My wife is going to kill me!

I still haven't decided if I should paint the bottom grills or maybe even the front grill panel

There's a lot of work involved to remove the front grill panel on the M18x plus I've never tried it before. I would want to keep the actual grills black, just do the housing white. I've got a spare M17x palmrest that I was going to practice on but it's probably not worth the effort and risk. It would look awesome though

 

It certainly would. I skipped disassembling it fully precisely due to reasons stated above, but I'm considering it in a spare M18X case. This time I'll drill the grills away and see what comes out of it. Also need to restore the case first, because it's cracked like hell.

 

Well I’ve had a few beers now and I’m overcome by the fumes of clear coat so I’m going to attempt to remove the panel on the M17x. Wish me luck.


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Fingers crossed that's the best way to overcome the stage fright before performing such art as AW M17x dissection

 

I discovered it was all to hard plus the dremel was making too much noise with the kids asleep upstairs. I decided to pull apart the new 18 instead. You know, the sensible thing to do when you're 8 beers into a Friday night.

 

Just an average Friday night then here it's only 2pm, so I really shouldn't join in, still got work I was actually doing the dremelling with a regular metal drill of around 10mm, just to get rid of the plastic enough to take the elements apart and on screwdriver setting for low speed and better control.

Ahem. My m18x just arrived, I've intercepted my usual courier and took it out for preliminary inspection.
Screen hinges are wobbly, so the old one is the donor. Case is scratched and even bumped on one corner, so ditto. CPU is ancient, RAM is a true example of multicultural society - every stick from different manufacturer, all 1333. Touchpad is nice though. Bezel is ok I guess, and with screen working you can't see the wear-scratches. Both GPU fans (yay!), One bust 570m, but that was advertised, and since I have the right heatsink from the old one and now one left from the new one, you know what time is it - SLI/Crossfire upgrade keyboard is decent, keyboard frame has seen better days, but for around 300£ what else can you expect. Battery is at wear level of around 40%, according to Hwinfo, will need to check the other one.

 

Ahh so it’s an R1? I didn’t know they released it with a 570M.... I thought they went with the 560M or 580M. All good fun though. I really like the 18. It’s massive, I can’t believe it’s bigger than the M18x.


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Doesn't the m18xR1 come with something like 460m?
This is the one looking like the M17XR2, with dual card support and second generation i7 processor (gonna swap for 3rd gen i7)
Edit - it seems that they have different generation, R1 came with 2nd gen and R2 with 3rd gen (same gens as M17x R3 and R4). Going to investigate the compatibility of components.

 

My first Alienware was an M17xR2 that was an in-warranty replacement for my Dell XPS M1730 nightmare that turned out to be a $4000 money-pit abortion that never functioned properly. I have owned two M17xR2. One with 5870M CrossFried and one with 4870M CrossFried. They were decent machines, but not my favorite. My first M18xR1 came stock with 6970M CrossFried. It was replaced (under warranty) by 580M SLI. I obtained 7970M cards from Dell and installed 7970M CrossFried, but went back to 580M SLI because the 7970M cards sucked. (I went through about 6 7970M GPUs and they were all junk. They also sucked at overclocking.) I then upgraded it to 680M SLI, then later 780M SLI. Somewhere in the middle, I built an M18xR2 from parts. It began with 680M SLI, then 780M SLI and later 980M SLI. I got rid of the M18xR1 and M18xR2 and AW18 because they were becoming more of a hassle than they were worth. They were not durable, parts were getting harder to find, and the rigmarole trying to get 980M to function correctly just wasn't worth the effort to me anymore.

The M18xR2 was the second-best laptop I have ever owned, overshadowed only by the Clevo P870. The Clevo P570 might have pushed the M18xR2 into third place except for its poorly engineered (poorly fitting) cooling system. I bought the P570 so I could have a laptop that properly utilized the 980M SLI that I had blown a huge wad of cash on trying to upgrade the M18xR2 to something better. The P570 would have been crazy awesome if the CPU heat sink would have actually fit correctly. I had to use copper shims and plug up the sloppy fit with IC Diamond to try to keep the CPU cool.

I absolutely loved how the 18 (Viking) was built. It was constructed very well and easy to work on, and I loved that it was larger. (Yes, I love bulky laptops.) However, the draconian crippling shenanigans Dell pulled with it made it my least favorite 18-inch Alienware. The M18xR1/R2 was also a lot nicer-looking than the Viking.

 

After just getting an 18 for the first time I can't believe how massive the 18 is! I love it.... but....I love my M18x R2 more.

I just wish I could work out why I can't get Crossfire enabled. I'm guessing it's the cable since both cards are recognised.