*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R5 Owner's Lounge

what have you done ? repaste with conductonaut or what ?

 

Yes, repaste with LM and undervolting with Throttlestop.

 

Thats a good question. And if it performs well, it is a safer solution that LM. Also does not cause discoloration of heatsink (it maybe noticed if needed under warranty later). Looks like it worths trying and the best answer is to try yourself.

 

im at work and my 8950hk 1080 just been delivered.

i wonder what temps and volts i will get stock....?

hope i got a good one (as good as it can get anyway)!

 

Good luck. Let us know about the CPU VID. Also test the temps with the latest bios and farcry 5 (before doing any re-paste)

 

Those of you that have or had the r5
Who is manufacturing the heatzinks in the r5 ?

Is it Sunan or CCI?

I ask because with the r4 it was generally accepted the Sunan 2nd revision was the better one

I have the CCI 84s - 00m1 - AU00

I will be posting a mini review of my r5 4K gsync 1080 at the weekend.

 

I have a CCI heatsink.

 

Received new AW17 R5 today, i9-8950HK and GTX 1080, 4K screen gsync. Unlike the previous sample, this one seems to work. Touch wood I have not spoken too soon. Touch wood again.

Out of the box, with no repasting or anything, the "standard test" ie CPU at 45W, GPU at 180W, the CPU reached the 80C-85C, but slowly and stayed there, the GPU at around 67C-70C, the PCH well, let's not talk about the PCH, but this machine rocks! Touch wood again! I then did a -100mV on the core using XTU and the 45W of the CPU became instantly 22W-25W, and the temps dropped to the mid 60s !!! No repasting. Nothing fancy. I tried -200mV and it kept going even better. Then I became too cocky and tried -300mV (all the while stress test was running) and it died before the button was released.

This very quick, first test, shows that the machine can handle 45W on the CPU and 180W on the GPU out of the box. There were no core differentials and no throttling. Well, there was power throttling at 45W or thereabouts. With a leisurely -100mV the CPU dropped to 22W and the temps collapsed down to the mid 60s.

While unboxing the machine you cannot help but notice how thin and sturdy it is, yet it packs all that power.

More tests tomorrow.

 

Prob both, but so far I haven't seen a difference performance wise while using my R4.

 

Before you apply the undervolt stop the stresstest. Idle voltage can drop much lower than load voltage. Your -200mv will crash instand when you are idleing...if not congratulation

 

Well mine was almost noiseless while not doing much (could not even hear the fans). Under standard CPU tests temps were generally fine too. Try farcry 5. This is the real deal. Also try run the CPU stress test using XTU and check if you get any thermal or power limit throttle. I believe the temps you refer to are average temps. Did you get any temp spikes?

I hope this is true and no-repaste is needed but seems too good to be true. I cannot think the new bios did such a big improvement.

 

This is out of the box, and -175mV through XTU.

If I remove the undervolting then it will go 85C-90C.

As you can see this is not at all comparable to the previous one... It must have been a defective/badly fitted heatsink on the previous one!

 

It may be the bios too. Can you set the windows power plan to performance? The frequency dropped to 798MHz. Are these temps under CPU stress test? Temps do not show any thermal throttle but frequency dropped to 797MHz. I cannot see if there was any thermal throttle under HWinfo.
Do the following:
1) set windows power plan to performance
2) set fan speed to performance in alien command center or bios
3) run hwinfo
4) run farcry 5 for 30 minutes or so
5) take screenshot of ALL Hwinfo information

Thanks.

 

I can't see this new ain't much better than what you returned in May. If you had put same voltage for the previous one the results would be about equal. Compare Cpu Package Power. More wattage = More Heat.

 

No, it is different, for the better, look at these graphs, I have removed the CPU undervolt just for a laugh.

But I am having a problem with the GPU. It draws over 180W, reaches 204W !!! and it throttles continuously. I have stuttering in the game. I have no controls over the GPU and I have no idea if this can be fixed by increasing its limits or maybe reducing its clocks ? Any ideas? I could reduce the graphics settings but surely there can be a clever way?

Top left two graphs, you can see I raised the CPU voltage (removed the undervolt) and the CPU power jumped to the 45W and the temp also jumped to around 75C-80C. Sounds much tamer to me than the previous one.

But now look at the GPU, it's gone mad, pulling over 180W which is its limit. Can someone please help me ? It is the GTX 1080. Thank you!

 

Here it is running with everything on (almost) CPU at 45W, GPU at 180W, no undervolt, no repaste, 22C ambient. As you can see the CPU does not throttle thermally (bottom left chart) whereas in the past it was throttling continuously. OK, it does jump to the low 90s but it is containable, whereas in the past it was not at all.

This is a good base from where to start. We can undervolt, repaste, repaste with LM, we can improve it. Just the -150mV undervolt will bring the CPU down to the 70C and we are happy.

 

doofus99 please run hwinfo while playing farcry 5 without undervolt. Mine was fine untill I tried that. And I did not have any undervolt, only repaste with thermal grizzly kryonaut (which was applied very bad). To my experience with this machine, farcry 5 is the gold standard for cpu and gpu temps combination. This game is like pushing temps to their limits. But it sounds strange it is the GPU that causes throttle.

 

Don't look only on peak temp. See also current temp. 83C with 44w package load. Vs. previous 78C and a bit lower 34w. The differences is all too low to say this is significant better.

FYI. Seems PCH temp on the newer MB is worse. 97C with Power limit PL1 locked to 45W is bad. And 77C on the ssd's with this low load aint good (The Hynix NVMe ssd's normally don't run as hot as this). There is much more than just the problematic Cpu temp on this replacement machine.

Edit. If you want test your ssd temp, then run ATTO Disk Benchmark 3-4 times in a row.

 

Dont make it worse than it is
With an undervolt, an ssd Heatsink and a cooling pad on the pch Chip this machine is fine. Yes, it should run out of the box this way... but we know this is not the case. And if we want to have the built quality and service of Alienware we have to live with the bad sides and fix it ourselfs.

With LM i can run 4.7ghz with 110w package load and have temps in the high 70s during gaming.

FC5 generates an average 55w package load at 4.5ghz with max 80w on my Laptop

I just want to say that the cooling system of the r5 has high potential and with a bit love this rig is awesome.

@doofus99 you make nice records all the time but you are not able to interpretate them. Your GPU is working fine. You play in 4k, your GPU runs Full Load. That means the GPU is drawing all the power it is allowed to and will be limited when exceeding this limit. Your GPU is fine. There would be a problem if it would draw less power

 

Totally agree with captn.ko. I think captn.ko was the first to solve all the issues on R5. We just have to do all that. Regarding SSDs, it is true that hynix should not run so hot because they are slow. Mine wasn't running so hot. My samsung PM960 were running over 90 (during benchmarks) but dropped to about 70 with a relatively cheap cooling pad/heatsink from amazon.

By the way can we put a thermal paste/heatsink on PCH instead of thermal pad/heatsink?

 

I will use thermal glue for pch mod

 

I have not (dare not) opened the laptop up to check so could you please tell me:

1) How much clearance do we have over the PCH to attach *anything* to it? Like a small heatsink etc or even a copper/aluminium plate say 1mm thick but much larger than the die itself ? I have sheets of aluminium downstairs and thermal glue, I could do it in a jiffy!

2) How much clearance do we have over the SSD to do anything similar?

3) I do not care if the GTX is throttling, let it run in any way it likes, but I had stuttering yesterday while gaming, and I am trying to find the culprit. I was getting 70-100FPS (100 is an artificial limit) but all those benchmark scores are meaningless if for example you spend 115 seconds at 100 FPS and 5 seconds at 10 FPS, because your benchmark overall scores will still be in the 100FPS range, but the 10 FPS is unacceptable even for a few seconds.

So what can be causing it? The CPU was not throttling at all and was running at 70C at good speeds, can it then be the PCH getting too hot and causing this stuttering?

It could of course be some other software also running causing this stuttering. One of the problems is I cannot reproduce it unless I go into a raid and there are another 20-25 players at the same time. I have found no way to trigger it under testing conditions.

Any help to diagnose would be most welcome.

 

"My old i9 has 1.3v Load voltage @ 4.3ghz with ca 104w Power during cinebench.

The i9 in the new r5 has 1.19v load voltage @4.3ghz with ca.85w power during cinebench"

************************************

@ captn.ko

How did you manage to exceed the 45W TDP limit in both your old and new laptops?

I have used both Throttlestop and XTU, on both my old and new Dell AW17 laptops, and cannot get the power to exceed the 45W limit no matter what I set it to and it thinks it has done it. As a result, when stressed for anything over a few seconds, I am limited by the 45W and only undervolting "buys" me a few extra MHz (maybe from 3.12GHz to 3.5GHz when the power throttle kicks in, about half way though the Cinebench CPU test).

My voltages are 0.9V @ 3.12GHz no undervolting, and 0.86V @ 3.47GHz with -150mV, all at 45W throttled.

Actually just watched a youtube video, on another i9 laptop, an XPS, he is getting *exactly* same results as me, around 3GHz with no undervolt and 3.5GHz with -150mV.

 

Ah! I have now managed to overcome the TDP limit! You have to go into the BIOS and select an OC profile. Then it appears it UNLOCKS the TDP and now I can go higher. I just got CB 1388 cb by setting the TDP to 80W (from 45W).

 

1) search for rasberry heatsinks (amazon or ebay). I tried some exactly the size of R5 PCH and small enough to fit the chassis. And they come with 3M thermal glue on them. They are also cheap. It sticked so well I had difficulty to remove it. I did not use any thermal paste (maybe I should) but this kind of heatsinks are made to stick directly on the chip. I did not have time to try and actually the laptop died (did not power on) before I manage to.

2) use any NVME heatsink you can see on amazon. Make sure it is for laptop too (some may be too big)

3) yes benchmarks are meaningless when you get stuttering in game. Thats why I always say try farcry 5 and not benchmarks. I can also think that it maybe the SSD temps causing the stuttering? Is it ok after setting an overclock profile in BIOS? By the way you can do it through alienware command center too.

 

Hi Guys, Just joined and would like some advice please ...Going to get a 17 G5. I'm not what you would call a really serious gamer but don't want to be limited to what I can play as I am at the moment with my now getting long in the teeth Vaio. I also like to do a bit of photography so will be using it for Photoshop etc. So my conundrum is this...UHD 60Hz or QHD 120Hz both with g-sync etc

 

The UHD panel has unbelievable colours... and 4K of course

 

Anyone tried the latest Bios? Any changes or improvements?

 

I have just had it installed, it is version 1.1.6, and stupidly I cannot recall what the previous version was

 

r u guna buy fc5 for me then

 

Far Cry works fine I think. Like WoW, it does not need or use the CPU so much.

This is Far Cry with default CPU settings: 45W / 90W peak, no undervolting, 4.4GHz-4.9GHz
And with cutting down to 20W / 30W peak, -0.125mV, 3.0GHz-3.5GHz

I cannot even tell which is which, and it is the same with WoW, the hugely limiting factor in both these games is the GPU (GTX 1080) which is working 100% and at 180W...

The difference is that the i9 was pulling full 45W in the 4.4GHz configuration but only 18W in the 3.0GHz+undervolt configuration and at 60C rather than 80C-85C ...

I am almost convinced that for these two games, WoW and Far Cry 5, the limiting factor is the GPU on my 4K screen and at quite high settings.

 

Use an OSD ingame

1 rule:
GPU load >95% = GPU Limit
GPU load <94% = CPU Limit

Thats it. Its no miracle that the GTX1080 is limiting at 4k...

 

Ok here’s my mini review - spec is gtx1080 4K uhd 512 ssd 16gb bios 1.1.6


I’ve intentionally commented on other areas rather than just focus on heat as this thread does.


First off there is no light bleed on the AUO panel, at least on my machine, which was an issue in the corners on the r4. It’s the same AUO panel that appeared in the r3 and r4 and is highly recommended.


I like the new more modern look of the Alienware command centre. My only gripe is with the sound presets, there is no custom preset. Attached is an image of the presets available. Alienware should introduce custom settings with a future patch so you can fine tune the sound and increase the base, as a result of the limitation of the software the r5 has less bass than my r4.


The ssd is a Samsung sm961 which is a fast drive and equivalent to the pro series. Temps are 50c resting temp in windows .


It does feel snappy and quicker at opening windows menus and programs over the r4. It’s also quieter, as the fans don’t come on until I start a demanding program.


It runs hot, after just 5 mins of far cry 5 my temps are as per attached. This is with factory clocks, factory paste, no undervolt. This is really poor. The Heatsink is made by CCI. Pch temp is ok though at 50c boot and raises to 65c 70c playing 45 mins fc5.


Compared to my r4, I got 3 extra frames running fc5 benchmark on average (only difference in spec is the cpu).


Overall, it’s not much of a step forward from the r4. Do I want to keep it, yes I do, but my head says return, due to the heat issues and the fact the gpu refresh is due soon. So I will be keeping my r4 for now.

I couldn’t recommend to buy this, and with these temps out of the box I’m not investing my time an monies in repasting, the machine should be fit for purpose out of the box.


If anyone is thinking of buying an r5 I’d recommend you save some monies and buy a discounted r4.

 

Hello there, instead of fujipoly's try using Arctic pads. The expensive fujipoly's pads are best when used under high pressure environments, which the heat sinks are low pressure mounts.

As for soldering, if you have the tools I would skip the soldering and try balancing your heat sink to where it makes the best contact so that you can use the thinnest pads that it'll allow, over using thicker pads to compensate.

Using pressure paper is recommended to ensure you have even contact points on the cpu/gpu die(s), because when modding the heat sink, even a little change can result into big change on the heat plate side.

Hope that helps and good luck!

 

What about gelid thermal pads?

 

Maybe some of you are intrested in a few undervolting results:

All tests with i98950hk @4.3ghz. Far Cry 5. 99% GPU Load (except the 60fps Sync tests). Ambient temp 24 degree. 100% Fan speed

1. GPU stock @1860mhz
-GPU: 175w, 65°C - CPU: avg 43w, 68°C
94FPS

2. GPU @2000mhz + RAM OC
-GPU: 185w, 66°C - CPU: avg 43w, 68°C
105FPS

3. GPU @1900mhz + undervolt + RAM OC
-GPU: 145w, 59°C - CPU: avg 43w, 66°C
97FPS

4. GPU @1800mhz + undervolt + RAM OC
-GPU: 135w, 57°C - CPU: avg 43w, 65°C
94 FPS

ECO: GPU @1800mhz + undervolt + RAM OC+ 60 FPS Limit
-GPU: 105w, 53°C - CPU: avg 29w, 55°C
FPS Limit 60

Ultra Eco: GPU @1750mhz + undervolt + RAM OC + 60FpS Limit + [email protected]
-GPU: 95w, 49°C - CPU: avg 21w, 49°C

 

So first 4 days use, my feelings on 8950HK GTX 1080, 2k 120hz gsync, 16gb ram, 512 nvme + 256 nvme + 1tb SSD.

apart from a broken hdd cable (replaced) and the fact the online manual does not suggest that the middle top screw on the panel underneath IS NOT removable (some scratch marks trying to get it out with tweezers!) this unit is behaving very well.

the CPU has not gone above 90deg!!!! thats with .130 UV and unit raised 1 inch off desk. its going for LM and pch mod this week. the cpu boosts nicely to 4.3 all cores no problem, and iv had 4.6 on one core so i got a good one it seems. it spikes at 1.43 volts but usually sits around 1.27, i know ppl want the lowest but im only bothered about heat and thats not an issue with this unit.

the 120hz gsync 2k panel is fantastic, perfect sweet spot for this gpu, i will use an 1180 in graphics amp to drive a 4K tv/projector when it drops.

this unit does not get overly hot and its going for LM shortly, in fact it runs cooler than my previous 15 R3 with 1060 6gb when it was stock, cpu on that was 97deg (78 after LM).

the black colour lid looks great but you can see finger prints on it a mile away however a quik wipe and it looks good.

the speakers are much better than last gen, much much louder and sound great.

a bit disappointed that the lighting themes are a bit of a nightmare to generate, and you cannot download them.

iv not tried vr yet, the cpu is overkill for vr but the gpu is ok, i will wait for the 1180 to drop and use the graphics amp i got with it to smash some vr.

overall very happy, no major issues. would i buy again?

yes defo, i know some ppl have had usual heat issues but seems good.

i hope everyone is enjoying their new machines

edit:

one last thing to add,

BEWARE if you buy 'transfer my pc'. they sent me a DISC!!! i called them and asked them where im supposed to put it, the line went quite and then they offered a refund.....!

 

Glad your laptop seems like a good unit, do you know who made the heatzink? CCI or Sunan?

Also re the speakers, if your previous machine was an A15, the sound will or should be better, as the a17 has a sub speaker.
However, the software is limited on the r5 compared to the r4 a17 and you can’t set a custom preset to adjust the bass, which is why compared to the previous a17 r4 gen the sound doesn’t have as much depth and not quite as good imho ..

 

im not doing the repaste, so i cannot comment of the heatsink although he ensures uniform contact. i use a guy near where i live who does it very cheap as i know him, through his pc business. if i wreck my pc im buggered, he has business insurance and years of practise!

he uses a clear tape that hardens with heat to prevent any shorts in case the LM leaks. after the initial heat treatment that tape can withstand insane heat and not melt!

he also does pch mods, guys a legend.

i did not consider the 15 r3 not having a sub!

 

To see the manufacturer of the heatzink - it’s viable by taking the back cover off ... so removing the 6 screws ... apart from top middle screw. Same method for accessing the memory and ssd..

Hopefully dell will update the new Alienware command software so we can create are own sound custom presets going forward.

 

its in for LM already, pikup in 2 days.

i would not attempt repasting, when i can get it done cheap by an insured pro!

i will let you know when its back.

edit: only thing i do is swap mem or storage, thats it! i did take accidental damage cover but i want to use that for things like kids spilling drinks etc, not my own repair attempts!

 

Thank you for sharing. In example 1, I see average temps, what were you max? Did you throttle at all? Even for a split second?

 

No throttling. CPU Peak temps in the mid 70s, average 65-68

 

How did you overclock RAM? which program did you use?

 

Afterburner

 

Thanks, I don't have any idea about how to "balancing" the heat sink.
Does it mean bending, cutting, polishing,...etc task?

I've already tried installing the heatsink without any paste and used cheap thermal pads with various thicknesses to measure the gaps.

Anyone here provide me with good how-to link for "balancing" the heatsink?

 

The most important gaps are those on the CPU and the GPU. Use some pressure paper or other means to find if the heatsink is making a good contact with both. If not then you are in trouble because the heatsink is a complex 3D shape and you will need to bend it to perfection - I would simply order another one from Dell.

But why mess with the heatsink? Is the laptop overheating?

 

Maybe using flexible thermal pads like gelid is a better solution especially for a heatsink that does not fit well?

 

Hey All

First time on here, I put a thread on about the issues with the 120hz TN screen I got on my 17.

All I see is people saying its a good gaming screen but playing elite dangerous on it was awful and any dark image just didnt have the colour range to smoothly go from colour to black.

Am I missing something here or what coz I am currently in the process of sending it back to reorder with the IPS panel but I have to wait and hope for another 15% discount offer

Mike

 

Get the 4K screen. I literally got my 120 hz tn panel Alienware yesterday shipped it right back and got the 4K. The TN colors suck and I’m surprised people recommend it at all.