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

IMHO I don't think it's worth the risk for a mobile GPU - especially one soldered on the mobo. I'm sure there's others here that will tell you its safe - but is it really worth the minor gains? Just get the Graphics Amp and a desktop GPU to boost your performance.

 

My brand new AW17 is taking too long to boot up even though I'm using a 512 PCIE ssd, anyone with this problem?

 

How long time to boot ?

 

I was wondering if the Graphics Amplifier uses both the GPU in the laptop and in the Graphics Amplifier? Also how are the results compared to benchmarks? Would plugging in a weaker gpu than the laptop's result in lower frame rates?

 

My 17r3. Froze about 3 times tday n restarted ( i dont know if it was an update or what cz i went downstairs to eat) any1 had a problem? I was this can be fixed. Dis jus arrived yestrday n i jus got to unboxed it today

 

Are you sure the OS is actually installed on the SSD?

Rob

 

Yes, it's taking about 1min to boot!

 

go to device manager and uninstall Kionix free fall sensor, this should fix your problem

 

You don't have to uninstall it, just update the driver in device manager.

 

Thanks! It worked. I actually did a clean installation but I didn't installed that driver.

 

How do you do a clean install? Alienware doesn't give a Windows install disc?

 

using alienware respawn

 

delme

 

I seem to be unable to monitor to adjust my fan speed on the m17 r3. Can someone help me out? Do I need to change something in the BIOS?

None of the monitoring software seems to be able to show me the fan speeds (SpeedFan, HW64Info, HWMonitor)

 

The Samsung PM951 M.2 NVMe PCIe 3 x4 is a newly released ssd drive, it has 1/2 the performance of the SM951 and the Samsung 950 pro m.2, which means it runs considerably cooler, SM951 runs pretty hot under full load. A lot of people are complaining about the heat generated by the Samsung SM951. I can understand Cruisin point of referring to the PM 951 as being more suitable than the more powerful SM951 and the 950 pro.

 

The Kionix Free fall Sensor seems to be at the root of this issue for some people. You can safely uninstall the driver and you should immediately notice shorter boot times. My new 17 R3 was suffering this issue as well. I uninstalled Kionix Free Fall and it solved the issue. I did reinstall it and it didn't slow boot times down again. I'm not sure how these machines are making it past QA testing. Mine took over a minute to boot from a cold start until I sorted that out. Finding that also lead me to another issue.... I ordered my machine with the 128GB PCIe boot drive but what I got instead is a regular old Lite-On L8H-128V2GG. I'll be giving Alienware/Dell a call tomorrow to make this right.

 

Hello everybody.

I've had an Alienware M17x R4 (late 2012 version) for three years now, three years of three gpus frying for no reason, and after all this time i thought i'd do an extended warranty to cut costs, but to my surprize Dell offered to swap my machine for a new one free of charge after they had failed to fix the old one, and their promise was to give me a machine of EQUAL or BETTER performance.

My joy quickly faded into dread and worry when i started reading these threads and comments about the CPU and GPU being BGA and how this sucks, and about CPUs not overclocking, and after i had seen the cooling system (shared heatsink with 2 fans) i started expecting throttling problems.

here are the two specs of the laptops, my old M17x R4 and the new 17 R3

M17 R4


17 R3


It all looks good on paper, and i'm even trying to push Dell to upgrade me to the 970m, however after the reading i've done it seems that the new alienwares are riddled with hidden problems.

So here's my situation:
I do not plan to upgrade anything, nor do i plan to overclock anything through the BIOS, i plan on using the specs at the performance listed in their specs in the picture above, so the CPU will always be 2.6ghz base and 3.5 with turbo, and the GPU will be the same (no OC).

Here are my concerns:
Will the CPU and GPU perform at their advertised speeds and benchmarked performance? (the figures i relied upon can be seen here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html and here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmark-List.2436.0.html ), or should i expect throttling from either/both components??

Do you think this is a fair trade??, and should i take it??, are there any downsides i may have overlooked that i need to know about??

 

the i7 6700hq run very cool, like 67°C doing stress test. This is a very good trade, the gtx965m is good, but i like more the gtx 970m. i have the gtx 970m OCed and the max temp while gaming is 68°C. I think this is going to be a realy cool noteboook.

 

While your reply is reassuring, it still doesn't address the questions and concerns i mentioned.

 

no throttling.

 

No throttling under sustained heavy usage? (Especially the cpu since i play lots of cpu bound MMOs)

 

i have the model with i7 4710hq and gtx 970m, and the i7 6700hq is much better, more stable when turbo boost is active. I saw a few benchmarks of the i7 6700hq and the temperatures are really low !! so , you dont need to worry about thermal throttling, and i see on your list that you are gonna have the 240W adapter, so you dont need to worry about power limit throttling.
for the gtx 970m you dont need to worry at all. Really Cool under heavy load. I can play like 4 hours battlefield 4 (with the gpu overlocked) and the max temp i can see is 68°C.
i don't use cooler pad, i only put something on the back of my notebook, to ensure that the fans can breathe fresh air

 

Awesome, thx for the info

 

I am planning on returning to the 17" world in the next few months with an AW 17 R3 (need the bigger screen for work). In doing just quick pricing on the site, it comes out to a 50 USD difference between the 6700HQ and 6820HK. They dynamic overclock "sounds" a good bit higher, but is it worth the difference in general, or is it a significantly hotter chip (the 6820 over 6700)?

 

of course, more speed means more heat. but this new chips run really cool, i saw benchmarks and the 6820HQ run at 72-74°C under heavy load, so you dont need to care about heat

 

How long time can 6820Hk run under heavy load aka max +58w Tdp ?

 

Do you mind give me your contact? i was looking for alienware 15 part

 

Is there any benefit to getting a 240w adapter for the 6700+970 version?

 

No

 

Hey guys, I recently had an issue on my AW17r2. When I close the lid it hybernates. It does this in all power profiles. I do have it set to sleep when the lid is shut. Its not a massive deal because I have an ssd in there and the resume is only around 9 seconds, but still, kinda bothers me. Anyone have anything I can try? I am on a06 bios.

 

yes, you would be able to overclock the GPU without problems . The 180W adapter is not enought to do it.

 

Any issues running the 180w with the amplifier?

 

no

 

change the lid action on your power plan settings

 

I currently have it to sleep when that happens. Should I change it to do nothing, save, then change it back to sleep, then save?

 

No harm in trying..

 

Guys do you find any issues on killer's wifi? Like it frequently disconnects and wont allow you to connect unless you restart your system, or any other killer wifi issues specially with windows 10??

 

I haven't had any issues at all. But I have read about some people having issues, and I believe that they fixed them by going into device manager and under the "Power Management" tab for the Wireless Adapter deselecting "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power".

Hope that helps.

 

Oh so its more of a windows 10/killer issue?? It seems like there are a lot of issues in windows 10..

By the way hows the color gamut in the fhd panel of the 17? Is it also washed out like in the 15? Im getting my unit by the end of this month.. I switched to 17 r3 cause im afraid the fhd in the 15 r2 is really poor..

 

I couldn't tell you, I have the UHD. I don't have a colorimeter, but I can say it's absolutely gorgeous.

I haven't really heard much about the 17" FHD panel.

 

Yeah me too.. Thats why it took a lot of time before i ordered.. My first choice was the 15 because of portability and when the issued with its panel arose i went with the 17 instead.. I would'nt want to risk having a poor panel just for portability..
And 4k is not a choice for me since im just getting a 970m vc and not planning to use the ga in the future so fhd panels would suffice for me..

 

With Direct X 12's Multiadapter, perhaps using the weaker desktop GPU + internal will result in a good boost.


With the newest Alienware 15 and 17 laptops, late 2015 (Skylake), is it still called R2?
So with the 'dynamic overclocking system' in the late 2015 Alienwares, are the CPU overclocking options in the BIOS now NOT blocked if the Graphics Amplifier is NOT installed?
With the early 2015 Alienware laptops, the overclocking options are blocked unless you have the Graphics Amplifier plugged in. But that is just a marketing decision to try and sell more Graphics Amplifiers.
The hardware/software of the early 2015s should be able to dynamically reset the clocks of the CPU back to stock if the power consumption is becoming too large or adjust clocks of the GPU.
Now with Alienware saying the new ones have a 'dynamic overclocking system' I wil laugh if those options are still not available (unless it's all automatic now).

Also, is there a software hack to have the Alienware 17 R2 have it's fans at full RPM whenever you want?
With my Asus G50VT, you can open Read Write Everything and modify the values in the embedded controller, sticks until you shut off the computer.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/extreme-g51vx-cooling.621512/

Though I recently have installed BIOS a06 (September 2015)
(1.Modify Secure Boot Logo Test.
2.Update Intel ME FW 9.1.30.1008
3.Update Intel VBIOS 5.5.1039 & GOP 5.5.1033
EC :
1.Modify thermal fan table.
2.Add OS type "Windows 10".)
--And the fans do crank up to full RPM nice and early.
But, there is a PROBLEM with A06 with the 4980HQ CPU, 980m.
it often has trouble after plugging in. The CPU is still THROTTLED to various speeds, maybe as low as 1800MHZ, the same speed it was throttled at when unplugged, due to too much power consumption for the battery. You have to stimulate the laptop with full CPU utilization on all cores and then unplug and replug to restore full CPU clock speeds when plugged in.
Just doing full CPU utilization (like Prime95 when plugged in won't let it go back up to full speed. You need to unplug/plug again. Unplug/plugging in again without full CPU utilization, it is difficult to have it be configured back to full speeds (when a load demands it).

240W AC adapter; I've recorded a max of 209 watts from the wall (so maybe a bit over 180w to the laptop) if the battery is charging (80% SOC) and full utilization of CPU and GPU. 199W if not charging. This is an improvement from the earlier BIOS A04 of only about 171W from the wall max (didn't test charging then), from the previous 180W AC adapter. So I'm not positive if it's the AC adapter upgrade from 180 to 240W and/or update to BIOS A06 from A04 that allowed more power to the laptop. But, there's some data for you guys!

CPU at about 83C and GPU at about 72C in a moderately warm room. 2.8GHZ, full clocks all CPU cores held with a game or Furmark running, though Furmark causes a bit of GPU throttling, no real reason, temps are fine. 3.1GHZ if just Prime95, all CPU cores.
Still wish it would use all 240W if the battery needs charging.


BTW: How do you search a thread on this site?

 

Hello,
I have some cuestions about the alienware 17 r3:

- Maximum RAM admited by the moterboard
- SSD type connection (M.2 PCIE x4/M.2 PCIE x2/M.2 SATA) and how many have

 

Maximum RAM is 16GB
The SSD connection type, as best as I've been able to find in my research, is PCI-E 2.0 x2 (2nd slot), PCI-E 2.0 x4 and PCI-E 3.0 x4 (1st slot).

 

So I assume I can use a samsung 950pro? Was going to get one as I ordered this bad boy for $1750 after tax and overnight shipping:

Quantity Item Number Description
1 210-AFFV Alienware 17
1 370-ACLR 16GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (8GBx2)
1 580-ACWN English Keyboard
1 583-BCQG Alienware 6 programmable Macro module keys
1 490-BCLJ NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 980M with 4GB GDDR5
1 555-BCRW Killer Wireless 1535 Driver
1 400-AHHF 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
1 619-AHCR Windows 10 Pro (64bit) English
1 555-BCRM Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1
1 450-AAGO US Power Cord
1 340-AGUD Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French)
1 803-1714 Premium Support, 2 Years
1 801-2185 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Initial Year
1 975-3461 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Extended Year(s)
1 803-1696 Premium Support with Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis, 1 Year Extended
1 803-1695 Premium Support with Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis, 1 Year
1 801-2198 Accidental Damage Service, 2 Years
1 631-AATV Intel Driver
1 340-ASNH Placemat (English,French,BRPT,Spanish)
2 332-1530 Dell.com Order
1 332-1286 US Order
1 451-BBMW 8 Cell 92W Hour Battery
1 338-BHXB Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK (Quad-Core, 8MB Cache, Dynamically Overclocked up to 4.1GHz)
1 340-AAPP Directship Info Mod
1 340-ATTO Alienware 17 R2 Shipping box
1 817-BBBB No FGA
1 525-0016 Dropbox, Digital Delivery, 20GB for 1 year Promotion
1 800-BBKV FREE game with purchase of a GeForce GTX 700 GPU-powered desktop
1 389-BHPD Regulatory Label
1 389-BHGE Intel Core i7 Processor Label
1 391-BCMX 17.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS-Panel Anti-Glare 300-nits Display
1 658-BCSC Microsoft Office Software Image
1 658-BCUO Additional Software
1 817-BBBP None Included
1 450-AAJI 240W AC Adapter
1 340-ACQQ No Option Included
0 * DISCOUNT(S) AND/OR CO

 

Can you check the hardware specifications with hwinfo or similar software?

-About RAM, Can not install modules of 16gbs to have 32gbs of RAM?

 

The laptop will only address 16GB of RAM. There aren't even any 16GB DDR4 laptop modules available.

 

Yes, you can use the 950 Pro. I just installed the 256GB version today. Just know that it's best to install it in the 1st slot, then install the Samsung NVME drivers, restart your laptop, install the Samsung Data Migration tool, and clone your current drive to it or do a fresh install.

 

Thanks CJ, Cannot wait to get the laptop. Figure I got a good deal for it overall.