18.4'' Viper III or Alienware M18x?

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alex_123_fra

Active member
Hi all,

I am in the process of deciding which laptop will replace my current ROCK Xtreme SL8 (Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5 GHz), Dual Nvidia 9800M GTX cards in SLI, 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM, 2x 250GB Samsung 7,200rpm drives) in RAID-0. I believe the rock system was based on a CLEVO motherboard and case factor. I have to say initially I was impressed with it but after around 1 year or so, the thermal aspects of the system became awful. On load, CPU and GPU would overheat to well in excess of 80C and the system would shut down to protect the components. ROCK could not fix it and the only solution I found was to use a Zalman cooler which is the only thing allowing me to play on it for any length of time. I personally think that isn't acceptable as I paid a lot of money for it and had 3 year warranty etc.

The reason I mention the above is, I am considering a Viper III and I can see it is also based on a CLEVO motherboard and case. The case looks a little better thermally with front air intakes now rather than only the bottom 4 intakes which the Xtreme SL8 had (the viper III also has 3 bottom intakes). Does anyone have any reassurance for me that a Viper III with 2 GTX 560s in SLI doesn't overheat? Also why aren't we able to spec GTX 580s with this system? I would ideally want a 17'' laptop but I can't see one to spec here with an SLI configuration. I'd also hope that pcspecialist had better customer service than ROCK who were totally awful. They kept my laptop for months at a time with no communication of when I would get it back or what was happening. Their support forum is broken and you can't even register for it anymore.

The only reason I mentioned Alienware is the M18x is the only other system I can see with an SLI configuration possible but I don't particularly want to spend 4k on a laptop. Alienware are also supposed to have good customer service but I have no idea what the reliability of their systems is like. Thermally are they any good?

Anyway, if anyone has any advice based on the above, I'd be really interested to hear.

Thanks
Alex
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
yes, honest opinion?

best customer service i have ever had. EVER! honestly can't fault it, the guys know everything, my PC werent booting,

his simple words were

'have you got an external HDD?'

'yes'

'take it out and turn the pc back on'

and bam the PC was working again, the guy didnt even hesitate to answer
email and live chat are not amazing, so i recommend that you phone as that is their priority

the phone is also lo-cost and here is the link to the waiting times which helps you phone at the right time
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/call-waiting/
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
ill be honest, its not that bad the alienware one but is nowhere near the level the PCS customer support is at
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Honestly, customer service here is brilliant, for alienware so for dell, you call them and you ring some call centre probably in the middle east or Asia or somewhere. Here you speak to the guys who actually build the computers so you are always going to have good help. For heating, the chassis should be fine but a stand would be good. Also, make sure you clean the fan slots regularly. You used to be able to get a single 580 in these chassis but I think it got removed due to testing. There is a new chassis due out though that will support 580 sli. Probably early feb.
 
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alex_123_fra

Active member
Excellent advice. Thank you all. I will wait for the upgraded chassis then. Will ring on monday to see when that is in.

Just another question which I forgot to ask about. I noticed that the Alienware M18x has the option of turboboost on the i-7 speed. Does the viper III motherboard bios support this? I know from my Rock laptop that the bios was "locked" and you were not allowed to overclock it beyond the standard 2.5 GHz (not that anyone would want to given the awful thermals).
 
TheKeir

TheKeir

Bright Spark
Music Guy123 said:
Honestly, customer service here is brilliant, for alienware so for dell, you call them and you ring some call centre probably in the middle east or Asia or somewhere. Here you speak to the guys who actually build the computers so you are always going to have good help.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. The PCS customer support is amazing, much better than Dell's.
 
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