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

Right click on your desktop and go into the Intel graphics settings. Change your scaling to be 1:1 or no scaling. That should fix your issue.


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Ok so quick question, I'm in the market for a laptop and the Aw15r2 with a 4k screen meets most of my criteria (I'll have to add ram and an m.2 my self as dell wants more than I want to pay for those features)

Anyone have any major heat issues with their r2 (assuming it has come in) I get a generous discount through work so its decently priced, though I would have to call and try to get them to throw a warranty at me for cheap Hows the quality feel?

 

Would anyone say it's worth upgrading the AW 15 (i7 4710HQ/GTX 980M) for the newer, refreshed Skylake/DDR4/GTX 980M models?

 

skylake cpu got dynamic oc aswell. not sure how much performance increase

 

No. Waste of money.

 

Any suggestions for a high-quality, easy-to-apply black carbon fiber skin/wrap for my AW 15?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Palmrest-Touc...=1443723660&sr=8-2&keywords=alienware+15+skin

 

I just enrolled into my online IT program through CSU Global and thought I'd use some of my deployment cash to order a A15R1 through AAFES (tax free) so that I was free to tear apart my desktop for my classes. I ordered the base model w/ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M with 2GB GDDR5, Intel Core i5-4210H CPU and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. I don't "game" as often as I used to and I mostly bought the A15 because I've wanted one since I was a kid (now 27), a little overkill for an IT college class and light gaming but reading about the release of the A15R2 and all the updates has me feeling like I should return mine to buy the newer model considering I received my R1 literally 7 days ago. What do you guys think? Stick with what I got or send it back? Appreciate the advice!

Edit: FYI - Purchased A15R1 through AAFES for $1104 shipped

 

Hows the battery on the new r2? Can it get 5hours of surfing or movie watching?

 

As it turns out, my headphone jack is inop on my AW15R1 and Alienware wants me to send it in for repair. Physically, it doesn't feel loose or bad.I updated the BIOS to A06, updated the audio driver and no change. I'm still in my window to return the Alienware 15. Should I send it in for repair or return it and order the AW15 R2?

 

Ask for a replacement, they will probably replace it for a brand new R2

 

Hey guys. I recently got an AW 15 with the i7 4710hq, 970m, 4k screen and 16 GB RAM. Love the design, build and performance so far. Just three quick questions:

1. Was hoping for better battery life. I'm getting around 2 hours - 2.5 hours on Power Save and 70% screen brightness. Is this par for the course? I've seen posts and reviews where people were talking about 4 - 5 hours which too me would have been extremely solid. Even 3 - 4 would be great. Running WIndows 10 at the moment, if that makes a difference.
2. The 4k screen looks slightly dim (or rather not as bright as my old Asus ROG G75). Am I missing some display setting in the Intel/Nividia settings?
3. I'm considering getting the Alineware Vindicator 14 backpack. The question for anyone with this backpack: would the 15 fit inside? Or is there any other laptop backpacks anyone could suggest? Any recommended laptop sleeves?

Thanks so much for any help.

 

My guess is the 4k screen and the 70% brightness are your main culprits. The 4k screen is a lot of pixels, and with that high of brightness I'm not surprised you are seeing sub-par battery life. If you want to last 3-4 hours I would suggest learning to live with a more dim screen.

 

i read bad comments about the sleeves of alienware, so beautiful but bad endurance....

 

I have the Alienware 15 R1 980m, 4k display and have a better battery life. I never use the system on power saving. and the screen is very bright but a bit reflective. my only complaint is the grainy rainbow effect on a white screen and the bit of light bleed from the Alienware logo onto the screen on black wallpapers if you look hard enough. The vindicator Backpack 14" fits the Alienware 15 model perfectly and it has enough space for the zipper not to damage it, I searched for reviews all over and none gave me the confidence to buy but still did, I tell you for sure go for it! its not a very large backpack but for some one average size it looks perfect and the build is amazing and its very comfy, the best looking and feeling backpack ive seen, very stealthy. I will upload a review on youtube in the next couple of days (user:Handale30) as well as a review for the AW15 and AW17 r1 comparison. Hope it helps.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Yeah, I think I'm going to drop the brightness to 50% and see. Just reformatted the laptop to do a clean install of W10, hope that makes a difference.

Thanks Handale for the advice. I too was looking all over the place to see if the Vindicator backpack 14 would fit the AW 15 and only found a single comment on Amazon saying it was possible. Thanks for the validation. Going to go for it.

 

If you want the best back pad out there. Buy the everki atlas! That's the one I have, I have 3 Alienware back pad and I don't like thems!

 

Hi everyone, I'm a prospective AW15 2015 buyer currently living in Japan, and I was just wondering which one of these 2 models would be a better buy for me? I'm choosing between the AW 15 2015 model (it says summer 2015?) which is on sale right now, good until supply lasts.
The specs for this particular model are: i7 4720HQ, GTX980m 128gb m.2 SSD + 1TB 7200rpm HDD, 8GB ddr3L, but with only a 180W adapter. The price is around $1750,(my max budget) which I think is actually a good price considering how expensive laptops are over here..

On the other hand, they are selling the skylake version, but for about $1850 I get a gtx970m and a 256 pcie ssd +1TB7200rpm HDD(courtesy of a promo 'til oct22nd), and according to the AW japan website you can choose to have a 240w adapter.

I was wondering if the newer hardware on the skylake model would justify the price, and since I'm on a limited budget I want to get the most gaming bang for my buck(or lack thereof).

As a reference, other laptops with these specs(MSI,etc) would cost around 400$ or more, and Im not that sold on getting a laptop with a Japanese keyboard when I want to US an english OS.

I've been following the forums here about the AW15 2015 and I've that there are a lot of issues that would persuade would-be buyers like myself, but I've always wanted to own an Alienware and I've never had the chance to buy one until now.

Thanks in advance, and more power to all of you \m/ ("o)

 

Very hard choice. So you have one version with a 980M that is cheaper and a version with Skylake CPU and slower 970M.
In that case i would take the 980M version, as the 980M should be around 20-30% faster than the 970M.
And the I7 4720HQ is still powerfull enough!

 

Thanks for the reply Alex555! I was wondering if I have to buy a 240w adapter to be able to use the aw with the980m properly. Looks like i gotta go pay the dEll site here a visit

 

The 180W adapter will not be able to provide enough power to run the 980M without some serious throttling. You will need a 240W brick if you want the laptop to perform correctly.

 

Thanks Boondabar.

I take it that we can still ask Dell for the 240w brick for no additional charge? I did some searching and found out its a bit pricey here in Tokyo. The salesperson I talked to at the alienware shop wasn't really much help, he didn't know how to respond to the throttling issue when I asked him about the adapter. (haha)

 

Dell deliver the new rebadged Alienware models + Gtx980m with 240W psu. Why should Dellienware/shop support deny you an upgrade to 240W psu? Give notice that Dell has changed their minds on the new Aw models. Both the new and the former has about the same maximum power consumption.

 

Can anyone comment on the heat produced with the gtx 965m when gaming? How is the palmrest, keyboard (wasd area specifically), and underside?

Right now I have a 2015 rMBP with the m370x that I'm thinking of selling. It is a nice machine but the keyboard gets uncomfortably hot when gaming (in Windows), and if I accidentally touch the metal chassis between the keys it is *really* hot.

 

Has anyone ever try to use touch pen for aw 15 uhd version?

 

experiencing a brief stutter when watching videos(cant really tell while gaming as i mainly play dota2 and i cant really tell if its an fps drop or stutter but i notice it when watching a video. Any idea what to do?

 

Uninstall support assist if you haven't done so already. That might be it!

 

i already uninstalled it and it is still there. any other solutions? i called dell yesterday and they asked me to do the bios check and everything ran ok and the guy asked me to download the video driver from the dell website and it is still here. really dont know what to do at this point.

 

very tempted to do a clean installl of windows 10 but i have no idea where to begin/how to start as i did not purchase the usb os

 

Enjoy... http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

 

What do you mean by watching videos? Online or just on the drive?

 

Hi sockey007! Thanks for the interest in helping me. It happens also when i watch video on youtube. would love it if you could reply here http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-10-stutter-help.782721/ as i made a new thread just for my issue.

 

Hello, I have been watching this thread for a while and today, I got the new Alienware 15 R2 with intel i7-6700HQ gtx 970M. may be my expectation is too high, the build quality is a bit from MacBook pro or Surface pro.
here is some part in my rig:
1. 15 inch Samsung display, SDC4C48
2. PCIe SSD again Samsung PM951

 

I just ordered an Alienware 15R2 this morning with the i7-6700HQ, GTX 970m, 8GB DDR4, 1080p screen, 1TB HDD. I am going to add a m.2 SSD as a boot drive(much cheaper than the same option from Dell, by like $100) and upgrade to 12GB of DDR4. Do you think I would benefit from getting the 240W power adapter?

Thanks!
Nick

 

H

Hi epic_ninja420,
It seems that according to most owners here, its the gtx980m model that's hindered by just having a 180w adapter. The model I ordered has a gtx980m and so I'm in the process of appealing to Dell Japan to give me a 240w one for free, since I've been reading all over the forums that the performace of the 980m is kinda crippled with a 180w adapter. Not exactly sure about the 970m though, although I believe a 180w adapter should suffice.. Perhaps the other 970m owners can share their thoughts?

 

I can't speak to the 965M, but my 980M model will get pretty warm but not to the point where it hurts to touch it.

With that being said, if you were interested in getting rid of your MacBook would you be interested in trading for my 2015 Alienware 15? I just got a new iPhone 6S and have been considering switching to Apple. Specs on my model are i7-4720HQ, 980M, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB 7200RPM HDD, the 4K touch display, and I bought the 2 year premium support warranty that expires August 28th 2017. I also got the 240W power adapter from Dell too.

 

The 970M has a maximum operational requirement of around 81W. The 6700hq has a TDP of around 45W. 81 + 45 = 126W total draw, with 54W reserve for anything else.

So, to be clear, if you're going with the GTX 970M then you do not need, and would not benefit from a 240 Watt adapter. Whether you want one is another matter entirely...

He isn't going for the 980M so that wont be a problem.

 

Awesome thanks! I'll use that money for my RAM and SSD upgrade.

 

My pleasure. Hope the laptop works out for you.

 

Hey all just went ahead with the purchase of the Alienware 15 R2, 6700HQ, 970M, 8GB DDR4, and 1TB 7200RPM HDD. After using a 10% coupon code was able to get it for $1265 after tax the sales rep wouldn't budge from there basically wasted little over an hour on the phone rather then order online they just keep trying to sell 2 year warranty for small discount, I did get NBD shipping though. I am happy with the price though because for the exact same configuration Clevo P650RE3 SAGER NP8657 it was 1308 with IPS screen, only added benefit being GSYNC . I opted to not go with the M.2 SSD because they overcharge for it and from what I have researched is they are using a sub optimal Samsung PM951 and not the SM951 PCIE drive, can anyone confirm the stock M.2 PCIE drive on the R2 configuration? I should receive it sometime next week hopefully and I can do a video review of it for you guys with some game and performance benchmarks and if any issues with thermal throttling or fan tables as reported by others. I am coming from the Alienware 18 which had a terribly crippled bios for the enthusiast (fan tables and OC settings), it did the job however for high performance gaming. Reason for the switch to the 15 R2 is I no longer see the need for a desktop replacement laptop as I already have a high performance desktop for when home.

 

this is a lie, i have an Alienware 15 and i see an advantaje Overlocking the GPU if i use the 240W adapter

with 180W adapter and overlocking ( blue screen and maximum 6800 points in firestrike)

with 240W adapter i can reach a maximum of 8200 points in forestrike with a gtx 970m

 

Calm down. Nobody is lying about anything.

epic_ninja420 didn't make any mention of overclocking in his post, so I didn't include it as a possible benefit of a higher output adapter.

Nevermind the fact that only a marginal percentage of owners will ever even attempt to overclock their GPUs. Particularly when they are mobile ball-grid array chips with a limited thermal ceiling, encased in a small chassis that was never designed for overclocked components.

 

i have the same temps only overclocking the GPU and i gain around 30% more performance.

the gpu don't reach more than 68°C in worst cases.

 

Try watching YouTube on Edge browser, for some reason it seems like I can never get proper 60fps video in any other browser using my integrated graphic, especially with a 4k screen.

 

Hello, I ordered the AW15 with UHD display 3 days back and despite the agent telling me that my order would go into production within 24 hours, it's still in Pre Production so far. Is it normal? Anybody with the 4K AW15 Skylake model here? Or anybody who has theirs in production? PS my EDD is 11/25 (25th November)

 

I don't plan on overclocking it. My plan is to get a thunderbolt 3 egpu setup once they are available, since they should be less expensive than the GA and faster if I am not mistaken.

 

Lately everything has been smooth after the clean install of windows 10. dell willbe sending me a new mobo + tech guy will be installing w 8.1. My plan is to switch mobo but at the same time just copy the w8.1 drive just incase everything goes crazy again. any idea what app i can use to copy/clone the w8.1 usb?

 

New AW15 R2 review - screen seems problematic

 

I agree, the screen color is not that good as far as I can tell and also the case protection for the screen is not good enough. not sure If I can RMA it. also anyone have issue with killer 1535 wifi card dropping connections?

 

I didn't have problem with the Wifi except for one time that, but I can pinpoint what exactly I did. Generally, I could download at full speed and everything else worked flawlessly, for a long time

So, you say that your IPS isn't that great either?
It makes no sense to me. The official specs for this kind of display is something like 90-100% sRGB / 60% NTSC..

EDIT: just looked at it side by side with the Dell e7440 (LG 1080p IPS) and indeed the red is not really red, for example.
Still, I think this is strange and maybe the whole bunch is problematic