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

Good news, the Swiss Gear Ibex 17" Laptop backpack fits the laptop perfectly for those looking for a bag!

 

Also for those looking for a bag, I highly recommend Everki. I got my Titan and Lunar today for my 18, and they're great. You guys with the 17s could even go for a Beacon to save cash, and the Beacon is probably the better looking bag. The Beacon is $99 from TigerDirect, and the Titan is $166 on Buy.com. I took some comparison pics between the Titan and an M17x Orion and posted them in the 18 owner's lounge. Could repost here if there's interest, or you guys could just head over there.

 

I really like the plate on the bottom with the system info and the release date on it. The fact that there is no removable battery makes it a lot more solid than m17x, I noticed this right away when moving it. The m17x battery would always go in or sideways a bit

 

Internal batteries make for a better experience, and it only takes two screws to get to it so no problems

 

Also the matte screen has made this computer usable to me. I ended up selling my m17x months after I purchased it as I was getting nasty eye problems verified by my optometrist as extreme eye fatigue (twitching and headaches). I use the computer either in a well lit area or in an office with terrible florescent lights. Both scenarios made it impossible to use the m17x. In a darkened room it was amazing.

Now it seems this is the best of both worlds, and it looks great to me comparing the two.

 

This is an update on the AW17 battery life:



About 10 minutes later, it went down to 3 hours and 17 minutes. And as I am posting this, it went back up to 3 hours and 39 minutes.

 

Thats impressive for High performance profile. My experience is that after you run down the battery from 100% to about 10% a few times the estimates get more accurate.

 

I let it run down to 34% and it said 1 hour and 37 minutes left. I was watching a movie, which isn't that demanding, but it's basically "every day usage" when it comes to power draw. With that being said, it does pretty well for a 17" laptop. I wish they had better batteries, though. There are much better solutions than what they have currently.

I'm not sure how the Alienware 18 does, but it has the same battery as the 17, and it's a larger laptop with a 18.4" TrueLife display. So, I'm assuming you won't see more than 2 hours on that thing, especially with dual GPU's.

The AW 17 is good for a student. It still outperforms most desktop computers I come across and has decent battery life. Though, I do wish I had gotten the 4930MX.

 

Hey guys quick question, what is a safe thermal limit for the 780m. I have it set to 85c and I have a coolermaster U3 and it reaches 75-85c under load.

 

Max temp is 98C, IIRC. But I wouldn't want it over 85C every day.

 

So I was having a ton of problems with thermal throttling and whatnot earlier in the thread. BIOS A03 didn't help me out at all.

I re-pasted my GPU this evening with IC Diamond after a round of ArctiClean... HUGE difference. The factory paste job was horrible (there was literally a small section of GPU die with no paste).

Now, I can keep my +120/+240 clocks and bench all day and not go over 75C on Optimus. Pulling a ~P8200. and get 75FPS+ avg on Tomb Raider on Ultra.

On stock vBIOS with no overclocking I was able to get ~P7000.

I suggest if you're having throttling issues and you're comfortable doing a re-paste, do it! Otherwise go pay your local computer shop to do it for you, you won't regret it!

 

Yea, the factory paste job really is horrible isn't it? I got up to P8800 before I sent mine back with +160/400.

 

Did you need to replace the thermal pads as well?

 

Hey every 1 i have ordered the alienware 17 unfortunately mine is with the 770m card i was just wondering if there is anything i should be aware of i have been reading through this thread and i have seen a lot of throttling issues but only with the 780 any feedback would be great cheers

 

Hi, I have the 670MX which is the same card as the 770M that you ordered, just lower clocks at stock. I've overclocked my card (see sig), to above 770M levels & it's performing a bit above a stock 680M at the moment. Temperatures don't go over 65 degC for me, although I'm on the M17xR3, but I imagine your card will perform the same as mine in your system, so I doubt you'll have any temperature issues, and therefore no throttling. (If you flash a modded vBIOS, then you'll be able to overclock over the standard +135Mhz limit too, but that does void your warranty if Dell find out, but they're unlikely to be able to).

 

With repasting - should you only do this if you want to overclock and/or see high temps (above 80?). Also is this something dell do as part of warranty or only if it actually causes a problem - and would they use paste provided by you?

I looked at a video on how to do it didn't seem too complicated - would you need to apply new thermal pads as well though or just do a repaste?

 

Posting from Australia here. We don't get the option of a 256 msata unless it's bundled with the stripe raid SSD drives which makes it prohibitively expensive at close to 6K!

I was thinking of buying one of the lower spec models with the 64gb msata cache and two 750gb hard drives. My thought is I would replace one of the HDDs with an SSD and use the other as storage... Ideally I want to replace the msata and use that as the boot drive but getting to that looks like it could be very difficult! Therefore the lazy side of me is leaning towards replacing one of the HDDs only. The question is if I do this is there any point running the 64gb msata as a cache if I have an SSD installed as the boot drive?

The other question is if I replace both HDDs with 2 SSDs can I set up the raid to run as 0 or 1 and ignore the msata drive? Thanks for any advice... don't think I can justify almost double the cost for the top spec model with the SSDs pre installed.

 

You can't use the mSata to cache a SSD anyway, so yeah - the best thing to do would be to revert it back to being used for storage, if you are replacing both HDD's with SSD's. You can set up your SSD Raid as Raid 0 Stripe or Raid 1 mirror. Have the mSata totally separate to that configuration (either for OS or more storage) and you are away to go....

If you replace one of the HDD's with one SSD, I would probably advise that you leave the mSata to cache the other HDD and install your OS to the normal SSD. For the amount of space available on the mSata (after formatting) it's probably more beneficial to accelerate you HDD than use the mSata for storage/OS.

I'd rather have 750gigs that are fast than 64gigs that are a bit faster.

 

Whaaat?! I'm lucky to get 3 hrs on power saver mode! Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact I've only run down the battery maybe twice past 30% remaining.

Just out of curiousity.. Could you post your time remaining on 100% battery on all 3 modes for a comparison? I need to investigate if I have a faulty battery. And have you made any additional changes to anything or any settings to extend your battery life?

 

Anyone experiencing this?

Here's a before and after shot of my internet speeds:



The above is when something is connected via Bluetooth, and the bottom is seconds after it is disconnected.

 

Has anyone's order been cancelled?, i placed an order for alienware 17 on july 20th with an estimated delivery date of aug 1st. then it got pushed to aug 7th, and now when i try to check the status it says Order has been cancelled. tried calling dell and got transferred to like 5 departments, none of them could tell me why the order has been cancelled. really frustrating! is there any way i can expedite it when it is re ordered?

 

That is common. Just keep calling and inform them of the situation. Perhaps even ask them to escalate the priority of the order and give free 'Next Business Day' shipping.

 

So...ordered mine. Hopefully I can somehow "fix" possible throtteling with help from you guys.

i7 4800qm
16 GB RAM
780M GTX
Bluray
256GB msata & 750GB HDD
FHD

Why isn't anyone ordering the 3D panel?

 

The throttling issues go away with the latest BIOS released by Dell: A03. Just goto Dell Downloads and install it.

I didn't order the 3D bundle because it chomps up battery life and there aren't many games I like to play that support 3D. It's nice, but not necessary, in my opinion.

 

Not for me, Still throttles even with A03.

 

Happened to me 3 times without my knowledge and delayed my order 2 weeks. And that's WITH me complaining after I found out.

 

Hey guys, anyone else having an issue with the AlienFX on the bottom being off by one color on the left (if the screen is facing you) for example if that location is set on dark orange the one on the bottom left will be light orange and the right will be dark orange..etc..

Any ideas appreciated!

 

Ended up re ordering it, now the estimated delivery date is sept 4th . Turns out i waited 2 weeks for nothing!.

 

try "going dark," turning off the PC, rebooting, then changing the colors. Or you can try uninstalling the FX program and reinstalling it.

 

I think they will likely rebook your order so make sure you cancel one of them! I did get an email today saying that my order delivery date went from 7th August to end of August

 

I think you're right. I hadn't noticed it before, but I watched the FPS more closely and it did take a dive when the temperatures reached like 72C or something.

 

Could be under-volting. Check to see if voltage drops from 1 to .9 or .8 when the FPS drops happen

 

Ya, they ended up rebooking my order and now the delivery date is sept 4th. I do not Understand this, you can get it quicker if you order a new one on alienware website which now is showing an estimated date of aug 20th.

 

EVGA Precision X eliminated the issue I was having. All games run smoothly now, even Crysis 3 runs at 30+ FPS maxed out.

It looks like without EVGA Precision the 780M runs at maximum 771MHz, but with EVGA Precision, it runs at like 850+ (not overclocked) and that helped a lot.

 

Wow their opinion about the screen is really bad.

http://www.digitalversus.com/laptop/alienware-17-p16580/test.html#full-review

I'm not a professional but the screen is great in my opinion, with great colors and brightness.

I'm glad I didn't wait for more reviews when I ordered mine. It would have given me doubts about my purchase. Almost all reviews dislike something different. If you re worried about the screen for example u'll definitely find a review where they say the screen sucks.

 

I posted the French version of that review.

I doubt that the review sample was calibrated properly. Dell uses this screen (I think it's the exact same screen) for the Precision m6700, and I'm sure that enterprise customers would complain about a 25000 Kelvin and 10 DeltaE across-the-board picture. Doubly suspicious because the Chi Mei screen in the ASUS G750, which these reviewers praise, is grainy and does not have particularly good color accuracy: all of the other comparisons between those laptops I have read suggest that the Alienware's screen is superior.

Come to think of it, I have seen hints that Alienware sources both the LG screen and the same Chi Mei as the ASUS.

 

Thanks Steviejones. What I wanted to hear. Now to decide between this and the asus G750.

 

Really? If this is the screen of the m6700 it should be great. I used to have one.

 

I'm satisfied with the score i got on 3dmark11.

Did a 150/500 overclock on the GPU.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.70GHz,Alienware Alienware 17

 

nice result, how did u do? my 3dmark is 7040....

if I wanna overclock my GPU i have to use this Downloads unlocked vbios?

 

Good score, seems like it's scaling as expected with that kind of an overclock, doesn't look like it's throttling at all with it I would think. Haha, that's the same score as a desktop GTX 590! Awesome for a laptop. You probably won't need to upgrade that for a while!

 

I just installed the vBios from svl and overclocked the gpu with nvidia inspector. 150/500.

I wish i knew how to overclock my CPU. Every time i try to overclock, computer freezes and reboots.

Going to try and break 9k with gpu overclock only now.

EDIT: The vBios from that downloads page is v00. Svl has v2 available on his forums.

 

I've found 3DMark11 as probably the best way to stress test an overclock. Why? Because it seems to be the program that exposes an unstable overclock in the quickest way. If you can get through the benchmark, you'll probably be able to game at that overclock too, although you might find that after extensive testing you may need to back 20Mhz off that previously established overclock.

Just gradually keep raising that core clock (Mhz), while making sure your temperatures are ideally under 80 degC, but most definitely under 90 degC. When it becomes unstable by the program crashing, driver resetting, or failure to complete a benchmark, then that's your maximum overclock!

(After 3DMark11, I've found Tomb Raider released in 2013 the next best way to check for long term stability)

 

Thanks. I got that score while sitting around 65c. Anyone got a XTU profile for i7 4800MQ (Alienware 17 version)?

 

anyguys know how to use the winamp plugin for the alienware 17.i try to use it but my comp doesnt respond

 

That's an excellent temperature on the GPU, if that's what you're referring to, you've got plenty more thermal headroom for further overclocking!

 

So i have been trying for the past hour and have not been able to break 9k yet.
If i go over 150/500 the GPU crashes even though its not going over 70C. Should i give it some voltage?

EDIT: Overclocking the CPU would help out alot as well.

EDIT2: Meh, was only able to increase 40 points.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6961764

150/700

 

Your CPU is awesome, just like any other i7 CPU - they're all awesome - you don't need to worry about CPU performance & overclocking when it comes to gaming, it's not the limiting factor, the GPU is the limiting factor.

Temperatures look good for you. I'd check to make sure the GPU is not throttling at all, and if it's not then you could give it some more voltage. But, that will mean flashing an 'unlocked vBIOS', which will void your warranty if Dell find out about it. Also, increasing the voltage over stock levels could decrease the life of your GPU, especially if temperatures are quite high at the same time. At this point you are entering into grey territory, ideally you should research the whole overvolting/overclocking practice before you decide to do it for yourself! Your GPU is already performing excellently, if you want to push it further be sure that you've got all the information to hand, and that you know what you are doing - it gets potentially more dangerous from here!

 

Welp, time to test Dell's Tech Support - guess who found a dead pixel???

 

I had one on my new system but it went away after a few days use. I do not believe Dell will replace unless there are minimum of 3 near the center. I could be wrong but I think you need more than one.
Dell LCD Display Pixel Policy | Dell US