*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 Owner's Lounge

I wanted to undervolt my GPU. Did I do it correct?
I am kinda confused with this but I played 30 Minutes GTA V without a Problem with these settings.

 

Thank you!
3 TB of SSD really is amazing, isnt it
Especially comparing it to the msi gs65 (where you have to pretty much disassemble the whole laptop to fill the second m.2 slot) or the asus zephyrus (which only has 1 m.2 slot)

 

I'm curious if this undervolt actually holds up, that's a huge overclock of memory I see there.... What do the temps look like for the gpu? Have you tested any other games?

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Has anyone here done a regular repaste and had much success with getting any better temps? A lot of people say this laptop is loud but in my experience this thing is much quieter than my aorus x7 Dt, now THAT is a loud machine. I think the break point for me is 60% fans speed, any lower than that and this machine's fans are super quiet. 80% is where they get to when I play destiny for 4 hours but I'm hoping my nanogrease repaste will bring the temps down a bit. After all my tweeks the CPU reaches 80 and GPU reaches 70

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That will keep your clocks at their max so idle temps will be higher.

 

By idle you mean when the dgpu is in use right? I'd imagine if you aren't using the dgpu and only the Intel it would just shut off the dgpu no?

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Good point let me know how it turn out

 

My M15 arrived a little bit ago but I am so busy at work I haven't had a chance to even open it yet. Will check it out tonight when I get home. Cannot wait.

 

At +1000MHz it started to show artifacts.
Temps around 81°C. No other games tested.

 

Does getting a more powerful Dell power supply for this laptop work? Will it damage the laptop? I've noticed the 180w charger gets hot and I've heard buying a more powerful one would reduce heat since it would stress the power supply less. Is this true? If so can someone link the next step up for a Dell charger that works with this laptop? Is it significantly heavier and bulkier than the 180w? Or should I just stick with the 180w?

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I put liquid metal on my machine. On stock settings it decreased temperatures by around 20°C while making it much quieter. However I kinda destroyed that benefit by running full performance. Would you mind sharing your settings?

 

Undervolted using throttle stop -0.150 mv on both the CPU and the cache AND undervolted Intel gpu by -0.05mv

I also locked the turbo clocks to Max out at 3.2 GHz on all cores. I use the balance profile in Alienware command center. I have speed shift in throttle stop set to 64 while connected to power as well and disabled speed step.

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I'd be interested in this too. Makes NO sense that they would ship with a power brick that can't handle the PC's max draw capabilities.

 

I heard someone on here bought a 240w brick from Dell but I don't know for sure which one it is. As long as it's not that much heavier, I'd be willing to invest in a better power brick to give my laptop more longevity. I'm also undervolting as hard as I can to reduce the power draw and capping fps in intense games to limit the heat and power.

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I have a couple 240w power supplies laying around from my precision machines. I'm happy to test them vs the stock 180w, but just not sure how to go about it.

 

If you plan to game at all, the power brick isn't sufficient. I played for 3 hours the other night and the battery was down to 83%. Last night I was so irritated by the heat and the power draw I turned off turbo until the new paste gets here. I was still getting 108 fps on ultra in Forza horizon 4 temps were hovering around 70c. I'll see how this repaste goes.

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Guys, an initial review from ownordisown has been published and it showed poor performance with liquid metal. How was your experience with liquid metal (whoever did it).

 

There's no way he has liquid metal he might want to look inside.

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It’s from HIDevolution. I’m sure we can get them to chime in.

 

I've been playing around with mine for all of about an hour or so just messing around. Overall my experience versus the Razer Blade 15 is WAY better. That said, I did more actual testing on this machine because I need to know if it's worth my investment. While this doesn't have the annoying quirks that the Razer had (terrible keyboard design being my #1 irritation with that laptop) this one definitely has thermal issues.

Pros so far -
Keyboard. I love the keyboard so far. Not quite as nice as my Dell Lattitude 5580 for work and maybe not quite as good as my Lenovo y580, but definitely better (for me) than the Razer. The keys just feel nice, and being a finance guy, I love having a Number Pad. YMMV.

Screen. The bezels do not bother me. I liked the Razer's bezellessness (new word) but this one is fine. The shiny plastic is very similar to the y580, so I am right at home there. I don't think it makes it look cheap at all. But the screen is nice a bright. My panel does have some minor bleed in the bottom right and bottom left, but it's not bad. I haven't really gamed on anything other than Civ 6 (more on that later) so I can't really comment on the refresh rate as of yet.

The overall look and feel. I love the Nebula Red cover. It is really very sexy in person. The soft touch material feels premium to me. I love it.
The build feels super solid and premium. Not as sexy as the Razer Blade 15 obviously, but great in its own way.

Performance - this thing flies compared to my work PC and of course my old Y580. Love it. The fans don't get super loud even when under large load - certainly no louder than the Razer, imho. I was also able to fully update all drivers and update windows within a matter of 10 minutes or less. I mean it was SUPER fast. The razer took me HOURS to do this, mostly due to failing Windows updates.

Cons so far -
This thing runs HOT. It idles in the mid to upper 50s for me, which is fine, but stress tests pre-undervolting using Aida64 resulted in thermal throttling almost immediately back down to stock boost speeds. We're talking within 45 seconds of starting the test, the cpu dropped down and so did the temps. It hit 100C with ease.
I undervolted to -.125 on both the core and cache just to see what would happen. It could definitely withstand the stress test better and didn't thermal throttle, but still, temps got very close to 100C. Keep in mind I am in PA and my house is set to about 69 degrees F. So it's not as if I am in a very hot environment. I broke out some Civ 6 post undervolt and here are some results there. This was a save I had in my cloud which was a late-game save where the game is generally the most CPU intensive, but I consider it (for me) a real world type test since this game is my JAM on the PC:

https://imgur.com/gallery/46gvWNz

https://imgur.com/gallery/I9yXeW1

Outside of the temps though, I have no complaints. I am very happy with it and if I can get it to work properly I think I will keep it. I am going to hold off on LM for right now though, and I am not buying an extra drive for it just yet. I'm still considering the Lenovo Y7000 with the regular 1060 max P in it at B&H photo. For $650 less I can get very decent performance without the thermal issues. It's mighty tempting, but I worry that the plasticky build won't hold up for me.

I'll update as I have more info. Really looking forward to Bob's review and tweaks!

 

I've got a terrible amateur video of the temps coming up.

After leaving it run for a bit longer, the CPU dials it back to around 3300-3500... Temps in the high 80s low 90s.

 

Try limiting the turbo to 3.5 GHz and life up the back of the laptop 0.5". The temps go down by at least 10C, I'm surprised Dell doesn't add detachable feet like the aorus X7 DT. That alone would decrease temps to a more manageable level.

On another note, anyone figure any mods to distribute the heat better throughout the chassis? I feel like there are some hot spots around the bottom right of the keyboard that make me feel a little uncomfortable for the battery life's sake. Dunno if anyone has experienced this.

I still think the m15 has better surface temps than the razerblade 15 however and has that added m.2 drive. The only laptop that really runs cool out of the box with no modifications is the zephyrus s BUT you give up aga, thunderbolt 3, even LESS battery life and the keyboard is shifted forward in that weird position.... So I believe the m15 is still the best despite it's flaws so far.

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Dude lifting the back up make a huge difference. Good call. They should have flip feet in the chassis. 3300-3500 seems to be the sweet spot.

 

I think Lenovo’s Run cool out of the box but don’t have the 1070 yet.

 

I'm talking to a buddy of mine to 3D print some folding feet. If we get a good design going that lays flat underneath I'll upload the 3D file and instructions for everyone to use. This is a GREAT laptop and I feel like the really missed a big opportunity to give really good cooling vs the zephyrus with their thermal paste application stamp and lack of deployable feet.

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is anyone else's m15 speed shift off by default? Why would they leave this off? Isn't this a design so the cpu knows whithout calling os the temps and adjustments? Or am I way off?

 

I received my m15 on Thursday. I'd had quite a bad time ordering through chat and the phone, ended up canceling my original order as they messed the spec up and reordered myself. It took about a week to receive the m15, but the Graphics Amplifier got to me the day after I ordered it.

I configured my m15 with the following specs:

• i7-8750H
• 32GB of RAM
• GTX 1070
• 4K IPS Screen
• 90 Whr Battery
• 3 Year Support +, + 3 Year Battery
• Adding 1TB Samsung 970 Pro NVMe SSD
• Alienware Amplifier

I'm going to re-paste my the CPU and GPU in the laptop tonight with Noctua NT-H1.

Right now, I have the laptop screen down bottom up (face down ass up? haha) to negate any intake issues for some stock temperature tests. Running the Intel XTU the laptop is achieving a score of 1571 at 100C with it being 67F inside my office.

What's interesting is that the laptop is Power, Current and Thermal throttling and power limit throttling with the fan profile set to 100%.

As some mentioned earlier, the 180W power supply concerns me. The GTX 1070 alone pulls 80-90, and the CPU should pull 45 per Intel, so that only leaves 45 watts for everything else the system needs to run.

Interesting, Speed Shift is set to ON in my BIOS. Although I did update to the most recent version available. Right now, DELL only shows one BIOS available, but perhaps there was a provisional BIOS loaded pre-launch. I don't have the version number in front of me right now.

 

After a repaste with thermal grizzly kryonaut temps while gaming are hovering 69-72c gotta say I'm impressed. This is with a -0.135 undervolt.

 

What CPU clocks are you running? Which fan profile? Are you keeping all the cores at the same clocks?

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Clocks left stock, balanced profile, no idea how to make cores different clocks. CPU and GPU are about 73-76 saw a peak of 80c 30 minutes ago.

Edit: I was wrong speedshift was set to 70 when I enablled it, it was runing about 3.75 mhz

 

1060 in the 13 r3 runs at 80watts up to 85 watt peaks. 1070 will use more than 85 watts guaranteed. Unless it is an absolute true max q.

 

Correct, the 1070GTX in my AW15R3 touches the 140watts on average and is boosting up to 1800mhz in general.

 

Thought I'd share the stock paste job. Anyone who knows more than I could you tell me if that blob all around the CPU, if that's too much thermal paste? It was a pain to get around the GPU it was in the crevice. Seemed pretty dry is thermal paste usually so dried out? It was definitely worth taking the 12 screws off the heatsink and fans to know for the future.


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What size power supply did they give you with your 15r3?

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Too much isnt bad, it might raise the temp by 1C if the tests taht I have seen are corrent. In my experience it is better to have slightly too much than too little.

 

240watts and it still can drain the battery lightly in absolute full load. 7700HQ, 1070GTX OC non MaxQ.

 

Thanks I want sure, I didn't use that much and the temps are a big improvement. Now to figure out a better power supply this brick they give us is garbage. The 180 watt from my 17r3 doesn't get nearly as hot, but the GPU and CPU are being starved of power.

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I mean at least according to
https://www.dell.com/support/articl...y-drain-while-ac-adapter-is-connected?lang=en

The AC brick not having enough power isn't an issue since the battery can compensate for the missing power. But as mentioned the brick does run hot when stressed as a result. Anyone tested any 220w or 240w brick from Dell? If so can you link the one that for sure works?

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yeah it sucks because the competition ship their laptops out with a 230watt PSU.

 

Maximum power draw 115W

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1070-max-q.c2974

 

I am no expert, but I could see how that much crap around the dies could keep the CPU and GPU from making good solid contact, thus harming performance. But that's just my uneducated opinion.

 

It would be SO cool if someone made a modded heat sink with heat pipes that have a little water in them. I think that's the biggest issue with this laptop, moving the heat away from the center fast enough before the keyboard starts getting hot. But I do agree the thermal paste job isn't that good by default.

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Water in the heatpipes would do nothing. Heatpipes are filled with a special material that sits right at the balance between being a gas and a liquid and these phase changes are what transfers heat from the source to the radiating fins where the heat is dissipated. This creates an internal circulation that "pumps" heat away from the heat source as long as that temperature gradient exists. Kind of like a solid-state air conditioner.

As for power supplies, I have a 240W and a 330W I will use to test some day when I actually get an m15 but based on my 15R3, I would not be too optimistic. They can limit power draw at the motherboard to protect internal components that were only sized for the shipping PSU. I observed a 240W ceiling with my 15R3 when I tested it shortly with my 330W PSU.

 

But even if the mobo limits the power, wouldn't the brick stay cooler than if the mobo was pulling the 180w limit?

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Got anyone here Linux to run properly? I tested Ubuntu and Fedora, but soon after boot my screen freezes.

 

Woah, that sounds like a driver issue maybe. Which Linux you running?

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Please don't tell me this, I bought this machine for running Ubuntu on it.

 

Don't panic lol there should be no reason Linux can't be installed. Bios is unlocked and there is nothing preventing the installation. It's just a question of what settings this user is using (like did he disable raid for example which is on by default), did he disable secure boot? Which Linux distros is he using? But the issue he mentioned sounds like a driver issue.

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Disabled Raid, disabled secure boot. Tested both Ubuntu and Fedora as stated above. Same behaviour on both.

 

Ok, so tell me did you just do the live USB installation? Did you pick which driver you are going to use for linux? (intel gpu or nvidia gpu or both?) Are you dual booting? Did you install linux on the same SSD as the windows partition if so? When does it freeze? Does it freeze before you see your login screen? or after login? Can you do Ctrl+Alt+F1 to open a terminal after the screen freezes?