OFFICIAL: Alienware M18x Owners Lounge

[svl7]

A05... very interesting. I don't know whether A05 already comes with this secure flash stuff... so not sure whether you would be able to easily flash to the latest version or not.

[gomson]

Hey welcome to T|I and congrats on your new system. For now I'd hold off on flashing a bios until @svl7 unlocks the latest release. It is not advisable to go from the latest factory bios to an older unlocked one.

Sent from my GT-N7000

Ok now I'm a bit lost... I thought A08 or A09 would be the latest and not A05..?

A05... very interesting. I don't know whether A05 already comes with this secure flash stuff... so not sure whether you would be able to easily flash to the latest version or not.

Hopefully that wont be the case..but as suggested above.. I'll wait and see.. For now I'll just concentrate on getting the upgrade components that I want..

[Niwoo]

Wow that paint job looks sick! Wish alienware offered more than just black and red.

[mw86]

Wow that paint job looks sick! Wish alienware offered more than just black and red.

Thats the truth we need more paint jobs like Mr Fox's. Paint by Fox Rox inc.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

[svl7]

Hopefully that wont be the case..but as suggested above.. I'll wait and see.. For now I'll just concentrate on getting the upgrade components that I want..

Good idea. By the way, you would do me a huge favor if you dump and send me a copy of your A05, I'm really interested in taking a look at it.

[ArcticSoldier]

you wont regret getting one mate

they are awesome laptops

me personally coming from asus ROG laptops. the dell alienware are well worth their money

next time though i will go the nvidia route. 7970m xfire works great but i rather not wait 3 months for proper drivers to come out

bought it when it first came out and started using it with the 12.5 drivers

[gomson]

Good idea. By the way, you would do me a huge favor if you dump and send me a copy of your A05, I'm really interested in taking a look at it.

Will do, just one thing...could you tell me how to dump it...?

you wont regret getting one mate

they are awesome laptops

me personally coming from asus ROG laptops. the dell alienware are well worth their money

next time though i will go the nvidia route. 7970m xfire works great but i rather not wait 3 months for proper drivers to come out

bought it when it first came out and started using it with the 12.5 drivers

Yeah, been wondering if I shouldn't have gone the 680m sli route as well.. Don't get me wrong, I haven't had any problems so far but I'd

rather have the peace of mind..

[sdunne]

Just picked up a new M18X too, which shipped with A05.

I'm about to blow the stock windows install away and put a sensible build on for use with SSD, and wondered if anyone has experience of installing A08 on top of A05.

This talk of secure flash is giving me the willies, a borked BIOS flash and a GBP 3K+ brick is not something I want in my immediate future

[mw86]

Just picked up a new M18X too, which shipped with A05.

I'm about to blow the stock windows install away and put a sensible build on for use with SSD, and wondered if anyone has experience of installing A08 on top of A05.

This talk of secure flash is giving me the willies, a borked BIOS flash and a GBP 3K+ brick is not something I want in my immediate future

Leave the bios as is. Feel free to flash the same bios version A05 but unlocked but do not DO NOT flash A07,A08 bios you will never be able to use an unlocked bios ever. Seriously never ever! Readup on the new bios situation and do not flash the new bioses they included nothing good at all fix wise as far as the Tech community here can tell. Please head my warning as Ive taken this warning from Svl7 as he does all the modding as well as Chmod1337 and Xonar so by their recommendations do not flash A07-A08.

Please read about it here http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/2252-information-about-bios-updates-a07-a08-higher-m14xr2-m17xr4-m18xr2.html#post29581

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

[sdunne]

Leave the bios as is. Feel free to flash the same bios version A05 but unlocked but do not DO NOT flash A07,A08 bios you will never be able to use an unlocked bios ever. Seriously never ever!

I was coming at it from the direction of always applying latest BIOS/firmware upgrades before doing major work like an O/S re-install, but your post and especially the link to svl7's warning thread make for sombre reading. (Note to self: Monitor parent forum as well as M18x one, I'd missed this warning thread as it applies to multiple models)

I don't have immediate plans to start pissing around with the hidden BIOS settings in A05, but never is a long time indeed and there's no way I'm going to throw away the ability to do so on my own hardware unless I really really have to.

Thanks for the heads up!

Stephen

[mw86]

I was coming at it from the direction of always applying latest BIOS/firmware upgrades before doing major work like an O/S re-install, but your post and especially the link to svl7's warning thread make for sombre reading. (Note to self: Monitor parent forum as well as M18x one, I'd missed this warning thread as it applies to multiple models)

I don't have immediate plans to start pissing around with the hidden BIOS settings in A05, but never is a long time indeed and there's no way I'm going to throw away the ability to do so on my own hardware unless I really really have to.

Thanks for the heads up!

Stephen

Great I am glad Svl7 and I have been convincing enough to keep you on this bios version right now. I also have always used latest and greatestbios so I agree that this is not the nnormal suggestion. Atleast by holdimg back you wont loose that unlocked bios option later on should you decide to indulge. Its mainly due to certifications oems now are required to be windows 8 certified or they cant sell windows 8 on those systems. Anyway it is what it is and im glad you decided to hold back.

[gomson]

Hiya guys,

A bit off topic here but I was wondering, will the M18X R2 take 2 x 2tb hdds along with an msata.

Also does a 2tb sata3 6Gb/s 2.5 exist...been searching the web but would only find 3Gb/s hdds..

[Michael]

Hiya guys,

A bit off topic here but I was wondering, will the M18X R2 take 2 x 2tb hdds along with an msata.

Also does a 2tb sata3 6Gb/s 2.5 exist...been searching the web but would only find 3Gb/s hdds..

I am pretty sure the m18xr2 would support such a configuration. As for the HDD, I don't see a reason to go SATA3 since it can't even max out SATA2 speeds.

[deadbydawn]

i'm about to order an m18x-r2 with dual 680m and sell my 17x-r4 with the 7970m... just wanted to get my hands on one of those for a long time now!

would you rather get 4 x 4 gb of corsair vengeance 1866mhz or 2 x 8 gb of kingston hyperx 1600mhz? that's what im' not sure about atm.

[svl7]

4x4, it's preferable to have every slot occupied.

[svl7]

A little request to people who only just got their M18x R2 - can you please check the vbios version of your graphics card and let me know which one is on there? Doesn't matter which card(s) you got in your system. Just wondering whether AW already updated it in the units which are shipped at the moment.

[deadbydawn]

okay thx dude!

another question, maybe someone knows this: i ordered a single hdd setup, as they charge crazy prices for an ssd - hdd setup. so i'll just get the ssd (aa the primary disk) from my reseller and put the hdd which comes with the m18x in another hdd slot. now my quedtion: is another drivecage (and sata adapter) included (or already installed in the system), even if you only ordered a single hddsetup?

[djslim90]

okay thx dude!

another question, maybe someone knows this: i ordered a single hdd setup, as they charge crazy prices for an ssd - hdd setup. so i'll just get the ssd (aa the primary disk) from my reseller and put the hdd which comes with the m18x in another hdd slot. now my quedtion: is another drivecage (and sata adapter) included (or already installed in the system), even if you only ordered a single hddsetup?

The drive officially supports 2x 9.5 or 3x 7mm HDD / SSD. You don't need to buy anything else, just install the new drive and off you go.

[deadbydawn]

The drive officially supports 2x 9.5 or 3x 7mm HDD / SSD. You don't need to buy anything else, just install the new drive and off you go.

ok cool, thx a lot for the info

well, then once more, approaching the endless waiting for a new system haha ^^

[Luscious]

A little request to people who only just got their M18x R2 - can you please check the vbios version of your graphics card and let me know which one is on there? Doesn't matter which card(s) you got in your system. Just wondering whether AW already updated it in the units which are shipped at the moment.

80.04.33.00.32 according to GPU-Z

BTW: Any chance you looked at my PM last week?

[littleone562]

Is that a stock vbios? If so they raised the clocks lol?

[Luscious]

Is that a stock vbios? If so they raised the clocks lol?

My bad - that's the 100MHz mod! :59:Version number for the stock ROM is the same though.

[Keith1341]

A little request to people who only just got their M18x R2 - can you please check the vbios version of your graphics card and let me know which one is on there? Doesn't matter which card(s) you got in your system. Just wondering whether AW already updated it in the units which are shipped at the moment.

I'm no longer running the stock vbios (don't know what version it is) but I made a backup of it before I flashed both cards (680m). Would you like a copy of it?

[deadbydawn]

what's up guys?

can someone share his experience with the 18x-r2 with me? i got the following issue: i put 4x4 GB of Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz in my 18x. i have been fighting since yesterday, but can't get those f@6632s to run stable. at 1866 no way at all, bsod's aaaaall the time. tried to work my way through all different kinds of settings but still, nothing. then i downclocked them to 1600mhz. once in a while a bsod, prime95 finds system errors after a while. some strange behaviour in windows as well some times. now i put the memory that came with the system back in this morning and since it's running fine. testing with prime and as well no problems so far.

now i read that quite a few users experience probs with those ram in the 18x-r2 and i will sell them and probably buy some kingston hyperx 1600MHz. the only thing i'm not sure about is if i should get 2x4GB or 4x4GB (so, 1 set or 2 sets). i know this gets asked a lot, but does it make sense to get 16gb? the only thing besides gaming that will be going on on this machine will be probably virtualbox with my virtualized machine from work running on an external drive.

@mw86 damn dude, i hate ram-issues...i just remembered the last ones i had where you were helping me out and in the end we figured out that the version of memtest i was using wasn't quite working ;(

[Brian]

@deadbydawn congrats on the new system buddy! I think the Corsair ram is indeed problematic with the M18x-R2 but personally I haven't had the best luck with HyperX either. I've got 2 x 4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz in my system and they do not run stable with XMP 2 enabled, even if i raise the voltage. I have to run the ram at 1333 MHz for it to work correctly. It seems some of these notebook aftermarket modules have trouble working at what they are advertised as which pisses me off. Others have had success so it seems to be luck of the draw and maybe some tweaking as well.