*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

How did you calibrate your display?

 

This version is a 255w + an extra 10w for USB charging.

 

As, Aorus (7820+1070) pull 259w from the wall in full load, I'm sure this psu size is adequate for same model but with the more powerful 1080 graphics.

 

It's a little limiting from what I've experienced. I haven't measured it from the wall but I can tell through benchmarks it's not quite as powerful as the AW17. Others have been able to get higher graphics FS scores than me though, so maybe I'll just doing something differently. It's still a very powerful machine though, especially for the size.

Another thing I noticed is the v7 doesn't have battery drain when doing heavy having like the v6 did. Either it's from the bigger PSU or they set proper power limits this time.

 

My point was that recently this is much better, all those posts you quoted were months old. Yes there was a problem, more specifically with the 6820HK, now they have made some changes (Improved SUNON J-C-1 heatsink, better pad placement, better pad thickness, better manufacturing processes and support from Dell in recognising and fixing these problems as well as better advice on these forums for undervolting CPU and GPU) and things have improved a lot. There is lots of evidence (particularly in this thread) to back this up + there are thousands more who have no problems and don't post, this was my point.

 

I think most people with Alienware / Dell problems just don't find NBR, and would be happier if they did

I don't buy that AW has improved QA / QC on their laptops recently, it was reported as such several times over the last 1+ years and proved to not be true.

There are some people that claim they got a good one, and then later benchmark and push their systems gaming and report back, "hey, wtf is up with the temperatures...", and here we go again

A lot of people are just so excited to get a new laptop, and that doesn't wear off soon enough, all of a sudden the acceptance period is over and they then find the problems and come here looking for help. Sometimes many months later.

If Alienware would resolve their QA problems, actually problems with their Chinese builders, I would be happy to start recommending Alienware, but with their spotty track record - mostly giant spots with few tiny exceptional gaps - I can't possibly do so.

But if you want to, go for it, you can answer their questions about bad temps when they come back after delivery looking for help.

 

Fair points indeed and I agree with "I don't buy that AW has improved QA / QC on their laptops recently", I wasn't suggesting that.

I was suggesting that "AW has improved QA / QC on the 17 R4 laptops recently", this is from personal experience and reading posts here and discussing with professionals that see these systems on a daily basis. It's definitely significantly improved, Dell have listened, kudos where kudos due. Team LHz will be able to verify this I'm sure. Out of the box, for the 17 R4 things have gotten better and significantly improved (still not perfect but can any company ever be? No...).

FYI, new owners are not as stupid as you think, it won't take them weeks or months (or however long you think that honeymoon period is) to realise they have a flawed system they cannot use for gaming. If anything I'd suggest it's the opposite, when spending a LOT of money, people are extra critical of their new systems and clued up on what to test to ensure it's working right...

@iunlock @DeeX

 

I really like the aorus x7 v7 dt, how's the build quality on that thing? From the reviews I've seen online, due to the form factor, it was less than stellar, which kind of scared me... That and that orange track pad Haha.

 

You're talking about how you handle things, I am talking about how other people handle things, and come to message boards looking for help months later

You'd be surprised how many people don't actually even turn on their new laptops when they buy them. They post here sometimes saying they just ordered a new laptop and are going on a business trip, vacation, traveling to another country, getting married, don't have time to play games due to work so they will leave it boxed until they have free time.

They have so many reasons, and every time I see one in time I reply to it suggesting they at least unbox it and plug it in to make sure it powers on and boots. Then I try to get them to run some benchmarks, and if not that then some games, and if not that then do some video watching and browsing, and oh btw why not load hwinfo64 and get some temperatures... etc etc.

We don't need to worry about the people who are engaged and thinking logically and technically about their actions, it's everyone else that gets taken advantage of that we are here for, to help them through something they never expected.

That their new laptop isn't working right, and they don't know what to do now, or what they should have done weeks or months ago when they bought it, or before they bought it.

It helps if we can get to them before they buy, and warn them about what they are getting themselves in to if they get this make or that make, or this model or that model.

So if you are looking to buy a new gaming laptop, please stay away from Alienware laptops for now, many aren't coming out of the box working right consistently for over a year, since they were originally released.

 

You'd be surprised how many people don't test their systems and don't use these forums. It's the great majority. Even many of the people who look at these forums do not even fully test their systems. Most people want to just unbox and play. If I ask any of my friends and colleagues to install a temperature monitoring program to troubleshoot problems, they usually don't know wtf I'm talking about.

Also, this particular problem is very easy to miss if they aren't playing a modern game. I was only able to make the stuttering occur by playing DOOM and Witcher 3 for extended periods of time. It's not out of the realm of possibility that someone gets past their return policy without playing a game like that and then being stuck with RMAs and dud systems.

 

Yup, the trackpad is hideous! The build quality is ok. It's not perfect but I wouldn't call it bad. I was a little put off at first because of the seam around the edges instead of a unibody, but after a couple months, it's held up just fine. I use it daily and it still looks new. I do take special care of my stuff though, so it's hard for me to gauge how it would look after a laptop abuser touches it. To me, the build quality is a little better than MSI but slightly worse than AW. The AW17 feels like a sturdier machine, albeit heavier and thicker. Thinner laptops are generally flimsier, but I find the Aorus to be acceptable. I've seen reviews where they complain about the lid being flimsy, but that's the case with all thin 17" lids and even many 15" - you just learn to lift it from the center.

Some criticism: there is a little creaking in the hinge. There's also an annoying thermal noise, which I believe is the bottom cover when it expands under heavy load. There's no center screw, so I think it might be bowing and making a noise when the machine gets hot. I removed the cover and the noise is non-existent, so I think that's it. There's also a LOT of dust traps. The hinge and especially the top intake vents collect dust rather easily.

I don't want to clog up the AW thread with too much Aorus stuff. If you have any more questions, PM me or post in the Aorus threads and I'll be happy to help.

 

I have a 17 on the way, and was looking for a good recent game to test with once it arrives. Sounds like a great reason to pick up Witcher 3!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I looked at the Aorus x7 and on paper it looks great but I can't get past that giant bird logo on the trackpad. Stupid stupid decision which turned me off completely from that entire product line.

 

Lol so true. Almost as bad as the MSI which looks like it's been designed for a 12 year old. How many 12 year olds have two grand for a laptop? hmmm

 

Where are those photos?! You can’t tease us like this

 

Did you fix strange CPU temps and PCH temps?

 

Long story...

I was fed up with the 17 R4 and put mine for sale. Had various contacts and was about to sell it and order a P870KM with a 7700K and two 1080s but I backed out.

Looked everywhere for alternatives but no other laptop fits the (my) bill. It’s hard to find something as sturdy, cool looking, same or better performance, same screen as the 17 R4.
The competition is way bigger, way too ‘gamer’ looking, more expensive and with worse screens.
Only the Clevo P870km has a 120hz 2K screen. But it has its own, serious, heat issues too. It’s way bigger and the two power bricks are a bad solution as I carry the laptop with me every single day.
There’s also no other 7820hk/gtx1080 laptop with a battery as big as the AWs. It might not look like much but it lasts a solid 3 hours and I take advantage of it regularly.
The speaker system isn’t the best but it’s one of the loudest.

I just couldn’t find a proper replacement laptop. And I bought it for those reasons. It ticks all MY boxes!
And it was a ***** to buy because I live in Portugal, no Alienware here! I had to get a spanish address and have it delivered to a friend.
With all my issues I was starting to loose focus and wanted to get rid of it.

But I trully like this laptop. Best I ever owned!
Yeah it’s a BGA book but that doesn’t itch me too much.

I levelled and lapped the heatsink, spent 3 hours checking every pad for perfect contact and went back to liquid metal. It was running great!
Downgraded the vBIOS to the non-OC one and did some tests. Most were inside the margin of error so I’ll take the overall lower temps gladly!

Now it doesn’t break a sweat over 71C! Even after 3+ hours of BF1
(Ambient temps also dropped quite a bit around here, but no reason to believe it will go above 80C next summer)

I’m using it daily and I really like it again.

I’m still gonna fork an arm and a leg to get the 2 or 3 year extended warranty though!

 

He said about theee pages back that he was mistaken.

 

Oh, well that soocks I was super intrigued


By the way, I got one of these coolers! http://www.advgene.com/散热设备/

It's pretty cool looking, like the 17 R4 but it's impossibly loud. Should have expected that when it clearly says 8000RPM 50mm and 5000RPM 80mm fans, plus they are slim models.
I'm still talking with the guy from ADVGene trying to find a solution for the noise, will post a review soon.

Anyone know where to find 50mm and 80mm PWM slim fans?
Akasa makes a Slim 80mm PWM model, but I haven't had any luck with the 50mm ones...
The fans on the cooler I can't even find online

 

I have this cooler Very, very noisy. Driver is not very good as for me

 

Yeah... how are you using it?
Right now it’s working more or less like an expensive laptop stand. It’s pretty rugged and compact so it’s great to throw in the backpack.
But I can’t even use it at work! People think the cleaning lady is vacuuming again

 

It costs about $ 45 in China
My profile in office G1:0% G2:75% it works fine for my r4

 

Well, I overpaid the hell out of it.
The build quality is great, I just wish the fans were better.

 

No it's bigger than that for the 7820HK/1080....let me check...

@hmscott

The improvements aren't big, but the improvements do exist. I've see a large volume of AW's on a weekly basis as you know...

The improvements aren't hardware related rather in the areas of using better thermal paste for the cpu with more attention to placing on the thermal pads..

Before with the Skylake's even kept stock it would blow its top off... However, with the Kaby lake's most units can stand on its two feet of kept stock.

Any gaming laptop with the power limits lifted will kick the bucket.

I've been taking notes and will reserve my judgment until I get more flight time with the unit.

In short for now, it's a Detroit built Cadillac, glorified GM with some sturdy points, but nowhere near the premium of a German luxury. Big difference.

There are issues, but a lot of things they did right that others should follow.

I'll put up a mini review soon..

i1Display Pro

Overwatch, because we have a ton of data on it for reference. The game isn't perfectly optimized and has a little bit of everything, which makes it my test bench game. It taxes the cpu and gpu pretty well.

That is indeed a bit 11 teen year old.

What the heck were they thinking right?

Kids...

.

::iunlock::

 

The new AW laptops you are seeing with these improvements don't need re-pasting or re-padding rework done on them?

Would you recommend people order AW laptops now and expect them to work out of the box without further repasting and repadding work done?

If this is so it sounds like you can stop doing this fixit work on Alienware's and move on to other problematic laptops

 

Even I with my English can see it and read between the lines... Lift TDP threshold above the default 45W power limits and you are back to square 1.

 

Even I have the same experience, I took it to college every day using public transport and even though it was 15" it was damn heavy for first two days. Yeah like you said, the pricing and portability is what I want and AW fills these boxes with one downside my HQ CPU. If those Clevos and AW were priced the same I'd get Clevo with Prema BIOSes any day. But Clevos are expensive here

 

LOL I doubt it very much and surely you mean the other way round, the GPU doesn't get anywhere near as hot as the CPU

 

250W with a max of 265W... see the pic...

Every gaming laptop with the power limits lifted needs repasting.

With the current AW's (Speaking for N.American units) IF kept stock, then yes, it can stand on its own two feet.

Name me one laptop that can stand with the power limits lifted. ..

Even Clevo's are rubbish without Prema magic...

Name me one gaming laptop that can stand on its own two feet with the power limits lifted and OC'ed?

Clevo's are rubbish without Prema...face it... that is a FACT and the TRUTH.

I would never buy a Clevo without confirmation of Prema BIOS...

 

Pretty easy. My own Clevo P870. Before I flashed Prema firmware, it run cool both stock and oc’d when I got it. Of course this doesn’t apply all same models coming from Clevo factory or other vendors/resellers. Don’t cut all under the same umbrella

Better firmware doesn’t mean aka will magically fix your laptop so it can run much colder No firmware can make vine of water.

 

Mmmm I don't think so... You're telling me that you're P870 out of the box with a K series chip could handle its own with the power limits unlocked?

My 775 could not stand on its own two feet stock...

I appreciate your ambition, but come on... you're on a AW section of a forum and telling a fib that your Clevo is that magic gaming laptop? Nope. I don't think so... nice try though..

Unless 90C's is normal to your standards, I call bluff...

That is not a way to try to sway people to buy a Clevo on an AW forum...

To this day...there is no gaming laptop that can stand on its own two feet once the power limits are lifted and OC'ed..

I've had many people try to claim that their laptop was the chosen one, until I called them out on connecting via TeamViewer to drive it into the ground and have the laptop sweat, begging for water...

The sad truth is, there is a slim chance that any company would go the extra effort in making sure that all units are properly repasted with good quality paste out of the box.

Clevo is not a worthy choice, unless one is going to repaste, but above all unless it has Prema magic. Period.



.

 

Yeah I call BS on that too! Where did you buy it from? I bet it was tinkered with before delivery

 

Yea it's totally BS... border line trolling.

To come be on an AW section of the forum and to say that a Clevo is an exception is a fairy tail...

That is surely not a way to try and sway people to buy Clevo over other brands....that's not nice.

 

I only answered your Q. I didn’t speak about what you should buy or what model you should stay away from. Believe it or not. Up to you. I know my own hardware. And I can tell you so much, iunock... I test and bench always when I buy new hardware. Stock and oc’d. Then make my own mods regardless of results. Always!!

 

Actually those posts seems untrue sometimes it is a fact or a truth taken to a little extreme. As we know @Papusan gives us some riddles and we get really mad at him. Now, whenever he says the temps are fine; the system will surely be LM'ed, uses high performance pwr plan and power savings disabled. The fans are on max rpms too and he's really lucky that his ambient temps are really low and with the back elevated with cooling pads also running at jet speed.
So all in all a perfect job to get really cool temps and make others really jealous. Another thing is software tweaks because after LM'ing the CPU and GPU and trying to run all apps at startup will slow down your PC, so make sure you keep only required apps at startup, apps in bg and fg and there you go a nice PC with lowered temps.

 

I've owned 7 clevo's from the full desktop 980 to sli 980, sli 1080's and all of them had some type of her almissue out of the box. Clevo has had their fair share of warped vapor chamber heatsink a and warped CPU heatsinks. As you've said and I've said I don't know of a high end gaming laptop out of the box from anybody that has a perfect machine, period... The continuous bashing of a brand because of some senical deep hatred for a particular company should stay out of the forums where people are enjoying there machines and coming for help when needed.

 

The GT73 OC fine with stock everything. That is the only laptop that could do it from my experience. Lucky me I cannot or do not need to OC my laptop because my games are all from Blizzard .

 

@iunlock
I think I saw you mentioning about the Aorus that you were waiting for the heatsink to cool before resuming tinkering. What do you do to it exactly to get those awesome temps? Do you bend it while heating it or something?

Yeah, Clevo quality control is no better than Alienware. That's why where you get it from is as or more important than spec and price.
My previous Clevos all came from the cheapest I could find. They all required tinkering. My P770DM with GTX980M and 6700K also took quite a few repastes and fine tuning to get just right.
The latest Clevo I owned was a P650RP6 from Obsidian and that one I never had to open once. Ran great out of the box but only because John spent quite some time on it before delivery.

 

Maybe there was something lost in translation or being misinterpreted, that's okay. I'll clear it up.

What I was making reference to was very specific in talking about a stock system.

Clevo, stock, can not stand on its own two feet.

By you making that comment as if you're system can, stock, is very misleading.

Again, I'll give the benefit of the doubt of perhaps something being misunderstood.

My reference to talking about a stock system seemed very clear, therefore, the follow up comment by papu clearly seemed to be another AW bash and a Clevo advertisement, which in the context that it was used is false, because a Clevo, stock, can not stand on its own two feet.

I was just preventing false info from spreading ...

Indeed... on a scale, the AW wins on many different levels and I don't think some people like the reality of that.

I do agree that there is no need for bashing on a brand, especially in that brands section of a forum.

The GT73 once unlocked could not stand from my experience. Lift the power limits and OC it to 44x and it'll sweat.

Ah yes...I've been at this X7 trying to get every ounce of cooling out of this thin chassis. It has its limitations (physically) and it's a shame that other ODM's didn't design the mobo, heat sink etc... like Gigabyte did with the X7 (Aorus). If this thing was just a tad bit thicker to fit in some more pipes, it'd be a beast of a gaming laptop. I'll post up a small review of some kind when it's all said and done...

As for ordering from a boutique, it is good to have someone like john to work on the system as it will surely be heck of a lot better than getting directly from the company itself.

 

One of my clevo's came from HID and I paid them for their services. I still had horrible CPU temps. In the end it was related to a shotty CPU heatsink. All good though. He name of the game in the high end notebook areana.

 

All P775's struggle with cooling a LOT. To the point where Clevo should just discontinue them IMO. With the P870's it was pretty much a hit or miss. But it could definitely work just fine if you got lucky with decent heat sinks, with or without the unlocked BIOS/EC. Temps are obviously going to be in the high 80's range, depending on the paste, but nothing lower than 85'ish.
End of the day, i still prefer to carry around the AW, feels much higher quality. But my heat sink woes are similar with the AW, if not worse.

 

EDIT: @Papusan informs me that SVET doesn't do Clevo BIOS. I guess only MSI ownwers have options

Why you Hating on SVET ?

JK of course; he is lesser known, but a great alternative to unlocked BIOS if you do not buy from a PREMA partner.

My MSI 16L13 runs great even without touching the PREMA settings (he didn't need to do anything with the power settings, just unlocked a bunch of advanced Overclocking options and RAM settings)...

But to be fair, not much stock about these systems as HIDevolution delids, liquid metal pastes, and mods the bottom cover

 

I have heard that SVET was AW BIOS mod legend from @j95 But I can't find him these days and even on the forum.

 

He is all over the MSI forum

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?board=51.0

 

Thanks. Amazing job. Modded BIOS that doesn't break UEFI and bypass OEM checks. Really fantastic.

 

I just now noticed I didn't even finish my sentence. Damn ADHD
I was asking what do you do to the heatsinks, asides from lapping. Do you heat treat them? Aply heat to bend? something weird like that?

 

Wow haha, sorry I shouldn't laugh but that's ridiculous! What country are you in? I've had two Dell Tech's out, one to replace QHD screen in my alienware and one to change the mobo in my XPS. Was the same guy both times and he was a true pro.

I live in UK btw

Hear hear

Does it beat the AW 17 R4?

PM me and I'll go over things with you buddy if you still need help

 

Haha all good. Yes the mod to the hs is a slow bending process using controlled heat to where it won't create metal fatigue on any of the parts. Just randomly bending things will stress the metal and over time the integrity can lessen. This is why bending it just to bend / adjust it is not a good idea. It's a very tedious process and time consuming, but my OCD would not have it any other way, but to do it the right way lol... Therefore, yes it is weird and totally out of the norm haha...but it must be done.

Short answer NO. Long answer it doesn't come close to the 17R4.

The AW 17R4 is still King in my books for the best all around gaming laptop. (Repasted of course.. )

 

Nice, I have one too and bought 3 more for my mates as a gift

Don't know why you would want to advertise Tobii though, it sucks

Good to know

 

Just wanted to check in with some updates and questions. I've gotten the system up and running, ran into a snag getting the ssd installed (GPT partition etc) but mostly user error, haha. Now that I have the additional RAM and SSD up and going, decided to run some games on it. This replacement unit has an insanely good GPU paste job compared to my previous unit on Heaven benchmark observed literally ~9-10 C lower across the entire benchmark, However i'm observing 5-6 C difference between the hottest / coolest core, however they're all still 77@ 4.1ghz.

So far i ran Withcer 3, Planetside 2, Civ 5, FFXIV, and Metro Last Light. All of which are running flawlessly (70-120 fps, at 1440p and Maxed out). The only one giving me some issues is Last Light at 1440p. I can run it at a steady 60 fps if I keep everything on max except for SSAA at 2x instead of 4x. At 4x it dips down to 27-30 fps. Is this normal or simply poor optimization?

Overall, this system is kicking ass and taking names.