Please help choosing new Alienware 15

as some of you may know i have been complaining about the image quality of my Alienware 15r4 . The screen I got was the 120hz 5ms g sync screen. It has been a nightmare with absolutely NO contrast in any games etc not can you usually see the difference between whites and greys. Changing brightness settings etc don’t fix the issue. Above is my screen while windows is loading in a completely dark room when the screen should be completely black.

Alienware policy is they will not let me downgrade so I cannot change the screen out for the 60hz IPS screen with g sync. My laptop is black and the 4K screen is only available in the grey colored model. (Don’t ask me why)

Anyway my only options are have them replace the 120hz g sync TN screen and hope I’m happy with it because I’ll be past the 30 days and won’t be able to return it after that or

They will send me shipping labels, once I get it I have to mail it back to them. Once they get it , it will be 15 days before the money is credited back to my Dell preferred account. Only then I can reorder a brand new laptop with the cheaper screen. Totally a pain in the ass, the Alienware tech said they could change out the screens at my house easily but it’s not their policy so they can’t . Originally I chose to have them ship a new 120hz screen and it will be installed at my house by a tech but today have had a change of heart and I’m just gonna bite the bullet and ask for a full return and hope to have my new laptop built and sent back to me before the end of the summer.

My questions are is there anything I should change since I’m ordering a new laptop? I planned on getting the 60hz IPS screen with g sync.

My only other option is to get the silver chassis model and they offer a UHD screen. I’m not sure the benefits of a 4K screen will at 15.6 inches will outweigh the performance hit on my 1080 max-q video card.

If I choose just to get a new 120hz TN panel replaired. I will then be past 30 days and stuck with that choice forever. Switching to a ips monitor with g sync will def be a picture with better contrast which after only watching 4K movies with HDR is more important to me then 120hz in gaming.

With the new machine I’ll just have to reinstall everything again which is fine. My backups won’t work since I witched out the raid drives Alienware sends every machine to us with. Again not a big deal. I just need to remove my two Samsung drives and mail this one back ASAP.

My other thought is I could go for the 17inch laptop sincere I’m coming from an Alienware 18. But is there a great performance leap going from the 15 to the 17? I’d expect cooling to be better on the 17 but I could be wrong. Also does the 17 come with a full 1080 or a 1080max -q?

 

The cooling is bad on all the new Alienwares, regardless of the 15 or 17 inch display. The 17 has a normal 1080, but its BGA so it may as well be a Max-Q for all throttling you will get.

I wouldn't recommend 4K on a 15 inch display, already 1080p has a pretty high pixel density, you'd just be putting more load on the GPU for no visual gains (and it will look worse if you run it at 1080p).

To be brutally honest, i'd suggest going for another laptop entirely that doesn't have the tripod heatsink, but if you like the Alienware then you can make it into a halfway decent machine with a better display and a repaste.

 

Hi, I assume you have alienware 15 R4. If yes can you please check the panel model in hwinfo? I need to replace 120Hz TN to 60Hz IPS, but I will receive the system 2 weeks later. If you can give me the panel model, it will be really helpful.

17 inch version has Full 1080 and 15 inch has only 1080 Max-Q. If you are going to buy alienware, I suggest you don't take 1080 Max-q. It has the same performance as 1070, but is 400$ expensive for the same specs. Return yours and get 1070 with IPS. You will save 550$.

 

Sorry I already mailed my system back Alienware will not downgrade parts so I literally have to return my machine, wait for it to credit my account then I can build a new one and have it sent to me. I am getting $150 credit to my account for the problem and they have a new special where instead of 4 years parts and labor in home I’ll get 5 years all parts replacement and in home fixing . Pretty awesome and as someone who’s had Alienware for a long time i suggest everyone get this service or you’ll be really upset in a year when your paying out of pocket or mailing in your system all the time for service.
I have done lots of research and DO NOT get the 120hz panels for the Alienware 15. They are garbage. I’ve posted photos of my system on what should be a totally black screen. In the picture you can see the screen is showing white everywhere, reds all over, yellow etc on what should be all black. Once my account is credited I will order the same machine but with the 60hz IPS g sync. Screen.

As for 1080 max-q vs 1070. Everyone saying the 1070 is faster then the 1080 is lying . They are reading stats and guessing. I had two machines one with the 1070 , one with the 1080 max-q both Alienware 15r4’s. I had two because I didn’t know which I wanted so had one from Best Buy one from dell. The 1080 max-q at stock speeds beat the 1070 in. Every single benchmark I ran. Every single one. I easily ran 7 benchmarks. Never did the 1070 beat the 1080max-q. Another note is just using afterburner, I added 200mhz to the GPU of the 1080max-q and it’s steady and stable and doesn’t throttle. Pushing it even further then the 1070. I do value people’s opinions but I’m being 100% honest , I had two identical machines with the two different video cards and I can say 100% at stock speeds the 1080max-q will beat the 1070 every single time. I’ve used a couple benches from 3d Mark, and a couple in game benches. Does it blow it away? No. But it does always beat it out using less power and more importantly creating less heat. It also has room to over clock. I’ll take a 10% faster GpU with lower clock speeds and less heat everyday of the week.

 

150$ credit and 5 year nice warranty is nice. Don't have such options in India.

They are replacing my Alienware 15 R3 with 15 R4. 1070 is getting replaced with Max-Q 1080. From reviews, I thought Max-Q 1080 was hardly a benefit over 1070. With some places mentioned that 1080 Max-Q had 110W and 1070 115-125W of TDP, I assumed they might be right. 10% better performance with lower power and heat sounds really good. Thanks for the side by side benchmark.

Unfortunately they gave me 120hz TN instead of 60hz IPS panel I originally had, reasoning it's an upgrade and refusing since I noticed it 20 mins after I approved the replacement specs. Will replace it myself to IPS. Either one with which comes with Alienware or if I can find some other panel even better.

 

Hi, can you please post the same pic for IPS panel after you receive it for comparison?

 

I will post my IPs screen once I get it. Alienware just got my computer this morning so now it’s a waiting game until they credit my account so I can order the new one. Funny thing My first one cost me $4,235 US dollars. This same build except I am getting a IPS screen ($150) option is $3,785 US dollars? Lol they have a ton of Forth of July discounts this week . Not to mention I had 4 years parts and warranty and another special is they are giving 5 years in home parts and warranty for the same price. Called them today , they said take photos of my cart etc and they will honor the discount prices because it can take over a week for Alienware to credit my dell account so i can order a new machine. Alienware also is giving me $150 discount after I order the new machine. Basically I got my m.2 1 TB Samsung pro drive which was $600 for free. Only hastle is how long will it be before I can order a new machine and how long before it gets delivered to me. Will post pics of the IPs screen. YouTube videos comparing the screens is what made me change back to IPS. Alineware is always behind everyone in one aspect or another

 

Hmm not true, my experience is out of the box the GPU is cooled very well, even on stock paste and settings. Problems are with the CPU but only if you want to overclock. Also with an unlocked CPU you can undervolt the GPU and CPU nicely to bring temps further down. For any kind of overclock you'll need to repaste though as you say