Alienware 14 necessary temperature Imprevements

Hi,

I'm a big fan of the 14 inch lineup of alienware. However the temperatures have seemingly always been an issue especially on the first model I have. As it is a gaming laptop that is a little expensive for the hardware it has (especially when you choose upgraded parts), you also expect the GPU to be overclockable, even if it is only for a slightly 10% of extra clock speed. But this seems to be very difficult on these models. In order to do so you need to downclock the CPU.

I think that the alienware has a lot more potential. As example, it should be an option, or should be a permanent change in the new alienware 14 model to remove the optical drive bay and use that extra space for a separate cooler for the GPU so that one fan is for the CPU and the other for the GPU. Than the alienware 14 will even have potential to easily handle a geforce 870m or even a 880m which respectivly run at 100watt and 125watt. I don't know about the 880m, if they could put in the necessary battery for it in the alienware 14 though. But for the 870m it should be easy, since I have seen the thinnest 14"gaming laptop having the 870m. And with this setup it should be possible to overclock your GPU too.

I mean who uses Optical Drives anyway? Only a few people with Blu-ray movies and or retail games bought, however almost all games these days can be downloaded through steam or their own installer clients (on mmo's). And if really necessary a portable bay can be bought. Since better cooling in a gaming setup is WAAY more important than the option the use CD bays. I only used it like 2 times to (once when upgrading to an SSD, and once installing windows 8). Since it's easier to boot from CD. Bit it's still possible to easily do that with an USB. So yeah, precious space wasted on the alienware 14.

 

For the pretty awesome cooling system that the AW 14 has already (considering it size), when compared to my run of the mill 15" consumer notebooks that I have and have had, I was expecting better performance, even now, for what it is. The battery go flat pretty fast even on balanced mode, no GPU involved for the capacity of the battery.
Runs way to loud, the thermal profile start way to low, which there was a quiet option, allow a little more heat before ramping the fans so much.
I any case I have tried to change the fan profile, basically it not really going to work anyway, the AW 14 pushes a lot of heat out. The only thing that will help it out a bit will be the addition of 860M Maxwell, and a option for a i7-4712MQ without losing to much performance.
In the end it doesn't matter what is done, a gaming laptop will always run hot, especially using high-end parts.

I don't use the optical drive, and if I do it is once in a while. What bothers me most, is the cost of the AW 14 and all I get is just a Blu-ray reader, and no option for a Blu-ray burner.
Even more annoying is that I have contacted Dell sales several times and quoted them the drive bay part kit number for the optical bay replacement. I am told that don't have it, and if available overseas, cannot supply it to me. This really get to me, as I have zero alternative, and Dell as basically holding me to ransom with no solution, when I know and they know that the parts come from the same source.

 

IMHO, Dell should revamp the design of the 14 to allow for MXM cards to be used as opposed to soldered on the motherboard. They should ditch the optical drive completely, which I imagine would allow for MXM cards. Cooling? - quite happy with mine as it doesn't even make a whisper when surfing, under load? - as mentioned, any gaming notebook is gonna have some major fan activity under full load. The emissions, from that perspective, are well within acceptable limits, I feel.

@T2050 - you don't have to use the official Dell part to swap out the ODD and replace it with a HDD. I've seen a few people use this to do the exact same thing: New 2nd HDD SSD hard disk drive caddy SATA 9.5mm Dell Alienware M15X M14X M17X | eBay

 

Can't agree with you steve on the optical drive! I still use mine quite frequently! If you want blu ray writer you just drop a UJ-267 in there and off you go.
Don't see why they couldn't fit an MXM slot in there with a bit of clever engineering!

 

I think steavie hit right on the spot with the MXM option instead of soldered gpu.

Just wish that AW guys could listen to him...

 

Are you sure this will fit? The ebay one has a blanking plate on the end, how it is meant to cover the slot loading gap in the chassis?

 

I use mine, too. Not a great deal though. I plan on putting mine into an external enclosure when I've added my 750gb back into the ODD bay with the caddy detailed further on in this post.

I guess if someone needs portable use of the machine WITH the ability to watch movies on the go, I can see where ditching the ability to watch Blu Rays in bed, for example, would be a no-no. For those who still want ODD functionality, they could always drop the ODD/BR into an external ODD enclosure. That way, no functionality is lost....but maybe not ideal for those on the go to lug around an external ODD.

Well, I haven't actually got one yet. I am planning on buying one, though. I've got a few things to do, including a new mobo with a GTX765m, so I'm gonna do them all at once....but I WILL be buying one! - I imagine that the end of the caddy in picture 5 on the Ebay listing simply prevents a disc being inserted into the ODD slot in the chassis by blocking it off.

I asked Mr. Fox about the ODD caddy and he replied with the following, including a link to the Ebay item above.:

The member (Prank1) above installed one into his Alienware 18, see the following two posts:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...18-owner-s-lounge-thread-318.html#post9604655 & http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-18-owner-s-lounge-thread-85.html#post9289626

I guess for $9.99, it's a no-brainer to give one a try. The seller specifies returns accepted, so you really don't have much to lose.

 

If Alienware wants to succeed against Asus and continue selling the 14" model, they have to be innovative and push the limits, it s a BIG chasis (for a 14 inch) to maneuver in, so I wonder why is it so complicated to pull off 2 fan design in there. Tuning up the temperature and acoustics should be obvious goal, because that is the most mentioned negative about the laptop especially compared against the Asus rival. And mainly, modern design should be absent of the optical drive, put a special "Alienware design" external drive into the package for free for those who say they need it (which I doubt is that often nowadays). Optical drive is a "rudimentum", loose it, then loose some laptop thickness (not neccesarily, weight is important though). IPS display is a great selling point, keep that up. Stick 8xxx series maxwell for better thermals. Start stuffing the internals with Samung EVO SSDs in RAID 0 (ie combine mSATA with 2.5" EVOs to "raid 0" it) and market the hell out of it. Super mobile gaming/ workhorse. It has a great potential, if you get the weight to around 2.4999 kilos. Mobility portability is da future. Everybody wants to have a POWER house in a small footprint.

 

Actually I find the weight and thickness not a huge problem. Actual size (14 inch instead of 17 inch) is what counts for me. But I indeed think too the IPS panel is a HUGE imprevement. even the alienware 17 doesn't have an as good screen as the alienware 14. About the optical drive I think they keep it since retail games are still DVD's, or for watching bluray. But this laptop should be protability all over. an optical drive is not necessary on a portable machine, because you can still keep an external optical drive if it's really necessary. On small gaming laptops THE BIGGEST challenge is heat. If they did use the optical bay area for cooling. then they could aim for a 870m or even 880m if enough power can be supplied.

I think that they see the optical bay as an easy way to earn extra money since optical bays are cheap yet they tend to ask a lot for it. But I think a beter graphics card in a small laptop will be a better selling point allowing them to sell more laptop. And I like the fact that alienware 14 doesn't compromise CPU power despite it's size with many others do. Since I need good processing power. But In some CPU intensive games such as Tera. When Turbo boost on your CPU is on, and the GPU is overclocked (not played with voltages). Temperatures can get too high.

And damn they are taking TOO damn long to release the new alienware 14. I've been told that they have compatibility issues, but seems bs to me. Probably a marketing strategy or something.

 

A14 R2 with gtx870m is all i ask for...dont disappoint me!

 

I am starting to read first Razer Blade 14 reviews ... and I must say OMG this is almost perfect small gaming laptop on the paper:
- looks thin and elegant like a macbook (also metal chassis)
- IGZO IPS TOUCH display (dont care that much about QHD res)
- !!!!!!! GTX 870 !!!!!! in a 2KG thin body, dual fan design

I am officialy impressed until real-world tests come

Now back to Alienware, I dont really need the small footprint like Razer has, but if you keep the big chasis, it better be good in terms of ... POWER, I say it again and again, Alienware needs to drop the optical drive ...

 

The metal chassis and the GPU of that laptop is actually VERY appealing to me. Also the IPS panel, but alienware 14 has it too, and I won't ever use touchscreen anyway, perhaps only to show off. But I have a few complaints about the new razer balde 14:
1. The GPU is 100Watt in such a small chassis the GPU WILL throttle pretty sure about that, don't even know how they fit a battery in there for that, damn thinnest gaming laptop yet! (but I don't care about slim laptops as long as it feels solid, I'm happy)
2. The screen resolution is unnecessary high. The GPU cannot handle full resolution games. unless you drop quality and don't mind 30 fps gaming.
- in this case dropping the resolution will cause the graphics to look bad. 1600x900 is however a perfect 1/4 resolution that will not cause such issues, but 900p is a bit low. I want 1080p as I have been using a 900p laptop so far.
3. The CPU isn't good enough for me. I currently have a 2.0GHZ (2.6-2.8 turbo boost) CPU, the 4700Hm it has doesn't suffice for me as the difference in CPU power is too low, and it won't be a huge upgrade. Since I use CPU insensitivity I want the i7 4810qm.

For the rest it has some small things I'd prefer them to be there the alienware has but not a major problem:
- rgb lights instead of 1 color.
- 5.1 audio support through 3,5mm jack or optical s/pdif

So yeah, the Razer blade is not perfect for me. We are paying a lot money, So I want it to be as I prefer it to be.

 

Agreed!

There is no way getting around way 100W TDP GPU alone (another 37W is CPU), this must throttle at some point and if not I wanna know their magic

QHD is not needed for gaming of course, it is a good marketing feature (you know, "we got the only 14" with QHD buy it Joe!!"") and it may attract some market segments which wouldnt otherwise even think about buying a gaming laptop, but now now they can justify it as a portable workstation. In a gaming notebook, I want a good IPS 1080p, nothing less, nothing more!! (wouldnt mind good old 1920x1200 16:10, but thats a sad history in PC laptop world).

I would prefer bulkiness if that meant more ports and great sound system, native ethernet and high range wi-fi antena, generally, I wish they really take advantage of the bulkier body space, I dont care it is fat just want the best internals you can stuff in there.

In the same boat about the CPU as you, I dont want anything lower specced then 4800MQ, better be 4900MQ I say (it is a DTR for me after all).

Damn, we should design laptops ourselves, we both know they put an awfull lot of money into R@D of these new models and they arent gonna change the design rapidly in the near future. They need to juice the market first.