*Prospective* News/Discussion: Alienware M18x R3

This thread is for the M18x R3. Please do not speak off-topic about a new flagship system (m19x, m20x).

When can we expect to see news or anything about this release? I'm going back and forth of whether or not I should just purchase the R2 or wait until the R3 is released.

What do you want to see upgraded, added or even removed for the R3?

Feedback/Discussion is appreciated.

 

R2 came out a few months ago.. like in may i think. You probably won't see an R3 until next year around the same time.

 

When Haswell is released, likely about next April.

 

I assume it wouldn't be worth it to wait then.

 

Looking forward to an R3, hopefully a slight change in looks as well as better hardware.

 

that is a loooooooong time to wait! The R2 is a very solid choice. Not to mention that you will be able to upgrade it down the road. With up to 5 hard drives and overclockable CPU and GPUs you are talking about a powerful desktop in a laptop form.

 

Well, you can get an R2 now and R3 next year. Nothing is wrong with that. If you are worried about cash, you can always PM timinator94 for some trading advice.

 

I would only do that if I was able to get a Dell Preferred account...but I'll think about it. There may be some sort of sale coming up (after the 680m's get back in-stock). I know around Christmas, there's always some sale.

True, it is. I understand this laptop is amazing. The equivalent in a Desktop (price) could get me Dual GTX 690's, with a six-core extreme processor, as well as other stuff. My friends are always telling me I'm crazy to buy a laptop for nearly $6,000, but I need & want the portability option.

Edit: I've cut the price down now. Decided to buy SSD's myself, ha ha.

 

Wait!
Then you can start waiting for the R4...
Then you can...

 

Good idea. I'm young, why not, right? :thumbsup:

 

I don't think there will be another M18x. Most likely dual cards will shift back to M17x while M15x is brought back.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

There's definitely something wrong with your math, you don't have to pay 6k for a M18xr2 to get a desktop performance. Buy Ram and HDDs separately, go with the 7970mCF to save 500-600$ for about the same performance as the 680MSLI, get the stock CPU and upgrade to an XM ES down the road. Remember, you can OC' the 37x0/38x0 CPUs in the R2 by about 400MHz, which is very decent.
By my calculations such a beast would cost you about 3k tops and you'll be hard pressed to build a desktop (with a decent monitor) of a much higher performance for that price

BTW, look here for some benches and compare those to ours, you'll be surprised to see that the difference between the laptop and desktop top guns is not as big anymore

Yeah, but we'll lose the extra HDD and some other features like macro keys, imho.

 

Hmm... losing the M18x would truly suck. The thought of going to a smaller form factor is disturbing to me. If they are going to do away with it, I'd rather see them going the opposite direction, like an M20x with 3-way SLI capabilities and/or an extra (4th) drive bay.

Getting dual cards in the M17x line would be a very good move, but if they continue making it from rubber-coated plastic like the M17x R3/R4 instead of anodized aluminum, that would be a deal-breaker. I still love the M17x R2 and it's very close to the M18x in terms of build quality. But, the slightly larger size of the M18x is a real plus in my view.

 

After using a M18x for a year, I have to agree, the screen size is perfect for that kind of resolution. 17" would be pushing the limit. I wish Dell would find a way of offering a RGBLED matte 18.4" panel...

 

With what was presented to me, my "math" was spot on. Xotic PC charges just around $6,000. And no, I don't have to get the 680m in SLI, but if I'm going to spend this much money anyway, I might as well go the extra yard and ensure I have the best hardware. I would get the 7970m in Crossfire, but I've heard a lot of bad things about that GPU (i.e. overheats, drivers are bad [can cause black screen, flickering screen, or crashes], etc.).

 

I agree with Brother Aiki about the price. Apparently, Xotic PC is charging you a lot more than what you can get a max spec M18x from Alienware directly.

So I don't need to repeat myself... here's a quote I posted earlier in another thread.

 

I've read a lot of reviews and decided it would be better to purchase from them because they can tune my OS/CPU/GPU to what they call, "redlining". In other words, it seems they have a professional tune my laptop for optimal performance, and that's worth the extra money, in my opinion.

By the way, do you know if Alienware has anything similar to that?

 

I don't know. I do all of my own tuning and don't need to pay to have someone else do that for me. Maybe one of the Alienware reps can post and comment on that (if they see this post).

But, man, spending more than $1,000 extra for tuning is just over the top ridiculous. Resellers testing GPUs, RAM, LCD for dead pixels, etc. definitely adds value, but not that much. I would not be willing to pay more than maybe $150 to $200 extra for basic tests over and above the cost of the hardware by going through a reseller.

I think I also saw a recent post about complications with someone's warranty after buying through a particular reseller, so you may want to look into that as well. I don't remember the details on what the difference was, but I think it was depot-only or something like that.

 

I should just add the SSD's myself to save money.

 

No one can tune the system for optimal performance better than you do. It's like buying a custom built desktop and letting a reseller build it for you. In my opinion, that's a wasted money. If you wanna pay 2x for a similar config - your choice. But don't compare it to desktops later on in terms of a price. You can save that much, most of us do.
As for the 7970m vs 680m - I firmly believe, both are on par overall, even when it comes to drivers. Nvidia may show better stability there but there are also hidden traps like latency, which was still present in 580MSLI even after 3-4 years of user complaints. I have owned every AMD solution starting from the 4870MCF and never had any issues. Yes, you have to be careful with drivers and can't just blindly install every new revision, but other than that I absolutely prefer the REDs.

 

OK, now take that build and save it to your wish list, then contact Rev (see previous link) and find out what the bottom line take price is going to be.

Stay with the two-year advanced warranty as a bare minimum, but see if you can work a deal for 3 or 4 years.

There is some merit to paying extra for Dell's SSD drives and memory if you want support for them. If that does not matter, just order the basic HDD and least amount of RAM possible to save money and buy them aftermarket. Expect to resolve your own technical difficulties if you have problems with either the RAM or SSD drives. If you need to pay someone else to do things on your computer, you might be better off paying to have these items included in your build.

You can learn to do these things yourself and this community is the perfect venue for learning.

 

Oh, I didn't realize you could bargain with these guys, especially when it comes to the warranty! Apparently I can't "like" your post, but I would if I could.

Bookmarked the links you posted, thanks Fox.

 

The forum servers seem to be having issues today. It's not only very slow right now, but I have had to refresh pages several times during the day to "like" what posted.

I also have trouble giving rep points earlier today using the little star icon (nothing would happen when I clicked on it) but refreshing the page worked.

I could be wrong, but I believe if you are logged-in at dell.com and save something to a shopping cart or wish list using your account, Rev and his team can see the configuration that you have saved.

If you try negotiating by phone, you may have to keep calling back and try a half dozen or more sales reps to get the best price. Going through Rev should simplify the process.

 

I agree with what Mr. Fox is saying. I'd also like to say that ordering online is traditionally a bad idea. If you order by phone (or through Rev), where you interact with an actual person, the price is negotiable. You can really get great deals if you try.

As far as SSD/RAM I would always recommend shopping around amazon, newegg, and other venues.

 

Have you tried any sales reps?
Now configure the base model with 7970MCF, base CPU, base RAM/HDD/Wifi/etc. It's gonna be 2.5k. Let's do the math:
1) Call several reps till you get a 10-15% off ->> ~ 2000-2,250$+taxes
2) SSDs: 3x256 (Crucial M4 is around 180$ per drive and one of the most reliable out there) => ~ 550$
3) 16GB(4dimm)@1866 i => ~ 130$
4) i7-3920xm QS => 750$
So even without waiting for a good deal on the XM (300-500$), you are still way below 4k

 

Those are nice numbers. But is all of the aftermarket stuff covered under the warranty, or only what's in the original configuration?

I've also been told by a representative (Luis, I believe his name was), that if you order below 12 gb's of ram, you get only 2 DIMMS (in total). And if you order a single HDD, you get only two bays in total. But I believe this was for the M17x R4, is this the same for the M18x R2?

 

No, any aftermarket parts are not covered under Dell's warranty. However, they should have limited hardware warranties of their own.

I think if you order 16GB or under they will fill your system with 4GB sticks. I'm not sure, though. I would stick with the minimum and pick out your own RAM sticks to order.

Are you referring to how many bays the M18x R2 has? Regardless of configuration, the HDD caddy has 3 slots (1x SATA II 2x SATA III) There are also 4 SODIMM slots, two of which are under the keyboard.

Edit: Also, I should note that the caddy was designed to support 3x 7mm drives. 3x 9.5mm drives would probably be asking for trouble, in my opinion. 2x 7mm and 1x 9.5mm may work, though.

 

Ah, that's what I thought. Thanks for the information.

I'll do some configuring.

 

I am waiting for the r3. the r2 is a beast, but Intel is coming out with Haswell next year, and from the rumors I have been hearing, the haswell processors will blow even current i7's out of the water.
Also, Nvidia GTX 780's will be out then, and if the leap from 680's to 780's is as big as 580's to 680's... well... 150 FPS in Battlefield 4 (which will also be coming out around then) will pretty freaking sweet.

Also, SSD's will be somewhat cheaper a year from now, as will ram and other hardware that is slower to advance. I wouldn't be surprised if the r3 also has a better battery than the r2. Hopefully there will be some screen upgrade options to. I wouldn't mind a 3d 120 HZ option...

Not to mention the possibility AW will answer our pleas for more chassis color options.

 

Dell has tried their hand at several 20 inch laptops, such as this 3500$ base priced beast Dell releases 20-Inch Widescreen Entertainment Laptop

They always end up not selling well because of their price, and often times have problems with hinges. I believe the last one they attempted was 2010 and they quit selling it after a few months.

A tri/quad SLI 20 inch laptop would cost more than most people care to think about honestly.
Its a neat concept, and if you had money to burn it might be something to try out, but for 99.99% of gaming laptop users, it would be out of their price range, be way to bulky, and honestly, an almost waste of power.
I think the m18x is the pinnacle of gaming laptops and it will probably stay that way.
Anything more extreme would be bought by to small a market to be profitable.

If they canceled the m18x line and allowed the m17x to have dual card again like the m17x r2 had (and the chassis was made of aluminum again) I would be fine with that. Especially if they bought back the m15x.

 

personal preferences, i purchased a used 4-5 year old HDX dragon 20 inch laptop myself and replaced most parts to make it look new, imo the CPU OC to 3.8ghz was well worth it, still pretty good on most applications, and 8800m GTS is enough still for most games. comparing the 20 inch and 18 inch alienware i owned, 20 inch is definitly something to look for if you dont mind cost and weight.

if AW was to release a 20 inch, i would probably get my hand on it hands down, even if its only 2 way SLI/CFX, i'd be going for bigger screen, more HDD slots.

nevertheless alienware m18x R3 is something i look forward to, keeping the current build.

-msata, 3 HDD drive bay is a must.
-Haswell mobile CPU and lyon point chipset is a must which gives more than 4 sataIII ports, i would want to try out 4 SSD in raid 0 for once. -due to haswell chipset, i would also like to see a ESATA 6gbps port, usb3.0 isnt really that big.
-a thunderbolt port would be a huge bonus.
-a matte screen would be huge bonus too, glossy under daylight is kind of hard to see, especially when im trying to watch something in full screen.
-better built in raid system (better than previous R1 and R2 raid), a must.

we are always looking for more, of course a AW 20 inch including the above would be the best, but i think this is good enough for now.

i also not really counting on nvidia 780m next year, 680m was a huge leap and it could OC a lot but too bad its only for single card. As for AMD, my 6990m cfx is working fine but only if i use 8.8 driver, or else i would get weird error on my video player with 8.9.

 

What does that mean? 680M Works awesome in SLI. At stock speeds, the 680M is almost identical to stock 7970M CF performance even though the 7970M core is clocked 120Mhz higher. And, the 680M overclocks quite well. By simply increasing the 680M core clock to match the 7970M at 850Mhz it trumps the performance of the 7970M. Have a look at the M18x benchmark leaderboard and it's obvious that it is an excellent choice.

 

Does anyone know if the Haswell chips fit onto the R2 motherboard ?

 

I doubt it would. whole new type of processor and all...

 

what i meant was in SLI OC to its full potential will cause issues. its sad single card could OC so much higher than it can in SLI, but still i think going to 850/2000 is still pretty amazing

it shouldnt fit, its different socket.
older cpu have to look at the socket pins count and FSB
newer cpu have to look at socket pins count and chipset

 

Yeah you are correct, right now it seems that 854/2100 with me holds very well for a 24/7 overclock. I wish I could push them even further it seems like there is so much potential there.

 

Haswell is going to be grand. The first gen will be at least 10% more powerful than ivybridge, and the graphics power of the processors will be much better. A haswell CPU will have have the graphics power of a 70$ GPU.
I bet within the next few decades proccessors will become advanced enough to where we will no longer have a need for graphics cards anymore.

 

Yeah, and Intel said we would be using 10ghz processors by 2010.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

We're kind of there now...my 2760qm 2.4ghz x 4 cores = 9.6ghz....or is my thinking wrong?

 

I think he might mean they said we would be using proccesors with 10 GHz PER CORE. definely sounds like some of the exageration hardware execs were throwing around in the 90's.
Some people have managed to of desktop I7's to almost 6 at least.

 

And some laptops (people in our community with M18x R1) having XM procs running as high as 5GHz+ as well. That's just mostly for show and they don't run that way 24/7. But, 10GHz in a "few decades" does not seem too far fetched. Might happen a lot sooner than that.

 

Yes, that was what they meant. It was the idea that computer hardware basically progresses at a linear rate. During most of history, it was right. Now,though, it is no longer true, at least for now.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

i will be going for that 5ghz when i get a replacement 2960xm.. or maybe till haswell R3.

maybe R3 should go for a better mobo, esata-6gbps or thunderbolt, better hardware raid, better overall mobo for OC ability and finally a 18inch to 20inch transform =).

 

Going to be tough for me - been speccing out systems, but I'm not likely to purchase until Jan/Feb when I return home. By then, I may be tempted to wait and see what's around the corner...

On a side note, does anyone know what the rules are (stateside, that is) concerning tax? I was under the impression that internet/phone orders do not pay sales tax unless they physically have a store in the state you're purchasing from - yet I also understand all alienware purchases charge sales tax. Anyone care to educate me?

 

You guys seem to miss one of the biggest things they could possibly add, that has not been mentioned in a while....
A higher resolution like the new macbook pro's. 1920x1080p is far out dated for a gaming laptop. That right there needs to be seriously addressed in any new revisions. RGB is cool and old school and all, but 2880x1800 IPS LED-backlit display is far superior(IMPO). All while running two high end video cards.(They are using a low end card) And on a 18.4 inch screen.


Seems pc laptop makers or the people who make screens for windows pc's laptop's cant seem to get past this hurdle.... Anyone have any ideas as to why?? I would sure like to know the answer to this.

 

OMG here we go again, does it even matter what people say they want? Because NONE of the requests were satisfied with the R2.

For what its worth:

MATTE SCREEN OPTION PLEASE.

 

Because it might lower their bottom line a few pennies. Honestly, the reason the industry has these type of "standards" is so they can rule over the prices as an oligarchy.

Apple does its own thing though, which is why their doing something cool for once.

 

Don't know about them doing their "own thing" since they do not own intel. And without intel, mac would be no more.

But your first comment does make some sense, but desktop screens are still costing the cost of a small fortune.

 

Well Intel's basically got a monopoly on the laptop CPU market, and most people prefer them over AMD in desktops. I don't see them going away any time soon.

The whole 1080p deal is kind of like the 16:10 to 16:9 aspect ratio switch pretty much all the industry leaders made, even though there was an extremely large number of customers who preferred it the way it was.

 

Still does not answer the question.... why not go up in resolutions. In fact.....they went backward on that.