*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Owner's Lounge

They're both good, you can't go far wrong with either in my eyes, choose the one you like the look of combined with other reviewed positive aspects of the laptop, here you can probably find both reviewed:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/

 

Just got off phone with Dell. 2+ hours of diagnostics proving the machine throttles and they admit to it. Was told a BIOS update is in testing and a beta version available (which i knew). When i requested the 240w PSU was denied out right. I pointed out the forum response from Frank and was told they are not aware of any order to give customers who request a new PSU one. I'm done with dell and alienware. This one goes back monday.

 

I've decided just to upgrade from the 4710HQ to the 4980HQ + 128SSD version of the AW17r2. I'll just run my own testing on it and give AW a chance and keep trying to come up with a solution.

 

Sorry to hear it dude. Join the club, at least you confirmed to me it is not just me being an a-hole.

Good luck with your next choice.

beginning to wonder if I should set up a 'Troll Alienware Alliance'? A lot of malcontent's have messaged me! Nah life's too short, move on.

 

Thats great, thanks I needed a good laugh!

 

@Alienware-Frank , what's up with this, why are people being denied 240W PSUs, can you communicate to your staff that they are to let people have 240W PSUs? I'm saying this because you promised 240W PSUs in the following post:

(post #233)):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ger-frank-azor-anything-on-awa.770195/page-12

 

@Robbo99999 It's the difference between a prospect and a customer, promise the prospect, screw the customer. Couldn't resist, too many jokes, must control typing...hahaha

 

MickyD, you've been driven to the dark side! ;-)

 

Yup. Mr A and his team of merry marketers can congratulate themselves on turning another acolyte away from the light.

Join the Alienware Trolling Alliance, we don't have cookies, we have BIG GUNS!

 

My 17 R2 is going back because it was defective. I will probably just wait for the next Asus. I did just get a 330 watt power supply from Ebay that looks like new condition but is used. If somebody in Canada wants a 330 watt charger they could have it for $100 delivered.

 

They shouldn't be denying you a 240w AC Adapter. I will handle it. Send me your Service Tag in a private message and if you possibly have a log of the chat, I will make sure it gets messaged accordingly.

 

Ok so since the owner's lounge has basically been filled with commentary around the amount of power the system is getting, or the bga processor and bga graphics etc. etc. I thought I would add some narrative that wasn't completely focused on this aspect of the system. In my evaluation of the system since I received my 240 watt adapter, I have been mostly happy with the computer as it relates to actually playing games on it. The keyboard seems easier on my fingers than my m17xr3 keyboard was, and the screen is alot easier to look at with the matte screen than a glossy (additional benefit is I'm not always cleaning it). The colors on the screen really pop, and are vibrant and make me notice games alot differently than before. I do actually put the laptop on my lap with a makeshift lap desk, mouse and notebook cooler, and having a little less weight is actually a positive change for me over the 17xr3.

I should probably clarify how I use the system, This is mostly my secondary computer. I know I am spoiled in that regard as I typically upgrade / maintain my desktop pc with new components as I get a strong enough of an itch. I can always get a new gfx card for 250 to 300$ and breathe new life to the system. Laptops have been a different story for the most part, going back to my first which was an inspiron e1705 that I tried to upgrade from a 7800 go to the 7950gtx (card failed doh). I always looked at the cost to upgrade my m17xr3 and it always seemed like the mxm card upgrades were a pretty expensive purchase (7970 only recently purchased due to death of 6990m) at 300 - 400 and was typically limited to ebay from china. When I heard about the new alienware 17r2 and the graphics amplifier, it seemed like a way that I could upgrade my primary system and roll graphics cards from that system to the r2. Now with the PCIe 3.0 x4 channel it may prove to be a bottleneck that holds back the performance, but will have to wait and see.

So far, every game I have that was a challenge for my 17xr3 has not been for this 17r2. I've been playing the Witcher 2, Crysis 3, Assassins Creed 4, Far Cry 4 (and 3) and every single game is mostly maxed out with reasonable AA. I couldn't say that when I got my 17xr3 (and looking back, wish I'd have waited for the r4 with the 7970m but that's the pc industry I guess). I've installed a 256gb M.2 ssd I ordered from Amazon and after that I've noticed that the system is really pretty responsive and I really haven't found myself waiting for much of anything. I have really struggled with the actual financial cost of this system and was ready to return it based on it's performance throttling and poor gaming performance initially with Far Cry 4, but after an honest chance, I really like it. For those members that have cancelled and are ordering a Clevo, I understand but I wanted to give my overall impressions and feelings about the R2 and that it's not all negative.

 

Man, I've been having issues with Farcry 4 also but on a bunch of different systems, not just Alienwares. The performance tends to change depending on my install of the game, new graphics drivers, etc. I've had it run great on an Nvidia 460 at 50+ FPS at high settings and then I grab an 880 and I get 10 FPS at times. Really really really annoying.

 

Far Cry 4 is more cpu limited than alot of newer games. I found that's what holds that game back more than the gfx card. B4 I tried the 240 watt psu this r2 wouldn't play it. After the 240 the game was fixed.

 

Dell headquarters can send an updated email to all Dell (the Alienware support) departments on this. This can not be that difficult ...

 

I'm looking at a clevo right now. A little more expensive, a LOT more powerful! I also have a 330w PSU (and a 64gb M.2 for a cache) that I will be disposing of at some stage...

I'm thinking there will be a lot of 'bargains' at the outlet store in the coming months .

 

Of course they can. It's not like they don't have the mechanism in place. If it was a safety concern then a notice would fly out to all!

 

I've placed my order today but unfortunately my request about 240W PSU was denied. No way to get it with Dell.

I hope that not disappoint me.




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Escalate to a manager, it works.

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk.

 

Post it in the 'Ask Alienware's GM Frank Azore anything'. He promised anyone that asked would get one and you're not alone in being refused - disgusting behaviour. He said that you have to ask for it AFTER the machine arrives, but even then some people are being refused.

He does not want to change the published specifications so a customer request after the fact avoids that particular issue, and he said you don't need it any-more anyway.

Good luck - you may need it with Dell/AW's customer service these days

 

Congrats! Specs?

 

Alxr4 ...thanks for posting pics. That's one of the things I've seen is lacking bigtime on the new R17. Closet I saw was the CES youtube video but it was brief.

Mine should get shipped out this week so I'll take some decent pics and upload as well.

 

1 8GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (2 x 4G)
1 English Keyboard
1 Alienware 6 programmable Macro module keys
1 NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5
1 Killer Wireless 1525 Driver
1 1TB 5400rpm SATA 6Gb/s
1 Windows 8.1 (64Bit) English
1 Killer 1525 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
1 US Power Cord
1 Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French)
1 1 Year Limited Warranty
1 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
1 Warranty Support, Initial Year
1 Haswell Driver
1 Placemat (English,French,BRPT,Spanish)
2 Dell.com Order
2 US Order
1 8 Cell 92W Hour Battery
1 Intel(R) i7-4710HQ [4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)]
1 Directship Info Mod
1 Alienware 17 Shipping box
1 No FGA
1 Dropbox, Digital Delivery, 20GB for 1 year Promotion
1 17.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare 300-nits Display
1 Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
1 Additional Software
1 None Included
1 Power Supply : Alienware 180W AC Adapter
1 No Option Included
1 State Environmental Fee for display 15 inches, less than 35 inches



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Similar boat here. I WILL NEVER spend more than $1500 on any gaming laptop ...the whole cost=>performance ratio just doesn't justify ANY gaming laptop, imo. If I'm really looking for the uber gaming experience, I will build a gaming desktop for half the price and call it a day.

Whole reason why I'm switching from console gaming to PC is the semi mobility (within the house).....to break away from confinement in my HT room with the XBoxOne. Just be able to sit in my patio or living room and play games on a laptop with headphones and enjoy the day. I'm prepared to compromise a few fps, uber GFX options and at the same time, enjoy the extra money in my wallet.

So far, around $1500, the M17r2 was the only option with a decent GFX card plus IPS gloss touchscreen with a solid build with full keyboard. I considered the Asus ROG (now down to $1199 in some retail shops) but after playing around with it (my friend just bought it), I prefer the gloss screen than matte panel (my preference, of course). Apart from games, I find the glossy panel makes everyday computing slightly more 'punchy' in terms of contrast/color production, etc.

Last factor was warranty itself. I've owned a XPS in the past (with its own set of issues) and Dell was kind enough to replace hardware components twice within the 1st year and the whole process was seamless from remote troubleshooting to warranty service.

 

Alienware 17 R2 - CPU throttling when using 180 watts Ac/Adapter
http://lt.dell.com/lt/lt.aspx?CID=2...w.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN295814

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN295814

 

Thank you so much!


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Send me your order number on a PM, I'll get it done. The BIOS that will fix the issue will be posted soon and there shouldn't be any issues with staying with the current 180w adapter. However, the 240w adapter request should not be denied.

It may be difficult to change it during the ordering process, but it can definitely be done after the machine has arrived and we have the service tag.

 

omfg what the ****ty speaker compare to r1 and m17x

 

Not another cost saving

The sound on my R4, with the genuine SB chip on-board. is the best I have heard from a laptop.

 

R2 arriving via FedEx tomorrow. ?....NV 980 onboard....Ill share info when Im up and running
emailed 240 W AC request....no response yet (1 business day)

 

Are the "terrible " sounding speakers right out of box or have you tinkered with configurations and still "terrible"?.....

 

Which SSD did you order? It is a SATA 80mm yes?
I just got my AW17 R2 in today... overall I really like it. Yes, the speakers are no good at default. I honestly don't care that much, but if there are tweaks you want me to try I will (it basically just sounds muffled).

 

Overall first impressions:

Screen: 9/10 - Could be slightly brighter, but overall I like the sharp picture and matte finish

Keyboard: 9.5/10 - Love the KB. Only annoyance are the macro keys to the left of the keyboard, can no longer hit ESC by feel... have to get used to moving one over. I also don't see a benefit from them even if I programmed them. Possibly I can set the top left macro key to escape?? Problem solved!

Performance: N/A for now... ran CS:GO so far... got 65c on vid and 81c max on cpu... would like lower cpu temp but it's livable.

Fit & Finish: Overall I like it... 9/10. A little extra flex in the screen than preferred. I like the thickness & overall feel.

Speakers: Terrible. Probably worst I've experienced on a 17". I'd prefer clear & weak vs powerful and muddy... probably 5/10. But, I don't plan on using them often.

Touchpad: 10/10 - Tracks my movements easily and I like that I can set the color. I don't expect much more from a touchpad, 90% of the time I will be using ext mouse. Oh also, but mouse clicks are great. Soft & responsive.

 

^ Good stuff! Glad the screen/keyboard (key elements on a laptop) are excellent. I'm always using headphones on laptops anyway so average speakers are not a big deal for me. I know we have a cult following here for Sager but I've seen one Sager (2014 model) and I wasn't impressed with the overall build quality unlike Alienware. I have the touchscreen gloss screen on mine ...can't wait to receive mine.

 

Are the speakers really that bad? Or can you just configure them to sound better? I ask because I play a lot of music, I rarely use headphones.

For the cost of the laptop, I'd expect speakers to have some better than OK quality to them not just be 5/10.

 

I hope they are still better then the "problematic" Asus G751JY speakers.

 

The speakers really are bad. Best I can describe it is if you had a nice clear laptop speaker and held a bath towel over it.

I didn't tweak anything though. Possibly I can make it better.

Also FYI I ordered the base config. 970m, 8gb and 4710.

 

My biggest concern was the screen. The previous LG screens (LG20A or whatever they were) were terrible. The new base one is very nice IMO.

 

We were talking about the display on the other AW17 related thread, did you get the Matte or the TrueLife?

 

Hopefully that can be EQ'd away......I'd expect better quality but maybe it's just the EQ (hopefully).

Edit: My R2 comes tomorrow. I'll post a full review of it in here when I get it.

 

Matte.

Basically my criteria for a good matte screen is as follows:

1- bright
2- can't distinguish pixels without nose 2-3in from monitor
3- no annoying coating

This one fits all 3.

 

Valid arguments sir.

 

Just tried playing around in the Sound Blaster app trying different settings. Nothing made it sound good, just different.

I mean at the end of the day, they are laptop speakers. I'm not expecting anything amazing to begin with. It almost sounds like the problem is that the sound plays directly into the palm rest and not aimed out the grill.

 

EDIT: Double post.

 

Maybe some assembly issues? Seems like your speakers are pointed at the wrong direction.

 

Possible I guess. I'm just trying to give a picture of what it sounds like... I don't think that is actually the problem... but I guess it could be.

 

Funny that I still haven't seen a professional (or semi) review on the R17 yet. Not just gaming stats but in general terms like daily computing like a desktop replacement.

I know several people have gotten theirs and all of a sudden, disappear from the thread ;-) but I guess that must be a good sign as typically, people will post negatives/issues on forums more so than posting "I got a new laptop and ummm...it's working like it should!".

 

I gave a mini set of */10 a few posts up. I don't have a good set of software to do a solid review, but I'd be willing to answer what I can.

Right now my thoughts is that this laptop is actually almost exactly what I was looking for. I've basically disliked past models for one reason or another. This one has what I want covered.

As far as desktop replacement, I'm one of those people that think it just isn't possible. Laptops are really great in their capabilities given their portability, but you can't beat a desktop

 

Agreed. All the reviews of 17 R1 and m17x raved about the speakers. However, the quality of my 15" MSI exceeds the new alienware 17 by leaps and bounds. Other than being loud, the laptop speakers sound like they were ripped off a $400 Dell.