The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    New AW 17 R4 Owner - Questions

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by Ranma546, Apr 25, 2017.

  1. Ranma546

    Ranma546 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    6
    I've never owned a laptop before, nor an Alienware, nor anything from Dell, and I have my purchase being delivered this Friday. Just wondering what are some of the first things that I need to do when I take it out of the box. Will drivers need to be updated? If so, which ones? BIOS & VBIOS as well? Anything I should look our for in particular to see if I need to contact Dell for warranty stuff? It's been quite a while since I've owned any kind of computer new, so I appreciate the help in knowing what to do when I open it to get it all up to snuff :)

    For reference, here is my purchase details:

    Alienware 17.3" QHD 120Hz TN
    i7- 7820HK CPU
    GTX 1080 GPU
    32GB DDR4
    512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB 7200RPM SATA
    Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi

    Thanks! :)

    (Edit; Oh and I don't plan on doing any overclocking. Just stock settings!)
     
    Ranma546, Apr 25, 2017
    #1
  2. Vasudev

    Vasudev Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    12,050
    Messages:
    11,278
    Likes Received:
    8,815
    Trophy Points:
    931
    First do a clean install of windows if needed. Apply all updates and drivers. Then update vbios to enable 200W TDP limit. OC your CPU to 4GHz as daily driver.
     
    Vasudev, Apr 25, 2017
    #2
  3. jayyy_jayyy

    jayyy_jayyy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Why do a clean install if they come with little to no bloatware from Dell?
     
    jayyy_jayyy, Apr 25, 2017
    #3
    Vasudev likes this.
  4. kiomon

    kiomon Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Check your heat sink and be sure all the screws are in it. I just checked mine and it was missing one of the heatshrink screws! I had it open to add some additional harddrives. Was shocked to see the screw not there! Ugh
     
    kiomon, Apr 25, 2017
    #4
  5. NA087

    NA087 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    118
    Likes Received:
    38
    Trophy Points:
    41
    1) Overclock



    2) make sure temperature between the lowest and highest temp between cores don't exceed 5°

    3) if they do return it buy one with the most bare bone spec. By this I mean just a 7280hk and a 1080.

    Key thing to remeber: don't buy Dell parts. They are the worst BUT Dell will charge you like they were made of gold

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-alienware-17-r4-owners-lounge.797457/page-507

    Wifi
    Intel 8265 (killer is having problems with windows 10

    RAM
    I like corsair but then again that is me

    PCIe SSD
    Samsung or something else
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    On top of that

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...5r3-disassembly-repaste-guide-results.797373/

    But also watch

    This is without taking the entire laptop apart


    Full dissambly


    I think i forgot something there is a guide to bend the heat sink so it applies the proper pressure on the CPU.
    ------------------------------------------------------------

    On top of all this I and I think most people would advice you to get a repaste asap. Dell used to use peanut butter as thermal paste. Now they leveled up to toothpaste.... so yeah.
     
    NA087, Apr 26, 2017
    #5