Ordering new AW17: Do we still have any Dell / AW reps in the forums?

Hey guys,

Some years back I remember we had a couple reps on the forums that were able to assist with new orders / getting discounts etc. Is this still a thing? Have been searching around and it seems not. Managed to get a nice discount on my last AW back in Europe, and now I'm living in Canada looking to upgrade to the new 17 I was hoping for a 10% coupon etc cos I'm going all out with the config.

Failing that does anyone have any good rep contacts for sales in Canada?

Cheers!
Dev.

 

U're way better of upgrading your current AW rather than buying a new.

EDIT:
welp u got the 14inch version with BGA GPU. Guess you should rather look for MSI or something. New AW are a disaster. Don't believe me? Check AW subforum.

 

Bah!

I have a 17 R4 and sure, I had initial problems with thermal throttling and high temps. Repasted and repaded and now own a perfect unit.
I thought about selling it and getting something similar but guess what, no other company is close to AW's value proposition IMO.

MSI has the GT73 and GT75VR which are huge beasts, way to gamer looking, and no QHD screen option. Just a 120Hz TN 1080p (although it has slightly faster response times)
HP has a very similar option with the Omen X but again, only 1080p option and tinny speakers with no subwoofer.
Clevo's P775TM or P870TM have desktop CPUs so they have an edge in performance, but very outdated looks, outdated keyboard, not very many manufacturers carry the QHD 120Hz option, plus they are city-block huge and many also have their share of heating problems, specially with the 8700K.
Asus are a PITA to repaste, also suffer from thermal issues.
Gigabyte's in the same boat, plus they have horrible keyboards with lots of input errors, really noy great for gaming.

The 17 R4 is beautiful, it's big but not fat, it's stupid solid, even the keyboard had a metal plate behind it for added stiffness. Has good audio, great QHD 120Hz G-Sync screen and a fully unlocked GTX 1080 vBIOS.

I think it's the laptop to own right now, but that's just my opinion. I really could't see myself switching it for anything else in the market right now. Maybe only a Clevo P870TM (but my back would suffer with the weight, I carry it everyday) or the Omen X (but I'd lose the lovely speaker and subwoofer system in the AW).

Buy it, repaste it and enjoy it!

I repasted mine with liquid metal, new thermal pads and undervolted slightly. CPU and GPU don't go past 75C gaming for hours. And I don't even have a cooler base, just the back lifted up. I love it

 

Heh yeah, way overdue an upgrade huh? I was looking at other brands due to the heating issue, but for the reasons Shark00n says below I'm still keen to stick with AW. Plus this little M14x has been so darn good to me for so many years. I was hoping the issues would have been resolved by the R4, but it seems iUnlock's guide has been updated for that so I guess not - that said I have known some people to get lucky.

Thanks for the detailed response Shark00n! It's reassuring to read your comments on the QHD as I'm leaning away from UHD the more I think about it. I admit I am worried by the thermal throttling, and even though I'm technically competent, I'd be terrified of trashing a 3000 dollar+ machine. Perhaps I'll build up the courage to do it, but if it really becomes an issue I'll try my best to find someone in the Vancouver area to do it for me for a fee. After your repaste did it make the fans run any quieter?

Dev.

 

Yeah repasting helped with fan noise a bit. It stays pretty much at 75C under load (games), fans are loud but not overwhelming. I game with open headphones and I don't really notice it.

 

Yeah I almost always game with open headphones. The fans on my old M14x were never really that quiet even after all the BIOS shenanigans. Have just reached out to Hidevolution, figured I might as well get the repaste done professionally and get a few better components if the price is right.

 

Very Biased review. Let me fix some statements that don't make sense:

The MSI GT 73 / GT 75 has a much better screen than the Alienware, it's way more color accurate, better contrasts etc. While the QHD on the AW 17 only has a dissapointing 82.2% sRGB and 54% AdobeRBG color coverage the MSI FHD screen has a 92% sRGB and a 76% AdobeRGB 1998 cverage, which is insanely good. Contrast is meh and the brightness is everywhere from 400nits center and 345nits on side which isn't exacly even on the Alienware, MSI has it beaten in all regards except for resolution and maximum brightness (which i would argue 400nits is to bright for almost all people here)

The speakers of the Alienware are very mediocre as well, they get smoked by a macbook and even harder by high end MSI notebooks, not even close. So talking about how HP speakers are tinny isn't really a discussion you should be taking when having an alienware. According to notebookcheck:

It just showcases how biased you are towards your AW.

In terms of design it's very subjective, to me Alienware and Asus which both have bery similair design really aren't anything special. I prefer the same design type, but I don't really think its that much prettier than other notebooks. Also don't talk about keyboards, the new keyboards in newer Alienware are a major stepdown from previous generations. Which OP will notice, the keyboard on both the clevo and Alienware are really bad compared to MSI and Asus notebooks in the same class. I used a keyboard on a M17x R4 and a 17 R4, the older model keyboard crushed the newer one, it wasn't even close.

Asus are a pain in the ass, everythin from terrible driver support, terrible heatsink designs etc. I have not tried the newest ones just yet,so they might have improved on this, but considering that they were bad from 2010 - 2016 I doubt much changed to be fair.

Gigabyte notebooks are way to slim, they suffer from thermal issues due to their choice of putting high end hardware into a way to slim chasis.

Also it does not have fully unlocked vBios, no notebook has that.

The Alienware 17R4 is mediocre, not bad not good. If you look objectively the MSI notebooks in the same priceclass smoke the Alienware for the most part, the only thing Alienware really has going for them is that they might have a better design for some people and the build quality of the chasis is much better than most notebooks. For instance the bigger MSI notebooks have also decent build quality except for the wonky screen, you can flex it to a very terrifying point.

@ Devianti

So before I can recommend anything for you, I would ask you what you expect of the notebook. Like can it be heavy? Do you like sleek or flashy design? Maybe you don't care about the design? Keyboard? Value performance or speaker performance etc.? It really depends on your needs mate.

I'll just tell you, that since 2015, Alienware has changed a lot, the new Alienware notebooks are nothing to the one you have now or the older ones you might be used to.

 

You are right, I am biased. It's not my fault I like my 17 R4

GT73/75 do have a better screen color-wise, but when you buy one you might get a 5ms panel or a 3ms one, I don't like not knowing what I'm going to get. The TN on the 17 R4 isn't the best, that's for sure, but the QHD resolution is great and is one of the main reasons I chose it.
Brightness depends, I use mine on full brightness all the time. I work in a very fancy office where everything is white and very, very well lit, many of my coworkers struggle with seeing their screens, I don't. But that's my particular case.

The speakers have more to give. AW Sound Center makes a huge difference. To sound and volume. I think it's competent and I would miss the subwoofer if I got something without one.

Design is subjective, but build quality isn't. And AW haspretty much everyone beat on that.
I also don't get what you're on about with the keyboard. It's great and super solid. Has the most travel in its class for a membrane keyboard. Sure, HP and MSI have pseudo-mechanical solutions (I have never tried one, they look good but I think have little travel distance for a mechanical kb) and you pay for it. I really like the keyboard in the 17 R4 and I owned MSI, Clevo, Asus and Gigabyte in the last 3/5 years. Haven't tried one of those mechanical ones though.

I meant to say that AW made available a vBIOS for the 1080 which has the maximum TDP nvidia allows as spec. Thats 180W. MSI's vBIOS are somewhat locked to 150W, from what I've read around here.
Performance diference is negligible in game though.

I wouldn't call it mediocre. But it is a different value proposition, no doubt.
Other manufacturers are busy with gaming looks, red vents and light up dragons, they are going bigger and have more space for SSDs, mechanical keyboards, more copper in the heatsinks, etc...

AW just made a tank of a laptop that's got it where it counts to many people. I carry mine daily and I don't like to baby any piece of technology. They are tools first, toys second. So I do appreciate immensely the build quality, the bright and high-res screen, quiet keyboard and stupid big 99Wh battery.
It's half the thickness as a GT75VR but performs pretty much the same. The GT75 also is very noisy and it's thermal performance isn't as great as the heatsink size might sugest.

But I agree, AW is not making any more MXM laptops with SLI and desktop CPUs, they have pivoted quite a bit. But it's still a great product with great support and a great community. It delivers one of the best work and game experiences I ever had on a laptop.
Sure I had to repaste it and was almost about to sell it just because of frustration regarding widespread thermal issues. But with some tinkering it's really a beast! And I can't find anything in the market that fills my needs like it. Oposition is thicker, has less resolution, is way to gamer-looking and has less than ideal support.

Oh, and it also has Tobii eye-tracker!
While it is a gimmick for games and pretty much only good for WOW-ing friends, I really like to have it on while working. Screen goes off and locked the moment I step back from my table, and turns on and unlocks when I sit back down again. Pretty seamless! Windows Hello works pretty good and is very safe with Tobii too.

Besides, I paid 2600€ for mine. Where I live, a GT75VR with the same specs is around 3600€, that's 1000€ more. Not worth it IMO.

Dell support is also in it's own league.
Sure, people still have issues and it's not perfect. But, for example, I had an issue with my battery where it wouldn't charge. Laptop still worked just fine when plugged in, it just wouldn't charge.
Called Dell and they had a technician with a new battery, at my workplace, within 3 days. Changed the battery myself during lunch-hour. I wasn't away from my laptop or my data for 1 minute. Didn't have to encrypt work files, or backup my entire OS before sending it in to the manufacturer.

To put in perspective, when I last owned an MSI GS70 I had to wait for 30 days for MSI to fix a small issue regarding a noisy fan. 30 days without my laptop or my data! No replacement laptop was given. Dell's support has huge value to me.

 

The QHD is average, not great. I mean it's sufficient for you, which is great, good for you, but don't call it a great screen if it's just ok.

Pretty sure the EC is limiting the performance, also the MSI cards run at 200Watts.

The battery is huge and still has terrible battery life thanks to the lack of Optimus, again bad design choice if you ask me.

We can ask @Phoenix about the thermal performance vs yours to see if that statement of yours holds true or not. Personally I highly doubt it, but I'm all in for a suprise.

In the end you're really not being very objectively which I find a shame because you could be potentially misleading OP. You can tell that you like your notebook, which obviously you have the right to do so, but don't tell him that your screen is very nice or speakers are great, which objectively isn't the case. You can tell him that you love the design, it has sturdy chasis etc. which is all true, but don't tell him the other stuff.

Also I think 80% of the Dell subforum can tell you stories about the support which would make you cry. Seriously, nobody has better nightmare stories than the AW Subforum.

 

Well it does have above than average res, brightness and viewing angles for a TN.
Did now know that, I thought MSI was limiting to 150W, I'm sure I read something about that here. Not sure if it was about the newest GT series.
If 3.5 hours is terrible with a GTX 1080 and 120Hz screen then I don't know what's good. Because everybody looooves nvidia optimus! And everybody loves going to the BIOS to turn it on manually on MSI laptops.

Sure! Mine doesn't go above 75C while gaming. I don't do benchmarks or anything, just game and video render. It copes beautifully. I bet the GT series has an edge in temperatures but it should! Seeing as it's double the size.

Sure, support is not great, but when it comes to turds I think it's the most polished turd out there! I don't live in the US, I live in Portugal. When I had an MSI support was awful here. Dell support for my unit was complicated the first time (Alienware doesn't sell in Portugal so I had to wait for parts) but then I did a ownership transfer with dell and they started stocking up. A new battery took less than 3 days from diagnosing it to getting it installed. I can not beat that where I live, not even Apple is as fast.

But again, this is just my 2 cents. Nothing you read online should be taken to heart, OP can make his own mind reading every sort of experience and opinion around here. I tried lots of laptops and the 17 R4 is great for me. Would only trade it for a P870TM but would lose battery and built quality. Heat issues are also present and require tinkering. The Omen X is also pretty interesting. If it had a QHD and subwoofer I wouldn't think twice as it's the only other unit I know about with a 99Wh battery and sober enough looks.

 

Resolution means nothing especially when there are UHD options out there. You don't turn optimus on by going to the bios.

You press a button that triggers the mux switch....or if it's without, then it's automaticly on. Don't know where you got the BIOS part from.

Can you tell me what game you're playing? maybe upload a youtube video or screen. I'd be interested.

Well that might be the thing, most on this forum live in the US and have terrible experience, maybe the portugese divsion knows whats up.

 

So, answer to the thread question is: NO...

 

I disagree. QHD is the sweetspot right now IMO for a 17.3" laptop. Specially a gaming one paired with 120Hz refresh rate and a 1070 or 1080 to match.
The 4Ks look gorgeous. But are not 120Hz. Gaming at 60Hz is so 2012 And I'm not the only one thinking that
The AW, and others, have the QHD TN and a 4K IPS option available. One's great for gaming, the other's great for media. Both are pretty good at the other stuff but there's definitely a trade-off.

I thought you could enable it or not thru BIOS. But optimus is it's own thing, lots of people have issues with it. The 17 R4 has no optimus and the gpu is directly connected to the screen. To make up for it in battery time they put a huge 99Wh unit inside. It's a brute force aproach but I dig it

I play lots of games: PUBG, BF1, Fortnite, GTA, etc... temps are good on all of them. It handles hours of BF1 on ultra pretty nicely.
I'll take some screenshots next time.

It's definitely not portuguese dell doing something right. We have Dell but we don't have Alienware here, I bought mine in another country.
When I first called them up asking for support (first unit had a warped heatsink) they were kinda baffled with the request. They took a while to get things going and I needed to wait on an ownership transfer from Dells website updating my address.
After this they stocked up and were pretty fast. The technician was cool (subcontract, not dell) but I was definitely more comfortable working with the machine than him, so I did all the replacing.
I guess we just hear less horror stories from Dell europe, IDK, some people are just unlucky. I've read about some pretty nice experiences with Dell support around here too.

 

If the Image quality is mediocre then I wouldn't bother with QHD or UHD. I am pretty sure most would prefer good image rather than high resolution. Battery life is still terrible, no matter how you try and talk out of it, then again you can argue that a GTX 1080 notebook shouldn't really be something u'd use on battery in the first place, which would make the whole bigger battery more pointless.

Try an RMA process, aka when it needs to be sent back to the US, then we talk about how Dell support isn't bad.

Optimus does have it's issues, which is true. It also got some very good things to it tho. it's again a give and take thing, same as your AW. Gonna wait and see the screens u're gonna post. Hopefully with some gameplay previously like 10-15min so that the GPU and CPU gets stabilized on the temps, that way OP can have an idea how the whole modded AW runs like.

 

Dude.

So gaming TN panels with worse picture but great response times aren't a thing acording to you?
Battery life still terrible? I've gotten almost five hours out of that thing. Just yesterday I streamed the champions league, 1080p 60FPS video feed over wi-fi, didn't break a sweat with still 1.5 hours of remaining bat life. (a footie game is ~2 hours btw)

RMA process? Dude they bring the parts to me. Why would it go to the US? It's made in china like every other computer.

Only good thing about optimus is battery life. People with gaming laptops don't use that advantage every single day I bet. But you have to deal with optimus issues every single day so I don't like optimus. Rather have this huge f*ck-off battery that tries to make up for it and has less gpu related issues. Or microstutters, or flickering, or all those issues optimus is known for. No wonder Clevos have the BIOS option to disable it completely.

And finally, my friend, I am not lying about my temps. You seem awfuly suspicious.
If my temps were sh*t I would tell you they are sh*t. Just like I did on these forums when I first got the thing. Then I got my heatsink replaced, repasted and repaded and saw the light

 

The FHD screens from MSI have better response time and better image quality. Whats your point?
Pretty sure I trust Notebookchecks 3 hour test on basic surf rather than your made up story about how yours magicially holds 3.5hours on 1080p 60FPS video stream.

That's why I said until you get to the RMA process. They will not send you a mainboard without getting the notebook themselves.

So we will ignore the fact that you can use the intel graphics to stream, while using the CPU + GPU to game, while literally losing 0 FPS on streaming? Ok then.
You never had an optimus based system, since you apparently don't even know that you don't switch optimus in the BIOS. I mean cmon you spouted so much false information it's unbelievable that you keep going. Just stop it.

Also disabling Optimus in clevos which you're refering to would literally make the notebook boot with a black screen and be unusable. Again, completely nonfactual nonsense you post again. There are only very few notebooks that would allow you to disable optimus without causing a black screen. (I think clevo P651HP can do this to name one of the very few)

Nobody even remotely suggested that you're lying about your temps, the fact that you even bring that up makes you the suspicious one here. Also you have proven over and over again that you do clearly not see things very objectively, so chances of you sugercoating your temps isn't even that improbable at this point. I'm only interested to see your temps, while gaming with the load so that I can make up my mind that a modded AW is worth anything or not.

 

You keep thinking I'm lying to you, I'm not.

Better response times and color, but less res.

I did do a RMA. I got a new motherboard and heatsink delivered to my house with a dell technician to replace it. I replaced them myself. Took photos of it, it's in the AW subforum...

Did not know that about streaming, that's pretty cool if you stream.
I've never had an optimus system. Ok my dude you got me figured out. My GS70, GS40, zenbook had optimus. I owned a P650RP6-G with optimus (mshybrid). Sure, it's great on a little 14" GS40 but I mostly had to put up with it in the MSIs and had it 99% of the time turned off in the clevo. (similar clevo to what you talk about in your post)
There's literally hundred of thousand of hits for optimus issues on google, mainly with laptops that do it automatically.

 

The MSI 1070 cards are 150w

If you can get the AW through a reseller that can deal with the temp differential issue for you then its a slick looking machine with a decent enough screen. Personally I dont see the need for 1440p on a 17" panel but thats just my own opinion. Unless I am mistaken more resolution means more work for the GPU which means more work for the CPU to drive. Im biased though, I havent used that pixel density in a laptop yet. 1080p120hz is golden for me.

Its a solid machine with a huge weakness in quality control. I'd have a reseller make sure its running properly before shipping to you, but always keep in mind a jerky shipment can screw things up too so they can really only guarantee up until it leaves their location.

As for Danish he has a tendency to go off the rails and make claims without evidence or bother to do any reading for context anyways. Its a waste of time to argue with him because he has no intent of being wrong in the first place.

The MSI panel IS much better however, that is, if 1080p is a resolution under consideration. Thats up to the OP though.

 

To be fair I think you all make good points - and I understand that it's not always easy to be objective when you love your machine. I doubt I could have been that objective about the first AW I got that really blew me away. But I do like seeing arguments both for and against, I generally always need a bit of a devil's advocate to question my own thoughts (objective or otherwise!). So thanks guys for providing exactly that.

I certainly don't mind the weight - even this M14x weighs a ton given its small size. I'm already quite sold on the design and build quality of the AW 17 - the design is definitely a personal thing. Keyboard is important for gaming of course, and you're right - the keyboards on the M series AWs are superb - probably among the best laptop ones I've ever tried. Not the best looking keys, but the feel and action is almost spot on. Looking at the new ones, they do look like they might not be quite as good, but most people I know are quite content with them.

My main concern is the colour wash-out of the QHD display - are those comparison figures you quoted before or after a full calibration has been done? And as for speakers I'm not fussed - all gaming will be done with headphones or my TV A/V setup.

To be honest I'm starting to think that I'm jumping the gun a bit. Have been dying to upgrade to a GX 1080, but the AW screen doesn't seem there yet (although I would LOVE the 120hz refresh). Am starting to think I should get a cheaper stepping-stone system, like an AW 17 R4 with a GTX 1060 and a 1080p IPS display... so I get the nice colors for my photoshop work, and can still game (most) modern FPS on high/ultra at 60fps. It'll save me about 1000 - 1200 USD too, and then I can game away while waiting to see if Dell turns things around in the next generation of laptops. The thermal issues don't bother me, as will likely order from Hidevolution and get them to do repastes.

Does that sound like I'm talking myself down?! The sensible part of my brain (that almost always gets drowned out by the 'go big or go home' part) thinks that I should wait until it's time to do the $3000+ jump to QHD/4K gaming when there's a fast screen that has the color depth I need, and a system that can solidly power it all. I'm not averse to looking at other brands, I shopped around a little but it didn't feel quite right - that must be my own subtle bias. I also wouldn't mind sticking with AW just to see what all the fuss (both good and bad) has been about, so taking a cheaper shot might be the answer. It'll probably give me a strong idea of whether I stick with them or not in the future.

 

Yeah, notebookcheck always calibrates their screen before doing testing.

It really depends on your needs. If you're going for a FHD solution then a 1060 will do just fine. You're right tho, 3.000USD for a GTX 1080 notebook is quite an investment and the fact that it didn't kind of scare you off that you need to mod a 3.000USD machine in order to get temps that doesn't kill it run normally kinda baffles me. I mean, If I would invest 3.000USD in something and it doesn't work out of the box, then I'd not even consider it, but then again, some people are different I suppose.

You might also consider a PC + notebook combo, a ~1.500USD PC is destroying a 3.000USD notebook. Just to give you another option here.

@ Shark00n
I don't believe you that you had an optimus system by the fact that you think that you can simply disable it on optimus systems and only do it via BIOS. Also that you think all disable their optimus because of problems despite many people using it for battery life purposes. After you claimed that you run on battery 3.5 hours with a 1060 60FPS stream while reviews state that the batterytime on casual suring is around 3 hours flat only strenghtens my disbelief in your statements.

Also RMA involves you sending your notebook back, not simply getting a mainboard. No company would just send a mainboard to a customer because then everyone could simply state that ther mainboard is dead and get a free mainboard.

@TheReciever We talk about 1080s, not 1070s, but then again you don't bother read entire texts anyways so why bother with you as well right?

Yeah you mean the notebookcheck review and numbers stated in other reviews
Look at you go.

 

Dude you keep pressing the same keys over and over.

Many people with clevos that have optimus have it always disabled in BIOS. Source, go check clevo sub forums
Optimus is not without its issues.

Also, it's Dell dude! Get a grip. You don't send a notebook back! Only if they are exchanging the whole unit. They sent me a mainboard dude, they have their tools to diagnose IDK why you keep saying they wont send mainboards when I got one.

People also get screens, chassis, mb, heatsinks, etc

 

Don't bother dude, its a brick your arguing against.

I'm still waiting for Danish to back up his claims in 3 other threads.

@Danishblunt

He had a correlation on 150w MSI GPU's, I supplied a possible end to that line of recollection.

Again proving my point that you really arent capable of having conversations with anyone besides yourself.

 

Yeah desktop's not really an option - I need the inter-room portability in my house and the rare occasion I take it some place. Plus that means I'd be in the market for all the peripherals... even new monitor that takes advantage of it etc.

So here's the crazy result... am now 95% certain I will get a ROG Strix GL702VS with a 1070... and an FHD 120hz display. I still save the $1000 and get a fast machine with a fast display... and hopefully better color depth a la IPS as it's AHVA. I'll re-bank that grand and sit out the current ****storm whilst gaming at 1080p! Can't believe I'm considering it, but it would be nice to try out something else and hopefully get more of what I need out of the system.

Not that I'm abandoning AW - if Dell brings out a new line with fast UHD displays that tick the gaming and media boxes... I'll be there.

I guess this thread has sorta gone off-topic a bit, but it's been helpful nonetheless. And I'm totally not qualified enough to join in with any of the other arguments, on either side hehe.

Cheers,
Dev.

 

Not to shabby 120hz IPS screen on a notebook is rare.
As already stated I only had terrible experience with Asus from 2010 - 2015 models. I don't know much about the newer models so if you go for it, a review after a month of use would be very nice for people like me to see if Asus has changed or not.

Proving that you don't bother reading and like to post nonsense made up in your brain. Stop fantasizing, thanks. Pretty sure you're the one not capable of having conversations with anyone besides yourself thanks to the lack of information processing.

 

I've never had an ASUS. Only laptops I've had worth gaming with have been an XPS and subsequently AW (although one of my work Surface Pros didn't do too bad for casual stuff on the move). Think I'll go for this:

http://www.hidevolution.com/asus-gl702vs-rs71.html

With a few tweaks to RAM, SSD, and crucially repasting I'm game to give it a go. Just wish I could find reliable data on the aRGB performance of the 120hx FHD display.

@Shark00n I'm not giving up on AW! Just taking a cheaper seat that over delivers on what I would have got. I'm glad you enjoy your system - am envious! If I could buy two of them I'd be right there with ya!

 

It's similair to the Alienware, however the contrasts are so much better that is basicially translates to great picture quality but not color accurate. It's a bit like samsung phones, screen look very nice, colors are vibrant etc, but it isn't color accurate.

Specs of screen:
86% sRGB
56% AdobeRGB
Gamma: 2.19
Contrast: 1507:1 (Black: 0.21 cd/m²)

Brightness distrobution of 93% is also pretty good.

Also the notebook is really quiet, at a max of 48db. Speakers are similarily bad as on AW, but then again you don't care since you use headset.

Looking at the Notebookcheck review it seems like it has major temp issues tho.


So Yeah, I really don't know about it.

It has the exact same issue as the Alienware, the heatpipes are taking the heat from the graphicscard and puts it on the CPU.



As you can see, they did a furmark benchmark which only tests the GPU, however the CPU gets hot because the heatpipes take the heat from the GPU to the CPU instead of the heatsink.

 

Good luck with the Asus bro!

 

Still waiting on you to provide proof of DTR not being able to function off of a cooling pad bro.

Which is just one of many holes of logic again demonstrating the amount of hand holding needed in dialogue with you.

 

Waiting for you to cite me from somewhere claiming that a DTR would not function off a cooling pad.

Again, proving my point. Learn to read and process information, either that or talk to a brick wall please. Thanks!

 

LMAO your hilarious, now you make claims and claim to never make them.

I guess thats why people have to screenshot your fud, makes more sense now.

 

If I indeed made that claim it shouldn't be that hard to cite me, but since you talk traight out of your bum nothing will come.
Thanks for proving my point and showcasing your hypocrisy.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...intel-desktop-cpu.811809/page-3#post-10648248

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...intel-desktop-cpu.811809/page-3#post-10648254

And Im done here.

 

That’s some selective memory right there.
Someone should ease off the danish blunts

 

that's hilarious, I've used that same retort before hahaha

 

Please show me where I stated it wouldn't function without a cooling pad.
Thanks for showcasing your inability to process information.

 

Like I said Im done here lol

This wasnt for you as much as is it for others to decide for themselves.

I opened with stating your inability to be wrong and our peers can decide that for themselves since dialogue with you is in fact impossible.

For other examples Im sure @Papusan can share since he generally has them on hand seemingly.

 

yeah ofc you're done because you have no ground to stand on. I debunked your claim and now u're looking like an asshat. My pleasure.

 

No I just have more pressing things to spend my time on.

If you really wanted to win an argument you would have before in our previous engagements. Each chance you had you silently stop posting in them.

Finishing my BSIT, working on TEFL certificate, going to the gym, learning Korean. You know, life things. There is more to life than debating, well arguing actually, with someone who has a self imposed mindset that cant be wrong on the internet. Especially when I have a deadline.

So I could either waste my time here or continue working on real goals, especially since the net result of this gains me nothing.

 

For someone who is done you sure act like you aren't.
I know some people like to make a fool out of themselves but this is almost masochistic.

 

Sure thing bud, you do you, Ill worry about my own actions lol

 

I find it hard to believe that anyone would take you serious.

 

@Danishblunt Yeah I think it's the best I'm going to get for Adobe RGB in my price range that also has a fast refresh. Perhaps I'll get an external at some point if a laptop that ticks all my main requirements doesn't surface.

As for temps, I'm hoping the repaste and the ventilation mod that HiDevolution offer will do the trick. Quite likely to pull the trigger on this laptop, so if I do I'll be sure to post that review! And thanks for the benchmark info!

@Shark00n Thanks man!

 

@Danishblunt so I find myself stuck between one of two choices... argh!

http://www.hidevolution.com/asus-gl702vs-rs71.html

and

http://www.hidevolution.com/asus-gl702vi-wb74.html

Typical for me. But as I noticed I could get a 1080 for a mere fraction more (literally 100 bucks) I had to look it up.

First option pros:

1) Quieter
2) Few hundred bucks cheaper

First option cons:

1) It's silver haha (not a deal breaker, but y'know)

Second option pros:

1) It has a 1080 as opposed to 1070 (but has Asus crippled it with their thermal management?)
2) It's black and has RGB keyboard lighting (also not a dealbreaker!)

Second option cons:

1) From what I gather louder cooling at load. But the repaste and mod to bottom chassis ventilation should help.
2) Increased size but who cares (height approx 1cm greater)

I made some changes to SSDs and other stuff, but it's not consequential. Only important thing is the repasting and ventilation mods.

Am I overthinking this? :S

EDIT: Not too concerned about the lack of thunderbolt on the GL702VI unless I'm missing something here...

Think it's almost time to bite the bullet

 

According to notebookreview the Cooling of the GL702vi seems better than the other. The GPU is suprisingly cool and the GPU doesn't seem to heat the CPU up all to much. It isn't entirely unified heatpipes but more like a shared heatpipe/block system. Also the cooling seems rather loud on load. 52dB is quite a bit.

Color coverage seems decent and brightness is rather high.Blacks are great.

Speakers are utter crap.

Batterylife is bad, but then again it's a DTR so it's kinda given.

Overall it seems better than the 1070 version in many ways, but again, I have no experience with the newer ASUS notebooks and only had problems with previous versions.

Note: The Asus GTX 1080 seems to be pretty nerfed. The VI version only scores about 19K points in firestrike, while the Asus G710VIK scores with the same card 23K points. The GTX 1070 on the Asus VS scores around 17K.

So there is that.

GTX 1070 VS: 100%
GTX 1080 VI: 111.5%
GTX 1080 VIK: 130%

 

Yeah I'm thinking pretty much the same. Slightly better performance with the VI... Just wondering about the nerfed 1080 and if a repaste will allow it to perform better or if any tweaking is locked away out of my reach.

The struggle is real man! Either way, I'll order one of the two tomorrow. Asus is totally uncharted territory for me.

 

Pretty sure TDP is limited as the temps seem rather good. So no repaste will fix the performance nerf.

 

Aww darn it. Talk about rock and a hard place! I guess the 1070 with the repaste is the better bet. Trying to see if the TDP is limited on that model, if not then the repasted 1070 will probably equal the limited 1080, perhaps even beat it in places.

 

If you're in for it, you can get an SPI programmer and set the TDP limit on 200W, then it should perform normally. However I don't know if the cooling will be haooy about it, but some tweaking in regards of the throttlelimit and maybe add a couple of Watts extra, might give you decent enough performance.

 

Seems like too much of a gamble for me. Call me crazy, but I've made my last switch-up hehe... Here's the final call:

http://www.hidevolution.com/asus-gl503vs-dh74.html

1070 on a smaller 15.6" display, similar price as the 1080, I get the black colour, and the 144hz IPS screen has 73% Adobe RGB which is pretty neat! By the looks of it the 1070 isn't nerfed, so with the repasting of everything I hope I can squeeze more out of it. That said it seems to run cool even under load - just pretty noisy fans ~52-54dB. Hopefully the repasting might reduce some of that too, but in the end, headphones.

I have zero experience with Asus too, so here goes nothin'! Thanks for the moral support danish haha

 

Idk, I'm against Asus in general but I do look at things objectively.
The screen is rather good.Has very good color coverage, brightness is decent, blacks seems a little low for IPS, still better than any TN screen and the rest seems neat as well.

The only real downside I've seen thus far is actually that it's assively loud under load.

Idk It's an Asus so I'm still gonna be a bit sceptical, but looking at reviews, this seems like a very solid notebook. Suprisingly good. If you decide to buy it, let us know how the notebook fares. Also you should make a thread here so that @Phoenix can help you getting rid of all the Bloatware, Asus has a lot of them installed.