*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

Just a quick question, has the update for the new Alienware throttling BIOS patch released officially?
Also the new Nvidia drivers don not allow to over-clock gpus :O

 

I can promise you that neither heatsink is soldered to the cpu nor gpu. My Alienware 14's gpu was attached, permanently, and I have repasted it twice (despite having to fully remove the motherboard to access the heatsinks)

 

Yea, they have been released and my 15 is running fine with the new revision. My 180 watt and 330 watt benchmark comparison is located in this thread and the 15's benching thread.

 

I put a huge post about this already! Go back a few pages.

 

My laptop has been in production status since 2/12/2015 now. The wait is killing me!
Thanks for all the great info guys. Helps me satisfy my laptop craving a bit until mine arrives.

 

Let me know when it's shipped. I ordered mine on 2/13/2015 and I can't wait either!


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hi all, a few questions from a first time AW owner. mine is this model, and should come this Saturday:

• Intel Core i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, 2.5 GHz)
• 16 GB DDR3
• 1000 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, 128 GB Solid-State Drive
• 15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5

1) i apologize in advance if this has been covered in this thread already. just too many pages now to search through, but could someone please let me know if changing the hard drive to an SSD will void warranty? if not, could you please point me to a step by step tutorial or vid on how to go on about this with a reinstall of the OS?

2) what's the consensus here for which SSD model 256-512GB is considered great for the price?

3) does the model i got have an IPS panel?

thanks in advance!

 

I know the new bios fixed the problem with 180watt adapter but I was wondering if the 240watt is worth getting and whether or not these benchmarks make a notable difference.


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Hey ledzepp14 (i love the band!),

You will not void your warranty of the laptop if you do replace the HD. The new SSD will not be covered by Dell/Alienware however. (obviously).

There is a guide stickied on the Alienware subforum I believe. There are also youtube videos made by Alienware themselves that guide you through the process on older models (it wont matter if its older model or new model..process is the same).


2) The best SSDs on the market right now are the Samsung Evo 840/850 in my opinion. I wouldnt go below 512GB as 256 is used up VERY fast especially with windows 8.1. Newegg usually has great deals on them if you can snag one.

Hope this helps!

 

thanks! been a MacBook Pro user for years. it's a bit overwhelming going back to the Windows world. i'll keep reading up. do you know if the model I got has an IPS panel? the Amazon page didn't say. i'm really hoping it does!

 

If its 1080p or 4k it will definitely be an IPS screen.

 

sorry, i'm confused, as i don't have the notebook here yet to see for myself.. but i'd like to order the SSD for when it gets here Saturday.

1) is this the Samsung EVO that will fit in to replace that HDD?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1086226-REG/samsung_mz_75e500b_am_852_evo_500gb_2_5.html

2) what about that stock 128GB SSD already in the configuration i got? is that where the OS is already installed? this would be great, so i could avoid having to reinstall.

 

1) Yes. Buy it from Newegg if you don't get charged for tax. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_sp=Homepage_BS-_-P4_20-147-372-_-02192015

2) The stock 128GB is the m.2 SSD. It's a different sized in a different slot.

 

thanks. do you know which storage has the OS install?

 

Any seller with the right mind should install the OS in the SSD.

 

i hope so. i ordered from Amazon tho, and not from a specialized store like XoticPC. would be great if i could just swap out the HDD and not worry about OS and driver reinstalls.

 

Can someone please explain how the 5.1 audio works? How many analog ports does the 15 have?

I connect my laptop to a HTIB via toslink. Since the 15 doesnt have digital outs, can anyone recommend a good USB sound card that supports DDL or DTS Connect?

 

In my experience the BIOS update helped but didn't completely fix the issue. I believe the higher PSU would give more consistent performance. How did the BIOS update go for others performance wise?

 

anyone know what kind the stock 16gb ram sticks are? are they good enough to not upgrade?

 

I know this sounds ridiculous to ask now, but would someone confirm what the material of the front lid is for the AW 15? I was under the impression that is was an anodized aluminum but a review mentioned plastic, which is it? The AW 13 has a plastic shell that is ridiculously easy to scratch - I am hoping when the time is right and I pull the trigger on an AW 15 it is not the same shell material, that would be very disappointing... enough to make me consider looking beyond AW for the first time as I cannot stand scratches : /

 

the lid is a hard plastic, its nice because it helps with the weight

 

Hello, I've just ordered a new Alienware 15" 2015 with I7 And 970 gpu.
Estimated delivery date...20 March
I hope it'll arrive soon

 

AT LAST! I'm also an official alienware 15 owner now! And I am impressed as a previous Alienware M14X R1 owner. Now for my review:

Pros:
- Even though I like glossy, this matte screen is perfect! This is the 1st time I saw a matte screen without any noise or quality dropping effect on a laptop. This screen is gorgeous and I am happy I went with the 1080p screen. Since I previously owned a 900p screen I can notice the quality difference which is great for me. With some color calibration to my liking, the results were great. top notch.
- Even though it's a little big for me(14 inch is my sweet spot) the screen totally makes up for it.
- The palmrest and keyboard has a VERY smooth texture that is heavenly, it does leave fingerprints but I don't really care, since my room isn't very well lit and I also clean it with wet cloths for glasses.
- Just like as it always has been alienware makes one of teh best laptop keyboards. with a rather good travel distance and key shapes. The backlights are now a little less bright which is better and doesn't distract anymore.
- A powerful machine!! Even though nvidia disabled overclocking, the Turbo boost of the CPU and the GPU boost of nvidia are both impressive. With ultra settings on heaven benchmark I got almost 1200 score with ultra quality, extra tessellation, 8x aa, 1080p, had an avarage of 45FPS.
- The temperatures are very nice so far. during heaven benchmark the CPU was below 80 at any given time and GPU below 70, also during gaming. Though Haven't tested long sessions of heavy games yet
- This laptop is surprisingly very quite during normal use. Even though I'm at High performance when plugged it. The fans are not working most of the time
- Design is obviously gorgeous, but that is a matter of taste. the combination of colors and the design with the silver pain is VERY nice. I LOVE IT
- With the windows tool to reinstall windows clean on an SSD through USB was VERY easy to use and it recognized the license so that perfect.


Cons: (some of the cons might be only related to my machine)
- Screen Ghosting is present. It's very slightly. I had that much on my alienware 14 too, but this one isn't just normal ghosting. instead of a following single trail, there is a fading trail that gives actually a rather smooth motion blur effect instead of annoying ghosting. So believe it or not, I actually do like it a little.
- Opening the harddrive slot is a PAIN the back plate has 2 screws, 2 teeth that makes it stay. That should have been enough but NOOO!! They HAD to add a total of 11 unnecessary clips looking towards every direction that makes the removal of the backplate very unpractical. 1 clip broke. but that doesn't matter at all, since like I said The 2 teeth on the sides and 2 screws are MORE then enough to hold that plate securely on it's place.
- The tactX macro keys require getting used to. since I tend to press a macro key instead of shift or escape. But this problem is easily solvable if you make the macro keys a different color than your own keyboard. than it's very easy to distinguish.
- When the vents start spinning, from still state to spinning I mean, It make a slight noise as if you would go with your nail over a metal grill. But this rarely happens and not a huge issue, also could be specific to my system
- Still don't know how to plug in a 5.1 surround sound system. It does support it. I also see in the settings that there are 3 jacks marked. 2 names 3.5mm jacks and one only labeled "analog". But have no clue how to use it. waiting for a support guy to respond to my mail.
- The lights of the keyboard being less bright compared to my alienware M14X makes some of the colors look bad imho such as lime green and purple, but most of them look great
- A small detail, dell didn't have International/UK QWERTY keyboards, nor a Belgian Azerty, so they did send me a french azerty with the little words on the keyboard being french, but again not that big of an issue.

Overall, Its better than my expectations. I'm more then satisfied with this beast of a machine, especially thanks to the jump from a GT 555M to a GTX 980M.
Very satisfied costumer!

(it might be that I forgot to mention a few things so feel free to ask, and I will add what I remember afterwards by editing this post)

 

I know it helps with weight, but it hurts resale when they look like a cat used it for a scratching post. Anyone know if there is a marketed lid protector yet? I got one nice scratch on my AW 13 due to it rubbing slightly against my wedding band which is a soft rounded metal... waaayy to light a plastic for my taste.

 

hey Quicksort!!! wow i m happy for you!!!
So it is a nice laptop indeed, who has it is liking it thats the best thing.
Man i want to put also a SSD but i dont want to break anything lol thats why i got 128gb m.2. maybe i will do when i will get tyred of the 5400 rpm.
Good also to hear the laptop stays almost cool, if you get a chance i would love to know how your battery performs
enjoy your machine
(by the way how long did it take to reach your home from shipping status?)

 

I saw there are 2 sizes of the m.2, does the AW15 take the longer or shorter m.2

 

Access to the M.2 slots still requires removing that crappy backplate though, so the danger of breaking the clips is still there. Be very careful.

 

Yea i know thats why the m.2. Is from Dell hehe I don't want to deal with copying the Os and stuff I just wanna swap The 1tb HDD and put a Samsung Evo/pro if I feel it's slow

 

About the battery, I don't use the battery that often. I tend to look for a place to plug my system on a wall socket, so won't be able to say anything about it anytime soon.
About the time for it to reach my house I'll state the complete order and shipping process:
- mon 9 feb. Placed order, payed with wire transfer.
- wed 11 feb. Payment reached Dell status changed to "work in action"
- thu 12 feb. Status changed to "in produciton"
- fri 13 feb. Status changed to "shipped" (shipping from china to Belgium)
(I think the shipping was paused during week-end)
- thu 19 feb. I received my laptop at 16:30 ish time.

 

Wow i placed order the same day as you, as well as same day Dell recieved payment.
Mine was in production unti today wich states the order as shipped, but it wont open the link, i hope by next week i will be able to have it.
Probably the 4k display delayed it or having to put different keyboear (italian) but maybe not so much they keyboard as they all come from China i guess so they have all the components there, oh well, can't wait !

 

Are you serious... they changed the aluminum lid? ....

 

Yupp, I believe it is supposedly a "carbon fibre reinforced plastic" material. It's definitely not aluminum, but it's still a nice solid feeling material in my opinion.

 

I know right? Not like it added that much weight ....sheesh... if its the same plastic (and I almost guarantee you it is) on the AW 13 it will scratch very easily. I am pondering if I get one what I might be able to do to protect it, like some kind of tack down surface. While the structural interior of the lid and I assume sides as well is carbon fiber, they used a rather soft plastic to surround it. A shame really... especially when most premium laptops have anodized aluminum. Even Game scratched his I believe shortly after getting it.... mind you I have a number of laptops by AW and never had any that were this easy to mar.

 

No way Alienware put plastic on it. I has to be an aluminum... that's how all the R5's are

 

It's plastic.
I'm just planning on cleaning off the scratches or at least make them less visible. Not the best solution as opposed to getting another lid, but it's something.
Oh, and the m14xR1/R2, m17xR3/R4, and the m11x had a soft rubber lid, which I find inferior to the plastic on my 13.

 

Are all Alienware R5's plastic lid?

 

yea

 

I coulda sworn my R5 late 2013 AW17 had an aluminum Lid.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ALIENWA...034?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f476e42c2
that's the one I bought, but I returned it due to heat and weight issues.

 

The 2013 Alienware laptops had aluminum. The 2015 Alienware laptops have plastic.

 

How big of a factor is this ,,,, it definitely downgrades the quality for me.. the lid is like 50% of the computer

 

My son has an aluminum lid on his XPS 15. It kills the wifi. Not sure if it's an issue with the AW?

 

i thought i read somewhere that it's carbon fiber.

 

does anyone are the m.2 slots 80mm or the smaller size

 

Its carbon fibre reinforced plastic, and its just as easy to scratch as aluminum is.

 

are there any good simple sleeves for these? one where you could just slip on without zippers that could scratch? thanks

 

It takes the 80mm M.2 sata
The one I used is a Crucial CT256M550SSD4

 

nvidia will enable GPU overclocking back next month. This is an official statement from an Nvidia rep

 

My AW15 may have a little stronger wifi reception than my M3800 [same as XPS15] but it definitely doesn't feel as robust and as high of a quality build despite being twice as thick, the Precision M4xxx series are even more tank like again than either, the AW15 is acceptable for what it is and costs imo...definitely wouldn't want to drop it or bang it around though, just like most of the consumer models available.

They've definitely made everything a lot harder to get at than anything I've owned before, would've liked to have given mine a repaste at some stage but it looks too much of a pain considering you basically have to completely disassemble the whole thing.

It could have been better yes, but I still like it and enjoy using it for games

 

Anyone here who ordered the 15 with 256GB SSD? Does it come with 1x256 or 2x128? If the latter, and since there is no RAID, does it show up as 2 drives?

 

Just got this laptop all up and running! It blows my AW 17 R1 out of the water by far! It is the perfect size for me as I also used to own an M15x. I also have fixed all throttling issues as I have a 240W PSU and a modded pin adapter that allows me to use all 240W of power when I need to and when I need to charge I just remove this adapter and plug in the PSU normally! the 980M and 4710HQ is ridiculous when paired together with a modded 240W PSU!