*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

Cool story.

This just in; it indeed harnesses a 76Wh battery.

Most of you are not the enthusiast this niche of laptop is geared towards. You should have purchased Yoga's.

 

I applaud you ..... furiously

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ignore button feels sooooo gooooood.

 

So a dell tech is coming home to me, to replace the battery and have a look on my fans. Like stated previously I used rubber feets underneath to raise it and the fans kept going high-low-high-low etc. then the diagnostic came with up with a fan error. Placed it on a flat table and the fan error was gone...

Battery wear is at 12% (although I belive this is a bios problem/battery firmware).

I like this system a lot, apart from the problems mentioned above it is really a well built laptop.

If anyone could try putting their laptop on feets or highten it about 1-2 centimeters in the back while on CPU performance. Then check if it starts to rev up and down I'd be grateful! I'd like to know if the senors gets screwed up or something.

 

My Alienware is working flawlessly so far. Only complaint is acoustics under load, but I guess I can accept that over time. Hard to get used to after a cool and quiet desktop, but I need a machine I can take with me to game since I rarely really sit at my desk anymore.

I achieved a .175V undervolt, but absolutely NO impact on the fans. Still reaches around 47-48 dB under load. CPU is 5-8C cooler though, but since it's already running cool stock, I don't see any benefit to constantly running XTU service.

Just ran a round of BF1 on my external 1440P Dell monitor. No issues whatsoever (for the folks who complained about stuttering/tearing). I also haven't noticed any microstuttering - so unless it's truly an occasional and tiny interrupt, I don't have that.

Uninstalled that Tobii crap right away - that IR camera constantly turning on every few seconds was hella annoying.

For everything non GPU related, this machine is near silent, or very minimal fans even running stress tests - so fan noise is 100% related to GPU. My GPU maxes around 77C after an hour of BF1. I'd still take some Dell fine tuning to let it get a bit warmer (low 80s) for 3 dB less fans. Maybe they'll do that in a future BIOS update?

 

I dislike the acoustics when lifted off it's own rubber feet - and didn't notice any impact to the fan speed or temperatures. Generally I've found laptop stands with built in fans to be a joke - but my experience is limited. If someone finds a fan matt with quiet fans that also makes their AW run quieter under load, I'll take a reccomendation.

 

Does anyone know how to run their AW in "clamshell" mode without fully disabling lid close behavior? I do want it to go to sleep when I close the lid in all other use cases other than docked!

Also, anyone try theirs with the WD15 USB-C dock yet? I used to have that with a Dell XPS15, and you could easily run the XPS15 in clamshell mode. Just plugged it into the thunderbolt port and it would auto wake up and connect. I might use my rewards cash to grab one. Too bad the 180W is beyond the spec for USB-C power delivery.

 

Hey, just got a call from Dell. They said that my unit has made it past the production phase and will be shipped on Monday the 26th. This matches what they told me a couple of days ago when I made this post:

My estimated delivery is still the same

 

I'd suggest just making the power button sleep, and closing the lid do nothing. Not really an inconvenience to tap the button, then close the lid. The power button will still work to shut it down if you hold it.

 

With all of this battery talk, could someone explain how best to prolong the battery in the long term? Desktop charge mode? Charge recharge cycles?

Thanks

 

Make sure, in the BIOS, you have standard charge instead of express charge. Express charge will charge the battery faster, obviously, at the expense of its health (charge capacity and temperature). It may be on by default.
Sometimes, the battery may have a 2% wear from factory. I wouldn't fret over it. It could just be an "emergency reserve" capacity (I've seen it with my 13 R1's batteries).

 

I usually use my laptop when sitting on the sofa. Could anyone recommend a laptop tray or laptop cooler

 

The best config for me are these which Ive used for a number of years to game on the sofa:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Targus-AWE...e=UTF8&qid=1482524415&sr=8-7&keywords=lap+pad
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CH...1482524480&sr=8-10&keywords=corsair+mouse+pad

The mousemat slides snugly inside the cooling pad and there is no jiggling around (of mousemat) during gaming. On previous laptops (not AW yet) Ive fixed the laptop to the Targus coolingpad using heavy duty velcro. Worked for me. I havent looked at any cooling performance on the AW13.
Not really a cooling pad but I recently bought this which looks really nice (I bought it for £40 or so imported from the U.S.). It is a little bit heavy and cumbersome with the AW (and cooling perfomance is probably rubbish of course) but will keep the AW off your lap etc.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sofia-Sam-...482525822&sr=8-1&keywords=sofia++sam+lap+desk

 

Thanks I was also looking at this

 

Hey guys, could anyone point me to any good adapters for hooking up multiple monitors? I have two DVI monitors and was hoping I could connect both of them through the thunderbolt 3 port at the back of the laptop. There doesn't seem to be many thunderbolt 3 adapters out yet though

Edit: One monitor is 1080p, and the other is less

 

http://www.nerdytec.com/COUCHMASTER/COUCHMASTER-Basic.html

Looks great for some proper sofa gaming.

Too expensive mind, in the process of diy'n me own. Materials so far cost me £30. Just waiting on the foam being covered but will be after Xmas now. Family friend sorting that out.

With a newborn around I needed something portable hence the AW13. (Seems to be running amazing now, 37 idle cpu 70's maxed, absolutely silent other than gaming. Gpu 76 max, fans tolerable but will into this further)

Get some proper gaming on the sofa when it's built.
Will probably put up pics once complete.

If your into diy at all, it really is a really simple project!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

View attachment 141027 View attachment 141027 For sizing; the Sofia+Sam i I think the one you are looking at and mine are the same size. Is a decent fit although a bit big but for gaming is a good solid base, cooling performance likley to be poor and slidey out mouse pad is a bit small but ok overall and a very nice product.

 

That's not bad since the screen is touch screen to access.



I just done 3 benchmarks consecutively and that was my temps put the box. Level cpu scores all the way and low. The fans are not in performance mode either. So they did a good job pasting this one. The battery swap might make this unit perfect. I'll decide by Monday. Time to cycle this down now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

They are sending it to me ! It finally on the way Do you know how long is take to come in Europe ?


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Dat cat !!

 

Not that expensive its £25


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

That's a very good point, the odd battery behavior could be a firmware problem with the laptop or the on-board battery firmware.

 

What you saying then guys the picture I posted or an actual laptop cooler??

 

XTU service doesn't take up much CPU. The XTU systray app does if you have monitoring enabled.

I exit the systray app after boot, after it does it's boot time settings, as I don't use XTU monitoring tools - that is what takes CPU and doubles duty on sensors - I use hwinfo64 for monitoring.

At first I disabled monitoring in XTU, but found it useful during setting testing for a quick look via the integrated panel, so now I leave the monitoring configured - extra sensors set up in the graphs - and just Exit the app after boot.

 

Sorry i meant the couchmaster for a £100! being too expensive.
£25 seems a fair price for the one you posted, just a tad too small for my needs.
I am after something more substantial, hence the couchmaster diy option

 

which benchmarks?
thats really cool.

i got into the 90s with prime then it went down 10c when the fans kicked in (stock fans not performance mode)

 

Doing a fire strike. I used stock drivers. Desktop drivers and mobile latest drivers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Lucky you. My estimated delivery just updated to Jan 2nd so at least there's something going on. I don't really need the system during the holidays so no issues there. I see some people here waited for a month for their systems, will see if I can get it in my hands by end of the first week before I lose patience..At least hopefully they fix the battery and thermal issues before I get mine.

 

Have you ran OCCT or anything that's more CPU intensive?

 

Na not got round to it. I'll only push as hard as a game will take it so can only go off that. Sorting out my drive and backup and recovery. Dont wanna mess it up as I did 1st time so getting that right. Then testing it works when required. Then if that goes well I'll install more stuff and give it ago. Literally 3D mark was the first thing I loaded to see how it was out the box to see if the gpu was working "as it should".


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

occt is the safest cpu stress test I would suggest

prime95 pulls too much power

 

do you have the paid version of firestrike?

i did the base one and scored below the gaming laptop benhcmark (980m) i think its using the intel graphics when i run firestrike and spy

which 95 test?

i ran small fft on mine and saw the core difference still

 

So guys, how about an AW+beer contest ?

 

A festive AW contest?

Not a bad pilsner from aldi that.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

I'll see your pilsner and raise you 30 pints of 6.5% Xmas stout

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

I hope you purchased accidental damage warranty, just in case....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Non paid. I'd assume notebook check runs it standard although the got the paid one so that users who use the free demo to run it can compare accurately to it.
Out the box I did get about 8800+ something like that but the graphics score was right 11570 something like that. So after trying new drivers they went to 9400. Graphics score still around the same.
I'm not really sweating it right now since the graphics score is right so it's the driver which will change that. Each driver will drastically change the score.
I'll probably go to the gs43vr drivers and try their nvidia ones since they got the best scores.
Maybe you can put the fan in performance mode. I'm sure that basically lets the gpu go all out.
My previous p34w had 4 fan modes to include auto hi which was good for game mode and moderate fan noise. And maximum fan which made it louder but gave more power which surprised me cos I thought it was just for cooling and the fire strike scores changed and games had better fps consistently throughout gaming.
Just a thought for those who are sacrificing that performance fans to avoid noise right now.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

First thing I added on sir! £30 well spent!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys, my Syncreon tracking is saying: "Plan committed". Whats this mean?

 

Was my second after oled.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Haha, didn't know they had a non oled version

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

so first "gaming" laptop, some of mmorpgs i play use the number pad keys and the numbers above thekayboard also. how would i get around this on the 13?
also some use the scrollpad on the mouse, i dont have a mouse yet is this doable at all on the 13? i tried using two fingers and it didnt work in game

also anybody have a clicky backspace button?
i have that and the temps are about 14C off when running prime (tested mordor and and an mmorpg and theyre within 7c of each other 76/72/78/71/77 was the max in game)

so not sure if those two things are worth trying to get an exchange during christmas

yeah im not scoring anything near that and i have the latest drivers off experience

time spy: 3579 (gpu: 3655 cpu 3206)
max temps 74/70/77/68/75)
graphic test 1: 24.03 fps
graphic test 2: 20.8 fps
cpu test 10.77 fps
v/g/free sync off

firestrike basic: 9596
max temps 75/71/76/67/75)
graphic score 11585
physics score 9228
combined score 4309
graphic test 1: 54.49 fps
graphic test 2: 46.83 fps
physics test 29.3fps
combined test 20.05 fps

 

you gonna stick some overclock on the GPU?, cant see why not? wont change temps as you cant up the voltage

My aero 14 pulls over 10k in fs http://www.3dmark.com/fs/11163535 with a small OC of 175/300, I would expect the AW13 to beat that easy

 

please refrain from using cancer in this forum

 

Your timespy score seems normal and your temps are fine. A few are apart seems ok on this laptop. My 1st unit is much further gap than that so nothing to worry bout there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/16878097
is being stock the reason my score is so much lower?

 

I saw that you achieved this on the aero 14 post. Impressed. So you how much increase you get in actual games?
As for oc myself. I'm not sure if I can be arsed lol. I just like clicking the desktop icon and let the game load. I don't think I'll notice an extra 6fps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Just purchased 3d mark on steam as 85% off.
Ran firestrike stock: 9768
Graphics 11841
Physics 9355

Seems OK for stock.

One thing is the Dell drivers aren't being recognised as valid?

Can anyone link to the most recent drivers for the 1060 please? I did try off nvidias site but constantly failed to install. (removed old drivers first) cheers.

... Also, what are people cleaning the palmrest with? Is isopropanol OK (use it for screen and cpu/gpu dies) or is this to abrasive to the rubber finish?


Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk