E3E

Hmmm, I'll give it a shot!

This is good to know. I can't wait until my 980Ms get in so I can check out how crazy the FPS gets. I remember Sleeping Dogs, when it came out, was actually quite hard on GPUs and the 680Ms in SLI could just barely get around 50 FPS or so in Ultra. Given that one 980M is roughly similar to 680M in SLI, if not a little less, I can't wait to be blown away. That is, before promptly following the advice in this thread and turning on an FPS limiter. :3

Platformers, fighting games, and I find games that require any kind of precise movement are better with controllers. Oh, and racing/driving games thanks to the ability for analog input for throttle sensitivity. I could never get into playing a racing or open world GTA-style game with a keyboard because of how on/off driving is thanks to the lack of analog input. So precise movement control goes to a controller. Precise aiming goes to a mouse and keyboard, hands down. My opinion is general and I'm sure there are people who've made exceptions to the general idea.

Heh-heh. My 680Ms in SLI were starting to show their age lately themselves. I think that might've been more because of their 2 GB VRAM capacity. I always say that the 680Ms had a shortened lifespan (unless you had the 4 GB variants and are happy to OC them), because they came right when the 4K boom started to churn up, and thus RAM capacities had to get boosted way up. I remember doing research over so many channels and threads concerning VRAM and the general concensus back then was that 2 GB should be way more than enough, while 4 GB RAM would be "future proof." Well, I guess since that's all that was available then, at least on mobile platforms, that might be true, but two years later and I while I can play on high settings without much of a problem still, Ultra is pretty much never apparent (with games that are "smart" these days and remove the option entirely if you don't have the specs--I believe VRAM was a big factor here). I know the lack of VRAM didn't allow me to have ultra textures in Watch_Dogs. Made me a little annoyed. Oh well, the twins have split up now; I've sold my 680Ms to two seperate people and now have another set of twins, the 680ms flipped upside down, what do we have? Oh right, 980ms :3

Good points in this thread. I sincerely hope the 16 year window for graphics after "next gen" is an exaggeration. I can't see it taking THAT long, but I know that the console market is holding up the progression. It is a bit of an economical thing though, because releasing consoles that had the best of the best, one, would be very ephemeral thanks to the way technology moves, two, would be very cost prohibitive, and to restate the first point, would be kind of pointless if they are not modular systems. What the second poster mentioned about unified systems is a good point and there are certainly positives in the console market compared to the PC market. Putting everyone on a level playing field is one, having a tight infrastructure for online gaming is another. Like it or not, I think console exclusive have developed their own kind of charm to them. PC has never really had that. Nintendo has always had iconic figures in their history. Sega too. Even Sony and Microsoft with their respective consoles. I think the console market just allows focus to be directed in a more... "homely?" way. The PC market is vast and open and allows for so many great potential projects and up-and-comers, which is a positive thing, but that vast playing field kind of makes the focus deep and broad whereas consoles are almost kind of Orwellian in how their respective channels are focused. I say this because if you ever check out the coverage for E3 or other expos on the channels provided by the respective console makers, they aren't at all going to highlight any of the demos coming from their competitors, it's going to be all focused on them. That's why I say "Orwellian," because I certainly felt that when I would browse the channels and coverage on the Xbox 360 back in the day. I have no idea when I'm going to move to the new consoles because I deeply enjoy my gaming laptop and the exclusives on these consoles are no where near a big enough draw for me to care right now. Heck, what I spent on the 980Ms could have bought me the trifecta of consoles out right now, but I'd rather keep my system current and enjoy games with the freedom of how -I- want to play them and not have games restricted by the constraints of console hardware and peripherals.

I've been looking into getting into Twitch and Youtube. I'll keep this thread in mind! Thanks for starting up this thread.

Ya know, I actually bought the game right before I sold my 680Ms (Alienware M18x R2) to finance my 980Ms in SLI. I still haven't received the GPUs, so I haven't been able to play the game. No way the integrated GPU could handle it. Not sure, but I know there's LAN co-operative from what friends who have fully paid versions have told me. *ahem* It looks like a blast to play though! Can't wait to see how the 980ms handle it.

I'm glad my finances mounted up when they did, because while I love DIY projects, I can't imagine the hassle it'd be to remove the entire motherboard and switch it out. It's probably not as bad as I'm imagining. Good thing is, it's a heck of a lot cheaper and probably less of a hassle than selling your old laptop for a completely different one. Upside is that you get to sell your R1 motherboard and recoup some of that money spent on the R2 board.

Not gonna deny it, but I've broken off some tabs from the keyboard bezel before. Luckily I have a plastic solvent/repair compound that forms a strong bond and allows for repairs to said tabs, but man. That is probably the ONLY reason I don't like taking apart the M18x, because of the tabs in the bezel and palm rest. I've had to have taken her apart like 6 times now. One time, on a really strained day, I kept forgetting screws every time I put it back together! Augh! >w<

Been part of this club since November 23rd, 2012. :3 Sign me up for the Nebula Red lounge too! I remember when the Alienware 18 came out, I was bummed out thinking that it looked so sleek and was just going be a whole lot better. Flash foward a bit, and we've all grown to see that the AW 18 is unfortunately a very limited machine that pales in comparison to the M18x R2 and even the R1. I fear the day these machines hit a brick wall in terms of compatibility. The new Nvidia 980Ms are JUST skating by in these laptops. I hope the next in the Nvidia line don't turn out to be so finicky too. I love the solid build quality and how cool these machines run as well. I don't mind the LEDs and exaggerated styling either!

I would not go for the Alienware these days, but considering how ancient this thread is, I'd imagine that debate on this is moot to the OP's concern. Overall, if I could buy a gaming/high performance laptop all over again, I would've gone for a Clevo. I have an M18x R2, myself. It's a beast, but it's not as easy to take apart, it's not as easy to modify, parts these days are not PnP compatible without some kind of tinkering or modification, by "parts," I mean GPUs for the most part. Clevos seem to have the best all-round value. Alienware has amazing build quality and it's SOLID, but Clevo takes the cake when it comes to hardware. I remember eying a Sager when I was 18, but when I finally had the money to buy a laptop, the Sager I wanted wasn't around anymore. The type like the Eurocom Panther 5 that allows a desktop CPU. That's what I wanted, but I went for the M18x R2 instead due to REALLY wanting a gaming laptop. Once my M18x R2 has finally dried up and hits a major brick wall in terms of upgradeability compared to Clevo, I will sell it and save up for one of those jack of all trades laptops.

Ya know, I've used both Shin-Etsu (there's a lot of it on eBay) and Gelid Extreme, but I'm really unable to say which is better. Both are difficult to spread, but all it takes is a little warming up. The first time I used Gelid GC-Extreme, I made a slight mess because the paste was stringy; by that I mean that miniscule strands would billow off the nozzle like flowing locks and get on some of the silicon. Finicky, but I learned how to apply it better the second time I went about it. Now with the 980Ms in, it's time to give it another shot! Gelid GC-Extreme certainly helped my CPU temps lower substantially. The main reason I repasted my components is because the CPU would reach critical temps while rendering video and kill the power on the Laptop. Hasn't happened since. Also, for mobile GPUs, there is a very uncommon support bracket that's available, originally sold as part of the Nvidia 480-580M cards that has a heat spreader plate that covers both RAM banks. This, I'd imagine would helpt dissipate the heat a bit. How much temps it'd save you, I don't know.

Ya know, I should've just went through the pages of this thread! Derp. I also managed to find the link to that 240w - 330w AC Adapter ID cable mod that Nosferatu did that gave Mr. Fox the inspiration for detachable cables. So, I think I have everything I need if I want to perform this mod. TBoneSan on Notebookreview mentioned that the 980Ms in SLI don't play well with the dual PSU mod. Now is this because of the high amounts of throttling from the GPUs or something else? Also is it possible to simply find the appropriate connections and use this? http://www.laptoppartsnow.com/j01150mclac12.html The DELL ID chip problem and the fact these are using 4 pin connections might make this impossible, especially if a lot of the circuitry is dealt with using a circuit board or something that isn't easy to modify (at least not for me!). It's probably better to simply make a box like Mr. Fox has.