Alienware 14 buying questions. Noise level and optimus.

All,

I had a few questions before I buy my alienware 14. My biggest concern is noise. I have heard the alienware 14 is really loud while gaming. Is there any way to turn down the fan speed? I will mostly be playing wow on ultra which shouldn't be too taxing. Would it be better to get a 750m or 765m. Which would run cooler aka make less fan noise while playing wow?

Also I have read mixed responses on if you can totally turn off optimus on the alienware 14. Some say you can using the FN Key and restarting the laptop.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

You can manually set them to lower speed with HWinfo, both of them are pretty much the same and you won't notice any difference on noise.
The optimus can't be disabled unless you use a modded BIOS to get that option.

 

I was under the impression fn+f5 and reboot would make the laptop run discrete only?

 

yup. never have it any other way

 

I've noticed even on idle the fan is very audible. Is this normal?

 

you always only run in discrete mode?

 

i thought that too. is that not the case luis?

 

On some platforms it will change, some others don't have the option. Just checked again and it seems like that FN key disables the integrated indeed and let's you run on discrete only. Thanks for the feedback

 

Holy thread resurrection, Batman! - sorry....had to LOL.

Why is it that 14's with a 765m seem to be able to Fn&F5 but the same functionality does nothing on my machine except for tell me:



What gives? - why is this so? - can this be addressed by Dell?

 

I have the 765M and it switches fine. Although if I could answer the thread question from way back, then YES this thing is a noisy piece of siht. The craftsmanship of the product is very nice, and build is hard to fault, but that damm fan it a real pain to hear.
e.g. I have machine plug in on power from the wall, and have set the power profile to performance. I then do a reboot, and just logon and nothing else, no load, nothing running, done nothing, just idle, and the fan it ramping up and down like a yoyo. Really sucks considering this is right next to my Intel 6 core workstation with dual SLis card with several fans (and tons of other drives etc inside), although the Alienware 14 noisy single fan still manages to be more annoying and louder during the ramp up cycles than my desktop.

btw. I just press F5 and done a reboot, major noisy fan ramp up on boot in windows, this thing sucks big time. Can't really sell it, as invested way to much in it, and haven't touched it in the time I have had it. Arrgh, how ridiculous that its like this, I not even gaming at this stage.

btw2. Great, I just tried to use hardware info to try and slow down the fan all over the place fan noise, BSOD the moment I opened it.

 

Your fan noise is really odd in comparison to mine. Maybe you have a really poor application of thermal compound that needs re-doing and/or maybe the heatsinks could do with a clean up. I'm sat here now and have been browsing for the last hour or so with no fan noise at all. All I can hear is the HDD spinning. I'm also plugged in and set to high performance but I am also running a 27" UltraSharp U2711 external monitor at 2560x1440 with the notebook display off. Something's not right with your's for sure......it shouldn't sound like a jump-jet upon booting.....or idle/browsing.....

Don't know what BIOS version you are running, some of the releases were supposed to address fan activity. I'm on A07 and like I say, mine's fine.....was the same with A03 which I updated to A07 not long ago. Maybe that could help.

As for fan control, you might wanna use HWiNFO - seems that others can use that without BSOD's just fine.

 

Never can tell about the thermal paste, usually default is only going to be within a few degrees, and even then I would think with the build of the machine, they would not likely miss this, also when under load it get hot but the fans blasting away can still handle it, so pretty sure it much be ok there. I did take off the back panel and have a look inside, but the heat sink is under some other plastic shroud, and not so easy to get to, besides not my problem or job while under warranty still.

BIOS version is A07, and much the same as A04 that I was on.

I did get a newer version of HWinfo to run, and adjusted the fans manually, although to stop from producing too much noise, I have to run max fan at around 2250 RPM, which is simply to low for the machine to cope with under heavy load, which take temps into the 90c area in no time if full load on all cores.

Yeah really hoping that I could hook this into my Dell U2412M and use it as a desktop as a satellite computer in addition to my main workstation, but with the fan ramping up and down it just a real nuisance. The only way I can have it silent is to run the AW14 on power saver (stuck at 800MHz), which defeats the purpose of having a high powered machine in the first place, especially when plugged into the wall outlet.

One thing to take into account, is that I do have a faster GPU, although this is not actually in use while just doing general work on the machine, and also I have a faster CPU which is the 4800 and may use a higher voltage at the higher clocks. Then again, should not be a nuisance with fan noise, but at the same time, what I think is noisy other might think is perfectly normal. There are many people complaining about the fans on this machine, I should of taken that when I did read about it before actually thinking "can't be that bad" before buying it.

I did a few tests last night, and came to the conclusion the platform is simply to small to have silent fan due to the amount of power packed into the processor unit, not to mention the GPU. I cant help feeling surprised that HP is able to contain the noise on their newest 15 systems, mine you the processor is only the 37W variant.

 

Yeah, I guess one person's idea of silent can be different than the next guy's idea. I'm fairly used to AW notebooks now, and the fan activity isn't an issue for me personally. You having a GTX765m and the 4800mq may well add to the requirement for more fan activity than my GT750m & 4700mq combo, but at idle, there shouldn't be such a difference in fan activity - shame I haven't heard what a machine like yours sounds like in comparison to my own. Others with the same combo as you don't seem to have the same issue, which is odd and why I thought it could be a pasting issue - than again, it could be that they are simply more accepting of fan noise. Either way, I don't think you should have to run in power save to avoid fan activity - that doesn't sound quite right at all.

I hear ya when you say "it's under warranty" and that "it's not my problem" but it is your problem, really - if you have to compromise your usage. I've seen some rather shoddy factory paste applications - actually, seen some with no paste at all, some with a post-it note where the paste should have been applied, so from that perspective, it wouldn't surprise me that it could be a culprit.

If it were me, I'd be logging temp's at idle and under load etc and making a record of such. What kind of temp's do you see when idling/under load? - if they are above average, the paste really would become a likely suspect. If you weren't comfortable doing the work yourself, I'm sure you could get Dell to send a tech out to do the job for you. Who knows, it might cure things.

As you mention, the cooling system itself is quite capable of keeping things cool, but having a high end GPU and a fast CPU under the hood in such a small form factor is going to create heat and lead to fan activity. The 14 should be (and is) able to handle the two components. Under a full load, you won't be able to run the machine quietly, though.....simply impossible. Unfortunately, Haswell runs hot...hotter than Sandy and Ivy....and that 90c CPU temp needs a lot of fan speed to cool that sucker down.

 

fn + f5 requires a reboot. I wish there was a hard switch in BIOS/UEFI . The noise level is only bad when the system is at full tilt for extended periods. As for optimus well I still hate it VERY much.

 

so you run with nvidia only 24/7?