Review Alienware 18 Notebook

The Alienware 18 is a rather large device. The case is also very bulky and very heavy with dimensions of 457 x 328 x 58 millimeters (~18 x 13 x 2.3 inches) and a weight of almost 5.5 kilograms (~12.1 pounds). 

Because of the consistent design, there are many similarities with the smaller siblings. Just like the Alienware 14 and Alienware 17, the 18-inch version also has an extremely high-quality display cover, which is made of anodized aluminum according to the official specifications. The manufacturer uses a soft rubberized surface for the display bezel and the area around the keyboard. You should only see fingerprints if you have very greasy fingers. A big drawback of the dark colors is the high visibility of dust particles.  

Otherwise, the case leaves a great impression. The excellent build quality is typical for Alienware and is clearly superior to many competitors. Only the Asus G750 leaves a similarly good quality impression.

Despite the rather futuristic design, we prefer it over the predecessor. Compared to the M18x R2, the new version is a bit more dignified and less playful. The stability however did not change. Thanks to the bulky construction, you cannot really dent it anywhere. Only the keyboard and the touchpad can be slightly pushed in. 

Other characteristic features are the laser engraved nameplate and the extensive illumination. Besides the manufacturer's branding and the two lines on the display cover, you can also light up the input devices and the entire base unit. The preinstalled Command Center (see screenshots further below) enables the wildest color combinations. 

A few words about the hinges: Alienware integrated a very firm opening mechanism so you will have to hold the base unit down when you open the display cover. The notebook is intended for stationary operation; we cannot recommend frequent transport because of its sheer size. 

Software

The manufacturer preinstalls several applications, drivers and tools without exaggerating it. Besides AlienAutopsy (system information) and AlienRespawn (backup and recovery), there is also the already mentioned Command Center. There are several tabs for the case illumination, energy-saving features and adjusting the touchpad as well as macro keys.

A flash player and a PDF reader are also preinstalled. Thanks to Cyberlink PowerDVD 9.6 you will not have to buy special software for Blu-ray playback. 

Processor

The processor is a high-end model based on Intel's latest Haswell architecture. You can choose between the affordable Core i7-4700MQ (2.4-3.4 GHz) up to the wickedly expensive Core i7-4930MX (3.0-3.9 GHz), which is also integrated in our review unit. 

Intel specifies the TDP of the quad-core CPU with 57 Watts to enable the high clocks. That is 10 Watts more than the less expensive siblings. The eight MB L3 cache is similar to the Core i7-4900MQ (2.8-3.8 GHz) while the Core i7-4700MQ and Core i7-4800MQ (2.7-3.7 GHz) are only equipped with 6 MB. All processors share the same manufacturing process: Like its Haswell siblings, the Core i7-4930MX is also produced in 22 nm. 

Intel's Hyperthreading technology is also supported: The processor simulates four virtual cores and can execute up to eight threads simultaneously. The main feature of the Core i7-4930MX however is the free multiplier, which makes overclocking very easy. 

The 18-inch notebook is equipped with two Nvidia graphics cards (Kepler architecture). Besides the GeForce GTX 765M SLI, Alienware also offers the significantly more powerful versions GTX 770M SLI and GTX 780M SLI. The latter was eagerly awaited by the community. That is no surprise when you have a look at the outstanding specifications of this high-end system.

1,536 CUDA cores are just as enormous as the 3.54 billion transistors and the 4,096 MB GDDR5 video memory (256-bit interface). Even though the core clock of 823 is comparable to the GTX 765M (850 MHz) and GTX 770M (811 MHz), the GTX 780M can manage a comfortable lead. It supports the GPU Boost technology and can raise its clock up to 850 MHz under load. 

This performance is even further increased by the second 28 nm GPU; however, the customer will have to live with the drawbacks of a dual GPU system. High driver dependency, huge energy consumption and demand for cooling as well as micro stutters: The Alienware 18 is not perfect for everybody. 

Especially new games might not have an associated SLI profile in the driver yet. The notebook might even be slower than a single GPU system in the worst case. However, only four of our 32 tested games were affected (Rome II, Company of Heroes 2, Dirt: Showdown & F1 2012), which translates to 12.5%. This good result cannot be reached by the main rival AMD. 

Concerning the driver: Our review unit came with ForceWare 326.45 preinstalled. It is a current driver and should be somewhere between the official ForceWare 320.49 and the beta driver 326.80 in regard to the state of development. During this review, Nvidia released version 327.23.

Alienware equipped our review unit with two hard drives, a 750 GB HDD and a 512 GB SSD. The Samsung SSD SM841 is a very compact mSATA drive that competes with the 840- and 840 Pro-series (each 2.5-inch).

According to the AS SSD Benchmark, the small mSATA version does not have to hide behind its bigger siblings - quite the contrary. It is even faster than the standard SSD 840 (514 & 331 MB/s @ One K56-3N2) with 515 MB/s (sequential reading) and 425 MB/s (sequential writing). The performance is also very good with small data blocks. 

The Alienware 18 does not disappoint when it comes to the access times either: 0.07 and 0.05 ms (read/write), respectively, are excellent. The LiteOn LMT-256M6M in the Alienware 14 cannot keep up in many disciplines and "only" manages an overall score of 901 instead of 1,055 points. In short, the Samsung SSD SM841 is a good choice. 

All configurations of the high-end notebook are shipped with a 7,200-rpm Western Digital WD7500BPKT-75PK4T0. Despite the old magnetic storage technology, the 750 GB hard drive offers surprisingly high performance. Maximum transfer rates (read & write) of up to 130MB/s (CrystalDiskMark) are very respectable for a conventional HDD. The combination of an mSATA SSD and a classic HDD not only results in a great system performance for the Alienware but also enough storage for your personal data. 

We already expected it: The 18-inch notebook can take the performance crown in almost every game. Even complex titles ran smoothly with maximum details and activated anti-aliasing, at least if an SLI profile was available. A performance below 40 fps is more the exception than the rule. 

Even very demanding titles like Metro: Last Light, Crysis 3, Hitman: Absolution or Far Cry 3 are no problem for the notebook. Issues with micro stutters were rare, the experience was usually very smooth and older or less demanding games ran with more than 100 fps (Borderlands 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, FIFA 13, Dishonored, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Dead Space 3 and many more).

If you combine all gaming benchmarks, you can see that the SLI system improves the performance by around 40%. This is not bad but not overwhelming either. For comparison, the significantly less expensive Radeon HD 8970M CF (only 9% slower on average) showed a performance increase of 33%. However, Nvidia also offers the better driver support. Contrary to the One K73-3S, there were almost no problems with the Alienware 18 (crashes, graphic issues, performance drops...).

Another reason for the comparatively small advantage of the GeForce GTX 780M SLI over the AMD competition should be the CPU limitation in some titles. Both dual GPU systems have so much performance that the processor becomes the limiting factor. The difference gets bigger with the GeForce GTX 765M SLI, which only offers half of the performance. 

You can see all the results in the table below the verdict. 

The temperatures are somewhere between average and good. Let's start with the surface temperatures. We measure 32-33 °C (89.6-91.4 °F) during idle; the One K73-3S (HD 8970M CF) was almost 4 °C cooler (down around ~83 °F) in our review despite its compact construction.

It is a similar situation under load. While the Clevo barebones warms up to 31-32 °C (87.8-89.6 °F) on average after one hour maximum load with the tools FurMark and Prime95, we can measure 35 °C (95 °F, top) and 34 °C (93.2 °F, bottom) for the Alienware 18; the maximum value is 41 °C (105.8 °F). However, the overall temperature development is very modest and even longer gaming sessions should not be a problem. 

The components leave a mixed impression. On the one hand, it is very positive that neither the GPU nor the CPU exceeds 90 °C (194 °F) even under maximum load and level off at around 80 °C (176 °F). However, this is only possible because of the automatic throttling of the components. While the processor dropped to 2.7 GHz (- 300 MHz compared to the nominal clock), the core clock of the GeForce GTX 780M SLI dropped to 614-666 MHz. That is a deficit of 25 and 19%, respectively. 

Similar to many other manufacturers, Alienware pays a little too much attention to the temperatures and does not allow a lot of headroom. At least the benchmark results do not suggest continuous throttling. Our stress test simulates a very impractical scenario, but it is still annoying because the throttling is not really necessary. 

Alienware uses a 2.1 system, which was designed in cooperation with Klipsch. It consists of two speakers (front of the case) and a subwoofer (bottom). The sound experience of the high-end notebook comes close to the Asus G750JH, but cannot quite keep up with the quality of the MSI GT70H. 

Besides the excellent maximum volume (even sufficient for large rooms), we want to mention the Dolby Home Theater v4 support; the software comes with individual profiles and an equalizer. You should always activate this technology since it improves the sound quality. 

Similar to our consumption measurements we tested the battery runtimes with activated SLI and activated illumination. Despite the high battery capacity of 86 Wh, the Alienware 18 is not a good choice for longer road trips. 

Even if you can use it under perfect conditions with minimum display brightness and activated energy-saving features, you will have a hard time exceeding a runtime of 3.5 hours. Two hours DVD playback and 2.5 hours web browsing are also mediocre at best (medium energy saving). 

Gaming sessions with the 18-inch notebook only last for an hour. However, the mobility is probably not the deciding factor for most potential buyers since the Alienware 18 was designed as a desktop replacement. 

Note: You can also use the integrated graphics card (longer runtimes) if you restart the notebook via Fn + F5.