Hey guys!
I recently purchased an Alienware 17 R3 (it's supposed to get here May 20th), and I'm just wondering if anyone on this forum has any tips / general recommendations for out-of-the-box procedures I should do to make sure the system runs smoothly / at max possible potential.
The system will be equipped with the 6720HQ, the 980M, and a 4K screen.
I'm interested in any advise which relates to stable BIOS versions, whether it's advisable to do a fresh Windows install before use, etc etc. I've seen a lot of people who have had issues (I assume largely because they didn't bother trying to inform themselves about the complexities / quirks of the system), and were therefore left disappointed.
Thanks in advance for any recommendations!
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Hi povertynow,
It's also worth getting some of the drivers direct from the hardware vendor sites, such as the NVidea driver, this is because the Dell site is only updated once Dell has tested the driver themselves and released it, this is always delayed due to the number of drivers Dell have to deal with across their range of systems, the drivers will almost certainly be newer on the vendor sites.
Also have a look through recent topics on here for the 4k screen colour profile, unless you want to calibrate it yourself. There's a recent topic where someone posted two colour profiles that you can use. -
Really appreciate this guys. Would it be recommendable to Format -> Fresh Install -> Do initial drivers through Dell -> then upgrade relevant drivers through respective sites (Nvidia, Killer. etc), or should I just sidestep Dell entirely?
I will definately make sure also to profile the panel.Last edited: Jun 15, 2016 -
Hi povertynow,
I updated through Dell first, to ensure all of the drivers were installed and none were missing, I then updated from the vendor sites to get the newest drivers where possible. -
I will be the lone voice in the wilderness recommending staying with the original load and updating the nvidia drivers directly from nvidia. Otherwise I don't change anything to start unless I see a problem. Some people have had issues with wifi disconnects and in the past I have abandoned the Killer wifi for the Intel 8260 but only when I've experienced too many disconnects that drivers could not correct.
I personally do not care about wringing every last bit of performance from the system. I want it to work. I tend to clone the original drive first just so I have a full copy of how it came. I have a ton of extra drives laying about.
The only other thing I do is uninstall any trial antivirus and use the default Microsoft product.
Other than that I tend to leave the system as it arrived.JerseyBoy likes this. -
So it arrived today! 8 beeps (screen problem) on first boot and it proceeded to freeze (unusable) on startup several hours later. Returning, unsure if I'll re-order this system.
Thanks for the help though guys! -
Wow, sorry to hear that. Disappointing to be sure.
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I ended up getting it repaired (works like a dream now). Can anyone comment on whether it's OK to update the drivers for the processor / integrated GPU (Intel 530 I think it is). I'm just wondering, because obviously dell has some presets for the hardware in the bios and I just want to make sure I don't **** around too much with it.
Any commentary is helpful! -
My Intel driver in Device Manager is sitting at Intel 31 Aug 2015, 10.18.15.4281
Seems to be working fine so I have no reason to update it. Of course I'm still sitting at BIOS 1.2.3 as well since my system is working I don't want to mess with it.
Alienware 17 - Future Owner
Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by povertynow, Jun 12, 2016.