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

That's the same one I have. And this might have been clarified previously, but just in case, an NVMe SSD will NOT work in the AW 13 R1, correct? Or will it, but just will not get optimal performance...

 

I noticed that the R2's look like they can use one NVMe and one normal M.2 SSD in the setup. Based off what I see on Alienware's website, I have the i7 6500 so it has to be an R2.

 

Does anyone have Alienware 13 R2 benchmarks with the GPU Amplifier? I'm trying to figure out the Core i7-6500U's bottleneck limits with high-end desktop GPUs like the GTX 980ti

 

Oh look here... Alienware 13 with an OLED Screen!

http://techaeris.com/2016/01/06/ces...first-gaming-notebook-featuring-oled-display/

 

Saw that... my first thought... Selling my AW17R3 as soon as they release a 17" UHD OLED laptop

 

And the laptop is in red!
Darn, I want that red color scheme on my 13.

 

Ye I assume the next gen will have OLED option on all 3 sizes. And that Red is 100% FIRE!!

I say bring it on!

 

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

This is a review with the broadwell i7 5500u, which is only marginally slower than the skylake i7 6500u. Skip down to gaming performance / graphics amplifier for benchmarks running the AW13 with a GTX980. The short answer is yes the i7 CPU will bottleneck the high-end cards. Hope that helps.

 

Well, the 3DMark score is SIGNIFICANTLY less (-35%), but the 3DMark graphics are only marginally less at -11% when compared to a Desktop CPU. Word on the street, the new Skylake i7 6500u in the Razer Stealth is hyperthreaded, and that there's no difference compared to a quad when it comes to gaming. That's why I wanted to see the impact with the new i7.

 

Is there anyone who can send me some photos of 1366*768 screen of Aw13? I wanna see if is really bad as people said.

 

Yes, it is so bad that i don't even want to open it to take a photo for you. I regret the moment i turned it on. Anyway, gaming on it when i'm on the trip is acceptable as long as i watch it exactly straight to it, means i have to adjust the screen a bit every times i change my posture.
Go for ips, go for 1080p!

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

The i7-5500u is also hyperthreaded as well as the i5 CPUs in the 13 R1 and R2, and the only one that is comparable to the i7-5500u in the i5 range is the i5-6200u.
You can look at my GA amp analysis with the i7-5500u (link in my signature). The CPU will still be a bottleneck, but slightly less this with the i7-6500u given it's faster speed, architecture improvements, and faster bus speed (PCIe 2.0 x4 vs. PCIe 3.0 x4). Even if the dual core CPU is hyperthreaded, it doesn't truly replicate the performance of a quad core. Sometimes it could be better depending on the game, other times even, but the rest of the times it would be worse.
You don't look at the graphics score alone in a benchmark to deduct what you're looking at. You'll have to look at the overall picture; otherwise, you get a conclusion that only fits for graphics-intensive games that barely need the CPU.

 

Did anyone ever confirm or deny that the AW13 R1 will work properly with an PCIe NVMe SSD?

 

Denied. The M.2 slots in the 13 (if you have them) are for SATA M.2s. I did remember someone in the Dell Community Forum trying to put in a Plextor M.2 (forgot the name, but I know it was PCIe), and it wouldn't work in the laptop.
(Hopefully I'm not remembering the wrong laptop, though.)

 

Thank you. I kind of figured that it wouldn't accept the PCIe NVMe SSDs, but just wanted to double check before getting another SSD for the laptop.

 

If you want a recommendation for an SSD, I use the Samsung 850 EVO and the Crucial MX200 M.2s. They work pretty great and have are affordable for their specs (compared to the other M.2s I saw).
I also have a Trascend MTS800, and it does the job just fine (now it's just a storage drive for a few games of mine).

 

Yea, I was looking at the Samsung 850 EVO 512 GB. I currently have the Lite On 256 GB SSD in there right now and was just going to leave that as the primary/OS and use a secondary SSD for data/storage.

 

Sandisk ultra II 960gb ~ 260$
Samsung evo 850 ~ 348$
Performance aprox the same

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

Disregard, didnt notice u want a pci e ssd

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

No, he wanted a SATA SSD, but with how the 13 works, if you order an SSD at the time of configuration, you get two M.2 slots instead of one 2.5" bay. So 2.5" SSDs won't work unless one gets the appropriate cable.

 

You might want to consider swapping the order around. LiteOn has 2 models for their M.2 OEM SSDs. One is ridiculously slow and the other is decent (but discontinued). I eventually used my Samsung 850 EVO 256GB as the primary/OS because of the speed difference.

 

Is it possible to use Aw17 180w PSU on Aw13?

 

Yes. Should not be an issue.

 

Hi. I'm new here so forgive me if it's not the right way to ask help: I have a Alienware 13R1 i7 5500u and I think I have screw the BIOS while trying to update it. I did a factory reset and juste before doing any windows update, I did the A04 update with the exe program, but the processes failed; I let it hang for a day but notting happened. I force rebooted and the computer hang there, no post, keyboard light on, fan works etc. As I already revived a HP laptop after a bios update who failed, I tried to extract the bios file from another computer, using the Dell .exe bios update file, extracted with command line and '-writehdrfile' to a USB FAT32 formated drive and start the laptop with the USB inside, pressing a key and putting the power cable in. The computer start, fan run as fast as possible and the light on the USB key flash during a few seconds but not much other things happens. It may due to a wrong file name or anything else, I don't really know. I don't know if it already has been resolved before, I've searched around the web and on few forum for a solution but I didn't found anything yet. Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry for my English, it's not my native language.

- I'm not a newbie on computer usually but I assume I should have done the update via dos and not by using the software solution

 

I want to say something, but I really can't think of anything.
@Lord Zog Could you provide some help to Alexclu?

 

Hi you guys.

I'm new here and i recently bought a R2 13 and its been giving me so much grief that I'm rethinking my purchase.

My problem: First everything worked great after reinstalling windows 8.1 and then upgrading to windows 10 but then one time after rebooting my sound stopped working.

Alright I thought some driver problem so i tried redownloading the driver and reinstalling it - DIDNT WORK
Then i downloaded the driver only from the realtek website itself - DIDNT WORK
Reinstalled Windows 10 - sound still DIDNT WORK
Opened up the laptop and replugged the speaker cable on the mainboard - STILL DIDNT WORK
I don't get an audio signal from the audio jack but the inbuilt microphone recognizes my speaking. So i doubt that the soundchip is dead since it's visible in the device manager and the microphone works (as mentioned)

I did a bios update today still nothing works - now its not recognizing my drive anymore even though it shows up as M.2 drive in the main bios window (i tried changing the bios to legacy, disabling\enabling secure boot...)

So now I'm thinking about resetting the CMOS by taking the battery out for 5-10 minutes.

Is there something else you guys can think of that might be wrong?

Is my mainboard a dud?

Problem is: I bought the laptop while I was in the states and now I'm in Germany so I dont know how the warranty issue would go...

Any help is appreciated!

 

try that taking the CMOS battery out thing, actually, call Alien ware and i'm sure they'd still honor your warranty. their warranty service is fast and they once had a guy next day come to my house and replace my motherboard.

 

Has anyone tried overclocking the refresh rate of the laptop's display? Many monitors I and others tried can reach 75 to 95Hz. This could help with increase smoothness and performance in fps and other fast pace games.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/you-guys-know-you-can-overclock-the-lcd.660283/page-15

Thanks.

 

Intel GPUs don't allow panel overclocking. At least, not yet as Intel has said the feature could come Soon™.

 

Thanks Game7. I meant the Nvidia 960m or using the AGA's Nvidia Customize resolution, where you can test any refresh rate you wish.

Thanks.

 

The laptop's panel is connected only to the Intel GPU. No discrete GPU has control over the laptop panel's refresh rate or resolution.

 

Thanks Game7. What about using CRU tool below or the Alienware G. Amp or hexedit the Intel drivers?

http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU

Thanks.

 

I don't think that tool works ( Laptops with switchable graphics are not supported (resolutions are handled by Intel's graphics driver). Hexediting the Intel driver's might not work either.
Again, the laptop panel is connected only to the Intel GPU. No other GPU is wired to the laptop panel, including the GA's desktop GPU (I know from experience as it'll act as a render GPU for the laptop's display panel; however, any monitor connected to the desktop GPU is controlled by the desktop GPU). Same goes for the the laptop's HDMI and display ports (miniDP or TB3).

 

Hi Game7,
Thanks so much again for your info. Here's the link that shows Intel GPU can do custom refresh rate. I guess we need to find the right drivers or modify the driver to change the refresh rate from 60 Hz to 70-95 Hz, etc.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/429086-guideoverclocking-monitor-w-intel-hd-graphics/

So if the 980 GTX inside the AGA has to go through the AW13R2 's Intel GPU to output its laptop display, how much of a bottleneck is that compared to its desktop's monitor equivalent? Do you have any link of these details you can share?

M. Thanks.

 

I know older drivers worked with overclocking the panel, but at the same time, newer drivers were preventing it. Hence why I said it might not work.
You can look at my Graphics Amplifier performance analysis (link in signature) to get an answer about your question. While I did not use a GTX 980, the value should be about the same (as someone with a 15 R1 + GTX 980 ti tested and our values were pretty similar). The same applies for other eGPU set-ups.
The Intel GPU still does the display work for the laptop display, but the discrete GPU will just do the legwork (rendering) if it is needed to(that's how, in a nutshell, switchable graphics such as Optimus work).

 

I tried resetting the CMOS by taking the battery out to no avail. The Diagnostic test showed a corrupt drive (which would also suck in a brand new device) but I'll try booting from another drive and see if maybe all along a corrupt PCIe NVME SSD was the culprit.

Is there something I have to do to get a regular SSD in except for just taking the nvme out and use the cage? Is it a slot-in connector or do i need some sort of cable? I'm not at home right now otherwise I'd check myself.

edit: briefly checked the internet...needs a cable - ordered a new PCIe NVME to check if thats gonna work...

 

Thanks Game7a for your great analysis. +Rep.


Have you seen the link below: So if the R2 13 has x4 PCIe 3.0 = 8 GB/s.
GTX 970 is 3.494 GFLOP/s and GTX 980ti has 5.632 GFLOP/s.
Does this mean that only a GPU w/ 8 GFLOP/s will likely the best (wont bottleneck until then) for a R2 13?

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_980_PCI-Express_Scaling/21.html

Thanks.

 

The CPU will be a bottleneck for the GPU in certain games / applications before the bandwidth becomes a bottleneck.
Outside of that, any GPU that exceeds the bandwidth provided (I actually don't know the exact number, so sorry) and doesn't come close to what is offered with PCIe 3.0x16 would not be recommended.
AMD GPUs usually has better GFLOP/s than Nvidia GPUs (doesn't mean they perform outstandingly better), and those GPUs scale well with lower bandwidth speeds.

 

Reporting back:

Had a broken mobo...service tech came and swapped the speakers and mobo. For now it works again. Left a salty taste regarding alienware systems in my mouth..

 

As an AW15 owner, I'm about to join the AW13 R2 club. I was on the lookout for a lighter more portable gaming machine to bring on my travels abroad. The Razer Blade stealth caught my eye, but it isn't on sale in my country and the AW13 has been on my want list for a while. I've been checking the Alienware (Ireland) website each day for the last month as sometimes unusual deals (or possibly even mistakes) popup from time to time. Two days ago they had the cheapest AW13 model (i5, 1366x768, mechanical drive) configured with a HD display and a 512GB SSD for no additional cost! This config is now fixed, but there is still an anomaly where the second highest AW13 spec (i7, FHD screen) when configured to the highest spec by adding the QHD+ screen is almost €200 less, yet the cheaper machine has more ram (8GB vs 4GB in the highest spec). Bizzare to say the least. This is the same across all EU Alienware sites at the moment as far as I can see. Needless to say I went for this deal and got a further 10% off and free delivery by phoning a rep so happy days! Hope the QHD screen was worth the upgrade!

 

wait for the RED OLED version

 

Apologies I should have posted the above in the order thread. Yes the OLED/Red version is very nice indeed and I was aware of it, but it's not coming until March/April and I wanted touch screen functionality too. I like to upgrade regularly, so perhaps next time

 

Thanks Game7.

Here's my score 3941: overclock +120 core +140 Mem /AW13R2
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/10301524?

It seems with the link above using AGA and 980ti or 1080 most games I play should get 80-120 fps easy.

Thanks.

 

Nice score. The physics scores don't seem that much different than the 5500u, or even slightly lower. Bad run perhaps?

Interesting that the razer stealth is getting so much hype with its external GPU, since IMO the AW 13 is a much better buy. Sure, the AW 13 is a little thicker and weighs more, but you get a 960M if you actually want to game on the go.

Would be nice if the AW13 Red OLED they could throw in a 6300hq (thermal limit it down to 35W or something), but it's probably never going to happen since the AW 13 already runs a bit warm (for the size and internals).

 

Follow this guide I wrote up a few months back to do a bootblock recovery on these models. The file and keys are different than the HP that you bootblock recovered before.. This should be the same method with the AW13. If not, let me know and I'll look it up the in the BIOS for you.

Before you follow the guide, the reference to the file used (AW15A05.EXE), use the latest BIOS for the AW13 as the one I used was for the AW15 and 17..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/bios-flash-issue.778528/#post-10051222

 

Thanks Zarfo. Here's another run Core +125, VRAM +180
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/10309743?
4137: Physics = 5074

Does anyone know why the Intel GPU won't force "Scale Full Screen" when selected instead it always use "Center Image" in 3DMark?

Thanks.

 

Hi and thanks for your reply!
I should have said that I already tried this method; don't know if it was from this site or another one but when I did that: everything's alright on the procedure side.. Files are made, I remove the main battery, I put the USB key in, I press the button and put the AC in. Computer start up with fans running full speed. USB flash once or more (not much more than a few seconds) then, nothing more. I let it hang there like this, a night long, and it was still like that in the morning. That's why I was wondering if the name of the file was different, as my model is 13" vs 15". I'll try it again with different USB keys tonight but I'm running out of solution (and hope )

 

Instead of using AAP10.hdr as your recovery filename, use ZAP00.hdr for your model. That's the filename in the recovery image for the AW13 R1 since it doesn't share BIOS and MB's like the 15 and 17.... Let us know if it works so I can add it to my notes.

 

Hey guys I'm about to get a AW13 R2 and have already ordered 16 gig of ram and a Samsung 950 pro. I've read a ton and searched quite a bit but still have a couple of questions I hope you will help with. I understand that the M.2 slots are PCIe 3.0. Do they run at 4x? Can you put two PCIe drives in? If so, do they share the PCIe bus? If so, does this slow them down?

Plus, mine is coming with a 2.5 inch drive so I'll need the M.2 adapter plate. Where can I get one of these?

Thanks for the help

 

You would need to contact Dell about buying this. You might find it somewhere online, though.