*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 Owner's Lounge

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I got my PC up and running 100% now after the reset but now the performance isn't as good as before for some reason. Also I'd like to ask if anyone has had the balls to install bios 2.1.1 and know if the quiet fan profile actually idles or not.

 

Despite not BSOD has happened after restoring my m15 to stock,I have contacted Dell asking for an RMA because the temperature are ridiculously high,specially in the cpu ( 55 C at idle and 100 C during Firestrike).
And the throttling made the result (12500 points ) very below than the average ( 14000 points ) of the 2060 and 8750h combo.
I read online that a faulty heatsink can cause this,is so common on the m15?
This can be true because the gpu,that usually is hotter than cpu not go over 80 C.

 

What was the ambient temp? Did you undervolt the CPU? The CPU is usually hotter than the GPU in this laptop, particularly in modern games and benchmarks.

 

Ambient temp is 31 C, how much I need to undervolt in mv?

 

That's pretty hot! Start at -125mV and go down in 5mV decrements. You will notice substantial difference.

Given your operating environment, the laptop needs to be repasted for optimal performance too, but see how far you get with the UV first.

Of course, any BSODs not obviously due to over UV, just return.

 

Thanks,I’ll try but with UV, but I’ve already repasted with Noctua NT H1.
I noticed that stock pasting is pretty rich,my repasting due to little quantity of paste available was poor.
Does laptop cpu/gpu need this amount of paste?

 

Depends on sink fit I guess, but generally as little as possible. Repasted performance is indeed bad. My GPU is 67C at 24C ambient with Kryonaut, so yours should be 74Cish. Maybe your Noctua paste is not ideal? I'd try Phobya Nanogrease Extreme if I were to do it again.

 

Phobya Nanogrease Extreme is what you used?

 

No, I used Kryonaut, but Phobya NGE could be even better particularly in case of an imperfect sink.

 

I need one tomorrow with amazon prime(I’m from France) and Phobya is not available.
There are other similiar paste?

Edit: Kryonaut is available on amazon(prime).

 

Yeah, that's the thing with Phobya around here too: expensive and some idiotic delivery time frames and charges.

You could look into Prolimatech PK-3 too if the heatsink is suspect.

Bear in mind people say Kryonaut is not great at all if sink contact is bad.

 

The only one with high viscosity (according to tom’s roundup) available on amazon prime was the Gelid Extreme,so I ended up ordering it.
If this not resolve the problem I need to RMA it.

 

I just got my m15 r1 with 9750 OLED and RTX 2060. This thing is gorgeous! Coming from a OLED 13R3 and the new 15" screen is the best screen I've seen in my life, and those bezels ... really amazing machine, let's see how much can I undervolt and what temps do I get. I'm doing all the testing with the Hybrid spinning disk, as I don't want to touch it before deciding if I keep it (right now I think I will keep it for sure, they are going to take that screen from my cold dead hands!), so it is going to take some time

Update: at -150mV I got 2930pts in the multithreaded Cinebench R20, most of it runs a 4Ghz, the last fourth between 3.8 and 3.9. Temperature between 85 and 90. All of this while the spinning hard drive is running at 100%, I didn't remember how awful those spinning disks are, the right palmrest, over the harddrive, is the hotest part of the laptop. It should be a crime to offer it even as an option

 

That undervolt is great and your CB20 temp is 80-90C, meaning max 90C without repaste? That's excellent! What was the ambient temp? I guess they did make some improvements in the 9th gen after all.

 

Yes, at -150mV max 90C, I was able to get to -160mV (at -165mV it occasionally crashes), at -160mV CB20 score is 2986 and max temp around 88C. All of this at ~26C ambient temp. All of this without touching anything, out of the box, and with the dammed hybrid disk spinning like crazy, I suppose that Win10 is indexing everything or whatever. I think I'm going to keep it, so probably next step is opening it and measuring how much fujipoly do I need...

 

Anybody with an m15 and the AGA? I've been unable to find a driver that supports the m15, although connecting the AGA works and I get the 1080Ti I have in it, the strange thing is that the RTX 2060 is still activated. So I end up having 3 GPUs, the Intel 630 the 1080 Ti and the 2060. Really strange. Also GSYNC does not work correctly from the AGA. If I disable the RTX 2060 in Windows Device Administrator everything works perfectly as it was the case with the 13R3. Could it be that Dell changed the wiring of the AGA port, leaving the PCI-e lanes used by the internal Nvidia GPU activated? That would be really awesome!

 

If Louis Rossman can remove the RAM chips and replace it with 32GB Samsung B Die DRAM ICs and SMDs/resistors.

 

That's really great news about both GPUs being available in the system with AGA.

Very nice. The upside of the 2.5" Bay of course is that you can stick a 4TB SATA SSD in.

 

Is the OLED panel a 1080p or 4k panel? if it is a 1080p 240hz refresh rate, is there a part number for it that can be used to order it from dell?

 

I use the AGA and I also see all three GPUs available. I don't have issues with GSYNC though.

 

It is a 4K 60Hz panel. For hardcore gaming I use the AGA connected to dual 27" GSYNC 144Hz screen. I would say that 4K is too much for a 15", if I leave it at 100% scaling my eyes are not good enough. Said that, all graphics elements are as smooth as you can imagine I'm starting to agree with a friend that said that 4K has more resolution than real life, it is only useful for rendered content

Yep, mine is also working fine, it seems that Windows was installing the graphic drivers for the 1080Ti, because now I get GSYNC with 3 GPUs active. That's pretty amazing, I need to do some tests with all of them in use, like playing on the AGA while using the 2060 for some CUDA task. I imagine things like 3D rendering with multiple GPUs on a laptop ... let's see.

 

It seems that Dell is doing better with the pads, in fact too much better. As you can see in the photo all the RAM chips and the VRMs of the GPU are not even touching the pads (no marks in them), those pads are thinner than 0.5mm The pads that are touching are around 1mm think, and it seems the right thickness. I've ordered fujipoly xr-m 1mm for those and 0.5mm to replace the thinner one, should be here today. I will use Phobya Extreme on both CPU and GPU and come back with more temps

Yep, the Samsung EVO 4TB is arriving Tomorrow, once I move my two 2TB NVME from the 13R3 to this one ... 8TB of solid state storage, I think I will be able to throw away my NAS (not really

 

I had the same feeling about the 0.5mm ish pads around the GPU but seem to have gotten some minimal contact after replacing all pads with much softer Gelids. One of these days I will reopen to repaste with Phobya NGE and to see what's up. Curious how doubling the thickness of the VRM pads works out for you, do let us know.

Just for the record: which driver(s) worked fine for you in the end?

 

Installed the Fujipoly and the Phobya, temps are now between 75 and 85 depending on the core, Cinebench jumped to 3100, it runs at 3998Mhz the full test. It idles at around 45C. I suppose that the grease will not get much worse than this once it settles, in fact it should, if any, improve. All temperatures are without any cooling pad, although I have the laptop back on top of a small cardboard box for improving the airflow. At the end pretty happy here, only complain, it will take time to get used to the new full keyboard, searching for the cursor keys and pressing enter is not fun

I didn't install anything, whatever driver I tried seems to be incompatible with the m15. In fact it seems that AGA support is included in the Command Center, as there are many files around it with suspicious names. The problems with GSYNC were probably because Windows 10 will detect the new card and install proper NVIDIA drivers, until it happened I was running the generic VESA provided by Windows, that doesn't support GSYNC.

 

Got mine back from support on Thursday. They "couldn't reproduce" the fan grinding noise, or overheating. Guess the fan shaped marks on the case when I removed the heatsink to try to tighten the fans, and the multiple times I've shown them my FPS dip when the CPU hits 103C are irrelevant.

Anyway, they put me on 1.6.1, so I figured I'd try 2.1.1, as I'm done dealing with this pile of crap, and will be spending my week trying to get a 15 R4 or Aurora replacement, or just selling it off. Quiet isn't as good as 1.4.1, but it is better than 1.6.1. It will turn fans off below about 40C, so basically only on battery, or if you have really good thermals.

 

I can't install the Nvidia from windows store. It starts download but doesn't actually download anything. Anyone have a solution?

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More data points, running mprime maximum heat L1/L2/L3 torture test with just one thread and pinning it to a single core, dissipates 20W and oscillates between 4.4 and 4.5Ghz with temp around 68C. Running Cinebench single threaded with the same pinning gave me 440 pts, dissipating around 15W and temps around 66C, also running between 4.4 and 4.5 with some downclocks to 4 in between.

Also it seems that the thermal paste is settling quickly (all that benchmarking probably helps ), now this thing idles at 38C and the fans are totally quiet!

Edit: not totally silent, you need to listen close to the laptop exhaust and you'll hear it, but they are really really quiet.

 

Some GPU tests: easily overclocked the RTX 2060 to +225 core +300 mem for a 6602 graphics Time Spy score. Temps always under 75C, most of the time in the high 60s.

One "problem". after watching YouTube's Costa Rica 4K 60fps HDR video in the m15 OLED 4K screen, well ..., I have two 27" TN for sale this thing totally spoiled me

 

Idle seems a bit high (probably wasn't really idle) but great temps overall. BTW How thick were the pads you ended up using around the GPU?

Sounds like I should try 2.1.1.

What do you mean by "the Nvidia from Windows store"?

My GPU is 67C tops at 24C ambient, but that could be due to the Max-Q design or different die size I guess.

Glad you are enjoying your OLED. 4K at 15" is not for me, but hopefully they will come up with lower res panels at some point, and hopefully there will be no burn-in issues within 2-3 years time-span of desktop use (and indeed I haven't seen any complaints from AW13 users).

 

I don't see any difference in fan behaviour in 2.1.1 (although, seems like a worthy upgrade from 1.6.2 including some security fixes and the OLED max brightness after sleep fix). 2070MQ performance is about the same 7530 Time Spy - seems to run 2C cooler.
On the flipside I'm now getting 20-25C core difference in CPU benchmarks, even the one within Time Spy. Looks like Kryonaut is failing on the CPU as many people have reported, despite doing a good job on the GPU. Time to start shopping for Phobya NGE.

Update: done, delivery in up to 10 days from Germany rotfl. I hope it's worth it!

 

I bought my m15 on early february 2019,are my pads to be replaced? If yes can suggest you me what brand and what thickness?
Thanks!

 

nVidia Control Panel. It's UWP filthy app and only available on the Store if you don't mod it as standalone installer or use Standard graphics drivers from Nvidia

 

Oh boy so my almost brand new m15 has stopped booting. I ordered it on may 24 received it on may 31, invoice date is May 29(So I can't return it anymore, return cutoff date was June 29). I believe it's an error with one of the temperature sensors. Everytime I turn it on once it goes past the Alienware logo the fans start spinning at Max and it shuts down again. Happens even if I try to boot into safe mode or bios. I went into the diagnostics(holding f8) and as soon as the fans went to Max it gave me the following error message - " One or more temperature sensors were out of range"

I'm waiting for Monday to contact dell, anyone ever have a similar issue or got any ideas? Also do you know if dell is willing to relax on the return period by a couple of days if the laptop just stops functioning(on the last day I could return it too, I tried to start a return when I realized something was wrong but it was around 8pm PST on the 29th and it wouldn't let me). I also tried to initiate a return over the phone but the since it was a Saturday I was asked to call on the next business day

 

Looks like you are getting the faulty mono replaced. Relax, it's pretty straightforward.

 

If it is working fine I wouldn't replace them. I did it just because I was repasting the CPU and GPU and took the opportunity. I used Fujipoly Extreme XR-m (17.0 W/mK), and got two pieces, one 100x15x1.0 and one 60x50x0.5, it was more than enough.

 

Does the newest model have a pixel refresher technology to prevent OLED burn-in of static imagery? Not that I believe it will be an issue until a few years pass, but it's nice to know.

 

Could you run any memory benchmark against your CL15 RAM to compare? I'm reusing the 2x16GB RipJaws DDR4 2666 from my AW13R3 ( https://www.techpowerup.com/review/g-skill-ripjaws-ddr4-sodimm/) that were pretty good back 2.5 years ago, but they are CL18 (the 2x8GB modules provided by Dell with the m15 are CL20 at 2666), and would like to compare and see if upgrading it is something that I'll benefit from. If you can please run some memory only benchmark, like AIDA64 memory benchmark or PassMark memory benchmark.

Thank you!

 

CL20... They've really decided to cut corners in the memory department hard. I think my sole 8GB stick was CL18 or 17. I'm running Sandra Lite memory Benchmarks, will post the results.

In the meantime, I've asked earlier what thickness pads did you end up using and how that worked out GPU temp wise. Thank you.

Edit: the results.

SiSoftware Sandra

Display
Connection : Local Computer

Memory Bandwidth
Analysing...
Notice 5405 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : System bandwidth appears FSB limited. Attempt to increase FSB.
Warning 5010 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : Cannot use Large Memory Pages due to lack of privileges.
Aggregated Score : 30.939GB/s
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB Kingston KHX2666C15S416G SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (15-17-17-35 7-52-21-9)
Speed : 2666MHz
Capacity : 32768MB
Power : 41.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Cache & Memory Latency
Analysing...
Warning 5010 : Global Data Memory : In-Page Random Access Pattern : Cannot use Large Memory Pages due to lack of privileges.
Warning 242 : Global Data Memory : In-Page Random Access Pattern : Dynamic OverClocking/Turbo engaged. Performance will not be consistent!
Aggregated Score : 20.5ns
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB Kingston KHX2666C15S416G SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (15-17-17-35 7-52-21-9)
Speed : 2666MHz
Capacity : 32768MB
Power : 41.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Cache Bandwidth
Analysing...
Warning 5010 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : Cannot use Large Memory Pages due to lack of privileges.
Warning 242 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : Dynamic OverClocking/Turbo engaged. Performance will not be consistent!
Aggregated Score : 225.004GB/s
Result ID : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz (6C 12T 3.91GHz/4.1GHz, 3.6GHz IMC/3.8GHz, 6x 256kB L2, 9MB L3); Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB Kingston KHX2666C15S416G SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-2
Speed : 3914MHz
Capacity : 10944kB
Power : 131.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Overall Memory Score
Aggregated Score : 1.76kPT
Results Interpretation : Higher Scores mean Better Performance.
Decimal Numeral System (base 10) : 1GPT = 1000MPT, 1MPT = 1000kPT, 1kPT = 1000PT, etc.
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB Kingston KHX2666C15S416G SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (15-17-17-35 7-52-21-9)
Finished Successfully : Yes

 

I anwered another user about the thickness just above Anyway, I used Fujipoly Extreme XR-m (17.0 W/mK), and got two pieces, one 100x15x1.0 and one 60x50x0.5, it was more than enough. I didn't expect the pads to affect the temps a lot, in general repasting got me like 10C-15C from maximums in the high 80s to mid 70s after many cinebench runs. Another thing is that for single threaded loads I get 4.4-4.5Ghz consistently while before repasting it will go down to 4.2 for a second and come back.

I'll test some games later as soon as I fully migrate my NVME and make sure that everything is working as expected.

Edit: Tested Overwatch, Destiny 2 and The Witcher 3, after more than an hour playing max GPU 62C, max CPU between 59C and 64C depending on the core. This is at -158mV for the CPU/Cache and stock voltage and frequencies on the RTX 2060.

 

For the record, my results with Sandra:

SiSoftware Sandra

Display
Connection : Local Computer

Memory Bandwidth
Analysing...
Notice 5405 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : System bandwidth appears FSB limited. Attempt to increase FSB.
Aggregated Score : 29.614GB/s
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB G.Skill F4-2666C18-16GRS SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (18-18-18-43 5-61-21-9)
Speed : 2666MHz
Capacity : 32768MB
Power : 41.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Cache & Memory Latency
Analysing...
Warning 242 : Global Data Memory : In-Page Random Access Pattern : Dynamic OverClocking/Turbo engaged. Performance will not be consistent!
Aggregated Score : 26.5ns
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB G.Skill F4-2666C18-16GRS SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (18-18-18-43 5-61-21-9)
Speed : 2666MHz
Capacity : 32768MB
Power : 41.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Cache Bandwidth
Analysing...
Warning 242 : Multi-Threaded (MT) : Dynamic OverClocking/Turbo engaged. Performance will not be consistent!
Aggregated Score : 182.179GB/s
Result ID : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz (6C 12T 3.39GHz/3.8GHz, 3.1GHz IMC/3.5GHz, 6x 256kB L2, 12MB L3); Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB G.Skill F4-2666C18-16GRS SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-
Speed : 3390MHz
Capacity : 14016kB
Power : 131.09W
Finished Successfully : Yes

Overall Memory Score
Aggregated Score : 1.49kPT
Results Interpretation : Higher Scores mean Better Performance.
Decimal Numeral System (base 10) : 1GPT = 1000MPT, 1MPT = 1000kPT, 1kPT = 1000PT, etc.
Result ID : Intel Core (CofeeLake-H 6C) Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (Integrated Graphics); 2x 16GB G.Skill F4-2666C18-16GRS SO-DIMM DDR4 (2.67GHz 128-bit) PC4-21300 (18-18-18-43 5-61-21-9)
Finished Successfully : Yes

 

I did see your message on which pads you had bought, but it didn't directly specify what pad thickness you used to replace those thin pads around the GPU which seem to barely make any contact. I assume you ended up sticking with 0.5mm like I did?

Thanks, GPU temps look better than mine.
The additional CPU boost makes sense because of the Thermal Velocity Boost technology which boosts only under 50C.

Looking forward to Phobya arriving on Saturday!

BTW which TIM application method did you use?

OK, so about +17% in aggregate score for the HyperX. I wonder what it would look like vs Dell's CL20 stock memory....

 

I finally decided to ask for a replacement/repair because of the temperature an mostly for a problem that can’t leave me boot the laptop,probably is a faulty motherboard.
Soon an operator will call me for send me a technician at home.
Meantime I bought Phobya Nanogrease Extreme,maybe can I ask him if can apply it to the components to help solve the temp problems.
Is right to apply it on both cpu and gpu?
Because I also have other thermal pastes.

 

My tech was down for a repaste if I wanted to. You will need something to clean the Dell toothpaste off with, I bought some Noctua wipes. Ultimately I didn't repaste then because I wanted to repad as well and he wouldn't sit around for an extra hour (repadding, unlike repasting takes time).

 

90 % rubbing alcohol plus cotton, is not fine for cleaning the paste?

 

Sounds fine, obviously just be careful not to leave cotton fibres anywhere.

 

Yes, 0.5mm for everything except the two thin and long strips over the VRMs (1mm for those)

What I've been doing for ever, I don't know the name of the method, I just put a small quantity and spread it to cover the full chip, as thin as possible but fully covering it.

The numbers seems pretty much proportional to the ratio between the CAS, so I suppose that in a memory-only benchmark your HyperX CL15 would be around 25% faster than the CL20 from Dell.

 

Thanks. Wow, you used just 1mm on those thick strips? I'm pretty sure they were 2mm at stock. Did you do any contact checks, especially on the CPU side?

Pretty much what I tried with Kryonaut. The core diffs were just around 10C initially but clearly deteriorated over 2 months, I think once I started using the laptop on the go more extensively. Will try to emulate your Phobya success!

Good prediction.

 

But really it must be so thin the paste,with this low pressure heatsink,there isn’t the chance that the chips doesn’t make full contact with the heatsink?

 

Can we upgrade the RAM on this unit with faster ram? Or we locked to 2666?

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