*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

I had stuttering issues and had the Toshiba. But I highly doubt it was caused by it. Every monitoring session I did was pretty clear about that. CPU or GPU were reaching power limits.
Still, I sent Dell a Toshiba specs sheet stating the SSD's operating temperature and showed them how my unit was exceding it. Got a nice SK Hynix out of it. Doesn't go above 45ºC

My freezes were only fixed with new mobo and heatsink, but mostly mobo.

 

What kinda stuttering? for how long? Was it during gaming or load on the computer or just at idling?

 

I did what you asked, and this is what i got http://i.imgur.com/4s6nY2H.jpg and i continued all the tests and got http://i.imgur.com/ZXCmjpP.jpg

Now, i'm not complaining, but i do KNOW that a temp difference of 20 to 30 across the cores is NOT normal. (i ran prime95 for 10 min, and after only 5 min the average temps for core #2 were 90 and max were 98, while cores # 1 & 3 remained in the 60s).
I don't want to return this computer, bec i got a decent price and i don't think i'll find the same refurbished configuration at Dell's outlet for the same price. Besides, i don't like the styling of other gaming notebook brands. I guess if i can't convince Dell to fix the heat sink, i'll have to send it to @iunlock at some point

 

Thank you very much!

 

So... after initial good temps on my 17r4 (7820HK/1080GTX) they went downhill quickly... running Firestrike went to high 90's on all cores (@4.3GHz) with about ~17500 score. Witcher 3 would start locking-up/stuttering after about 10m. I got fed up and sent it to @iunlock... I don't have the time or, patience to do it myself, and since I have zero experience with repasting, shaving heat sinks, and all the other skill that goes into it I would have likely screwed it up worse than it was before. I was traveling outside the country for about a month, so I sent it to @iunlock before I left. He explained to me he was backed up, but since there was so much time to deliver it back, he would take care of me. Upon completion, @iunlock sent me a detailed report of everything he did, including replacing my fans (free of charge) due to "hair" binding them...I have a couple of cats, so that made sense. I was appreciative. I've had it only a few hours, I've overclocked the CPU(s) to 4.5GHz and it's completely stable, GPU overclock is at 200/600. I can't believe the difference, I am running Witcher 3 in Ultra with Hairworks on @ 1440p and averaging ~70FPS... attached is my latest Firestrike with temps, I've only had a few hours to optimize. Impressive. Well worth the $ to me. Thank you @iunlock!

FYI... I have no idea why I keep getting an "Invalid Score", it can't seem to scan my hardware correctly.

 

What is the turnaround time for @iunlock to repaste etc?

 

I can't claim to know iUnlock's schedule or workload, like I said there was no hurry in my situation so I believe he spent extra time on it. I'd suggest contacting him either via a PM or Discord ( @iUnlock).

 

So basically my only option is to buy a 1440p panel and bezel off ebay and hope the new bezel can be put on withoutany issues.This display looks like it's had greasy hands rub up and down it for an even coat of oil, has fairly severe color shift for an IPS panel, and seems to have pretty noticable gradient banding.

That said, so far everthing else seems fine, though the um.. spacebar feels a bit spotty? It wobbles some and if i hit the lower half of the left side it tends to not register (or just the left side at all). I can probably live with the screen until i can get a replacement, though the keyboard is kinda concerning.

 

If you ordered the 1080p panel I doubt you can upgrade it to the qhd gysnc panel as it requires a mod on the motherboard. The lgphillips 1080p panel is the better of the 1080p panels - very bright, the Anti glare coating is not a hard coating like the auo panel, also the lg Phillips overclocks to 100 hrtz. I've attached an image of the screen model.

 

Should i contact dell about the keyboard? About the half of the left side of the spacebar feels super stiff and doesnt register a press without a lot of force on the entirety of the left side. Im not sure i could play an FPS or anything that uses WASD controls reliably w/ it.

 

VERY impressive temps.
That's Conductonaut right?
If your CPU Vid were .1v lower, you would have 10C lower temps than even that.

 

Yep. Grizzly Conductonaut.

 

Why the core ratio drops from 45x to 8x or 16x? That's strange if the OC is in 45x should never go down...

 

To be fair that's not @iUnlock's overclock, it's my own. So I'm not sure why. Like I said I've only had a few hours to play with it.

 

Ok ... I think maybe 45x is too much. The performance is better at 43x than 45x. I have the same configuration (with Conductunaut + Fujipoly) and you do not gain anything going up to 45x, in fact it may decrease the performance.

 

I'll give it a try, thanks for the specifics!

 

Try this OC

All Core Ratio Limit Override: 43
Core Extra Turbo Voltage: 0
Power Limit 1: 200.000 or 230.000
Power Limit 2: 200.000 or 230.000

Use benchmark in XTU to verify the performance. The scores should be around 1400...

 

Gonna try right now...

 

whats your ambient temp?

 

Ok tell me how it works

 

22.5c

 

This is @4.3 all cores 200.000, 230.000 crashed.

 

I took the screen shots after the test had run so I think the cores are dialed down from Stepspeed.

 

try PL1/2 100.000 or If it does not work, lower the Core Ratio Limit Override to 41x...
I think something is wrong, you should find out what the problem is. Tries to run a benchmark with XTU (Intel Extreme Tuning Utility)

 

Thanks, I'll keep playing with it.

 

If you are not sure, talk to @iunlock ... he will help you better than me. Good luck!

 

I'm traveling at the moment, but I'll read back when I get to the hotel.

::iunlock::

 

my stuttering is after about 30 mins of playing a game running at any overclock via throttlestop. gonna swap out m.2 to see if its causing it. while playing PUBG its was at 80c with the bottom lid on so i tok took it off and put it on a laptop cooler and now running at 55c. less stuttering so it might be just a problem with the drive.

 

[7820hk/16G @2600Mhz/GTX 1080 ]

If you look at your uncore(aka cache) ratio listed above, you will see it is only 36. That is because there are TWO spots that need to be changed in ThottleStop FIVR screen. Look at your Cache Ratio Minimum/Maximum in the LAST column... No matter what you set with the slider in the middle column, you also need to update the Cache Ratio Maximum field. Even if you do set it to 43, I don't think you will find it will ever go above 41. Looking at your core VIDs, I assume you aren't trying to undervolt at all.

Where I can undervolt the CPU Cores by -150.4mv, the most I can undervolt the CPU Cache is ~-35mv, and even then I sit right on the edge of stability (using OCCT 4.5, 64bit/Large Data Set). I did not repaste (yet), and the small data set gets up into the 90s almost immediately.

I recently loaded bios 1.1.8 and things SEEM to run cooler (per OCCT), but don't quote me.

 

Hi @Jerohm You talk about @rickbell's OC? or mine?

 

I'm looking to replace/upgrade from the 128GB m.2 2280 ssd that my 17R4 came with. I'm looking at
Crucial MX300 525GB M.2 (2280)

What's the best way to go about putting this in, while cloning the current one to it? Is there only one slot for the m.2 ssd's? Does this laptop support NVMe? (thinking about the S'sung evo 960)

Just for the sake of asking... is it better to just do a complete bare install of Windows 10, and then install the programs and games I want to use to keep the "bloatware" down, transfer data backed up; or clone the entire current ssd drive?

 

17 R4 has 3 slot. 2 are m.2 sata/pcie 2280 and support Nvme ... I suggest Samsung 960 Pro or sm961 model (it's the Oem version of 960 pro) or also 960 Evo or pm961. All are good, I use them all and the performance is amazing.

 

Thank you. How do I look to see what is available, supported, etc.? I feel horrible having to always ask questions in an area I used to be well versed in. Having to learn all this stuff after my accident is frustrating.

 

Your questions are welcome. I do not think anyone will bother your questions. In fact, it is better to ask here than to ask Dell support
This web is interesting, you have until the detail of the screws:

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...d3a1f0-5ba2-442b-bde3-237189d2e8f4&lang=en-us

Or you can use the forum search engine, but before a doubt, it is a better question ... there is always someone kind and with experience to answer!

 

i really appreciate it. Learning things all over again is really hard for me, literally and mentally.

 

Take it easy, everything happens in life, bad times too. (In my country there is a saying: todo pasa en la vida, así como los buenos momentos pasan, los malos momentos también)

If you need, you can send me a PM

 

Any guide specifies for OC CPU 7820hk on Alienware 17r4 with ThrottleStop? Or an updated guide on how to do it? I would love to learn how to use it, since I always use XTU ...

Thks!

 

I just picked up a 512GB m.2 nvme SSD and would like to make this my boot drive. I cloned the drive from my 1TB HDD, but I'm not able to choose which drive to boot from. I disconnected the HDD and I kept getting the error of no boot drive detected. I had to do a CMOS reset to get my HDD to show up in the bios. I'm able to boot up on the HDD, but not from the SSD. Is doing a clean install the only way? I've downloaded and mounted the Windows 10 ISO onto a USB stick, but when I went to install from the USB, only my 1TB drive would show. I just formatted my SSD drive and will give it another shot in the morning. I can't believe how difficult it is to just make my new SSD the boot drive. Am I missing something? My M18X R2 and M17X R3 never had any issues with upgrading drives.

 

you have set Bios in Raid or Ahci mode?

 

I believe I left it in Raid when trying to install it from the USB.

 

Stuttering from the m.2 drive? Please explain


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Try changing it to Ahci mode, then start know mode to repair the Windows startup (o follow this guide http://www.disk-partition.com/kb/tips-ssd-optimization-windows7-1.html) and then clone the ssd (try with AOMEI Partition Assistant, you have an option to clone asd). After that, I believe from the bios you have to add the boot from that SSD as well. it should work. You can create a bootable Gandalf Win10Pe usb ( http://windowsmatters.com/category/windows-pes), it has all the tools you need, like Aomei or Acronis (Acronis works very well for me when I need to clone a disk)

Good Luck!

 

Muchas gracias.

I have a lot of points at best but waiting to clear, so I'll go for the 512GB 960 Pro. I'll be able to get it down to $199 lol.

 

De nada

 

just a word to the wise tobi eye tracking software on the newly shipped r4 does not work requires old OSD and camera software upgrade both of which are not available on dell web site

 

Try using the latest one from Tobii's website

 

got an upgrade for free to the 512gb ssd don't take the first offer negotiate
I got 600 dollars of free upgrades though dell chat

 

more complicated than that

 

involves OSD old version, Realtek camera software

 

pls unless you have just solved the problem oblivious solutions are useless