*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

thanks.

 

Hi ...

The two 512gb 950 Pro's arrive tomorrow and I will be configuring the RAID0 array at that time. After I get my system image written, I will do lots of tests for m.2 temp problems with the 950 Pros. Depending on the results, I might return them for something that runs cooler. As I've said, I'm not really much of a drive slut ... just want things snappy at all times ... so if I'm better off, I'll even think about putting an older Samsung EVO m.2 drive in if it runs cool. I doubt I'd notice any performance difference.

And yes .. there are 3 total m.2 slots in the AW 17 R4 ... (2 x 2280 and 1 x 2242) ... this comes from a random tech discussion at: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19994699

I might try some stealthy ways to heatsink the 950's ... even thermal pads with a very thin plate of copper stuck to them, running the length of the stick, would help tremendously. Some guy even taped a few pennies to his and had great results ... LOL ...

I'll post some numbers on the whole RAID0 950 Pro experiement after Wednesday ...

Otherwise, a week of solid use (near 24/7 LOL) and not a single hiccup or complaint with the AW 17 ...

.jo

 

run 2x 1tb 961's for a 2tb boot, same ish money, just a thought....

 

Wrong, zero throttling-try it out. 0.5mm works perfectly.

 

maybe since the thermal conductivity is so high the air becomes solid and acts like heatsink

fujipoly magic?

 

LINK ... It sucks out the heat from critical components in the drive significantly decreasing the temps. True 'magic' FTW.

 

ah that thermal pad

you buy the precut ones from amazon/performancepcs/frozencpu right?

 

What speeds are the stock m.2 hard drives pulling?

 

So Dell is giving me an 17R4 with a G-Sync 32GB Ram, 128GB M.2 1TB GTX 1070. Sounds like a good deal and to be honest I only have situations where maybe 10% of the time do I ever use it just on battery.

 

Which capacity? I can test 512.

 

I ordered two large sheets a while back one in 0.5mm & another in 1mm. Use them in all my laptops. Not cheap but worth every penny performance wise.

 

I would like to see the speeds on the 512 and the 256. I was planning on getting the 256gb upgrade to start out with and maybe 6-12 months down the road upgrading to two 512gb M.2 drives.

 

Which store?

I try that later.

 

I thought i saw someone post ssd benchmarks but i cant remember where now. I would also like to see them

 

LINK

 

thanks

 

As you mentioned, the 961's are sort of hard to find at the moment ... RamCity (Australia) aims to have some in stock by 11/25 ... and purchasing via a group like them will get the 3 year warranty ...

I've also found one online but the guy doesn't think it has any sort of warranty (different part number than RamCity) ...

The 1tb SM961 is going for about $525 to $550 from what I can see online so I would start with just one if I tried one. I'm super curious to see what my temps are like with the 950 Pro's ... might just install one next to my beater 128gb boot m.2 currently installed and just switch boot drives in BIOS to test the temps on the new 950...

Totally off 961 topic?

Anyone have in performance/temp experience with the older 1tb Samsung 950 m.2 EVO's? ... I think they are only SATA3 speeds ... but they are cheap and a couple of them in RAID0 could be plenty fast for me ...

??

 

The rumor's aren't official

It depends on what you want to call official, I would classify that as a "Frank Azor rumor"

 

Why are they giving you this system? What system are you coming from?

 

15R3 same specs except it had a 6820hk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

i am about to order the 17R4 , but i heard that its a bit wide for 17inch backpacks , anyone had trouble with it ?

and how is the USB ports on the device in general ? i read that its 3.0 , while 3.1 is out in other devices and offers much better performance

 

There's a new v2 version of the Alienware and ASUs nomad backpacks. The 18 inch vindicator is also on sale due to the v2. But if I could recommend a bag it would be the everki titan. Such a well made durable bag worth the premium price. Although pretty close to the v2 Vindicator and rog nomad.

 

you bought them from amazon?

 

It has 2x USB-C, one of those TB3.
Straight from the UK site:
1 Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port
1 Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port with PowerShare technology
1 Type-C SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port
1 Thunderbolt™ 3 Port (USB Type-C™ with support for SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, 40Gbps Thunderbolt, and DisplayPort)

 

Just some random trivia regarding m.2 NVME drives and overheating issues ...

I was noticing when casually browsing the new Alienware 17 R4 "service manual" ... that for AW 17's that ship with the 1TB m.2 SSD, they provide a copper "lock down plate that they refer to as the "solid state drive shield" ... I've attached an image showing said "shield" in the .PDF from Dell's website...

I was thinking of fabricating something like this if I'm unable to order them from Dell ... considering that users of m.2's have seen significant drops in temps simply by "taping pennies to the IC's" ?? ... might be worth investigating for high speed m.2 users...

FYI:

...

 

I love my Everki Titan. Can you confirm that the 17 R4 actually fits in it? I've been worried about whether it will or not. According to Everki's website, the Titan is slightly too narrow for the 17 R4. The difference is only 0.11", though, so I'm thinking it should fit since the R4 is pretty thin.

 

It should fit tightly by my measurements I won't know for sure i guess till my 17 gets here though

 

damn. wish they'd keep those plates in as default.

 

Awesome find. I might have to do this with my 512GB 950. Looks like they just use a piece of copper with some thermal transfer pads. I need to find a thin sheet of copper to try this.

 

The question now is how much bigger is the 17 over the 15. I do take it around with me to and from work just want to figure out what people know on the size differences between the two.

 

I can also confirm that the Slappa Kiken 18" works quite well with the AW 17 R4. I've used mine for two years with an 17" MSI GS70 and it's solid. I'd prefer to use a neoprene sleeve with the AW 17 R4 as I have with the very slim MSI GS70 but the AW 17 R4 fits pretty much perfect without a supplemental sleeve. Lots of space in the bag. I carry a portable blu ray player, a 2tb external SATA3 hard drive, my AC adapter, two portable mice and a bunch of other smaller cables I use regularly and it's only 50% capacity.

https://www.amazon.com/Checkpoint-F...=1478650401&sr=8-1&keywords=slappa+kiken&th=1

Think I'll be buying the hard shell AW briefcase though when the new models release ... although I'll bet a Vindicator 18" briefcase would work fine...

I'm looking around for source copper as well ... and I don't think they use any thermal pads but they might (and I probably will for sure). Just wish we could remove the stickers without messing with the warranty as that will make a big difference. Also going to try and contact Dell and buy them directly (not likely but worth a shot) ..

EDIT: closer look at that .pdf image ... looks like they might actually use some sort of pad under there after all ...

 

what are the ssd's that come with the system?

 

Finally returned my AW15 due to temp and light bleed issues. Is AW17 the same?

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No, not at all. Go look at the Repaste Thread which has results. The thermals on the 17 are awesome.
Also look at this recent discovery from our crew. Using expensive pressure paper, Unlock discovered that the 15's heat sink has uneven contact with the CPU.

 

i have the alienware 17 R1 2013
and i measured the device top part since its the part that goes in the bag
( that's not mine of course )


and i have this bag .. and the part the laptop goes in is around 30cm ( 11.8 inch )
https://www.amazon.com/Targus-Drift...F8&qid=1478694785&sr=8-1&keywords=targus&th=1

so it fits completly well .. any bigger and there is no way its goes in
so can someone measure the R4 2016 top part ? because i cant find the right dimensions on the website , or maybe i understood it wrong
i really don't want to pay for a new bag , the good ones are a bit expensive XD

 

Height: 29.9mm (1.181 inches) | Width: 424mm (16.7 inches) | Depth: 332mm (13.1 inches) |

 

how did i miss that XD ? , its definitely bigger
i don't want to bring the alien backpack so that it doesn't bring attention , any other suggestions like Everki Titan and FreeBiz ?

 

someone reviewed the R4 showed that it can fit in the FreeBiz in one of his youtube video's.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...0d-20&linkId=ab08feb99a0bf631450c452fd2e1182e

 

Somewhat incorrect about the 17 not having the same problems. I've now had 4 6700hq 17" models and they all exhibit the same temperature variances between cores. Core 0 and 2 are hot, 1 and 3 are much cooler. No doubt a similar issue with pressure from the heat sink, 0 and 2 are being cooled much better than 1 and 3. Also, regarding light bleed, all 3 17" FHD models I had did have quite a bit of light bleed. However, the 2 Best Buy display models I saw with the FHD screens did NOT have light bleed. And the QHD model I got does not have light bleed, but it has it's own issues of faint horizontal lines. The lines don't bug me nearly as much as the light bleed on the FHD models did, and I appreciate the 120hz and Gsync enough to keep this version, at least based on the screen I want to keep it.

Now, if we have a heat sink problem, maybe I won't keep it. Luckily I have a long return cycle at Best Buy thanks to the holiday return policy kicking in as of November 1st.

 

Regarding the light bleed. The bleed has nothing to do with the screen itself. It is because the cover of the screen (plastic) is fixed to "hard". The cover is easy to loosen and you can bend the plastic a bit so that the clips are not to heavy fixed anymore. Result for me was. No light bleed anymore on the screen. I had strong bleeding with my UHD display.

You can try to remove the cover and take a look on the screen to verify your bleed. Maybe you also have to loosen the screws a bit which holds the screen itself.

 

So no news on the 1080?

Getting tired of waiting, need a laptop really soon.

 

Yes, I know this and already mentioned it in another post of mine. Removing the screen virtually eliminated all light bleed. However, I wasn't willing to put the screen back in with loose screws. Also, yes this proves that the bleed is related to pressure from mounting the screen, but that doesn't necessarily mean the screen is not somewhat at fault. I have plenty of laptops and screens that I can flex without causing light bleed. Perhaps these screens are being made with lower tolerances for flex, which to me is more of a problem with the screen than the mounting of the screen itself. What I'm getting at is, the screen manufacturers need to feel some of the blame for their screens that can't handle any amount of flex without bleeding.

 

I'm edging towards the same boat with each passing day. Hold out with me 'til the 18th! I'm having faith that it will be announced around then. I'm also prepared to eat my words, haha.

 

Could you do a DIY guide on how to do this? Or did you use a guide to help you out and if so, do you have a link to it? I think it would be benefital to everyone to be able to do this on their own instead of waiting on support to help.

 

Does the Alienware 17 support m2 SSD´s which are SATA III Protocol ?

 

got mine today was initially very happy but noticed... the B Key is not aligned?
Can anyone give an idea what to do or is it a tech support visit....

 

I see you buy the QHD screen, do you notice the banding issue ?

 

yes it can be noticed but only if you really look for it, not in game really it's not bothering me but am waiting to see if my OCD get the better of me...

 

Ok thanks for your answer. But now I realy don't know if I go for QHD or UHD screen ...

 

Depends on what you will doing on it

occasional gaming mostly browsing and movies i would go UHD

Full on gaming and lots of fast fps games then i would say the QHD