Hello all

[Jtravapd]

Just ordered my laptop this past week. It's gonna be my first laptop besides netbooks/tablets ect. Usually build my pc's for gaming so I do have some questions. Look forward to speaking with everyone. First here is the laptop I ordered

18.4 inch wled pls 350 display

Over clocked intel haswell i7-4930MX (4.3ghz)
32 gig ddr3L ram
Dual nvidia GTX 780M w 4gig gddr5 Sli
512GB msata SSD boot + 750GB 7200Rpm sata
Slot loading dual layer bLu-ray drive
330 watt ac adapter

Ok here are a few questions I hope some of you can answer for me

1- my last pc had a i7-990x , 12gigs ram and 2- GTX 580 extreme lightening edition 3gig cards in sli. It ran every game out there at max settings. Maybe had to slightly lower some AA but thats it. Will this laptop give me atleast similar performance? I only ask because I have heard the mobile versions of video cards do not perform on par with their big brothers, or atleast they used to not to . Has anyone seen the 780M in action? Sli?

2- how does the screen look? Its tough when your ordering online and not seeing it in person. Also they only offered the one option for the screen when I ordered.

3- will I have room for a third hard drive? I have two hard drives and a bLu-ray drive. I have seen others with 4 hard drives and no bLu-ray which leads me to believe there should be 4 slots available.

4- this is my main concern. The laptop comes with a 330 watt power supply. On another website where you can build basically the same laptop as mine (a Eurocomm) but it offers the following option
:660 W(2 x 330W) ac adapter, auto switching; 100-240V converter box(for maximum XTU/OC/SLI performance)

If it has the same specs as mine does that mean that the Alienware is going to run slow on low power becaus it's not getting the right amount of juice? If so can we buy the bigger power supply and will it work? I'm hoping the 330 is enough because if not they should at least offer it as a option.


Thanks for your help in advance. Sorry for so many questions. I'm just waiting and waiting and it feels like its taking forever to get here and it's only been a few days. Lol

 

[MattyB]

Welcome! You've got on hell of a beast there!
I don't think they have switched to the matte screen on the 18 so it's probably going to be very similar to the M18x. I love the screen on mine. Glossy and all! The 780M will not be as fast as its desktop namesake but its the fastest notebook card available and it will be more powerful than many desktop cards. I think the 330W PSU will be fine too. Dell would test it well to see if it does the job. GPUs and CPUs are using less power these days than the older generations.

Oh and you should have 3 HDD bays plus the DVD/Blueray drive. You'll need an adapter though if you want to use that bay.

 

[Jtravapd]

Ok thanks matty, Now the question with that extra drive is do I raid the ssd or the 7200rpm drive? Lol at least the option is there.

As for the 780M. On paper its specs destroy my MSI 580GTX's. Even the clock speeds are similar and the 580's are ovrclocked. I just hope in real world performance they kick ass as well. I check the status of my build everyday. When I ordered the guy said everything should be in stock because my laptop isn't the most common seller. It would be great to receive it early, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

 

[JennyM]

welcome! Enjoy your new system, hope it comes fast for you

 

[Mustangdave]

That's one hell of a beast you got on order, I looked at it myself but way overkill for my needs. I hope you get yours sooner than later! I'm in the same waiting boat as you.

 

[Falcon]

hell of a beast. quit bragging and start enjoying it. Sure u will lov it.

 

[yikes81]

Sweet laptop! Welcome!

 

[Jtravapd]

As of today it's "in production"!!!!!!

 

[MattyB]

Awesome! I'm debating whether to sell my M18x R2 and go for the 18 or just upgrade this one with 2x780s (about $1900). Just for a graphics upgrade it will be cheaper to upgrade my current one compared to Dell's new prices.

 

[Jtravapd]

I build all my desktop systems but I never tried a laptop. Are the 18's that upgradable ? I would say wait for some graphics performance posts for the 780m sli to see if it's worth the upgrade. I will bench the crap out of them when I get it and more importantly test out a bunch of games and rip some blue ray discs to see how well they perform. I'll send you the results if you want.

If you have any links for 780m's benchmarked please send them . I can't really find too much info yet .

 

[Questor]

Horrendous beast of a laptop.. enjoy!