*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

On January 31st, an "Alienware Exchange Specialist" e-mailed me saying that he has ordered my replacement system, 6820, GTX 1080, QHD 120hz display, blah blah blah...

As of today, it is still showing a delivery date of between February 28th and March 7th... Those dates have held and have not changed.

Does it mean I will actually get a system from Dell with those specs, nope... But at least they haven't cancelled/pushed back the order over and over... Not yet anyways...

Will keep ya'll posted as to the status as it updates/changes.

If all else fails, there's always the accidental damage warranty...

Oh, and they "upgraded" me to a 1tb m.2 PCIe flash drive from the 512gb that I purchased... ... ...

 

Just received this after having emailed the Dell Technical Support of the temp problems and core diffs:

"We have alot of AW17R4's in production and we have no articles that states this is a known issue."

Needless to say, I've had it with Dellienware now and immediately requested a refund. Such a shame they dropped the ball again on something that could have been so great

 

Hello! Please tell me how may i check which exact month my 17r4 was manufactured? I get it just week ago and on Dell website i only have shipping date, but im in Moscow, and suppose it have some not quick time to get here)) on my previous 17r5 there was a plate with month and year of manufacture...Thanks,
By the way, the temps are fine on my 6820hk, gtx 1080, something like 69-74c in 3d firestrike ultra and not more then 78c in games like Battlefield 1 on ultra 1440p.

 

I wouldn't say that's good temps, its within the limits.. but can be improved massively with repaste etc.

 

Hm, need to think and try the tests again, but, for example in OCCT there like not more 68-69c in 1 hour test. I dont know how Dell service works here in Moscow, will try to call them and ask. Am i right if i do repaste by myself so the will not have the guarantee anymore?

 

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Hi, can you screenshot your overclock setting and the software you use to overclock ? because mine aw17 r4 7820hk 1070 , using the bios oc3 , the temperature is quite high , it reach 98c ...and it kept power limit throttling , and i replaced my 6820hk too , same as you haha

 

HI, i bought Alienware 17 r4 6700HQ 1070 120hz 1444 ...CPU temperatures go up to 80 - 90c when playing Battlefield 1 ..then I updated to this new BIOS version 1.0.8 and now its worse CPU temperature go up to 100c just after 10 min of starring the BF1...I have contacted Dell and they promised to replace my heatsink hope this should fix heating issue..other than replacing heat sink please let me know if any have suggestions on resolving this heat issue ..thank you

 

Literally from AW ceo Mr. Azor and his second lieutenant Umar on social media. "Max 1% of their machines have had overheating problem/uneven core temp" @iunlock More like 40% aka 3 of 5 is Crippled!! Of course Dellienware Technical Support tell you they haven't problem with their new lapbook's Inculcated by AW HQ.
And are the graphics TDP finally increased to max with the new firmware update released yesterday as promised by Azor? Will the update appear before Aw launch next model? Or will this be forgot?

 

I used intel's xtu. Leave everything default settings but increase the power limits to 92W, 43x on everything, 42x on cache and undervolt by .05V.

 

Anyone have the default 1.02 bios that came with the kaby lake laptops? I thought it was the same one that's posted on dell support but when I try to flash it, it says its for the 15R3 and I'm trying to run it on an incompatible system. Should I ignore the message? Pretty annoying considering that it's listed as being compatible on dell support. When dell support tried to push 1.09 on my kaby lake laptop bad things happened so I don't trust a word their website says...

 

FWIW ... I've had the most success with my 6700/1070 machine with bios 1.0.8 ... mostly in regards to the CPU running at it's spec'd max boost speed the most consistently ...

You did the right thing contacting them ... I have the same exact machine (but with 1080p screen) and my CPU temps max out around 75C when gaming and in general use (rendering, etc.); with OCCT runs, the CPU hits a max of 82C ... I have yet to ever see a single instance of throttling. Oh yeah, I am also using BIOS 1.0.8 ... I've found among all the bios releases that this bios runs my CPU more consistently at it's max speed than any other.

But what you say and what I've read from others sort of intrigues me because if they are indeed developing/releasing a new heatsink with better mount pressure then I will assuredly be calling to complain about my 99C CPU temps as, lucky though I may be with somewhat acceptable temps, I still don't want the old, inferior heat sink.

Also, if/when they send somebody to replace the heatsink, be sure to insist that you apply your own thermal paste ...

Best of luck!

 

Am I alone in that I feel there is a lot of unnecessary confusion resulting from the fact that the nomenclature "r4" is being used to describe both skylake versions and kaby lake versions?

 

What's your BIOS settings? I suspect limit reasons will be lighting up like a Christmas tree, there's no chance that 4.3GHz is possible with a -0.50mV offset. . Can you post 30 mins OCCT and hwinfo showing limit reasons, clock speeds and actual voltage to the cores?

I made exactly the same mistakes thinking I was OC'd correctly until someone told me about the trick to unlock power/current limits in XTU first. Also is use TS, XTU is buggy and takes much resource

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Ive been waiting on an exchange for almost 2 months now for the same model. Alienware called me a week ago telling me, there no longer making them. I pretty much had the choice of a refund or just waiting around. Ive read a few times there is supposed to be a 7820hk 4K version coming out sometime at the end of feb/early march so thats the only reason i just kept the exchange in hopes that i can just swap it out for that.

 

Nope. I think dell loves spreading confusion. I enjoyed the fact that they dec

I'm at work but here's a past screen show of me running 5prime 1024m benchmark with 8 threads. the 7820hk will absolutely do 43x on all cores with a -.05v offset.

View attachment 142482

Here's a past screen show of me running heaven benchmark. Not a great benchmark for cpu but I'm at work so I'll post a 5prime 1024m benchmark later. The 7820hk can absolutely do 43x on all cores with a -.05v offset without hitting a current or power limit: If I try to go to 44x on all cores I start hitting a current limit which I kept at the default 100A. I did this all using intel xtu. I like the program because it's easy to monitor power/current limiting and have never had an issue.

FYI, if you move to the new bios the limits will light up like crazy.

 

Oops some reason I thought it was the 6820hk! Fair enough enjoy!

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Fair enough haha. My 6820hk couldn't overclock for crap so if you can even come close to >40x, good for you.

 

Mine can get to 4.2


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Any idea if increasing the core iccmax current max above 100A is safe?

 

@Amped607 Check my FS score in my link in my sig. That's running at 4.4. Did you run an FS score yet? Interested to see the result

 

FYI @Amped607 I'm still not convinced until I see a clean hwinfo average over 4.4. I.e. I suspect you can run at 4.4 but it's throttling back under high load

 

Haha, I agree and said as much. I can run 43x on 5prime 1024m benchmark with no throttling but 4.4 causes me to hit my current limit. Any idea if the current limit is safe to increase?

 

Yep mines maxedand you have to do them all to unlock the processor properly

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Anyone have a copy of the factory 1.0.2 bios for the kaby lake 17R4? Any help would be much appreciated. k1.0.1 and k1.0.5 seem to be complete crap for me in terms of power limiting and k1.0.2 isn't on Dell's website.

 

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...productCode=alienware-17-laptop&categoryId=BI

 

Sadly not that easy. If you have a kabylake processor it won't let you flash that update back to 1.0.2.

 

In my case, it was 3 out of 3 that had this problem. Seems to be desperation from Alienware now with statements like that and a reality like this.

 

But how could any BIOS fix a hardware problem like an uneven heat sink? BTW, I myself tried all different BIOS versions out there before I also came to that conclusion so I understand the need to do...something.

 

Well, they are both the same generation of Alienwares so no. Of course, thats also an indication on how small change the Skylake to Kaby Lake really is.

 

Amazing, before returning my latest AW17 R4 I decided to give the latest BIOS a try. With this one, even OCCT manage to make the CPU throttle hard after reacing 90+ degrees. And this is with fan performance mode activated or what ever it is called and OC only set to OC1. Seriously Alienware...

Well, at least now we know the real reason behind Global Warming

 

A bios fix can be very effective Just put in a power cap and the processor will throttle long before the temperature gets too high. Problem solved huh @iunlock

 

The problem is, 100C is acceptable to Dell. Next, the second problem is, the majority of AW gamers don't even have a clue about technical stuff so they won't even know what's going on... Thermal throttling? What's that? Hwinfo64? What's that?

Therefore, those statistics are not surprising.

Sad I know...

::iunlock::

 

That's exactly what has been done. To be fair, the 45w is the advertise limits and most gamer boys will be fine with that. Most won't even know what is what and just go about their day.

However, in the event of an unlocked CPU, a base TDP cap is okay, but it better be unlockable.

The moment that ability disappears, bye bye AW gaming laptops. Hello F7?

::iunlock::

 

Writing at a bar just now and had the setting sun behind me (I'm in Houston, TX). Couldn't help but marvel at the brightness of the 1080p IPS screen ( Device ID: LGD0513 ). This is indirect, 4pm afternoon sunlight, mostly to my south and slightly west, but it was still bright enough to make me want to go inside. But I stuck it out ... this is 100% screen brightness BTW ... just lovely ...

...



...

FYI ...

 

Even https://ark.intel.com/products/88959/Intel-Core-i5-6300HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz have 45w advertised limits Why use something else?

 

Maybe I should have pointed out that I was being a tad ironic

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Which begs the question, when would these CPU problems start to be the bottleneck in gaming in general? The average gamer wont know about HWInfo perhaps, but Fraps should be familliar and when those guys with a red dragon starts to pull ahead the question will be more obvious...

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Doesn't matter I posted the right conclusion

 

Are thouse smoke plumes from the overheated CPU?

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LMFAO!!!!

No ... just a nice cloud image I dig. My personal experience has been good with the 6700HQ/1070 rig that I've had for a few months. No heat issues. Perfect screen. I'm still going to demand a new cooling assembly, though.

 

Very nice...looks great. A good looking laptop is always a pleasure and IMO the AW's are the best built and looking hands down.

 

Someone had problems with the last bios 1.0.12? I take off speed in the ssd and increased the temperature of my cpu.

 

i noticed the cpu temp increment too. didnt test the ssd though. there's a dedicated thread on bios 1.0.12 in this forum

 

I bought a refurbished "Scratch & Dent" from Dell outlet on Monday. It arrived today. So far, I cannot find any cosmetic issues with it whatsoever. In fact, still came with some clear wrap on the shiny parts.

The specs are:

6700HQ
GTX 1070
32GB 2400
256 PCIe SSD
1TB HDD
1.0.6 BIOS

Here are the two OCCT runs, the first is out of the box:



Second is with -0.15 undervolt:



Will do more testing but so far the only things I can see are a bit of core differential, and the backspace key is squeaky (!!!).

 

To @Alienare: Did you run the Linpack version of OCCT with AVX enabled, it always stopped running after 30 secs on my pc. A repaste would be helpful to bring down those temps by 10C.

 

Yes, the design and outer build quality is relly great. And most of the internal build quality as well. Thats why it is such a shame with this CpU mess...


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update - today dell technician came to replace the heat sink ..he disassembled laptop and when unboxed the replacement heat sink...we were shocked to see a damaged heat sink sent for replacement..heat sink was bent and went had damaged as if it fell on the went and its dented....and even noticed thermal stamp was scratched and thorn ....we noticed that the box in which the replacement heat sink had no external damage on it so heat sink must have been damaged before packing may be production line...but irony is no one in dell noticed it, packed the damaged heat sink...seems their no quality inspection by dell.

 

With I could see the irony also, all I see are one QC failures after another

 

I thought they weren't using a thermal stamp anymore...

 

Expect similar for many many machines that are not yet built. They use what they have at the factory. Higher costs for Dell, if they must obtain new heatsink from their provider. Dell expect that not all complaints on a new purchased machine. Everything is calculated in math from Dell