*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

There is a 3K (3200x1800) display available for Aw13 on the web site.

 

On another note, intel drivers 15.36.21.4222 released earlier this month seem to have fixed any annoying scaling issues or black boxes on running games at lower than native resolution, as it allows the scaling options in the intel HD properties to show up even at max resolution. Very helpful since I have the 1440p panel.

https://communities.intel.com/message/310103#310103

 

Hi @DrClone & @ all,

It seems to me that the question of whether the AW13 supports 4K @60Hz (without Graphics Amplifier) at its Mini DisplayPort is still not entirely cleared up.

I'd like to hook up a 4K TV via Mini-DP to the AW 13.

Will I be able to run that setup with 60Hz, for normal desktop work like browsing, Word Processing etc.?

Thanks
David.P

 

Unless your TV has a display port or a mini DP, I don't think it's possible. It's also not possible with AW13's with the i5-4210u.

 

Guys worth the buy an Alienware 13 refurbished or used firts gen with i5 4210 and 860m at 800$ or less for office use?

 

trying to overclock above +135mhz on this thing, I extracted the bios in dos but i cant find the vbios maybe someone here can help me ,calling it a night will try again tomorrow

 

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/configure(1,260,0)ec

Thank you for the info.

Actually then, it seems that the only laptop that can drive "normal" 4K TVs (with HDMI input but without DP) with 60Hz is the Eurocom P5 Pro !?

 

Ah, some more portables with HDMI 2.0:
XMG U505 (Clevo P751ZM)
Panasonic Toughpad 4K
Dell M3800 developer edition

 

Anti-glare touch screen? How does that work? I thought all touch screens had to have a glass surface.

 

I am using 343 drivers from Dell website, must I install a gtx 970 version when I dock the GA to the laptop and have two different version?

 

You mean 353, right? If you mean 353, then no.
If you really mean 343, then update to 353 ASAP (or some more recent driver). It'll remove then hassle that was at launch.

 

So I can just install the 353 for gtx960m will do?

 

Yes.
But, since you plan on using the GA, I would uninstall your current Nvidia driver and clean install the latest Nvidia driver.

 

860m vbios attached if anyones interested ,also modded bios(1124mhz core clock default) for 860m and default bios in links, problem is i cannot flash this(via afudos) because of signature issues, can anyone help with this situation ?

stock bios: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nt7ZWBfr5CWXdhN3dicW1nUW8/view?usp=sharing
modded bios: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nt7ZWBfr5Cb3NoaFV6V0lUeTg/view?usp=sharing

 

I think I will reformat windows soon... my fan does not slow down still

 

Have the same problem here. I've uninstalled the support assist agent like most forums suggest doing but the fans run at 100% when my laptop is only 45c and never turn down. Don't really want to totally start from scratch but when win 10 comes out that might be the time.

 

Maybe once widows 10 is out , I will reformat...

Should I install the desktop gtx 970 nivida or just stick with the 960m nividia drivers

 

FYI: Dell released the proper updated firmware file the 256 GB SSD. Downloaded and updated mine last night successfully as far as I know. Haven't quite figured out how to check if it has the latest.

 

It should be the latest if it updated. Thanks for the heads up, though.
Just updated my SSD and ran a benchmark of it. Compared to how it was when I used it for a couple of weeks, it has a slight reduction in performance, but that should be because I've been filling it more than I did before. All good here. Someone check if it knows how to idle / sleep on battery, please. That was the purpose of this update.

 

Tried to update my SSD again with the new file and it just returns the error: "No matched drives found" when trying to use the windows executable. My hardware ID is SCSI\DiskLITEONITL8T-256L9G-11_MMH881. Not really sure what's up.

 

will the GA support 390x?

 

Yes. You'll have to get the latest AMD driver. However, I may hold off on getting an AMD GPU.

 

Upgraded to Win 10 this morning.

Everything went well EXCEPT Synaptic Touchpad failed to work. Sigh...

Trying to update driver fr Windows Update or Device Manager doesn't work either. Dell also doesn't have a Win 10 driver on its support site.

Anyone else encountered same problem and solved this?

 

Someone over at AW Forum pointed me to right direction and solved the problem.

Got to disable automatic Windows driver update using the "Change Device Installation" setting (Use the Search) and then reinstall the driver and reboot. Now, under Device Manager, the location is recognized as "On I2C HID" vs the "PS/2" earlier.

Strange thing is that it's still the same driver version 19.0.15.2 after restart though I tried installing Dell's Win 8.1 driver.

Regardless, I think the driver needs a lot more work. The 3-finger task swipe and 4-finger Action Centre gestures doesn't work.

 

as a possible owner of one of these AW13 laptops I've got some questions and figured this would be a good place to ask.

- I understand the 960M runs in PCIe-2.0 rather than 3.0 as in AW15 and AW17, is that correct ? Thus is like twice slower ? Can somebody post GPU-Z screenshot ?

- I can order the unit with two M.2 slots or one SATA slot ? If I go with the SATA slot, would the laptop take regular 9.5mm drives in it ? I'm asking as I'd like to move my current 830 SSD into that laptop if possible. And since I haven't kept lately with technology, how are these M.2 ports working ... ? And probably what choice of drives are there for these ?

- does the laptop have battery management software ? Like if I wanted to keep charge only to say 90% and not start charging until the battery drops to say 50% ? I've seen some posts of people loosing battery capacity in the first month. What is the realistic battery life for say regular use of office docs + internet browsing ? .. like 1.5 hours or so ?

- the laptop can not take more than 16GB of ram as of right now. Possible bios update to allow 32? I guess 16GB modules might become more available some time in a year or so. And memory is user upgradable, correct ?

- I've seen some sort of issues with i7 CPUs and the graphics card. What's all that about ?

- the GA has "4 lines" unlike in AW15 and AW17 that have "8 lines" ? So what would be the sweet spot for buying an external graphics card ? ... possibly the nVidia 970 ? I'm guessing there wont be enough bandwidth to utilize the 980, or am I wrong here ?

- some people have reported issues with the powered USB, as in like the port doesn't provide enough power ?

- the display - I'm sure the 1366x786 would be enough however that one is only 200nits vs. the 1920x1080 IPS of 400nits. I guess I'd be going with that one (the second), even though its kind of high resolution for 13.3" display, lol. Any feedback ? I do not like touch screens on a laptop.

- it comes with win 8.1 with free upgrade to 10? ... I'd like to use win 7 I guess, but deff. not the 8.1 . I'll have to see what 10 looks like first. Is there an option to order with win 7 ?

- has anyone had a dead charger yet ?

- how much does the laptop heat up when loaded ? .. say when gaming ? I've seen somewhere that the fans dont slow down or something like that after gaming .. did that get fixed ?

- wifi - is it 2x2 or 3x3 ? I guess the options include Killer 1525 and Intel of some sort, is the Killer the better option ?

- do you get clean OS when you order that backup for 20 bucks, or is it a OS restore only ? Back in the day Dell used to send clean Windows XP CDs ..

- do you have to repaste the GPU/CPU due to crappy job by the manufacturer ?


I think that should sum it up for me, so any feedback on the above is greatly appreciated. I went to check the laptop the other day in Frys and the keyboard feels comfortable, which is nice.

Thanks

 

• While it has half the bandwidth (technically a quarter of the bandwidth if we include lanes), that does not mean the GTX 960m runs at half the performance of its usual self. The 960m is worse than the 965m and 970m by a good margin, but the GTX 960m in the AW13 does better than the GTX 950m in other laptops.
• Two M.2 slots, or 1 SATA slot, and 9.5mm SSDs should fit. It'll be a tight fit, though, and you may have to remove the foam.
• The AW13 has a desktop charge mode where you can choose a capacity percentage for the battery to stop charge and another percentage to start charging (I think). Average battery life for me is around 5 to 6 hours. I can manage up to 7 to 8 hours, but those are rare instances. Sometimes dips to 3 to 4 hours.
• 16 GB modules exist from cruical and Intelligent Memory. They are very costly, though.
• You're being vague here. Please elaborate on what you mean. If you don't, then we can't answer properly.
• Read this.
• That might be the case for some, but I haven't experienced for a few months. Maybe it's because I've disabled powershare.
• 1080p has 350nits, and 1080p looks fine on the 13.
• Win10 is a free upgrade for users of Win7 and Win8.1. The only WIn7 option you have is Win7 Pro.
• Not me.
• Laptop doesn't get too hot. Very warm and manageable. Fans slow down when needed. Might be late on the needed part, though.
• 2x2, and the only option is the Killer 1525.
• The backup is most likely either factory image or clean image. Haven't check. This is something you can make yourself, though.
• No. Components are cool enough to not warrant a repaste.

 

hey thanks for the quick response. I actually checked that report for the GA and different tests with it over alienwarearent about 2 days ago, just now realized it's actually yours, good info

can you post GPU-Z screenshot ?

I take it you're happy with the laptop ?

thanks

 

This is an old screenshot with an older GPU-Z version, but the bus interface information is correct.
(I've also modified my current Nvidia driver to name my GTX 860m a GTX 960m for kicks and giggles. Not sure if it'll play nice with my GTX 960, but we'll see.)
So far, I've been mostly positive about the laptop. A few nitpicks here and there, but it gets the job done.

 

So, I did an upgrade to Windows 10... 4 Blue Screens within 30 minutes. So, I said screw it and tried a clean install of Windows 10. But before all of this, I thought I had created the factory recovery media on my external USB hard drive.... nope. And when I did a clean install of Windows 10, I deleted all the partitions it found (there was either 6 or 8 partitions, which I thought was ridiculous). (Sarcasm statement->) Luckily, I paid $19 for the Windows 8.1 Pro USB stick (which I was actually expecting the factory image of the laptop) and was able to re-install Windows 8.1 Pro and try the upgrade again. After a few attempts, I finally got a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and was able to get it activated. I was able to re-install most of the drivers. I have 3 unknown device drivers and it looks like it might be related to some Microsoft ACPI driver. Searching Windows driver updates did not work (no surprise there for me). Another reason why I had some issues with Windows 10 install was the driver for the trackpad did not initially work correctly. Even after a few reboots, uninstall/re-install of the driver, I still had issues with the touchpad. Sadly, my Windows 10 upgrade experience on this laptop has been horrible!

However, my desktop from 2009, I was able to do an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and have it activated within the hour. ZERO ISSUES! -_-

Long story short: Upgrade did not work. After a few attempts, clean install of Windows 10 worked and was activated. Few drivers missing. No longer have the factory image. Yay?

 

miro_gt, I can confirm that the USB recovery media is a vanilla Windows 8.1 (Pro if you selected) image. Does not include any drivers. Does include Office 2013 install (32/64-bit versions). Oh, and you'll still have to activate Windows after doing a clean install.

 

See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...3-owners-lounge.770303/page-173#post-10054918

 

Another update:

Looks like Dell has updated some more drivers for Windows 10, including the touchpad.

My personal advice: Wait to install Windows 10 until Dell has released all the neccessary drivers for the operating system. Else, you can install it now and just go with it and wait for them to release all the drivers for the system.

 

ok so apparently I cannot order i7 with SATA port in order to add my own SSD ? That sucks ... I guess if I wanted SATA so bad then I have to go with i5, so in this case I'll have to check how much of a performance drop I'd be looking at. That is likely to get impact on the performance of the GPU as well

I guess give me please some feedback about those M.2 SSDs.
- Who makes these, what size NAND are they using, is it MLC, TLC, or more per cell ?
- How is the 4k writes on these ?
- Life expectancy ? Asking only as this laptop will have to last me over 5 years
- I guess the laptop would come with two M.2 slots in this case, so can you add 2x512GB SSDs ? I dont see that option, the biggest they have is 512+128 GB. Also, if you order one SSD the laptop itself will come with two M.2 ports, right ?
- is there another difference between the different size SSDs, or is it only more chips per board?
- can you add your own aftermarket M.2 SSD ?

Thanks. So far looks like this is gonna cost me about 2Gs with taxes :/ (i7, 1080 screen, 16GB RAM, Win7, 512GB SSD)

 

• Samsung (TLC), Toshiba (MLC), or LiteOn (MLC). The M.2 size is 80mm, in case you wanted to know.
• I only have the LiteOn SSD, but it performs good for an OEM SSD. 4K write is about 70 MB my SSD. This is from factory and from using it for the past ~6.5 months.
• You're joking, right? If you want something to last that long, I would get a business laptop.
• Yes, but you'll have to add one of those 512 GB M.2's. And yes, if you order an SSD, you'll get the M.2 bay, which has two M.2 slots. This also answers your last question (I've added a Transcend MTS800 to my 13).
• Besides the max capacity and different form factor, not really.

If I may ask, is there a problem with buying your own RAM?

 

my T61 laptops are from 2007-2008 so no I'm not joking, this thing has to last

appreciate the info nonetheless.

P.S. no problem with adding/changing any components really...

 

If possible, opt for 8 GB of RAM and get your own 16 GB of RAM. Should be cheaper, and you would know what RAM you get.

 

Its likely the ACPI drivers you are lacking would be the Intel Management Engine Interface and probably the STM drop sensor.

I, too, have the 256GB LiteOn m.2 (2280) SSD. I was researching on available options for m.2 SSDs and the most cost-efficient one I had in Singapore was the Samsung EVO 850 line. Bought the 240GB variant to add onto the second (previously empty) slot. Speeds are faster than the LiteOn but honestly, not feeling much of a difference in real-world usage.

Still happy with the upgrade as I was desperately running out of space. Considering doing a RAID 0 on the drives too when I get to updating to Windows 10.

I looked up performance results on 3DMark and realised many users were either using stock LiteOn SSDs for they were going for the Samsung OEM line of m.2 SSDs (presumably before their consumer-grade 850 EVO line was released). Samsung has recently updated their OEM line of m.2 SSDs and they now run on PCIe lanes as opposed to using a SATA interface (not sure if our motherboard supports the PCIe interface on m.2). The price is something else though...

 

The 13 doesn't have RAID support nor can it use PCI-E M.2 SSDs.

 

That's a pity. The Intel Rapid Storage app came preinstalled though.

 

Game7a1, how did you get so high Pixel and Texture Fillrates ? Everywhere I look so far has these at 17.5 and 44 respectively .. such as posted in this review:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-13-GTX-960M-Notebook-Review.142854.0.html

also, do you experience any throttling issues with the i7? I hear some people complaining about that. Does ThrottleStop work for this CPU ?

Thanks

EDIT: can you overclock the GPU ?

 

This was an old GPU-Z version, so it may have bugged up when reading the pixel and texture filtrates. It's the same as in the review you posted (well, slightly less since the GTX 960m is an overclocked GTX 860m).
Once again, you'll need to specify what you mean by this. What kind of throttling? In all of my benchmark runs, the CPU has never gone over 15w or has not TDP throttled. Throttlestop does work with this CPU. Even when running a game like Assassin Creed Unity, it didn't go beyond 15w (granted, I was using the GA during the testing, but still).
And the GPU can be overclocked.

 

Here is what I get on a repaste gelid extreme if anyone is interested on temps i7 and gtx 960 353.30 drivers 16gb and ssd's fresh win 7 first is dell pads second is gelid ex.

 

You can order the SATA cable (I picked one up on eBay for ~$18) and the metal sled that surrounds the m.2 board is the same sled you mount a 2.5" drive to.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231521348526

I was in the exact same shoes as you except my i5 came with a 256GB m.2 though I wanted to use my 1TB 840.

Everything bolted right up.

 

by throttling I mean that your CPU slows down big time with the slightest increase in temperature. Various people report that issue, that's why I was asking. Basically you start say playing a game, and shortly after the performance of the laptop drops due to this issue, so your game slows down.

chrous25, are you saying that the laptop comes with pads and not with paste on the CPU/GPU ? .... lol, that would suck for sure. I still got paste left here somewhere though.

I was just looking the difference between the i5 and the i7 as the second one is 100 USD more, but performance-wise there's not much of a difference really ... Hmm I'm gonna have to think about this one, the i5 would keep cooler nonetheless, and the MB would come with SATA port in this case :/. So I could order even with 4GB RAM and upgrade myself to 16 so the loss would be minimal regarding that at least.

Dark_, appreciate the link, definitely a good option. Do regular 9.5mm drives fit ?

thanks

 

The CPU doesn't thermal throttle if that's what you mean. I have never saw the CPU go above 75 C when gaming or benchmarking. The temps that Chronus posted are temps you may never see through gaming or benchmarking since that situation would very rarely come up. It's thermal threshold is 103 C.
The AW13 does not share the same problems the AW15 and 17 R2 have. If your research includes those two laptops, don't lump the 13 with them.
No one on AWA or here who has the 13 has complained about thermal throttling happening. I haven't seen it on Dell's Community forum or Alienware's reddit as well.

 

Just to clear things up, I believe miro_gt is asking if the CPU speed decreases (downclocks) when it hits a certain temperature. I am not 100% sure, but I believe the way this laptop and it's cooling ensure that you will not have to worry about that. This can probably be tested using HWMonitor and have it start logging the CPU speeds when an CPU intensive application is launched. Prime95 can also help test this out.

@shrmn As far as the ACPI driver that I was talking about earlier, I have tried installing the Intel Mangement Interface and I think it gave me an error when installing. Also tried the STM drop sensor and that errored out. Waiting on Dell to release Windows 10 drivers for these.

As far as Windows 10 goes, I have been running it for a few days and it seems to be better now that Dell has released some more drivers for this laptop. However, I would still recommend people to wait before upgrading. Also, ensure that you properly created the factory install media unless you enjoy doing a vanilla install of Windows and manually downloading and installing the drivers. Might I add, the vanilla install of Windows 8.1 does not have the drivers for the NIC, so you will have to download it with another computer and copy it over to a USB stick.

 

I'll try and check when I get home.

 

should i update to windows 10 ? must i install windows 10 driver for it?

 

Read my previous posts....

 

@miro_gt
Forgot to provide this earlier. Sorry.

I renamed my GTX 860m a GTX 960m in the Nvidia driver, so ignore the name part. I might name it something else for kicks and giggles.