*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Owner's Lounge

Alright, good to know. I'll try it tomorrow. I've never used HWInfo before much, where is the option?

 

You have to disable alienware ec support and dell ec support in the program to be able to control fan speeds. Then you hit sensors and click the tiny fan icon at the bottom. There are only 2 options for the cpu and gpu fans, wither 2,600 rpm's or 5,000 rpm. You're not able to set a curve which sucks. So for now I'll keep the fans super high while gaming.

 

Ok I used wPrime & these were the results:



max 84°C with extra fans - cooled down to around 75°C - laptop fans not full speed (extra fans full speed)
max 89°C without extra fans - cooled down to around 80°C - laptop fans full speed

I kinda wanna see results for laptop fans & extra fans full speed but I don't feel like fiddling around with something I should rather not.

I feel like this CPU is faulty or something, I had my laptop completely freeze on me in the past, maybe because CPU reached 100 degrees or something? I don't remember exactly what happenend but I guess I had to shut him down, because he wouldn't snap out of it lol. (I was browsing the desktop when it happened btw)

Also regardless of the CPU problems, I'm not even mentioning the bluescreens I had so far with this machine, probably about at least 2 different ones.

Edit: What I also just remembered is that sound the laptop makes when I start a program or something, you know when it is busy loading something, that sound is also constantly (more quiet of course) there when the CPU is idle & I stare at the desktop doing nothing, is that normal?

Sounds like something is wrong there.

 

Managed the processor to keep max turbo boost during the test(monitored with Hwinfo)? When the temperature drops, this indicates that the clock speed decrease in the test.

 

Ahhh, ok:

1 thread - around 3,4 Ghz (It jumped up & down between 3418 Mhz - 3378 Mhz)
2 threads - around 3,3 Ghz (It jumped up & down between 3368 Mhz - 3328 Mhz)
3 threads - 3,3 Ghz
4 threads - 3,3 Ghz
8 threads - 3,3 Ghz

 

I was finally able to stop my CPU (4720hq) from throttling to 800Mhz using throttlestop. Unfortunately, it shouldn't have to be this way. I would see it throttle during Heaven benchmark everytime I ran it.

Interestingly enough, my scores were the same in Firestrike and Heaven, when it throttled and when it didn't.

Also, this is using HWinfo64 at max fan speed and the CPU temps never got above 74°C

 

Using ThrottleStop where did the clocks stop? Or do they stay turbo?

 

So keeping my fans on 2,600rpm's and having my laptop on my lap keeps it 30-40C and while its on my desk its 40-high50C. So it appears that on my lap its receiving much better airflow.

 

They went down to 3.2 minimum. Before, without Throttlestop, 800Mhz every time. I can live with that until they "fix" the bios.

Yes, it's extra steps to take before running a game but at least it's doable.

 

I'm gonna have to try that later if I have time to play around with it.

That and setting fans in HWInfo are things that shouldn't have to be done.

And I doubt we'll get a BIOS that does anything substantial. That's not how Dell works.

 

That's because the flat surface of the desk blocks the air wents. It's different from laptop to laptop but if you block these it's no surprise that the temps are higher.



Get something like this:

 

What were your ThrottleStop settings?

Thanks!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Throttlestop settings:



Tested with Throttlestop on, 180W PSU (Heaven), max fan speed (hwinfo54), and got these results:



I ran another right after turning off Throttlestop, 180W PSU, max fan speed (hwinfo64), and this:



After shutting down hwinfo64 max fan and Throttlestop, 180W PSU:



That last one is after reboot. After shutting off the fans in hwinfo64 and Throttlestop, the CPU's didn't throttle down to 800MHz for some reason. But after reboot, yes.

 

I received my AW 17 today, I'm using Hwinfo with the custom auto fan speed control. I have a dumped question, which fan is belong to CPU, GPU? There is 2 different max speed, the 5200 rpm and 5000 rpm. I read somewhere, they normally name the Fan 1 is CPU Fan, the Fan 2 or 3 is GPU.

I'm currently running on A04, so I know the fan profile is suck. Doing custom auto fan in Hwinfo pretty good keep my CPU under 45c, and GPU like 40c when idle. I can't test with game on, because I'm not near my AW, I must doing the teamviewer to check it right now.

I have tested using 3DMark, and the point is only P10xxx. I remember somewhere I see people with P11xxx.

 

You should probably run A00 BIOS if you want the best fan profile for your AW 17 R2.

 

That last one is after reboot. After shutting off the fans in hwinfo64 and Throttlestop, the CPU's didn't throttle down to 800MHz for some reason. But after reboot, yes.

Sorry to see such woeful results. Tragic... Worse than a CrApple laptop.

 

I'm gonna do it, but I will only downgrade when I'm in front of my AW. I'm still teamviewer with it. I received my AW with OS installed on the SSD, so it saved me the reinstallation process. I did request for 240 watt psu, and until now they are not asking to return the 180 watt psu. Is it ok if I keep it? Because I will travel in next 10 days, if they mention it too late, there is no way I can return it for them.

 

If you use ThrottleStop to disable BD PROCHOT, this will remain disabled even after you exit ThrottleStop. It will probably remain disabled until you reboot which would explain your results.

The CPU running at 3400 MHz to 3500 MHz looks a lot better compared to how this laptop is shipped.

 

Thank you for that explanation. I was confused why it behaved that way after stopping TS.

 

Thanks for the ThrottleStop screenshot!

Anybody have suggested settings for the 4980HQ on the AW17R2? I can't seem to get mine to hold anything faster than 3.4ghz with 4 threads...

N

 

Mines the same.

Its just because of the 47w Thermal design power.
If the TDP was unlocked we would be able to raise it and achieve higher CPU clocks

 

What scares me is that a Dell rep said there would be a BIOS update to deal with the heat. Doubt they'll change the fan profile, probably lower TDP to 37w and call it a day.

 

What is everyone using to view the CSV file from logging through HW Info? I tried a few viewers and they don't make it easy to see where the clocks are.

I tried throttle stop and during BF3 it seemed to keep the CPU around 3.6, which is fine by me for now but when I open the file in my current viewers its just a mess and there's no scale.

 

Such as this? This is not an Bga Processor aka Hq. Read the text under my Avatar .

 

Your temp is at 23? How so

 

Ambient temperature 19 to 20 degrees maximum, Cooler Master U3, fans at max with Hwinfo and of course the best thermal grease available; Liquid ultra. Run 4.3ghz on all 4 cores +115w on processor with a maximum temperature of 94 degrees in the stress test and of course without throttling . This is over twice the maximum wattage to "high end" i7-4980 Bga processor in Aw17R2 under maximum load... Benchmark results can be found at Hwboot.org. The new Alienware17R2 models are "thinner" and with consequent fragile cooling. No wonder Bga processors Throttle under maximum load. Even worse trottle with processor overclocking (if it is possible ). Remember that processor cooling in the AW17R2 is not fitted to use of an extreme processor such as the former models with socket processors.

 

I used open office calc (it's free), but HW Info seems to have a problem with logged temps. They where either wrong or something with that CPU was wrong. I guess I will log one more time now & see if CPU temps go to 95 while playing HotS. It didn't go up there with prime95 so I don't get it.

I'm not really gonna bother with more Ghz, the 1-2 core built in overlcock is kinda usless, I can't think of any modern videogame that only uses 1 or 2 cores. I'm not sure why Intel even designed it like that. I guess I'm satisfied that mine stays at a constant 3,3 Ghz at 4 cores. It's supposed to go up to 3,5 Ghz but it struggles getting there & has less cores so whatever. I don't do manual overclocking either, so case closed I guess. If I could do anything, I would try to get more liftime out of my CPU & not overclock it.

 

I7-4710hq processors are designed for up to 2 bin Overclock on all 4 cores. (i7-4980hq = + 6 bin) This means that you can put all four cores to 4x3,5ghz. Test and see. Guaranteed throttling. Overclock 1 or two or three cores is simply nonsense...

 

Temps are stable now. It did go up to 85C for a second on CPU but most of the time it stayed around 71C. (with extra fans)

I don't really get what you mean with 2 bin overclock. As far as I understood, this is exactly what intel turbo boost does. It overclocks 2 or 1 core for more power. It is usless lol. It's not surprising that 4x3,5ghz results in throttling when turbo boost only supports 1x3,5ghz. When I tested, it doesn't even archieve that in a stable manner. Turbo boost from 2,5ghz up to stable 3,3ghz is good, everything else is useless with this processor.

I guess you could probably archieve 4x3,5ghz without throttling with better cooling but not sure why you would wanna do that when it sits in a cramped laptop lol.

 

1 bin increase in speed = 100MHz or 0.1ghz overclock on processor.

 

Is there any way to turn hyperthreading off? Curious how that would affect the throttling under max turbo.

 

Would you like to castrate your processor ?

 

Back when I had my first gen i7 people would do that to get BETTER performance in game because it potentially allowed them another few hundred mHz and games weren't using 8 threads anyway at the time.

Would it be so different to see if it helped here?

 

If it had been possible to disable ht in bios, so would the processor surely used less watts during use. Watt = heat and after heat <trottling>. Would definitely worked in gaming. But this is still castration of your processor. Still there are Dell and Intel that's your problem.

 

As far as I understood hyperthreading, it depends on the application. Intel claims it is a 30% performance increase with HT on. I don't know about significant heat increase or not because it's basically just making sure that the CPU is not sitting there & doing something when it can. It's not really more cores. It's kinda like processing data to the physical CPU's more efffective. It probably will increase heat significantly if you have something like prime 95 that makes full use of HT & the physical cores but that is also the point of HT.

I mean, you could probably try & run 4 threads on prime 95 & record the temps. Then you do 4 threads again but with HT off. I don't know if you can compare the results though...

HT seems useless for most video games as I have read in other forums. Developers can't figure out how to fully utilize the hyperthreads & optimize their games towards that.

Edit: I can't disable/enable hyperthreading it seems, it's not in the bios & that CPU doesn't work with intels software to control that. You are on your own buddy xD

 

So I got my 17 recently (4980HQ 980m) and my CPU usually hovers around 50-70 in use and manages to reach the 90's when under full load and in some games. The highest my GPU has ever got is 75 while playing the Witcher 3. Does anybody know why the CPU has such a hard time staying cool even in games where the GPU should be doing the majority of the work? It just seems disproportionately hot.
180w PSU A02 BIOS here btw

 

When I use my 180W PSU, CPU temps go up to 94°C in GTA5. This is using Throttelstop, max fan rpm in hwinfo64.

240W PSU, my temps max out at like 85°C.

 

What BIOS are you on?

 

A00

 

I haven't played GTA5 yet, but I see like 82-83°C in Witcher 3 on A00, no fan control.

What's your environment? Is it hot there, cleaned out your fans recently?

 

It's approx. 70°F, I've had laptop for 2 weeks

 

Interesting, may be that the fans are denied power when using the 180w PSU, I'll pick myself up a 240w and do some testing. Will probably get a cooling stand if it helps too, don't like seeing my CPU over 90°

 

Test after test now show that Dell messed up with testing and development of the new Aw laptop models, a huge mistake to use a weak 180w power supply on the new AW15 and 17r2 models. The engineers at Dell (Alienware) should have been fired from job after this big mistake... It does not matter if you bought a laptop with Nvidia Aw or Amd graphics, i7-4710 / 4720 or i7-4980hq processor. Even Aw 15 should have received a free upgrade to 240W power supply. Not only those who bought a Aw17R2. Everyone who bought AW15 and 17R2 should have received a upgraded 240w power supply, wherever they live in this world. It is deeply unfair that all Aw laptop buyers outside the United States and Canada do not have the same rights regardless of whether the rules are different in other countries. Dell must obtain a new certification / verification for approval of a 240W power supply with all 2015 model Aw 15 and 17r2 laptops now for all continents that sell these laptops. It is not enough to offer laptop customers, a crippled "modern" hybrid bios.
A new test of Aw 15 and now with Amd graphics. New review dated 13.06.2015... http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Alienware-15-R9-M295X-Notebook.144446.0.html

 

Thanks for the link to the new review with the M295X, that GPU is a real joke, high power consumption and comparitively low performance. 970M is way better performance & a lot less power usage. AMD are getting hammered!

 

Dell has begun to offer Aw15 with M390X now. $ 200 more expensive than AW15 with gtx970m. LoL

 

I have a question, if anyone experienced this like me, I'm other the AW 17 with i7-4710HQ, but today I noticed that it actually running with i7-4720HQ. I tried to compare these 2 (google) the only different I found is 100MHz faster and earlier produce from 4720.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/78930,78934

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Should I complain this to Dell? I checked my email order, it stated 4710HQ.

 

Hey there guys i did some experiments.My config is i7-4720 HQ and GTX 980m with 180 Watt AC.I tried between the bios A02 and A04 if they improved the throttling issue and it looks like they did improve it but it still is throttling quite a bit.I used AIDA 64 Extreme for the test.
This is the one with Ao2 Bios

Stabilitytest by Mr.Kappa posted Jun 14, 2015 at 12:58 PM

As you can see it throttled by 12%
While this one is A04 Bios

Stabilitytest 2 by Mr.Kappa posted Jun 14, 2015 at 12:59 PM

This one only throttled by 8%
The only difference is by 4% hopefully ill get my 240 watt AC and test it.Ill try A00,A02 and A04 bios with the 240 watt AC

 

faster and latest release for free, why complaining????????????

 

Faster? Really? I didn't see any faster. Running Intel XTU, I see CPU Utilize random from 40 to 90%. temperature is at 63c. The processor frequency run around 3.10GHz, not any around 3.6GHz. I'm new to this xtu, I don't really understand it.

 

ufomammutNotebook Enthusiast I have a question, if anyone experienced this like me, I'm other the AW 17 with i7-4710HQ, but today I noticed that it actually running with i7-4720HQ. I tried to compare these 2 (google) the only different I found is 100MHz faster and earlier produce from 4720.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/78930,78934
Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Should I complain this to Dell? I checked my email order, it stated 4710HQ.
faster and latest release for free, why complaining????????????

Perhaps even worse binned processor from Intel. Intel squeezes the lemon with +1 bin compared to the previous version before new processor series will be launched. Not always the latest model in the same processor series is better .