*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

How are people finding Alienware's delivery time? I ordered my 13 on the 10th and the tracking web sites says it left the factory and that's it, that was on the 14th.

 

you should get it by tomorrow!

 

I ordered the i7 version and it's not going to be delivered until early February.

 

i don't know if it been addressed yet since you first got your new lil alienware machines...has anyone tryed XTU that intel software to see if we can adjust cpu, bus, ram etc? cause i just know on all the games ill be playin just a few hundred MHz will make all the difference

 

Thanks for this doc! Because of this I a now torn between the 1080p and the 1440p! Arghhh! decisions decisions!
Still waiting for the i7 broadwell though - it is still not an option in this part of the world.

 

XTU won't edit the clocks of the ULV CPU, and neither would Throttlestop. You can, though, lower the voltage of the CPU.

 

Got my 1440p model in yesterday and loving it! the screen is amazing the colors pop out and looks super crisp hands down 1440p is where its at.

I did have a problem hooking up a usb 3.0 External hard drive dock to my system . It would recognize then disconnect and just looping between plugged in and disconnected on and off. Figured out it has to do with USB power management so went to the BIOS and turn off USB Powershare now everything is working flawless. Just in case anyone is having USB issues :thumbsup:

 

Still trying to decide between the Alienware 13 and the NP7338 Sager. The CPU choices of the
Sager would give my P150em with the GTX 675m a run for the money. But at the same time I also don't like the speakers or the build quality of the Sager (but I do admit the price was right,)

I would hope that the Alienware 13 would have a better battery life than the Sager. It's still hard to tell what the actual battery life is, some say 4 hours and some say from 5 to 6. Perhaps more people testing in real life conditions will give a more accurate reading of the battery life.

Still no "HTWingNut quality" reviews yet that I have found on the web. I so do admire the time and effort the he puts into the reviews.

Continuing to use my m11x r1 bought new, and my recently purchased used m11x r3. Just love the keyboard , sound and build quality of these machines over the years. Of all the computers that I have owned over the years the Alienware's have been the best.

I had wished that there was more choice of CPU's for the m13x but you can't have everything you think you can wish for.

 

Well, either one is decent, but it depends on what you are after. The Sager from what I have read can get quite loud with a lot of fan sound, even under normal conditions. Coming from an M11x I can assure you the AW 13 is a tremendous step up, though it the CPU is not as strong as that in the Sager, but on a day to day basis I doubt you will feel a difference in most tasks, the i5 is actually not bad. Sound was a big question for me, and so far the AW 13 has been a lot quieter than I expected so it works for me. If sound was no issue... heck, I'd pick up an AW 14 or wait to see what AW comes out with in Q1 of 2015.

 

I've bought the NP7338 during the summer vacation and had to send it back as the hard drive was making a weird buzzing noise. Not to mention the build quality. The lid would come smashing down and the screen had a lot of bleeding.

 

It's a mixed bag honestly to me. It's not as bad as I expected, it's somewhat refreshing for something new, but I do miss the old blue-overlays for the controls like volume, etc. The other issue for me personally is my 4th and 5th mouse buttons don't want to register in Windows 8, not sure why yet. I have the most up to date drivers, I know they work in Win 7, and yet I can't find a discussion with anyone having the issue .... that's a gripe : / The other is I keep hitting the damn windows key, have to disable it again, I was trying to live with it since its more... "key" to using Win 8, but I keep jacking up my games with it. I will say the performance hit seems pretty minimal, and from what I have read most games are either slightly slower or slightly faster, so it's like everything else a tradeoff. I am going back on my word and going to try living with it for a time and see; since I work in IT its kind of a duty I have to educate myself after all this time on it so I don't look like a fool in front of a customer with it

One other note about the 1440p, in a moment of madness I turned off AA (I usually run it at 8x), and discovered that at 1440p I almost didn't miss it, and the FPS even at full on 1440p was actually pretty good (around 40 up from like 22 in Champions Online, a fairly CPU intensive game albeit not a quad-core reliant one). This with only a couple settings turned down, mainly rendering of objects far away. With that, I think I will stick in 1440p most of the time then.

 

Well, for some reason my 13 load iTunes and some others applications faster then my M18!

 

Hi there, I would like to know has anyone with Alienware-13 with Graphics Amp has got it to work with any Desktop class Nvidia GPU? So far reading this thread some users have success so far with AMD GPUs & Nvidia is a blank. But a read on the Alienware forum I seen some1 with success with Nvidia. So just wondering if any 1 has had success & if there is, won't mind sharing the gaming benhmarks of that same GPU in a full desktop & in graphics Amp.

 

I have to say, I am smitten with it. As good as an IPS panel is over the older TN panels, the 1440p TrueLife feels that much better. The only issue is the reflectivity (which for some folks is a deal breaker), but beyond that there really is nothing to complain about (with the possible exception of colors being somewhat over saturated), the unit looks and feels more premium with it, and maybe it's my just my old eyes and the combination with the glass overlay, but there are times with the high contrast things "pop" in such a way it looks like a simple 3-d effect. I do find that due to brightness, I actually turn down the brightness for prolonged desktop use, and up it a notch in games. This for me seems to be optimal for viewing and reducing eye-strain.

The G/A concept with the AW 13 does make more sense now to me, at least I suspect so if you are running the 1440p panel and don't expect too much from a desktop card combined with the CPU. I think with the current unit and 1440p panel and a not-to-low, not-to-high, but just right desktop GPU with a functioning G/A and 1440p panel you have a pretty good combo if you only have that. I am still holding out hope that somehow, some way we could get a quad in a possible Silverlake refresh as I plan on flipping the unit for that refresh regardless of wifey

I am getting 10% back in Advantage rewards, this works out to about $130 USD, I might consider springing for a G/A just to play with. The problem is I would then need another desktop GPU to put in it, or pull a Titan out of my Area 51 (which is not happening).

and One More Thing: Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me the Intel graphics can't quite keep up at 1440p, I notice some weird warbling say in scrolling in my browser through the forum listing for instance in NBR... still looking into this and the mouse problem : /

 

At least you got the i7 option. On Dell.ca, the A13 cpu choice is only the i5!

 

Apparently, those who order the i7 option will have Broadwell, which is why the shipment date is so late.

@Doc: Thanks for that info about the screen. Helps a lot. :thumbsup: The scrolling issue is weird indeed.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Any chance of a battery life/consumption comparison between the two?

 

Holy Shizzlenut!

The palm rest and the touchpad are the worst of their kinds! So much residues! Because there is some residue left in the touchpad after use, sometimes they get recognized as clicks during use. What the F? That's on top of already horrible touchpad.

God, I need to carry wipes when I carry this around? Ugh

 

Sorry guys, couldn't wait any longer for the i7 AW 13. Got the HP Omen instead. Been following this thread for over a month. I haven't seen the AW 13 in person but the Omen is massive compared to my M11x amd Razer Edge. Just getting everything loaded on the Omen, I'll take a look back at Alienware in about 8 months.

 

I am probably not going to be able to get a formal test done unfortunately, as I need to return the units today, I'm sorry RL kicked in. Honestly, I am sure it will drive down battery time but don't forget all the previews that quoted times were AFAIK using 1440p displays, not 1080ps, so we have some numbers out there better than what I could generate.

Yeah - this is disappointing. Fortunately (?) I have fairly dry hands nowadays so it's not so bad, but agreed, the wicking on the top is ridiculous. Can't say too much about the touchpad as I only use them in a pinch without my mouse. Honestly, the only touch-pad I remotely like is the one on the Mac's. The one on my M14x-R2 is probably the best I have used on the AW side, and it's nothing to get excited about.

So another 1440p update of sorts:

In short, I have gone back and forth between running the 1440p system as a 1080p with 8x AA and 1440p, no AA (even 2x seriously reduces fps with what I play). It is such a tough call which way to go, as both give approximately the same FPS, but I will probably run games at 1080p because I hate any jaggies, but I am not 100% on this yet. At 1440p there are more jaggies without AA, but I will say I did try FXAA and believe it or not it yielded pretty good fps but of course textures to my eye are meh. but that is not a bad option either at this screen size and resolution.

Even gaming at 1080p games still rock with the Truelife display (just don't play with your back to a bright light), enough so that I think it is worth the price difference.

 

How do you like the Omen so far?

 

Hey docsteel, AA reduce fps even in my monster m18!. Yesterday I was playing metro last light on my 13 very high with aa of at 1080p, and I'm very happy with the capability of my Alienware 13!!! Currently plying Styx master of shadow max out

 

Does anyone know how to disable the tap on the trackpad? Can't find out how to do.

 

It has been a week since the last report of Dell currently in works to get a touchpad driver out.

I am not sure of the progress right now, let alone anyone else knowing or is interested about this.

Start > Settings > PC and Devices > Mouse and touchpad > Scroll to the very bottom > Look at the bottom option > Tweak.

 

How is the battery life? There is no reason why the battery should be smaller than alienware m11x. The M11x packs a 63wh battery while the alienware packs 51wh (check the manual otherwise it's advertised as 54wh). Alienware is slightly larger... Therefore it should pack larger battery.

 

Thank you for that

 

It's a pretty nice laptop to tell you the truth. Pretty much the same weight as my m11x r3 but more balanced on my lap. The screen is massive and confirms that I won't go back to a non-touchscreen laptop.

I downloaded about five games from my Steam library but haven't tested any of them yet because I've been busy with getting the work applications sorted first (Cod Ghosts, Metro Last night, Anno, Dota 2, Bioshock infinite, Ghost Recon - most recent one. ..my Razer Edge couldn't run this game at all). Running out of space quick while I wait for a local shop to pick up a 512 gb M.2 PCIe SSD.

The macro keys are really amazing so far for day to day office tasks like copy and paste, select all, volume up/down, ctrl save etc. Gonna start building out some for my games tomorrow.

I can tell that the screen resolution is nice but upon closer inspection the 1080 p is a bit pixelated on the dark solid colors like Windows charms. The keyboard color functions are really great, something like 6 zones including the speakers which react to audio pitch.
The Omen is really thin for what it is, slightly thicker than a Macbook Pro 15 inch. Heat is not too bad while working on my lap, keyboard is really nice to tap on but they have a messed up insert button that doesn't work in some programs. I had to program a macro to get around it and change settings in MS word. They've had this issue on other HP laptops and haven't resolved it.

I've been playing my new PS4 via my Vita (Destiny, GTA 5 and Game of Thrones) and it's better than my Edge experience by far. I have a back injury so I can't sit for long before the spinal pain kicks in, so lying down is what works for me best. Not optimal for the kind of PC gaming I used to do, so I'm thinking of an Nvidia Shield Portable for games like Bioshock since it's lighter than my Razer Edge. I'd like to get more competitive so I might wait out the AW 17 with GA or just build a mid size desktop now that I'm married and living in one place. I'll have to PC game on a standing desk though.

I'll let you guys know how it runs while gaming (came preinstalled with two benchmark apps). I haven't ruled out AW, but they aren't making it easy for Canadians to get their latest and greatest.

 

Added Hardware Debug tips.

 

So... What is the update on the battery life? Is it really 6 hours as one of the review said? This frustrates me that there isn't reviews on this laptop and it had been released well over a month ago. I mean... Con how long does it takes to get a laptop in for review when thousands of people already bought the laptop.

I seriously need to know if I can get 6 hours during WiFi surfing. The dedicated graphics is just an bonus if I get bored and want to play casual games.

 

Okay, I will give you my review on the battery life.

I'm not a heavy gamer, but I'm a heavy WiFi user.

The battery life is about 4 hours. I use Balanced Mode and Power Mode during those times, so there should be a margin of error difference of 180 minutes, depending on how you set your power plan up. I set mine up to look like High Performance with the screen set to max brightness.

If you want battery life reviews, here's one of them. It's the first search result on Google. Search for "Battery Life" using CTRL+F, and you're good to go. And stop ranting on "there's no reviews" on Alienware 13, it's everywhere now. If you want decent reviews, read multiple articles and compare them yourselves.

 

You realize he made an implicit citing by saying, "6 hours from that one review", so he knows about that review. However, the 13 has gotten some consumer reviews.
In any case, the number should be around six or more, but I think it requires some tinkering with the battery plans. Here is what I do with my m14x (quad mobile and 63w battery with 10% loss) and HP laptop (which has a ULV and a 40w battery), and I get at most 7 hours on both, consistently around 4.5 to 6 hours.
- Set on balanced mode. (Or create a new mode?)
- Disable AlienFX/lights (if not all, leave at most 2 on)
- Set everything thing to favor the best power savings options. This includes the Intel GPU, which you'll have to get to through Intel's Graphics Control Panel.
- Use the iGPU instead of the dGPU.
- Disable whatever you don't use. (Bluetooth, touchpad, usb ports, etc.)
- Set maximum processor state to 99%. This somehow disables Turbo boost (I have never seen it in action on battery, but I can double check), and without turbo boost, the CPU won't clock higher and and use more battery power.
- Dim/lower the screen and volume as much as reasonably possible. I don't think you need to go all out, and it is desirable to actually see the screen and maybe hear something.
- Optional: SSD. Even if it may not increase battery life, it'll make the powered power laptop more tolerable to deal with.
And that's pretty much it. I learned all of this from some person and then tweaked it a bit, but it works. I just don't trust power savers mode because it doesn't provide me with the best battery life. And the laptops work fine and smooth under these conditions. I'm sure one or two tweaks to this plan wouldn't decrease the time by 30 minutes (like prefer most power for wifi). I haven't disabled my touchscreen on my HP laptop, hence why I don't say disable everything.

 

You are right that I missed his implicit statement of "6 hours in that one review", therefore I apologize for that.

However, I will stay standing with my response stating that there are so many other consumer reviews on Alienware 13, and that the recipient should do a bit more research on that part. It should be easy to read and see why the battery life of 6 hours may or may not be accurate, unless the research wasn't done that enough.

 

I have done exactly this. I set my power plan mode to balanced and went into the power plan and changed everything manually to the best power savings mode. 4hrs is no problem at all. I have gotten 5hrs quite easily as well. However I use mine on battery with the screen brightness on max and AlienFX on as well. So 6hrs should be possible if you turn off AlienFx and dim the screen brightness down a bit. I'm strange but I just like looking at bright screens
For me actual testing is how I review it. So actually sitting there and using the laptop for 5hrs instead of using battery software to try and calculate the battery time-frame.
I will see if I can disable some other things as well to eekk out more battery life.

 

Funny - I can't stand it too dark either, colors get too washed out, etc. I will say on the AW 13 - both 1080p and 1440p screens both I have actually had to turn down the brightness a good bit. On my old M11x-R3 and M14x-R2 I almost always ran them full or one notch down, the brightness on the AW 13 (particularly 1440p) is significantly brighter.

Curious - for anyone who ordered an upcoming i7 system - does your system show in production yet?

 

Item: Alienware 13
Status: Pre-Production
Estimated Delivery Date: 2/6/2015
What's worse you can still order an i7 model with the same ship date, 1/28/2015, for less than when the option first debuted. Life is cruel.

 

Btw in case you guys are wondering how that x4 PCIe bandwidth is affecting performance, TechPowerUp did a piece on this using the 980.

tl;dr Unless you're running at PCIe 1.1 x4, even 2.0 x4 only loses about 15% performance at most compared to 3.0 x16. And if you're running PCIe 3.0 x4, you're only losing 5% performance (which I would argue is within margin of error). So any performance hit when using the GA with the AW13 would almost certainly be solely due to that crappy ULV CPU and possibly software support.

 

Mine is in pre-production also. I don't think they will go into production until January since the cpu isn't due to be released until then

 

Quick touchbase - I haven't died - but am working through an issue with the AW 13 (I only have the 1440p now), and will update hopefully tomorrow afternoon. It's been an odyssey

 

Hi everyone!

here a link to the german notebookreviewsite notebookcheck.com - a more in detail test of the AW13 with i5-4210u/860m"

Test Alienware 13 Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

b

 

So they did need to get the GA working.
It was a good read.

Anybody do what I bolded?
Oh, and the battery life.

As expected. Over 10 hours achieved.

 

Excellent, this had answered my question earlier. I think the battery life between 10 hours and 5 hours is awesome for low brightness and having excel spreadsheet open and microsoft words open and occasionally wifi surfing. The GPU is just bonus if I wanted to play some simple games.

 

One small update - maybe it's just me, but the sound is a bit clearer if you bring up the Soundblaster utility and turn the Smart Volume to the "Loud" ie center setting. By default it tries to keep the sound at a constant volume which causes it to be "flatter" with less highs and lows.

 

I broke down and bought a quick-ship 1440p 13. Unfortunately, it didn't ship within the 24 hours they said it wouldn't so I didn't get it until last night and I had only about an hour to play with it...and much of that time was spent in the win8.1 setup.
Anywho....initial thoughts:
It looks very nice, though it felt heavier than I expected. And wow is that power supply big! I haven't put it next to my m11x power supply, but the 13's looks about 2x the size!

The screen is overly bright (even at the lowest setting) in my opinion. I really wish I could turn it down more...both for appearance and for battery-saving. I didn't mind the reflective screen since I'm used to that with the m11x. I did like that it didn't have a plastic bezel as the pics of the 1080p screen had.

As expected, the resolution is crazy. I really wanted the highest resolution on the smallest screen, but I'm afraid it's too much for my not-as-good-as-they-used-to-be eyes. I could barely manage reading things with the magnification set one notch down from max.

Regarding the trackpad: While it doesn't feel as nice as the m11x trackpad, I didn't have any problems. Though I don't use any fancy gestures...just moving around and clicking.

Keyboard: definitely feels larger than what I'm used to on the m11x. The keys feel nice (similar to the m11x), but I have to work on adjusting my finger positioning. ;-)

Things were going decently until I unplugged the power cord. When it is on battery power, my screen has these strange flashes, and the more I move the mouse pointer, the more it flashes. It's not just a flash of light, but its almost like its switching resolution for a fraction of a second. Obviously, I'll be returning this unit because of it. Even if tech support could talk me through a "fix", I don't trust it.

Haven't had enough time with it yet to give an overall impression. Just thought I'd share my initial experience with it.

 

Seems like there are a lot of problems with the AW 13. Alienware has lowered its standards.

 

Hmmm, I haven't have any problem with mine yet!

 

How is the brightness of the 1080p compared to the m11x? For my m11x, I run it at minimum brightness in the dark and one notch up ( (or sometimes 2)) in normal room lighting.
As I mentioned in my post about my new 13, I think the brightness is way too bright on the 1440p. Since I have to get a replacement, I'll most likely go with the 1080p screen.

 

The only huge problems I see for the 13 is the trackpad. The palm rest is something minor since it is both good and bad.
The GA is separate from the 13 if you're thinking they are some sort of bundle.

 

Hmm... I am holding off on that decree. There were quality problems when the first generation M11x appeared as a totally new platform as well (not to mention the G/A question), and by the time the R3 appeared they were little tanks. I liken it to buying a first year car model

I would ask, did they lower their standards, or did the factory making the product that Alienware contracted with not live up to the standards Dellienware set?

The 1080p and 1440p (about 10% officially than the 1080p) are immensely brighter than the M11x best screens, hands down. It's due to both the increased surface area resulting in just plain more light and improvements over four years in screens. The 1440p is bright, but I cannot imagine replacing it for a 1080p personally after I compared the two side by side. You can turn the 1440p brightness down quite a bit to compensate, and tweak it even closer with the in-game brightness in most games.

 

The 13 is really a powerful machine!. Yesterday was playing metro 2033 on maximum setting with aa off on two screen and it was running at 27 fps. I think that's great for the 860M!

 

Not bad for the role the machine is intended - is 27 fps average, max or low?

Update:

So, my mutant power of back luck continued... on friday an apparently new tech came out to replace the keyboard (recall the back-lighting was not working). He had not reviewed the manual, so I brought it up... so after awhile he figures it out, replaces the keyboard... and no luck : / So Dell first asks the tech if I abused the laptop (clearly not) and then wants to send it to a depot. I am like no way, but I would give them another opportunity to fix it or it was going back. Dell agrees, and schedules to send a new motherboard and a keyboard to play it safe. Okay, I am not thrilled but since we tried everything else with them and the tech on the phone... one more shot. He leaves, then I realize the idiot left not one, but two screws out of the bottom of the system and apparently took them with him!

Now, here my mutant power of bad luck kicks in even more.. in less than 24 hours... the R key breaks... I kid you not. I call Dell (this is on Saturday) to reconfirm parts are coming including a keyboard, they say yes, so okay. I live with a broken R key that would work but was flipping around all over the place.

Monday, comes parts due, are for some reason held up and tech now due today. Finally, luck turns around, I get a tech who is a dream, smart guy, good conversation and very professional. Replaces both items, and except for a memory stick that had to be re-seated and a small battery adjustment, all is now working. the only issue... two missing screws

Now, finally, to sit down and do some gaming in interest... with a new found appreciation of how often "r" is used in the English language and wondering where i can get two screws : )