*OFFICIAL* Alienware X Series Owners Lounge and Discussion

I´m not sure if the GPU NEVER throttled, so now I know it NEVER will

 

Give me a couple of days, work is holding me up...

 

Basically, what you are saying is that Dynamic Boost is not hardwired by Nvidia, it can be disabled by OEMs via BIOS, although none of them do because of insufficient cooling concerns. What's next? Perhaps the 165W power limit can be increased this way?

 

All this hack does is making the system think the CPU uses say 40W when in reality it uses 120W, so that the GPU is granted permanently the full headroom of 120+45W. I am not sure iif the VRMs and other components will tolerate this in the long run but I am willing to take the risk, at least the power brick has enough juice if needed. If I have the time I will LM the X17 but right now the thermals are o.k., e.g. around 80C for gpu and cpu in Cyberpunk with fans at max speed and no notebookcooler. The system behaves now quite similar to my AW17R4 with regard to power consumption, which comes with the same power brick and lets the mobile 1080 consume up to 200W. I doubt we will see a RTX 3080m above 165W without a shunt mod.

 

I mean this hack is just a hidden BIOS feature lol The OEM designed this!

 

Its like as if Alienware haven't hid all these options on purpose, the laptop would be so much better!
Using RU.EFI is like having PowerShell on Windows and lets you access and edit non-gui stuff.

 

For the folks in the US and Canada, if you ordered after the 24th of August, it might be worth to check out this article:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/...lefield-2042-Game-Bundle-Terms-and-Conditions

Even if you didn't it might be worth a shot hitting up support.

 

If you start watching this video at 9:00, you will see Cinebench exhibiting very similar temps to what I was experiencing on my X17 11980HK. Core 5 is hitting 100 while Core 6 is down near 80 and Cores 0 and 1 are down there too. I will see if I can find some other reviews that show core temps while running a CPU stress test. If they show the same almost 20degC gap that is a serious design flaw in my book.




At 10:15 in this video there are interesting breakdowns of 3 different high-end gaming laptops with 11980HK CPUs. It shows 3 power draws for the CPUs while the GPU is fully loaded, during CODWZ gaming and when just the CPU is under load. Quite interesting to follow through the benchmarks and temps from that point.

At 11:55 he discusses the highest CPU power draw and benchmarking with Cinebench. At 12:40 you get to see what balanced core temperatures look like, on the Legion 7i.

There are good sections on thermal designs and various benchmarking later in the video.

 

Just a quick note that he's not 100% comparing apple to apple.
As you can see in this screenshot, the model are not exactly on the same playing field.


It's true tho that those 3 models are amongst the best H/HK/HX laptop on the market right now.
Legion 7i seem's to have the better thermals, GE76 seem's to have the better performance and the X17 seem's to have the esthetics.
I personally would have gotten a Legion 7i if it was available in Canada but 3+ months of wait time for delivery is a big no. Ge76 looks awfull imo so i went with the X17. We'll see how it does when it arrives.

 

For starters, the Legion is not even a 17 inch laptop lol

Also would note that both the Legion and the GE76 have vastly better keyboard layouts from non-gaming perspective. I do think that unless one is into heavy eSports Cherry MX keyboard is overrated seeing that, in addition to my primary laptop keyboard being membrane, I no longer use Cherry MX keyboards with any of my desktops and that's absolutely fine.

Aesthetics of the GE76 and Legion are fine, more preferable in public transport / city settings actually - less likely to grab interest of some sketchy looking bros lol

 

So is it better to just order smaller ram sticks and put in 64gb 3200hz ram sticks yourself, or opt for dell's 64 3444hz ram sticks?

 

Given the option to tweak RAM, def the former. It would also send the correct message to the OEM.

 

Pay for the least expensive ram from dell than upgrade. No point in buying expensive crippled ram

 

I assume by "tweak the RAM" you are talking about the BIOS hack using RU.exe?? If so, I don't think that is a viable approach for the vast majority of users. If not, what tweaking are you speaking of?

I will also point out that multiple users here have had "better" RAM cause myriad issues, including failing to allow the laptop to function at all. And of those that did get lower CL memory to work, I don't know that any/most had lower RAM latency values via AIDA64.

 

The cause of the problem here is false expectation, these are not Clevo laptop and people going with Crucial or G.skill will most likely have problem with Alienware and most other laptops as these ram kit don't have JDEC profile. (Or most of hem)
HyperX has never failed me on any laptop and ALWAYS work as intended.

You obviously don't need to buy 3200MHz CL16 memory kit, it will just cause stability issue due to laptop motherboard/bios being cheaped out on those aspect.
3200Mhz CL20 1Rx8 1.2v with xmp AND jdec profile memory kit is perfectly fine for these kind of laptop and will works 100% of the time.

Of course one can try to improve their ram, but don't be surprised if it causes stability issue.

Dell in canada is charging 200$ for 16GB of 3200Mhz ram, i'd rather buy the better kit from HyperX and get 32GB for almost the same price while at it.

As for the latency issue, whether you use Dell ram or any other ram for this instance, the root of the problem is the BIOS being set to Gear 2 instead of Gear 1. Not much we can do about it other than let dell know and/or use the Bios hack.

 

With all modifications the System is using around 270w from the wall outlet in Cyberpunk. The crucial ballistix 64GB kit is Rock stable at 3200 cl 16 cr 1 and gear 1. The 32GB kit is unstable as others reported. My advice: Buy the Notebook With minimal RAM config and put in the crucial ballistix 64 GB kit. Use ru.uefi to just modify two parameters to get gear 1 With an Aida Latency of 66ns and 165W for the GPU. I only wish AW opted for the same Vapor Chamber cooling as in the i7. Otherwise this is the perfect gaming Laptop for me right now.

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I really want that guide brother!

 

Why is it not viable? Once a clear English tutorial is in place, anyone can follow it, and the risk seems minimal.

I haven't seen a single report of Fury/HyperX Impact RAM causing any compatibility issues with AW laptops, and pretty sure that RAM would also hit 68ns ish latency in Gear 1. That covers 32GB, and of 64GB is needed then the Ballistix looks like the potential winner. (would need to see a side by side comparison in Gear 1 to confirm that the Ballistix is indeed faster in practice).

We don't know how Dell-supplied RAM would perform in Gear 1 mode.

 

Kingston Fury Kit does around 75ns. CRUCIAL 64GB is the way to go With around 66ns. Got it new for 280 Euros.

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That's still bizarrely slow, but then again I would expect less than 68ns from the Ballistix!

Yeah, that what I would get!

 

Here a screenshot from AIDA from today with the crucial ram at 3200 cl16 cr1 gear 1. This is the kit I will keep.

 

In this forum is already all info needed to do the ru.uefi mod. But I will write it together as soon as possible. This Delta surge is making a whole lot of trouble and it will get worse I fear, hospitals also in highly developed western countries will collapse in fall/winter, at least in Germany I am sure of. Too low vaccination rate and too low natural infection. England will do a lot better.

Get your jab dudes, it will be right in time to protect you in fall/winter from severe covid. You do not want this. We see now a lot of healthy young people in the ICU. Most creepy to me personally is the fact that it does brain damage, also in mild cases, and then there is long covid. Stay safe!

How wonderful to blend this **** out and rant about AW

 

After I got my jab my 5g signal has been boosted and I get better ping in games.
I see this as an absolute win!



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Yeah, covid keeps burning through mostly the unvaccinated. The UK has 78% double vaccination rate for over 16s and still over 30000 new cases a day per roughly million tests... Good news is that hospitalisations are manageable, nowhere near previous waves, and covid-related deaths are fairly low, ca. 100/day. There is hope, but people need to get vaccinated, especially if any risk factors are present.

 

That is funny as ****!!

 

THIS is what CPU core temp DIFFERENCES are supposed to look like:



And this is what ACTUAL core temperatures should look like:



I note that both of these were short runs of CinebenchR23, but I think they show that there is at least one X17 11980HK out there with more balanced CPU temps and also that the Legion 7i does a really good job of cooling the CPU.

 

A short run is more than enough to exhibit uneven core temps, pretty much a standard AW laptop feature.

 

Yup, cooling of the i7 is best in it´s class. If Lenovo had opted for a 17" chassis with an even bigger vapour chamber they probably could have implemented a 200W 3080m, but I have the feeling Nvidia don´t allow more than 165W this gen.

 

BTW on the vaccinations: recent studies show double vaccination cuts infection (positive PCR result to be exact) risk by a factor of 3, and hospitalisation risk by a factor of 5. 5 as in 5G - I knew antivaxxers were onto something there!

 

Keyboard just locked up. I had removed all the Dell and Alienware software with the exception of Alienware command center and OC controls. pressing FN + F1 keys corrected it.

 

Depends on how you'll look at it. If everyone buy the models with the lesser or minimum amount ram it could hit back on you... Back to Soldered ram in two SKUs exactly as for the X15 Wouldn't it be nice if they started offer minimum and maximum sized soldered on ram chips in the x17 to try push you over on the most expensive setups.

Not sure if people have tested how the changes will pan out with an automatic firmware update from Microsoft servers or with Dell's update software agent. And we still don't know what changes Dell will do for the coming firmware versions.

 

Here is my disassembly video of the x17. Not pretty, but maybe helpful to folks.




cheers,
James

 

Any firestrike run with the Ram and 165W modification?

 

Well after over a month of my X17 sitting at the "Confirmed" state at time of purchase July 28th, it finally went into the "In production" status and expected delivery now is Oct 6th wow 2 months to get a laptop what a joke!
I will be making sure this bundle gets added to this now! thanks!

 

I ordered mine around the 11th and just got an email yesterday that it's been delayed to the 22nd September.

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I ordered the next day July 29 and still in confirmed status. Maybe I'll get lucky and move to production tomorrow, I'll try to get the bundle added to my order whenever I get an invoice.

 

You've been sitting at "Confirmed" for 40 days?
What was your initial estimated ship date & estimated to arrive date?

 

Yes been waiting a while now. I ordered the x17 with 4k, i9, and 3800 on July 29. The original estimated ship date was Aug 23. I got a delay email that day instead, the revised ship date is Sep 22. I did complain on live chat and they offered me a $195 credit once I get invoiced.

 

Damn, sounds promising ...
Ordered mine on 31st of August, estimated ship date = 26 of September.
I swear to god, if it doesn't ship on time they will have to give me a HUGE JUICY discount for me not to cancel my order.

 

What if they delay it by a week and say no to discount demands. Will you really cancel after waiting for a month like a good boy/girl?

 

At this point I am holding on due to sunk cost fallacy, if I saw an Asus Zephyrus S17 in stock today I would jump on it right away and refund the X17.

 

While i don't love the design of the GE76, it's on sale with 3080/11800h/32GB/1TB/360Hz screen for 3500$ and in stock on Newegg and ship within 24 hours.

So yeah, if they don't ship in time and don't give me a GG deal than

 

Surprise surprise i just checked Dell website and the x17 is 200$ in rebate.
Canceled my first order and ordered the exact same model with the +150$ 360hz display upgrade.

So total is 3015$ (CAD) + taxes for 11800h/3080/512gb/16gbram/360hz/cherrymx

 

That's the rebate I got mine at plus another $100 honey found so $300 off in total at time of purchase in July, 4k option of course, plus the $165 credit for the delay in production.

You will probably face another long delay since you cancelled and re-ordered just an fyi

 

I also had a 10% off coupon so yeah i think its a pretty sweet deal. My new order is already confirmed and awaiting production, it says i should get it by october 14 instead of October 4th, now im hoping it doesn't arrive on time and they credit me 200$ more

 

Its crazy yall think these are good deals. If you want to pay the least for the most go with the legion 7i. I got mine for 2.4k with a 2 year warranty + accidental. I9, 3080, 32gb, 2tb ssds in raid 0.

Student Discount 10% + their $800 off deal + 6% raktuken cash back. They have really good discounts pretty regularly, you just have to make sure you’re checking their website often. The raktuken cash back is usually 6%, but sometimes goes up to 10%.

Even if you’re not a student, you can walk out the door with a max config under 3k (in the states at least) if you time it correctly.

 

2021? Sorry, couldn't resist

 

Im canadian

Dell is one of the company that actually provides good price for us canadian ...
I paid 3015$ (2380$ USD) for the x17 (11800h,3080,16gb,512,360hz,cherrymx)

A similary specced GE76 is 3499$ with rebate.
(11800h,3080,32gb,1tb,360hz)

A similary specced Legion 7i is 3600$ and ship in 3 month +
(11800h,3080,16gb,1tb,2560x1600)

We're getting ripped north of the border.

 

Dave2D approved.

 

Without posting a single graphics benchmark result of his 4K variant, but still.. To be fair, he listed most of the drawbacks (with the most notable exception of the slow RAM). Overall, a somewhat superficial job unfortunately. The story about the review unit sounded suspect.