*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

The screen is amazing !!! And it's very light for the size .. overall I like the feel of the AW better but both nice


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I'm trying to make up my mind between the AW or Asus G752VS?

Also i spoke to a dell useless agent. Couldn't add a 6820HK or even just change the ram from 2 piece to 1? Is thia normal?

 

Oh, no contest whatsoever there. Whatever the disagreements between the MSI, AW, and Clevo communities, we can all agree that the Asus Pascal laptops are far too expensive and also suffer from extensive overheating issues. No contest here, AW is the way to go.

 

What about vs the P670RS?

Is it worth paying extra to get the 2nd year warranty?

 

At least the MSi doesn't absorb oil, the AW does.

 

It never used to be difficult but I see this situation happen quite a bit now with Dell. Even on their business systems especially those with high end GPUs/CPUs. If you want a high end CPU, GPU, or screen, you are often forced to buy an expensive configuration. It would be nice to configure a 1070, QHD screen, 6820HQ, 8GB ram and a hard drive.....

 

Hi guys! Is it possible to use Toby just for windows hello access and automatically keep it disable during the utilization of the laptop? I really don't want that IR lights but I love windows hello.

 

G752VS is literal garbage, cooling system is too weak even with liquid metal!

CPU is crippled under 75w and you will have to go through hell to repaste it, overall a bad machine for the price.

I don't believe you can part out, I know it's unfortunate but that's just how dell works :|

configuration page needs an update tbh

in software you can set the tobii to be disabled

 

@iunlock did you ever test the 1080's heatsink on the 1070 laptop? If so, did you do any benchmarks to see if it would be worth trying to upgrade to one if you have a 1070? Those larger pipes look like they might keep the cpu and gpu even cooler and that could equal a lot better performance because of it in theory.

 

The 6820hk isn't available apparently in Australia, can i get a decent OC from the 6700? Or do you guys really recommend trying hard to somehow get the 6820?

 

I agree here. I would only choose between AW, Clevo, or MSI.
It comes down to user preference of the three.

 

Preference for sure.

I wish the Clevo P670xx models came with a 120hz display of some sort. I'd like to try one of those models some day because their keyboards seem better than the P775's and P870's. *hint-wink-nudge Clevo*

Heh, before I get too off-track, I wish AW's site had options for the 1070, 6820hk, and 120hz 1440p display. I wish they wouldn't jack with config's all the time. I feel it confuses new/not-as-well-informed buyers and seems downright shifty. Not that I have laptop configurations open all the time...

 

and @iunlock

i am an honest guy, i see things i dont like, i bash, regardless of company, though we all have our preferences. so trashy in my definition is, when compared to other things that are better in general, most of the time.

in this case, alienware's one piece mobo laptop aw17/15 is clearly for AW to save money, dont get me wrong by no means thats bad IF we as consumers get to save money, but not for dell to pocket more and give us less while charging us the same premium, im sure @Mr. Fox @Papusan and other enthusiast would agree with me.

keyboard, looks, display and the like are again, my own preference and is not nearly as important as internal hardware.

when looking at internal hardware.. AW laptop has little amount of storage, an inferior processor, inferior GPU configuration, ram configuration.. and a one piece mobo forcing new purchases of entire laptop leaving no option for GPU upgrades... thats like everything is trashy, by my standard and preference.

 

But windows hello need Tobii IR to work. It will work anyway? (I still don't have the laptop)

 

I can't get the 6820HK in Australia for some reason. Is the 6700 still overclockable? Is the 6700 decent?

 

But windows hello need Tobii IR to work. It will work anyway? (I still don't have the laptop)

 

I find this interesting so the R4 is different then older AW laptops where you could upgrade the cpu? The only reason I'm going for AW is the amplifier. With what you're saying I'm starting to change my mind again for the compal. But no thunderport ahhh i dont know? Help me choose between the P670RS or the AW 17?

 

Just curious as I'm new to all of this, but how much would a CPU and GPU upgrade cost in total on a socketed laptop?

 

I picked up an open box 17 r4 (gtx 1070/1440p) stupid cheap at Best Buy, so I want to repaste for sure but I'm curious about the 1080 heatsink as well.

 

im not familiar with P670RS but i know for a fact most laptop nowadays are all soldered hardware internally regardless high end or average cheap laptops.. older alienware m18x r1 & r2 does have MXM socket, socket cpu. could upgrade from sandy to ivy.

it is less than buying a brand new laptop for sure.

say you bought a laptop this yr and it cost you $4000 for two GPUs, if those graphics are soldered and you can't replace them, next year you will have to pay $4000 again for two GPUs if you want just want the new graphics card (despite that you dont want to upgrade anything else). each GPU can go from 700 to 1200 depend i guess.

computer hardware nowadays, storage/ram/cpu not improving much anymore and they show little difference compare to older tech from 1-2 yrs ago, only the graphics is worth upgrading.

 

Any ideas when we would be able to by an AW with a 1080 and not be forced to get the QHD GSync panel? The QHD panel adds nothing to me, only limited battery times and the striping issue...

 

I think I've replied to this already, but oh well I'll say it again...I agree...the whole package is very important as I don't find the logic of paying thousands of dollars only for the hardware, which means that most of the time it may be connected to an external monitor anyway? Just assuming.... but the point is, if one is just paying for the hardware, then why not just build a desktop right?

Whole package is important to the majority of the consumers.

Thanks Entionz. As for the keyboard and keys, my AW1080 seems fine... no flex there as you were describing.

100% correct. NO CONTEST. Nien nien nien to Asus. As @Mobius 1 can confirm for certain.

Coming soon. Been so busy with projects...

Oh gosh the keyboard and track pad on the Clevo's. However, the 775 would be another option if you plan to use a keyboard and mouse. Just know going into and pretend that there is no keyboard or track pad. It's that bad. Complete rubbish. That's just the truth.

Eh fair enough. As an enthusiast I agree with you on the bga move, but like I've said before, someone has to do it (ie...someone has to push these things to the limit, because not many people are) and fortunately there is still an unlocked CPU. The moment that is gone, that will be the end for ToysRUs gaming laptops with locked madness. I mean seriously. Who puts a 6700HQ in a $4000 machine? Honest question. Most of us know the answer, but the point is.... What the heck are OEM's thinking?

AW and alike are barely hanging by a string. Such a shame....gorgeous laptop, but with one saving grace....the unlocked 6820HK.

If it wasn't for the unlocked CPU on the AW's, I'd have either a GT73VR or a P775DM3 again. Easy choice. Nothing else out there as alternatives are worthy and that's just my opinion.

I appreciate your honestly btw... it is what it is.... no sugar coating and no bubble gum rubbish... I respect that, because that's how we are as well with LHz.

As for Dell though... I do give them credit for taking actions and making these changes, but now they need to get the QC in check at the zoo (factory) because it's wasting away Dell's efforts.

A 6700K will run you ~$350 after taxes (well depending where you are of course) and a GPU will run you anywhere from $700 - $1200 as @ole!!! has mentioned.

There is another thing to keep in mind though. For those who only keep their laptop for a year or so, you're no more better off with either option, because even with a current DTR, you're lucky to get maybe one upgrade...which Kaby Lake isn't really an upgrade upgrade over Skylake. I'd recommend taking the time and to do some math on this...cost to duration of ownership and factor in the almost $2000 you'd be paying just to upgrade the CPU and GPU, which again....a Kaby Lake upgrade isn't worth it IMO and paying $1200 plus tax for a GPU is already more than 1/3 of the price of the notebook.

Just go with what makes the most sense to you. I can tell you for sure that if I had a DTR at the moment, I would NOT feel comfortable with keeping it, because regardless I'd have to sell it to upgrade just as I will need to sell my AW to upgrade.

It's the same thing at the end of the day and do keep in mind that with a bigger well known OEM, you're chances of selling it is much higher as the demand is there vs trying to sell a DTR, which not many people know about.

True, however, those stuck with a GTX 1080 or SLI right now, will still have to sell their machines in order to upgrade with the new chipsets coming out.

This is a very subjective topic and it can be catered to go either way depending on the duration of the ownership. That's really what it boils down to.

 

That I'm not sure.

I haven't used the hello feature on my 17 personal unit, so I can't tell you.

 

ASsUS G752VS and the Strix series shouldn't be considered imo.


I can't say for their G701Vx though, wanting to get my hands on that model next year alongside the GT73

 

From what I've seen of GenTechPC's G701VI video, the heat-sink just doesn't cut it. High 90's on the CPU. Noooo.

 

well that answers stock performance...







few mins into occt + heaven burn test (1080/6820)

 

The joy of having socket hardware!! Aka LGA. A hint before Kabys lake http://valid.x86.fr/fs084d Someone who think 5.2 or 5.3 GHz is possible with 7700K? Upgradability is nice

 

I know it's got locked multiplier but does the 6700 have a decent oc? What speed have people been able to get?

 

thats pretty sweet it might be possible. intel has literally nothing added onto 7700k except igp and a tiny bit better power efficiency. they just might give people better silicon which only the LGA people can benefit from it, upgrade good ness.

 

It looks like they are not selling the ones with the 1080s anymore unless I'm mistaken.

Also what TDP can the processors run at? Can they use the full intel specs?

 

Is anyone else having sound issues? Out of the box my speakers seemed a little off...but no big deal. Lately I got a headset and noticed it a lot more when I was configuring the sound settings, specifically there seems to be a click or "pop" noise during certain actions such as moving the windows volume bar (the rhythm noise has a pop before it plays) or during startup. I was thinking it could just be the speakers but the same audio issue occurs with a 3.5mm headset. I ran latencymon and got this result...anything I can do or should I return for replacement?

Edit:
Thought it might be the audio driver too (Realtek), but after disabling that and using the built in Windows HD Audio driver the same issue occurred.

Here's a screenshot of my results from latencymon :

 

Just unpacked my seriously delayed Alienware 17 R4 with QHD and immediately noticed the striping issue. And this was even on the black loading BIOS screen without my computer glasses. As someone said before, this kind of reminds me of monitors from 20 years ago. Anyone not noticing this should probably have their vision checked

So the only way to get a 1080 (or in Aorus case a 17") is to also get G Sync (which is meaningless for me on a small 17"), poor battery life (due to no optimus because of GSync) and striping issues. Has the world gone mad??

Has Dell made some official promises about the LCD being replaced once AOU manage to produce working ones? Don't really trust some employee Twitter account (especially one that AFAIK hasn't been 100% accurate before).

 

As for the Gsync, I think you can turn off the dedicated GPU and get way better battery life... I read this a few posts back but wasn't sure of the posters config. As for the banding, I think they are still working on that issue and it hasn't been confirmed that there is a fix yet. They know about the issue but I think they are still trying to find better panels for replacement.

 

Yes, but that wont enable Optimus AFAIK so I dont think there is any point to it.

 

Indeed, on the *optimus* enabled 1080p AW17 that I own, I get about 3.75-4hrs of general use on the Nvidia GPU and about 8 to 9 hours of the same use when running just the iGPU on battery power.

Not sure about the G Sync version of the machine, though ... I mean, whether you can run the iGPU at all ... ??

 

To bad you cant get that one with GTX1080. Then you could argue if you really need a GTX1080 but I confess to being a sucker for specs.

 

I would have gotten the 1080 had I been able ... but otherwise re: battery life? ... I'm really stoked as I use my machine out in public (writing/etc.) just as much as I use it everyday plugged in as a work desktop (external monitor/keyboard/mouse) ... and to be able to sit down with over 8 hours of "general use" battery life (when running the iGPU) is unicorn level for me personally. No more having to scout rest/bars for outlets near the bar ... LOL ... which is how it's been for the past 3 years with my previous MSI GS70 Stealth machine. So once more, I'll be the guy talking about how he's generally 99.9% pleased with everything about his AW17 purchase.

;-)

 

Installed the latest NVidia drivers via NVidias website and after that I can't seem to even start Crysis 2 any more? Is the AWs still not compatible with standard NVidia drivers? Also noticed that CPU spiked immediately, even on the Crysis 2/3 menu, to close to 100%. Tried to download the latest 1080 drivers from Dells supportsite but for some reason, I can only find drivers for 1060 and 1070 for my service tag even though it has a GTX 1080 and those drivers won't even install on my system (strangly enough)

Edit:
Could be NVidias latest drivers that are crap, tried to reinstall them and then the installer crashed.

 

I'm still a week to 10 days from getting my new laptop. During my scouring of this forum, I read somewhere that you should only use the driver from the Dell website. Not at all sure why, as I am also used to always seeking the latest "official" video driver from the company site.

I have downloaded the Dell 1060/1070 driver, and hope it covers the 1080 as well.

Have you tried to un-install the nvidea driver, rebooting, and then trying to install the Dell 1060/1070 driver?

I probably won't mess with drivers for the few first weeks with the laptop. I'll just be playing on it, and running some tests. If these are too bad, or the display is wretched, I'll send it back. If things go well, then I'll do some tinkering (wrenching is the popular term here?).

 

Tried this again and NVidias latest drivers (installed via GeForce experience) dont work. Period. If this is NVidias fault or Dells I do not now. The latest driver on Dells webbsite for my machine, specifically labeled for 1060/1070 despite me having a 1080 wont install. I got it working again by uninstalling the current drivers (installed by GeForce Experience) and upon reboot, Windows install some kind of fallback drivers which seem to work. I did select a "clean installation" when installing latest drivers, not sure if that caused the problems.

Edit:
False alarm, or at least almost. Turns out the Nvidia installer suc-k and actually didn't install any GPU drivers except claiming to. No surprise there was CPU stuttering when trying to run Crysis on Intels GPU

 

Hi


My AW17 r3 mobo decided that she won't charge my battery anymore, called Dell and they opened a case to change the mobo, It passed one month already and no mobo was available in Brazil to replace.

Now they are offering me the AW17 R4, but they do not sell the 1080 model (I have the 980M), so they will replace with the 1070. Is that a good deal or should I ask an upgrade in memory or SSD?

 

Hey, I'd say that's a pretty good deal! What are the specs of the machine they're offering you (including the display)? The GTX 1070 is anywhere from 50%-100% faster than the 980m. You can take a look at the frame rates in games for both cards here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1070-Laptop.169549.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980M.126692.0.html

 

I'm in the UK and my unit comes tomorrow so I can also advise. Build date was around 18th to 19th Dec

 

Which screen do you have? I think this is only available to non-gsync panels

 

Try using display driver uninstaller. Boot in safe mode. Run the utility and tell it to wipe off any remains of drivers (even if your computer says no driver is installed) then reboot and then install the new driver . Worked for me I used to get an error saying that my card was not supported just like you. Probably try putting on nvidia's drivers before dell's.

I'm afraid I have to agree there. Even after my horrible experience buying an optimus laptop and realizing I would never be able to use it for vr gsync lightboost or 3d vision. And that it would always have a little extra input lag built into it. I think there are some who would use the built in screen for gaming at home but the majority would probably use an external monitor. Esp now you can get a vg248qe for so cheap.

 

Thanks man that would be awesome!

 

AW17R4 - GTX 1080

Quick OCCT RUN to show the core differential fix.

 

I have talked about this power limits before for 1070 in addition to 1080 in previous posts(Dell power cap 1070 to 100W vs. normal mobile 1070 is 120w). @iunlock Look at this results... Can you explain this results with the power cap introduced by Dell vs. your card.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/11196300/fs/11011925/fs/10923571#

Edit. I mean the difference is almost none between 1070 vs. 1080 graphics in Aw machines http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/11152530/fs/11196300

 

I had issues with my speakers too ("had", because they finally agreed to send me an exchange). Bass and mid tones were not coming out clear and they kinda "crackled" a little - very annoying for me.
I tried to reinstall the audio drivers, but nothing changed.
It might be an issue for only a few, or bad speakers in general.

Would be interesting to hear others following this thread regarding the speakers too.

What's your opinion regarding the speakers?
Good or bad?

 

In relation to the headphone output:

I had an issue with one of the 17 r2 mobos that i got as a replacement. The sound did not work from speakers and one of the jacks (the default output jack) did not have any bass and produced distorted sounds. The other jack worked better when I set it up with the creative program to be a headphone out as well. See if your secondary jack has the same issues when used as a headphone out.