*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R5 Owner's Lounge

How do I check for dead pixels? Just as we are discussing this?

 

How do I enable / use the Intel GPU ? The BIOS/OS seems to use the GTX 1080 and I presume it consumes more power that way? Or maybe they cannot cool down the i9 enough so they have disabled the onboard GPU?

 

OK, replying to myself, the reason the Intel GPU is not used is because of GSync - it needs a direct connection to the Nvidia card and bypasses the Intel.

 

First results of heating tests with Aida64. BIOS disabled Speedstep, FAN set to Performance on BIOS, CPU stuck at 2.9GHz, Alienware control centre disabled, services stopped so it's just the BIOS.

can run the CPU stress with Aida64 CPU at 2.9GHz, power 25.7W, temp around 60C, fan very quiet.
FPU stress spikes power at 50+ W, power limit exceeded, temps around 70C-72C, power limit exceeded at 52W, power drops to 45W, mult. to 27x-28x (from 29x), temp stable at 65C avg, fan very quiet still (I guess we hit the power limit and throttled, not temp. limit).

 

Stressing the GTX 1080, power jumps to 145W !!!! fans start a bit louder but nothing terrible, temps to 67C, overall medium fan noise

 

The keyboard is not as I had expected. While it is very good for a laptop, the key caps are very thin and "wobble" slightly, as a matter of fact the '+' key next to backspace is at an odd angle. I tried to prise it off so as to re-fit it, but it's not coming off. Overall while much better than the older laptop's keyboard, I was expecting a bit more.

There are two USB ports on the left and one on the right , the ones on the left are a type B and C so the second one is much smaller and annoyingly it is very close to its brother and if you need to plug in eg my USB/SD card reader it is very close to the USB C. I would have hoped for an extra USB port and more spaced out.

The top surface (around the keyboard) is made of carbon fibre the Dell XPS 15 also uses carbon fibre.

Tobii is weird, for a while now I have been alt-tabbing to switch between apps and on occasion I noticed that it "jumped" about as if I had pressed it twice, but I was sure I had not, so I thought the keyboard was broken, eventually last night I realised that when you press Alt-tab it then follows your eyes and lands on whatever you happen to be looking at... Very accurate but startling.

The screen needs to be seen to be believed. I do not care what they say about how "useless" 4K is and how you cannot tell the difference and all that cr*p, this is one of the best screens I have ever seen, maybe as good as the XPS 15, and very similar to my 4K LG OLED, and the colours are so bright and vivid, I never thought it was even possible. I am seeing colours I never knew existed. The older laptop's screen pales (literally) in comparison. You spend all day looking at a screen why would you not get the best. I played WoW yesterday and amazingly I am seeing colours that I did not think existed, not only on the 3D graphics, but also on powerbars etc it is a shame I spent the last 4 years on such a crappy laptop screen. In addition the colours do not change as much, or at all actually, when you move your head ever so slightly, as it was the case with the older laptop. The brightness in a well lit room is great I am now at 55% because it is cloudy out there, no need for more. On the down side the blacks are not fully black as is to be expected from the IPS panel, and there is some light bleed from below at equal distances but it was minimal and I was in a completely dark room at the time.

 

Hi doofus99,
I got the FHD IPS instead because of battery life but im assuming its better than the old ones i've had.
Have you hit anywhere near 5ghz in stress testing?

 

The 5ghz is one core only, so when stress testing all cores, it won't reach that level, it can reach 4.3GHz if power limits and thermals allow. If stress testing one thread only, then perhaps it might reach 5GHz briefly, but this one core boost might be with Thermal Velocity Boost, which acts only briefly and when CPU is 50C or below, so the normal boost for one core is 4.8GHz (On Dells OC profile). Stock would be 4,6GHz without the Thermal Velocity Boost.

 

I have a QHD screen because of the 120HZ. People on forums said it is better because of the 120HZ despite the IPS having bigger resolution.

I have sent the Ballistic 32gb ram back. The speed started at 2400MHZ and was going to 2666 only with XMP enabled bios (so not on any alienware laptop). In fact, I do not know if there is any laptop with XMP enabled bios but producing RAM kits with such specs for laptops is like nonsense. I believe this explains the small difference in price compared to the 2400 kit of ballistic. So, I got my lesson. Do not buy any ram saying the the speed starts from. This is where your ram speed is going to stay. Dell confirmed that 17 R5 is only going to use that default speed because of no XMP enabling option. I now ordered the Corsair CMSX32GX4M2A2666C18 Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 2666 MHz 260 Pin. It says speed 2666MHZ, no start from. Lets see..

 

By the way I found the Corsair at a very good price much better than ballistic even though it is generally more expensive.

 

Never disable Speedstep in BIOS and instead use TS to disable speedstep in win 10.

 

Do you mind going into hwinfo and getting the product code for the panel?

 

I cannot see any such option in hwinfo64 ?

 

in hwinfo, if you look at the summary window (not the sensor window), one of the dropdown menus will be "Monitor". it'll look something like "SAMSUNG [Unknown Model: SDCA029]" for example on the 13R3 Oled.

what Model # is displayed for your 17R5 UHD panel? thanks.

 

I have run both hwinfo32 and hwinfo64 and I cannot see such option.

 

here, i'll make it easy for you.

https://i.imgur.com/uYTq50i.png

 

mine looks completely different

 

This is how it loads up

 

Uncheck Summary-Only. Uncheck all boxes.

 

Got it! At last!

It is AUO B173ZAN01.0

 

The tech guy had a look and agree with the overheat and offer to send over the engeninnerto fix the problem but also as I was within 14 days I had the option to send it back..so I did it as I didn't want my brand new machine to be taken apart since it is brand new.. let me know guys how's the temp going under stress test together both cpu and gpu.

 

You had the 17r5 i9. Right?
Did you realise through Aida64 or general use?
Are you going to try your luck again or leave it?

 

Yes it was r5 i9 1080... did the prime95 too and real cases too...like some 3d rendering on gpu and encoding video on cpu too to best both together.. most high temp is when I used the gpu together with the cpu. Probably it wasant paste properly and would have to 're paste but for the moment I will wait to keep my eyes on the temp and reviews and might try again once it is a bit longer on the marketing as I had same problem when the r4was released and has to give it back and I know I month or two later they seems to change the heat sink..

 

Do you think the heat problem was just because it was the i9 w/ 1080. I am thinking about getting a R5 with i7 8750H and 1070 as I just had to return my r4 with the top i7 and 1080.

 

Personally I’d say so. Their cooling is not up to the task of 1080 and HK cpu of a 4 core let alone a 6 core at higher clocks.
Get a fat laptop for that kind of power imo although getting exactly what you want in the right notebook is what it should be about.
Alternatively you could try the 15r4 with 1080 max q.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

hmm maybe I will try the i7 with 1070 then.. thanks for your reply!

 

Sounds like a great plan. I have two i7 HQ + 1070 R4's and they dont get remotely as hot or loud as the HK + 1080 config.

 

But I am guessing they don't perform nearly as good? I also have a desktop with a 1080, 1440p 165hrz monitor.. I know I can't get that kind of performance in a laptop but I am just worried that stepping down to the 1070 I will be dissatisfied since I am use to a "high end" gaming.

 

!MUST READ! **ALIENWARE M17x R5 - 1080 - I9-8950HK**

hi guys. I've been following this post for a few days now, hoping for a miracle from one of you all. I own the Alienware M17 R5 with I9 processor and this is all I can tell you : This laptop feels like a scam. I have tried SO MANY things and still unable to get a good result. Out of the box, I was monitoring with HWmonitor, MOST of my cores jumped to 100 Degrees Celcius multiple times.

That being said, the performance out of the box was complete garbage. The processor voltage control is so lame, it was throttling every two-three seconds resulting in poor FPS and a lot of stutter when maxing out the graphics. The GPU is not the issue, it has never reached above 85 degrees. Even when stress-testing the CPU alone, the temperatures on this laptop are unnacceptable WITHOUT OVERCLOCKING.

The fan controls are iffy and always running at 100% anyways due to the despicable temperatures. The only way I was able to get a "decent" performance, was by undervolting the CPU core Voltage to 0.9V and adding a -175mV offset as well AND ALSO LIMITING THE CPU to 3.7Ghz on all cores and 4.2Ghz on single-core to get maximum temps of 90 to 95 degrees while playing fortnite, and EVEN THEN my laptop would completely crash or blue screen as soon as the power was unplugged from the laptop (Probably due to high Vdroop to save power?).

I contacted Dell and just like everyone else, I was told that the temperatures are not acceptable and that a technician will be sent to replace the cooling system. My guess is this will not change a thing, the "new and improved" vapor chamber is just a gimmick and cannot handle this processor. I will test after the tech replaces the parts and if there are no changes, I am returning this for a refund.

That being said, unless someone out here can tell us they got decent temps out of the box with a CPU that does not power or thermal throttles every few seconds,

!! DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP !!

 

Sorry to hear your frustration. Given the heatzink is hardly any different to the 1 in the 7820hk/gtx1080 and that couldn’t handle the temps, it’s not surprising.

Your doing the right thing by sending it back. To many people have tried to fix dells mess with mods, fancy paste etc, paying others to repaste to fix the temp issues with the r4. It should be fit for purpose out of the box.

For me this r5 laptop is a white elephant, because the real upgrade will be when Nvidia release the next gpu architecture.. gtx1180. With the power and thermal throttling I doubt 8950hk cpu is much better than the 7820hk (apart for small bursts of cpu performance), and for me as I have the 4K gsync screen, the gpu is the limiting factor anyway.

I’m staying away until the next gpu revision for now, I doubt people who keep this version will ever really ever be happy, and by the time dell send out a revised heatzink or different paste at factory the next gpus will be out.

 

Does anyone know an IR remote control for Alienware 17 R5? I see it still has an IR receiver like my old M17X R2 but the remote control I had for it does not work.

 

I don't have exact numbers but the 7700HQ + GTX 1070 17R4 gets very close framerates to my friend's desktop 6700K + 1070 Founders Edition. That CPU and GPU are a very good match for the built in 1080p screen, especially if you have an LG and can overclock it to ~100hz. If you actually have the ~$4000 needed for the GTX 1080 model, I would highly suggest just banking half of it and deal with a GTX 1070 model until they refresh it with a GTX 1180 or whatever later this year. You could resell your 1070 model at a small loss, then pick up the refreshed model repasted by HIDEvolution or such that would last you 2-3 years. Maybe by then we would have a refreshed 1440p panel that had better color and response time than the current one available.

 

It doesnt have an IR receiver. Thats the infrered sensor for the windows helo camera.

 

What software did you use to change the OC and thermal profiles? As far as I have determined the Speedstep tries to OC opportunistically and if the cores are all active that exceeds the power or thermal limits and then it underclocks (to 800MHz) and then rises up again. I'd rather it stayed put at a certain frequency and did not jump about like that.

However with my tests I get good performance even when it does this "oscillation" - in a certain situation I get for example 85FPS and when I disable the Speedstep I get 65 FPS in the exact same situation. So Speedstep is worth having. If I did not know that in the background the CPU gets terribly hot, winds down, and then all over again, I'd be very happy.

Obviously there is some software which monitors the CPU power and temperature and adjusts the clock speed and voltages and fans - I am not sure what it is; is it the BIOS or some Windows drivers maybe. But I understand it is very hard to write such software because you need to second guess what's going to happen next. On the other hand I do not understand why it lets it reach over 100C and then winds it down - why can't it stop it at say, 90C ?

 

Sorry to hear about your experience but thanks for posting. My old 15r2 (980m) with a 6820HK will do 4.2 on all 4 with the graphics amp and still makes a decent gaming machine with a 1080ti. Hopefully the GPU refresh will bring better thermals. Anyhow, is it safe to assume the 8950HK has minimal performance gains over the 8850h?

 

Need some purchase advice guys. I ordered a 17 R5 with QHD screen, i7 8750H and GTX 1070, but I got an offer for a refurb R4 with an i7 7820HK and a GTX 1080 (everything else the same). Should I keep my order for the R5 with its newer, 6-core processor, or go for the R4 with the better GPU?

 

Just going to throw this out there that I got a refurb same specs.. I ended up returning it. I tried my best to keep fixing the issues I was having I really wanted to keep the laptop but in the end it took away all my patients and I returned it.

 

Interesting, thanks for the reply. I did (even more) research and it seems like the R4 chassis can barely keep the processors at reasonable temps, plus it generates a bunch of noise because of that. I assume tamer processors in the R5 with its supposedly improved cooling would help that aspect significantly.

 

I have run further tests. The laptop rests on a Coolermaster cooling pad U3 with 3 fans on full max (and noisy).

It seems that with both the CPU+GPU, the CPU gets too hot. The BIOS then (I suppose it's the BIOS) slows it down radically (to 800MHz) and then it speeds up again, exceeds the thermal limits (100C) and then the cycle repeats all over. So while you're playing your game oblivious to what's happening, the CPU keeps cycling between 800MHz and 4.xGHz hitting the 100C all the time.

To tell the truth, I would not know about it had I not been running the monitoring software in the background. The game I used (WoW) was playing as "normal" in other words FPS would vary from 30FPS to >100FPS depending on location etc. So I would not know if a random "30FPS" was because of the CPU momentarily throttling or because of increased complexity on the screen.

Joining the bandwagon, I then called Dell to ask about overheating on the CPU. They connected remotely and ran some stress tests on the CPU (Intel Extreme Tuning) and that passed, as we know, with Power Throttling cutting in before the CPU had any chance to get very hot. But then we used a CPU/GPU test with the Intel utility monitoring in the background and that showed that there was a repeated oscillation where the CPU would exceed the thermal limits, slow down, and then all over again. Just as I had discovered. For this test we had the fans on max from the BIOS.

The tech support person said they'd call me tomorrow with what to do next but he suggested a replacement of the "cooling system". I am not sure what "cooling system" they will replace it with as the laptop is brand new and surely it wears the latest. But we shall see.

 

Funny, they wanna replace the cooling system on a brand new laptop with probably the exact same cooling system. I expect the results to be no different to be honest.

 

so much for a new improved "vapor chamber" cooling. i think LM is the way to go, if you want to keep cool HK chips, especially in chassis as thin as AW uses. Again this is some bad R&D on the end of AW and could be easily avoided.

if we're are to suspect that: The cooling pads on the VRM's have the right height, The thermal compund has been replaced for something that can hold the temps more in check, the top north bracket of the cpu has been reinforced and gained some strenght, and the fan of the cpu has been on a diet and have become more slim (the fan-blades) in combination with the overclocked cpu (and gpu) means that we can conclude that the current heatsink is not up to the task of cooling a 6 core cpu with unlocked multiplier and voltage.

i've seen people on reddit be happy with a 200+ Mv undervolt, on their HK processor (just to keep the temps in check) what totally destroys the reason to get a overclockable CPU. if i'm running a +70Mv on my cpu without it reaching 85c AFTER 5 or six cinebench runs @4.5 Ghz or @4.4 (all cores) i would like to see a 17R5 hold it clocks on all cores @4.7 Ghz. it's just a 300Mhz OC so it should be doable (if the heatsink was fixed) but it doubt it. we haven't seen a 17 R5 with good results with both the cpu and gpu being used so i'm pretty curious what improvements we should expect.

 

What I read here does not come as a surprise on me. I have seen exactly the same for this model design since middle fall 2016. Dell must start today with a full re design. And unlocked cpu is whats used in the chassis. Not meant to run stock clocks and with massive overheating and throttling.

Dell couldn't avoid it. The chassis is what it is and was designed for 4 core Skylake. And the wimpy Vapor chamber part they developed for Cpu TRIPOD HS ain't enough to remove the heat. People need to learn how Vapor Chambers works. It's clearly Dell's engineers havent done it's own home lesson since the fiasco last 2 years.

 

From what I understand people still have over heating problems with 1080 and i9.

 

I do not understand this photo. Why are the two CPUs/fans connected with the same heat pipes? Is this the reason that the GTX 1080 pushes heat into the i9 which is already marginal and pushes it over the top? On the older Clevo they are completely separate.

 

this ! totally agree brother

 

Hopefully their redesign will. They read these forums I heard so they prob solve it if the mobo space allows them room to.
For my first Alienware ever I like it. Particularly the new design. What I like most besides it’s premium look is it’s touchpad and buttons are not clicky. Like what you find in a business notebook so it’s quiet (a lot of people like it clicky but I don’t as business laptops are where I started from) the touchpad doesn’t fade from use leaving oil marks.
But I’d buy again. Just more screen options be nice. Want more than 1080p. We don’t have m Gpus anymore


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dell need to use a Unified heatsink design due how they shrinked the notebook chssis thickness. Dell use it as well for their Dell XPS line. Most OEM's use Unified HS dsign due same reason.

Most likely wrong AW people read the forum (which has the real influence). Azor haven't been on the forum since he posted in this thread... 3 years ago.
Ask Alienware's General Manager, Frank Azor, Anything on AWA!

 

Just heard they followed it. But going off the fact that iunlock that comes on here. And that he and a few others had conversations about the heating issue which resulted in slight changes in the heatsink plus a version 2 which they claim cools better in their new refresh. Had to assume they must of at least glanced it. Before deciding to just agreeing their was issues and changing up stuff.
‍♂️ I mean from a logical point of view I couldn’t just randomly say to them you got heating issues, fix it and they just change it without seeing evidence of it that it’s widespread.
Azor probably disappeared taking the negativity personally lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

@iunlock will you update your repaste guide to the AW17R5? Do you think the thermals pads are the same so we can follow your 1080GTX guide? Want to repaste mine asap ^^

 

Got mine today.

I9 With -100mv stable 4.3ghz during Cinebench. 1317 points

With -100mv and 4.5ghz OC (hwinfo says average 4450mhz during the test) 1397points