Alienware M18x Photos, Videos & Impressions

[Brian]

Nice video man!

Now let's put the M18x to the test

Installing vantage and 3dmark11 right now. Will do a bench run of both at stock and OC'd before I format the system and install my SSD + HyperX ram.

[StamatisX]

ok good, guys the results will be posted here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/548-official-alienware-m18x-benchmarking-thread.html

[unreal25]

I see the screen quality got up from 6.5 to 7.5. I like the unboxing video. I also agree with the media panel buttons. The capacitive ones on my R2 are really crappy. I noticed the VGA port is also gone.

The green backlighting looks better than on M17x... or is it the same? Also, it would be nice to know how loud the fans are, compared to R2 (and R3 for example).

Thanks!

[Jimbo]

Thanks for getting it up so quickly Brian, fyi you transposed which model was 16:9 and 16:10, no biggie.

Looks stunning! Somehow not as gigantic looking as I expected.

[iloveb00bs]

love everything about the video, except for the guy, his voice is annoying. anyone you who that is?

[hidz7]

Wow love it, nice work brian.

Can't wait for the review (M17x R3 vs M17x R2 vs M18x), especially in gaming performance.

[e46justice]

nice cant wait to install vantage and 3dmark 11 and see which of our ships are faster out of the gate, wonder what stock variables are on systems like this?

neat that we ordered identicle systems.

mine says it shipped on the 26th as its the 17th i hope it means it shipped today lol

[mw86]

Great Job Brian the video was perfect and those pics are great too wonderful job!

[nobodyshero]

Paint job is excellent.... absolutely great looking machine. Thanks for the pics + vids

[wbabt007]

Photos added Unboxing video is being uploaded to youtube.

where are the pic's? I can't see them!!!! Quack

[mw86]

where are the pic's? I can't see them!!!! Quack

On the first post of this thread! They are awesome and hard to miss.

[freedomofthedarkendheart]

Decent review, i like it and i wish they had a better keyboard design with much more reinforced there's always more revisions. lolz Ivy bridge! Damn you Dell for no IPS screen, while the new Precisions get IPS panels! That power brick is pretty huge.

Edited May 19, 2011 by freedomofthedarkendheart

[Brian]

Stam and I were playing borderlands tonight and I took a pic to show him what the screen looks like calibrated. I had to use exposure compensation so just keep in mind that the actual screen looks better in person (sharper, brighter, more vivid) but this should alleviate any concerns about it being subpar. BTW, borderlands was maxed out at 1080p and it hardly ever went below 62 fps with stock GPU.

[wbabt007]

Did you asked portal and eve online to be pre installed? I would love to see some benchmark with portal

[eYe-I-aïe...]

(...)

I noticed the VGA port is also gone.

Unfortunately not...

(...)

Also, it would be nice to know how loud the fans are, compared to R2 (and R3 for example).

Absolutely...

/10 char...

[John T. Overath]

Here are my pics. First time I ever did this so i apologize for the quality.

m18x - Imgur

[Michael]

Congrats brother! very nice pix!

[Brian]

Congrats on receiving your system John! It's quieter than the R2 isn't it? I'm loving the 6970M Xfire. The screen even looks great after calibration with spyder 3.

[mw86]

congrats for sure John T. Overath nice pics too and great R2 comparison.

[John T. Overath]

Uploaded a few more pics:

m18x - Imgur

[Michael]

Uploaded a few more pics:

m18x - Imgur

what are your initial impressions ?

[John T. Overath]

So far I am loving it. Did some default benchmarks and the thing is fast even before tweaking. Of course I am coming from an m17x with 4870s and a desktop with an older i7 and single 5870. Doing some installs now.

I have to say I think the case looks even better then the m17x. Both color and accents (softtouch on the palm rest and the shiny border around the keyboard especially). Boot time seems a lot faster then the m17x, but then again I don't have a lot installed yet.

[Brian]

John, try switching to the IGP. I have mine on it right now and ALL my fans are completely turned off - the system has zero noise emission right now. I'm loving it and with half brightness it reported 3:50 mins of battery. Full bright shaves off about 30 mins.

[John T. Overath]

Nice. It's not really that noisy even on the xfire cards so far. I'm currently in my office which has a lot of ambient noise and I barely here the m18x. Haven't done more then jump into several games to make sure they are all configed right so far so haven't really stressed the cards yet. Still need to install the 11.5 driver as well.

[John T. Overath]

I have to say i think the screen looks great. The RGB may be better but darned if I can tell the difference. After the reboot from having removed the Dell video drivers it came up in 800x600 and still looked great. i'm used to those non-native resolutions looking crappy.