*Prospective* News/Discussion: Alienware M18x R3

need

water

cooling

=)

 

Could be done, just have to add about five lbs for the extra room needed to install something that would be effective.

 

lol this thing is already heavy enough, 5 more pounds would be something small compared to the extra cooling and overclock abilities we'll get.

 

Yeah, forget water cooling - add a fourth fan and open the "aesthetic" vents in the front for intake - I've seen temperature readings and the keyboard is pretty warm - this would help eliminate that problem. Perhaps better insulation would help as well... Either way, they should perfect the overall design of the M18x before considering expending resources on a new flagship laptop - the m19x, that's absurd. (I hope it's only a rumor, and remains that way.)

 

How about an option for a sealed Liquid Nitrogen canister, doesn't have to be too big and if it was sealed would last much longer... could be plumbed directly into the cooling system for benching or 6Hgz+ processor speeds.

Could call it the Alienware "Ice"

OB

P.S. Mine is waiting for me when I get home...

 

Hmm, not sure about that, seems a bit excessive for a laptop... I've seen what these types of cooling systems cost, it's not worth it.

Sweet! Your system arrived. Mine is still two weeks away...let me know if you got the leather manual, hat, etc.

 

So far she's awesome. 16Gb RAM is online, just setting her up at the moment...

I hate to disappoint but, no hat or leather manual, just the card wallet and mouse mat (which will never get used), I use a Razer eXact Mat on control.

You will love your when you get it.

OB

 

m19x is not absurd lol, if only they would release something like m20x, 18 inch is big enough if you do use laptop's keyboard, but i use external mouse and keyboard so i sit a bit away from the screen, and becomes quite small. although 18 inch isnt really all that big, especially for adobe softwares that has too many sub windows. As for 4th fan iit is probably over kill, astrek's water cooling looked pretty slick, if only DELL AW would let them into their laptop..they tested average temp went down by 10-15 C during overclock from air to water cooling, that is freaking amazing.

Liquid GPU and CPU Cooling for Laptops and All-In-Ones - Asetek, Inc. - water cooling in m18x

 

I never said it wasn't possible, I only said it's not economically sound to do something like that. Implementing better cooling (liquid nitrogen or water) would increase the overall price of the system by $1,000 - $2,000 (because of hype and the Alienware name). If you're willing to spend $5,000 plus that extra cost, on top of the fact the M19x would be larger (more money), you're looking at at least $7,500 for the laptop - that's absurd. I'm sure the base model would start at $2,500 or something, but still...that's insane. I would never buy a laptop for that amount of money - $5,000 is my maximum, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree that's too expensive.

I'd rather get a desktop for that amount of money, and build it myself. $7,000 in computer parts would probably get you the best computer in the world (not including military, etc.).

It wouldn't even be wise of them to design a whole new flagship system at this point. They should wait until 2014 before considering this.

 

Something bigger than the M18x that you will use an external keyboard with is not a laptop anymore.

Maybe you should look at maingears new 24 inch gaming All in one PC.

 

I agree with unityole. I love the massive size of the M18x, but I would go for something like an M19x or M20x, especially if it were even more powerful. I use an external mouse, but never use an external keyboard or monitor. I would still consider it a laptop and take it with me everywhere I travel. The only challenge might be finding a backpack or computer bag large enough to accommodate it. There are not an abundance of options for the M18x in that respect.

 

Yeah, I'd consider a bigger machine only if it offered extra features: far better cooling and OC'ing potential, more storage (8 bays +), more ports, etc. No compromise (other than size and weight ) - that's my motto.

 

Agreed, the cooling should be improved (as I made very clear in previous posts). In my opinion, a larger laptop might be worth it if the screen is improved - 120Hz, Matte or Gloss. But seeing this come to light is probably unlikely, at least for the next year. I would assume Alienware has a certain amount of money tied up and invested in the M18x which needs to be covered. I doubt they've surpassed that investment already, but it's possible. If it were up to me, I would have a third revision which improves the design. Once that is complete, begin to expend resources on another flagship system.

 

m18x out for nearly two years, maybe it is too soon for AW to have another flagship laptop. the chances are slim, although 8 bays LOL would be awesome. only reason I use external keyboard is because of gaming.. like hardcore starcraft gaming requires high apm which I only use microsoft keyboard Im most comfortable with.

I like the ideas of 4 fans, but noise could be a problem, just saying. If this is a 19/20 inch I could see a 4th fan and maybe quad copper pipes heatsink lol. only few problems, one is money, does Dell have the money and if there are enough people getting it, the other is power supply. dual adapter solution? IM IN!!

 

hopefully seeing an upgrade in the AW motherboard, for a maximum SSD performance. H67/HM67 or H77/HM77 is mainstream, not the best lol. maybe something like ZM77? lol

 

If there were water cooling as standard, perhaps they could use directed ducting, like office ducting but, smaller (obviously). This could be heat proofed (something similar to exhaust wrap).

At that point smaller fans but, enclosed would cause a venturi effect, like a jet-ski does with water, pulling air through the system faster but, with reduced noise with the smaller fans. Almost "turbo cooling"...?

With superior cooling perhaps there would be the possibility of multi processor motherboards. Imagine running two quads at 4.5Ghz each...

If you used water blocks and removed the need for the fans on the graphics cards, you could also run more than two, say 4...?

Just an idea?

OB

 

very nice idea lol. i wonder when we will see alienware laptop with two CPUs.

 

It would probably be more efficient to bump the m18x up to using desktop CPU's than 2 laptop ones.

 

hey community,

i've been away for awhile, but i really hope they upgrade the screens to at least 1200p RGB like the m17x r2. i had an m18x r1, but went back to m17x r2 bcuz of this.

 

What's the point? mobile processors are quite on par with the desktop counterparts nowadays. Sticking 2 desktop cpu's in a laptop would mean way more heat, power draw and as a consequence - reduced OC'ing potential. Clevo is struggling to put a single desktop CPU in laptops resulting in 7cm+ thick behemoths and no OC'ing at all.

1200P has been dead for quite some time now. Except for some Apple products but that's a temporary exception, so disregard it.

 

but what would be the point of dual processors? There would be 0 gain while gaming compared with a single extreme one, and as for future proofing, it would be pointless, even if it was still effective 6 years down the road, intel would have come out with something by then that was much shinier and nicer that you would want anyway.

 

Actually, I'd love to have a dual CPU laptop, even though it would bring little to no gain in games, there are still tons of advantages of such a setup: virtualization/rendering/encoding/benching/etc.

 

need 780m--X =)
wont see sata4 probably till R4 or possibly R5 so thats a no go.
need thunderbolt.. if possible =)
dual cpu is cool, desktop cpu is also cool but I think haswell mobile is enough as the current 3940xm stock speed is on par with 3770k desktop cpu and both are about equal during OC to 4.5ghz. 3770k may out perform OCing to 4.8 near 5.0 but thats simply because desktop got more room and has ability to water cool. but air cooling? to 4.8ghz in a laptop? desktop CPU has zero chance, so i'd have to agree with Aikimox.

 

I'm running my R1 at 4.8GHz right now.

 

Not under normal conditions, try Prime95 for 5min without extra cooling, @ 25C room temp and no elevated back. 40-41-43-45 was the max stable OC' on my 2960xm before things went out of control.

 

Are you referring to when no throttling happens at all? I also do have the three pipe heatsink as well which helps a lot.

 

Yes, no throttling. In my case, the CPU would hit 90c in a couple of min, throttle down to 3.7ghz or even lower. I couldn't manage to hold the temps under control with a 2-piped HS. Had some success with a prototype 3-piped (custom made) but the project was never finished and eventually I sold the CPU. I'm getting myself a 3-piped HS as well and will either upgrade to R2 or get a 2960Xm and do more testing.

Out of curiosity, could you please run Prime95@8threads @4.5ghz across the board and keep and eye on the temps and clocks. I'd like to know how long does it take till it reaches 90C and throttles. Also, if you could leave the default fan settings and keep the system on a flat surface (no elevated back). Make sure to state your room temp. I did my benching @24-26c with and without elevated back (the difference in CPU temps was around 7-10c).

 

I'll be able to do that for you tonight when I get home, plus my ICD 24 just came in, so I'll be doing a before and after test.

Is there a certain BLCK you want me at for this run?

 

Sounds great! If you could simply set flex to 0, amps to whatever needed for 45x4 (in my case it was 900) set the multi's to 45 and have at it I didn't mess with bus clocks and never went above 4.5Ghz, couldn't control the temps.

 

a couple other things to be improved.

in the R3, no more keyboard flex. 0 please.

And, better speakers. The ones in there are already pretty good, especially for a laptop, but they could definitely be better.

 

keyboard flex? I don't get that lol, you mean the entire keyboard kinda go up and down as you press a key? and i agree with speaker, after owning a HDX dragon, m18x speaker loses in comparison.

@Aikimox why flex 0? i have been told it'll affect performance with lesser flex at higher clock speed. also iirc every CPU is different so some could go near 4.8+ some could only go to 4.5, kinda like graphics card so make sense.

 

Hmm, you might have just gotten a very good machine. In a few of the reviews I have seen on youtube, people have mentioned/shown some keyboard flex.

 

0 is auto. If you set it to something fixed too high or too low, it'll affect the performance or temps. @4.5ghz you don't need to worry about flex, only amps.

 

quick jump in here skipping posts... for upcoming M18X R3 I opt in for:

1. ABOUT TIME TO ADD Chicklet backlit keyboard
   
2. MUST HAVE Mate finish LCD surface and there shall be no outer edge to edge cover on LCD option when selecting mate surface etc
3. MUST ADD 1920x1200 RGB LED LCD + ADD 3D AT LAST!!!
4. GET DYNAUDIO or other very competitive to Dynaudio brand speaker setup and remove blockage from the speakers exit ports!
5. ADD mechanic CD/DVD eject button!
6. ADD THUNDERBOLT!
7. YOU MUST GET THIS IN M18X - FINGERPRINT READER!
8. Ofcourse unlocked BIOS for those purchasing XM edition CPU's!

 

I agree with the above, although I'm fine with screen without 3D, but thats just me.
THUNDERBOLT ++++++, would buy machine hands down.
CD/DVD eject button, don't really matter imo, I like how the machine looks, although I would prefer easier disassembly on the DVD drive.
fingerprint reader is also a so-so for me, owning a HDX i realize how it could actually be slower instead of mouse/keyboard.
UNLOCKED BIOS, need it HANDS DOWN!

 

hmmm. 3-d could be interesting. Might be a hassle getting a manufacturer for a 3d 18.4 inch screen, but a company of Dell's size could probably pull it off.

3-d on anything smaller just seems borderline gimmicky to me, but on a laptop of the m18x's size, I could see it having potential. And the bonus of the screen being very bright and 120 Hz would make a lot of people jump. Also, with the power of dual graphics cards backing it up, you wouldn't have to worry to much about the 3-d killing frame rates at high settings. A tradeoff all single card 3-d laptops owners unfortunately have to live with.

 

i cant recall the last time i watched a 3d video lol but i'd say they look better with bigger screen so LETS GO m20x

 

Hell, why not? M42X! 42" laptop with quad xeon intel processors, quad SLI...

This is discussion about the next revision of the M18x, not another flagship system that everyone is dreaming of.

 

Sorry I wasn't able to do anything last night, I got side track with a photo appointment I forgot I had scheduled.

Couple of questions though. I've never used Prime before, so what setting should I run it with, I see the option for four, but the forth is custom, so out of the top three which one should I use? Also, do you use throttle stop at all for this? I want to make sure that I run it properly.

 

1. 
   
   This is one I'll be against forever. I hate those style as my wifes computer has one and I can't stand using it.

 

I am a frequent traveller, and I take my m18x R2 everywhere.

If it got any bigger, I could not buy one.

Some cr@p airlines (like Etihad) weigh your carry-on, and have given me problems with the m18x, power adapter, and other bits I carry on-board.

Any bigger, or heavier, and I wouldn't be able to do it.

But to stay with the discussion, bring on the matt screen already!

 

Any news? I know it's the wrong thread but still....

 

Answer my questions above if you would please.

 

Just set it to blend test 8 threads. That's all. If you wish you can use Throttlestop to record temps and clocks. I used HWmonitor and cpu-z, but that's not important.

 

I don’t know if Defengar’s issue is with tactile feel and use of the keyboard due to the flexing but my issue is a combination of flexure of the keyboard, location
of the SLI cable and design of the SLI cable.

I have seen, on this and other forums where many people are having problems with the cable breaking, coming loose or getting heat damage due to the
proximity of the video card heat sink.

I have had an R1 and R2 and both had the same issue with the SLI cable being either broken or heat damaged, once on the R1 and twice on the R2.
The relationship between the SLI cable and the flexure of the keyboard is that each time I had the problem I would get either red or blue strobing on the
screen and by pressing around the A key the strobing would stop. What happens is that the SLI cable is bent or folded to align with the GPU connector
and it does not sit flat and constantly hitting the keys in the area either works the connection loose or breaks it because it is a ribbon type cable.

I have read on this forum where others have discussed the problem at length, taped, wedged bits in to try and alleviate the problem but surely the flagship
of the Alienware brand deserves better than having to sticky tape it together so you don’t have a problem.

Lets get rid of the design flaws first before we even start to think of the “nice” things we want.

As for what I would like on the R3, a stubby holder would be nice and a beer proof keyboard.

 

The thing I don't like about the 1920 x 1080 screen is that my desktop is 1920 x 1200 and when I switch back and forth, it causes my windows to reset/resize (on a diff laptop). I assume having the same resolution will allow it to maintain where all my windows/icon go?

 

very good thing to point out, hopefully dell sees this and changes it.

alienware is a laptop, probably harder to mod and a lot more expensive than your desktop monitor. get a different monitor that is 1920 x 1080?

 

You are correct.

 

What the SLI problem or the stubby holder

 

Am I correct about the thread or about throttling?