*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

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Does the new r4 i7-7820 / gtx 1080 come with the new bios 1.0.6 already installed?

 

I believe some came with the 1.0.5 BIOS.

 

Mine came with 1.0.5

 

So ill need to update to 1.0.12 then update the vbios to the 1080 oc? Cause im showing 1.0.12 on the website....and umar's instruction video says update them both, system bios first. I dont really wanna brick my new laptop the first day I get it so im unsure what to do.

 

If you're not going to repaste it properly and your temps aren't good enough (let's say max 80 for cpu and 70 for gpu), then better stay away from unlocking TDP of the video card. But you can update your system BIOS, for Kaby Lake it's v1.0.8.

 

Gonna avoid a repaste at all costs, not comfortable doing it myself and was quoted like $200 from a local shop and thats not happening on a $4000 laptop (Canada). Worst case it goes back to Dell.

 

So I might be the first person to return their new March 2016 qhd r4. After using it for the weekend. I was largely underwhelmed by many things. It's a beautiful machine, but for the price it just isn't there for me yet. Maybe in year or 2 when they fix some things. Hope the rest of you enjoy your purchase.

 

Just heat issus or what?

 

Def heat issues, the machine was much louder than I was expecting during simple use gaming and no gaming, my wifi would never stay connected even after I tried all trouble shooting steps, and this may seem strange to some but the keyboard use for gaming after awhile was not comfortable because of how back it is on the layout. The pad was digging into my wrists. Those are just some of the things that strike me for returning it

 

March 16 and they are letting you return it?

 

Remove the killer suite? Heard once u remove the drivers/suite it works fine.

 

I got it last week

 

I tried that no success. I tried both installing the new suite as suggested and removed the drivers. Possibly one of.my biggest frustrations that a laptop at this level has this issue

 

Praying mine doesnt or thats a deal breaker forsure.

 

Would this be a good replacdment for the killer 1435.... dont really wanna gamble with the killer since i work away....if i have disconnection issues away from home gaming ill be pissed.

https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Network...TF8&qid=1491265320&sr=8-1&keywords=Intel+8265

Might order that just in case.

 

This is the best ive been able to do without re-pasting. Running 4.2 with a -.100v under-volt and +200 on the gpu core. No issues with the under-volt been gaming all afternoon with no throttling. Will probably tackle re-pasting in the next coming weeks.

 

Guys,

So I got my 17 R4 Kaby Lake today with 1080.

GPU power goes upto max 160W.

CPU temps go upto 74C with 4.2x and -0.1 UV. >4C differential between cores.

Came with the Toshiba SSD. Idle temps are 68C. Load temps are 84C. What do I do about this? :/

 

You'll be fine. The less you have to open the better.

My OCD is so extreme that I'm all about opening up the system the least amount of times as possible. Hence, LM

Thanks for sharing..

Could arrange your hwinfo64 to how the CPU package power as well? Thanks

Also, I'll have the chart up soon for the Kaby, but it's pretty much the same as the 17R4 Skylake with the exception of a few places...

Ah and if you don't mind could you fix the spelling of my name in your post? Haha...My OCD just going wild lol...thanks mate.

 

17R4 (4.7GHz) achieved.

New Record & PR - wPrime v1.55

Link to hwbot:
32M - 4.441 sec
1024M - 136.413sec

7820HK @ 4.7GHz


Now working on 48x....

@DeeX, @Mobius 1, @zergslayer69, @hmscott, @Papusan, @Pete Light, @D2 Ultima

 

New Record & PR - wPrime v1.55 (32M)

32M - 4.405 sec

7820HK @ 4.7GHz


@DeeX, @Mobius 1, @zergslayer69, @hmscott, @Papusan, @Pete Light, @D2 Ultima, @Cerreta28, @Bisvic, @pkj1984, @Niarus,

 

Might think twice about the vbios upgrade... Someone (think it was @iunlock) was saying something about not being able to downgrade the vbios, and suggested holding off to make sure it was good.

@iunlock Spelling corrected. Thankfully I didn't butcher your name worse than I did... Sorry 'bout that.

Will take a composite screenshot and upload it soon.

 

Yup, as for the vbios, I'd hold off in flashing that. It could be screen stuttering and freezing galore while in game. For now it's a one way street...hang tight...

Haha all good. Thanks.

 

As you can see. Also the Liteon NVMe ssd's used in Alienware have ssd heat problem. 76C with a short ssd test. What with massive load on ssd's as heavy workload?

 

Here ya guys go...

[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results... updated.

Enjoy...


Note: I'll get the pic of the 1080 HS up later, but the info in here is all modified and accurate. I just edited the 1070 HS since a few of you guys were doing a repaste tonight.

 

New PR:

 

47x is really impressive, congratulations ! Keeping fingers crossed for my unit which arrives tomorrow..

 

I second this from @iunlock. Right now I'm on the new vBIOS and I can't OC my card at ALL! Something has broken I think so if I run anything but stock I get artifacts, shadows etc appearing in game and sometimes crashes also

I can't wait to flash back to the old vBIOS at the earliest opportunity to test if the card is still broke on the old one

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Fire Strike: (New PR)

17R4 - 7820HK


It keeps getting better...pretty impressed.

 

Time Spy: (PR)

17R4 - 7820HK

 

I also got random 10 second long freezes/lags w the new vbios in the beginning, but it strangely went away after a few days as though the game got used to the vbios. I also reduced amount of undervolt by a third.

@iunlock, I've already updated the pads to 1.5mm two weeks ago during my replacements of the thermal pads from artic thermal pads 6W/mK to aquacool thermal pads 14W/mK. This second time round, I made sure to really take my time and fiddle around with heatsink alignment and noticed some tiny gaps over the gpu vrm chips and the cpu side as well, and made the call that 1.5mm was needed.

I was a little disappointed though that the temps didnt drop at all, I dont quite know how you and other manage to get high 50/low 60s during occt. It's like a 7C delta from my best repaste try. It's quite something... My max cpu temps are about 68-70C, and GPU at 62C on 40x oc during intense gaming seshs. I suppose you sub 60 OCCT guys have even much lower temps?

Despite the lack of drop in temps with aquacool thermal pads, I still highly recommend them with their extremely fast shipping within Europe and their excellent packaging. They made sure there was no way the pads would get squished or manhandled during shipping.

 

Fire Strike Extreme:

17R4 - 7820HK


Fire Strike Ultra:

17R4 - 7820HK

 

A 20 min OCCT run...

 

Ya I plan on updating the system bios and changing out the killer wifi for a intel 8260. Ill hold off on the vbios.

 

Wow that's awesome, how does the MSI compare out of interest?

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Gaming will always give bigger temps than just OCCT runs because it's a shared heatsink the additional heat from the GPU will reduce the capacity of the heatsinks ability to cool the CPU as well.

Which game were you playing? Personally I think that looks very reasonable and I'd be happy with those temps in any game

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Just had a call from Dell UK.

My order has been cancelled due to 'parts supply problems' and technical issues with the model of laptop. Gutted.

It was a 7820HK with GTX 1080.


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So thermal throttling came back and Dell is offering me new system replacement with better cpu + ram specs but UHD without gsync instead of my current QHD gsync panel, should I take the deal?

 

7700hq 1070 gtx... 3 hours battlefield cpu 72 gpu 59 max.. Gpu plus 180 mem 200

 

The stock temps looks good.

 

Skyrim w enb and ~200 mods at 4k. CPU package power ~45w. GPU ~207w.

I have a feeling gta v and witcher 3 might even be more intensive and raise my temps 2-3C... but I only ever play one game at a time.

 

I am happy with this temp.. Bf average 110 fps what more... Maybe more core frekvenci...but 7700hq cant OC

 

GTA5 especially online play stresses the computer more than any of my AAA titles.

 

Consider the consequences. You will get better performance from the cpu and ram. What is the new monitors refresh rate? For some people a high refresh rate is a big deal. If you're into competitive gaming and will be using the laptop screen then a UDH with lower refresh rate could be a downgrade. gsync really only shines when your framerate is occasionally dipping below normal. In that case you wouldn't have to wait 2 frames to see the update and the stutter would be less noticeable with gsync.

 

Picked up the Vindicator 2.0 backpack ... now I get why some think this bag is cheap/feels cheap. It's not built the way I imagined it from the pic. ... it's quite light weight construction ... overall UGLY truth be told (IMO). For 40 bucks I'll probably keep it but probably would not at list. BB lists for 120 .. they price matched Dell to 69.99 (even though Dell had it for 79.99 -- I had a 40 gift card for using Samsung pay back in the day and net was 40+/-

 

In ratio, it beats the MSI. <- It's also a mxm card. Different weight class, but combined it beats it as well.

The MSI has a fantastic GTX 1080 card. Even better than what are in the clevo's from my experience and from the data alone ... But it takes a lot of gas to achieve those numbers.

It may sound like an oxymoron to say that the bga GTX 1080 is more efficient in this case on the new AW 17R4, but... It's surprisingly true.

48x here we gooo...

::iunlock::

 

So i just went though swapping panels around on my old r4 and my replacement one. So i figured id snap some pics while i had them side by side and give you my opinion. I had to use my phone to do it, so they came out kind of crappy but hopefully there helpful to someone. Took one shot dead on from the front, one to the side and one with the panel tilted back. The three panels are the old 1440p, the new 1440p and a 4K panel i bought from ebay for $80. This is all at 100% brightness and just out of the box settings.

First up is the new 1440p panel vs the old 1440p panel: http://imgur.com/a/F0Q2L

I actually think the old panel is better believe it or not. If it didnt have those stupid scan lines its actually the one i would prefer from the get go. Color wise out of the box the new panel has brighter colors, but the old panel colors are MUCH more natural. One issue i have with new panel is the brightness just seems to wash everything out, but its something you could tone down a bit with a calibration. The main issue that cant be fixed though is the viewing angles. There actually worse, which is weird because i originally thought they were better when i first turned it on. But once there side by side there is a clear difference. They both get washed out (they are TN panels after all) but the new panel washes out at much less of an angle. Take a look at the third pic with the blueish/purple house in the center right. The color differences next to the door way on the new panel (left) compared to the old one (right) are much different. The older panel on the right shows much less color warp from almost every angle and it tends to maintain its brightness. So overall if the scan lines dont bother you on the old panel, i personally wouldnt be in a huge rush to get your panel swapped out. I think its the better of the two, but i cant stand the lines myself which is the whole reason i bought the 4K panel to begin with.

The second test is the new 1440p panel vs the 4K panel i bought off ebay for $80: http://imgur.com/a/NhJm3

The 4K panel wins without a doubt, the pictures really dont do it any justice at all. Its IPS, so the veiwing angles look the same no matter what angle your looking at it and the colors are just so much more vibrant than the TN panel. Every color or the rainbow stands out and whites are white instead of yellowish white and blacks are blacks instead of a brownish/tan color. So if picture quality is your thing, and you want the best get the 4K screen. But if you play alot of shooters and gsync/120fps is a must then you will want to stay with the TN. Id also recommend the 4K screen to anyone with the gtx 1080 too, its plenty of power for 4K and has the benefit of a 1:1 scaling ratio at 1080p. So i actually think its more future proof then the 1440p screen.

Last is the old 1440p panel vs the 4K panel: http://imgur.com/a/Pk4No

Color wise the old panel looks much better straight on then the new panel does compared to the 4K screen. I wish i had a third laptop to show them all side by side. But in the end the 4K screen still blows the old and new 1440p panel in person color wise and with the viewing angles.

So those are my thoughts, i dont have a good camera and i dont really know what the hell im doing photography wise so its hard to show you it over the internet. But hopefully i did a good job with describing the differences.

EDIT: Also just a few thoughts while i did these swaps. Backlight bleed wise its not the panel, its the laptop itself thats causing it. No matter what panel i used i had bleed in the same exact spot and that spot moved depending on what laptop it was inside. If i took the bezel off every panel looks perfect. So if you have horrible backlight bleed on your model id try and just get a whole new laptop or atleast a bezel. Switch screens is probably going to do you no good.

Also i was one of the first batchs of r4's to have the bezel gap issue and dell definitely addressed that with the newest models. The gap is still there a bit but the glue is 10x stronger. My orginal r4s bezel popped right off, the new 7820hk models was stuck on there pretty good.

 

Definitely try one of those they're are much more taxing but if you've unlocked the power limits then those temps look pretty awesome actually!

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What resolution and settings?

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Full HD ultra