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

A06

 

Hi,
I am fairly new here but have been following Alienware threads for some time now and thinking of pulling the trigger at the new AW 17 R3 with 6820hk, 16gb ram, gtx 980m etc, I just saw that alienware released the option of having a 980m with 8GB vram, so I am wondering if that 8gb card is an mxm module or soldered on like the 4gb? If it is mxm do you guys think you will be able to put any future gtx xxxm ?

Thanks

 

Dell make only BGA now .

 

I ordered one for about a hundred or 150 more but it has the touchscreen and 128gb boot drive, figured it saves me the time of having to migrate the boot drive, etc... Also touch wasn't necessary, but it was all that was there. As for the GPU though, it wasn't listed and the chat rep could not verify what it had. I figure if it has a 970m then I could always return it, but seeing as it was a higher spec'ed one the chat rep said it most likely has the 980m but he could not confirm. Mine comes in on the 4th, did you get yours yet?

 

I finally retired my M17x R2 for a 17 R3 (6820HK, 980M 4G, 8GB, 4K, 256GB+1TB). Outside of the free fall sensor issue (how does Dell not catch that?), the setup has been refreshingly straightforward. Gone are the days of removing the buggy Windows 7 skin and having to take drastic measures to upgrade graphics drivers. I'm a fan so far.

 

Its on the truck today for delivery, now they told me correct (about the missing GPU spec spec) on the AW 15 I bought so ill assume they are correct about the 980m on this one.

And if not, I will be slightly disappointed but still for what I paid I cant really complain. Ive bought a 256gb mSata drive on newegg for ~$60 so ill still be coming in under $1000.

If I get the 970m I wont have to ask for another power adapter, if I get the 980m I will have to ask for the 240w(assuming it doesnt come with it) but ill also have that extra GPU power.

And if it does come with the 970m ill just ask for a small refund of about $75 dollars so I guess win-win.

 

It does have a 980m as promised. Though at this point I would highly desire an immaculate 970m model instead.

Though, I have never received anything as abused as this thing from the Outlet. Many scratches and a line of plastic broke off under one of the metal heatsink grills.
Even had some goo on the palmrest that wasn't cleaned off and got on the screen.

Thankfully the screen is in excellent shape and I was able to clean it up to decent standards with some clorox wipes.

I dont see how you could abuse such a machine.... it must have cost at least $1500+ when new probably closer to $2000.

I also resent dell for not doing even the bare minimum when cleaning it. I just don't believe it, its crazy that they didn't even clean it. What the fugg.

The touchpad is on the fritz and won't work properly. I blame the source of the goo.

People that manage to break and abuse things this expensive should be euthanized or put in an institution. I just dont understand how you could do this to something you paid so much for.

Beatings are in order for the previous owner and the Dell "refurb person" who checked this off as "Acceptable".

Just got $75 off my order for my troubles, that probably makes this the record low($842) for purchase of a 980m system. Hopefully they can just send me part for the touchpad, ive seen their techs working before and last time it was the first time the guy ever even worked on an alienware...

 

Ewww, I have never gotten a nasty one like that. Well looks like my shipment got pushed back to Monday I really do want the 980m though, the performance difference is why I am willing to pay more. I have had a base 970m model in the past I got from a great outlet deal for about 900 OTD so this one at 1100 would not be worth it to me unless it does have the 980m. Fingers crossed, but thats really all I can do at this point.

As for having the tech work on the AW. GL with that. The last 3 techs that have come to do work on my system have lost screws, scratched my case, broke tabs, etc... There has only been 1 good experience and that was about 5 years ago when they came to my office and were super professional. Set them up in the board room and the guy put on gloves just to work on it.

 

So I hear battlefront is not a very cpu heavy game but rather gpu heavy. Would it be reasonable to think that if I run my clocks at 3.0 or even disable turbo I could lower the tdp enough to actually overclock my gpu a little? The problem I have now is I cant actually overclock my gpu at all without throttling. Its not a gpu temp issue as when I do overclock I get a max temp of 72 when it isn't throttling, but it allows me to run higher settings on my 2560x1440p screen. 4710hq and 980m by the way.

 

So I got the AW17r2 in and yay 980m. It has 1 dead pixel and some wicked backlight bleed on the bottom left but I think I am ok with that. Dell does not really replace screens for 1 dead pixel that is very far from the center anyway, so no biggie.

I do have that weird trackpad issue... the one where 2 finger scrolling in google chrome causes squares to pop up and the mouse to jump all over. I had fixed this on my last aw17 (I think by running a script someone posted) but I can't seem to find that thread anywhere. Can anyone shoot me a link on how to fix this... I know it can be done... I tried the uninstall / reinstall driver and even the synaptics driver from their site but no love. I am pretty sure its something that needs to be fixed with something else... if I remember correctly its pretty easy too.

Edit* Found it
http://nathanhinkle.com/software/programs/chrome-synaptics-multitouch/

Now it works like a dream in chrome.

 

I haven't read the whole thread but I'm guessing you guys are buying refurbs? Have anyone considered the 3 year drop /spill protection of some companies?

B&h photo and best buy have them. They profit and you get an upgrade in 3 years

 

I only buy alienware refurbs because the price is right and they have the same 1 year warranty. You can upgrade the warranty through them, and I usually sell or trade mine before a year, so I usually don't need more than the 1 year. As for most aftermarket warranty companies like square trade, etc... they don't allow refurbs to get warranties through them. I have tried with SQtr but no luck. Never looked into B&H, maybe I will check them out... I think I will keep this 17 for a while.

 

I recently ordered the 17 r3, the specs are:
Intel i7 6700HQ
17.3 UHD
8 gb dir 4
128 GB SSD
! TB HDD
GTX970m

Will this be good enough for most games or do I need the faster processor with the GTX 980? I am just getting back into computer gaming after about a 5 year break ( been in military and deployed a lot). I am so not familiar with the new tech that is offered but just wanted to make sure that the specs listed above would be able to handle most games out today especially the call of duty series. Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

 

Can anyone suggest a cooling pad for comfortable use on lap/in bed? I'm considering the Cooler Master NOTEPAL U3 PLUS but it looks slightly unwieldy for lap use; does anyone have a better recommendation?

 

I had the same one, fantastic PC. I took a 3 year break as well. currently i too have the 970m. although my old gt650 can play the new gen games on Low settings, the 980m is definitely more future proof, but nothing a 970m with dailed back settings can't handle. My deciding factor was the 970 is slimmer. im sure in two years I will have to dail it down to medium graphics. we can play ultra on todays titles on 1080p so i wouldnt be worried.

 

Thanks ADAS1223 for your input,
I will keep my current order as it stands then.

 

Are you saying an alienware 17 with the 970m is slimmer than an alienware 17 with a 980m? I was under the impression they were the exact same size. It may be all in my head but after receiving the current one with the 980m it felt heavier and thicker than the 970m variant I had in the past. I had thought it was just all in my head until I saw your post...

 

no sorry. they are the same size. Personally the AW17 was too bulky for me so i was looking for a slimmer rig. most of the 980m's are 17" screens. if not, they are pretty deep ie:AW15. if they are slim and 980m, most reviews say they throttle pretty bad. but it is true that they are a bulkier card.

There are 14" 980m's out there but none come the sellers i want.

 

This won't help you in bed, but I noticed that just raised my 17 off the desk by half an inch dropped my gaming GPU and CPU temperatures from 74 down to 60. Its amazing what half an inch can do!

 

... Thats what she said... Sorry, just had to.

 

I am playing battlefront on low in 4k and getting steady 30-35fps. If I do ultra it drops down to roughly 20. Haven't tried scaling down to 1080p at all, the game looks great in low/4k still. 970m r3 here.

 

Guys I kinda stumbled upon an issue with my AW17 and can't get to the bottom of it.

I have the laptop plugged into my dell p2715q 4k display via minidisplayport. Things are great on desktop and I know I am getting more than 30 fps at 4k because the mouse movements are fluid. I just tried to fire up league of legends on this and I was maxing out at 30fps at 1440p. Its a 980m and frames were steady, so I am thinking it wasn't the GPU's issue. Any thoughts as to what it could be?

I did notice that when I went back to the desktop, it wasn't charging, even though its plugged in. I know the power adapter is only a 180 not the 240, but figured with no overclocking I should be fine. Could this be the culprit? I am going to try again and see what happens...

*edit* I think that is what it was. When the game first started, it was in 4k and that much may have put too much of a draw on the PSU. I had turned it town to 1440p and made sure it was all plugged in and poof, 200+fps no problem. Looks like I have a legitimate reason to call dell about getting a 240w PSU now though.

 

Am I the only one where Firefox is causing issues with an 17R3? It has UHD and only with Firefox do I get the video driver has stopped error. Latest drivers all around. Did the Tdrdelay fix and the error shifted to blocked hardware access error. Did diagnostic tests, included extensive memory tests several times, no issues. All only with Firefox. Removed and reinstalled Firefox several times. Same results.

Now using Chrome. No issues, not one. Even removed the TdrDelay fix. Still no issues.

Had same issues with Firefox on MS Surface Book but the TdrDelay fix seems to have cured that unit.

Firefox used to be my go to browser. I guess no more....

As an aside, now that Firefox has been removed boot and restart is significantly faster. Not sure how this is related but clearly noticeable. Right now I see Firefox as incompatible with Windows 10.

Thanks in advance.

Rob

 

When I was on the phone with tech support getting my touchpad replacement setup I mention the PSU thing.

He said that they had fixed the "issue" with the hybrid BIOS so no more 240 watt adapters were needed. I said that was controversial at best and that I would be the judge of that later on.

I plan on calling back and getting the 240 watt once I get the touchpad replaced and can actually use it.

 

rtg--

There are a few of us with freeze issues and it is not limited to FF, although it seems limited to browsers. I think there ought to be a separate thread on this, started by someone with more energy than me.

 

Ya, I remember reading that they stopped easily swapping out the PSU's but seeing as mine stopped charging while under load... I think I have a case (provided I can replicate the issue). Best of luck to you, I am going to give it a shot too and maybe we will come out on top.

 

Yea I am just glad I got mine while I could. What's the story on the R3, are they still shipping them with 180 watt psu's?

 

Here is a question about nvidia and optimus... when you know you want to save battery life and want to make sure the GPU is off, do you go to the settings and hit integrated only? I have been doing that for years but it seems on the AW17 its not working properly. I keep the tray icon active and it shows that "onenotetim" and "wwahost" are both using the GPU. Any thoughts? I am going to be taking a flight home for the holidays where I have a 6 hour layover, so I hoping I can squeeze as much battery life out of this beast as possible. Sure I will have a tablet, but 17' for a movie always looks nicer.

 

My son got a leftover 17R2. Called next day after receiving it. Did a couple of tests with the rep on the call and a 240W PS was dispatched. Got it in 2 days. This was on or around Oct 5.

Rob

 

17R3 comes with a 240W PS. That is shown on the Alienware website and on the build sheet.

Rob

 

Glad to see they learned from their mistakes

 

Found another issue that seems to be really irritating. I tried to fire up battlefield hardline today on my 4k display. Having the 980m I figured I could push 1440p just fine and sure enough, it worked great... for a little while. I kept messing with the settings and after only about 14 minutes of gameplay it crashed and I had to do a power button restart. I tried loading it again, same result. I then went to nvidia experience and put it to "optimal settings" hoping the lowering of the details, etc would help... nope. Now I can't even load the game. The computer is fairly warm to the touch, but I would not say its overly hot. Could it be that the GPU is trying to ramp up and can't because of the 180w PSU? League of legends runs just fine but I have it capped at 60fps so the GPU does not have to work much... Thoughts, suggestions?

Its worth noting that when I played battlefield hardline from the laptops display at 1080p on ultra settings everything was smooth as butter... this only started happening when I messed with the settings and am running off the external display (mini displayport).

 

You say that Alienware learned from their mistakes. What is the difference in power consumption between old R2 and R3? Use R3 a lot more power than previous R2 with roughly the same configuration ? Unbelievable that Dell Support continues with this nonsense when they know R3 comes with a 240W psu. Perhaps Dellienware think that all their customers are really stupid.
If Dellienware ever launch a Aw laptop with graphics that use a little more power(desktop card). Then they will definitely continue with a 240W psu + hybrid bios. Everything will start all over again, Wait and see . LOL

 

Papusan I understand your beef with alienware, I as well hope they return to their previous glory days but these tech gimmicks occupy me very much in the meantime. I like to have my cake and eat it too

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

I personally think that Dellienware never will come back. They have their G / A. Do you have any good answers for why Dell support continues in the same manner?

 

the GA is a fantastic solution but not a permanent one, they won't lean on it forever

 

Don't forget that Mr Azor said that this solution was the future for Alienware laptops. He said also that socket hardware was not something they would bet on in Aw gaming laptops.
He said bluntly that desktop processors are not a good solution in any laptop. Better that their gaming laptops are thin and light. This harmonize not very well with a large G/A if you'll be carrying this around.

 

that's entirely true though

 

there is a reason there is a differentiation between laptop and desktop parts

 

and it comes down to TDP

 

These are the words straight from Mr Azor; The result is lower quality systems, trust me we have years of experience that prove this and that experience was from working some of the very same ODMs that are doing this again (ask yourself why did everyone move away from DT CPU's in the first place several years ago ). The efficiency of desktop processors is also considerably less as compared to mobile processors causing them to put out higher heat and consume more power per watt than mobile parts. The result being much thicker notebooks, much heavier notebooks and borderline unacceptable battery life. We do not like the fact that we had no choice but to support BGA processors in this generation of notebooks and knew it would be a sour point for our customers, this is why we accelerated our Amplifier development plans and worked to ensure it would launch with this generation of notebooks. The amplifier gives you significantly more longevity and upgrade-ability than a CPU socket would. Intel changes their CPU socket about every 2 years on DT and mobile parts so the upgrade path is limited. The amplifier is much more flexible and delivers graphics performance benefits which are more impacting to gameplay than CPUs upgrade paths.
How about a +200w internal Nvidia desktop cards in later models? Better with an upgraded G / A.

 

If you really want a "desktop replacement" buy a P570WM and be done with it, if you want a laptop with desktop ability buy an alienware with GA

 

yes exactly, how many corners did Clevo cut to make a desktop processor in a laptop form factor? do you really know?

 

at a hardware level you can't know unless you are an engineer

 

MSI, Asus and Clevo use thicker design so they can use the best from Nvidia. Dellienware goes the opposite way... More equal as Razer now. Everyone sees that Dell has chosen the opposite way of all major laptop brand.

 

MSI I think is a great brand, they push the limits, Asus would like to think they do or pretend they do when they are putting dressing on the norm. Dellienware don't pretend and say straight this is what we are doing with our line of products

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Yeees. This is calculated choice long time ago. Less performance / high end and more equal CrApple and Razer. Anyone see now that this has gone the wrong way. At least from the viewpoint from performance enthusiasts. Thinner does not improve if you want desktop performance from a laptop as several brand will give you today and tomorrow You are forced upon a G / A from Dell. Just as well buy a desktop pc then.

 

Although the Graphics Amplifier (GA) is a good solution if you only ever game at home, but at the same time want or need to use the laptop for non-gaming purposes outside of the home, especially if the current model of GA is compatible with future models of alienware laptops which would allow owners to buy a new laptop but keep their existing GA.

 

So your opinion is that an G / A is a better solution than a (+200w) Nvidia desktop cards in a modern high end gaming laptop today/2016? Can understand the solution if the laptop does not have a dGPU. As said; Dell has chosen a different customer segment now. It's good there are better options for those who want better laptop performance and same time want a portable solution. Just as others rather want a lighter and thinner laptop but with lower performance on the move.

 

Yeah, if you only game at home, and don't mind the extra space of the Graphics Amplifier, then that's a better solution than a 200W GPU that might not be upgradeable in a notebook - for a start you could put a 980ti in a Graphics Amplifier, that's more performance than a single 200W GTX 980 crammed in a notebook. Desktop cards are cheaper than laptop cards too - as well as having more performance, and you can upgrade the card in the GA with later generations of cards too, so it does make sense for someone gaming at home. Actually, I was/am considering building a desktop at some point, but I'll keep my eyes open towards Graphics Amplifier solutions too - won't be upgrading from my current laptop for a while though. (If I was to get a GA solution though I'd probably want to buy a laptop that doesn't have a special dGPU, because that's just extra cost - I'd want a laptop with just a really good keyboard, good screen, excellent well-cooled CPU, good amount of RAM, SSD, etc, - just without the dGPU)