Wagnbat's new AW15 analysis

Hey folks,

Just got my new AW15 and I'm pretty stoked. This is my third generation of Dell and I'm going to compare them all below, from a very subjective point of view. It may take a little bit to get it all populated and my thoughts and data in coherent order, so please be patient.

Brief:
My first gaming Dell was a Studio XPS16. Solid build, amazing screen, and dedicated AMD mobility HD4760 graphics. Worked well. Bought it around 2009 I believe.

Second gen for me was an Alienware M14XR1. I know some may argue the Dell/Alienware thing... I consider Alienware a premium Dell brand an that they share many attributes with each other.

I really loved my M14X. I am active duty and was stationed in an area where portability matters and space is limited. It was a chunky little beast, but when I upgraded the RAM and put an SSD in, it became the best lappy I ever owned, and gave my home desktop (Core i7-920 / 6800GTX) a run for its money. The kicker (good) with the M14X was that I got it, refurb'd, from Dellianwares outlet. $600. Can't beat that.

So now it comes time to run some newer higher end games, and my M14X has served me well in the field unplugged. It ran Bioshock Infinite, Minecraft, and Dishonored at admirable frame rates without complaint. But Star Citizen, World of Warships, and some others have come along and revealed the edge of the 555m chip. Not unhappy, but seeking a replacement, I waited patiently through Black Friday and Christmas, disappointed at the lack of new 900m series deals.

Then Presidents' Day came along... Dellianware had a decent coupon plus EPP discount, yielding to me a 970m AW 15, with a Core i7, for $1290 before taxes. I could argue it was not as good a deal as the M14X... But it had the latest gen graphics chip (M14X had last gen, but still an amazing value) and the latest (only months old) hardware build.

So I bit. I have the new unit on hand. Have benched all 3 systems in their current configuration (AW15 config is 'straight out of the box'). I will then upgrade the AW15's memory, HDD to an SSD (already had on hand), and add an M.2 SSD as storage with a fresh 8.1 install; and then re-benchmark the system.

 

SYSTEMS

STUDIO XPS16 model 1640
16" 1080p screen at 300 nits
Core2Duo P8600 dual core processor at 2.4Ghz
4GB RAM
AMD Mobility Radeon HD4760 w/3GM RAM
64GB SSD
Blu-Ray ROM
Windows 7 Home Premium
BIOS A12

ALIENWARE M14XR1
14.1" 1600x900 screen at 300 nits
i5-2430 hyperthreaded dual core at 2.4Ghz
8GB RAM
Nvidia 555m w/4GB RAM
Crucial MX100 512GB SSD
DVD-RW
Windows 7 Home Premium
BIOS A08

ALIENWARE AW15
15.4" 1080p screen at 300 nits
i7-4710HQ hyperthreaded quad core at 2.5Ghz
16GB GSkill RAM (DDR3-1866)
Nvidia 970m w/3GB RAM (+4GB Shared)*
Crucial MX100 2.5" SSD + Crucial MX200 M.2 SSD. 512GB + 512GB, no raid.
No Optical (Blu-ray/DVD/CD)
Windows 8.1
BIOS A02

 

Reserved for conclusion/observations.
---------------------------------------

Initial Observations:
- As wide and longer (front to back) than the Studio XPS16
- As heavy and as thick as the M14X
- Oldest system (XPS16) has BDROM, M14X has DVD-RW, but the newer (just as wide, just as thick) AW15 has none.

- Clean install of Win 8.1 from Dell's USB stick to an MX100 SSD was blazing fast. About 5 minutes once the hard drive was selected as the destination. Used onkelosuppo's guide as a loose reference

- AW15 is the quietest of the three. XPS16 is always audible, though still quiet. M14X is quieter, but is loud when the fan kicks on during games or benchmarks. AW15 is nearly inaudible. Through all benchmarks, including 3D Mark Fire Strike, the fans were never audible. Only once did I hear them and that was when they went full blast during a BIOS update, and boy were they loud. Probably loudest of the three, but thats the only time I've heard them so far. Good to know they can kick out some heat if they need to or during a critical operation such as a BIOS update.

- The XPS16 screen always impressed me. 1080p at 300 nits half a decade ago. Thats what I have on my brand new AW15. The AW15 screen has richer color, but the tech is also far newer. The MX14 screen was the 1600x900 HD+ upgrade; but while it is very very good, it is still sub-par to the XPS16 and AW15.

- Power and transformers. Very curious to me (will see if I can upload a pic later), the XPS 16 plugs in on the right, the M14X on the rear, and the AW15 on the left. All different configurations. Also of note of the power bricks, the XPS16 has a smaller 19.5v*4.6a (90w) brick that has a 90 degree plug (helpful for tight spaces and cable management) and a cable management strap to wrap and bundle un-needed cable from both ends to the brick itself. As for the M14X and AW15, I find it extremely interesting they have the exact same power bricks. They are the same size, same build (plugs, power indicator light color and position) with slightly different model numbers. Both are 19.5V*9.23A (180W). Maybe they have a surplus of these, so they just decided that the same was acceptable and cheaper. *shrug*

Items of Interest:
- Keyboard is offset to the right slightly due to macro keys on the left. I read about this before receiving the laptop and didn't think it would be much of an issue, and it's not. But I do find myself missing keystrokes slightly to the left because the keys are to the right. Will just take some getting used to.

- Crucial MX200 512GB M.2 2280 would not be recognized in slot 1. Unsure why, but it popped right up as soon as I put it in slot 2. Curious. Not an issue unless AW decides to enable raid and I feel frisky.


------
Notable issues.
------
--AW15
- Killer Bandwidth Management self enables itself, nerfing your bandwidth for no reason.


-- XPS 16.
- Speaker/headphone jack/port has hairline crack resulting in always detecting that headphones are plugged in. IDT driver and software prevent usage of on-board speakers because of this. Plugging in speakers to the jack works fine. Known issue with the XPS 16 and IDT hardware.
- Removed the 2x4GB DDR3 modules from the new AW15 and tried to put them in the Studio XPS 16 as an upgrade. Only 4GB would recognize in BIOS and the system refused to load windows, normally resulting in a BSOD prior to the Windows screen. Removing the memory fixed the issue instantly. Crucial website says the XPS16 support 8GB of DDR3, but for some reason it will not work with the stock memory from the AW15.


--M14XR1.
- Microphone array faulty. Has never been able to clearly receive audio. Plugging any microphone into the mic port works fine.

 

The MX100 is a great SSD! I have one myself. Definitely worth the price and increases performance a lot! It makes installs so much faster. I don't think some people realize how much life it can bring back to a computer compared to a slow mechanical drive.

I've heard a lot of complaints about the keyboard, but personally, ALL keyboards are slightly different sizes and spacing, so everything has that sort of factor to get used to, I don't think it should be mentioned overly as an issue IMO.

I hope you enjoy it!

 

You have the new MX200 now too, anandtech had a nice article on it in case someone else is now in the market for one.

 

Studio XPS16 Benchmarks
PCMARK
3DMARK06
3DMARK ICE CLOUD
3D MARK CLOUD GATE

 

M14XR1 Benchmarks
PCMARK
3DMARK06
3DMARK ICE STORM
3DMARK CLOUD GATE

 

Alienware AW15 (out of the box)
PCMARK7
3DMARK06
3DMARK CLOUD GATE
3DMARK SKY DIVER
3DMARK FIRE STRIKE

Leaving out Ice Storm on the two AW15 Benchmarks due to forum limiting uploaded pictures to 5 per post. Ice Storm scores for both AW Box and AW Clean were just over 90k.

 

Alienware AW15 (clean install of 8.1, with all drivers updated, ram doubled, and x2 SSD installed)
PCMARK7
3DMARK06
3DMARK CLOUD GATE
3DMARK SKY DIVER
3DMARK FIRE STRIKE

 

Updated with an issue for the AW15. Can not permenantly disable 'Killer Bandwidth Control'. It re-enables itself and nerfs my wifi everytime I reboot or connect to a new network. Very annoying.

 

I disabled the killer suite using task manager - startup programs. I also went under network, change adapter settings, right click both wireless and ethernet and disabled qualcomm atheros bandwidth control. I don't experience that lag that you are referencing, anymore. It was maddening to have to always uncheck that bandwidth box, upon startup.

 

Thanks. Will give that a go.