Alienware 17 R4 - 6820HK/1070M - Dead Motherboard

@rinneh You want the boost clocks well here you go

*EDIT: Look at the default clocks section*

 

All Quadro MXMs for name-brand workstations are made by MSi

 

Well I guess that is why an MSI GTX 1070 MXM literally worked and fit perfectly in my dell precision 7710, it was a plug and play upgrade, even optimus works flawlessly! Just needed to do a small driver inf mod in the beginning and that was it.

Although my PCI express is set to x8 and not x16, no idea why but it works fine cause its gen 3

 

Try running gpu-z test and see if the pcie can be set to x16 under more load.

Or maybe there's a setting in the bios?

Try flashing a new bios?


When you think of it, the pcie lanes are pretty limited in the laptop CM236/8 chipset. So maybe only x8 on the mxm connection since other lanes are used for docking stations etc.

 

Actually that is a good shout because the docking station does take up a significant amount of the bandwidth, to be honest I'm fine with pcie 8x because I have a gtx 1070 and that is not the bottleneck. Even if there is I will overclock the gpu to eliminate this.

Also on load it goes to 3.0 x8 on the pci-e, and this card uses 120w from the mxm connector :0

 

Well considering the limit only gets reached on Titan Vs xD

 

The clock frequency indeed seems to be higher than normal from what I see. But the temps are incredibly low (70c on my current paste and they where 75c with the old paste), there is a big heatsink covering it so I definitely would expect they have their things in order for the 1070GTX version at least. Would be a huge class action lawsuit if they didnt. They cant take the risk. But the 1080GTX seems to have an issues with a thermal pad not touching part of the chokes?

Only saw a handful motherboards that died online for these models. So I am not really worried.

Still undervolted mine though, lower is always better. Even a heavy game like Final Fantasy 15 doesnt tip over my temps over 80C which is good for a thin 15inch laptop in my opinion.

 

To be honest the chokes can withstand a lot of heat so I do not think that would be the issue, its the mofsets that need cooling, in some laptops the chokes are not even cooled such as some thin clevo laptops and even in my laptop some of the ones surrounding the cpu are not cooled.

Still if I had the alienware laptop I would definitely undervolt to avoid issues in the future.

 

The Gpu core or vram ain’t a problem (never those who take farewell). It’s the other components. You know the Gpu core temp, but that’s all. Change specs afterwards was needed due wrong claims. They had to do it. People demanded this. Lower sales due false claims will hurt a company equal hard.

 

How are the temps of the 1070 in the Precision? Want to look into it. I thought Dell stopped doing MXM based machine.

All mosfets and chokes are covered luckily by the GPU heatsink in the AW15R3. GPU is just shy of 70c under load. CPu 80c~82c.

Yeah but the heatsink is touching all parts surrounding it as well. So at this time I am not too worried. Still wanna get 2 years extra warranty later this year. Use these laptop for my work as well. I have a backup But it still would cost me too much time swapping my files.

 

Interesting, on default I go over 1800mhz from time to time, mostly 1748mhz. I guess its indeed a default overclock.

 

My temps are actually fairly low because I’ve used metal paste on the 6920hq and have it overclocked to 4ghz on the same stock voltage which gives me speeds of the 6700k. I got lucky with the chip. With this my cpu reaches a max of only 78c!

The gtx 1070 temps are also fairly low and reach a max of 73c with a 300mhz overclock on both memory and core. Otherwise, on stock clocks the temps stay around 65-67c.

I need a 330w psu to power this laptop as the battery is discharging with the 230w one.

I would say it is well worth buying one of these dell precision laptops, the gpus are not whitelisted which means every gpu can be used with Optimus. The triple copper heatsink actually does an AMAZING job at keeping the cpu and gpu cool and plus the laptop stays fairly silent even under load. The laptop (workstation) was made to be stressed 24/7 so I expected this anyway.

All I’m gonna say is that it is superior than the Dell Alienware laptops.

And this is why it is maybe double the price of an Alienware.

 

Yeah the price is certainly higher, temps similar with liquid metal but i would indeed expect that these are made with the highest standards in mind. Too bad they seem to be a bit bulky. But it is definitely a nice machine to consider.

 

Compared to clevo laptops with the same specs this is slim, I take it to uni everyday. It only weighs 3kg and I can comfortably hold that. Also its not too bulky only 35mm thick compared to an msi which is 55mm or more.

For being upgradable it is pretty slim, plus it is made of high quality materials, mostly carbon fibre and metal.

 

I just stick with my Ranger for now, still having fun modding and upgrading it.

Its unfortunate what happened to the OP though...

 

Read the entire thread, this sucks.

I have had multiple components on motherboards fail but usually its the easy stuff, loose DC jack in, failed sister board like mousepad or something.

I have run close to 4Ghz on my old Alienware 14 R2 for YEARS and have never had a board level component fail. This is very much not the norm. Hope you worked it out amigo.

 

I did end up replacing the board with one bought on ebay for 900USD. The good thing about the one I got was that it actually was in Manufacturing Mode so I was able to set my service tag. So now I can get an extended warranty, Dell quoted me 435.76CAD for 1 year and 757.69CAD for 2 years.

 

You super lucked out on that one.

What is Manufacturer mode anyway? does it prompt you for board info?

 

When Dell brings a replacement board, the technician sets the service tag of your machine in the new motherboard. Once it is set and Manufacturing Mode is turned off, it cannot be changed. So now my motherboard has the same service tag as what my machine shipped with.

 

wow 900 USD for motherboard , i got my mobo changed just a few days ago by Dell and it costed just 148 USD ....Thank god i live in India

 

Are you sure? The mobo costs upwards of 30k for older AW echo model. @VICKYGAMEBOY changed 10-12 Mobo and problem isn't fixed.

 

Yeah I am sure , but the only thing is that they took the damaged board and replaced it with another and it too was in manufacturing mode , so i get to keep my old service tag and extend my warranty for 25k for 2 years.

 

But AW revoked VICKY's extended warranty because he complained too much

 

They refunded his whole extended warranty?

 

I doubt it but you can ask @VICKYGAMEBOY