Happy Dilemma - Fate of Alienware M18xR1

So,

We have hit a game (Witcher 3) that is giving my current system fits. I have a green light from the wife to upgrade/replace it and want some input from the community on my happy dilemma. The goal is to have a system which will remain serviceable for 3-5 years and play games, numbers chasing is not my thing.

Current System: AW M18xR1 (i7-2860QM, 8GB RAM and 2x GTX 580Ms), 3.5 years old. Bought about 2 years ago for $2000. [note that I updated the video cards, darn glasses]

Options:

1. Upgrade just enough to stuff in 16GB RAM and 2x GTX 880Ms [~$1100]
2. Upgrade to M18XR2 (i7-xxxxx <- need advice on optimum, 16GB RAM and 1x GTX 980M with option for 2nd) [~$2200-2850]
3. Replace with MSI GT72 Dominator Pro (i7-5700HQ, 32GB RAM and 1x GTX 980m; but only 17" LCD ) [~$2850]
4. Replace with MSI GT80 Titan (i7-5950HQ, 24GB RAM and 2x GTX 980m) [~$3800]
5. Open for other replacements...

Any replacement option lets me sell what I have which is in pretty good shape. Only thing that doesn't work is the lighting on the main keyboard.

Homer

 

16gb ram, ssd and 2 x780's. I would personally just upgrade r1 or suffer and live with a 17" screen that is grainy and horrible in m my opinion and go with a upgradeable clevo/sager sli 980m machine...

Forget the gt80, soldered cpu, ugly as dog dooky. GT72 soldered cpu also. You are already limiting yourself for future upgrades with soldered BGA crap in these.

 

m18x r1 and m18x r2 are the alienware crown jewels imo , i think the best option for you is to upgrade your gpus to something better , it might be a gtx 680m sli , 780m sli , or gtx 880m sli . i heard the gtx 880m has throttling issues so my choice would be either 680m or 780 in sli . i dont think purchasing another laptop would be a good idea.

 

This one here: http://www.eurocom.com/ec/configure(1,224,0)ec
Notebook Eurocom Panther 5 the most powerful notebook ever with upgradeable desktop processor and 980M SLI.

 

Another vote here to just upgrade the GPUs. Going to 680M or 780M SLI would be an awesome upgrade for your computer.

Your option #2 is also viable, but I would just get an R2 motherboard. That way you might be able to grab 980M in SLI and still stay on budget.

 

you might want to consider also 7970m cf , pretty much equal performance as gtx 680m sli at a lower price point

 

I vote upgrade GPU upgrades as well. 2x 680M or 2x 780M should do it, or you can play Russian roulette with crossfire 7970Ms

 

The Witcher 3 is a tough customer, even my desktop's Titan X is getting a run for it's money with this game (not as bad as with Arkham Knight, however ).

If you don't have an SSD to run the OS and the game on yet, that might be a good upgrade (I'm pretty happy with my Samsung 850 Evo, for example, which has a good price/performance ratio) to prevent some microstutter and make re-loading textures and assets during play smoother, although the most improvement would potentially come with a healthy video card upgrade.

If you want the machine to play the newest games in 3-5 years (which isn't all that likely with available options anyhow, trying to "future proof" a PC is usually futile), I'd suggest to try to go for the strongest video card(s) you can get. You already have two 580Ms in SLI. While two 880s 8GB (if they don't throttle too much) would improve things, I don't know about longevity. Two GTX 980M 8GB in SLI (or one for starters and upgrade another one later) would probably be the best option in that regard if they work on your system. Or maybe Two 970Ms 6GB in SLI might do a good job at a lower price point as well since they are also Maxwells, but I'm not sure.

My advice is to avoid AMD cards for The Witcher 3, as they run the game like dung, especially with Crossfire enabled. (Update: Witcher 3 Patch 1.08 and the latest Windows 10 drivers alleviated that, it seems. Still not performing as well as Nvidia cards, but better nonetheless.)
Plus the 7970Ms and it's rebadges don't provide all that good of performance compared to Nvidia's Maxwell offerings. Not sure about Tonga based mobile cards, though, they should be a bit better.

Upgrading the RAM to 16GB can't hurt, you should be able to get some quality memory for a reasonable price, but it probably won't make much of a difference.

From my experience, a CPU upgrade probably isn't worth it, as you already have a pretty good quad core CPU and games nowadays aren't exactly bottlenecked by the CPU anyhow.

 

i belive gtx 980m sli does not work with the m18x r1 , i might be wrong though

 

You are right. I would also have to upgrade it to R2.

Homer

 

You can get SLI 780m which will cost you around $1000 (880m are slighly OC'd 780m with more VRAM but with more reported problems) for your R1, then, once they cannot play games anymore, get a M18x R2 barebones and buy whatever GPU is available in that future (Nvidia or AMD). M18x R2 is backwards compatible with R1 components, so you can switch those who are better to the R2 and sell the rest. As far as I know, SLI 980m doesn't work perfectly on the R2 but maybe the next cards will... or won't, or they might work on the R1 but not on the R2 (970m works on the M15x but not on the R1), so who knows.

SSD might also be a good upgrade, dunno about 16GB Ram, it doesnt seem necessary.

 

Here's my 5 cents worth.......

Upgrade motherboard from R1 to R2 - Most of your current parts will be usable, the only difference will be the daughter (I/O) board and it's ribbon cable (R2 Cable is wider than the R1) and the Hard drive caddy and it's ribbon cable (Which is also larger than the R1)

Everything else including the GPU heatsinks will be compatible (As long as you stay will the same brand GPU you have now)

Dual 4GB GDDR5 GTX780M - These GPU's overclock to a high and more stable level than the GTX880M, they are massively cheaper than GTX980M.

If you go GTX 980M you will have to install Windows 8.1 - SLI will NOT work in any other OS - Search NBR, there's a large discussion somewhere about this exact subject. Windows 8.1 will throttle your CPU and GPU so you won't get the full power of the GTX980 without extensive tinkering.

Spend the money you save on the difference between the 780 and 980 on a R2 motherboard and a couple of SSD's, SSD's are cheap as chips now

So here's your parts list if you go this way.

1 x Alienware M18x R2 motherboard.
1 x Intel 3rd Gen Core i7 CPU - 3860QM is more than enough, still big dollars for a 3920/3940XM
1 x Alienware M18x R2 I/O Board and ribbon cable
1 x Alienware M18x R2 Hard Drive Caddy and Ribbon Cable

2 x GTX780M GPU's
1 x 512GB Samsung Evo 840/850

Some new high quality thermal pad and paste for your GPU's would be a good investment to

And stay away from windows 10 and the new NVidia driver until they have sorted out why they are blowing up M18x R1/R2 LCD screens

 

Thanks all!

This got lost: I'm already running 2x 500 GB Samsung 850 SSDs.

I'm pulling the trigger on Phase 1: R1 to R2.

These three parts are on the way from eBay:

• 9D7N3 - M18x R2 Motherboard
• XVNKP - M18x R2 3-Disk HDD Caddy
• M9T51 - M18x R2 SATA Interposer

Still need to find this one, anyone have a suggestion? or better yet one they want to sell?

• YYFHR - M18x R2 I/O Daughterboard with ribbon cable

Homer

 

http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/65-107711-26631/Dell-Alienware-M18x-Sub-Various-Board.html

 

Thanks but... "No stock"... other parts should be here by Saturday. Have people ordered from them before? I Googled them and have found quite mixed reviews.

Homer

 

Yes, I have ordered parts from them a couple of times and so have a few others here in our community. It takes a while with everything on a slow boat from Singapore, but when I have ordered from them it was parts I could not get elsewhere and it was worth the wait.

 

Have you tried calling Dell and see if they can sell you those parts? I have always got parts cheaper direct from Dell versus third party resellers. I noticed this on the triple copper heatsinks for the MX series chips.

 

Where did you find the M18x R2 motherboard? I haven't been able to find one for under 400$

Or....if you have no use for your M18x R1 mobo/daughterboard, perhaps I could purchase from you, or trade my 3720QM CPU + M18x R2 daughterboard so you have something stronger to use in your new motherboard?

 

Well, a 2960XM CPU will run like a Swiss watch on the M18xR2 motherboard and stomp the daylights out of any 3rd Generation Intel NON-Extreme mobile CPU. I'd try to find one of those at a good price since there is nothing better available except for a 3920XM or 3940XM. A 3720QM might be better than the 2860QM. I've never compared those two. I think you can get a 400MHz clock bump on the 3720QM whereas the 2860QM is totally locked down. Is that correct?

 

Clearly the 3920XM/3940XM is the winner, but if OP has budget constraints, the 3720QM will also be a great upgrade chip. It does overclock. I had mine running 4 ghz single core, 3.9Ghz dual core, and 3.8ghz quad core (in comparison to its meager 3.6ghz single core stock mode). It is still, a great chip.

 

They don't come up very often, just more frequently than the daughterboard! I got it via eBay for ~$400 shipped, pricey but there aren't alot of options out there. See PM...

Homer

BTW: I have a Windows 8 CD I got from NewEgg free for buying a hard drive or something. That is what I will install until Windows 10 gets sorted. Is there a list somewhere of what drivers to install? I seem to remember a particular order and safe versions to avoid the motherboard puking or something.

 

Gotta love eBay... YYFHR just showed up on eBay and it now on its way to my house!

Homer

 

Doesn't really matter. Do the Intel ME and Chipset, OSD, then whatever order you want in the middle, Alienware Command Center last, after .NET Framework. I've never followed a specific order and never have any issues. Windows 8 is going to have native support for some things and Windows 7 drivers usually work excellent for Windows 8. Your CD eject button on the media panel probably won't work any more with Windows 8, but if you even run an ODD you can eject discs other ways easily enough. If you end up with something you cannot identify with a bang in Device Manager it is almost always the "Airplane Mode Switch" driver crap that got introduced with Windows 8. Download the driver for that and you'll be set.

 

Cool. I thought I remembered installing some driver overwriting the chip that controlled the keyboard backlighting.

Homer

 

Alright.

I have swapped out everything to make the R1 into an R2, minus the daughterboard that doesn't get here until Tuesday. I have installed Windows 8 Pro and bumped it to 8.1 Pro. I have gotten rid of all of the undetected hardware except for the 580Ms. Do I have to mod the drivers or something?

Homer

 

Yes. M18xR2 never shipped with 580M, so you will need to open the NVDMI.INF and change the hardware ID codes from 048F (M18xR1) to 0550 (M18xR2). You can open it in Notepad and use the Find>Replace All feature and do that in just a couple of mouse clicks. You'll have to boot Windows 8 with Driver Signature Enforcement disabled to install the moded GeForce drivers or it will fail.

 

Thanks! Again... I hunted just after posting and found your post here.

Homer

 

Get the Alienware 18 with 4790K

 

Too late for that... started on the M18x R2 upgrade. Done with Phase 1, replaced all the R1 bits with R2. Next up...i7-3920XM and a heat sink. Assuming I can find one cheap enough.

Homer

P.S. Pulled the trigger on the i7-3920XM and heat sink.

 

Last choice is video cards... will need wait a few weeks for my credit card to cool down!

Definitely going SLI. I think I'm down to a few choices:

1. 780M x 2
2. 880M x 2
3. 970M x 2
4. 980M x 2

Sounds link #2 is an overclocked #1. Not sure on 3 and 4, while I prefer 4 since this is the last upgrade for this platform, do they need additional power beyond the 330W?

Homer

 

780M x2. Don't even consider the other ones, they don't work properly in the M18x R2. 880M overheats, the 970/980M require UEFI and windows 8 or windows 10 to even POST.

 

I'm on Windows 8.1 Pro... it was free with a qualifying NewEgg purchase at some point.

My goal here is to be able to play Witcher 3 with decent settings. It was killing my 2x580M's.

It looks like 3 or 4 can get there.

Homer

 

Well if you like Windows 8, then go ahead and get 980Ms.

 

*Like* might be a bit strong... it is better than 8 or 10. I'm following a few of the "make Windows 8.1 look like Windows 7" selections: booting to desktop view and replacing the Start menu with Classic Shell. I'd say it is tolerable now.

Homer

 

I have a 970M and it will troll the 780M...970M SLI will be more then enough and should be cheaper to get then 780M SLI.... 980M SLI might break the bank tbh but at least IMO, it's not worth it... 970M is more then capapble for 1080p gaming!

 

Heh, i'm in the same boat as you, although i have 6990Ms. I got about a month left on my warranty so i gotta figure out if i want to change to a 17" laptop, or spend the grand (more for me, silly Canadian dollar) to get to 680m/780m. I love my alienware m18x and would be sad to see it retired.

 

Quick update: I've got all of the bits updated including the CPU/heatsink but minus the video cards/100W heatsinks. Waiting on Phase 2 go ahead from purchasing.

Current System: AW M18xR2 (i7-3920XM, 16GB RAM, 2x GTX 580Ms, 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850s, Windows 8.1 BIOS)
Original System: AW M18xR1 (i7-2860QM, 8GB RAM, 2x GTX 580Ms, 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850s, Windows 7)

I was all set to update to UEFI in planning for the new 980Ms but there is no driver for the 580Ms

Homer

 

I'm not sure what you mean by no driver for the 580M. I think you may need to mod the INF for the nvidia driver using the 580M because it was certified for the M18x R1 device ID, and not the M18x R2 device ID. Simple mod of the inf file.

 

I could not leave the BIOS screen due to this error: No MXM GOP Driver. Here is a link to a similar case. I have the 580Ms working in Windows 8.1 BIOS (which required the INF edit), just not UEFI.

Homer

 

Pulled the trigger! Should be able to start installing the new cards in a week to 10 days, once they get here along with their heat sinks!

Current System: AW M18xR2 (i7-3920XM, 16GB RAM, 2x GTX 980Ms, 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850s, Windows 8.1 UEFI)
Original System: AW M18xR1 (i7-2860QM, 8GB RAM, 2x GTX 580Ms, 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850s, Windows 7)

Homer

 

The cards and heat sinks are here and in. I'm cooking with dual 980M gas!

Homer

 

Deleted...

 

Does the M18X-R1 work with 900M series in windows 8.1/10 ?
Can it do a UEFI boot ? Does anyone know ?

 

No, it will never work. He had upgraded his M18x R1 motherboard to M18x R2 motherboard.

 

OK,

Closet cleaning time! Is there any interest in the M18xR1 parts (i7-2860QM, 8GB RAM and 2x GTX 580Ms, along with motheboards/daughterboard and odd brackets) I removed to upgrade to R2? If so, I can post them or PM or something.

Homer