Question about Alienware 17 R2 - Drivers / Throttling / Temps / Life Expectancy

I have a few questions, some of them I think I already know but I want to double check because I'm about to drop $3,000 on this laptop and I probably won't be able to buy another one for at least 5 years. I've been reading the forum and checking google for the past week, but I haven't been able to find any specific answers probably due to my poor way of wording things when I search for them.

1. Can you only use drivers from Alienware, or can I use any GTX 980m drivers? I've tried googling this, but apparently I'm dumb and can't figure out the right words to use and google hasn't shown me the results I wanted.
2. If I don't want to update the bios, will a 330w AC adapter stop all throttling? I read that it improves benchmark scores, but I don't know if it still throttles.
3. What kind of temps can I expect in idle and full load and would you recommend a laptop cooler?
4. How long do you think it will last before it breaks down or needs expensive work on it if I play a lot of games and actually use it on my lap rather than on a desk? I would like to get at least 4-5 years.
5. Is ghosting a problem on the FHD touch display, or just the others?

Thanks in advance, and I apologize for all of the questions, but I'm really really nervous about this purchase. My last laptop purchase was a giant mistake. Ended up getting an ASUS G73jh-b1 that had GSoD problems. I managed to fix that, but then the touchpad/mouse would randomly just go crazy and I couldn't use it for like 10-30 seconds while it did that. Still haven't fixed that. There's also keyboard problems where it randomly misses keystrokes which I still haven't been able to fix. This awful experience has made me gun shy when it comes to buying laptops.

 

I received my AW 17 r2 today and I consider myself a newbie here and the only answer I can give you is that I have no ghosting on my machine. Other than that I am currently using the 180W PSU and A05 BIOS and CPU SOMETIMES go back to 2.6 GHz and come back up to around 3.4 GHz during gameplay. People say this can be fixed via CPU undervolting but I don't know how true that is.

 

4. No one can give any sort of estimate on how long a PC will last. My new 17r2 lasted 4 days and it failed. I only received it last week and I am in the process of waiting for Dell to replace it with a new one. The replacement was shipped today.

This is my 3rd Alienware since 2008 and all have needed repair so I would recommend purchasing 3 or 4 years warranty. My first Alienware had a dead video card a few months after I got it. It then failed again 3 years later, The second had the motherboard fail 6 months after I got it and the one I just received would not detect any hard drives. One thing I will applaud Dell on is its super fast warranty repairs. I live in the remote Yukon Canada and I have always had my computers repaired within 3 or 4 days after calling Dell Support. Dell always ship the replacement parts via express courier and they arrive in 2 or 3 business days.

 

hi, just want to let you know the problems i had and how i solve them. first was the heating issue. i was not able to fix it straight away because i was afraid on downgrading bios and dont want to brick my laptop so i kept on upgrading to the latest bios when i was on a02 idle was 50+, normal browsing 60+ and max 70+ on gaming it was 90+. this was the same with a04 and a05. i have read a05 fix the throttling issue when your laptop went to sleep, but i never encountered i because im using high performance on power options. i have searched that 970 graphic card with 180 PSU is good enough to downgrade bios to a00 which i did and it solved the hot keyboard and CPU temp. with a00 idle is 40+, normal browsing 50+ and max gaming was 78. this are all in celcius. very happy with a00 and i can hear the fan running now not like the other bios. for you case people with 980 graphic cards must at least have a 240w PSU and its a must. if you dont have one ask dell support for replacement. once you have it downgrade bios to a00. when you downgrade bios dont downgrade straight away from a05 to a00. you must downgrade first from a05 to a02 then a00. ok? hehe.. Second issue i had was support assist. when i start up my laptop there is a point when the both fan runs max rpm each side and causing lag for a few second and making start up so slow which is not really good for a very expensive laptop. the fix for that was uninstall support assist and dell support agent. those programs are just bloatware anyway. not really 100% needed. so thats that. last problem i encountered was the network card. i had extreme spike lags that i cant play dota 2 anymore. the solution was update driver to the latest from killer website and after updating on start up you need to disable killer network program and no more spike lag. was able to fix it. hehe..

for me im planning to make this laptop last for at least 5 years.. LOL.. before i buy a new one. in my own opinion to be able to do this i must repaste thermal paste regularly, like ever year. because what i know heat is the biggest issue on a laptop life's span. hope this helps and sorry for the bad english. its not my 1st language.. hehe