*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

Just unwrapped my new 15, and I noticed I couldn't do any color corrections in the NV Control Panel like I'm used to. Found out it's disabled/hidden as the Intel chip takes precedence and you're supposed to use its own color controls.

Well, I'd rather use the NV CP, so was wondering either how to re-enable the color controls there, or ideally set it to never use the Intel card unless on battery (or hell, never).

Thoughts?

Thanks!!

 

There's no option to disable Optimus. However I could set the Nvidia to run always by selecting chrome to use Nvidia. Since chrome autostarts on boot Nvidia takes over. You can add the GPU activity monitor to taskbar to see status (NV Control Panel -> Desktop -> Display GPU Activity). Though using Nvidia all the time can increase temperature and will have less battery life. Well I was just checking what would be the difference.

 

You can only use Intel Graphics Control Panel > Display > Color Settings for adjustment, since everything is drawn by the Intel card; there is no interaction between the Nvidia GPU and the screen.

Long story: there is simply no way to bypass Optimus, short of rewiring the Nvidia dGPU physically to the screen. The only way to draw things on your monitor, is via the Intel iGPU: so all you can do through Nvidia Control Panel, is deciding which card does the heavy-duty rendering tasks (e.g. games).

 

Hi guys, I have AW 15 with 4k display n I have few questions

1. I am little bit worried about scratching my screen. Does anybody with 4k display use screen protector? If so, Does it still work perfectly? I mean when you touch it.
2. Is it safe to clean keyboard, fans, etc with canned air compressor like Dust-Off?

Thanks

 

1. Works perfectly without a screen protector, but like other touchscreens - fingerprint magnet. Don't worry about scratching under normal laptop usage.

2. Kind of wondering about that myself.

 

Finally tested my AW15 for gaming and I am not disappointed. No throttling, no loud fan noise, acceptable temperatures. Especially compared to the other 15inch 970gtx laptops on the market. The Gigabyte, Blade, MSI and Aorus all throttle and have fairly loud fans and run hotter. From what I have understood the A00 bios runs cooler but I have no clue about how loud the fans are then. But temps now between 80 and 90c are more than acceptable for me. It prolongs the cooling fan lifespan and the hardware wont really degrade at these temps. Alienware control center should have a fan tuning option though just like all the other laptop manufacturers have.

The IPS panel used in my machine has perfectly acceptable ghosting. Call of Duty on 60fps runs great in my eyes with almost all details on the highest possible settings. The Witcher 3 runs great and many more games.

Productivity is great too on this device and in combination with a studio grade audio interfaces an ideal partner for music production on the road.

I was worried because of a lot of posts on this board about the laptop quality. But from what my experiences are the older Alienware crowd see these machines as desktop replacements with cooling suitable for these machines? But I see these laptops more as direct competition to the likes of the MSI ghost pro's for example which do really run hot and loud. But this is currently the only fairly portable 15inch machine with acceptable battery life, low fan noise and impressive speeds in one package on the market. MSI, Clevo etc cant touch two of those factors which are battery life and low fan noise. Every laptop out there has a compromise. The past Alienwares had portability and battery life as comrpomises. The focus of these laptops just changed.

 

I am thinking of buying alienware 15 with 1080p display and I am worried about ghosting issues. Can you guys tell me how bad is it and is this display suitable for CS:GO and other fps games?
And some other questions:
What are the temperatures when gaming with 970m and 980m?
Is 980m worth it?
Do you recomend this laptop?

 

Recently I got the AW15 with 980m anf 4K screen. I do recommend you to check the 4K option. The display is just awesome. Texts look sharp and color production is just great. I prefer AW over MSI and ASUS due to build quality.

 

I second this opinion.

 

I have to push back on the 4k a bit. Both screens are definitely awesome but if people think about their preferences, one may become preferable to the other. I have both sitting in front of me.

If:
1) You like glossy
2) you're playing games most of the time
3) are OK with downscaling resolutions or settings to keep framerates up

Then the 4K absolutely rocks!

Otherwise, if
1) You prefer matte
2) You care about accurate colors and don't want to bother with a calibration tool (the 4k is a wide gamut screen causing crazy oversaturation in most desktop apps, particularly web browsers)
3) You like to run your games at full details at native resolution
4) You can't deal with the Windows HiDPI mess that still exists in many apps

Then the 1080p screen is absolutely gorgeous. I have the LG 1080p and don't have any severe ghosting (maybe normal IPS but even that I'm not sure of) and the colors are perfect and even across the screen.

In addition, the 1080p is noticeably brighter than the 4k. Probably due to the glossiness....

Personally, I'm sticking with the 1080P

Maybe my analysis will help someone decide

N

 

Looks like alienware 15 is now locked to only the 4k monitor and only 965m or 980m as options:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-15/pd

 

I prefer matte actually, but the 1080p screen has that ugly bezel which looks quite unappealing. Game-wise, 4k on slightly lower settings still "feels" more natural than 1080p on higher settings (less compromise on settings when you don't need anti-aliasing at all). I agree with your points for 1080p, although 3 of them are fixable, so it's ultimately personal preference If I had a gripe about the 4k screen, it'd be about how it auto-magically attracts fingerprints.

It's regional, where I'm at, 1080p is the only option right now. Seems it depends on availability.

 

Agree its totally a matter of preference - I actually like the bezel on the 1080p; it has less distractions on it when I'm gaming in a room with people moving around behind me

N

 

What you guys think, is the speed good enough for cold boot as window 10?

 

Seems good. You could probably speed it further by selectively disabling startup programs and services, and delay launching less important ones.

 

that start up, I already disable startup programs but not services.

 

Just thought I'd check again if anyone has successfully achieved 4k at 60hz to a tv? I'm still having issues, I've given up because 1080 at 120hz is fantastic but occasionally I'll startup Fallout 3 or Skyrim at 4k(30hz) and they look amazing and I know they'd run at 60fps with the 980m. I read somewhere that there was a beta driver that allowed 4k/60hz over an hdmi 1.4 but downscaled the 4:4:4 to 4:2:0.. or something like that .. anyone know how to set that? or which driver to use to try it? On top of playing some games it would be cool just to be able to test fps on some certain games in 4k.

 

any idea if they will be bringing back the 1080p alienware 15?

 

Yes it's up on their website.

Interesting that now it seems the AW15 is only offered with the GTX965M.

At least in Canada.

 

They have all of them in the US one.

Also the new AW15's SSDs are not PCIe.

 

Well I just noticed something that may be overlooked in the Aw15 R2's specs.
(1x) HDMI (2.0 with NVIDIA / 1.4 with AMD) Output
Could there be any reason for this?

 

I'm having some serious throttling issues here.. never noticed them before but typically play older not so intensive games but I just installed the COD Black ops 3 beta.. starts off great 100 ish fps in 1080p with everything maxed out.. usually runs 80 to 100fps during the game, when I hear the fan go on a minute or 2 from starting it drops to the 60s.. then as it gets hotter it drops down in the 30s. I did get a little slowdown with Witcher 3 sometimes but this is crazy. Any ideas on what's up? oh yeah.. I've got the 980m .

 

Same as with their latest graphics cards, they just do not support it it seems.

 

Hello, all.

I have a question that I seem to be getting conflicting info on. I am looking to get the ANW15 that from what I understand has the m.2 SSD slot (unused since it only comes with a 7200 RPM spinner). I have a 512GB Samsung 850 EVO SATA III SSD drive. Can I throw that in to the m.2 slot? Or do I need to get a drive that is specific m.2? Thanks much.

 

m.2 is a new SATA format and u have to buy a m.2 SSD to plug it in. If you have a 2.5" SSD tgen just remove the HDD and add SSD. Also there are 2 m.2 slots apart from 2.5" one so total 3 disc drives can be installed.

I removed my HDD and added SSD and now my system only runs on SSDs. I didn't wanted any moving part inside Laptop except for fans.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

Check your CPU frequency. Mine drops down to 800 MHz when playing BO3 Beta/BF4/Metro series (aka CPU intensive games)

 

This thread says 15R1/R2.. There is an R2? I swear if the R2 is very similar to the R1 but with no issues im gonna flip lol

 

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-15-r2/pd

 

Gotta Samsung 850 EVO in my AW15? Is there a way to switch to AHCI mode without reinstalling windows?

 

Hello, all.

I have seen this question posed a couple of times; however, can someone point me to the clearest step by step to the following?

My AW15 came with a 7200 spinning drive. I bought a 512G M.2 SSD and will add to one of the empty bays. I need to get the Windows OS off of the 7200 mechanical drive (using Respawn?), install the M.2 SSD, and restore the OS to the SSD and boot from the SSD. I will then reformat the 7200 drive to use as a data drive.

Can someone point me to the clearest resource for handling the above procedure? Thanks much!

 

Clone the harddisk with macrium reflect and boot from the SSD and format the HDD is also a good solution,

 

Thanks... How do you direct the system to boot from the SSD instead of the 7200 RPM drive? I could not find a "boot order" or "boot from" in the BIOS or boot options (f2/f12).

Thanks.

 

hmm good question. i to be honest dont know about that on an alienware. never had to change these settings on mine. Maybe something with sexureboot? Or format both drices and us the respawn usb stick and select the ssd as the windows drive itself?

 

In one of my previous posts I described how I managed, maybe it'll help:

"M2 SSD install with Alien Respawn

Ok, let me tell you a little about my Calvary with the M2 SSD install.

Problem 1: Alien Respawn will automatically restore to the HDD if that was the original fixed hard drive in the laptop.
Problem 2: Even if you overcome the problem above, no amount of BIOS trickery (disabling UEFI, setting custom boot order, etc) have allowed me to boot from the SSD until the HDD had the system partitions.

Why would you want a recovery? Well, it saves the drivers and settings, retains Windows authenticity (although a clean install might just do that as well), and installs the system as it came from factory with the same recovery options you had before.

Soooo. Here's how I have solved it, partially using a similar guide on SSD install/alien respawn. As always, use this at your own risk.

1. Create backup USB with AlienRespawn.
2. Backup everything else. My method will require you to delete all partitions on your HDD.
3. Prepare, on a separate usb stick, something that will let you boot from. It can be any type of Windows (I used a windows 7 usb lying around) or basically anything that gives you the option to delete partitions, format a hdd.
4. Install SSD physically
5. Go to BIOS, check that the SSD is recognized, and password protect your HDD. Set the AlienRespawn USB media as a boot option. Disable Secure Boot, for the time being.
6. Reboot, intentionally give the wrong password 3 times. The HDD will be locked, but you can continue.
7. Respawn comes in, it might be fussing about the missing HDD, but after a looooong analysis, it will install just fine to the SSD.
8. Restart, play the wrong password game and finish install. Check that everything is working fine (note that you will not see the HDD yet!)
9. If everything is peachy, go to bios again, plug in your other bootable media. Depending on the type, you may have to tinker again with the boot options. (UEFI. Secure Boot, etc.)
10. Give the proper hdd password now, but select the USB as a boot option (press f12 at boot for options).
11. Eradicate the system from HDD. Yes, all of it, delete all partitions, format it if you want to but you can do that later from Windows.
12. Go to Bios again, set the boot and everything else as you see fit, remove hdd password (enter current passw. and leave it blank for the new one, confirm blank passw, it gets removed)
13. Your system boots from SSD without any issues. After a couple restarts it even stopped to produce the secure boot error with the wrong media, etc.

I hope I could help, this costed me the better part of yesterday and involved a lot of cursing, disassembling, looking for a USB-to-SATA cable that I know I have somewhere, failing to find the cable, victoriously finding a Windows 7 usb stick, joyfully deleting system partitions, recognizing that I have deleted the system partition from the SSD, doing respawn again, deleting the right partitions for a change and then being happy and exhausted.

Cheers, guys."

 

Thanks for your very detailed response.

I am wondering after reading it, if this could be done...

Instead of password protecting the HDD, could I not just unplug it which would result in these steps?
1. Alienrespawn to create USB recovery
2. Unplug HDD
3. Plug in SSD
4. Boot from Alienrespawn USB recovery.
5. I am assuming this would now reinstall to the SSD since the HDD has been unplugged?
6. Once that is complete, plug the HDD back in

Thoughts?

 

MJBarnes,

The unplug method was what I did when I upgraded my Alienware 15 to an SSD. While Windows was reinstalling I took the HDD and hooked it into another computer using an enclosure kit and formatted it. Once Alienrespawn finished I put the HDD back into the laptop and everything works great.

 

Yep, just as good. I did not want to remove the HDD, it was secured with a sh&tload of screws and padding. But you do need to format the hdd somehow, since the original system creeps in and boots no matter how you set the boot order... (or at least it did for me..) You might be able to boot again from another media and wipe the hdd from there, since the respawn media will not let you delete partitions and whatnot.

 

Exactly what I did, then did a format on the HDD. Think I booted/shutdown from windows once with just the SSD in as a test.

 

Thanks everyone. Just one more question.

I ordered the Samsung m.2 drive from Amazon. Do I need to format this in anyway? Or just throw in the drive, screw it in, and reinstall from the Respawn USB stick?

OK, 2 more questions.
Rumor has it that the Samsung drive does NOT come with the little screw for the m.2 drive... Anyone purchase these that can provide a recommendation?

Thanks again.

 

Just picked one of these up for funsies.

1) It wouldn't boot up, couldn't detect the HDD/OS. Annoying, but I was planning on installing my own SSD anyway, so Dell's incompetence in checking to make sure the system actually boots up isn't the end of the world. Still, most others would simply have returned it right away
2) Why is the keyboard warm even when the machine is idle? I had this same issue with the 17 R2. I can understand the keyboard being warm when the machine is stressed, but when idle, the keyboard should be the same temperature as the palm rests.
3) Form factor is nice. Definitely more portable than the ASUS G751 I'm also playing with at the moment.
4) The screen is pretty good, bright and crisp, good colours.
5) Even after removing the HDD and installing my M.2 SSD, the system seems to pause for a few seconds during boot, asking me to check the PCIE cables or something.
6) The default SATA setting in BIOS is Intel Smart Response, instead of AHCI. So I'm assuming this means it would use the SSD as a cache drive? Why set it this way? This would probably confuse most people when trying to install an M.2 SSD wouldn't it?

 

The SSD is not a cache drive. It's the system drive. But maybe something went wrong with your unit regarding the setup because you also couldnt boot to OS.

The cooling only kicks in after load. So the palmrest becomes a bit warm during idle. But doesn't heat up any more under load because the fans start cooling the machine after reaching 65c or something like that.

 

The machine didn't come with a SSD - I bought and installed it myself.

 

Check the HDD cable, I had a replacement system with this issue, I had to reseat the HDD cable connection on the motherboard. This is easily accessible under the service panel on the bottom of the laptop.

Just shut it down, open the bottom, pull off the HDD cable and put it back on again firmly!

The service manual is pretty good for this as it gives you steps with pictures if you need them!

 

Just received my 15" 4k with 980m, and am having an odd issue. I wanted to see how well Witcher 3 would work, but when I changed the in game resolution to 4k it zoomed me in. When I turn it on now, it is zoomed to the middle of the screen and I cannot see the menu at all. I haven't changed anything out of the box yet, the only setting I changed with the in game resolution setting. Any ideas?

 

Just need a little help from you guys.

I have an option of getting refurbished AW 15 with GTX980M & FHD or AW 15 with UHD & GTX970M. Which one do you think is worth buying? Let's just say the price is the same.

Another option is to buy a brand new AW 15 with GTX970M & FHD + Skylake. Let's say it will be around $300-$400 more.

In Australia we do not get UHD option for AW 15 however this guy managed to secure a custom order.

Thanks in advance.

PS: Recently had AW 13 but it died on me within 2 weeks so I am not getting another one.

 

I would choose the UHD 970 version. The 980 just needs a bigger powersupply and still might experience throttling. Also the UHD screen is superb and work well with a 970 with lighter games and scales well back to fhd for higher end games.

 

Hey gang. I have another question. I am getting an ANW15-7500 to replace the existing ANW15-7500 I have. Both exactly the same systems. However, I have about 1TB of steam games installed on the current system and I hate the thought of reinstalling everything again. Can I take the 7200RPM spinner and the m.2 drive out of the old unit and just put them in the new unit?

Obviously, this would be much easier than going through and reinstalling everything.

Thanks.

 

Yes you can, I have done it plenty of times

 

You could also just copy the steamApps folder over to the steam folder on the new HDD and it will work. Thats how I backup all my steam games.

 

So I just bit the bullet and bought an Alienware 15. I was orginally going to get the last gen model with the 4710 CPU, as it was 500 dollars off here in NZ.
However, just as I was about to place the order I saw that the R2 page has been updated to say it has DDR4 RAM. Did some more digging and discovered that an r2 with a 970m and a 6700hq is only 200 dollars more. With the addition of the DDR4 it seems like a no brainer. That was the last of my spare cash I was planning to spend on a monitor though, so looks like i'll be using the laptop screen until next payday.

Pretty excited to play around with this though. I actually sold my beefy 980 ti gaming rig to get this, so while it's a step down performance wise, I am loving the idea of grabbing an amplifier and getting desktop class performance and laptop portability on a single machine.

Has anyone actually received their 6700 equipped laptops yet and can say how they compare to the 4710? Early impressions say marginal performance gains per clock, but better thermals means a more consitent turbo (and so better performance overall)

Would love to know how this equates to graphics amplifier performance given the inherent CPU bottleneck of a laptop processor.