*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 Owner's Lounge

Yes it sounds like an uneven heatsink surface, especially seeing core temp difference. Using high viscosity paste should work better since there's a high chance that LM may pump out after some time or during shipping. This should be the only chart that matters for people with uneven heatsink surface:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-12.html

P.S: I wonder if Lenovo is using KPx paste (from original supplier) on their Y740...

 

Got to get some hands-on time with an m15 at my local MicroCenter today. It is a really slick form factor! The lid does seem a little fat in comparison to the base though - that base is skinny but it is obvious why cooling is difficult at the same time. I really wish Dell would stop trying to compete on spec sheets and make a good uncompromised laptop. If they had just put a quad core in this it would be such a great balance of everything. Also got to see the Area-51m, pretty slick beast of a laptop (although NOT a fan of TB3 port on the side ).

It made me think back to and miss my M11x R1. If they made a decent 13" in the same design as the m15/m17 - I would be very interested. Maybe I will monitor what hits the outlet and see if anything there is a good enough deal to tickle my fancy. I don't NEED a new laptop - but I would not mind a slimmer one.

 

Could someone please check whether their m15 with RTX Max-Q crashes on Cinebench R15 with an external monitor connected directly to laptop's HDMI?

 

A few questions. Does Dell use exactly the same heatsink for models with both i7-8750H and i9-8950Hk if you go for RTX 2080 Max-Q?

Second. What with RTX 2060, RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 Max-Q models with i7-8750H? They re-use same heatsink?

From what i can see the overheating is the same for all model combinations. Whatever you have the weakest RTX 2060 or the RTX 2080 models. Thanks

Brand new m15 constantly hitting 100 C and over. What do I do?


Brand new M15 RTX 2060, reaching 100 Celsius and over
by Chance94 on ‎04-04-2019 01:21 PM Latest post Dell tech support ‎04-05-2019 12:00 AM

 

@iunlock @Papusan @ssj92

Just received another Alienware m15 with an i9-8950HK CPU! Stay tuned

Ultra Male =

 

Yees bruh, I can see you in the video And I'm ready with

 

What??? Replacing that godly Nebula Red with this Dull Grey? Fired!

 

Had no choice bro as that was the only available color for the 8950HK. Running good so far and I love seeing my clock speed always above 4ghz

 

Swap the lids.

 

Will you re-open your thread or create a new? People waiting on benchmarks. You say always above 4GHz, is this at idle or in full bench? i9-8950Hk is meant to run 4.3GHz stock all cores
Cinebench R20 - MAXON | 3D FOR THE REAL WORLD

Edit. You have the opportunity to be the first to show bench results from i9-8950Hk in this Alienware chassis.

 

Yes please report it to be opened and put add / i9-8950HK to the thread title

 

Done!

 

I hear ya. It also comes with a single screen option, so no go for me as I'm waiting for the OLED + Nebula Red combo. The 8950HK looks promising, let's see how far you can push it. Really curious about the temps too.

 

or the first to witness spontaneous combustion of an Alienware

anyway Ultra Male, can't wait to see those results and temps

I actually just passed an order at HID evolution for a m15 with i9, 2080mq, specific thermal treatment, 32gB premium ram ( expecting hyper X there ) and i'll add 1gB samsung 970 pro for OS and 2gB 970 evo plus for storage and OLED screen.

 

All I can say it will be

 

Ultra Male >>> >>>Poopoosan

 

I' sure it will be since this CPU can run more hot ;-)
Anyway, would be interesting to see results with stock paste and also with a repaste using something like IC Diamond. And maybe a test with rear cover removed to see if the stock holes provide enough air intake or this model needs more.

 

Urghhh, no, I am not being paid to do this review. I will make a review as per how a regular user would experience this out of the box. It has the stock paste for now and I will keep it this way for the time being. I will replace the stock paste with either IC Diamond or GELID Extreme Thermal Compound though but for the review, it will have the stock temps.

From the initial impressions so far, the laptop is much more silent than my previous one with the 8750H. What I mean by that, is doing regular activities like opening multiple tabs and whatnot caused the fans to remain on higher speed. With the 8950HK it's not doing that which I like.

 

That's fair, but perhaps other owners might be willing to do such tests ;-)

 

Expected after your first benchmarks You see the sand and and the palm? Almost like Dubai


It's open again Yooo need to edit your specs http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-m15-i9-8950hk-review-by-ultra-male.828258/

 

There is no 2GB 970 evo plus (yet).

 

Well, i was able to order it, it says delivery in two weeks, same for 970 evo (without the plus )
Was at the same 549EUR price

 

Cool, it's coming in April. Glad I haven't pulled the trigger on 970 evo 2TB not GB obv!

https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-consumer-nvme-ssds-970-evo-plus/

 

Didn’t take them long to remove the new cpu and screen options

 

Does the screen have a screen protector or film on it? I
don't wanna scratch it but I can see like a small bubble on the top right. where do you start peeling it off anyway?

 

I just looked on the Dell Homepage and I see this. I bought this with the 180 Watt Power supply, I dont unstand this...

 

Strange, did you somehow select 180W PSU? Looks like Quality Control issue to me, this time affecting the website.

 

Hi I have chosen the 1080p 144hz monitor. I noticed that the screen slightly adjusts the brightness when changing from dark to light content. Is this a normal behavior? Can it be turned off?

 

never happened to me and I have the same screen. I don't think there's any light sensor dude.

 

Go into power management, advance settings and look at adaptive brightness setting.

 

I can only take the 180W power supply, there is no other alternative...

It was the hompage dell austria.

 

Benchmarks and temperatures up in Ultra Male's review... As expected, the i9-8950HK run Why pay more for less?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...iew-by-ultra-male.828258/page-2#post-10892838

I found the answer myself. Same heatsink whatever you buy the locked down i7-8750H or the unlocked i9-8950Hk. A massive engineering flaw!

 

Hiya Guys
Have a M15, RTX 2060 8750 CPU, 16gb Ram, 256 NVME as shipped 144hz screen, 16 days old.
Been running a few benchies and am pleasantly surprised to be honest 6443 on Time Spy is my best.
The laptop is just over 15 days old and I have been playing some Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
I attach a link to my temps and note there is a temp divergence between core 1 and 2 and 4. Is this anything to be concerned about.
Thanks

 

95 and 83 is a pretty large difference. Might be due to different load on each core, so I would try running Cinebench and see temperatures during that. If the difference is still there - this might be due to uneven heatsink or uneven mounting pressure. Repasting with something like IC Diamond might help. Or you can also return it for replacement and maybe next one will have more even heatsink.

 

Alexus
Thanks will run and repost.
Cinebench runs

 

I have similarly uneven core temps. Seems to be the norm around here.

Anyone else install a larger 2nd m.2 drive and experiencing freezing in games due to the SSD experiencing thermal issues?

Also can someone please share the part # for the heatsink that covers both m.2 slots?

 

Looks like a repeat of this issue:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ven-core-temps-due-to-uneven-heatsink.797477/

 

The arrangement of the heat pipes on the CPU and VRM doesn't look good... they look way too spread apart. I might be wrong of course..

 

Part Number = 0R46DX

 

Thank you!

 

Anyone else have issues with the audio jack? I’ve tried multiple headphones plugged into it and the audio sounds horrendous.

 

I encountered an issue once, I think it was in XCOM2. Unselecting and selecting Virtual 7.1 in Command Center did the trick. Obviously turn off Reverb and all that crap. Overall, the cheapo Realtek is a step back from a proper Sound Blaster in my old 15 R2. The popups to confirm you plugged in headphones every time are so annoying!

 

Yeah, I tried that. Even just turned off all “sound effects” in command center with no luck. Maybe the pop up is bugging it out asking if they’re headphones. Tried uninstalling the drivers too. So lame.

 

This may seem like a silly question, but are you shure it is plugged in all the way?

My AW 13 R3 has a very tight headphone jack. And the first time plugging in required a lot of force to snap it in place. It sounded terrible until I realized this. It eventually loosened up from use

 

Just curious, am I the only one with RTX BSODs on their m15s? My 2070 is clearly faulty and wondering whether to throw in the towel or try to RMA...

 

Not necessarily a faulty GPU. Could be overheating. I'd repaste/repad and adjust heatsink with increased pressure.

 

Why bother with a brand new machine when you can just return it for a new one that works out of the box?

 

It's been failing in desktop under no load to speak of so I doubt it's overheating (see http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-m15-2070-max-q-video_tdr_failure.828310/). I've seen no in-game crashes (one Dell stress test crash), just randomly in desktop or when launching specific apps (CB15) and games. There's been a variety of BSODS (TDR, WATCHDOG, INTERNAL POWER STATE etc) mostly linked to Nvidia driver. Wasted a lot of time clean installing windows, trying every driver possible, DDUing meticulously etc.). Should have just returned straight away in retrospect.

 

If you can return it for a refund and get a brand spanking new machine - sure. But you will be wasting a lot of time and may still end up with another lemon, especially if there's a known defect like poor heatsink alignment/pressure. If you RMA for a replacement instead, chances are it's going to be a refurbished system, at least that's how I've been treated by Dell so far.

Maybe it is faulty. But mine used to BSOD randomly until I opened the box and found out that some of the pads weren't getting proper pressure with the heatsink. I kinda knew it already because of the 6-10C CPU core temp discrepancy. It's been months now [after the fix] without any hiccups.

 

How do you know you’ve been getting refurbished when you ask to exchange? I’m on my third laptop due to poor thermals, touch pad issues, etc. and they all look brand spankin new.