Returning Alienware for XPS 9560

So i am not a big gamer but there was a good deal on the AW. Specs were 256 SSD, 32GB Ram, nvidia 1070 and the overclocked 6820 i7.
What I like:
- nice screen (not overly bright) - but unfortunately blacklight bleed
- good keyboard
-the lightning zones are cool
-great graphics card
-looks good and built well
What I am on the fence about:
- back light bleed
-the shortcut keys I keep hitting instead of the actual keyboard
- those fans sound like a jet engine when under load (only gaming though and stop quite quickly - very effective)

The biggest issue is that it doesn't feel snappy enough for all those specs. Always a slight lag or it hangs. Very irritating.

Will return it I think (Dell authorised it because of the blacklight bleed) and get the 9560 which feels very snappy in the shops by comparison.

Bit frustrating that for those specs it just didn't seem sharp enough. Fast enough somehow.

 

oh - also, the 256gb PCI SSD isnt as fast as the 9560 results i have been seeing but even more fundamentally, its not big enough! As I havent gamed for years i didnt realise how big they are - installed two and all of a sudden the drive looked cramped...I know there are other options for buying something and popping it in, but its more expense that pushes the laptop over £2100 all in. Thats a load of dough....

 

You should get what makes you happy. The 9560 and the AW are totally different machines. If you want to game on it, they will be night and day different. A reinstall of windows would probably fix the "snappiness" of the system. You could always buy a new SSD and sell your old one to recoup some of the costs.

 

Good point. Not a big gamer - but if i have a good graphics card i may as well use it!

 

I'm getting the 9560 but I wouldn't swap my R4 1080 for anything!

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Would or wouldn't??

 

Wouldn't!

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To be fair that's top of the top spec wise. I would say I am into videos and photos (editing) 85% of the time. The rest is Internet and a bit of gaming if I have the option which I do now!

 

The XPS 9560 seems like a good fit for you. The only other option would be an OLED AW 13R3 I guess.

 

There are 6700HQ oled AW13R3's in the dell outlet now for about 1300 USD.

 

although the 6700HQ is a good CPU, the furthest back i want to go on 6th series is 6820HK (though havent seen it hit 4.1ghz yet!)

 

I can run that easy under 1.3 V

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Not sure what that means as I am a novice. Is that good?

 

Funny herc...I am always on the fence to sell my 9550 for an AlienWare 15 R3 with your specs (minus light bleed, minus lagginess plus big SSD). The XPS is really nice after tweaks but can't touch the top AW models, particulary non-HQ CPUs and GPUs.

One of your AW issues may be that SSD performance really slows as it fills up. So if you have just one SSD, you really need to keep a good amount empty. Larger SSD can perform much faster than thier smaller syblings, but not always so you need to research that a bit. The newest generation of Samsung nvme SSD are blisteringly fast.

With the XPS Dell seems to change SSD models with some frequency so it is a bit of a gamble.

 

Just looking at my 9560 driver page as I have the service tag on the invlice, it is showing a liteon SSD firmware, god I hope not

 

Those Plextor units are marketed as "e-sports SSDs" so should be right up your alley!

 

The AW13 R3 is a beautiful machine but I just cannot abide such a large footprint for such a small (albeit gorgeous) display. 14"? Ok, I'll buy it. But it's just too much weight/dimensions for so little screen.

 

i currently have 97gb free of 256 - that should be enough?! I am not sure if its usb related. Whenever i connect an external drive (i have made an SSD (Samsung 850) as external drive) - it seems volatile for some reason. Not sure if its the ports themselves (have tried various including the thunderbolt with a converter) or a driver. What is the USB port drivers? I have updated to whatever is on the Dell support site. The SSD is in perfect order. I had it in my old system. Whenever it connects it connects as two drives, one of which is called "data" - not sure how to get rid of that.

 

If it keeps doing that, i will try a windows reinstall. There is such a lag sometimes when I startup, asking explorer or a few programs to open and nothing happens (had the drive plugged in). Then they all appear at once after a few mins.

Also, the alienware colour scheme flashes every now and then at start up. All up to date (according to dell website)

 

Fyi have plugged that drive into my work laptop. Instantly recognised and available.

 

Interested to know. What exactly makes you want to go the other way? Presumably gaming and therefore the gpu primarily?

 

I use the laptop for real-time music. That requires ultra-low latency and virtually no dropouts. The VI I use is 40GB per piano and is rather CPU intensive.

That puts lots of stress on the laptop, particulrly for USB, CPU, SSD and busses. So any XPS wonkiness or engineering shortcuts cause problems that either make irritating popping sounds or long delay between hitting a key and hearing sound.

A desktop is the best solution but a gaming laptop might (or might not) be better than the XPS for music...

 

97/256 GB is plently.

Did you try the port on the other side of the laptop? Is your drive USB3?

USB3 devices on the 9550 also are wonky. My computer is always trying to spit out USB3 thumb memory drives. Reads for a few seconds then ejects. Again and again self-cycling. That is a real problem when doing a clean install.

I think the fix was to get the "what do you want to do with this" pop up, right click and select "do nothing" (or try selecting windows explorer). Frankly can't remember exactly what I did but it is still not too stable. I have seen that this could be dependednt on the USB3 device...

 

I see. To be fair, its settled now and seems quicker. I disabled animations (windows setting) and uninstall USB drivers, then restarted. Not sure if that was it but seems more stable. Also removed the partition on my SSD. All in all, I am happy apart from the light bleed which is the only thing making me wonder whether to exchange it. On balance think this thing is still for me especially with the better fans and cooling

 

Thanks. The casing is USB 3, so it shouldnt be that. But i right clicked on the USB drivers in the device manager, uninstalled then restarted. Some of them hung for ages so I just ctrl+alt+del, ended that task and did it anyway. So far, so normal (or at least, it feels snappy!)

 

I must admit that the fans are loud, but only when under duress. They quickly go back to almost completely silent. My heating (radiators) are way louder than the fans - which reminds me, I think i need to call a plumber....

 

First BSOD for years...lovely!

 

They are collecting it on Wednesday. Will buy an alienware again but for cheaper. Either Dell outlet or with the 15% code at some time in the near future.

 

Found alienware r3 15 on outlet for £500 less. Same spec minus "only" 16gb ram.

 

So i replaced my alienware with the same again except with 16mb less ram, and £500 less. So far, very happy with it. Doing all the driver updates but the LCD is perfect. No hint of backlight bleed. Looking back, the first one was very bad (now that I know what a good one looks like!)

 

Great herc182.

I'm noodling on this monster

http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/eurocom-tornado-f5-msi-16l13-review/

 

tell a lie - there is bleed - doesnt seem as bad as before. But can live with it

 

thought i would do an update if anyone cares or helps their decision process.

I love the alienware 15 r3. I am actually wondering whether I should have gotten the 17 as that has a num pad and sub woofer, but the penalty in size would have just been a bit too much (even though I dont take the laptop out of the flat).

The nvidia 1070 is epic. I game at 4k with at least 60fps (GTA, Battlefield 1, alien isolation).

I have undervolted the CPU to -0.175v and the GPU to -0.120v. I have only had a crash on Battlefield 1. with that setting. Otherwise I can game without hearing the fans come on (audibly). I also have Driver san francisco where the CPU temp stays at or around 50 degrees throughout (I dont hear the fans come on).

I hate the light bleed. This is the second laptop and i had an attempted screen replacement, to no avail. Shame on you dell.

Battery life is impressive. Even with GPU set all the time (not integrated) i can get over 3 hours (with 4K display). Not that I care about battery life much, but that is pretty good.

The 4K display is superb sharp (minus lightbleed) but does have a slight yellow cast i think - needs calibration.

The CPU is a workhorse. I have overclocked too (with undervolting!) reaching 4ghz.

I am very used to a numpad - find that very annoying to readjust positioning.

Finally, I had some issues with the USB port consistency which I THINK is related to the USB 3 case i bought - doesnt seem to be an issue for the USB stick I have. Regardless, that seems unconfirmed so am not sure.

All in, think I am better off with this than the XPS 9560 for my needs and it has more flexibility for expansion (e.g. removed the 1tb 7200rpm HDD it came with and replaced it with my ssd for a far better system - put the games on there and other apps, saving the 256gb i have on the PCI ssd)

 

One thing i recently found is that streaming video from netflix or even BT sport has judders every 10 seconds. I THINK its the integrated graphics as it went away when I set it to the Nvidia, but not sure. If anyone has thoughts on that, would be appreciated. But it is exactly every 10s that it happens.

 

If you don't move it around at all then why does the size matter? I have the 17 and the XPS. Both are absolutely excellent

You're aware that GPU undervolt only applies to the integrated GPU therefore having no real world effect on your system temps when loading the other 1070 GPU? Also do you reset all the limits before applying OC? Otherwise it will be throttling due to TDP and other limits and not allowing you to truly undervolt properly

Me too, see my sig I need to run this benchmark again though now I've applied an undervolt also. Same note about TDP limits above. Are you saying you undervolt by 150mV at 4GHz? This is extremely unlikely without throttling, you won't be getting 4GHz performance for sure

 

I experienced this on the XPS15 funnily enough, the fix was to download Intel's integrated graphics driver again (not the Dell one). See guidance here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-9560-owners-thread.800611/page-79#post-10476490

 

Thanks for replying and the link to the driver!! I tired to use intel tool to update but it wouldnt do it (saying I had a manufacturer driver that should be used instead).

So I have only ever said I am a novice on OC but got no guidance. I do not know what you mean about resetting limits. I used the "core voltage offset" to lower until the system was unstable, then found a happy place. At 4ghz I can only undervolt to -0.025 (so basically nothing at all, but something is something). It does hit 4ghz and slightly above as I have monitored CPU max core frequency to check.

I did not know it was the onboard graphics I was undervolting. DOH!

 

The intel driver needs to be installed manually via the device manager, http://plugable.com/2014/12/03/how-to-manually-update-windows-intel-hd-graphics-drivers/

 

I'm sure it will tell you it's hitting 4GHz but my point is that it either won't be staying at 4GHz all the time (ie throttling down) or it won't be performing to what 4GHz actually should be



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