AW 18 - to sell or not to sell

Howdy all! (new user)

I've been lurking around these forums for a few months - from last summer when I bought an Alienware 18 machine on ebay.
It was a good deal back then for a top of the line (or close to it) configuration - 4930mx, 2x780m, 32Gb Gskill ram, 240gb Crucial SSD, etc., mint condition - and I used it a lot for heavy stuff (3d content creation and games) but in the meantime I no longer needed portability, thus built a good desktop workstation and I'm thinking of selling it since its only use right now is my gf watching movies, internet, etc. I'm thinking this is not a good use for such a machine and someone else might enjoy it more as I would enjoy recuperating some of the money I put into it.

Now, I have two problems, one irrational - I've become attached to it - and one rational - is this a machine good for keeping for the next 4-5 yrs or do you think by then it will be totally obsolete for games and whatnot?
And since selling has been mentioned, what would it be a fair price for it? I have a backpack, a head cap, a cooling pad, a new replacement top cover for it to give away as bonuses.

Since I cannot sell it here as of yet, do you recommend selling it on ebay? I've heard there's a lot of scamming going on on ebay and sellers are absolutely left at the mercy of the elements. Horror stories about sellers receiving and empty box upon return, etc.
So regardless of the platform, what would be a fair price and should I even sell it? I'm aware that some of these questions can be best answered by myself, but I'm interested in what would YOU do?!
Thanks.

 

Honestly, I would keep it. the 780M SLI machines are barely getting 900-1000$ on ebay, and you will lose another 200$ in ebay/paypal fees, so you're down to 700-800 net. I tried to sell my 980M SLI Alienware 18 with 4940MX, and I couldn't even get 1800 for it, not even a year after the laptop was worth 4000$ There is no other computer you could purchase in that budget that would offer the same feature set. Just keep it, ride it out till the very end.

 

I see. Well, that's depressing (hahahaa) mainly because I've already ridden it out since, as I said, I no longer use it. I had the impression that laptops, especially good brands like AW, have better reselling value than desktops. Maybe they actually do, but my expectations were not managed well enough. Ah well, water under the bridge.
Thanks a lot for your input Raidriar.

 

sure thing. By ride it out, I mean you've given your girlfriend a sweet, sweet rig to watch movies on, especially if it has the PLS display. And it wont get tired for several more years to come in terms of web browsing and even gameplay @ 1080P. Better to keep it as a backup then to "firesale" it for next to nothing compared to original cost

 

Thanks man, I'll think about it for a while, weigh in all the things discussed. BTW, it has the ips glossy screen. There are eighteens with other kinds of panels? Didn't know that.
Anyway, my heart tells me to keep it but my reason tells me to sell it while I can still get something for it. Now, in my case it's really "something" vs "nothing" since I don't use it and my gf has another laptop (which is suitable) for the stuff she needs. And for movies there's always the TV, so a bigger laptop is not that useful in this case.

I struggle with the decision because I like it a lot (even though I never been able to make it run for more than 3.5-3.6Ghz on full load, all cores) and I'm thinking I might need a mobile workstation some time in the future, but I don't know when will that be and whether by that time I will be better off with a new laptop, better in every way. Decisions, decisions...

 

I can confirm you won't get much for it. I'm amazed at how quickly these AW 18's lost value. I'm in the same boat as Raidriar, top of the line bought for over 4 grand a year ago and can't even get half of that now. For an 18" beast with 980m sli, that is sad. You might clear 7-800 after fees.

So, it comes down to how much your attachment to the machine is worth. I can tell you at this point by the time I am ready to sell mine, I wouldn't get enough to make it worth it for me. I love my 18.

It also depends on if there is something else you think you could get with that 7-800 bucks that could take the place of your 18. Both practically and emotionally. It's a tough call, just don't expect to get too much if you decide to sell it. Simply doesn't happen anymore.

 

I would keep it, it is easy to push 4930MX to 4.0GHz 4 cores. I have my father's 4930MX running at 4.0GHz 4 core without any issue, just install and run intel XTU. These are still very capable mobile workstations

 

You might be better off selling it for parts. Since Dell has killed it off parts are becoming harder to get. This I learned when I sent mine in for repair. With this in mind I built a desktop system and gave my AW18 to my kid.

 

Lucky kid!

 

@Scanner. Can I be another kid of yours. Seriously though. If there was a way to continue upgrading the 18 then the story would be completely different. He'll, I might even buy 1 just for parts if I knew I could throw 1080's in it and get an extra 2 or 3 years out of it. As it stand now. I'll be looking to move on by the end of the year. My 18 is still pretty powerful. Makes out most games as long as they support SLI. Even played some VR with my Rift and it handles some of that pretty good too. But, it's days are numbered at this point.

 

HOW!? How man, how...
I never succeeded to push it above 3.5-3.6 (all cores) without having crazy temps and sometimes thermal shutdown. I've repasted it (not a liquid metal), sits on a cooling pad, read Mr. Fox's in depth articles, and I still can't figure out how... maybe I got a particularly bad chip or maybe my OC-fu is not very advanced.
Anyway, if I'll find client (definitely will not list it on Ebay) to sell it for a reasonable price I won't hesitate, otherwise I'll keep it until it's utterly dated.

 

Intel XTU, liquid metal paste, undervolt by -70mV, push multipliers for cores to 40x and cache multiplier to 40x, increase reference clock frequency to 100.6 Mhz, and you will hit 4.0Ghz reliably.

 

Chances are you need the liquid metal. If you are in luck, you can try calling Dell to change your heatsink, but use your own thermal paste instead of the bad Dell toothpaste they use.

Currently my CPU is about 85 C on 3700RPM CPU Fan Speed and the room being 33 C. Cooler Master Mastergel Maker Nano (Non Liquid Metal).

I will be trying CLLU again soon.

 

intel XTU - check
liquid metal paste - not check; will never do it - I'm too incompetent with my hands; I have the next best thing though - Grizzly's Kryonaut, which I got after the last repaste; will change it
undervolt by -70mV, push multipliers for cores to 40x and cache multiplier to 40x, increase reference clock frequency to 100.6 Mhz, and you will hit 4.0Ghz reliably - I remember that I undervolted since the default was way too high, but I don't remember by how much. Will try again with your suggestions, but since I'm not willing to go with a metal paste, I'll probably have to settle for less. Will see.
Thanks a bunch.

Why should I try to change the CPU's heatsink? Change into what?

 

Maybe you could be given a bad one. U can ask Dell to swap if you have warranty that is, say your system is overheating badly.

They had changed and my temps are lower. Turns out one of my heatsink screws broke, causing an uneven heat distribution from the CPU die and the heatsink.

 

Did the Corona benchmark again and the cores are stabilizing at 3.4-3.5 Ghz with a temp. of about 80 C.
Undervolted -70mV (core voltage), set the mult to 40...
Need I do something else? No voltage offset?

p.s. I don't remember anything wrong with the heat-sink when I re-pasted it

 

Perhaps an image does equal a thousand words...

 

Raise processor current limit to 110

 

Well, that helped a little at first, got 100-200Mhz more, but also another +5C temp. After a min or so, freq dipped even lower than before.

 

Thanks, Raidriar, for the screenshot. I'll try those settings when I get home.
Do you have to fiddle in BIOS with OC settings as well?

 

No luck. Mine sits around 50 C in idle, so I guess temp is the main culprit here. BTW, where "Turbo Boost Power Max" is I can't go past 60W. I'm assuming I have to change smth in BIOS?
As a side-note, you're saying Dell would change my CPU cooler even though it's out of warranty? At this point I'm considering the possibility that it's something wrong with it.

 

I cannot use BIOS overclock, it always bricks my system. What I do is enable BIOS overclock, turn up all the settings, allow my system to brick, do the reset method (pull out battery plus AC adapter, remove RAM, insert ac adapter, allow it to beep itself till shuts off, hotswap in ram before it manages to turn on again), install XTU, and power limits will be increased as it still pulls from BIOS settings.

 

I see. Well, thanks for all your help. I clearly have to deal with the heat problem before attempting anything else. That is if I'll ever find myself in the mood to tinker with this again. 3.5 Ghz is pretty good too - I have a 5960x ([email protected]) desktop that I use for any heavy lifting I have, this one I can continue to use for non extremely CPU intensive tasks. It's just that I caught the OC-ing bug and sitting on untapped Mhz kinda irks me a bit