*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

yes I did but repasted anyway because I wanted to overclock. I'm in the UK

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If you have no temps I would say something is really wrong or you are on a short track to the Nobel Price

Whats your config?

 

Could you elaborate please?

 

Out of box : no differential core temp cpu in idle or in full load. Average 75/78 degres under occt.

M17 R4 6820 hk gtx1080
See the config on signature

I receive m'y laptop with thermal pads correction (0.1mm)

 

See as well http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ware-17-r4-15-r3.797378/page-38#post-10460897

The NVMe SSd temp is 53C degrees with no work. Wonder what the ssd temp will be in real world ssd usage, when the temp is already that high in idle state It looks like a heating problem also for NVMe SSD in the new Aw models.

 

I can't help but to notice your sig, 8hrs of OCCT and only have 60C? Now I'm impressed about the cooling system of AW's, but those CPU arm bending is something I cannot do on my own!

 

No differentials at all? Seems unlikely? Also, as I think has been the conclusion before, OCCT isn't the best test for this, something like Prime95 or AIDA64 seems better. Those 2 made my 6820HK throttle within minutes (seconds really) in the 2 AW17s I have here (to be returned both).

BTW, can you see if the correct thermal pads were used without doing much more than opening up the laptop?

 

So...
Out of box my temp were clearly good.
The differencial temp between cores don't exceed 2/3 degres.

After 4 days I repast and my thermal pads were updated with 0.1mm.

You're right... OCCT isn't the best test but about 3 or 4 hours my temp doesent exceed 78°c with thermal difference of 3°c max between cores. When i read temps from others, i think they were good for an AW17 buy the 5 dec 2016!

After repast and repad (Conductonnaut + Fujipoly 17W/m2) my temp doesn't exceed 65°c under OCCT during 3 hours. So i think, i have good temp @3.6Ghz...

I could try Prime95 but i'm not sure that is interresting for me... I'm a gamer but my AW17 is okay for 2 years... I not very interesting about O/C or full perf at this time. In office mode or web mode is totaly silent. No fan... Temp @ 38/42°c (depend of the temp of the room).

My only problem is SSD heat... But AW support on twitter help me to resolve this problem. I buy heatpipe for SSD and maybe i will ask for exchange of this Toshiba SSD
Another problem but it is not the fault of AW... Mechanical hard disk. I can hear it and when everybody sleep in the house and fans are stopped... It's horrible
So i will replace it buy SSD 2,5 inch.


In conclusion : I'm lucky because my AW have no heat problem on CPU/GPU.
He's beautifull, work in silence... And good price (for France).

 

AW technical support work on my problem but i think too it's not normal temp for nvme SSD.

 

Yeah, 53C degrees on ssd's with no load is terrible. And the ssd's will most likely thermal throttle with heavier workload

BTW AW13R3 reviewed on http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Alienware-13-R3-Laptop.195600.0.html
@iunlock +++ Use google translate Because the review is in German. Hope AW ceo Mr. Azor see it.

 

I wish they made an english video review of both the 15R3 and 13R3 and posted it on Azor's tweeter.

 

That's great but it doesn't mean that Dell has fixed the problem, it only means that some customers have fixed it themselves. That not to criticize you or anyone repasting of course, but rather Dell.

 

But you or @iunlock could post both links of the reviews in Mr. Azor or Umar's FB or Tvitter account. Then asked for a comment

 

I know. To fix the problem definitivly Dell must change 3 arms cpu to four arms. But these solution impose a New design of motherboard. And it is not possible...

So i have good temps and m'y laptop worked fine.

I am happy

 

Does anyone have a copy of the 1.02 bios for the Kaby Lake systems?

My Tobii died today and I've tried every method to make it work except for the BIOS flash method, which I can't do because Dell doesn't have the most current BIOS on their website.

 

Does anyone have a copy of the 1.02 BIOS for the Kaby Lake systems? My Tobii Eye Tracking stopped working, saying it needs to be connected and I've tried everything people have suggested to get it working again except the BIOS flash. Dell's site only has the 1.01 BIOS available.

 

After repasting, I found out I couldnt clip back the wifi antenna connectors to the wifi module.. I tried my best to be gentle but clearly not steady enough.

I ordered a new intel wifi 8265 card despite my 1yr accidental coverage warranty since I wanted to make the switch anyway.
My concern right now is with the wifi antenna connectors.

Can anyone check if I will need to email Alienware for a replacement antenna cable or whether they'll be able to work with the incoming intel 8265 wifi card as it is?

 

I read that the black and white antenna connectors are inverted for the Intel 8265

 

Check my thread here, it explains everything with my temps before and after (near the bottom of my first post)

 

It never seems to stop. This might be an even shakier release than the XPS15 of last year and that was baaaaad. I mean seriously, how hard can it be for someone at Dell to fire up something like Prime95 and see what we are seeing, "Houston, we have a problem"...


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This is the main thing preventing me from doing a repaste, if the general design is flawed, can a repaste really make that much of a difference to sort this mess out?


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Well it seems to make all the difference especially if that and balancing the heatsink contact can make temperatures stay in the mid 60's at load.

I'm very skeptical ordering one right now as well. Luckily I'm holding off till they bring out another 1440p 120hz screen but then there's the worry that the light bleed will be bad.

 

The general design is not flawed, the tripod arm design works. This was originally blamed just because it was different but after much investigation iunlock and alienware engineers determined the uneven temps issue was in fact the pads being too thick at 0.5mm on the VRMs (the chips just below the single heatsink arm). This led to 0.1mm tape being used in this location on "new builds" from 2017 onwards and the problem is solved.

Anyway I don't know why this would prevent you doing a repaste even if it were. It takes less than 10 seconds to bend the arm a bit. Was the easiest part by far...

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Well, mainly two reasons, I don't think that a customer paying this much should have to to that themselves, and the fact that I am still a bit uncertain how that will affect the warranty in Europe.

 

And yoo think the Tripod cpu heatsink for the 2017 builds is fixed? No The new Kaby lake models tested with the same ****y. And why should you and all new buyers need to bending the 3rd legs if the cpu heatsink design is well done and not flawed? I don't buy this.

 

I will do the repaste/repad in a few days, and I have some questions:

- What is causing the core differential? Is it the mix of the third arm not bent enough + pads being too thick?
- Does the bad paste job have an effect on the core differential?

As I have never used LM before, I was thinking to make a first try with repadding and then using kryonaut first, check that everything is back to normal (no core differential, no throttling and nice temps at 40x,41x) and let it run for a few weeks.

And then, in a second time, re-open, add the vinyl tape around the CPU and GPU and repaste with Conductonaut for maximum cooling efficiency.

Does that seem a good idea?

Cheers!

 

Core temp differential is caused by the heatsink uneven pressure.

Pads thickness, weak tension arm or warped heatsink can lead to heatsink pressure issue.

You should repast lightly only the cpu and look at the print left on the heatsink after mounting/unmounting it.
If you see a full square: It's ok and you may proceed with conductonaut later.

 

What, are you callling Mr Azors stress tests with Notepad to be incorrect?

 

Whats the story behind this "downclocking but no throttling" that I see when running some stress tests of my AW17? How can it not be throttling if the CPU downclocks? And why would it downclock during a bench unless there was throttling?

 

It's called Throttling if the processor falls below the base clock. I call it throttling when the processor does not keep the max Turbo boost The processor base frequency is the operating point where TDP is defined!!

 

The new bios is up! Is it safe to update to?

 

The new bios seems good

Fixes & Enhancements
1. Graphic performance enhancement.
2.Type C USB devices compatibility improvement.
3.Wireless LAN performance improvement.
4.CPU power consummation improvement.
Version
Version S1.0.12_K1.0.5, S1.0.12_K1.0.5

 

Wait & see...

 

Is S1.0.12 for Skylake and K1.0.5 for Kabylake ?

 

is this the 180W GPU power unlock BIOS Frank Azor promised? cos i've flashed it, ran 3Dmark and games, still couldn't get anywhere near that power limit.

 

Yes. It's the same BIOS from what I can tell, but the version numbers will appear differently on the different systems.

I'll update mine when I get home from work tonight. I've been having an issue with 1.02 for my Kaby Lake processor losing the Tobii camera.

 

If anybody is interested in a "white" back lighting theme, feel free to try the one attached below ... it's what I'm using and it looks pretty nice ... very bright compared to the default colors which I dig. I left the trackpad black/off because it looks kind of funky but the main keys/numkeys/powerbuttom/Alienware logo and lid logo are all white.

Give it a shot if your curious how white might look ... this is for the AW17 BTW ...

After you unzip the file you will find a "white.ath" file. Just copy this to your Documents/AlienFX/themes folder and then load the .ath file from within AlienFX editor software.

(attached .zip file is below)

 

"Enhancements" might be a bit of a strong word to use for the new bios. I have a 7820hk with a 1070. OC level 1 on 5prime: 8C increase in max CPU core temp (86C-94C) and a ton of CPU power throttling. Crazy disappointing considering that I didn't get any power throttling on bios 1.02 with 43x on all cores. 2-3 fps increase on heaven benchmark. Fan noise is greatly reduced.

Overall, I'm not terribly happy with the new bios.

 

The worst part about that is you can't revert to 1.02 because Dell hasn't officially posted it on their website.

 

I have all the bios versions saved if you need one ... just message me and I'll send it ...

 

I see it on the website


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For Kaby Lake?

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If Frank has promised, there is a slim chance that it might actually happen

 

Did you downgrade to 1.02 then as I find it unlikely even for Dell that an 7820HK system would be delivered with that BIOS? So all problems with the 6820HK (or rather the surrounding laptop) is still valid for Kaby Lake and the 1070 as well, frustrating

 

Anyone own a 17 and a 13? I'm debating on grabbing a 13 from the Dell outlet. With Ebates, my credit from my r4 purchase and a 10% off coupon i can grab one for about $800.

As much as I love my r4 I wouldn't mind a 13 for the portability factor if I can get one cheap enough. My laptop that I drag everywhere is on its last limbs so it might be a nice replacement.

 

I'm downgrading to 1.02. I love my laptop on 1.02. Temps are reasonable considering a 43x overclock (~84C) so I'd say that I'm very happy overall. Half my cpu does run 15-20C hotter though. I talked to tech support and they told me two weeks ago that they just got in a revised heatsink because of the heat indistribution issues. They're going to replace mine but it's on back order until March 13th haha. Ahh well.

 

What specs? The 1366x768 screen seems like it would be rather painful even at that price while the FHD would be passable but nothing compared to the glory that is OLED.

 

The 1080p or OLED. It's about $200 more for the OLED screen. I just wish it wasnt 1440p, kind of a bad combo with a 1060.

 

The screen scales really well, I would say perfectly since I've not run into any programs that have issues although I know that there must be some, and 1080p gaming looks great on the OLED. And the 1060 can handle some games at the fill 1440p as well, mostly older titles but still, so I would go for it.

Before I had the 13 R3 I had an 13 R1 with the IPS 3200x1800 screen and thought that was the nicest screen I'd seen on a laptop until the OLED showed up and completely changed my mind. I hope they become the standard, and start being offered in lower resolutions for less powerful machines, because it would be hard going back.

 

Looks like dell is giving me the runaround again.....after 2 months of trying to get this computer, they are about to cancel my order FOR THE THIRD TIME. This 3rd order was placed on january 10th, for the 6820 QHD with the gtx1080. they just contacted me TODAY after delaying the shipment multiple times to say I need to cancel and replace my order for the same exact specs still listed on their website. I don't understand. is there some magic trick to get them to actually send you your computer? i have seen tons of people getting their's without issue. I would just give up and get an MSI, but i bought the computer using dell gift cards, and have no way to return the gift cards for my money back. this has been the worst experience i have ever had with any company i have ever purchased from. i feel like they are trying to run some sort of scam.