*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

Thx Iunlock and GTO_PAO for your kind words - I guess I will have to adapt

As promised, will get some benchmarks for everyone later on today/tomorrow

 

When did you order Sarou ? Dell should have received my order only 2 days ago max.

I haven't even received the link to follow my order yet.

 

1st december

 

The CS rep has offered me to go through with a new order and leave the current order as it is and he offered to monitor
the orders and see whichone goes through first, then cancel the order which goes through last.
I didn't reply to this yet.

This could be interesting, I could ask my CS rep to check with the factory if this is the case for my order as well.

My order status has now got an adjusted delivery date pushed from 15/12 to 23/12.
Didn't get any e-mail about this, simply noticed it under my account today, this is not uncommon with Dell though.

If I try to set up a new order it still has "delivery before chrismas if ordered before 15/12" and states "ships within 4-6 days",
guess they haven't updated the webpage yet and still keep onselling as normal..

 

Been in your situation MANY times, and you are absolutely correct, the screens on these laptops can be very different from each other. I usually had to go through at least 2 screen replacements (an average) to finally receive a perfect one. You also have the right to insist they send you a brand new replacement laptop if you wish, considering the replaced screen is just as bad. They failed to fix it. Up to you if you want to go for another screen replacement or a new laptop, but NEVER let them convince you that you have to send it in for repair. You don't unless there is physical damage to the laptops chassi which is extremely rare. Everything else can be fixed through an onsite tech or system replacement.

 

I thought I had seen you suggest that a single 60x50x1.0 sheet of 17.0w/mk was sufficient for the whole job. I've got a 17R4 with 1060 on the way along with some Conductonaut and one of those thermal sheets. Will this work or do I need to order some thinner thermal pads as well, be it 0.5mm or 11.w/mk-14w/mk at 1.0mm?

 

Hey All,

Got a bit of a very stupid question, and I'm a little ashamed to post it.

You know the plastic tabs that are around the back panel? Most of them are all hook shaped, but I just want to confirm (just to make sure mine didn't like snap off). The top two hooks are not hooks but smooth.

I installed a new SSD in my machine, and wanted to make sure I didn't snap or break the clips.

I can post this awful crude drawing I did to kind of show you what I mean, but I will hold off for now.

Thanks All!

 

My guess is the fix" was the increase in thermal max to 105c so it fries systems more slowly. Smh.

 

Those twitter people are most likely just cs people that get info from other divisions. Their job is just to be present on social media. I highly doubt they have much tech knowledge outside of the documents they get telling them how to respond to questions like that. You can tell in the answers they give to tech questions.

I've decided to wait on kabyLake personally. Hopefully some guinea pig here will buy it and open it up to reveal a better situation under the hood. I have no problem doing a repaste, but that should not be on me to fix their product.

I have a problem rewarding (buying their product) a company for their mistakes. The only way the will rush to fix it, is when they are losing money.

 

Well quick update guys. I just did the IC Diamond repaste and repad and decided last minute to actually leave the control arm as is and take a systematic approach to the repaste by increasing interventions as I go. The thick paste is great and I think helped seat the heat sink better. I just used a pea sized drop on a squeaky clean piece of silicon and put together the machine. I will say, the first time you take this apart, it may take some time! It was harder than I thought it would be because it looked much easier than systems I have had prior. The repaste went well but I wasn't expecting miracles. I did get "good results." I ran some 3dmark benches on the level 3 overclock of the 6820 CPU. Stock GPU. Core 0 was the highest at 79c, followed by 73, 75, 73. So my cores are pretty close together and my temps are good for this level of repaste. I didn't use LM but I have always felt the Diamond worked well on my old systems so I had some confidence in it.

With that, I am going to keep the system but still advocate that dell change the heat sink for R5 as the 3 screw design doesn't do anything but make a triangle or maybe signal illuminati lol. The screen isn't to die for but I LOVE the form factor, love having 1 GPU again and the fact that it's over 2X as powerful as my 880m SLI. I got some great years out of my Alienware 18 that I purchased in July of 2013. Once I dug into the system I saw how solid it looks overall. @iunlock did a really really great job representing what the system is like and how to approach the repaste. The pictures were spot on.

Now I need to start downloading my games and getting back to a long shift. I will likely drop the temps a bit more in the future when I have a bit more time to dedicate but I am really happy right now. I hope this also gives some hope to people trying their own repaste or going "all out" on a super repaste. If you don't have the best thermal and don't mess with the control arm, you will probably net pretty good results as my system hit 98 within a minute of benching from unboxing with other temps at 89ish. Later all.

 

I hope it's true, my replacement unit was ordered on november 29th and spend the whole last week in pre-production and is in production since monday. It's very long compared to my first one witch spend 4 hours in pre-production and one day and half in production. I think i'll see by next week.

 

I have the same problem with my AW 17R4 GTX1080's 1440p GSync 120Hz TN display panel. Those horizontal scan lines are very annoying. I even noticed it when playing Fallout 4. There's no light bleed whatsoever though.

Upon close examination of those scan lines, I can see that on areas of color with mid-brightness, the even rows of pixels have a different brightness than odd rows. This effect is especially noticeable on medium to dark gray colors.

It doesn't really show up on large areas of white or black though. So that could be why people can't see it as much when they keep the Alienware logo wallpaper background, or when they're just looking on the forums (except for people's avatars, the bluegray blocks, and orange buttons on this site) but they should be able to see it if they switch to one of those default Windows 10 wallpapers with the rock formations + ocean. Or to see it very noticeably, google " gray gradient" - you'll also see the color banding effect too!

This "horizontal screen window" effect is amazingly noticeable when doing detailed graphics/art work - as I can't always tell if it's just the screen, or if it's the texture.

Yes it is a lot less noticeable when I sit an arm's length away, but I usually need to bring my head a bit closer when dealing with smaller text and fine details.

I've sent filed a support ticket on Dell's site yesterday - still waiting for a response. I still can't tell if this is something that can be fixed with a replacement display panel - or if some users just always sit farther / have less sensitive eyes than others? It'd be great if this problem could be fixed with a replacement.

 

Hi. I am new to this forum and also a new owner of an ALienware 17 R4 ( 6820 HK CPU, 1070 cardwith UHD screen). I am concerned too with the temperature differences I am getting on the cpu. There is a difference of at least 15-20 C range running HWinfo between the highest and the lowest core. I have talked to ALienware tech support about this and they think it is normal! I can live with a bit of the light bleed on the monitor. BUt the CPU temp is driving me nuts.

I have returned the first unit back in early Nov. The replacement still has the same issue! I am really not good at tinkering with the laptop although I have experienced building my own desktop pcs i the past. Tried my best to disassemble the laptop using the info here and on youtube but intimidated after I damaged the wireless antenna for the Killer card. Anyone who lives by the Bay area can help me improve the cooling? Please message. TIA.

 

You'll get great results undervolting as well.

 

If you are in your 30 day window strongly consider an MSI as while they have thermal issues, they will run much better out of the box. I think you could probably get away with the 6700hk with the 1070 which saves money and a bit of heat. If you aren't in your 30 day window continue to try to get a refund. If you want to keep this laptop then find a notebook/computer repair store in your area and have them paste it for you. You need to get the heat under control though. Good luck and sorry you have to contend with this stuff!

 

I hope that's true, too! Mine is also still on "Pre-production" since november 28th... Thanks for sharing that information, sarou!

 

Alienware 17 r4 no longer available on AW website?

 

Sounds great! Very much looking forward to it. We need all the data that we can get. Please also make sure to post it in the benchmarks thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ures-benchmarks-alienware-17-r4-15-r3.797378/

That is for the 17R3. The 17R4 and 15R3 needs the 100x15 size as mentioned in the OP of the disassembly guide.

PM sent.

I would still recommend doing the arm trick. The reason your temps are closer together without having bent the arm is because of the thicker paste that is making up for the intolerance. However, as time goes by with the paste loosing it's integrity, you'll start to see the core differentials widen. Also, what was your CPU OC'ed to?

 

Do you have a before and after picture of the arm that we have to bend?

 

I'm just running 41s right now through the bios. I am really happy with the GPU temps at 59c. I almost want to verify with something other than GPUz but i know that is accurate. The gpu should have some really good room. But yeah, I'll have to get the CPU temps down more. I'm really glad i didnt get the 6700hk as I think that card is worse than the 4910mq in my notebook from 2013. This CPU isn't amazing but seems to have good OC room and won't bottleneck me.

 

I would like to see a pic of the same thing.

 

Yep thats with the grizzly kyronaut. I really like that paste, i plan on switching out the paste on waterblocks in my desktop with it too. So im curious what it will do over the EK paste i used on them.

I still have a 10c temp difference, i might tear her down again and bend the arm a bit this weekend. The only thing that worries me is if it will void the warrenty since i payed $400 something for the 4 years+ accidental.

 

The arm only needs to be bent a little. The pic in this thread shows some good shots of how much I've bent mine.

I've pasted it here as well...

 

Keep in mind that you can't bend too much of it. Metal fatigue can kick you back in the future.

I think I bent mine just a bit more than that, hopefully it'll stay in place...

 

Here's a quick video on how I remove the WiFi cables. I have still yet to break any pins...

Hope this helps...

Cheers.



Video is also posted in the OP on the disassembly thread.

 

So I received my Alienware 17 GTX 1080 today. I am not seeing any of the issues being talked about here. The screen banding is extremely minimal. I need to stick my head into the screen to notice it. No light bleed. Temps seem pretty normal on the firestrike run I did. (First time on this forum so don't know how to attach pics here)

Also, I had OC Level 2 set, Fan was NOT on performance mode. GPU stayed at max 61C. CPUs 82,77,83,75. Max temps.

Fristrike score: 15481
Graphics: 20178
Physics: 11299

So just got a link to my firestrike run for your reference (this is an additional run with updated Nvidia drivers). Here it is: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/16537879

I am actually facing a different kind of issue that seems software-related. G-sync works great on windowed borderless. Drops fps by 20 when running games fullscreen. I have g-sync enabled for both fullscreen + windowed in Nvidia control panel. Anybody know what might be the issue?

 

This is definitely the way it should work. Proper technique.

But...I did just that and still broke both RF contacts off the board. Broke the solder on 1 and ripped the pad off on the 2nd cable. So mileage may vary with these Killer WiFi cards. Appears to have substandard manufacturing.

 

Knock on wood, but I haven't broke a Killer card yet....

Tip: Avoid using a metal flat head screw driver...use something plastic that is like a wedge.

AW 17R4 - GTX 1070

New PR:

Fire Strike - 16390
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/11011925

 

I appear to have got a good unit.

My journey to this point has been a nightmare though, which you would not have thought with the amount of money I have been spending. All of the units I purchased were 6700 cpu, 1070 gpu, 16Gb RAM....

First I got a AW 15 that suffered light bleed, thermal throttling, thermal shutdowns and generally sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Despite the temps of 99 ºc, a Dell tech claimed that nothing was wrong. Here is a picture of me chatting to a dell tech with bf1 running at the same time showing the package going to 99...

https://goo.gl/photos/wdKgAypCgg4ZuGo27

Here are the temps of a 30 minute session of bf1:

https://goo.gl/photos/ndrHcvytCPzrky6L9

Two cores were throttled.

The performance was alright though:

Timespy: 5033
https://goo.gl/photos/abxo4EfT3ustLngE7

After discussing this laptop with people here, I decided to return it during my 2 week grace period. I then moved on to an MSI, after hearing good things about the brand.

The MSI GT72VR 6RE with similar specs felt like a toy compared to the alienware, but that did not put me off as the performance was a bit under that of the AW but not noticeable.

Timespy: 4900
https://goo.gl/photos/MzC9EhvvFAtchNYb9

What really killed the MSI was the unit I got was defective. When trying to play BF1 it would blue screen and generally misbehave. The screen banding was awful, and made it feel like I was playing BF1 on Windows 95. Oh and the sound driver would run at 25% of the cpu at times.

https://goo.gl/photos/pYRuFnDLMdR2bhZr6

Yesterday, I got my new AW 17, this time I got the 1440 QHD screen. It is fantastic. I do not see any light bleed, I have also not seen any banding... but maybe I am not seeing it cause of I have seen BANDING on the MSI that was soooooooo bad, I just cant see this anymore.

Timespy: 5064
https://goo.gl/photos/yRZSaDUF4TW4vdBy9

What I really cared about though were the temps when playing BF1. Here is a 30 minute session...

https://goo.gl/photos/NDYkwcbDifiR7oFWA

The temps were lower and there was no throttling. I then undervolted to a conservative -0.120.

I am happy with the results. The temps are relatively well clustered, max temp of 85...
https://goo.gl/photos/hcaW9BAqE8xNPrTw6

I will be keeping this one.

 

Great stuff...glad it all worked out for you and also thanks for confirming again how worthless them so called techs are.

 

Got my replacement panel yesterday

Lightbleed before:


Lightbleed after:



The first panel was an AUO with slow reaction time and max. Oc 74Hz

The new one is an LG with max OC 103Hz

 

Very nice...thanks for sharing!

 

Its a pretty nice panel now. Nearly no bleed...it feels like a new laptop ^^
Now iam happy and can start to repaste the next days

 

Hey guys, just a quick one - which benchmarking tools should I use that everyone here uses and posts results from?

I remember Firestrike. Any others I should run?

Also with firestrike - is there a free version that one can use, or you have to purchase the 3dMark License?

 

OCCT

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Prime95 fur Mark

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

I just want to determine what temps my system is hitting, to see whether it would need a repaste, or maybe i got lucky

 

3DMark: (You can buy the key to unlock the other benches)
- Fire Strike
- Time Spy

OCCT:
- Run for at least 30 Minutes

Unigine Heaven:
- 1920x1080, Max Everything.

Cinebench R15:
- GPU
- CPU

NBR isn't too good with image uploads...the pictures are usually broken. Would you be able to upload it to a 3rd party like (imgur) and repost it?

Thanks.

Use HWiNFO64 to monitor your temps.

 

Ok guys, here are the results:

The UNIENGINE Test (all maxed with the resolution set at Alienware's screen res:

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0
FPS:
56.8
Score:
1430
Min FPS:
23.7
Max FPS:
121.5
System
Platform:
Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz (2711MHz) x4
GPU model:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 21.21.13.7619/Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 20.19.15.4483 (4095MB) x1
Settings
Render:
Direct3D11
Mode:
2560x1440 8xAA fullscreen
Preset
Custom
Quality
Ultra
Tessellation:
Extreme


====

During that test, the OCCT stats were as follows (I dont know how to copy the OCCT results into a spreadsheet or HTML (cant find the button) so will write out the temps:

Core 0 Current = 43C Max = 81C
Core 1 Current = 41C Max = 75C
Core 2 Current = 55C Max = 82C
Core 3 Current = 46C Max = 77C


Does this say anything to you yet?

Firestrike results next.

This is the firestrike test result:
http://imgur.com/a/gz1rM

14 289 IN Fire Strike (V1.1)

Graphics score
20 584
Graphics test 1
99.02 FPS
Graphics test 2
81.64 FPS
Physics score
9 446
Physics test
29.99 FPS
Combined score
5 660
Combined test
26.33 FPS


Temps in OCCT were not higher than in UniEngine test.

How are these numbers? Are they OK for this type of system? On the Firestrike comparison website it says "Better than 86% of all results" :-D so Im guessing thats good...?

 

what are your GPU overclock settings to achieve this score? Are you using a custom bios with unlocked voltage?

 

9 798 IN Fire Strike (V1.1)
LOADSAVECOMPARE RESULT ONLINE
Graphics score
14 591
Graphics test 1
69.99 FPS
Graphics test 2
58.01 FPS
Physics score
8 206
Physics test
26.05 FPS
Combined score
3 089
Combined test
14.37 FPS

======

I just ran another test after playing a game for 1 hour (Paragon) - and the above are the new scores. Thats a big drop between 14k and 9k - any ideas why that may be?

WTF! did a system restart, ran firestrike again... and...

7 437 IN Fire Strike (V1.1)
Graphics score
8 617
Graphics test 1
75.12 FPS
Graphics test 2
24.96 FPS
Physics score
8 210
Physics test
26.07 FPS
Combined score
3 431
Combined test
15.96 FPS

 

Let me see ... Physics score : 9446 before and 8206 after. No doubt : CPU is Throttling.
OMG and that GPU score's 25% drop ! Did you watch your temp ?

Edit: For the second run : Looks like you're in battery mode.

 

What res is your monitor?

 

Hey Lee. Definitely not in battery mode - system has been powered throughout.

Only difference between the first test and the subsequent two tests, is that the system had OCCT running in TESTING mode during the second two tests. That may be it. Ima let it finish its testing cycle (currently on 43m out of 60) and will re-do the firestrike test with OCCT completely off.

Yeah, seems that OCCT running in test mode was starving the system. Firestrike test 4 (OCCT off):
13 670 IN Fire Strike (V1.1)
Graphics score
20 764
Graphics test 1
99.76 FPS
Graphics test 2
82.45 FPS
Physics score
8 875
Physics test
28.18 FPS
Combined score
4 968
Combined test
23.11 FPS

 

Physics still seems to be significantly lower than the first test.

 

I use a soft to medium plastic guitar pick. The older Fender tortoiseshell-pattern picks are my preference.

 

Hey guy. Received my Alienware 17R4 with GTX 1080, 1440P 120hz screen and 6820HK yesterday. I don't notice any banding or other related to the screen, although my vision is not pristine. As for the temps, they seem decent out of the box. I'm attaching a preliminary screenshot of OCCT. Everything is stock.



Could someone please explain Power Limit Exceeded.

 

I can't see your attached image. Power limit exceeded I believe would mean that use exceeded the maximum temp on OCCT which is 85*c. Can you write out your temps? If it exceeded 85*c then you would have started to throttle or the test ends (forget which).

 

I don't have much experience with laptop morherboards, but would it be possible to replace the screw mount with a shorter version? Or shave it down with a dremel, instead of bending that mounting arm. I feel like that piece of metal would eventually return to its old position from the increased stress.

 

This adds a risk of eventually snapping the heatsink. I'm gonna do all the physics and calculations but I'm guessing it could snap the heatsink.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

I meant to say I'm not gonna do the calculations. Sorry

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Let me try this again.

Untitled by Trident56 posted Dec 8, 2016 at 1:31 PM

Are you able to see it now? There doesn't appear to be any throttling but there is Power Limit Exceeded on all cores. Max temp was 76.