OFFICIAL: Alienware M18x Owners Lounge

[svl7]

There's no 18 inch 3d-capable screen.

[Comadron]

Hello everyone!

What kind of intel rapid driver are you using for your M18x r2 systems with the new bios version A09?

Thank you very much!

[steviejones133]

Hiya guys,

Wow, it's been a while since I posted - although I have lurked for a good while now. Just wanted to say that everyone here is doing a really great job. I'm gonna try and be more regular so I hope to be able to contribute more and be a valued member of T|I.

[Guest]

I posted this in another place (not T|I) and I think it is very fitting for this thread...

Interesting comparison of my M18x with a desktop PC on HWBOT...

[FONT=arial black]HWBOT Member - Mr. Fox[/FONT]	[FONT=arial black]HWBOT Member - SonDa5[/FONT]
3DMark11 - P15081 [LINK] Hardware Rank #1 / Global Rank 257th	3DMark11 - P15081 [LINK] Hardware Rank #6 / Global Rank 256th
Configuration: 3920XM @ 4.69GHz | GTX 680M SLI | Cold Air	Configuration: 3570K @ 4.80GHz | HD 7970 CF (Tahiti Pro) | Water Cooled

The moral to the story is, don't ever let anyone tell you that you wasted money on an M18x and could have had a cheaper desktop that runs way faster. That's not true 100% of the time and you have a beast to be truly proud of. People that make those carte blanche comments are simply exposing their ignorance about the Alienware M18x.

[johnksss]

3DMark11 - P15801 [LINK] Hardware Rank #1 / Global Rank 257th

Should be.

3DMark11 - P15081 [LINK] Hardware Rank #1 / Global Rank 257th

[kbees]

Have posted in the unlocked sticky but might have better luck here,

Was wondering what the best BIOS version would be for me to use on my rig?

Also while i'm at it, which Cats are you Crossfired folks running on?

[Guest]

Please delete. Posted in this thread by mistake. Moved to OFFICIAL: M18x Benchmarking Thread

[Brian]

Have posted in the unlocked sticky but might have better luck here,

Was wondering what the best BIOS version would be for me to use on my rig?

Also while i'm at it, which Cats are you Crossfired folks running on?

Use the latest catalysts. I think you can find 13.2 beta if you look around which has some major fixes. Use the latest bios for your system.

Sent from my GT-N7000

[Guest]

Here is a short Crysis and Gears of War capture showing what Intel's latest is capable of. I never expect much from integrated graphics. The results are not amazing, but the mere fact that both titles are actually 100% playable is. At 1080p and medium settings, it was much smoother than I expected. I captured this with Fraps and it was still holding high enough FPS to not be choppy, as you can see from the video. Frame rate was consistently 30 or higher.

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[kbees]

Use the latest catalysts. I think you can find 13.2 beta if you look around which has some major fixes. Use the latest bios for your system.

I tried them out and was having really bad framerate issues, decided to play it safe and go back to 12.11 betas. Seems to be working great atm :/

Also, I have a thermaltake massive23 LX which is designed for max 17" notebooks. Is it still worth keeping my M18X perched on top to get that extra 230mm fan's worth of airflow? Another random q, is there only one set way to position a notebook on top of this particular cooler?

[Brian]

I tried them out and was having really bad framerate issues, decided to play it safe and go back to 12.11 betas. Seems to be working great atm :/

Also, I have a thermaltake massive23 LX which is designed for max 17" notebooks. Is it still worth keeping my M18X perched on top to get that extra 230mm fan's worth of airflow? Another random q, is there only one set way to position a notebook on top of this particular cooler?

For the M18x, all you need is this for maximum airflow: How To Keep Your Notebook Cool: Laptop Lifts Review

[kbees]

Hmm, so could I be doing any damage by using the cooler then?

[Michael]

Hmm, so could I be doing any damage by using the cooler then?

No, no damage at all. It is better than nothing, it's just that the cooling on the m18x is very good so you can get great results just by lifting the back with those laptop lifts that Brian suggested

[Tezareen Tarquin Shaw]

Black without question mate looks amazing, my m17x was nebula red and would of swapped it for a black tbh, loving my black m18x though looks sweet

[Guest]

As some of you know, I recently purchased parts to upgrade my M18x R1 to an M18x R2. The final touch was adding mSATA SSD. With my BluRay burner moved to an eSATAp slot-load enclosure, I now have 4 SSD and a 1TB HDD installed in the chassis!

Here is the down and dirty photo tutorial for adding the mSATA components... A few of the photo descriptions are too long to view in the slide show. Mouse over the blue text under those photos to read the description in a pop-up dialog box.

I will be looking for a M18x R2 chassis to mount the mSATA SSD in the appropriate spot, but this is working fine for now.

[Brian]

[MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] nicely done bro! I like the use of the hilton card haha. My new desktop motherboard also has a daughter card for an msata although I haven't found much use for it yet. Ah M18x, I miss mine already!

[svl7]

Excellent! Man, I love the look of that machine, really...

[Guest]

Thanks, guys. Appreciate the compliments. I am really enjoying the heck out of it.

Just posted some new benchmark results.

[Jimbo]

Mr Fox, yours is by far the coolest M18X that I could NEVER have imagined, your parts are droolworthy but more to the point - that paintjob is just inspired. I bet you get quite some looks if you use it in public areas, I know I'd come over and fawn over it.

[deadbydawn]

Yeah really, awesome work! 1+

Have been playing Crysis 3 for a while now, I noticed that Core#2 gets a bit warmer than the rest of the cores. don't know if i should repaste the cpu in there. acutally don't feel like taking my m18 apart, have been taking the m14x apart so many times that i'm fed up i like my temps thouhg for a maxed out crysis 3 session (~3 hours) i find them not bad at all

The second gpu was 61 degrees C at the max, while the first one on the picture hit 58 max

[Guest]

Mr Fox, yours is by far the coolest M18X that I could NEVER have imagined, your parts are droolworthy but more to the point - that paintjob is just inspired. I bet you get quite some looks if you use it in public areas, I know I'd come over and fawn over it.

Thank you for the compliment.

Yeah really, awesome work! 1+

Have been playing Crysis 3 for a while now, I noticed that Core#2 gets a bit warmer than the rest of the cores. don't know if i should repaste the cpu in there. acutally don't feel like taking my m18 apart, have been taking the m14x apart so many times that i'm fed up i like my temps thouhg for a maxed out crysis 3 session (~3 hours) i find them not bad at all

The second gpu was 61 degrees C at the max, while the first one on the picture hit 58 max

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6365[/ATTACH]

Thank you, also.

It is normal to have the kind of minor variance you are seeing between CPU cores and the graphics cards. Your temps are also very good and I would recommend leaving it be. I don't think repasting will improve them, and they do not need to be improved based on those numbers.

[prosetheus]

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 turbo disabled and a cooling pad and are easily 93C-95C with turboboost enabled, and hit 97C mark while rendering footage.

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 for hours?

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 and how easy would it be to install in into the laptop body?

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.

[svl7]

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

That's complete nonsense, the 'Mercury Graphics Engine' in has NO Cuda support at all, what you want for the best performance is a superb OpenCL performance, and AMDs 7970m destroys the 680m when it comes to this.

[prosetheus]

That's complete nonsense, the 'Mercury Graphics Engine' in has NO Cuda support at all, what you want for the best performance is a superb OpenCL performance, and AMDs 7970m destroys the 680m when it comes to this.

I would also much rather have AMD over nvidia (lower price plus better performance), but nvidia and adobe have this deal going where they have locked out AMD out of Mercury Engine hardware acceleration. The only one powerful enough to bypass that was Apple which got Mercury Engine hardware acceleration unlocked for Mac OS only. Another over optimistic guy got screwed like this:

Adobe Community: Should I return my 7970m for a GTX670/675?

[deadbydawn]

Thank you for the compliment.

Thank you, also.

It is normal to have the kind of minor variance you are seeing between CPU cores and the graphics cards. Your temps are also very good and I would recommend leaving it be. I don't think repasting will improve them, and they do not need to be improved based on those numbers.

Thanks for your reply man! I was thinking actually kind of the same thing, but wanted to get a second opinion Thank you sir!