Old mx18 r2 love child

So last year my girl threw me out and I sold my mx18 r2 for 500 usd as she was battle worn scratched and banged up but still fired true.

This year my girl threw me out again except I want to celebrate by rebuying the mx18 r2.

Any advice on 2017 since so much has changed since 2013 when I bought one last ?

Should I buy a bare bones one and just toss in a extreme i7 and a newer nvidia?

Are mobos drivers acc batteries power bricks lcd monitors still available? Case fans etc?

What's the deal on a good OS? I've never used or heard anything about Windows 10 but I have a innate sense to avoid at all costs. I was using win 7 64 bit but I remember it was losing support at win 10 launch.

Will redhat or Ubuntu support this beast? I had a low end qm i7 with a 660 nvidia and it ran everything good enough back then.

I'm not too certain of extreme i7 modulations that work fit in pins or are currently supported since its discontinued. And I'm unsure what the mobo will support in terms of gpus.

Realistically I'd like to plug and play without any bios issues or firmware updates as I'm not even sure what their last bios was. I remember over clocking was bios ready but the qm was not supportive of that feature.

They seem to all still be a grand used which worries me without knowing usage history , lack of warranty, and possibly part locator problems.

I simply believe it was the greatest laptop ever created by man and I need it back.

Saw 1 on eBay tricked out for over 7 grand so I figure it can handle newer chipsets. I've been laptop less since I sold mine so I'm behind the times as to what's out there.

I remember sli throttling issues so figure 1 nvidia chip would suffice. Took me forever to get the i7 not to throttle pcsx 2 but even solved that back in the day.

Think I was using ivy bridge but have no idea what's out today. Maxwell ? Wouldn't that become a problem with legacy boot options . I have no idea any help would be appreciated

Dj z

 

For your M18X-R2 buy a Intel 3940XM processor, 32GB RAM DDR3L, dual 980M(sli) and 1TB Samsung SSD EVO. With this you will have a notebook better than many new models out there in stores. Just remember to update to A11 unlocked firmware before upgrade.

 

I would wait a bit and see what's going on with the 1060 and potentially 1070 in the R2 before buying anything. Also, if you can find a 3920xm for less than a 3940 go with that as they are basically the same CPU.

To be honest though, if it was me I would look for a 1060 unit with a 120Hz G-Sync display. Sure, 60 FPS is still playable, but for me this is the very minimum I can tolerate.

Once you see 120+ FPS G-Sync this is the most noticeable, and most glaring flaw of the R2 that nothing can be done about, short of running an external monitor.

1060 120Hz G-Sync displays are on the market for $2k or so and I would pay the difference for one of them.

This is just me though.

 

That's odd because I ran d3 near max settings and skyrim max with 1 660m and a low i7 qm chip and never noticed this newly raved tearing non Gsync issue. Don't know what to think of the hype haven't seen it but been gaming since late 80s and it's only now a problem. If there weren't so many refurbished aog Asus tops out there and nightmare stories of warranty problems and non replaceable repairable laptops because manufacture doesn't have the replacement parts and them sending out lower quality used replacement laptops when yours was new I'd get buy 1 of those grand 1200 buck ones with a 1060 card in it already . Might still.

 

I have had 4 laptops with G-Stink and it's way overrated IMHO. In fact, I disable it on all of them. It reduces FPS and honestly, seeing much difference with it on or off is somewhere between barely and not at all for me. It's nice to have for resale value because of the hype surrounding it, but I wouldn't expect too much from it. Maybe if you have a very weak system that cannot hold high framerates it would be more noticeable. Other that a few poorly coded game messes, screen tearing has never been a serious issue for me and I have been gaming for many years. That said, I know some people are very sensitive to it and would notice the slightest hint of it, whereas I would not unless someone were standing over my shoulder, nit-picking and pointing out every minor defect. I'd say go for higher refresh rate instead, like a minimum of 120Hz. I don't understand why 60Hz panels even exist on expensive notebooks any more. Those should be reserved for very low budget notebooks and cheap desktop monitors.

 

Well make no mistake the mx18 r2 is the best laptop I've ever used. It's just outdated rare and takes open source and cool net freaks to write a bios to keep it in spec.

Just looking for 1 for the right price. Found plethora of threads here that decipher current ailments so it's still a very nice buy if you can get it in the 500 range. Best 500 labby money can buy if your savvy