Display and Build Quality
Given that the Alienware M18x R2 uses an identical display panel and shell to the original M18x, it doesn't make too much sense to revisit those stats in any great detail; all of my conclusions regarding the M18x's shell are again applicable here. I'm not a fan of notebooks this oversized, and the macro keys on the side actually make the keyboard more difficult to touch type on. As for the display itself, a visit to bench reveals that not much has changed. The M18x R2 is using a slightly brighter backlight which hits the contrast just a little bit, but basically there's no news to report here.
Battery Life
When comparing the M18x R2 to its predecessor it's important to note that there are a couple of things bound to affect the battery life results. It's not just that Ivy Bridge is a more efficient chip than Sandy Bridge was, but the i7-3820QM in the R2 is also rated at 10W lower than the preceding i7-2920XM. On top of that, we've switched over to two SSDs in a RAID 0 instead of two mechanical disks, which again should prove to be more power efficient.
Interestingly the newer M18x R2 enjoys roughly the same level of gains in efficiency as the M17x R4 did over its predecessor despite having theoretically greater advantages. That's not a bad thing, necessarily; it may just be that the 18.4" display is sucking up the lion's share of the power on its own. Since the notebooks were switched to integrated graphics for our battery testing, the two 680Ms in SLI don't really affect the power consumption at all.
Ultimately the M18x R2 can pull roughly four hours of useful running time on the battery, which is none too shabby for an enormous gaming notebook.
Heat and Noise
Where the Alienware M18x R2's girth really excels is in being able to transfer what's essentially a cumulative 245W of heat out of the chassis. It's actually remarkably efficient that way, too. Under sustained load the M18x R2 is definitely audible, registering roughly 40dB of noise to the user. Extreme duress punches it up to around 47dB, but that's not going to be as common. When you consider what the notebook is actually cooling these results are pretty reasonable.
You can see thermals are actually pretty good. The system seems to be configured more for silence than thermal performance, with the i7-3820QM breaking the 90C mark, but the two 680Ms run comparatively frosty. They actually run cooler than my desktop 680 does despite being together in a more enclosed space.
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