Alienware m15 / i9-8950HK Review by Ultra Male

Specifications:

Alienware M15 - 15.6" FHD 144Hz - i9-8950HK-RTX 2080 Max-Q - EPIC SILVER

CPU: Intel 9th Generation "Coffee Lake" Core i9-8950HK (2.9-4.8 GHz) 6 Core - 12 Thread Processor, 12MB SmartCache
Thermal Paste: Stock
Memory: Samsung M471A4G43MB1-CTD 2666 MHz 64GB DDR4 RAM
GPU: nVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q (90W) 8GB GDDR6
Sound: Alienware Sound Center and Audio Recon software
Headset: Alienware Wireless Gaming Headset AW988
Screen: AU Optronics B156HAN08.0 (AUO80ED) 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Screen
Wireless: Killer Wireless-AC 1550
Storage: 2x Samsung 960 PRO 2TB [RAID 0] + 2TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD
Keyboard: Alienware AlienFX mSeries Keyboard
Mouse: Alienware Elite Gaming Mouse AW959
Battery: 60 WHr
Power: 240W AC Power Adapter
Extra(s): Alienware Graphics Amp, Alienware Vindicator 15" Backpack v2.0, Razer Manticor Mouse Pad
Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise
Warranty: 4 Years Premium Support + 4 Year HIDevolution US Warranty + LIFETIME HIDevolution Technical Support
Accidental Damage: 4 Year Accidental Damage Service

Reseller/System Builder: HIDevolution
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Benchmarks:

Note: I am using the stock thermal paste that came with the laptop and won't test it with Liquid Metal or any other thermal paste as I am returning it back to Dell so I need to keep it in stock form.

I am returning it for 2 reasons: 1) Not very happy with the temps of the i9-8950HK, the laptop is simply too small with inadequate cooling to have the 8950 HK run at its advertised speeds despite doing a -125mV undervolt. 2) I have a pretty good amount of backlight bleed on the bottom left and bottom right corner of the screen so Dell Dubai are considering this machine a DOA.

3DMark11 - i9-8950HK

Spoiler: 3DMark11 Score with the i7-8750H

3DMark FireStrike - i9-8950HK

Spoiler: FireStrike with the i7-8750H

PCMARK10



CINEBENCH R20

Spoiler: Cinebench R20 with the i7-8750H

AS SSD Benchmark



CrystalDiskMark

 

Looking forward to it!

 

i was waiting for this

Edit: please, beside the synthetic benchmarks, run games on it. I'm more interested in those, being a gamer, than the synthetics, which i use just to assest the cooling system performance before and after repastes

 

WOOHOO!

If you're taste is anything like mine then you should be happy with this. Been a champ for me so far. I was skeptical since I heard enough negative things about it to make it seem like a flop. But, being hands on with it now for about a week I can safely say this is a nice little machine that packs a good punch. The only real thing I can complain about is that my model with the RTX 2060 comes with a 180w psu instead of the 230w. I think it should come standard with 230w and they should make a custom one as many manufactures have 230-240w psu's that are smaller than the 180w.

 

i would like to see thermals without any cooling pad or something like that, only a raiser for the back

 

I'll be doing a video review on this as well similar to my Area-51m review. Hope it helps complement @Ultra Male review.

 

Alienware m15 RTX Review by Unboxed
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...50h-coffee-lake.810891/page-127#post-10889879
Be happy you have/got HIDevolution's amazing thermal treatments. A must as you can see from the review and what to expect.

 

again you beat me to it. do u ever sleep? lol

 

That's what I have right now, the laptop is just raised on the cooling pad which is not connected. Stay tuned

 

For yoo bruh


What yoo have.

 

Hi ultra male !
if you also give us an estimation of battery life, is it possible you do it also without the 144hz mode ( with 60hz ) ? i heard it forces the discrete GPU to work all the time, hence less battery life.

 

Closed as per OP's request.

 

I'm ready

 

@Papusan

I copied all my data finally onto the new taptop and installed all my apps.

Tomorrow I need to re-paste it with IC Diamond. You recommend me to just put one dot in the middle of the CPU and GPU or 2 lines? If I do the 2 lines method, how long should the lines be? Can you draw me an example using MS Paint?

 

It doesn't really matter how you apply thermal paste in general, just remember that IC Diamond is very abrasive so if you want to decrease the chance of putting tiny scratches - you should not spread it by using tools like plastic cards or things like that. Any other method from this will work fine:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3346-thermal-paste-application-benchmark-too-much-thermal-paste

 

Just use a single 3/4 long line on Cpu and x-xross on Gpu. Even two lines works well on Gpu (3/4 long there as well). Please post before and after results. Remember check the thermal pads imprint. Screenshots.

Edit. I forgot to add in. Put the syringe with paste in a plastic bag and then in a cup with hot water (50-55C) before you apply the paste. This for thicker paste and with weak heatsink pressure in notebooks. The thermal paste will be softer and will spread better.

 

Similar to this for CPU if rectangular shape bro @Papusan

 

@Terreos @ssj92 @iunlock @Papusan @CptXabaras

Benchmarks are up in the OP. Please read my comments as to why I will not be repasting it with anything.

 

Yeah, as expected bruh. Nothing new there But isn't the Cinebench R20 score alsmost on level with what you got with the locked down i7-8750H in your previous test project? Have you the screenshoot from the old Cinebench R20 bench score done from it?



And if you look at the ssd 4K speed this is typical Dellbook's whatever models... All of them perform equal bad. What ssd you put in... They won't run as adverticed from the SSD manufacturers.

 

1) Check the OP again, I included 2 spoilers for the scores of 3DMark11 and FireStrike from the old 8750H laptop for people to see in the real world, how much improvement does the 8950HK offer.

2) Here's the Cinebench of the 8750H! Surprising!

 

Yeah, the i7-8750H was saved by HIDevolutions. Hence better results.

And as usual... The adverticed 5.0GHz overclock is a Joke. It a expencive Scam!!


What you think about the 4K ssd performance in Dellbook's?

 

LOL. not even in their wildest dreams man, this thing cannot even hit 4GHz without thermal throttling even with -125mV undervolt.

DELL considered my machine a DOA. I am awaiting for their decision on what they want to do. Dell Dubai has superb customer service luckily!

 

Maybe they forgot add in important info like... "In short single threaded burst load". But nope... They only hunt after your +$450 bucks from your wallet, bruh. As I sad, Its's Scam. They go over bodies to rob you. Not even Intel dare add in such claims. Neither do other OEM manufacturers!

 

Maybe expectation are a little bit too high for such a small laptop, beside the Dell advertising that is misleading at best.

 

Hi Ultra Male. Can you please, disable hyperthreading to see the temperature drop and the results of max overclock?

 

Is a good to go laptop for single core performance for crysis engine games which require 2 threads @5 ghz minimum? Thanks a lot.

 

Well this is disappointing, though not unexpected. Looks like a bad contact between heatsink surface and CPU, especially seeing that one core difference. Dell needs better quality control when assembling these.

 

Sure, give me a moment

 

When running Cinebench, it takes literally 2-3 seconds for the temps to jump from the idle 40C to 99C! This is insane d00d.

During Gaming, it runs fine and is adequate for your average Joe but forget about Cinebench or any stress test that hammers the CPU heavily.

 

@Aram Arzumanyan

Hyperthreading Disabled:

 

Maybe this is a viable solution for yoo? As the poster said... Problem solved

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...15_constantly_hitting_100_c_and_over/ek5yf9q/

You mean none should expect at least stock performance from the processor? i9-8950HK default clock speed is 4.3GHz on all cores.

 

I have not the need to buy fast CPU and downlclock it! Might as well by an Acer Aspire taptop jokebook if I was gonna do that

 

No Papusan, of course one should expect stock performance from it, don't get me wrong. What dell is failing to do (badly) is to keep them constant in terms of frequencies and with temperatures under check, advertising meanwhile unreachable level of OC on top of that. Personally, i would never go for an HK cpu on this small frame machine. Hell, i would have preferred to have a 7820Hk on it than the 8th gen cpu, but hey! that's the trend nowadays, pushing more powerful hardware in smaller and smaller form factors. That's what i refer as far as expectation goes, i do not expect from it to shine at performance because of the evident cooling limitation it has. I do expect to have some fun trying to tame the CPU by repasting the hell out of it and then use it for what it is, for a couple of years maybe, before changing it for whatever will be available at that time.

Personally the only reason i'm purchasing this is because of the mobility factor, i do travel a lot and really far from home, and wanted to have a reasonably sized machine that i can game with. At home, at least for me, no laptop is a substitute for a nicely overclocked, overvolted and watercooled desktop.

 

You will love it. If you just play games and do basic things it's perfectly fine. I have no issues with it until I run Cinebench it takes a crap. Gaming is 100% fine and if you go with the 2080 Max-Q you can run anything out there with max eye candy.

 

All good

Maybe of interest.
Alienware m15 Testing Log - Heat (NEW OWNERS WITH OVERHEATING LAPTOPS: CLICK HERE)

 

Glad you are returning it, Brother @Ultra Male. The decision comes as no surprise. I had a hunch you were going to be disappointed with it. Broken junk is never a good thing. Super-expensive broken junk is like stupid on steroids. It's kind of sad that in 2019 there is not a single high performance laptop made by any company that is actually worth a damn. There is literally nothing available anywhere that I am willing to spend my money on, and Clevo killed the only model made that even remotely held any interest for me. That's why I bought a refurbished HP ZBook 15 for $350. I use it for web browsing and email when I am traveling on business. I use my desktop for doing what I enjoy most. No need to take it with me. When I am traveling on business I don't have time for fun and games anyhow, and all it would do is piss me off that I spent a ton of money on a throttling pile of trash that has a castrated BIOS and cannot even function properly without downloading a a payload of UWP malware cancer from the Micro$lop filth store.

 

Yep, just gaming with it, i'll bench it just to check temps before and after repaste, not chasing numbers with this one. I have few ideas about it that i will experiment once i'll get home to try to address her hot temper . The laptop should be delivered the latest the 12/04 and i'll be home by the 27/04. Just purchased the basic config with 8750H, 16gb ram, 2080 max-q. I'll upgrade the ssd my self. How does the 2080 max-q runs in terms of temperatures? is my understandig that the CPU is the hot potato here, but the GPU is ok(ish)

 

The 8750H is the better choice. GPU is fine, you don't even need to worry about it. The CPU is what we need to tame here.

 

yes bro the overheating is one and the light bleeding is the 2nd. Dell can't seem to make a panel without backlight bleeding heh? Like it's rocket science! The issue is not with the screen it's with the bezel once it's fitted, creates additional pressure on the corners of the screen causing the light bleeding so replacing the screen is not going to fix it. The entire thing needs to be replaced. Same old story I had 6 years ago with my Alienware 18 remember?

After speaking with Dell Dubai's Supervisor here, he was very helpful and deemed this as DOA. More details to come later

 

Even the Alienware 18 and 17 had that issue with the bezel and mounting brackets distorting the screen and causing light bleed. They never seem to learn from their mistakes of the past. They keep repeating them.

Spoiler: Off-Topic Humor (helpful advice)

 

All depends on how lucky you will be ;-) If the GPU heatsink is also warped or with poorly applied thermal paste - the GPU will also overheat, if you will get lucky and get a properly flat heatsink - it will stay cool, doesn't matter if it is 2060 or 2080 Max-q. I would still suggest getting a high viscosity thermal paste even before you'll get your laptop for manual repaste.

 

Got kyronaut, IC diamond 24 and Conductonaut (LM) the moment I've placed the order and some K5Pro to experiment with a padless installation. Will see how it goes

 

I found the answer myself. Same heatsink whatever you buy the locked down i7-8750H or the unlocked i9-8950Hk. A massive engineering flaw!

Perfectly fine?


Look at clock speed and Cpu temperature at 79% Cpu load. You mean it's perfectly fine? DANG!

 

To be fair you might not notice CPU throttling in most games. Of course personally I would still not like the fact that it happens ;-)

As for heatsink - it might actually be enough for both of these CPUs, the real problem might be that it doesn't provide good contact with CPU. Would be nice if any person with throttling CPU would use a special contact test paper to measure how good is the contact, such thing is sold at Amazon and other places.

 

sorry for my ignorance but didn't you buy this laptop from HID?

 

Are you returning it and getting a replacement or just returning it all together?

Honestly the Area-51m may be a bit better but will perform much better.

I'll let you know how my friend's m15 performs when it gets here...was supposed have been here but "wrong address" which is BS so they're sending ANOTHER one lol

I can't believe thermal grizzly still hasn't released their carbonaut, I really wanna try it out and feel like it'll work well in laptops. Once it's out I'll test it on my Area-51m.

 

If the advice from Reddit was't bad enough. Dell's own forum ain't much better.

I'm happy you don't follow all the good advices you get on Dell's own www.dell.com/community forum Both advices here is equal bad!

 

I returned my laptop for a refund and got a trusty MSI GT75 Titan 8SG with the 8950HK and an RTX 2080

I must go to the gym first then I'll come back to unbox it

 

Can we expect reviews and benching results when you get time?

 

LOL built for narrow escapes, more like NARROW THRESHOLDS FOR ULTIMATE THROTTLING