*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R3 Owner's Lounge

Pretty much the exact same treatment I got. I'm in the process of getting a refund at the moment, but it looks like the courier who collected my laptop may have lost it; it should have arrived on Friday yet 7PM Monday here and it still hasn't arrived at Dell.

Just out of curiosity, what are the temps like for people whose laptops were built in November? Supposedly the changes were made from the start of the month, but would be nice to see what the results are actually like.

 

I would also love to know, as I really like the laptop... I just want one that works without the heat issues.

 

+1 yes that should be true in the meantine. I´ve repasted my GT72 (without any temp issues) and got much better temp´s afterwards (10 Kelvin less per core, also my "old" 970M runs some Kelvin less) ...

...I guess that´s upon velocity and industrial "design" while manufacturing the machines, i guess there robot´s doing "anything" and peopole within this forum for example are experts about to "look at the temps wtf is going on". An average buyer of those machines will install and play games or do some workload without thinking about temperatures (and also without complaining) =)

Regards
aVa

 

Doesnt repasing void your warranty?

 

Not within my country (as far as i´m aware of), usually i buy a 2k€ machine and can do with that what i wanna do (updating memory / changing SSD/HDD or repasting) incl. removing the warranty labels. In the MSI case MSI approved that multiple times (for EU/DE) and i guess AW/DELL is the same.

Example: i´ve replaced the 256GB SSD in my XPS13 to a 512 one < in case the notebook will have any issues which does not have my replacement as anchor i can complaint on my retailer or manufacturer (upon time window)

In case i break something i guess this will void my warranty, but i hopefully won´t breake things while doing that (example, i never would try to fix my car on my own, as i´ve got no experience with that).

 

That was me. In my ignorant bliss, I was happy and then the machine started shutting down cause it was over heating...

 

Remember your 30 days windows for returning. Don't delay it, or you will be screwed

 

well email sent to the dell account manager and a refund is in process just waiting to hear back

i just hope the AW 13 R3 wont have problems

 

Might depend on your region, but for Australia it's 15 days.

 

Damn sorry about that, okay so then i guess they really have any quality issues in china ... hopefully looking forward you will find a solution (replacement or any fix by a technician of dell).

Damn² i hope mine won´t have any issues once it arrives ^^

Regards

 

So I did some research and found that the AW15R3 has 2 problems that can cause the overheating and their solutions:

1. Undervolting - a redditor stated undervolting by 0.15volt reduced the temperatures by ~10c which is amazing.
2. Re-pasting. This is something I really want to avoid. Opening the laptop and replacing stuff - I dont feel like doing that. I mean, Im paying ~2k $ for a high end laptop, I dont wanna mess with it.

I already bought the ASUS GL502 and it sucked (heating and battery drain while plugged) so I returned it for a refund.
That is the point I realized I need a warranty.

Thing is, im getting a laptop from the US and in my country, we have warranty service for ASUS & DELL only (gaming laptop wise).
So MSI are out, ASUS are out, leaves me only the AW.

So what are you guys suggesting? Buy & undervolt? apply paste any way?

 

Yes indeed, i hope AW will fix this by BIOS updates in near future and/or raise quality in focus of pasting CPU in manufacturing process. Maybe they take any action in the meantime, who knows ^^

 

Any idea why I can't configure a 15" with the 1070 on the European sites? I've tried UK, FR and ES and none of them allow it without the GSync screen, it gives compatibility errors no matter what options I try.

 

You need to choose a different CPU then (e.g there are 2 x 6700HQ available in case you´ve flipped the screen from basic config to "any other")

Regards

 

Thanks! Just realised theres more pages to the right where I can choose the configuration I actually want.

 

Looks like the Alienware site is down


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Btw, what is the RMA period in the US?


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You have 30 days from the date of shipment, not delivery. (Which is why I recommend buying Next Business Day Delivery.) And if you don't claim an issue for return, they will charge you a restock fee.

 

I guess it overheated.

 

Lol 100 degrees..

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Hey all! So, now I'm concerned that I shouldn't have ordered this. I got the following specs. http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php?posts/10392889

Should I be canceling my order?

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"Working as intended."

Depends on whether you can afford to wait and see what your laptop is like. If can afford to be without the money and without the laptop for a little while, then I'd probably let the order go through and then return it if it overheats.

 

my replacement should be here wensday due to backlight bleed , can i just pull my ssd driver from current laptop and pop in the new one when it arrives ?

all same parts / specs.

or will the cd key some how not work. win 10 home

 

I have an onsite guy coming to my work tomorrow to replace the 4K panel due to light bleed. I want to see how the onsite service works and if it does fix the issue before getting a SECOND replacement lol.

 

No way I would let anyone touch my system learn from others as onsite guys are useless and have never worked on these

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Here is a video of someone doing a tear down of the AW 15r3:



The AW 15r3 starts around the 56 minute mark.

 

Damn. Just tested my AW15. At idle all cores are close to each other (+-3C), when I run OCCT, Core 0 and Core 2 spiked to between 75C and 88C (Changed the limits to 90C) while Core 1 and Core 3 stay between 60C and 70C (Ambient room temperature must be around 20C). Test was able to run without issues for at least 25 min and didn't fail (Wanted to get some sleep) though I think it was throttle a little. Fans are pretty quiet even at high speed. Is this what you guys are seeing?

Lets see what happens after I repaste with some liquid metal in a couple of weeks.

Don't see any light bleed or dead or bright pixels on my AW15 so I plan to keep it and try to see what fix I can do in case the liquid metal is not enough.

Build quality is pretty good and its pretty heavy even compared to the Inspiron 15 7000. I was pretty surprised at how big the Power Brick is.

But the touchpad on the Inspiron 15 7000 feels much better than the one on the AW15.

 

So glad i cancelled instead of waiting and seeing how this circus played out. Likely to never touch Alienware again after watching how everyone is doing with their new toys.

 

I have got a date for them to pick it up and take it away, forever. So sad. It had so much potential and the games were brilliant to play on it. I just spent way to much money on it though to have these kind of problems right after buying it.

Anyone got a good tip on what to buy to replace it? Happy to spend the same amount of money for the same specs.

 

The MSI GT73VR 1070 and 1080, or 1070 SLI 17.3" have been getting the best reports for cooling and performance. You want the larger frame of 17.3" laptops for best cooling.

The MSI GT73VR series......
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-msi-gt73vr-series.794968/

The MSI GT62VR 1060/1070 15.6" has been getting even more good reports - 15.6" are more popular - cheaper - and the MSI 16L13 whitebox 15.6" with an LGA CPU also is getting rave reviews.

The Official MSI GT62VR Owners and Discussions Lounge
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-gt62vr-owners-and-discussions-lounge.793857/

The Official MSI 16L13 (Eurocom Tornado F5) Owners and Discussions Lounge
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...nado-f5-owners-and-discussions-lounge.797128/

 

What I find very odd is that current heat problems are caused by the 45 TDP CPU rather than the ~120+ TDP GPU. Historically it always used to be the GPU causing issues.

Here are some TDP and benchmarks: (Notebook version GPUs).
1050ti: 60TDP, ~50k 3DMark Cloud Gate
1060: 85 TDP, ~68k
1070: 150 TDP, ~86k
1080: 180 TDP, ~110k

CPUs;
7500u: 15 TDP, 5338 Passmark
6700hq: 45 TDP, 8052
7700k: 140 TDP, 12945



Since the heatsinks etc are all connected it all sort of combines. But in terms of thermals for a gamer I'm tempted to aim for the 7500u+GTX1060 unless that 7500u will bottleneck me, which I doubt. Possibly wait for the quad core version of the mobile i7 (7700hq).

 

Yeah, a dual core CPU will definately stomp on your gaming, most games respond best to a quad core (not 2 core + 2 HT).

A 6700HQ would be the low end Quad core, the 6820HK stock isn't much more but can OC up to a good 20% higher.

There are plenty of 6700HQ / 6820HK running at good temps, in the mid 80's under heavy load, and 60's-70's C normally.

I don't think there are any ULV CPU's with Pascal GPU's configured anyway

 

As iunlock's results show, it's entirely due to the amount of contact (or lack thereof) that the heatsink gets with the die. The GPU is a larger die, and it has even pressure, so the cooling system easily handles it, but the CPU only has half the die getting any pressure, and it's already half the size of the GPU die.

7700K is 91W TDP (or at least, is expected to be).

I'm fairly sure it would. The 1060 is quite a powerful GPU, and the 7500U is rather weak in comparison. Dual core with only 2.9GHz boost, less than half the performance of the 6700HQ, and even that's not exactly high end as far as CPUs go.

 

I thought Intel went back up to 95w on the 7700K?

 

aye, waiting for the 7700hq rather than 7500u would be preferred... Dell leaked the 7700hq in their XPS line lately so it shouldn't be too far away

 

The CPU hasn't been officially announced, so we don't know yet. But the 6700K is only 91W and the 7700K in theory is more power efficient and only clocked slightly higher, so I'd be surprised if it's given a higher TDP.

 

Thanks for this!

 

If you want 15 inches laptop
The Official MSI 16L13 (Eurocom Tornado F5)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...nado-f5-owners-and-discussions-lounge.797128/

Or 17.3 inches
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...2-owners-lounge-the-phoenix-2-is-here.794530/

I mean http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/core_i7_7700k/ Know more than most sites on the web
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/54212...aby-lake-architecture-improvements/index.html

 

What do you think of this GL702VM?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Gamin...947&sr=1-1&keywords=asus+laptop+gtx+1060&th=1
17", 6700hq, gtx1060, FHD Gsync, 16gb memory, 128gb ssd. On sale at £1099 reduced from £1350. Insane price, surely?

 

Still a laptop with soldered hardware For me a Huge... NO thanks. And 6700hq is almost the weakest processor from Intel outside the worse 6300hq

 

Owners seem happy for the most part. It's a thin laptop so it will get hot, but temps reported are under throttle point. You might benefit from a repaste with ICD, but depends on your use case, most people are fine with original paste.

Pascal ROG Strix GL502/GL702 Thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/pascal-rog-strix-gl502-gl702-thread.794993/

So far no 1070 in the GL702, which I was interested in at one point.

There is nothing wrong with the 6700HQ, @Papusan and his buddies are on a "Mission from God" to bad mouth BGA CPU's, ignore their BGA blather

 

What does BGA mean?
I have no intentions of swapping out CPU/GPU in future. Only SSD/Memory upgrades.
Just wanted a nice looking, relatively low temperature, small(ish) laptop for sofa gaming tbh. Will replace in 3 years.
Thought it was the AW15 but we all know how that turned out...


I can't remember whether or not I read something about the asus losing charge even when plugged in, and ofc temperature issues. May have been another model though.

 

I went with the MSI GT72VR-6RE16H21. A 17" for less money than the Alienware 15" cost. Lets see how that turns out, if I dont like it then I can just return it. I am getting good at it. Thanks for the tips!

btw, what is the best way to clean a laptop of data when returning it? Screwdriver to the harddrive? Or is there a less hardcode option, that is proven to work?

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=def...rome..69i57.3733j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

"A ball grid array ( BGA) is a type of surface-mount packaging (a chip carrier) used for integrated circuits. BGA packages are used to permanently mount devices such as microprocessors. A BGA can provide more interconnection pins than can be put on a dual in-line or flat package."

Or Soldered on, instead of Socketed, like LGA:

https://www.google.com/search?num=5....3.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.3.217.p7iJGo1xv1M

"The land grid array ( LGA) is a type of surface-mount packaging for integrated circuits (ICs) that is notable for having the pins on the socket (when a socket is used) rather than the integrated circuit."

The AW, Asus, MSI, are all BGA - except for the whitebox MSI 16L13.

The replaceable LGA CPU has it's most recent history in old AW laptops, that's where these fanboi's have grown up, so they miss it, are pissed at AW for dropping it, and live only to bring back LGA.

The real benefit of LGA in laptops is that it's what is used on Desktops, so you can get desktop TDP 91w/95w CPU's in a laptop, but that's 2x the TDP to cool at load.

For most gaming, the GPU is the limiting factor. CPU limits happen at high FPS when trying to keep up with the GPU, but most of us run games G-sync/V-sync at display refresh, which is 60hz-75hz, and even the 6700HQ can keep up.

The LGA CPU performance is only needed if you do mobile / portable rendering on the CPU, or have other high CPU performance requirements, which most of us don't on a gaming laptop.

There are lots of tools now that will "securely erase" a HD to differing standards, but 3 passes should be enough.

If you only "format" it, there are tools that will recover everything that was on it.

If you overwrite several times by duplicating a large file, like an OS ISO, until the drive is full, that should be enough.

Or use an app like:

dban - boot and nuke (haven't tried it for a while)
http://www.dban.org/

eraser - the classic, runs in Windows and bootable mode
https://eraser.heidi.ie/download/

 

Thanks.

 

I fix it for you

@hmscott Similar machines as pict are sold like hot cakes. Guaranteed!!

http://zhuomao.en.alibaba.com/produ...ZM_R5860_motherboard_repairing_equipment.html

 

Bummer, just noticed that £1100 asus with 6700hq/gtx1060 only has LED display not IPS. That's rough. I've heard a lot of people say IPS non g-sync > non-IPS gsync displays.

 

It's a personal preference. The BestBuy cheapo model uses TN panels, some like them a lot, some aren't so happy and return them.

Asus does have IPS versions, and I think BestBuy added them to their catalog too.

Definitely be prepared to verify which is which when ordering.

And, if you decide to try a TN, expect bottom tilted display to wash out - but I can't see that mode being used often anyway. Side to side is improved from early TN's, but still going to wash out at some angle.

It's one of those things that you have to see and decide for yourself

Sorry man, there is no requirement for LGA CPU's on a gaming laptop, it's a waste of resources.

A 6700HQ or 6820HK or 6920HQ is more than enough for gaming laptops. Even with 1080 SLI, performance is more than enough for gaming.

All the people that thought they needed LGA for gaming, and bought a P870DM2/3 have found that they are loud and hot, and take a lot of TLC to get running optimally, and have also found that the Prema BIOS / vbios is required to get everything under control.

Not to mention all the fighting with Clevo heatplates and shared cooling with the CPU, requiring thermal pads, shims, and many re-pasting's before getting it as good as it will get, and it's still running high turbine fans at load to keep it cool.

It's fun - LGA CPU's - if you like constant tweaking of hardware and software - and extremely loud fans, but LGA CPU's are not required for gaming laptops

See, BGA are replaceable - now LGA's got nothing on BGA

 

I can not understand that everyone is looking at notebooks and thinking AHHA <gaming laptop>. NOT all use a "gaming laptop" for <only gaming>. Often also used as a desktop replacement because they don't want or have room for a large desktop rig

 

Just had a rep at scan (selling the same model) tell me this is actually an ips gsync display.. hmm