Considering picking up AW 17 R1 - Need some advice

Hey folks,

Not sure yet about this, but giving some thought to picking up an AW 17 with the 120 hz TrueLife screen and 860m that is still available at Dell. Could someone get me up to speed on the following:

- What all is required to get a 980m working in the AW 17 R1, do I need a BIOS level or custom BIOS?

- Will the x-spreader for the 860m work with the 980m, or is it unique to the card?

- What is the quality of the 120hz TrueLife screen, is the color pretty saturated with good contrast?

Much appreciated!

 

So... it appears this is still an open question on the 980m working in the AW 17

 

The 980m will work but I am not sure about the 120hz. I can tell you the 3D will NOT work and that to get it to work I belive you need to run UEFI mode so Windows 8.

You can't run a custom bios on the R1 as Alienware locked it down pretty hard.

Your looking at around $800 ish dollars for the 980m. Not sure about the bracket but I am pretty sure that the heatpipe is a 2 pipe for the 860m which will mean you will need the 3 pipe and the 860m will probably come with a 180w adapter whereas you need the 240w.

I would suggest finding confirmation that someone has the 980m ina 3d capable 120hz machine.

 

Eurocom already replied to my inquiry regarding the 980M in the 3D AW 17; it works on windows 8 machines with UEFI mode. The screen will work @120 Hz no problem but you will lose the 3D function.

But as MogRules said you will need the 3 pipe heatsink as it is a 100 WATT card

You will need no bios alterations, flashing or modification to get it to work.

Regarding the X-Braket Eurocom also provide that as part of the package but I am sure most sellers provide that. To be sure ask the seller if the bracket is provided or not. You can easily and cheaply get one though.

 

Many thanks for the replies... fortunately I'm not really interested in the 3D capability, more so in the enhanced image quality of the TrueLife display, so that is okay. The 3 pipe heatsink might be the trick though, in checking there doesn't appear to be one for the AW 17 and the AW 18 doesn't fit : /

 

Mine comes with the 3 pipe heatsink because I have an 880m ... Maybe look for the part number of GPU heatsink of 880m machines

 

You say; Eurocom Already replied to my inquiry Regarding the 980M in the 3D AW 17; it works on windows 8 machines with UEFI mode.
Q; What if you want to flash a mod vbios from Svl7 or Prema on your gtx980m with a AW 17R1 Ranger 120hz 3d screen? Is this possible?
I still have not seen any with AW 17R1 Ranger and 120hz 3d screen with gtx980 that works ..

 

Cuz people don't want to give up on windows 7 just yet

 

What with any throttling problems with an overclocked processor i7-4930mx and gtx980m? Same problem as those who test's gtx980m with AW 18 even they use win 8.1?

 

I am almost certain a 240W PSU won't keep a heavy overclock on an extreme haswell & a 980M

 

The power supply is not the problem .. Just buy a 330W. My overclocked extreme processors and a gtx780m can not overclock maximum with only 240W. My Aw17 already use over 250w with fx light and down turned lights on screen during a 3Dmark11 benchmark . Are fully aware that I must have 330W. But an AW 18 gets Throttling on processor with gtx980m if processor is overclocked(not the gpu), even if the wattage is lower than the limit on a 330W power supply. There is something strange with Alienware and gtx980m .. Hope someone can test whether AW 17R1 Ranger with 120hz screen and gtx980m working properly ..

 

I ordered and installed the GTX 980M from Eurocom, no issues as long as you've got the proper modded NVIDIA driver. I ordered it with the 100w heatsink, since my 770M just had the 75w heatsink. The 980M shipped from Eurocom does indeed come with the X bracket, screws, thermal pads and IC Diamond paste. If you order the heatsink from them at the same time, they'll install the thermal pads for you.

I've also heard repeated often that the 980M + 120Hz screen work fine together, you just lose the 3D functionality.

Personally, I just went with the AUO B173Hw01 v5 panel upgrade. Cheap and looks good.

 

How is your benchmark score with 3Dmark11 og3Dmark Fire strike in relation to new AW 17R2 and Asus with gtx980m?

 

With the default VBIOS, it is slightly worse (around 10%).

Me (240w PSU)
Firestrike: 7860
3DMARK11: P10343

AW17 R2 (240w PSU)
Firestrike: 8352
3DMARK11: P11101

I'm assuming if I flashed the unlocked BIOS I would achieve similar results to the AW17 R2.

I like how sturdy this R1 is, and having the option to upgrade. I dislike the shenanigans involved in upgrading, and the stupid fan profiles. I need a modded driver and VBIOS to match the performance of the R2, which is silly.

This is partly why being able to upgrade your laptop really isn't all that great in the end. Unless companies continue to support older machines with updated drivers and BIOS/VBIOS, having a machine with CPU/GPU sockets is meaningless - you won't be able to upgrade anyway.

To be perfectly honest, in the end what drove me to sell my R2 was the hot keyboard - it could get quite toasty under load. Beyond that, since I had the GTX 970M, I really had no issues with the machine. Yes, it was worse than previous offerings, but still much better than most other machines out there, and certainly a very good machine considering how much I paid for it.