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

JerseyBoy,

OK, you then believe like me that 16GB RAM is definitely needed to run Windows and other programs efficiently as another super member said I should go with the basic $1,499.00 AW17r3 and then add the 4K display, which I greatly want and a 256 PCIe, yet that package only comes with 8GB RAM @ $2,099.99, which I myself feel 8GB RAM is not enough for what I need & want to do?

I will now go back to the DELL online AW store and configure it with 16GB, GTX970, as so graciously suggested, a 256 PCIe and of course a 4K display and see what it comes to.

 

SD,

Glad to see you're getting there!

Here is a very good example of why 16GB is good for photo editing, using 16GB instead of 8GB nearly doubles the speed, going above that the advantage is not so significant.

http://www.gavtrain.com/?p=1569

 

JerseyBoy,

Thanks for the great and very informative link as it is greatly appreciated.

OK so now knowing that 16GB RAM is definitely the way to go and what I in fact always believed I configured a AW17r3 @ the DELL store with the an i7-6700HQ, 4K display, GTX970m GPU w/3GB, 256GB PCIe SSD (Boot) + 1TB 7200RPM SATA (Storage), 16GB RAM for = $2,149.99 so now I'm left with one further Dilemma which is, what WiFi should I get - Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 included or the Intel 8260 2x2 802.11ac 2.4/5GHz + Bluetooth4.1 for an extra $25?

Thanks,
SD

 

Hi SD,

I'm no expert on the Wi-Fi options Killer vs Intel so I'll leave that to others to suggest.

 

Hi JerseyBoy,

Thanks as I greatly appreciate the honesty!

What I find real odd with the first 2 choices on the DELL AW store and I know that I'm definitely missing something is: The first choice and base unit is $1,499.00 and includes a backpack yet only has 8GB RAM, the second choice unit is $1,549.99 and includes a controller, backpack and 16GB RAM with everything else remaining the same before upgrades, which in fact makes perfect sense of why the second choice is more $$$, yet when you upgrade the first choice from 8GB RAM - 16GB RAM for $100.00 more for $1,599.99 then the first unit then costs you more than the second unit, with both now having everything else identical and the second unit even gives you a controller for free, which I very honestly cannot figure out why this is?

I have looked over this aforementioned scenario repeatedly and still cannot find out the logic to why would anyone choose the first option if they wanted 16GB RAM when it's cheaper buying the second option and you get more for free?

SD

 

It is the same on dell UK. If you modify cheapest model with higher upgrades it will cost more compared to the listed high-end models. The most expensive one currently has 150£ off. If you are aiming for uhd screen I would start from the middle. I am in the same boat, 0% gaming, but anxious of that beatiful 17 uhd ips screen, the alternative laptops with it- clevo and acer- are more expensive and with less warranty support. Currently bga CPU is stopping me, no future upgrades and repairs with full motherboard replacement, not nice.
I wait for now, may be this 17" IPS panel will be adopted by other brands as well

 

SD,

I think it's because the standard specification one's might be already built and sitting on a shelf ready to send to you as soon as you order it.

If you change the specifications it either has to be custom built from scratch, or they have to take a built one apart to modify the specifications to suit your requirements.

 

Hi WOW,

Why would you be concerned about the BGA not being upgradable? It's (6700 or 6820) a really fast processor, certified by DELL to go to 4.1ghz.and it's reached 4.6ghz. With the addition of extra cooling in the future it's possible it could go higher.

If you upgraded the processor in this chassis you would likely be increasing the wattage to cool and therefore need better cooling anyway.

So I would buy it and expect it to be excellent in standard form for at least 3 years, or a lot longer if you added cooling like I plan to do with my own design of cooling pad. Faster memory and faster SSD can both make it a 5 year rig, that's why I'm adding 950 Pro's and will add 2400 RAM soon too. With the cooling on top of that I'm looking at something that won't look slow for at least 5 years.

Also, if your not into gaming why would you need to upgrade a 6820 in the next 5 years? Look at the Intel CPU roadmap, chances are all laptop and desktop processors will be BGA in the not too distant future, as there isn't enough of a case for CPU upgrading any more, at least not in Intel's view. If that's the case you won't be able to buy a processor to upgrade to, as they will all be BGA.

 

Just wondering if anyone is using the Alienware 17 R3 as their main computer? A buddy of mine is looking to get one and sell off his desktop and take his 980ti and put it into the AGA. Figure I check on people's experience and feedback to better help make his decision.

 

Hi CSHawkeye81,

I will be using the R3 as my main computer, it will be the fastest rig I'll have, fastest SSD's (950 PRO going in when I get it), best screen (I can also connect it to my iiyama 26" if I want a bigger screen for anything, but the iiyama is only 1920x1200 vs the 4k laptop screen). I don't have a better graphics card than the one in the laptop so I won't be adding the AGA on unless I buy a 4k external screen.

I have seen the same question asked on here before, the answer most gave was to go for it.

 

Ok cool, his monitor is the Dell U3415W that he would plug his AGA into.

 

Nice screen

 

CSHawkeye81,

Tell your buddy I have the same setup! I have a 17 R3 980m 4k + 980TI (AGA) + Dell U3415W. It's awesome!!!! I LOVE the setup. I use it as my daily driver, it's on 24/7. No problems whatsoever.

PS. I actually am doing a dual screen U3415W's

 

OK Everyone I only have 15 minutes with this system (see below) in my cart @ the Dell Outlet so please tell me for my needs what do you think?

Alienware 17R3
System Details
Processor: Intel Core 6th Gen i7-6700HQ Processor (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)Windows 10 Home 64bit English1 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)256 GB Solid State drive16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Memory17.3 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IGZO IPS Anti-Glare 400-nits DisplayNVidia GeForce GTX 970M with 3gbEpic SilverDell Outlet Alienware 17R3 Laptop
Outlet Price $1,899.00
Add-Ons $0.00
Total Price $1,899.00

 

That's a good deal....I'd go for it....you'd be saving a good chunk of change that'd be worth justifying pulling the trigger to go with it.

 

Hi SD,

Nice price for that, and I take it you get a backpack and game controller for free?

 

I do and I would recommend it. I started with the 17r2 which was a **** computer and they gave me the r3 for free (so pretty good customer service). I dont have any problems with it and the temps stay relatively low especially if he plans on running the aga. If you comb through the aga thread there really isnt much loss at all as far graphics power especially if you run it to an external monitor.

 

Hi JerseyBoy,

Thanks but unfortunately I just had an absolute terrible day yesterday and because of such I didn't wind up getting it.

I placed the unit in my shopping cart and then my phone rang with a very important phone call in regards to my 2015 tax return and when I was done with the call not only was that unit removed from my cart, yet unbelievably other units that were also available were amazingly gone as well.

Wow...that is what I definitely call one hot item with absolutely no time to contemplate, wait or linger once one places it in their cart!

The call then delivered some not so expected nor wanted news of I will possibly and unbelievably owe over $1,100.00 in taxes and then the rest day than had one more issue after another and unfortunately didn't get any better.

FYI - The unit was from the DELL outlet so there was no Freebies with the purchase and although Freebies are definitely nice and always welcomed they definitely don't influence me in making purchases and especially when it comes to important things like definitely this.

I will be definitely checking out the Outlet again today especially with the very unexpected $1,100.00 tax owing news and hopefully my day will be better than yesterday.

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hi iunlock,

Thanks but unfortunately I just had an absolute terrible day yesterday and because of such I didn't wind up getting it.

I placed the unit in my shopping cart and then my phone rang with a very important phone call in regards to my 2015 tax return and when I was done with the call not only was that unit removed from my cart, yet unbelievably other units that were also available were amazingly gone as well, which in fact just completely floored me as evidently one really must not waste any time after they place the item in their cart.

What’s that saying?
Oh Yeah “Live and Learn”

I will be definitely checking out the Outlet again today especially with the very unexpected news yesterday in learning that I owe $1,100.00 in taxes.

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hi, I received that Fan Sucker Cooler thing today, tested it and it makes zero difference - well it makes it worse! Forcing max internal laptop fans using HWInfo and then testing it with & without the Fan Sucker Cooler the temperatures are 2 degC better without the Fan Sucker Cooler.

Here are the temperatures & fan speeds after 10mins of Heaven Benchmark:
Fan Sucker Cooler = 61 degC
Without Cooler = 59 degC
Laptop Internal Fan Speeds weren't affected by the cooler when forcing max fans using HWInfo: 4100rpm for GPU fan with & without cooler.

In a seperate test The Fan Sucker Cooler did lower the temperature by about 1 degC when not forcing max fans using HWInfo (instead letting the laptop control the fans), and in that instance the internal fan speed was increased 600rpm above what it normally runs at (2900rpm average vs 2300rpm average). But, as you can see, I have plenty of cooling capacity in my laptop as evidenced by the HWInfo Max Fans Test (my notebook rarely kicks up to max fans) and this Fan Sucker Cooler can't increase the maximum cooling capacity of my notebook.

If you're gonna get one of the Fan Sucker Coolers make sure the fan has substantially higher cfm than your internal laptop fan - I guess that sounds obvious, but I was curious to test this abomination! Here's the link to the cooler I tested ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/EZREAL®-COOLER-Vacuum-Extracting-Notebook/dp/B00WBRIOJY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459264546&sr=8-1&keywords=EZREAL®+ICE+COOLER+III+USB+Vacuum+Cooler)

 

Hi Robbo99999,

That sucks!

Thanks very much for testing it out

So it looks like the vacuum thingy is probably the 7.5cfm I found on Alibaba and that the internal fans of the AW 17 R3 must be around the same spec (7.5 to 8.5 cfm?). The R3 is a low power CPU at 45w so maybe that (7.5 to 8.5 cfm?) is all they need for general use.

An interesting specification on the fans is the air pressure. Some 80mm I have seen state 'high pressure'. If the add-on fans air pressure rating is not higher than the internal fans air pressure rating, it might not be powerful enough to pull more air through the internal fan, despite it might be a higher cfm external fan (when moving freely flowing air).

I shall be checking the fans I've highlighted for the cooler pad design to ensure I install high pressure as well as higher cfm fans.

 

Haha, that's the problem, it doesn't suck enough (literally!)!

Ah, that's interesting what you're saying about cfm. I had originally thought the cfm of my laptop fans were something like 112cfm, but when looking it up just now it's more like 2 cfm - see here ( https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/2699-m17x-cpu-fan-upgrademod-2cfm-104cfm/)! This makes me quite surprised that the supposedly 75 cfm rated Vacuum Cooler couldn't influence the fan speeds nor temperature - this makes me doubt that the spec is true on the vacuum cooler, I don't think it's the 75cfm that is stated on the packaging, in fact I think the laptop internal fans push more air than this vacuum cooler. Hmm, I don't know what to think, but it doesn't work!

Maybe you're onto something with regard to the pressure rating of the fans, I don't know enough of the technical side of airflow to comment on that really, but I do understand the idea of what you're saying.

Yep, max out the fans on that vacuum cooler you're gonna get - go extreme, just don't suck out the internals! ;-)

 

Hi Robbo99999,

I reckon they missed out the decimal point, it's either 7.5 cfm........... or 0.75 cfm

 

As I was thinking! If the fan has no high pressure it means the cfm are not going to make any difference.

"static pressure is the force the air can pushed out of the fan.
High air flow is a measurement of cubic feet per minute of air the fan can move at its peak.

usually a High static pressure fan will have a High CFM also. the reasons to get a High static pressure fan is if you need to blow air through a radiator/CPU cooler or even Pull air through a screen filter. these area's are where you need the pressure."

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2175016/high-airflow-fans-static-pressure-fans.html

 

Wow...thanks for the update! It makes sense...those little laptop vacuum sucker things seemed not powerful enough.

It'd be interested (for giggles) to see what two vacuum hoses placed behind the exhaust fans would do lol...with it having more suction I'm sure it'll drop some C's...however, I'm thinking it'd make the fan blades spin at Mach 3, which may contribute to some major wear and tear....

I'm also not a fan of messing with fan curves...from now on I'm sticking with stock settings as my best temps have always been with stock fan settings.



Powered by: Quad Core Exynos + 6820HK

 

This guy explains the difference between pressure and air flow perfectly. My cooling pad will definitely need high pressure fans to pull the air through the laptop and laptop exhaust vents.

 

Duplicate, please delete.

 

Sorry to hear mate. Keep positive because it's possible that a better deal will come around! Hang in there.....all will work out. Keep us updated.

Powered by: Quad Core Exynos + 6820HK

 

So it's on the move again! Not sure why it had to sit in the UK HUB since last Wednesday gathering dust though!!

 

Robbo, thanks for testing out the sucker-cooler fan thingy! Sorry to hear it was a no go--seems like you got some bad advice on the purchase (from me)!

Okay, now to the cooling rack/pad/stand: Can somebody test one against simply proping up the back of the computer? Because just doing that I got a 10c improvement at full throttle, taking core temp from mid-80s down to mid-70s. How does an O2 Cool (or similar) compare?

 

Hi John,

Based on the research I've done on cooling pads and my design for one, I can put forward some theories.

AW 17 R3:

Sitting on its feet:
The airflow is not limited by the size of the vents underneath, it's limited by the air gap underneath the laptop and by the static pressure level of the internal fans. If the internal fans don't have enough pressure they can't forcefully suck enough air in through the limited gap underneath (a few mm?) to create the most effective cooling.

With the laptop raised:
There is now plenty of room for the internal fans to get the air flowing efficiently. They are designed well enough to cool the laptop when the air flow is unrestricted.

With cooling pad:
Air is pushed upwards towards the vents. This may or may not have much pressure, depending on the type of fan used. Weak fans will simply cause a lot of air turbulence, this does not create efficient cooling. High pressure fans will get air into the internal fans better, but the limit of cooling ability is more restricted by the internal fans ability to move that air through the much smaller exhaust vents on the back of the laptop.

My design:
Putting high pressure extractor fans at the back of the cooling pad should pull much more air through the cooling system, reducing temperatures meaningfully. This would be the most efficient cooling method even if the laptop was only on its feet, because the increased pressure enables a lot more air to be sucked through the system.

Pull works far better than push ever will in this case. People may think their cheap cooler is helping but just propping up the laptop would achieve the same result. Suction through the back has to be the way to get serious cooling working, but it will require high pressure fans.

 

Jersey, didn't Robbo just test the extractor fans and find them worthless? Check the previous page!

I thought the extractor fans you mentioned ought to make the biggest difference; in my mind just pushing turbulent air from the bottom wouldn't make much difference. I got 10c improvement just by lifting the laptop up and yes, I believe hte benefit is from the improved airflow into the underside intake vents AND the fact that there ought to be less heated air in there with it raise. When you get your cooling pad be sure to test this!

 

No, he tested a cheap piece of junk with very low pressure and low cfm. What I am planning on using is 80mm (possibly bigger) high pressure fans in extraction mode, I don't do things by half!

 

Doomed to fail. A modified U3 with quality fans with high static pressure that can move a lot of air is the only viable way. It is sold too much garbage on the internet, and people bite on whatever offered This has been tried before, so good luck

 

So what is the best cooling pad for these guys then?

 

Hi Papusan,

I never fail. Watch this space, I'll blow your mind!

 

Hi CSHawkeye81,

A home made one that extracts air with high pressure fans, or just prop it up an inch or two.

 

It's ok, I don't mind, it was very cheap & I was curious to try it, I can always send it back to amazon because it wasn't fit for purpose. The other thing I didn't mention in the review was that I had to have my screen tilted towards me at 45 degrees in order to allow space for the cooler to fit on the rear vent (so it wouldn't catch on the lid) - it didn't affect the cooling performance, but that fact alone would have made the cooler unusable regardless of the performance.

 

I will follow your fall. Arrogance can topple large loads Will never work.

 

Papusan,

Your the one that's arrogant, look in the f'in mirror.

Shove your doom and gloom drivel where the sun don't shine.

 

Anyone that tells someone they are going to fail, before they've even had a chance to try, is obviously the BIGGEST LOSER!!

 

This is not a pretty language in a forum or other places. Show some decency against other members. Even if you disagree so watch what you say. Try to remember what you learned from your parents when you were a kid.

 

Papusan

• You are ignoring content by this member.

 

No reason to talk **** about members in the forum if they have other meanings than you. How do you think this or other forum would work if everyone behaved like you?

 

Just curious, but why all the effort for cooling? I barely break 70C under load and that's on my lap with no repaste. Temperatures drop to the high 50s when i turn the fans all the way up. I don't see any cooling system improving that.

 

Same goes for me. Temps onyl ride when I close the laptop lid. THe Alienware laptop actually sucks air trough the keyboard as well and has 2 fan holes under the frame for this. but in a way that dust etc cannot enter the fans itself.

 

Yea I honestly don't have any heat problems either. I only bought a laptop cooler as a stand that circulate clean air

 

The reasons I'm going to to make the cooling pad I designed (and have significantly enhanced since)

1) To prove it can be done this way
2) To challenge my own design and build abilities
3) To see if adding it will enable some serious overclocking and benchmark scores
4) To see how cool I can get the laptop when set at its standard settings
5) Temperature is directly related to the longevity of laptops and maybe more so with BGA solder blobs
6) To show other R3 owners what's possible
7) So I have something unique, at least until someone else uses my design and makes their own, even then they may change something, leaving us both with unique cooling pads
8) I think the final design looks A-mazing

 

This is how I understood JB's project. My own temps at 100% CPU (normal clock) hover in the mid 70's, which is good enough for me. If others are seeing temps in the 60s with the same 100% cpu usage then I would speculate that there are fundamental variances within each chip, and mine sounds like it's in the middle.

Since chip lifespan more or less equates to chip temps, and as the BGA Troll would point out the chip cannot be replaced, I'm keeping an eye on how to keep the chip running cooler since I do frequent 100% renders and these computers are expensive to replace. And I thank Jersey for taking an enthusiastic lead on this. Just a little frustrating that all his grand plans aren't going to amount to anything until he actually takes delivery of the computer.

 

75c to 80c at 4.1ghz?

"cranked it up to 4.1GHZ on all 4 cores pretty much as soon as it arrived, never misses a beat... been running those clocks ever since, 75-80c while under load, sounds high but the cooling system is great.. as soon as the unit is not being stressed fans throttle back... heat is gone!!! EXCELLENT"
https://www.alienwarearena.com/foru...port-1/alienware-17-r3-does-it-overheart/last


If I can get that down to 65c? 60c? Lower? What then? 4.5ghz at 70c? Increased longevity at 4.1ghz?