*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

For those waiting on shipment, when you call the automated phone support for order status, does it state an EDD? I ordered on December 8th, and initially showed EDD 16th-21st online, changed to 12/22 online yesterday. Funny thing is, when I call and go through automated order status prior to speaking with a rep, it states that there is no EDD. The rep I spoke with this afternoon also stated that my unit is still in production, but she cannot see a "unit code" and has no delivery estimate.

Pretty poor showing - not even having an idea when these will ship. I have an i5/OLED model ordered.

 

My 17R4 was targeted to arrive around Jan 2016, I received it on the 13th.

 

Same story with me a few others here. Ordered on the 6th. Original EDD was the 13th-21st. Then changed to the 22nd yesterday. Numerous chats and calls with them, as recently as this afternoon, only confirm that the unit is still in transport from China. Yet they still assure me it will be here on the 22nd, or the day after. That's some very special shipping they have there! I'm not getting my hopes up. Seems like they are just trying to prevent mass-hysteria, and tell us what we want to hear, throw in the sentence "I will be happy to expedite this for you", and get us off the phone.

 

I got a RAID 0 question(s).

I order my system with 512GB and just installed an 960 EVO 1TB, boot into windows, thinking I would just add the new SSD as "D drive" but the Intel Rapid Storage software detected the second SSD, so I went and did a RAID 0, the Intel software detects the RAID as 954GB, I went to the Windows disk manager and to "expand" the partition to "C" but it won't do it. The only BIOS option I could find it says "RAID enable", unless I am missing some advanced features.

All the guides I found on the internet are mainly if you completely replace the boot drive, couldn't find anything keeping the boot drive intact and adding another one drive.

Suggestions welcome or a guide that can help me.

Thanks.

 

A RAID0 basically splits the work evenly between two drives. The total size of the RAID0 array will be the sum of the capacities of the drives, but only to the lowest common denominator. If you have 2x 512GB, you'll have a ~1TB RAID0 array. If 2x 1TB, it'll be ~2TB. You can't expand yours further because the 512GB drive is already fully used, i.e. it is as big as can be. The rest of the space on the 960 EVO is just wasted, unfortunately.

 

well sh$%...

Thanks for the info, now I got to figure out how to "undo" the raid without having to reinstall windows.

 

Creating RAID on AW13...

Boot into the BIOS (F2 during boot).

From the Advanced tab scroll down to Intel Rapid Storage Technology and select Enter.


From the next screen, select Create RAID Volume.


RAID 0 is selected by default, but you can select RAID 1 also. You also have the option to name your volume.
Select your drives by placing and X in the box next to the drives and then scroll down to Create Volume.


*As PMF stated, your total capacity of your RAID 0 volume will be the total of the lowest common capacity of the two drives (i.e. 512GB SSD + 1TB SSD will only use 512GB SSD of 1TB for a total of 1TB, not 1.5TB).
* Creating a RAID volume will also format your drives to create the new virtual disk, so you will need to reinstall the OS.

Hope that helps.

 

You can see whether Admin Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management will allow you to create an additional partition in the unused space of the 1TB drive. I honestly don't know because the last time I used RAID was with a hardware card in a desktop years ago, but it would be a nice solution for you if software has caught up to allow that kind of flexibility.

Failing that, to undo the RAID, you probably need some sort of third drive and mirroring software to first mirror the system drive onto that, than re-mirror from that onto one of the SSDs after you've deleted the RAID array.

 

I receive my unit tomorrow, but curious with owners of the OLED screen. How dim can you take the display brightness? I like to use my current laptop in bed quite often and appreciate the ability to get fairly dim. I don't have a lumen measuring device, but I generally run around 25% brightness in the evenings with my Surface Book. The Surface Book is a high bar because it gets incredibly bright (400+ lumens) and can also go to extremely dim levels of brightness.

 

Well all notebooks, regardless of panel, will dim the same. All windows 10 laptops have a dynamic adjuster with about 10% brightness as the lowest setting. No matter the lumens 25% brightness will be 25% of maximum brightness. The OLED is a 400 lumen panel, 25% brighness should be approximately the same as in your panel.

 

@jedolley and @PMF ,

thanks for the comments, I ended up removing the RAID on the BIOS and reinstalling windows, I had created a backup on an external drive and also had created a "file history" new feature didnt know even existed.

I may just run SSD C: (512GB) and D: (1TB) until I decide to add another 1TB SSD, I doubt Id even do it.

Once again thanks for the help

 

Anyone else's order getting delayed until January? I received these tweets from Dell today.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

Look what is received yesterday ...

Bonjour Monsieur,


Je me permets de revenir vers vous afin de vous informer que suite au retour de notre usine, votre commande est toujours en production suite à une rupture de stock au niveau de l’un des composants de l’Alienware commandé.


Vu cette gêne occasionnée, la commande sortira de l’usine le 30/12/2016, la date estimée de livraison et le 06/01/2017.


Je vous souhaite une bonne fin de journée.


Bien cordialement.

It is said, they are missing parts and it must leave the factory on 30/12/2016

 

iGPU disabled? And when keeping it enabled like it should be? And fullscreen video?

 

Got my AW13 Oled, I just started playing SW Battlefront and my GPU is hitting 91c fresh out of the box. So far Ive gotten 3 BSOD(Video Scheduler Internal Error) in that game(updated drivers helped). My CPU cores 0/1/2/3 are 91c/85c/89c/79c. I now tried under volting the cpu by -125 and it it lowered it by 15c, freezes at -130v. The gpu still hits 89c, also getting frame drops from 60+fps down to 27fps in (1080p)game.

This laptop is perfect if you're into light gaming but once you load those latest FPS shooter, it sounds like a drone Is there another gaming laptop with a gtx1060 that is quieter than this?

Fan noise and it froze

 

How is your framerate? You could try nvidia inspector and sett fps limit to 50-60 fps? That would probably reduce temp since gpu doesnt have to hard as hard. Also, try if you can undervolt to like -129 etc, every degree helps

 

When did you order it?

And from what I researched, the Alienwares are supposed to be the quieter of the laptops with a 1060 that's in the 13"-14" form factor. In the 15.6" categories, I think some chunkier MSI's (Not the GS63VR) may be quietest, but I can't confirm. I have no idea about the 17" options though.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!


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From my knowledge of intel rapid storage is basically this. Remember laptops that came with a large hhd but then had 64gb ssd also? Basically all the software does is merge that ssd with the hhd to get faster speeds with the larger space. The 64gb wouldn't become usable or extended in the os. That's what's happened. If you click that intel software. Just disable it cos you've got 2 ssd and it's just wasted like that in speed and space. I'm saying this because you can't just add a drive to an existing one and then "bam!" RAID. Don't work like that. It has to be installed at the start to do that. And you didn't. But the adding a drive after and merging to make a "fake raid" does and I know because I've used this in the past.


Also wanna add I ordered aw13 on the 8th. Expected delivery the 30th. Was preproduction the whole time. A few days ago it dropped to the 23rd but contacted dell anyway to see why it's taking so long to go in production. Today it's got email from dell saying it's shipped. So it's skipped the whole in between part. So if you've ordered and waiting. Maybe it's manually updated and someone to last have your machine hasn't updated it on the system. Just a thought.

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That fan noise is fine but what is that clicking sound? Sounds like more than overheating here but someone better accustomed to laptops will be able to guide you better.

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Ordered December 14th, and just got off the chat saying that it's still in production and will be shipped out on December 26th. Based on what others said, I'm not too sure if this means much but it's something.

My EDD is still 12/22/2016 - 12/29/2016

Skeptical if I can actually get it in 3 days..

 

The noise sounds like the noise that is normal from computer freezing. I would enable cpu performance mode in bios and not undervolt at this time and try again and see if you get lockups?

 

I know that some people do not want to repaste there brand new AW13. I can fully understand that because everyone wants to get a high quality machine out of the box.

Unfortunately the paste which Alienware uses is crap and therefore you get this bad results. After my repaste with liquid metal (of course you can use common paste aswell) my temps are just great and the fan noise is very very quite. Even in BF1 under full load it is just a calm wind flow.

Please see my attached screenshot of the out of the box Alienware paste!

 

When did you order and receive yours? They've supposedly upgraded the thermal paste on the CPU recently based on what @iunlock found

 

Just had a text off the wife.
Laptop has landed!
Terrible courier service but it's finally here.
Canne wait to finish work today!

(hopefully, she's not winding me up.......)

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

@selvedge I ordered 17th November and got ot at the end of November. I guess I was one of the first people who got the AW13.

I had huge temp differences (12-15 °C ) between the cores and so I decided to repaste. OCCT test broke up afer 20 seconds because of thermal issues (over 91°C). Afterwards the difference was that my CPU temp on all cores are even and not above 70°C.

I'm very happy with my decision because the little monster runs like the big ones and is quite aswell. Best laptop I have ever owned!

 

WTF dude, there's something wrong if you laptop is making that weird as hell noise. Sounds like the fans are rubbing on something as they spin - you might try blasting the two fans with the lid off with some O2.

Your temps are fine...quit worrying about them. As far BSOD - that's weird - are you saying the new drivers solved the BSOD?

Don't undervolt with the temps you have - your CPU is 100% fine.

 

Glad a LM repaste helped with acoustics, but hitting 91 should not cause any issues. The CPU max temp is 100C before throttling will kick in.

 

Hey bro, have you had any luck? My 29 Nov order EDD 12-20 Dec is still just "confirmed". No useful info from support.

 

Wheeey!

 

My EDD is tomorrow and I will call them when I havent got it (pretty sure I wont) to try and get a 10% off, because its a huge inconvenience. Another person on Reddit called them and was told Dell has next-to-no communication with the manufacturer. They dont get notified of any delays etc. They also dont seem to have much communication with the courier...

 

She wasn't lying! Even a beer!

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HYPE!!!!!

 

In truly wasn't expecting the build quality to be so good!

Wow.

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What are the advantages of RAID? I read on Tom's hardware it offers more protection from hard drive failure vs AHCI. Can you explain on any other benefits of having RAID?

 

Deleted, Question already answered

 

Well most people are going to be looking at doing RAID 0 if doing RAID at all and RAID 0 offers ZERO redundancy. RAID itself has nothing to do with hard drive failure, but allows you to use multiple disk to create a single virtual disk and offers redundancy depending on the RAID level.

 

Thats awesome man! congrats!

 

@Rairch pleased you got your machine, keen to know how you get on. The one I ordered landed yesterday, I've resisted the temptation to fire it up - I mean if it's not working then I've got no chance of turning it round before Xmas anyway . Would be interested in knowing if Dell come through for you in their promise of a rebate following this debacle, I've just received an offer of a 50GBP refund due to the delay. Did they offer you 10pct? I'm inclined to push for the same.

Edit: spelling

 

Cheers.
Not posting anything else as others are still waiting for there's, and I know only too well how bloody stressful this has been!

Hope everyone gets sorted soon!

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Please run some tests!

Check temps
Microstuttering
Wifi
External monitor full screen having a blank screen (i.e., youtube)
Battery wear
Creaking on the hinge
Sound crackling

 

Beer and new laptop, waaaaah I want mine!!!! Will have to settle for just the beer.

Is it normal to check the syncreon thingy on an hourly basis?

 

Here's the original email.
I have just had a follow up email stating it will 5 to 7 days for my 10% refund.

I also requested that for being lied to on multiple occasions that Dell should add on another 2 years warranty for the stress of the situation and battery issues.......
We'll see what happened with that one!

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Mine was every ten mins.......

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I will definitely get round to this but with Xmas round the corner and a newborn I cannot promise much unfortunately.

But I will get round to it soon!

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Dang dude, excited to join you in the opening party tonight when FedEx delivers mine! Wahoo! I plan to take lots of pictures. I'll compare size to Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, and an old Acer 4820TG laptop I have sitting in the closet. I also have a acoustics dB meter, so I can load up Battlefield 1 first thing and get some actual readings.

 

Thinking doom for me. Doom and beer.......

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Quick 2 mins.
Things extremely well built, no hinge creaking.
Battery 60% not charging.....so Dell have done absolutely nothing to my laptop then...... Bloodyhell.
Simple enough fix.

The OLED..... oh the oled.
1440p YouTube testers..... Oh my. Just stunning!

Funny thing is, I totally forgot it was a touchscreen panel. Surprised meself with that one. Never use it mind.

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The beer is beautiful !!! XD

 

Mine should have arrived today as well. Can't wait to get home, although it's going to be a couple of hours yet!

 

Not a chance. It'll probably get to you by the 30th.