*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

hi there dear AW17R4 owners!

Is the OC vbios from dell save to install?

 

Wow!
Got mine this morning, just now got time to open it.
Im freakin' amazed by the quality of the chassis and everything I touch.
First impressions - Clevo who?

The keyboard.... No flex, at all, almost like a solid block of aluminum... I think it's one of the best membrane style keyboards I've ever typed on.

 

Just some comic relief ... not AW related but wanted to post anyway because everyone is always hating on AW's thermal paste ..

LOL ... well I wasn't expecting it ... but when re pasting my new MSI 1080 ti Seahawk X GPU ... oh man, I discovered the worst factory paste job EVER! ...

Just gaze in wonder at this mess ... it was literally dripping down the sides of the GPU die and the cooler plate ...

....



...



...

LMAO!!!!

Just nasty ... like a Japanese porno going off inside my GPU cooler ... LOL ...

 

I have owned many many laptops and I concur. The clevo's are nice machines for sure. However the fit, finish and build quality just is not there. All the MSI machines I've owned are just not up to the quality neither. The newer higher end Asus machines are pretty nice and probably the closest to build quality. The keyboards on the Alienware's are the best laptop keyboard I've used. The unfortunate part is the BGA crap. I have decided after several clevo socket machines I've decided to stick to desktops for my major tweaking and overclocking and just use a good quality laptop for the little gaming on the go I do.

 

I agree, it is not acceptable, but lemons exist with any brand. This is just a reality and I wouldn't write off AW just yet, because if you want the best all around machine, you won't find anything better in this class or above.

I along with others have a ton of info on this. Check this thread here.

Can't go wrong. If you don't need portability then that's the way to go...

Unless it can perform like it should without all the issues, NO. $4,000 is ridiculous. The previous 6700HQ w/ the under performing gtx 1080 that was all for show, getting schooled by an OC'ed GTX 1070 is embarrassing.

Please don't waste your money. We have still yet to see the tests to confirm, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The AW 17R4 will out perform the V7 X7, I'm pretty sure of it.

Yes you could.

Yes it is safe. Just don't install the latest bios. Stay on 1.0.5.

Congrats on your new machine. Yes, nothing touches the build quality of the AW and the fit and finish is second to none.

Indeed, I also agree that it is the best laptop keyboard...for chiclet style I do like the msi's as well.

There are monkey's also working at other companies as well...not just Dell. Every company has their fair share of dirt and you've prove that once again.

Here's a clip from my other post in a different thread:

---

Every gaming laptop has its fair share of issues.

The difference is that some issues are fixable and some are NOT fixable like build quality, material choice etc...

This is where the AW shines while being equipped with Pascal and Kaby that also tops its class with numbers to prove it.

My AW holds 47x, while the msi and Asus can not.

The gpu is unlocked and is a strong performer as it is on the Asus and msi.

As for everything else... The AW has much more boxes checked that allows it to bring home the win at the end of the day when everything is considered, IMO.

I will write (edit in this price) in my review but here's would be close to a perfect laptop.

---

+ AW build quality, design, cooling system, keyboard, track pad, material choice, tolerance levels, QHD panel, and fit & finish.

+ Msi gpu... Best I've seen...stronger than Clevo cards. (proven) I personally would take the steelseries keyboard since I like chiclet style keys. Otherwise the AW has the best traditional switch keyboard IMO.

+ Asus's heat sink's tolerance level. Just incredible.

+ Clevo's lga cpu socket.

+ @Prema magic on an unlocked bios.

---

That would be the day...

However, weigh all the variables on the scale and at the end of the day the AW tips the scale in its favor when all things are considered.

 

@iunlock i actually already updated the bios a delltech wanted me to and by that time i didn't know it could cause problems. i'm glad that it works fine so far

 

x3!!!

Man ... all the vitriol in this thread not withstanding? I can find nothing I dislike about the AW17 that I've been using for, what? Six months now? Just solid as a rock. And I have to reiterate the thoughts on the keyboard ... I'm a typing magistrate (well, in my own mind) and I'm horribly OCD about keyboards ... the AW17 keyboard is a work of art if you ask me (even though you didn't). Coming from "chiclet" style keyboards? I thought I would have a hard time with the flush mounted AW keyboard but I took to it like an earthworm to dirt. And yes, it's super solid with no perceptible flex. And the per key backlighting, though a bit limited in colors (without haxor) is perfect .. hardly any border leak on the keys and the letters are nice and bright with a typeface that's functional, spartan and clean. The 17" 1080p IPS screen (LG) is flawless, brighter than the sun and overclocks to 100hz like a magic trick. I'm at a bar typing right now and I think I have my brightness setting at like 15% and it's perfect.. I happen to have the 1080p/GTX 1070 machine and the ability to switch to only the Intel iGPU (Optimus) is a godsend as it allows battery run times of up to 7+ hours for normal office/websurfing type use. And yeah, the chassis is gorgeous and solid. There is nothing cheap or fragile feeling about it.

(AW porn gush over now ,... my condolences to those who have had a hard time with the same machine. I just walked in to a Best Buy six or so months ago and bought one randomly; turns out it's pretty much perfect)

;-)

 

i just updated the vbios for the gtx 1080 and everthing worked fine except now tobii stopped working. it tells me to connect with the display... any ideas on how to fix this? (i restarted several times)
windows hello still works

EDIT: just found another problem: msi afterburner doesn't detect my GPU anymore

EDIT2: just launched witcher 3 21fps in menu...... i'm panicking right now. where's my gpu???

EDIT3: fixed it xD just had to activate it via devicemanager. tobii also works fine now

 

#emotionalrollercoaster

My BIOS is 1.0.5. I have no complaints yet, everything seems to work great. Haven't gamed for a long time yet.
No need to update then, right?
Should I do the VBIOS one too?

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't regret getting the 17 R4. I just hope the CPU can stay in the 60-70's. I love the metal build, top laptop speakers, 120hz QHD G-SYNC screen, and the GTX 1080 paired with the i7 7820HK. It has 2 m.2 slots and can hold 3 SSD's total if I'm not mistaken?

I just brought up the Aorus because it has the exact same specs. The version 6 x7 had the 6820HK, GTX 1080, and a QHD 120hz G-SYNC screen. It also has good build quality, although I don't think it's metal all over like the AW, but it's the slimmest GTX 1080 i7 laptop I've seen. And the thermals were great I'm the 60's for both the GPU and CPU I believe. I think between the two it would come down to whoever has thermals under control better? I also like the matte black look with the Aorus and chiclet style keyboard, but I might fall in love with the keyboard on the AW!

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

After a proper repaste, I think the 17R4 will still edge the Aorus in the thermal department. I'd be very curious to see...

 

SOLVED

 

Ok today I had some time and fully dove into Ultra settings, 2K Doom goodness.
It's an awesome gaming machine but I think I have some issues...

Mid game sometimes it just stops and freezes for 2-4 seconds, sound glitches out, FPS drop to 0, then it comes back...
From HW Monitor, CPU reached a max of 96-99ºC, GTX 1080 topped at 84ºC. I'm a bit worried.
My CPU is a 7820HK. Laptop is brand new.

 

TRIPOD + DELL'S THERMAL PASTE

 

Is it possible to create a custom fan profile so the fans will kick on harder at a lower temp which should help prevent the temps from rising too much? It's what I've done with the GTX1080 FE in my desktop... sacrifice some fan noise for better temperatures. Most OEM fan profiles are set up to be quiet so they allow the temps to keep climbing to the max before they ramp up.

 

Just got my system yesterday. All stock except latest nvidia site drivers.
I opted for the 512gb nvme drive, 32gb 2400 ram, 1080gtx, 7820k, and installed a 1tb crucial m.2 for game storage.

Noticed a slight stutter in games, which I assume are temp related, will be doing a repaste once all the materials arrive.

 

Mine is coming next week and this is worrying me.. shouldn't they be the ones that have to fix it? I mean should I really have to buy thermal pads and do this all myself? Brand new and I have to open it and fix it. I love the specs and build quality, but why couldn't they learn from the late 2016 R4? Almost perfect..

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

Yeah I'm aware of that whole situation... But mine's a recent 7820HK, the BIOS on it is from february, shouldn't new units have this issue more or less fixed?

Now it topped out at 94ºC. Still hella high. I probably need a repaste

 

@Papusan

I really wanted to try the Alienware 17 R4 but got the MSI instead because of hearing about the overheating issues. HIDevolution just told me that they don't have heat issues as they do their own shims or whatever you call it and that brings temps down from 99 to 105C down to 79C......

Still not switching laptops for a while as the Alienware 17 only has two m.2 slots and the third one is like a small m.2 slot which takes mini m.2 SSDs so I can't use my 1TB 850 EVO m.2 SSD in there along with my 2 NVMe 2TB 960 PROs that is.......

I can't wait till the next Alienware refresh though.......I miss that brand

 

I thought you had 4 ram sticks in your MSIBOOK. All the ALIENWARE have only 2 ram slots. You had to sell two of those 4 as well. I expect you could live with 32GB ram.

 

oh thanks for the reminder.....

goes back to his MSI >>

 

I'm updated on almost everything of notebooks out there. Same also what hardware they contain!!

Doesn't matter. See the refreshed machine above your post who have exactly same problem. Kaby have higher clocks and will eating up the small improvement on Tripod pads and paste job from Dell.

 

Ok, I'll do a repaste then. I need to get some pads

 

Here's how it fits in the slappa Jedi mind trix bag. I may still order the Alienware bag in case.

Sent from my LG-VS995 using Tapatalk

 

I am shocked that new Alienwares still have thermal issues to the extent that stuttering is happening even at stock clocks. I thought this issue had been mitigated at least, if not completely addressed?
Weren't the new Alienwares only reaching 95C when overclocked?

 

@RussellA some still seem to have the coretempissue. mine gets up to ~85°C (max) @4.2GHz on all four cores under full load (witcher 3 all maxed out unlimited frames QHD) and @4.4GHz it reaches the mid 90s.
It's better than my previous AW with the 6820HK, that went up to 99°C without any overclocking, but still pretty hot.

 

The temps you report are still tolerable for people who haven't done a repaste. But 95C and frame stuttering at stock clocks is absolutely absurd! I don't know when this mess is going to stop!

I am awaiting yet another exchange. My second one now. I am hoping that this one will not have issues!

 

Man, I really wished I would have bought something else...

i7 7700K EDIT: 7700HQ obviously.
32Gb Ram
gtx 1070
UHD screen

Now, perfomance and temps are fine but:


-Sometimes when connecting a thunderbolt device the laptop would turn off ALL usb ports for a second. Very nice if you are copying files to an external drive... Also sometimes my Lan/Wifi ports get disabled as well for a second and also Bluetooth, Pretty sure its some PCI-e Lane management error? am I the only one using thunderbolt every day? I am using a Blackmagic mini monitor and external thunderbolt drives, bot tried with the apple TB3 to TB2 adapter and the one from starttech wich worked great on my razer Blade...

-Screen Bleed is so bad, its unbearable. seriously, the AlienFX Lighting even spills on the screen, I mean, come on...

-Even after calibrating with an Xrite the screen is just way to saturated compared to my Eizo...

-Coil Whine, a lot of it.

-don not like the speakers, My macbook pro retina POS sounds better for sure.

-Sometimes it takes ages to properly shut down. I mean AlienFX and fans will stay on but the screen is off, sometimes 5 or more Minutes after shutdown .

-AW/Dell software is a joke, I just gave up on actually reinstalling the Dell image on my new M.2 SSD so I just bought a Win10 License from ebay, that Alienware Backup crap software just threw me a bunch of errors when trying to create recovery media, very bad software.

Not using it for gaming at all, as I don´t care about that, should have just spend more than twice as much and went with the Lenovo P71 or the HP Zbook G4 -.- Well you get what you pay for I guess.

 

I totally agree with you 95°C without OC + framestuttering is not acceptable. that's why i'm actually quite happy with my temps even though it's still pretty warm and i don't really think that i get that much better temps with the msi or aourus or whatever other brand. according to the reviews i have seen all I7 7820HKs seem to get very warm.
(i didn't do a repaste or any other tuning to it, it's full stock.)

@Finnjaeger don't you mean the i7 7700HQ?

 

yes, sorry

 

@Finnjaeger i'd ask for a replacement
i mean the don't really have a choice than to replace this mess right?

 

Do they send them back to china and I have to wait another month to get it back? (europe) if thats the case I will just sell it and buy a precision or something

 

i have no idea. i'm also from europe and at least they came to my house and picked it up when i returned my previous one (they didn't want to give me a replacement but it wasn't such a mess as yours)
maybe they can come to your home and just swap it out if you ask them

 

Good luck with that. Don't forget the high temp on ssd's and PCH chips as well with the Cpu temp mess.

Why should you need new Windoze X license? The key is embedded in Bios. Just download the Win ISO and install.

 

Ok, update:

Still on stock pads and paste.

Updated all chipset, display, alienware control center, BIOS (1.0.8) and etc drivers. Had some issues with the Realtek ones getting stuck in a restart-uninstalling loop but solved that by manually updating via device manager. Didn't update vBIOS as I think I need 1.0.12 BIOS for that.

Temps seem to be pretty much the same, tops at 97ºC instead of 99ºC...
I get random 2-4 second freezes in ALL games I play, except maybe on CS-GO.
CPU temps usually top at 97ºC, 94ºC, 90ºC, 88ºC, depending on the game. GPU always tops at around 85ºC so that one seems ok.

I have disabled all of the virtualization stuff on the BIOS, CPU is not oc'd.
I should have but I didn't use DDU to delete and update the nvidia display driver.
I disabled the Freefall sensor via device manager.
Do I need to install the Intel HD Graphics driver? (GTX1080 and 120Hz screen).

Can it be a software issue?

I'll also try to repaste it on monday. I usually use Noctua NT-H1, used Ceramique for years. I'm thinking of getting a LM one this time but I have some doubts.
I travel and move around with the PC a LOT, usually in the backpack. Won't LM seep out of the die and screw something up possibly?
Also @iunlock 's PCH mod I'm not too confident with regarding my use. I'm afraid the heatsink will fall lose and short something. 4 spots of glue on electrical tape is too many fail points for me. With heat, dust and movement the tape will start to peel soon. But maybe one of those thermal paste+glue compounds is a possible alternative, I think those hold pretty solid but... warranty void?

Thanks guys

 

In no circumstance should you be accepting 95C+ on STOCK clocks. Also, 85C for GPU is pretty high too. With stock paste, most of us have 75C on CPU and 68C on GPU. You should definitely ping Alienware on Twitter and get a Dell rep to do the repaste for you, or get the laptop replaced.

 

Yeah I guess you're right. But if it's a seating or thermal paste issue I'm cool with doing it right myself.
I've made a very bad and naughty decision. I went and got an Alienware in a country where Alienware isn't officially supported. I'm in Portugal and got it thru Spanish Dell, delivery had to be to a spanish address and I had one at the time of the order. I don't anymore so return & warranty claims are still possible, but will be a pain in the *ss and take a long time.
But if mine is really that unusual I will call them up.

I still have to confirm, but maybe it's possible that portuguese Dell will accept it in case of a warranty claim.

 

I wouldn't accept it with max Cpu OC either

 

"Also @iunlock 's PCH mod I'm not too confident with regarding my use. I'm afraid the heatsink will fall lose and short something. 4 spots of glue on electrical tape is too many fail points for me. With heat, dust and movement the tape will start to peel soon. But maybe one of those thermal paste+glue compounds is a possible alternative, I think those hold pretty solid but... warranty void?"

In my defense do you really think I have not tested this to ensure that it is solid before publishing it?

I'm not sure if you've seen a lot of my work, but being really OCD and a perfectionist, I don't just throw stuff up for fun without any foundation to prove its effectiveness.

Everything is thoroughly tested over and over again on multiple systems.

Ex. The XPS FiX that I've published along with the other PCH mods that have been posted, only after thorough testing on multiple units.

To correct you, the 33+ 3M tape is more than strong enough to hold things in place. It's more than strong enough...trust me. Many can attest to this as well: @hmscott, @Mobius 1, @DeeX, @zergslayer69, @Papusan, @Pete Light, @Eason, @D2 Ultima and the list goes on...

The tape adhesive is very strong for what it is and will not just magically peel off. It is rated at 105C so unless your computer gets that hot...need not to worry mate.

You also have the pressure from the black cover plate to push down on the heat spreader so between that and the glue, ZERO issues.

The tape is only there so that the glue does not touch the bare PCH and also to protect the little transistors from touching the aluminium base of the heat spreader.

The glue used on the 4 spots is Loctite Ultra Gel Control Super Glue.

• Resists impact, twisting and pulling
• Works in all temperatures and conditions
• Bonds leather, cork, paper, cardboard, wood, chipboard, fabric, metal, ceramic, rubber and hard plastics such as Plexiglas, polycarbonate, polystyrene and PVC

Loctite is well known in the enthusiast community and this newer Ultra Gel stuff is made for extreme heat conditions, which is why I use it.

But even then, your PCH temp will never get near the threshold of what the glue is rated at.

I would not worry too much about this PCH mod becoming loose, because it has already been tested.

.

 

Those temps should be illegal. In our books it is...

 

Yes, I agree. But @iunlock won't you agree that 72C on stock clock and stock paste is a tolerable job from Dell? I don't see other vendors doing any better than that (unless they pre-throttle performance like Razer).

 

after repaste and new thermal pads
Hardest part was cutting the thermal pads.

 

Yes, that is very good temps for stock. The newer 17R4 Kaby's temps are very good stock, compared to before. All the stock temps were too in the 70C's when running stock tests.

Every gaming laptop, once the power limit is lifted, will need a repaste...

As I've always said, "A repaste is mandatory, not optional." And I encourage everyone to plan on taking this extra step, because it is well worth it over the stock paste.

I always joke and say that the most tedious part is dealing with the WiFi card and cables more than the repaste itself haha...

 

Sorry mate that maybe came out a bit presumptuous. I totally wasn't doubting the work you put into it and really appreciate your guide and testing!
Also now I'm more reassured, I'll probably do it

These temps are a bit outrageous. I was kinda expecting some bad paste job but not as bad s this on a new kaby lake unit

 

Ugh. This does not bode well for the unit that I have coming on Tuesday. Fingers crossed I get a good one.

 

All good hermano.

Let us know who we can help.

 

ok even after repaste, im still getting a slight stutter in the games i play after a few minutes, warthunder, nier automata. Now i did install the games in a 1tb m.2 drive in the system, but i cant imagine that being the culprit.

Im currently trying an undervolt and still does it.

 

Don't bother, the RBP is gimped to below a GTX1070 in an AW and you'll pay extra for the privilege!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Hey buddy in order to help fix it we need some details from your system. Spec of the unit, what games you're running, whether it's stock or OC'd or an undervolt, plus hwinfo screenshot with the usual useful info showing temps, voltages, clock speeds and limit reasons running for at least 30 mins with the values reset after the game has started. Pete

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Does the 17 r4 only come with a BGA 1070 or does ship with an MXM 1070?

If it or any other Optimus dell laptop ships with an MXM 1070 would any of you be willing to copy your vBios and share it here?