OFFICIAL: Alienware M18x Owners Lounge

[littleone562]

Does anyone know how to maintain aero enabled on reboots on the integrated graphics?

[Brian]

Note to those that open the bottom panel: Don't let screws fall into the battery bay because there's some pretty big gaping holes there. Last night one of mine fell in and started rolling around inside the system. Thought I'd have to tear it down to get to it but fortunately it made its way out after a few shakes.

[littleone562]

Oh yea haha, i make sure to use my magnetized screwdriver for laptops just incase that

[Warp(d)Alien]

Note to those that open the bottom panel: Don't let screws fall into the battery bay because there's some pretty big gaping holes there. Last night one of mine fell in and started rolling around inside the system. Thought I'd have to tear it down to get to it but fortunately it made its way out after a few shakes.

This can be your tool... just in case: http://www.amazon.com/Capacity-Teles...bxgy_hi_text_c

[Brian]

Some quick info fo ryou guys: out of the box, the M18x panel has a 244 cd/m^2 brightness with a measured 435:1 contrast ratio. So Dell was nearly spot on in their spec sheet like I had thought. Amazon link is broken.

[mw86]

Brian what is your opinion on those mentioned measurements? Do you feel it is adequate or you are disatisfied with the display.

[Warp(d)Alien]

Sorry Brian, this is the address:

Amazon.com: 3 lb. Capacity Telescopic Magnet Pick-Up Tool w/ LED Light: Home Improvement

[Brian]

Brian what is your opinion on those mentioned measurements? Do you feel it is adequate or you are disatisfied with the display.

After calibration the screen brightness is 236 nit and it's enough. Stamatis says his M17x-R2 RGB LED after calibration is 245 nit so there's not a huge difference there. I'm very satisfied with the screen quality although I wish the contrast ratio was a bit higher (at least 500:1). Colors are decent too, nobody will be disappointed.

[littleone562]

one issue I have noticed is,while plugged in if you put it to sleep, then wake it up the brightness is below what you had left it at. Mines is set to 100% but when it wakes up its like 40-50%, anyone else having this issue. BTW i do retain control of the brightness via power settings and slider, but just that fact that it auto lowers it everytime on wakeup is annoying. FN keys work to raise it after, but just the fact that it always happens.

Edited May 19, 2011 by littleone562

[Brian]

Sorry Brian, this is the address:

Amazon.com: 3 lb. Capacity Telescopic Magnet Pick-Up Tool w/ LED Light: Home Improvement

Thanks bud. I got myself a magnetizer from home depot instead, works great on my existing screwdrivers and it was only $3.

[e46justice]

well thats pretty awesome about the screen. im used to my old 1600X900 21" screen from my old desktop. this should more than thrill me.

So guy at work is upgrading his old amd machine into a new amd machine and wants to "benchmark race"

hes making a big adu about how he will kill my expensive laptop with his machine.

he spent 700$ on dual video cards a motherboard, processor and ram. he is sticking with AMD for video cards and processor. I think i may still win even though he is building a desktop.

edit: whats your thoughts. he bought all parts from new egg.

[Jimbo]

If he does beat you, pick the M18x up and walk away.

I mean, it's a laptop, saying it's beaten by desktops is to totally miss the point.

$700 for dual gpu, cpu, mobo, ram isn't much these days though, I think you should win most tests.

[mw86]

All of us at the forum should be able to beat this guy...

[Michael]

Soo............

Guess who's joining the owners lounge..

Yeah.. me

After a failed attempt to replace the motherboard on my M17x-R3 during which the tech also broke the video cable (still works if you put it just right, otherwise no image on the screen) i've decided that it's enough troubles for a week old computer.

So i called my rep and arranged a return

(Stam, you don't know it yet but it's going to your house since i need a US address for Dell to pick it from)

Next, i called in and ordered me an Avenger..

I didn't even want to consider re-ordering the R3. My "honeymoon period" (Thanks Brian for the term) with my R3 was short and very quickly i realized that it's not for me. I had nothing but issues with it from the get go so, i thought i want something better built.

Scored a nice price too (complaining about the import taxes i had paid for nothing plus the shipping of the R3 back helped a lot)

Including taxes and shipping i paid 2514$ for the following config :

System Color Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum

Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit

Processor Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)

Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)

A/C Adapter Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter

Display Panel 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED

Video Card Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M - AMD CrossFireX™

Hard Drive 500GB 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid

Nameplate Personalized Plate (Michael@Tech|Inferno)

AlienFX Terra Green

Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat X Reader

Optical Drive Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio

Wireless and Bluetooth Intel® Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology and Bluetooth 3.0

Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: Critical Updates Only

Hardware Support Services 1 Year Advanced Plan

OS Customization Alienhead 3D

WirelessHD Internal WirelessHD Technology - FullHD Video Transmitter

Standard Nameplate Trigger Thank you for Purchasing Alienware

[mw86]

Yes "jumps up and down" glad you'll be joining the darkside Michael. I'm excited for you. The wait will suck though! How did you order according to my rep he says systems been down since yesterday!

[Michael]

Yes "jumps up and down" glad you'll be joining the darkside Michael. I'm excited for you. The wait will suck though! How did you order according to my rep he says systems been down since yesterday!

EPP systems seem to be up

[mw86]

Another two days maybe for my account to be fixed! Then I can order and should hopefully receive by late June.

[Brian]

Could someone with 6970M Xfire run furmark multiGPU 1.82 and have two instances of GPU-Z open and report back what the differences in temperatuers are between GPU 1 and 2? My GPU 2 is reporting 10C higher temps despite having just repasted both GPUs. Looks like I may have to go back in and open up the system. BTW, the M18x is MUCH harder to open than the R2, there's a high risk of breaking something when dealing with the M18x. I would only recommend advanced users messing with it.

[mw86]

When I was on HD5870M and did that exact scenario I witnessed a similar problem but I don't think its a problem... I think inherently the second gpu will never get as much work or heat as the primary card.

Edit: I misread.. that is strange the second gpu is reporting higher temps.

[Mumak]

2 instances of GPU-Z? Why not a single instance of HWiNFO32? :-P

You can also launch the graph for GPU usage and watch which one is more utilized.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Mumak

[wbabt007]

Soo............

Guess who's joining the owners lounge..

Yeah.. me

After a failed attempt to replace the motherboard on my M17x-R3 during which the tech also broke the video cable (still works if you put it just right, otherwise no image on the screen) i've decided that it's enough troubles for a week old computer.

So i called my rep and arranged a return

(Stam, you don't know it yet but it's going to your house since i need a US address for Dell to pick it from)

Next, i called in and ordered me an Avenger..

I didn't even want to consider re-ordering the R3. My "honeymoon period" (Thanks Brian for the term) with my R3 was short and very quickly i realized that it's not for me. I had nothing but issues with it from the get go so, i thought i want something better built.

Scored a nice price too (complaining about the import taxes i had paid for nothing plus the shipping of the R3 back helped a lot)

Including taxes and shipping i paid 2514$ for the following config :

Welcome to the Dark side:11_002: ..i Mean the club Michael.

I am so sorry to hear that your M17x-R3 went kaput in such short amount of time, Maybe you it was your destiny to own an M18x-R1 so let me warmly welcome you to the club.

[GabrielZ]

Apparently my system will get to me sometime next week. That said, do we have a "to do" list anywhere (or on the internet) for the m18x as far as drivers and recommended configurations go? So far I'm just guessing uninstalling dell bloatware and installing the latest ATI drivers to be my only stops, is there anything else I should keep in mind or download before I hop into games?

[mw86]

not everyone does this but I would do a clean windows install if your a more advanced user and wipe out dells restore partition to save space... just burn their backup DVD's first...

[wbabt007]

not everyone does this but I would do a clean windows install if your a more advanced user and wipe out dells restore partition to save space... just burn their backup DVD's first...

mw86 do you actually get rid of the restore partition? You know I never done that, I always felt a little more comfortable having that security blanket but you might be right I just don't have enough information to get rid of the partition.

I would appreciate if you could elaborate about the pro's of this.

[debo2372]

Could someone with 6970M Xfire run furmark multiGPU 1.82 and have two instances of GPU-Z open and report back what the differences in temperatuers are between GPU 1 and 2? My GPU 2 is reporting 10C higher temps despite having just repasted both GPUs. Looks like I may have to go back in and open up the system. BTW, the M18x is MUCH harder to open than the R2, there's a high risk of breaking something when dealing with the M18x. I would only recommend advanced users messing with it.

Hey Brian, if its a little advanced, can you please put up a vid showing how to open it up without causing any problems?

Im gonna install an SSD and better RAM in mine, so that would be helpful.

Ive taken apart desktops before, but this is my first laptop, I dont want to mess it up