*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R3 Owner's Lounge

Not so much thermal issues for graphics. But stuttering and freezes ain’t much better. + the rest.

 

I'm gonna get all sort of hate for this, but every time I buy a new laptop, I come to forums to get excited as I wait for shipping times. I see the same stuff, and many falsehoods, perpetuated constantly. Some great folks here too, who I know are technically competent, but also view their computing through a very different lens than a mainstream gamer who might be interested in any gaming laptop.

Having lurked in these threads for a few years - while there are some legitimate folks with thermal issues in their designs (I.e., pegged at 100C, and constantly TTing or nonfunctioning) - I believe it is not widespread. I saw the Alienware thermal survey on Reddit and it's showing most folks aren't having problems...granted sample size is small. Most folks buying computers don't come to forums if they have issues, and I'd have to guess the statistics support my argument (that the majority of sold machines operate as intended). But the noisy minority still rules the roost.

These chips are designed to run in the uppers 90s if a the manufacturer wants to, and to do so for years. Apple, with some of the best engineers in the world, chooses to let their CPU's run in the upper 90s most of the time under load. I'm not saying the tripod design is perfect, nor the paste jobs, but in considerations of design vs manufacturing, it may be the best Alienware (and it seems the entirety of every major brand) can get from Chinese manufacturers right now. Hopefully we will see better mass produced designs; but it's clear the return/repair statistics aren't supporting the vocal minority here.

I've owned two Alienware 13r3 that had no issues - Looking forward to the 15R4 with the 1070 though, as the 1060 isn't enough anymore.

Now watch - I'm gonna get a lemon!

 

Tbh I agree with your point about how heat resistant the chips are. The CPU can likely run at 80-90°for years and be perfectly fine.

The point many members here make that I also agree with is that it shouldn't have to. The cooling in these things is good enough that every unit should run below 90° for the vast majority of tasks.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

Take a look at what f.eks Puget systems (custom desktop builder) say about long time safe Cpu temp. Google it. Google what other system builders say as well. And the chips is equal whatever it’s LGA or BGA. + High temp in the chassis due boiling Cpu/Gpu/PCH/SSDS will effect other components on MB as well. F.eks power delivery system.

Read also what oc’er Der8hour say about safe Cpu temps.

Run the chips 88-94C degrees or upper 90’s as you say will force to other problems http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...5-owners-lounge.815492/page-135#post-10759583

 

This is great stuff guys! I didn’t mean to stir the pot but I do thoroughly enjoy these types of conversations as well.

Back to the laptop from Costco that I posted. Is that even worth considering?

 

So, they use both panels for Optimus system. I have gone through 4-5 posts of alienware 15 owners and their panel models. 2 of them had B156HAN panel out of the 2 IPS g-sync 60Hz systems.

Still not sure about the best 60Hz IPS panel for R3 and R4. They both use the same panels AFAIK. I am going with the B156HAN to replace my 1080P TN panel provided by Failandwear.

 

The b156han isnt tha t good tbh. I would stick with the 120hz in that case. Just play with the gamma settings. The 1080p 60hz panel has 6bit colors vs8.

 

The TN panel is also 6 bit. B156HTN05.1 (AUO51ED) is the 120Hz 1080p TN panel in R3.
http://www.panelook.com/B156HTN05.1_AUO_15.6_LCM_overview_31517.html

The IPS on Alienware 15 may not be the best one, but it's should be better than TN in terms of picture quality due to technology. Can't switch to other panels as brightness control may not work and G-Sync will definitely not work. G-Sync isn't a big deal though. I have not received the 1080p TN panel so can't be sure, but from reading reviews, watching compare videos and owning other TN and IPS panels, I will bet for IPS in terms of colours and viewing angle.

As for 120Hz TN vs 60Hz IPS, I will say it's a use case thing depending on user. I have one of the fast Benq 144Hz external monitor, so don't need the 120Hz TN on alienware. I have tried calibrating gamma and everything in the past on Benq and it was always worse than IPS on R3.

 

A better TN panels is better than a bad IPS panel even though the viewing angles will differ.

I have an Acer 27 XB1 H Gsync desktop screen (8Bit color tho, so I expected that all AUO high refresh rate panels have it), and it blows my 1080P IPS laptop panels out of the water. The AUO 1080P panel is really quite poor, 300nits which is nice but thats all that there is too it, Its way worse than the LG panel and more like the old 220nits panel from the AW15R2 which wasnt great either. I still have mine LG panel so will swap it in the future. The AUO panel is just not good.

 

I wish Alienware offered better panels in notebooks. There isn't a big price difference between panels. Thanks for the comparison between LG and AUO.

 

Sure looks like a good deal for what you get there. I would go for it. The 1399 starting price on AW's website for the 1060 isn't nearly as good considering for a minor bump in price you can get a 1070 equipped version. Costco's 2 year warranty a big plus.

 

Sounds like Puget System's agrees with me on a brief read of a few articles:

For one:
------------------------------------

The results of our testing can pretty much be summarized with the following three points:

1. Modern Intel CPUs run at full speed (including the full Turbo Boost allowed based on the number of cores and workload) all the way up to 100 °C
2. Even after the CPU hits 100 °C, the performance is not greatly affected until the CPU spends about 20% of the time > 99 °C
3. While stock cooling only causes around a 2.5% drop in performance, even a budget after market cooler will dramatically improve CPU temperatures

Frankly, we were a bit surprised at how well modern Intel CPUs dealt with really high temperatures. They manage to run at full speed all the way up to 100 °C, and even then the performance is not greatly affected unless they spend a significant amount of time at that temperature. We certainly don't advocate letting your CPU run at those kinds of temperatures, however. While this article is about performance there are plenty of non-performance based reasond to keep your CPU temperature at a more reasonable level.

Sensitive electronics like CPUs have a finite lifespan and running them at higher temperatures shortens it. So unless you want to have an excuse to upgrade your system often, higher temperatures are counter-productive.

----------------------------------
I left that last comment in so as not to be accused of cherry picking...further, in their Comments section:
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I think your CPUs will be completely fine. 80-85C sounds really hot, but remember that these CPUs are designed to run full speed until they hit 100C, so Intel sure seems to think that 80-85C is well within tolerance. I also looked up our failure rates for Xeon CPUs over the last four years and it is currently sitting right at .3% out of >2000 processors. That's really low and the latest generation of CPUs are even better than the old ones. In fact, in the last year we've only had a single Xeon CPU fail (for a .12% failure rate).

Honestly, I think you are more likely to run into motherboard problems long before you run into CPU problems. Supplying that much voltage constantly can be hard on the motherboard voltage regulators. Cooling the CPUs further will help a bit (as will making sure the VRMs on your motherboard are adequately cooled) but I think the motherboard is definitely going to be your point of most likely failure.

-----------------------------------

The key here is "duty cycle" - most home machines, to include gaming machines, are a very different beasts than the types it looks like Puget System's makes (professional, high duty cycle systems). And even with their systems, the CPU failure rates are extremely low. In my own experience, it is the motherboard or power supply that fails before CPUs and GPUs by a country mile. I've never had a CPU or GPU fail on machines I've owned 5 years, but I have replaced motherboards. So the fretting about CPU temps are largely overblown.

I know what you are going to say next - it's that "heat build up" in the chassis will result in MOBO failures and because these are soldered designs - you can't pluck the CPU/GPU chip off and put in a relatively cheap motherboard. I get that lament, but it is what it is. This is how laptops are built now - and Desktops still afford far greater repairability. As far as "heat build up" - I'd love to see if a 75C average CPU load really is much different from a 95C CPU as far as overall "heat build up" and it's impacts on the lifespan of the more sensitive VRMs, caps, and power supplies. I would venture that NO, it is not a big deal in the overall assessment of how long a given system will last.

So if you are a gamer who spends 3 hours a night playing high end games, and then the rest of the day mining - I'd recommend buying a desktop. Your duty cycle is not the best use case for a laptop. If you expect your laptop to last 5 years with this type of use - then that's an unreal expectation.

 

Another good data point from Puget:

That is a very tough question to answer. You could get two CPUs and simply run one at 50C and the other at 100C for years to see when they fail - but that would be a sample size of one which is not very accurate (you might have a weak CPU or something like that). You would need to have at least 10 of each before you could be relatively confident in the results (so 20 total). And by the time they start failing, they will probably be really outdated and use an old manufacturing technique so the data would no longer be relevant.

One thing I can tell you is that we configure our machines so that they don't go above ~80C when under a heavy load. Most of our customers don't put as heavy of a load on their systems as what we use to test, but over the last two years it looks like our Intel CPU failure rates in the field are about .15%. That is an insanely low failure rate - especially since we prioritize quiet operation which often results in slightly higher CPU temperatures.

Really, I would say don't worry about it unless you are overclocking. In that case, cooler temperatures probably will make a bigger difference on the longevity of the CPU. For normal operation, however, I think that you are likely to want to upgrade your system long before the CPU will likely fail even if you do let it run over 50C.

 

They use the same as the rest in the industry, there is quite a shortage on panels for 1080P 15inch laptops.

 

Puget have many decent articles.

See from your post ... As they say 99C doesn’t affect processors performance... We talk about desktop here. Can’t compare with notebooks ****y throttling and all sorts op throttle algorithms once passing 85-93C. None of today’s notebook BGA processors work properly with this types temps. Most works bad.

Most say 85C. And if you put up an decent higher overclock you will risk instability above or around 85C.

How they put up systems... “ One thing I can tell you is that we configure our machines so that they don't go above ~80C when under a heavy load.”

 

Links?

I can't tell your schtick - do you hate notebooks in general? Which ones are doing thermal systems right?

I owned an Alienware 13r3 (second time I bought it), and it ran in the low 90s under load. Everything in games ran perfectly smooth - no frequent stuttering or issues with low 1% frames being dominant in my experience. I really loved the little booger, but ultimately went on to play around with eGPUs for a while. Now I'm going to try the 15 as I want a bigger screen this time around.

I agree that notebooks use more "tricks" to keep thermals in check than desktops - but throwing around swear words regarding what they do - I guess I don't know what your alternative is? Is it LM and multi-hour heatsink "balancing" and thermal pad optimization on a per unit basis? What would manufacturing costs be if each unit was hand crafted like that?

No, what we have is a thermal pad/adhesive that can be applied at a rate of XX per hour allowing an individual chinese worker to quickly screw on the heatsink and move on to the next unit. This likely results in a design that has less than 5% failure and return rate for Aliewnare (and every other manufacturer).

 

Re-read link in my post #4104
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...3-owners-lounge.797458/page-411#post-10759655

Most notebooks run similar (with high temp). You find a lot post/threads about it. See also Notebokcheck.net’s reviews of today’s Skylake/Kaby Lake/ Coffee lake laptops. None work proper with high temp. All throttle. I’m on a small phone with bad internet and it’s difficult to post links. If you think notebooks run equal as desktop, Oh’well
FYI. My LGA laptop (modded with 8700K) mod firmware work as a desktop. The model and specks in my sig. The picture shows wrong Cpu. It’s a oc’d i7-8700K.

Edit. See also http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.806253/page-164#post-10759977

+ posts below.

 

@Papusan, I understand that you don't agree with throttling on a philosophical level but you seem to really enjoy comparing your 1.8" thick 11 lb notebook to something that is literally half of that. What are you aiming for here? We get it, you do not like BGA designed laptops, and? You have voted with your wallet and bought an LGA based laptop, you sure showed the OEMs who is boss! Why are you still venting in threads for laptops you don't own? Is it your mission to drive people away from buying these laptops? Who set you on this mission? I and many others have been happy with it. We have different requirements than you do and different definitions of a laptop successfully meeting our requirements. Sure it isn't perfect, when you find the perfect laptop please let me know!

You are howling at the moon because clearly Intel and the rest of the laptop manufacturing world has embraced and moved to BGA based laptops - the rare exception will be specialty designed laptops such as the Clevos that run a desktop CPU in them. If that best meets your needs, GREAT! Buy it (like you did). But you are NEVER going to be able to change the tide in the notebook market that has been BGA designed laptops. So rather than crying over, and over, and over, and over, and over in every thread that is about a laptop with a BGA CPU, become part of the solution. People come here for advice and help. If they are asking about thermals on a laptop they just bought or are thinking about buying, the answer is not to crap all over them and tell them they are wrong or dumb for wanting that laptop. Help them understand how the laptop will behave and perform, help them understand what options they have to improve the cooling performance or tune their laptop to operate with their desired workload in their desired acoustic range, help them understand the compromises that go into designing a laptop that has X internals and Y form factor and how that could impact their usage.

You have 18k posts and have clearly been very active on the forums - I cannot speak to the quality of the posts or the discussions, I have been away for several years - but to many users that gives you some assumed credibility. Use that credibility and influence in a positive way instead of screaming about throttling and using childish spelling to get around filters for cuss words. Act like an adult please.

Thanks!

 

Well said.

 

I'm pretty sure I clearly said I don't think Notebooks run equal to desktops - it's clear that for many who demand, as you stay, an ability to hold max CPU boost frequency 24/7 - they need desktops. Most gamers don't need to do this....I'm pretty sure that as long as the GPU runs at max freq, and CPU oscillates in the mid 3Ghz range, it will be just fine. I'm guessing your theorize that Intel SpeedStep causes microstuttering in games because of this freq oscillation? If so, and this is a real issue for me, I'll disable turboboost altogether, or adjust the multiplier to 36X or something. Whatever freq it can hold. These are tips I'd love to hear from you if you have them.

Anyways - I agree with most others - nobody wants a giant 2" thick laptop anymore. We are ok with the "tricks" in the bag to keep thermals in check. I believe the AW design largely stays within single digit percentage points of available spec performance. I haven't seen many pro reviews really hammer it for it's inability to play games with ease (esp with 1070/1080 models).

I'm gonna talk it up, and then get a total turd in the mail. LOL

Come on delivery!

 

Apologies if I change the topic, but new 15 R3 owner here. Finally got the laptop after some hurdles. Going to be doing a clean install of Windows, and I forgot what order I need to install the drivers. Does anyone have a step-by-step list?
EDIT: Never mind. Found one.

 

Many people appreciate being warned about broken garbage they are considering purchasing. All laptops are broken garbage (including the LGA Clevos) that has been castrated by their manufacturers. The problems with BGA are simply more severe. Understanding the business reasons behind it makes it hard to support the corrupt motives regardless of whether or not a particular product is potentially good enough to meet your needs. If you have to buy a replacement motherboard out of warranty for a "high performance" BGA notebook that you were content to continue using for the foreseeable future, the price will change your tune. They are designed to be disposable and cost prohibitive to repair. Kudos to @Papusan for helping people avoid regrettable purchases. He's an awesome guy. He only speaks truthfully and presents facts. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it doesn't change the facts.

 

Wasn't arguing facts at all, in my post I said that there are trade offs and compromises with the laptops available today. This forum is about preparing users on what to expect, how to handle it, and what to do if something goes wrong. One point I do HIGHLY agree with from your post, anyone not buying a warranty for at least as long as they plan to use one of these notebooks is playing with fire and will likely get badly burned.

 

Maybe start reading all my +18000 posts. This is a start... http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...5-owners-lounge.815492/page-138#post-10760983

And I have helped a lot BGA Owner’s in PM as well. I’m interested in tech. Often 24/7/365. What’s your intention with this post... I don’t know. But it’s Up to the people have own options. I can’t change that.

I will never give up giving people good advices. If people follow them or not is up to them. I’m 100% honest in all my posting. Look around you and see the mess. If you accept it, Oh'well
Not me.

I will never accept computers or cars can’t run as they should.

 

I guess part of the issue is that you say these computers are not running as they should, Intel and Dell (or any other manufacturer) would disagree. It seems more like these computers are not running as you would like them too. While I agree there are things we all want that we do not get, it is a losing fight.

 

Of course they will disagree. I have posted this before... And this applying most OEM’s. Some worse than others. Please understand my points. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Some insights into why... How and why Dell cripple the performance

 

But you have to understand their side of things too - they have to sell a laptop people want. In most cases, lately, that is erring towards thinner and lighter vs thicker and cooler. I am not against thick laptops, loved my M17x and M18x to death (they were monsters haha) but the bulk of the buying market is glad to have a mostly functional quad/hexa-core CPU in a thin laptop and be happily ignorant. And frankly, until Intel gets their act together and gets 10nm out the door, the problem will not improve. All OEMs are trying to jump on the "thin gaming laptop" train and they are pretty much all seeing the same results - hot running and often throttling designs. Now the throttling is a design mechanism in and of itself but the problem is that it is being used as a scapegoat to make anemic cooling in thin laptops where it should really be an insurance plan that you hope you never actually need to use.

I would say the biggest problem in the case of the Alienwares since their latest design shift is not necessarily the laptop cooling itself but that atrocious 3-point mount design that should have never made it to a final product. That was just sloppy and lazy and unneeded - they could have easily made a 4 point mounting design work (Intel is guilty here too as they blessed this design and call it within spec). It is also curious that for the last few years, it has always been the CPUs that are overheating although often the GPU is a similar W/mm^2. This speaks to issues in the thermal management design around the CPUs because clearly with a better cooling design, that type of heat CAN be managed in thin laptops (and is - on the GPU side). I am staying put on my 15 R3 and completely passing on anything else from Alienware until they redesign the laptops (for real, not this marketing push that the R4 has magically better cooling for the 6-core designs) because this current gen is a bit vexxing to me. I got the 4-year warranty as an investment against a future exchange once there is a better design lol

 

Its amusing people put most the blame on Intel. The blame has to be put on both sides.

Not only Alienware use/prefer the 3 point (TRIPOD) heatsink design nowadays. Many of the OEM use it today. It’s needed due the use of smaller MB PCB and the thin design. Thinner chassis designs mean less space for put in biggest possible battery and MB. The battery has to be thinner and due this the increase in footprint for the battery. On top some increased the chassis footprint due lack of thickness. Bigger battery means less space for the rest. See also... Due smaller and thinner chassis with less space... Only two ram slots and crippled 3rd ssd sloth. This even in 17,3 inches chassis.
On top they have to change web camera placement due this madness. See if you find my post on this. Edit... http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...950h-coffee-lake.810891/page-85#post-10759013


End result for most laptops today..,

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/p955er-throttling.817966/page-23#post-10761072

 

The 3rd shorter M.2 slot is a head scratcher for me. And I blame Intel and Dell equally When they were pushed on the topic, Dell said that they are within the Intel defined spec - hence both are at fault to me. As for the PCB area needed for a 4th screw hole, they could have made it work. That would hardly be the straw that broke the camels back on motherboard PCB area. Also, since there is effectively a 99 wh cap on battery size due to TSA, only so much optimization is needed for accommodating the battery. Although I only get 2 ram slots, I will take 2 over none and soldered on ram which is becoming more common (and is a disaster from a device failure-RMA standpoint - back to Mr. Fox's point about BGA leading to very costly repairs). It has never been common to have 4 ram slots on a non-workstation laptop - my M18x had it but that thing had space to spare haha. The 32 GB max is a pretty workable limit for the vast majority of those buying these laptops. I believe the newer versions can even be fitted with 2x 32 GB for 64 GB total. The webcam dilemma is also interesting, it was a breath of fresh air to see Razer keep it up top for the new 15.6" Blade. The Alienwares right now have gratuitous bezel - one of the main aesthetic complaints against them - but Dell needs to realize that the sides and tops don't have to be identical. The top can be 2 mm thicker to house the webcam and microphones.

 

The tripod isnt as big as a problem as projecten as long if the thermal pads are the correct thickness and well places. I had a bigger core temperature differences with the previous non "tripod" generation.

My biggest beef with ALL laptops out there now, that they house Intel CPU's that are just not good for in laptops. Too hot, too inefficient and PCH, controllers that are essentially unfit to be cooled without a heatsink now since Intel didnt shrink its fabrication process for the PCH controllers. They become extremely hot now.

 

Nope, just disconnect the RTC connector from the mainboard as per iunlocks guide

Sorry been away for a while, tested and confirmed its working fine on my 17 R4

Hear hear, people are not stupid, most know what they're getting into these days if they buy a gaming laptop in a thin chassis with "desktop level performance". My point is that they have a higher toleration for issues and thermals.

Well said, I've had a similar argument as well as many other Alienware forum users over the past 18 months with exactly the same points. Hiding behind the "I'm speaking the truth" and "I'm helping people out" argument to instead convey what he really wants to say which is to put everyone off buying any Alienware or BGA based notebook because it's not what he wants, pathetic.

 

I agree with most of this. People in general, don't give a **** about internal temps as long as it works well. People also, in general, prefer thinner, lighter laptops as opposed to three inch thick beasts that barely ever go above room temperature.

While some users seem to be filled with rage about Alienware (and practically every other gaming laptop brand) switching to BGA components in order to keep size down, you have to realise that most consumers literally don't know what that is, and those that do don't care. If it isn't burning them when they touch it, and it can play games just fine, it doesn't matter how hot the internals are. As another poster said, Apple sell extremely well and their machines often have exceptionally hot internals.

I myself am a fan of cooler temperatures, which is why I repaste my machines to make them run as cool as I can, and my main complaint with Dell is quality control and paste quality etc. These machines have good enough cooling that (when the tripod heatsink works) temperatures should be within a reasonable range, unless you're overclocking heavily etc. Users recieving a laptop that hits 100° under load, causing it to start throttling and performance to drop is however unacceptable.

Regarding BGA, I'm really not too concerned. Expensive repairs? Sure. But these laptops have a warranty for a reason, if it breaks, they'll have to fix it. Dell can pay for my new motherboard.

I don't want a super thicc laptop just so I can change the CPU/GPU myself. I'll likely overclock then upgrade before that becomes a concern. I don't care enough to want the size tradeoff, and nor do 95% of the people Dell (and any other manufacturer) sell to. They have to appeal to the majority of buyers. Not a small, but vocal minority chanting 'Down with BGA'.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

In my opinion repairing it is overrated. A motherboard can be bought with all components assembled for about 600~800 euro's online. THats a similar pricerange to a single MXM GPU board.

And hwo often did someone see a CPU die on them? In my 20+ years of working on PC's I never ever saw a CPU dying. Only on videos back in the days where people were removing coolers on purpose to see what would happen with an old AMD athlon Thunderbird CPU. If there is no throttling then in general the system would function well enough and within spec. I myself want the internals cooler though for minimizing all risks and thats why I did a repaste.

 

Why can you sit down say I don't help people? What you know? You have seen all my posts and PM?

And for the records... I'm very interested in tech. Often 24/7/365. BGA or not.

Btw. New review up (Aw15R4 and unlocked i9-8950Hk). See the final review conclution... "With a few millimeters more height and the resulting airspace, the system would probably do better"

And don't shoot the messanger.

If people are happy with 100C, Oh'well. And temps above 85C and you overclock your Intel chips... You expect 100 or 110% stability (24/7/365)?

 

Was trying to decide between building a new desktop, (case and all) or, getting a graphics amp, and a newer monitor. Chose to go with the latter, as performance wise, I'm very happy with the 6820hk. Went with a good deal on the AW2518h monitor, to replace my six year old Walmart 21.5" (I've never even bothered to hook it up to the laptop). It looks like the latest nvidia cards will be out before too long, and it didn't make sense to purchase a same series card as an update. Gonna wait for the next gen cards, before using the amplier. Soooo... Should I need any special cable for the 1080p 240hz g-sync monitor? I doubt the 1070 is going to deliver anywhere near to constant 240hz, but perhaps I can change the refresh rate in CRU? I certainly had NO LUCK at all hooking up my 4k television. Best I could get with hdmi was 1080p. Any advice would be appreciated, as I'm sure others are using external monitors, as well.

 

Use the displayport connection.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, rinneh, will do. Dang! It looks pretty smooth, playing Farcry 5 at 240hz!

 

Hey, sorry to quote you again, but have an update on this.

I tried updated a bunch of stuff including the BIOS and all drivers, to no avail, it still froze. I'm still on W10 1709 so was considering to try updating to 1803 to see if it helped any, but before that I decided to recheck every driver on Dell's site, and noticed something. I wasn't paying much attention to the video driver as the one I had installed was version 391.35, which was newer than the version on Dell's site (391.25). Decided to install it anyway, and it looks like that did solve the freezing problem for me, as I haven't had a single one since then a little over a week and a half ago (knocks on wood, but mind that I had several of these daily!).
I'm wondering if there's something particular about the driver, as it doesn't look like that said version of the driver is on nVidia's site (I can see 391.24 and a bunch of others but not 391.25, maybe it's an Alienware specific hotfix?)

 

The different OEM’s have own version numbers for the Nvidia drivers.

 

Ah, for some reason thought vendor-specific video drivers were not a thing anymore (except on workstation side, for obvious reasons) and the drivers on Dell's site were just repackaged regular drivers.
So now I'm wondering why these fixed my issue though, given that the freeze issue I had is not exactly common and I assume most are getting their drivers from nVidia rather than Dell, since these are gamer machines.

 

They work better probably because the OEM may use it's time to customize/optimize the drivers for their notebook models. Exactly same can be seen for Msi laptops. @Phoenix All of the OEM's drivers is already old before they being released. This because they are gone through prolonged testing and validated that they work as expected before the release.

 

Hi everybody

I'm new here . I got my Alienware 15 r3 only a 10 days ago . I done few things for make it better ( temp , noise ) and I want to show u the result . Laptop itself manufacture refurbished , i7 7820hk , 16GB ram , gtx 1070 , 256GB m.2 + 1TB HDD . 15.6" Full HD 60hz IPS + g-sync . £1050 and looks new .

Out from the bow was shocking . CPU Temperature was +90c doing simple task like software installation ! GPU had no issue avg temp was ~65c under load .

Here is few result how it performs now :

https://ibb.co/cyhgZT
https://ibb.co/iGYATo





before clean up :

https://ibb.co/gPSJg8

 

Picked one of these up open box at Best Buy for $759. Very happy with this purchase. GPU temps are great in Furmark.

 

Your comment is incongruent with your signature of "No rig right now".

 

Strange, my eyesight must be getting worst.
I can see the i7 8270HK, the Toshiba SSD and the 1TB hhd and the temperatures for the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 @ 53° but no reading for the GTX 1070 ?

 

Fixed

 

....but this new design heatsink is NOT compatible with the AW15 R3 so basically it's useless to us or is this Dell's policy to encourage us to change devices ? Situation as it is at the moment, I for one will not ever going to purchase another Dell product.

It all sound very nice with this cow-poo chamber name and a new Black but why couldn't Dell just leave the screw holes in the same position so we can purchase this supposedly better heatsink to resolve the heating and noise issue ?

Who the hell is going to be able to admire the new Black when it's all screwed shut inside the casing !!!

Edit: Yes I am still very angry, paying such a price for a product, I don't expect to be required to also fixing it !!!

 

For a moment I had thought you purchased and instantly sold it.

 

They could offer similar new heatsink for the previous gen Aw15R3 and Aw17R4. They could easily design and throw out a brand new Heatsink with similar/same Vapor Chamber Cpu cold plate instead for the Copper block. Shouldn’t be any problem at all for Dell with their big resources. All RMA machines should be offered this. + Owner’s Who want one could get it for free. Worst case be allowed to buy one. Same flawed design idea as first gen AW Echo models who come with the wimpy weak 180W psu + battery boost and Gtx980M. Many got free upgrade to 240w power adapters due the ****y engineering decision. It’s the same!!

 

I have a 6th Gen i7 model and have ZERO interest in a new Alienware until they completely overhaul the design and the cooling is done right. The 6th, 7th, and 8th gen versions all are the same poor design to me with a little more lipstick on that pig for the 8th gen stuff. I do like the brand and expect to continue being a customer (unless the next gen is just unforgivably ugly or poor design) but I have nothing to gain by upgrading right now.