*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 Ranger (2013) Owner's Lounge Thread

Nice look pretty good. Lot of info there.

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I don't know how hot my CPU's getting, I'm not particularly worried on that front, Prime 95 manages to bring the temperatures up to the high 70s but the CPU is rated up to 100C.

The GPU is not overclocked, it was running at 850/1250 during the entire session, I didn't pay much attention to the fans, they weren't louder than the game's sound effects.

How hot can the 780M run for extended periods without taking damage?

 

Anyone know if the plug on the power brick is the same as it was on the m17x r2 ? Model GA240PE 1-00

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Yep. I got the same model with my AW17

 

Thanks for the reply..got a spare one nice to know it eill work..:thumbup:

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Haha mine did the same journey with you, just a few minutes later at some points and a few minutes earlier than you at some other! It arrived to "Barking, UK" almost 2 hours ago...

 

Haha UPS buddy Lucky fella I checked mine there. Still stuck in Germany :/ I don't know how it's gonna get to me by tomorrow afternoon. It still has to fly into Dublin and then be trucked halfway across the country.

 

Haha mine left Barking earlier this morning, however it is "MIA" (missing in action) ever since...

I think UPS is just ultra-slow at updating their webpage. I guess we will both have ours 2morrow!

What did you get?

 

Does anyone here use Motionjoy on their laptops to use a PS3 controller on it? I used to use it on my m11x and it worked flawlessly with a usb cable and detected the m11x bluetooth adapter so I could use it wirelessly. I am trying to set it up on my 17 but when I try to set up bluetooth it shows up as "Waiting for bluetooth adapter" and doesn't seem to show up. Is this a matter of them not supporting it and having to wait and hope they do and if not buy a usb adapter? Also would a laptop like this have 2 wireless ports in it? If I was so desperate and inclined, would it be possible to take my wireless adapter out of my m11x and put it in here as a second one and be able to use Motionjoy with the old adapter? I know it would mean no wireless internet on my old laptop but I'd really like to be able to use my controller wireless and don't have enough USB ports on here to buy an adapter to leave plugged in all the time.

 

Sounds about right. I generally don't know where the package is in Ireland til our local UPS guy calls. Same guy has delivered to my house at least 20 times and he still can't remember how to get there

Went for the:
i7-4800
1080p screen
16 gb ram
750gb hdd and 64gb ssd
780m
Blu ray drive

Managed to get a hold of an English guy on the phone and he dealt with me personally. Got €400 discount and a free vindicator backpack. These guys must get a commission for a sale coz he was very helpful.

 

How much did it cost you after the discount? I also got the same system with you... but I got the £150 instant savings (as in Alienware webpage) and another around £220, on top of the initial savings.

 

I ordered mine last Tuesday, only with Win 8 and a 1080p upgrade, I just emailed them if they can hurry it up, cause my laptop just won't cut it v.v

 

Haha, I would recommend the chat or the phone. Real-time communication is usually better to apply social engineering But good luck!

 

I think it was €3400 total. €3000 after the discount and then the free backpack was worth like €90. I was happy enough with that

 

I also ordered the same specifications as you. Can't wait for it to arrive!

I'm currently bidding on some SSD's on eBay.

 

I got the same specs for 2500 with tax and $200 gift card.

I would suggest you keep trying.

 

It's Sunday, they're closed, well the department I need.

 

I'd like to say good luck to everyone posting about their orders, and I think you will be pleased ; I understand you all are excited but please adress all order status' and configs onto this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...estions-order-status-discussion-part-5-a.html

We would like to keep discussions on this thread geared to the actual machines, problems, questions, and useful info for members.

 

Yep nice! Haha if I get an extra bag in my packet tomorrow, then I will know there was a mixed up

 

anyone can help me,I mix the boot order in the BIOS and now not work my computer....
I need some pictures BIOS BOOT sreen! Alienware 17

 

Try "revert back to Default" in the bios menu. If that doesn't work hit F12 (or is it F10 i can't remember, try both) upon boot to choose what to boot from

 

Give them a call 2morrow morning, most likely to pick-up the call than the email first ;P

 

Hey guys, Im having a hard time finding where to change the default (red) flashing for the led right above the power button. Anyone have an idea?

 

In the "Alien FX Editor" The quick change ability doesn't change it, but if you make your own theme you can change it to whatever with the exception of "dark". To access the "Alien FX Editor" you can right click on the little alien head icon in your taskbar, or use the find/run feature in the start menu.

 

EVGA Precision seems to randomly* reset to "target temperature = 92 C", any one has an idea why?
Does the program have to be constantly run in the background? It tends to create multiple instance of CPU heavy EvgaVoltageTuner.exe on my machine.

*Possibly due to reboot, wakinf up from Sleep, or due to switching power states from Balanced Mode to High Performance Mode, I don't know.

 

For Those having difficulties Installing the previous nvidia drivers try the latest one i.e the GeForce 326.19 Driver. This one recognised the old 311.48 drivers and installed just fine.:thumbsup: Hopefully should increase frame rates. Will try running benchmarks again once i get home from work.

 

Mine just arrived at work and had a really quick look at it! The build performance is great. The touchpad is probably one of the best non-Mac ones, same with the screen. So far so good. I will install games and do a proper setup as soon as I get home.

Is there a way to test if the mSata is working?

 

You'll have a taskbar item for IRST. Fire this up and you can see exactly how it is configured. Have fun

 

Thanks I will do asap. I have to say until early this morning, I was "nervous" about it. After the first 2 minutes with it: Money well-spent. Only complains so far: fingerprint magnet and my screen's back, feels like scratched due to the way they processed the aluminium.

Other comments: The power brick is massive. Boots <5 seconds, even faster than my Macbook Pro with the SSD.

 

Cool, take pics of any damage just in case you want to complain later. General scratches on the outside are acceptable after you have had it a while.

The boot time says the msata cache is working .

Since there are a lot of issues with the later NV drivers I'd say to use whatever is installed and get yourself some basemarks. I always forget this when getting a new piece of kit - update, update, test. Is it any better? Errr, not sure

 

I don't plan touching drivers, etc other than the automatic update, unless I see a huge performance problem in my tonight's Far Cry 3 marathon xD

 

You have to create a default profile of your own, or every time the program restarts it will be 92 C. Just set the temp to what you want, hit CTRL + 1 through 9 to set that number as a profile. In settings under "Profiles" tab there is the "Automatic Profile Management" Set the 3D profile to your desired one, might as well set the 2D profile to the same one. I've never had multiple instances of EVGAVoltageTuner, in fact I don't even have that show up at all in my processes. Try reinstalling if that persists (make sure to delete all profiles and settings when uninstalling)

Edit: there is a new version of EVGA 4.2.1, I am still using 4.2

 

I have created my own theme and I still cannot find any way to change the led above the power button from blinking red.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering if it is safe to update drivers with a flashed vbios?

 

Wrong guess

 

It shouldn't blink at all when plugged in. The default is blink red on low battery, otherwise it's not supposed to be able to blink at all; it only lets me change the color (at least it won't let me change it to blink, pulse, or morph)

 

You can still do stuff like that in advanced mode. You just have to create a "New Event" from scratch.

 

So I had the weekend to spend finally setting up my laptop after it arrived with the incorrect OS. I performed the "upgrade" from Win7 to Win8 Pro and so far I haven't come across any instability or apps breaking. It did reject my old bluetooth driver which it forced me to remove before it would begin the upgrade. I assume it installed a new one for me.

I installed about a dozen games. Installed precision and a few other need-to-have apps. However, I did encounter only one issue so far. I had one low memory warning (weird since I have 16GB) and it blue screened immediately after. No issues since then.. and I'm not clear what caused it.

My overall impressions are very positive coming from the m17x R3. Overall build is clearly improved. Not as over the top with the lighting set up from previous models. Can't tell if it's any lighter since my R3 was about 15lbs. I haven't weighed this one. Matte screen is much better over the old glossy, reflective one I had. Performance is amazing. I installed the latest drivers and read briefly someone experienced issues.. not sure what they are but all is good for me. I tweaked only a global settings in the Nvidia control panel. I have it set to use the 780 gpu permanently and power management to max performance mode. Triple buffering is on, anisotropic sample optimaztion is on multisample, forced vsync etc.. In gaming scenarios I've set all on max settings and all are perfectly playable. I've tested Bioshock Infinite, Grid 2 (very little lag), Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, StarCraft 2, haven't tested Metro: Last Light yet, FIFA '13, NBA 2K13, Crysis 3 haven't tested.. A few more I can't recall.

I also unplugged the power cable, and attempted to run a couple games to see if they would even play. Mortal Kombat still played on max settings but dropped quite a few frames. It became playable again after dropping the res down to 720p. The same thing went for Bioshock. So that's still impressive considering we're running off battery. Though while doing this my 100% battery showed only 1h:10m battery life remaining so I guess you'd only get approx. 1 hour on full on harcore gaming on battery. I'm curious what the battery will show if I move it over to power saver mode though.

The laptop boots fairly quickly. Though I don't know what is considered quick. I'm on a 256GB mSata and 750GB. But I'd say from cold boot on battery to desktop was under 20 seconds. Is there anything I should know or check to make sure that it's configured properly? I've not too familiar with mSata setups. But if people consider boot times to be from power on to lockscreen well then it's probably under 10 sec.

 

Is there a way to do this with nvidia inspector so it loads a profile and temp on start up instead of defaulting to 92?

 

Thanks, I switched to nVidiaInsspector, it works just as well and has a better interface.

 

A few noobish questions:
-How do I check which card(s) are enabled in optimus?
-To install an SSD and keep my mSata+HDD, I just install the SSD, select it as boot device and then install windows backup from alienrespawn?
-Is it normal for the fans at some points going loud?

 

Does anyone have any experience replacing the mSATA card? I was looking through the owner's manual, and I can't find the directions for replacing it. Is it listed under a different name?

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...laptops/alienware-17_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

 

Huh, it doesn't seem to be listed - the mSATA card is located just by the speakers though, so you could just follow the instructions for that and then replace the mSATA card instead. (It's under the left palm rest as far as I recall, really buried in there)

 

It's hidden beneath a black plastic cover. So, it may be easily overlooked.

 

Btw, not sure if i understood the service manual correctly... But aside from the mSata card we have room for 3 additional HDD's?? I'd like to clarify as I have the mSata and a 750GB HD. If I have room for 2 more additional 1TB HD's that would be amazing.

 

The 17 and 18 are capable of holding four drives. All are SATA III capable.

mSata, HDD 0, HDD 1, and the optical drive.

 

My 3DMark scores out of the box:
Ice storm: 126507 , Cloud gate: 18132 and Fire Strike: 4298.

I think I got the optimus off (if I remove the power adapter, I get a message that I should turn-on the iGPU), my GPU was around 60c most of the times.

 

I think I got them to speed it up, lets hope:

"Dear Kristian Bond-Davis,

Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care.

I am Basheeruddin your resolution specialist on this issue and I will be happy to help you. Please accept my sincere and unreserved apology for the delayed response to your enquiry due to technical issues.

This is in response to your e-mail, regarding the order status query. Please be informed that I have submitted a request to expedite the order and I will be following on the status of this request closely. I will update you on the progress in a timely manner.

Please be informed that for the Windows 8 Recovery DVD I will be able to send you the disk when the order is shipped out.

Please make a note of Service Request Number *********, regarding the order status query. I will be your single point of contact and will be working until the issue is resolved.

Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you have any unanswered queries.

Thanks and Regards,
Mohammed Basheeruddin
Customer Care Associate | Dell Customer Service"

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dkris2020, Just a word of caution, do not post reference numbers etc - I suggest you edit your post.

 

The temperatures sound great on yours, looks like you got a good paste job unless you really like the air conditioning on freezing! Shouldn't have any problems with throttling then, could be a good candidate for overclocking!

EDIT: Firestrike score seems a bit low though, how does it compare to other peoples A17's? I managed 3794 on firestrike (4185 GPU score) ( http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/975030), which is an overclocked GTX 670MX, and your score is only 13% better than mine, so that made me think you ought to compare your score to other peoples to check you don't have any problems with it. Have you updated to the latest NVidia driver (326.19)?

EDIT#2: Had a look on notebookcheck.net for the GTX 780M benchmark results and you should really be getting 5200 on firestrike. ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-780M.88993.0.html). It seems that your GPU might be throttling!?