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

Mine was the Samsung.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

 

Do you know the exact model of it?

 

Windows is showing it as a Samsung PM851 M2.

I got mine from the Dell outlet, not sure if that actually matters though.

 

Nice. Mine was Liteon. Looking forward to eventually getting a 512 GB SSD M.2 for the laptop. Waiting for prices to come down. My previous laptop had 2 x 320 GB hard drives. This single 256 GB... I'm struggling lol.

 

Does anyone know what size DC Input adapter (male to male) would fit in the charge port of the 13?

Something like this. I don't think this one is large enough. Need 7.4mm and this is 5.5mm.

 

I purchased the sata cable online for my AW13 so that I could run a 2.5" SSD (already had a 1TB samsung laying around to use while I wait for my 2TB to arrive).

For those looking to get more storage I would recommend that versus setting up a RAID0 array or individual drives.

 

The 13" size no glare screen, 2 core I7 and 2GB 960M are perfect for 1080p.
I'm not sure why alienware went to QHD. To run any game later than 2014 at 1440 (or more) you have to set the graphics to 'low'. A touch screen has to have a glass (glare) surface.

 

From what I'm being told, the 1080P display is on back order so that is why it has been removed from the ordering options. Once they obtain stock, it should return.

 

No, the applications do work. I did the testing and proved it in a controlled environment. The video is only a small snippet of the testing I did. It looks like it's tied to Intel DPTF driver and the BIOS not properly adjusting the CPU. I had it go dead once at idle in about 2 hours because the discharge rate was 25k. I've done the same test with multiple laptops that leverage DPTF and they are always consistent with discharge rates, but not the Alienware. I had two of them and both did the same exact thing.

 

One thing I hate about this notebook: not being able to update graphics drivers without modifying core files. PITA. Suppose one could argue it's not necessary because drivers offer negligible gains in performance. Good thing I didn't buy this for gaming, but rather for work & school.

I'm assuming it's because of Optimus.

 

Hmm? That problem, which only affects those with Broadwell + 860m, has been resolved since a couple drivers ago. I assume you're using an old driver?
The reason the problem existed to begin with was because the ID for that particular 860m never existed in older drivers earlier this year.

 

Yes, Broadwell and 860M is what I have. How was it resolved? I think I'm stuck with 344.73.

Should I just try the latest?

 

Pretty much. I forget which official Nvidia driver resolved the problem. I think it was the early 350's.

 

Thanks. I'll just use the latest. Been avoiding them because of all the issues, but it's better than nothing.

EDIT: Seems to have installed.

 

Well, I am back to Windows 8.1... The wireless NIC driver was just driving me crazy. Some days, no issues, other days, BSoD. The one that finally hit the nail into the coffin... It would no longer work to where I could connect to my router. Reverted back to Windows 8.1, and everything is rock solid... /sighs

And for the record, I tried Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 drivers from Dell and the driver from killernetworking.com while running Windows 10. All of them gave me issues, one way, or another.

 

Hi Fellow Alienware 13 owners,

I am about to bite a bullet and get one from Dell shop.

I have a question here, there are 2 options that I can get, one with i5-5200u CPU and the other one is i7-5500u. Both will have 16gb RAM, SSD and FHD screen.

Just wondering if it is worth getting the i7 for an additional $300?

Regards,

Erik

 

$300 more? Not worth. I would say it would be worth it if you spent maybe $100 more. $150 is stretching it.

 

Are you sure it's FHD (1920x1080) or do you mean QHD+ (3200x1800)?

Keep in mind that both processors are dual core and the differences are pretty much just clock speed and cache. I don't think it's worth $300.

 

I have an option of QHD+ or FHD. It will cost additional $450 to get QHD+ and I do not think I can run any games with that resolution anyway.

Ok pretty much just get the i5?

Bear in mind, I am talking about AUD not USD.

 

Thanks! i5 it is

 

Ugh, you may pay higher prices, but at least you have the FHD option available right now.

 

Did you try the suite from Killer that doesn't have any of the applications (Standard - No Killer)? They put a network filter driver in the TCP/IP stack when you leverage the applications and I saw that cause BSOD on 8.1 and 10. I did the straight no app drivers and they seem to work fine.

 

I believe I did try that one and had no luck with it as well. What made it worse, not that BSoD aren't bad enough, is that it would not fully connect to my wireless router. It would connect, but give me limited Internet access (a.k.a. no Internet). I might try again a month or so later. Right now, the laptop is running solid under Windows 8.1.

 

So you sold your Batman for an AW13?

 

Nope, still have it.

 

For sale though?

That's quite a drop in performance.

 

I didn't buy it for gaming. Probably won't even install a game on it.

Spoiler: Pic of laptop

This is me sitting in lecture (right now) with hundreds of others. The AW 13 barely fits on the table, and the Batman sure as hell doesn't.

Priorities! Don't worry... I'm saving for a sweet rig when Pascal launches.

 

Nice.

To be honest I'm doing the exact same thing. Selling off both my Batman and AW17 R1, and "borrowing" a laptop in the meantime while waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

AW13 is a fine choice. Its build quality is far superior to most other machines, and the keyboard is one of the best I've ever used. Many people don't realize how bad the keyboards on most laptops are until they've used a good one.

 

Yeah, it actually is impressive for a 13" laptop. I was skeptical, but proven wrong. But it doesn't satisfy my enthusiast side.

I refused to purchase a Macbook for $700 more with less performance... Look around in my lecture and there are probably 100+ Macbook's. Only one Alienware!

 

Joke's on them. You could still fire up almost any game you wanted and run it on medium-high settings.

 

Also how's the surface/keyboard temperature?

On the AW17 R2, even when idle the keyboard would get warm.

 

Very low temps on battery. The keyboard is actually room temperature or lower. It feels cold to touch, atm.

Haven't gamed on it, but I've seen videos showing 93F~ on surface temps.

 

Alienware announced an entire refresh of their line at PAX. The 13 is getting: USB Type-C ports, Thunderbolt 3, faster PCIe SSD storage, "dynamic overclocking", and a bigger battery! No Skylake yet.

 

It will be very similar to the XPS 13 aside from increased graphics performance.

The GM of Alienware was (or still is) the VP for XPS. Dell saves money consolidating lineup hardware.

 

That's entirely reasonable.

I might just pick one of these up to try it.

Although, I can get a AW15 with a Haswell i5 CPU and a 965M for the exact same price. Hmm.

 

Awesome and the updated systems are already up... FHD screen is back! But now i'm wondering if I should wait for Skylake...

 

Why are you waiting for Skylake? It's like 5% better than Broadwell. Wait for the 1060M. It will be 2x faster than the 960M.

 

I'd only wait for Skylake if it was imminent, but not sure if it is or not... As for the 1060M, what's the ETA on that? End of the year or next?

 

Probably early next year. The 960M came out in March 2015.

I noticed they've started offering a larger (optional) battery for the R2. May be interested in that when Pascal hits.

 

Wish there was an easy way to upgrade the battery in the AW 13" to the higher capacity that they just released

 

If the connector is the same, there may be an easy way. The R2 looks to have the same chassis size as the R1. Most likely the internal space is the same amount as well or similar enough.
Although, if you mean removing the battery, then yeah...

I have only read that the 15 R2 and 17 R3 have "dynamic overclocking". Nothing on the 13 R2.

 

Well i guess i will really wait for more updated graphics cards from nvidia before i even decide to make a purchase of this machine then. But really how is the performance of the cpu when playing high intensive games.

 

Proud owner of Alienware 13! Hopefully this will last me a long time.

Thank you for the input earlier.

 

Posted just to say a-goddamn-men to this; I fell in love with the keyboard on the 13 as soon as I set my fingertips on it. It's amazing, well worth the extra machine thickness. I hope this design stays around for a long time, because they've got a winner here.

My sole complaint with it however is the way that they've done the function keys: I was surprised to find that there were no play/pause, fast-forward and rewind media keys in sight. There are two function keys left blank, though it seems odd as that the external display toggle (F8) is redundant given that you can get that functionality with Winkey+P. If it were up to me I would have removed that and used F5-F8 for the media control keys, though I've remapped some of the buttons on my Razer Orochi to fill in for it.

 

I agree with the guy above, however, I don't think everyone knows about Window's built in short cut keys.

 

I may order one of the R2's in a couple weeks when they begin to ship, then return my R1 after I compare them. The larger battery is what I'm most interested in. I see at least 4h, usually 5h on the R1. 6h+ would be perfect.

Depends if there's a sale or coupons available. Prices seem to have gone up quite a bit.

 

Bloody hell, how are you getting five hours? My R1 barely gets three!

 

If and when you compare them, see if the R2's larger battery can fit in the R1.
Yeah, battery life usually averages between 5 to 6 hours for me. I've seen between 4 to 5 and between 6 to 7, but not as often as between 5 to 6.

Try FN + Arrow keys. I think those are the multi-media keys (found them be accident).

 

Ha, well, I set the lighting to 15% in class (which is bright enough on a 400-nit display). Helps a lot. QHD+ screens drink it up.

Will do. I'll take a look at both.

Let's just hope they have a mystery coupon sale soon, as they usually do around this time. I'll definitely grab one if so.

 

What an excellent accident to have! I'll take a look, thank you.