*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

Ok here we go.
Everything stock (second day out of the box).

Bios settings :


wPrime 8 threads 1024m benchmark :


What do you think? I got some pretty high number sometimes on core 1-3 but on average it seems quite good.

If you have any suggestions, feel free!

(btw, I am running the stock bios which is 1.08)

 

And that is without any custom repaste or anything? Then I know for sure something is wrong with my machine as I am nowhere near those numbers.

BTW, you seem to be making the same mistake as I was by calling it "core 1" when we infact mean the "first core" or "core 0"

 

Not too shaby for an out of the box unit ... Time to repast ! If you wan't to keep such frequencies that's it.

 

r u shi__ing me?
there are defected models with baseclock undervolted idleing with those temps. True if he wants to utilize all cores 100% loaded at 4.2ghz, then he need to repaste. but to say not too shaby lol thoes r effing good out of the box values!

 

Just fired up my Alienware. Looks good but got crackling audio. Is this a known issue? Any fix?

 

Ooooook. So I uninstalled audio drivers and rebooted computer. After reboot only half of keyboard was lit and fans were on full speed and temp reached 91 degrees on two cores. Rebooted again and when I enter Windows everything is unresponsive. Thanks Alienware.

Temp reaches 85degrees om desktop installing drivers

 

Sorry, but i can't say "Nice temps Bro !" when there are above 92°C and Core #0 is 16°C hotter than Core #3. Even with a 4.2GHz OC.
You're getting accustomed to DELL's mediocrity in thermal management. Temps shouldn' be uneven out of the box and temps should be in the low mid 80's.

 

O good lord I hope that doesnt happen to me. My Computer is being delieverd today as its out for delievery on the truck right now. So I hope to god mine was not made the same time yours was o.o haha sorry bro.

 

Awful. Fully throttling And 16C degrades between coldest vs. hottest core

 

@improwise, yes it is without repaste or anything else.

I received the unit yesterday, unpacked it and took plenty of pictures just in case I got a refurb, then fired up one occt 10min test on stock, then one wprime test with 1 core on 40x.

The last post with the 42x wPrime bench is from my lunch break

Tonight I will do real world experience with gaming sessions on watchdogs 2 and the witcher 3!

 

So looks like I need to run this wPrime 8 threat bench mark test when I get my laptop tonight and should I do the same settings as he did in his BIOS for good testing if I need a repaste or to move that triangle plate?

 

Really??
Where do you see the throttling?

 

@Papusan: Wprime doesn't detect my specs, it always turns up NIL. Any workarounds?

 

Just look at the numbers. Both the score and clock speed

Run as adm.

 

Still not working!

 

Well, at least Alienware has now proven that global warming isn't a myth

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I think you need to look in the left column, assuming there was no reset of readings and a dynamic fan curve.

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Extract the file where you want it, then Right click and run as adm. plug and play. Or should I say pray?

 

Okay I'll test.

 

Ok right speaker is broken. 20 degree difference between cores. Something that looks like glue under the touchpad. Not overly pleased...

You have glue under the touchpad aswell? Surface under it looks uneven when its lit up

 

I guess you mean below the touch pad?


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The factory workers have probably lost a thermal paste stamp under the touchpad and not glue as you think

 

Yes below the touchpad. Well this is going back. How do I factory reset this piece of crap?

 

Send it in as it is. Why bother more with it? Just ask for a refund.

 

So, is my unit f..k.d or not bad and just need a rework?

Maybe I didn't bench the right way? Because appart from the two hot cores on maximum, I was watching the bench the whole time and it didn't get very hot.
My average seems fine :'(

 

I also have scratches in the black plastic around the power button. Never buying Alienware again

 

Maybe take a look one more time on the cpu clock speed in the bench. 4.2 isn't 2.98GHz

 

Thats actually quite tricky when the stats say no throttling and low temps, but the core has infact clocked down. Isn't a downclock during a bench infact throttling?

 

@Papusan thanks for the obvious...
I am just asking for help and advices.

I just want to be sure that I have something workable or totally bad.

If you can't or are not willing to help that's fine.

 

Del themselves said that the 1.0.9 has some trouble, it bricked this machine once and we had to do CLRP short reset on the bios.


It does have a more aggressive fan curve however.

 

Seriously, is there no way do download ALL required drivers etc from Dell for a certain machine than to manually select them all? The Dell Update does seems to be some kind of fake program and I can't for the life of me find this functionality on Dells support site?

The information here seems to have been written by someone that has never actually visited Dells support site, at least when I visit it, these options a nowhere to be found:

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN128900

 

Go here http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1/Products/ and enter your service tag, it should bring you to a page where you can manually download the drivers

 

Did you actually read the message you just commented?

 

Bios 1.0.9 has the best performance hands down for the 6700hq. However i do notice my battery has dropped to ~95% and is charging back up about half the time i check after an overwatch game. Also MANY have stated that they had to do a bios reset because of 1.0.9. If you are not totally comfortable taking your computer apart and shorting to points on it then you risk turning your computer into a brick at least untill the techs come do it for you.

Also noticing very short term throttling to 2.4-2.5 ghz on this machince while staying under 80°C and I suspect others have as well due to event logs they were getting.

 

i got my system after 3 months of ordering .. 7820 + 1070 + THE GORGEOUS 4K Display
pasted with IC Diamond .. everything seemed perfect and ok until i got a mini heart attack
https://preview.ibb.co/dakSaa/20170209_213608.jpg
never seen an orange screen before
the CPU was 65-72 GPU 58-60 during battlefield 1 when i got that screen
it only happened once .. i played again and kept monitoring the temps nothing happened

any tips for new systems or advice about this orange screen ?

also the topi tracking thing makes the whole system laggy when its activated.. should i remove it or keep it disabled ?
and there is a slight half a second freeze every once and a while .. anyone faced this ?

 

Just when you thought you had seen everything, Alienware proves you wrong. Have never seen a orange screen like that. Perhaps its a heat warning?

 

Just a little shot showing what I would rather call a "semi glossy" coating more so than an "anti glare" coating on the AW17 that comes with the 1080p IPS ... love the coating on this screen ... not grainy, provides just the right amount of "pop" in the colors while adequately reducing glare. I'm typing at a bar right now and I can definitely see some of the lights behind me on the screen but it's not at all glaring ... pretty much a perfect "anti glare" coating. Took this shot at work earlier this week when I was surprised at the reflection on the laptop screen ... I use an external monitor and keep my lid like this cause I'm superstitious when it comes to cooling ...

(also wanted to inject some positive vibes to the thread) (LOL) ... ;-) ...

...

 

I assume that you have pulled the plastic so it isnt that looking like scratches? Sound impossible but you seem to have received an even worse aw17 than I did


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Based on recent postings here, I see nothing indicating that Dell has actually improved anything in their manufacturing despite some "fancy wording" from Frank A etc. Anyone disagree?

I still consider anything below 80% successrate from manufacturing as a disaster and Dell seem to be nowhere close to even that...


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My thermals aren't terrible, and there is a tiny bit of light bleed above the Alienware logo that I have to actively look for to see. Based on what I was seeing here and on Reddit, I thought for sure I'd have some major problems with my system. I'm not seeing that. This is by far the best gaming system I've ever had.

 

Can you link the Reddit



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You can edit the alienfx files and put in custom colors other than the default ones.

 

Hello guys.
Yesterday I placed an order after haggling with 3 or 4 different sales reps. Can you please tell me if it is a fair price for following config:

Alienware 17R4
Screen: 4K UHD 300-nit
Processor: i7 7820HK
RAM: 16Gb 2667Mhz (2x8Gb)
Video: 1070 8Gb vram
Storage: 256Gb SSD + 1Tb HDD
Only basic support, No premiun support + No accidental coverege.

All together came to 2144 and with NJ tax to 2291.
Thank you guys.

PS Also Am I be able to fit my old Samsung Evo 850 SSD into this machine?

 

A little head's up on my side and two questions.

I did some gaming yesterday to check concurrent heat between cpu and gpu.

Cpu was running 55 average with top values at about 78 and gpu around 50 with top values at 65.
This was during the witcher 3 and watchdogs 2 sessions, everything set on ultra + extra stuff like hairworks on the witcher and high-res texture pack on watchdogs.

I was wondering about on thing with my temperatures and throttling, could the bios have an effect on this?
Yeah, I know, with the max temps difference it seems again like this uneven heatsink / bad paste job but before I take the machine appart and order everything I would like to be sure about what I am looking at.

I am running the 1.08 bios.

Here again is my temps after a wPrime bench on 42x, 100000 power limit and 1200 core extra voltage :



And for the second question, I did a clean install of the nvidia drivers 378.49. I heard that some people got problems with it but I don't see why it would be problematic. If there is anything that I should be aware of, let me know!

 

ahhhh so true .. i thought it might be a heat warning still not sure .. and i will keep an eye on heat temperatures

 

Well shoot. I was hoping to pay that for a simular setup but with a 120hz screen when it's available again and a few years of full coverage haha.
Maybe I'm too hopeful

 

Yes you can, but you will restricted to SATA's limit of 6Gb/s.

 

@Papusan: I downloaded newer version 2.10 which was crap, downloaded correct version from HWBOT. Thanks, it worked out of the box.

 

How do you perform the CLRP reset?

 

There's a lot of posts regarding thermals and gap in the screens.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/