*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Benchmark Thread

Also, what kind of ram upgrade and m.2 ssd would you guys recommend for the aw17?
Thanks

 

Also, what kind of ram upgrade and m.2 ssd would you guys recommend for the aw17?
Thanks

 

87C seems hot for the CPU when simply playing games.

 

Actually let me correct myself, when gaming is around 80c max when running benchmarks is around 87 max

 

Not really ... (perhaps 2-3%) in benchmark tests.

 

4980HQ / 980m (+130/+180) /240W /bios A02
firestrike 1.1 9001

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6409600

Just weird that 3Dmark sometimes manages to shutdown my PSU even without overclocking it usually happens in the middle of cloud gate or skydiver. I need to unplug the PSU (240W) to make it works again. I tried with 2 new 240W PSUs and same problem. It only happens with 3D mark I never I that in games or with other benchmarks like valley.

 

yes it definitely cut the PSU during skydiver more often when I overclock.
I cannot believe that the m17 has the power to shutdown a PSU. Maybe the PSU is going on security mode if the computer use more than 240W. Is it possible?
Do you think it worse the try to buy a 330W PSU?

 

I've only had the PSU shutdown with A02, I stick with A00 or A01

 

Thanks
Good to know that it is not hardware related.
Does the A0 brings others issues or should I wait for the A3, if it comes one day.

 

I would definitely stick with A00 especially if you already have a 240w PSU, the only reason to use A02 is if you have the 180w and it doesn't provide enough to power the 980m without throttling

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Keep your old bios, the new one sucks. Wait for A03

What bios did yours come with?

 

A01 is what they appear to be shipping with now, which is what I have

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Get a kill-a-watt to monitor wattage under 3DMark Sky diver and 3DMark Vantage benchmark test. You can get one for a very low price. I have experienced that my 240W power supply sometimes s huts off during only 225W while other times it turns off at 250w under the same benchmark tests. This just gets worse and worse the more benchmarks I run. I have 2 pc but the problem applies both. Best choice is to provide a 330W psu like I.

 

New motherboard new benchmarks:

Fire Strike:


Sky Diver:


3DMark 11:


i7 4980 + GTX980 + 240w PSU
Stock video driver
BIOS A00

I also tested Intel XTU CPU stress test (5 minutes) and now my max CPU temp is 71°C.

Seems that using Windows Balanced power plan instead of High Performance is extremely recommended on this system, performance will fly up and CPU temps drop down.
So do not use High Performance power plan, the i7 will heat up and you're gonna get CPU throttling.

 

What do you mean by new motherboard

 

Red Pyr4mid; Can you also run a Xtu bench test with also a pict?

 

I mean that my motherboard has been replaced for the second time but unfortunately my issue is still here:

When I received the first technical intervention on my Alienware 17 R2 the Dell technician replaced my defective frontal speakers and also motherboard, when rebooting the system he entered again my Service Tag on the BIOS but the BIOS was showing Alienware 15 instead of Alienware 17 R2 as Product Name.

This could seem a stupid issue but look at how many funcionalities I've lost on Alienware Commander Center because my AW17R2 totally believes to be a AW15 (not even a 15 R2): http://imgur.com/a/k72ms

When the technician returned he replaced the motherboard for the second time but again before entering the Service Tag BIOS was already showing Alienware 15 as Product Name, so this time we decided to not insert the Service Tag while we think for a solution.

TL;DR: If you need to change the motherboard of your AW17R2 after replacing it the notebook will think to be an Alienware 15, look at the Imgur link to see what are the consequences.

Now I'm escalating this issue at Dell because if you guys will need to replace your AW17R2 motherboard you're gonna get my same issue, seems that we need some BIOS fix.

If someone can help it will be appreciated, I already made a DMI dump and compared it with another AW17R2 user and now I perfectly know what parameters need to be edited:

/SP "Alienware 15"
/SF "Alienware 15"
/BP ""
/BPH ""

That need to be edited to:
/SP "Alienware 17 R2"
/SF "Alienware 17 R2"
/BP "Alienware 17 R2"
/BPH "Alienware 17 R2"

@Papusan This is the XTU test for you, it comes after 2 hours gaming session with Arma 3 and BFBC2, max temp was 80°C and the rest of the time between 70-73°C.

 

Thanks... I hoped you could get me a xtu score shouldn't your i7-4980hq going 3.8ghz on all 4 cores under xtu bench?

 

Sorry, I'm new to this XTU tool, I think this is the benchmark you requested:

http://i.imgur.com/LjYebil.png

The score section seems to be a little buggy: the max temp was 75°C and the max CPU freq was 3,78 GHz.

 

Can anyone tell me how to overclock the 4710hq and the gtx 970m, what's the best way to do it safely etc.. thanks in advance

 

i7-4980HQ. I especially love that straight orange line at the bottom LOL. Highest temp was 83C

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9635153

Cpu seems to be throttling in the 3dmark11. I'll consider undervolting it a bit later after I do my homework and stuff then rerun a benchmark after I do some stress tests.

 

Is 0.00 ghz processor frequency a new record in throttling or turbo boost? Intel's own software does not like their own hardware ... This was new.

 

I admit seeing intel's own software not recognize that must be embarassing for them.

I ran 2 tests of Wprime 1024m got 239 and 237 respectively, should be lower though.
Running the rest of the 3dmark benches now though.


32m gets me 8 seconds on the dot. Should be closer to 6.7ish though. :S

Ran 3dmark11 again with CPU set to -75mV and now the max turbo shows up at 3.8 GHz at least.
-----------------------

Alright so my data:

On WPrime 1024m I'm getting 237-239

On Wprime 32m I'm getting 8 on the dot.

3dMark11:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9635153

Firestrike:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6474011

Skydiver:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6474095

Cloudgate:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6474149

Icestorm:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6474149


If anyone with the same CPU can run the tests I have, it'd be appreciated.

Edit:

I'm running BIOS A01.

 

I have your same CPU, tomorrow I'm gonna run Cloudgate and Icestorm and report to you.

In the meantime please tell us what PSU are you using plus nVidia driver version.

 

Running 330W PSU. v347.88 nvidia driver.

Much appreciated.

 

Nor forget to test with Cinebench 11.5. It is perhaps more people who use this test .. Most review sites also use this test ..
http://downloads.guru3d.com/CineBENCH-11.5-download-2475.html

 

I was gaming and out of nowhere I paused and went to get a drink and I came back to see a blue screen saying MEMORY_MANAGEMENT. Went to check the dump file and nothing was there! Anyone have any clue?

 

If you do not use high performance in power options. Try it... What do you use ?

 

Pretty sure I had it on high performance.
I'm running diagnostic tests now though to see if its the memory or something else.

 

I see that several in new Aw thread recommends balanced performance, but it can lead to such errors ..
Do not forget that you also run with reduced voltage on processor ...

 

Yeah I'm leaving it at 0 millivolts now and playing the game again to see if anything happens after the memory test is 100% done.

Edit:
-70mV undervolt and I can't replicate it even in the game so it must have been the undervolt. A bunch of memory tests show RAM is fine.

 

Glad to see you got it fixed =)

 

It has been stable since however I haven't used it too long becuase I had school today. At least I'm not overclocking it, I don't think a processor like this needs to be overclocked as long as it can get a decent turbo boost without throttling. I just want an overall cooler machine.

I'll probably end up repasting when finals are over. I'd do it sooner but I would obsess over the machine temps even more and procastinate on studying

 

Just rip out the bottom cover and replace it with with a metal frame. There you go, super air cooling pro.

For thermal pastes I really like Prolimatech PK-3. Just warm it up by putting it in a zip loc bag and then under water and it spreads perfectly. IC Diamond is marginally better ( I mean the difference is small) but I can't recommend them anymore after what happened with the whole bad batch incident. I get that sometimes you might get bad batches but their customer service was so obnoxious during the whole incident that it just left a bad taste. There's also Cool Laboratory's liquid pro\ultra if you're the daring kind lol

 

I'm assuming Cool Laboratory's Liquid Pro is conductive from your daring comment lol. I'll pass on that one.

 

Ohhhh yeahhh haha

It'll generally give you the best temperatures but imo its too risky haha, I prefer a little bit warmer temps and safer. It's conductive and it's pretty corrosive if it touches aluminum. Now the part of the heat sink that contacts the chip is copper so you're fine there but if you spread it wrong or use too much and it gets in contact with the aluminum part then it'll eat right through it pretty quickly.

But like I said PK-3 is a great paste. You don't have to warm it up with water from the sink, but it comes out of the tube a little bit easier if you do. I haven't had to repaste my R1 in 2 years because the temperatures have generally stayed the same and it runs nice and cool. My R1 CPU idle is like 34C (cant remember what it was when benchmarking) and the 780 during firestrike got to about 66C.

I'll get around to doing it on my R2...but god damn the amount of screws you have to remove.

 

Conductive is too risky for me too. I'll look into PK-3. I've had Gelid's thermal paste recommended to me too.

For some reason I enjoy taking a laptop apart...

 

Oh I do too....I'm just lazy lol

And then like you I get too anal about the temperatures..."Oh I wonder if it spread correctly, let me do it again just to be sure" 10 mins later "Oh god now its 1C hotter time to do that again" 10mins later "Ummmm maybe one more time" An entire tube of paste later "****, well thats the best is going to get"

 

That is me alright Then declare one specific brand of paste superior to all others because it got you the 1 degree difference cooler than any others.

 

Hey man PK-3 is the ****ing bomb alright?

DON'T YOU DARE INSULT THE PASTE FROM THE GODS

 

I just stick with Gelid GC Extreme/Supreme. Very easy to apply, the spread method (using the included spreader) gives results about as good as the pea/line method. Non-conductive. Not too expensive.

My TIM of choice.

 

I have tested Noctua NT-H1, AS5, Prolimatech PK-2 and Gelid extreme on my Aw17R1. Gelid extreme is the obvious choice of all this tested standard thermal grease's, but fails to Coping heat from my overclocked Hotwell extreme under benchmark tests. I rank Gelid extreme and IC7 as the best choice if one should use a conventional thermal paste. It's just Liquid ultra that can manage to keep my Hotwell cool enough during benchmark's. Nobody should use CoolLaboratory's Liquid Pro, as it is difficult to take away if you should do a new application of Liquid metall.

 

Don't spread it lol. It may give you the same results initially but eventually it'll crack and performance will drop. The Pea method for GPU and line method for the CPU work the best for the design we have.

I really hate that so many manufacturers recommend spreading their paste, its more time consuming and not as good.

You should try the PK-3. It's better than the PK-2 and is pretty much on par with the Gelid Extreme, as in they get pretty much the exact same temperature. Both Gelid and Prolimatech make solid products, and I hope they continue to do so for a long time to come.

I really can't recommend IC7. As a paste I think its great, it gets roughly the same performance as Gelid and Prolimatech do but the company behind it is scummy as hell. They had a bad batch, not that big a deal I mean every company eventually has to deal with that, but the CEO of the company then went on various forums and called people who suffered from the bad batch scammers and told them to be ashamed of themselves. That was where the line was drawn. Before that incident (and if they had responded to it appropriately) I would recommend that paste, after it nope. You can't call your customers that have a legitimate complaint scammers, it's just wrong lol. I mean come on this quote from the CEO is just pathetic...:

---

Coollaboratory's products are ****ing great, it's just sad that they're conductive lol. But as long as you're careful when applying it and you make absolutely sure nothing got on any other part of your computer, and nothing touched the aluminum part of the heatsink you'll be golden. The paste also lasts a very very long time so you don't have to reapply it as often.

 

Why should I try PK-3 as I use Liquid Ultra? Will never use another thermal grease again no matter if I'm going to buy a laptop with weaker processor or not ... I know at least that Gelid extreme is the best standard thermal grease that I've used on a laptop processor/graphics card.

 

Ah well fair point haha. If you're using liquid ultra then nothing will be better =D

 

Liquid Ultra manages to keep the temperature of 89/90 degrees on my Hotwell during a Wprime 1024 stability test with a score of 169 sec ... No other thermal grease can. No throttling, just steady 43 on all cores throughout the test. The same with Cinebench 11.5 85 degrees during a Cinebench 11.5 test with a score of 9.40.

 

Have you tried undervolting your CPU? You'll make it run even cooler with absolutely no performance loss.

 

My Hotwell Mx processor need 1.226v for stability with 4.3ghz on all cores. Unable to run stable with lower volts. Possible with 1.222v but not recommended.

 

Haha fair enough.

 

What do you think about a physics score of over 12,000 in 3DMark Fire Strike with an almost 2 year old Hotwell processor? Intel has not exactly focused on the performance of the new soldered processors... Intel wants only to compete with Amd regarding graphics performance and forget the processor performance ... After near two years with the old Hotwell processor, should normally the newest Intel processor's get the performance increased by over 20% .. but so it is when Intel lacks competition ..

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4489017