[Alienware Refresh] Initial thoughts and impressions? Hit or a Miss?

I ordered thermal Grizzly kryonaut. I am going to see how that works out. I was researching either mx-4 or the gelid, and read that kryo beat out gelid by 3-4 degrees.

 

Sad news in early adopters world, dell comes with the 369 drivers and you cant update to the 373. Tried to play battlefield one, errors out saying in need the 373 drivers.... fml

 

Thanks mate...greatly appreciated.

 

Great choice. You can't go wrong with either Grizzly Kyronaut or Gelid Extreme.

 

Worry not, this came up in the AMA today as well. The drivers simply have not been white-listed from nvidia's side yet. They aren't forcing you to get your drivers through Dell. I feel you though, I wish that driver were available now.

 

Looks great! If only they have the proper CPUs... And looking at the bezel, I'm 100% sure that the dimensions on the website are wrong.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/alienware/v/95539068

So for those who are TL;DW type, here are some approximate bookmarks to some of the key points in the video. Enjoy:

21:00 - Starts

22:00 - Nov 1st - AW 13

24:00 - VR

28:50 - AW 1080 - Middle of Nov…18th …

32:00 - NVIDIA Driver

32:50 - GTX 1080 Cooling Solution

36:00 - Quality of AW

41:35 - 18”

50:00 - Setting the record straight.

All components are engineered to last a min. of 4 years.
Failure rates…unbelievably low for AW.

56:20 - AW's put through Commercial Grade Quality Control Test

57:30 - Brand….

59:05 - AW back then…AW today

1:04:00 - SLI ?

1:05:10 - Battery life 10 hours?

1:08:00 - Not enough market to spend Millions to build another 18" like AW. Mathematically doesn't make sense.

1:10:20 - AGA …

 

Try this and see if this works

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...icial_patched_nvidia_driver_for_15_r3_w_1070/

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

 

Thank you for this Twitch video. Very interesting to see.

Again Frank seems to be a very reasonable guy. I dont get why he gets all the hate.

 

I don't see all the hate, but he does exergerate a lot. He said they put the highest quality hardware in for example memory.... mine shipped with 8gb of off the wall memory. Ship it with corsair or Kingston and then you can say you ship with high quality parts.

 

SK Hynix memory is actually quite good, not the fastest but it is durable. So in those terms I think he is right. Its nothing like what happens to the Razer Blade where the memory is soldered on and actually is super cheap (transcend memory).

 

How bright is the keyboard lighting on these AW's? All the pics make it seem so dim, unlike Razer and msi laptops. Those suckers are niiiice and bright!

 

There is a brightness control with 8 levels of brightness. Also, unlike Razer and MSI, it doesn't have a chicklet style keyboard, so the look is a little different.

 

Yes very true. In fact, SKHynix is the World's 2nd largest chip maker next to Samsung being #1.

SKHynix (Hyundai Electronic Division) out of S.Korea is used in all the high end products from your phones, computers, servers, etc... if it's not Samsung then it's SKHynix. Then there's cheapo's like micron etc... some OK, but for the most part El cheapo.

Apple for example uses Samsung and SKHynix chips and whether one likes Apple or not, the facts remain that they are a corporate conglomerate that don't mess around with cheap parts etc... everything is top notch.

So yes, the statement is correct. AW does use good parts and even more so because AW has a strict guideline for when ordering their parts from manufacturers, where the tolerance for duds is in the >0.0x% rate; therefore the chips can be considered binned even from the start. This doesn't mean that every chip is over clockable to the extreme, rather the point here is reliability.




::iunlock::

 

Possible Kaby Lake for the AW GTX 1080 Model?

https://twitter.com/aw_umar/status/788360044916019200

What else could it be?

Thanks @DeeX for the News Flash...

 

This would mean i habe to send back my new aw15 which hasnt Even arrived yet

 

My wish: Alienware 17 with:
- gtx 1080 (+ room for overclocking in terms of heat)
- a kaby lake i7 quad core CPU (preferably an unlocked one, not a Huge deal if not, as long as it's faster then current gen)
- an UHD IPS display with g-sync. (Also a currently impossible wish is suppor for HDR)
(I would go for the QHD g-sync panel, but I'm a little sceptical about the TN panel, people say it's a newer geenration, but still i can't imagine it being better than the worst IPS panel in terms of color reproduction, and I have seen relatively bad IPS displays, so that would be a downgrade for me. Even prefering the 4K IPS panel without G-sync above the QHD one in this case)

- Also would wish for the Samsung 961 or even better the 960 M.2 nvme SSD's in the laptop. I know I can always pick the laptop without an SSD's and install them myself and do a clean install. Which is what I did on my current alienware 15, since I did own a samsung 840. But doing that messed my USB 3.0 controller. Which causes external hard drives to disconnect on their own when watching videos that are stored in that hard drive. So don't want something like that to happen again.

And with that I have exactly the laptop I currently wish for. The UHD IPS with g-sync is my only doubt at this point.

 

Gents did a write up on modifying the drivers to install on windows. Playing battlefield now! Enjoy!!!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-15-r3-update-nvidia-drivers.797314/

 

@hmscott - How is Alienware's stock thermal paste compared to MSI's? Better or worse, or the same?

 

Ask yourself the question "How different is factory worker X and Y 's semen is"?

Because that's EXACTLY the composition of stock thermal pastes.

 

Hahahaha nice analogy. But @hmscott said that MSI's stock paste is decent, so I just wanted to know what Alienware's stock paste was like.

 

Pretty much all OEM's offer paste that is either rubbish and/or for sure will need to be changed out sooner or later depending on how hard you push the system.

OEM's will use whatever paste they can get for cheap (generic) and/or whoever sponsors them (cost effective)...

A repaste is mandatory. Go LM

Edit: To no surprise, toothpaste once again...

CPU Temps of the 6820HK on the new AW. (Stock fan profile + Stock Toothpaste and OC'ed)


For the record, every company has it's issues and falls short of over promising and under delivering. Every gaming laptop I've owned HAD to be repasted.

I do think that a lot of effort went into the new cooling design so I'm looking forward to repasting it to obtain some great temp numbers....

Next week I'll have the data and will report back.

 

Many AW owners seem to believe they need to immediately repaste, IDK why, but perhaps the AW paste isn't as good as MSI / Asus paste?

 

The stock msi paste on my MSI GT72 was pretty good, some users changed the paste but with only minimal improvements. However with any Dell or Alienware the results between stock and a 'premium' paste was pretty noticable.

 

I like @_Drake_ 's answer best.

 

Did anyone receive a 120Hz display so far?

 

AW uses an unknown compound, likely one bought in bulk by a an unknown generic supplier. Even worse, the paste is stamped on so once the heat sink is applied the paste literally crumbles in a way where it sits unevenly over the die(s) causing it to burn up pretty fast. Some will get lucky and their AW will run fine for a short while, then one day... the temps will start to get jumpy...

Every single one of my AW's, including my XPS's had terrible pastes on them. It's honestly a complete joke. Shame on Dell.

Interestingly enough, I've bought some el cheapo $2 paste out of curiously and I've found it ironic that it literally looks just like the Dell paste that they use. I really am curious where they buy their bulk pastes from now...perhaps the same supplier? It wouldn't be far fetched given the similarities.

Also, most people may get by okay with stock paste, but for those who OC and Bench like crazy, it'll deteriorate the stock paste at a more rapid rate, thus loosing its integrity.

I've lost count on how many AW's I've repasted, but 100% of the time, the temps all improved by more than 8C-10C. That speaks volume.

 

Yayy



::iunlock::

 

So the technician is leaving the house. Came to the house to replace a squeaky keyboard. 4 hours later he is about to leave, broke frame broke wifi card and laptop doesn't power up anymore. After I watched him pry **** apart and cram **** back in, he was so confused to why it doesn't work. A brand new week old laptop is broke. FML

 

Where are you located? Was it a Dell tech or someone they contracted out to?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Welcome to Dell's home support partner http://www.unisys.com/partners/strategic-alliances/dell

 

It took him 4 hours to replace a keyboard? The moment I saw him struggling I would have told him to forget it.
BBB complaint. They will kiss ur beanbag you could use it to get an extra year warranty or something.

 

Actually 99% of the USA Dell on site techs are from:
https://www.wwts.com/

 

Are they better than Unisys? Because Unisys obtains cheap unqualified tech for the job they do for Dell. Aka they outsourcing the job they get from Dell.

 

It depends on a few things. WWTS has been training their techs on Alienware.
The other thing that seems to matter is the area (city etc) the tech is located lol.

 

Worldwide tech services was the company. It's a shame that dell lets this crap work for them.

 

The problem is two parts. Training on newer unconventional systems, and in this case pride / lack of common sense.
He probably did not fully understand how to disassemble this new systems so instead of looking up the service manual or tear downs online he just started pulling things a part as to make himself look like he knew what he was doing. This is why I hover the techs and will speak up if things go funky.
(Personally if it is just a keyboard I would have just had Dell send me the keyboard.)

I wouldn't hesitate to abort the mission and send the tech on his way if he seemed iffy.
I havent had to do that yet, but I would.

Dell will make this right and give you a brand new system. Since it will take some time I would push for some extra goodies. An upgrade, free warranty extension, perhaps a partial refund, something.
If I were in this position I would be able to get it done. The ball is in your court so to speak.

 

K guys...fresh off the press...

Bone Stock, Straight Out of The Box - OCCT Run for 15 Minutes



Not too shabby. Peaked at 83C, however look at the average temps and where the temps were floating at at the time of screen capture, high 50's and 60's...

The keyboard is pretty cool to touch as the heat is really concentrated toward the back as it was designed to do.

Stay tuned...lots more to come...this is just the beginning....

 

I've figured out how to OC the CPU to 7.77GHz with the fans completely turned off. (This is a joke btw lol...just want to make sure that everyone is aware...)











Don't lie...you know that looks fresh.

 

When will first Cinebench R15 and Wprime 1024M bench arrive? And don't forget Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R15 should be around 710 cb with stock 6820Hk

 

Very soon...I have to OC to 7.77GHz first by adjusting the LED's. It's hard work.

 

Remember to max out all power limits. And you need to raise voltage for that clockspeed. You can't undervolt

 

Hey iunlock,
can u check the panel name in your 17 r4?

 

Sure thing. It is a LG (D0513) and actually quite nice for a 1080p screen. I've been gaming on it...though I do prefer 1440p.

Update:



The display has some light bleed, but not severe.

 

Does it have any backlight bleeding?

 

@unlock
What are ur specs mate ?

Also i understand that u cannot overclock a 6700hq but we undervolt and fine tune it right ?

 

17" / 6820HK / GTX 1070 / 1080P LG Panel.

 

How feel the new aw17 ? Not too heavy ?
I fear the 4.42kg will very untransportable.

 

@iUnluck, damn that looks sexy, thanks for the pictures.
At this point I'm back convinced to get an anlienware.
Hopefully the GTX 1080 reviews on it will be good.

 

It has a nice weight to it and you can still carry it around just the same as if you were carrying around the 17R3. The laptop is very solid and well made.