*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R5 Owner's Lounge

Have you actually used the 4k screen? It's horrible in scaling and not nearly as bright... I had the 4k, shipped it back instantly... The colors of the TN can be brought to life under the color setting of the Nvidia control panel, made mine look almost identical next to the IPS panel. The IPS has slightly better blacks but that's it... 120 Hz all the way bro!

 

Dell use 2 4K panels, the 1 to get is the AUO B173ZAN01.0. And the way to ensure it’s this 1 is order 4K gsync.
Otherwise you may end up with the sharp panel.

The AUO B173ZAN01.0 panel is highly recommended across various external reviews and featured in the Alienware 17 r3 and r4. It has a brightness of 400 nits but as you could end up with the sharp panel dell advertise 300 nits.

 

They probably recommend for gaming. I'm far more happy with a 4k IPS for colour rendition and pixel density. And I don't need to care about above 60fps; I don't play 200fps refresh running CSGO twitchy stuff. Horses for courses I suppose...

 

My 4K panel is so bright, I can only run it at 50% brightness... Not sure what's wrong with yours, or perhaps your are gaming in the sun?

 

Receive my AW15R4 yesterday... return it today. Awfull amount of lightbleed/ips glow (ips 60hz non g-sync) and differentiel core of 15 degree even on undervolting. It's not worth to try repasting... Really nice case and keyboard by the way

https://imgur.com/ZNMS5Tb

 

Can I message Dell and ask them for this panel? How do I know if I get the panel? I'm super excited for the 4k screen

Acid I have no idea what TN panel you got. I can tell you mine was utter garbage. Watched the last of us 2 trailer and couldn't make out much on the screen boxed it up and shipped it back. I love movies and vibrant colors, so to each their own

 

Me too, I have it at around 65% brightness.

 

Hey guys, been absent for a while. Recently repasted my unit again, Was just interested in anyone with an R5 who has repasted can compare to my temps below?

This is:
PUBG for 110mins
CPU @ 4.3GHz unlocked with -120mV UV
GPU overclocked to average of ~1800MHz with undervolt of ~0.937V
LM conductonaut with PCH, SSD and various other cooling mods
CPU average low 60s, max 76
GPU average 61, max 66
SSD max 61
No power limits or throttling triggered

 

It's better to show the power of the GPU and the CPU, I assume it is at full max for the GPU at 180W, and for the CPU? Then we can compare without needing to have the same games or benchmarks, just powers.

When, and while, my GPU is at 180W, I can get 57W out of the CPU at 90C, or 12W at 53C, and it varies in between. I have a 140mV undervolt on CPU+cache.

 

so....any luck with the i9-8950 and gtx 1080 OC on the heat front? anyone got it working at stock not melting , without LM ?

 

So you have LM on CPU and GPU? Are you using an cooling pad or have you lifted the Notebook?
can you post a screenshot of your MSI afterburner curve? you can run the gpu uv more agressive if your gpu is able to do,
atm i test:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

he already shows the power of CPU and GPU Just look at his screenshot. 39,203w AVG CPU and 179,564w Peak GPU. Not only power is important. You have to compare clocks too. He has full 4.3ghz and an average load of 40w with temps in the low 60s. With stock paste the r5 has higher temps at 20w with same clocks.

 

We are talking about heat, clocks are not important ; just watts. Looking at his average of 39W I am not sure how it is calculated, so I proposed we test it a bit more reliably than by running a game.

Let's assume it was a constant 39W on the CPU and 180W on the GPU, for comparison, my AW 17 R5' CPU would then be at 78C (at 41W), with full fans, 22C in the room, and laptop sat on a pad (no fans on pad). I have not repasted.

He has repasted with LM so I presume we can make the R5 better than 78C at 41W while the GPU is at 180W. You have repasted with LM, and you could run a Prime95 small FFTs 6 threads at 3.0GHz, should give you 41W like me (we have same CPU). If you keep the GPU at 160W-180W at the same time, what temperatures are you getting on the CPU? Mine rose until it stabilised at 78C.
However we have two extra cores on him, +25% processing power maybe (http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-8950HK-vs-Intel-Core-i7-7820HK/m486215vsm224965).

So even at stock cooling, I "pay" +15C for +25% extra CPU power.​

 

I think avg temps would be more or less mid to high 80s... try it... play fc5 and we will see

 

CPU at 4.4GHz, powerlimits to 110W, and very hot, thermally throttling, average power 45W, temps avg 87C maybe








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

And this is CPU at 3.0GHz, running quiet and cool at 55C






No difference to FPS at all.

 

How much better can we get with LM ? GPU at 180W, CPU at 45W, what temperatures are we getting with LM? Is it worth doing?

 

i can run 4.7ghz without throttling and avg temps in the 70s so yeah its worth it... because i have a 120Hz panel and need the clocks in CPU demanding games

 

I find after multiple repaste of 15r4 that LM is only effective for the CPU. In my case it lower temps by only 5C to 10C and core differential are between 7 to 3C depending how much LM i put. The more i put the less core differential. For the GPU i had better temps with Dell stamps, MX4 and Kryonaut (max 75 on FC5 and Max 77C on LM.)
I think it is best to LM only CPU and Kryonaut or MX4 for the GPU.

 

To everyone undertaking a repaste. Please for the love of god also redo the thermal pads. The dell pads arent cannot be squeezed that well and you still end up with bad pressure from the heatsink.LM will dry out if there is still a gap between the heatsink and CPU and in worst cases is stuck on the CPU die.

 

Hey guys! I've just signed up to this forum. I've just purchased the alienware 17 r5 with maximum specs.

120hz 2k screen
32GB ram
i9 8950
1tb ssd

I purchased it before reading through this forum unfortunately. I however have accepted that I may have a thermal management issue. I would like to do the full modification including all the pads. Is there a post I can reference for the materials needed? I'd like to have them on hand when it arrives and complete the repaste modification on day 1. Thank you all so much for this awesome resource on this laptop.

Dan

 

Yes thank you rinneh. Next time i repaste it i will also repad wiht fujipoly that i just ordered. I noticed that dell's pads near #1 screw cpu, are not pressed since they have no print on them. On my previous 15R3 LM only was easy but this 15R4 (second one) needs new pads for sure.

 

still waiting to see how are the peaks for a non-LM - kryonaut-ish R5 with 8950...interested in (perhaps) buying this as an AW...or maybe XMG... in the next 10 months and upscaling my r4 specs

 

Go for XMG.
In 10 months time, you will see newer revisions with good/worse thermals. No one can speculate if AW will up the ante in cooling the cpu.

 

Yep, LM on both CPU and GPU and it's lifted 20mm, no cooling pad, ambient temp 22-23C

Yes when I next get on it I'll post my curve on MSI AB for you. Any more UV for me gave instability but it wasn't a thorough assessment

 

Has anyone on here tried using a Graphics amplifier with their 17 r5? I have a 1070 model with a i7 8750H in it trying to use the graphics amplifier to run a ASUS ROG STRIX 1080ti OC and it seems like i dont have any drivers to run the graphics amplifier, my internal GPU is not being disabled through the software and it is running both cards at the same time.

Alienware tech support seems to think that either there are no drivers for the 17r5 yet to let it run the graphics amplifier, or that drivers are not needed and the software is integrated in the command center software, however, command center is not picking up the graphics amplifier either. HELP!

 

That's because the FPS is mainly driven from the GPU. I suspect the CPU utilisation is not close to 100% and you have 6 cores as well. A better test would be running a more CPU intensive game such as BF1, Witcher 3, PUBG

 

Heatsink is imbalanced, My GPU averages 58-61 on LM and that's whilst overclocked as well to 1800-1850

 

Honestly, unless you are a complete expert who has done hundreds of repastes, I wouldn't bother using fujipoly, arctic will give you better results unless the heatsink is perfectly and I mean "PERFECTLY" balanced. Trust me I know from experience.

The arctic 6w/mK are:

• Miles cheaper
• Just as good unless you're @iunlock (which you arent )
• Easier to work with, shape and cut. It's much faster and they won't fall apart or tear in your hands!
• Easier to solve GPU stuttering
• Can be re-used again and ...
• Can even be used on CPU/GPU dies to check for correct balancing

 

I saw a youtube video of a Mexican guy opening up and repasting his AW17 R4. Dell fit thermal pads (stamps) on the CPU and GPU and thermal pads all around. Many of these pads did not seem to have taken any pressure (no marks I could see) and there are so many of them I wonder how can you make sure you have a perfect fit. I do not think you can. The screws that hold down the heatsink are on leaf springs / tabs and I do not think you could possibly exert enough pressure to overcome the imbalance from any not-perfectly fitted thermal pads which are present all around!

 

@captn.ko



HTH

 

Seriously, I've only flicked through a few minutes but this guy does not know what he's doing. DO NOT COPY THIS GUIDE. Some reasons being:

• He doesn't do a re-pad or even check their condition. If he had he would notice half of them wont even be making contact and the tiny square ones will still have the clear plastic packaging on...
• No lapping - minor point but hey why wouldn't you if you've gone to this much trouble, just spend another 5 mins
  
• No balancing of heatsink or testing that it's sitting flush and even over both dies
• Wayyyyy to much LM, he needed half of what he put on. he didn't need the extra blob on the Heatsinks. This is conducive to potential pump out
• He applies the LM directly onto the die from the tube. If it's a brand new tube you REALLY don't want to do this! It can have air bubbles and squirt all over your mobo. Put it on the heatsink directly first
• He paints the heatsink area WAY larger than the actual die size, creating a nice gliding surface for that LM to run straight off the die and on to the tape
  
• No protection from LM pump out whatsoever, big risk when he clearly doesn't know what he's doing
• What the hell is he doing pasting a processor die everywhere where pads should be (This is a tacky shortcut!) and why is he using AS-5 for this!?! Do it properly, use pads and get them the correct thickness, it will dry out and be useless within a few months...

I'll be amazed if this laptop was still running 6 months later (due to the risk of pump-out), let alone running cool...

100% he'll be re-opening this laptop again one day to do it properly. The best bit is when he says he's been doing this for 14-15 years, doesn't mean he's been doing it well for all that time I guess!

 

Well the lesson from that video and the reason I posted it, and another video I have just looked at, where iunlock and few others say that some pads keep the heatsink off the CPU ! Well, no **** Sherlock! Random ICs and randomly placed thermal pads, a one-piece heatsink and retaining screws on metal leaf springs... right...

What is the recommended way to go about this then? Remove all thermal pads, use pressure paper on CPU/GPU, and then start adding the surrounding thermal pads, one at a time to determine if any are causing issues and to determine the absolute right thickness? Are there any "spongy" thermal pads you could get?

 

Yes that's pretty much bang on. You can start with the pad configuration from iunlocks guide and work from there. I'd check the pressure of the heatsink over CPU and GPU at this point and Then Get the balance of the heatsink right, then recheck the same amount of pressure on the CPU and GPU before then doing the paste.

Quite frankly it's a pain in the arse, will take several hours to get it right and you have to be patient and disciplined or you'll be reopening it again. This is exactly the reason why Dell can't ensure all their Alienwares come to us repasted like this. Tolerances are so small and differences in heatsink and each mobo is big enough to cause most people issues. There's really not a lot Dell can do about it short of paying someone for hours to work on each unit individually before shipping to customer (to expensive)

Arctic are the best squishy thermal pads I've used btw

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Do I take it right that thermal pads are kind of like play doh (modellimng clay, plasticine ) ? Meaning you can take a (spare) thermal pad and mould it to any shape you like? So in effect it is simply modelling clay with good thermal conductance?

And why can we not cut the heatpipes and separate the heatsinks ? Can you reseal a heat pipe after it's been cut? I am sure you can pinch it tight at its one end, solder it even?

 

Hi doofus. No unfortunately pads are not like playdough or clay. They're fairly rigid and thin and cannot be moulded into any shape, however the arctic pads are a little bit squishy to fit better it's worth noting. The pads can only be cut to shape and bought in different thicknesses of like 0.5, 1 or 1.5mm.

I wouldn't cut heat pipes! Not sure why you'd want to do that but note that the heat pipes are not solid all the way through. They are pipes and have this copper like sandy mix within them. Therefore you cannot reseal them easily as well but it may be possible using the method you describe. If you want to bend them slightly, be very careful and use a heat gun and some gloves

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

I would want to cut the heat pipes so as to separate the heatsinks. Sounds too hard it was just an idea.

Do you mean this one for arctic pads?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

 

Yes those are the ones. You can choose from 0.5mm,1mm or 1.5mm.
IMO, 0.5mm and 1mm can be ordered in bulk and can be stacked on top of each other if you're repadding on assumption rather than precise values from vernier caliper. Personally I did assumption method by stacking 0.5mm arctic pads and so far its good. Do note I have very old model 15 r2 which you can see in the signature section put up as a spoiler.

 

Heat pipe contains fluid inside, and if you'll cut it the fluid will evaporate and efficiency will be decreased dramatically. It's possible to refill and reseal it again, but it won't be easy
Read more on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

 

Yep thats the one

 

What about Gelid thermal pads. Papusan suggested those ones because they are soft/flexi and should cope with different distance of imbalanced heatsink like on R5.

 

Yes, I know, I have watched dozens of heat pipe explanations and demos, the actual liquid used by one heat pipe manufacturer is distilled water (and I presume used by most due to the thermal range needed), and that is dead easy to obtain (my RO filter can put out 4 ppm water for example, I can then boil that and condense it, or buy it they do sell it at the supermarket). The problem maybe that I have seen inside some heat pipes there is like a ceramic type material around the edges I am not sure how you would reseal it as you would need extra copper to plug the cut off bit. It was just an idea in case others have already done it. Some people might

 

Thanks Pete Light, i will follow your recommendation and order those artic pads and cancel those fujipoly. Just so you know, on my previous 15R3 i have tried Minus 8 pads and results were a disaster. Hopefully i will have better success with those Artic pads.

 

Oh my goodness what a nightmare (that video) lol...

Great points Pete. *thumbs up*

I agree... Do not follow that guide.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

so my i98950hk came back from liquid metal, here is 1 hour of cod ww2 with everything maxed out:

 

and here is some quite shocking but unsurprising info, when the LM guy repasted he found the heat sinks were oxidising, from the stock thermal paste! he said he had to clean it all down, this is very baaaaaaaad, pay £3300 for a high end gaming machine and the factory is adding stuff that dissolves your hardware!

he cleaned it up and applied the paste. i expect better thermals after the LM has cured.

note the copper shim/ lm combo on the pch

sorry the image embed here is ****e, check the links:

https://ibb.co/cfJqC8
https://ibb.co/bGOe5T
https://ibb.co/isDe5T
https://ibb.co/kpVgKo
https://ibb.co/bGOe5T

 

also must add that the mobo will not recognise any 2.5" hdd/ssd, tried the ssd on another machine, its ok, tried new hdd cable from dell, still no luck.

mobo is dodgy!

dell sending tech out to replace mobo!

not happy.

told them this is my last AW.

it is.

 

Is the epic black only avabile with the base fhd 60hz ips panel?
When I enable the epic black, the display option automatically switches back to the base dispaly config.
I even spoke to dell and they say black is only avaible with the base dispaly option.
My panel of choice is the 1440p tn 120hz g-sync panel.

 

not true bud, iv got black and i could choose any screen. iv got 2k 120hz.

 

Maybe the black colour just isn't' available in Australia?
Still, it's a good deal though with the i9 and gtx1080.

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-laptops/new-alienware-17/spd/alienware-17-laptop/aw17d44au

 

Looks like this guy used Kapton tape over the CPU and the GPU?

It looks like you have overvolted? You would get many more GHz if you had undervolted.

With stock pastes and 140mv undervolt, I can get 40W - 42W out of the CPU at 80C-85C whiloe the GPU is at full max 180W. Room temperature 23C-25C

I assume your GPU is also maxed and it seems you are getting 56W at same temperatures, therefore the LM has given you +14W / +16W on the CPU? I think I need to do it too.

Did he make a comment or take photos of the heatsinks and ICs before he had cleaned everything up? Did he find stamps or thermal grease?

 

For LM and 3.8ghz your temps are way to high... why do you have a voltage offset of +!!! 160mv?

Yesterday i played 3 Games

2hrs FC5 with 61 degree on the gtx1080 and 65 degree avg on the i98950hk (4.3ghz).

1hr witcher 3 with 62 degree GPU and 60 degree GPU @4.3ghz

2hr Rocket League with 51 degree GPU and 50 CPU @4.3ghz

@doofus99

Can you make a Screenshot of hwinfo while playing fc5? In your last screenshot you had peak temps in the high 80s with 22w average...

and...Lm is not giving you only 14w with same temps... this is BF1 @4.7ghz


lets talk about +50w with Lm done right