. For me, the 18 was an easy call (if a 19 or 20 exists, I'd go there too)...due to biggest available, weight not being concern (sits on my desk mostly), potential for SLI is always a better option than no potential and cost (I had more than 30%+ off)...

Just review your requirements and make your own call...

 

Not much more... The PSU limits you. You'll need dual 330W PSU's to really open up the cards. Portability goes straight out the window at that point.

 

Here's the first post from the benchmark thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...18-benchmark-thread-part-3-a.html#post9355384

Fox had a P15695 with the 780m is SLI. I don't know what someone could get with just 1 780m...
johnksss posted P16564 with 3940xm cpus...

Funny that I am on this list too.

With that data, is the 50-70% gain now worth getting the 18 for? Also note that the 18 is larger which probably translates to being able to cool better. According to many posters, it's also easier to work on/take apart.


Again, J.Dre, I'm not dissing you for buying the 17 and you're probably not feeling dissed neither (you can never tell online), but SLI vs. no SLI seems like such a big gap in performance (50%-65% is big enough for me, even if only in benchmarks) that maybe it's not needed now, but remember, if the cost isn't that different, it seems like a better long term deal...ESPECIALLY in terms of the OP request for advice when the 770 SLI supposedly overclocks even better than a 780m and he can also upgrade if it ever came to that...

 

That applies to the R2 with dual PSU which does not work on the new 18 though.

 

Well it comes down to heatsink size rather than system size and both machines have decent cooling.

 

Isn't Foxes score using the 18? Again, someone correct me if I am wrong and just post what people are getting with 1 780m vs. 2 x 780m


OP, in the end, get whatever you feels best for you, it doesn't affect me anyway at all and I really don't care...we're all just trying to help out, but I still lean towards 18 for reasons listed.


Here's notebookcheck numbers if they're worth anything:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-780M.88993.0.html
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 7127 avg: 7564.6 (59%) median: 7690.5 (60%) max: 7900 points
8 benchmarks and specifications Show comparison chart

3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 7279 avg: 7691.9 (54%) median: 7776.5 (54%) max: 8014 points
8 benchmarks and specifications Hide comparison chart


http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-780M-SLI.93346.0.html
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 11960 avg: 12424.5 (96%) median: 12424.5 (96%) max: 12889 points
2 benchmarks and specifications Show comparison chart

3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 14005 avg: 14139.5 (99%) median: 14139.5 (99%) max: 14274 points
2 benchmarks and specifications Hide comparison chart