*OFFICIAL* Alienware 14 Owner's Lounge Thread

Is that the price after tax? If so...damn man props to you. You got a great deal.

Oh also, thanks to mysfit for the coupon code

 

Yeah that's with tax and shipping. Basically that's the amount that's going to be debited in my checking account if that makes any sense

 

Has anyone been having problems getting games to use the nvidia graphics card? Even when I right click and choose "Run with nvidia high graphics card" for some games, it still runs them with the intel hd chip.

 

What's this 10% off coupon I keep hearing about and how do I go about getting one?

 

you sir, are a haggle god =). I'm supposed to get my unit on aug 5. Looking forward to it. Hopefully they fix the throttling soon.

 

Exclusive 10% Coupon Offer Code: 54MJ4KH1?S$R9R
Only valid for purchases in the US.

Use the Exclusive Code While the Code Is Still Valid!

Alienware 14 Coupon Offer: Offer valid for a limited time or until redeemed, or while supplies last whichever comes first. Coupon can be combined with other discounts. Coupon is only applicable on the Alienware 14 system. Offer does not apply to, and is not available with, systems or items purchased through refurbished items or spare parts. Purchase limit of 3 items per order.

 

Also, if you are using the coupon provided by Mysfit and you are a student, ask for a $200 Dell gift card. I was able to get one, but they asked for my .edu address.

 

if you even insinuate that the deal if off if you wont get the 200 gift card they'll cave. I am a student but i didn't have my .edu address with me, so i said id call later. Immediately she caved saying no(they want the commission)

 

Also if you manage to get the $200 card they will not give you the 5% back from dell advantage, but you still qualify for 2 day shipping. Not sure what I'm going to spend my card on. Anyone get the vindicator neoprene sleeve yet? Considering buying that and an ssd.

 

Just got my Alienware 14 in the mail today. Im loving it so far. sadly i have found a stuck/dead pixel in the screen. I dont think its dead as on white backgrounds it looks pink and it seems to change colour as i scroll through images. im running JScreenFix right now attempting to fix it.
If your wondering what screen i got its was the 1920x1080 screen

On a side note ive done some games testing with the performance in a few games the one id like to highlight is Tomb Raider i was able to pull off good fps on ultra, in a few areas though it did drop. The only setting i had disabled was AA. laptop didnt heat up too much I think im going to enjoy this beast of a machine!

here are my specs

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4900MQ processor (8MB Cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5
750GB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200 RPM) + 64GB mSATA SSD Caching
14" WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Display

 

The Latitude in the notebookcheck test had only a SSD and they mention that the lack of a normal harddrive benefits the low power consumption.
The additional HDD and the lights on the AW 14 could draw some watts even in idle, so that might be the cause for that difference.
(If anyone has a question regarding the notebookcheck test, I'm from germany and can give you a more accurate translation than google )

@topic: The AW 14 is my favorite so far for my next laptop in a few month. My current Acer Aspire 5943G is not able to give me a good gaming experience anymore
With a cooler the noise is at about 55dB and I don't even hear that while gaming, without a headset Guess I'm just too deep in the game

 

Im getting mine soon too please share if you see any issues
throttle, heat, etc

Just cant wait to get mine

 

I use Nvidia Inspector, run it in admin mode, and just click "Apply defaults." That seems to solve the problem. Some times I see that it resets itself after a reboot, so it's worth checking every time you start up your machine.

And I can agree with the Tomb Raider performance - after fixing the throttling and setting "Maximum pre-rendered frames" to 1, I'm playing 30+ fps (typically above 40) on ultra. I bought this primarily for web design and development work, since I have a desktop PC for gaming. With how capable the 14 is turning out to be, I've been spending most of my time with it instead.

 

I brought Neoprene sleeve for my AW14. It was shipped to my friends house. So, I didn't have a chance to look at it myself. But from what he said the fitting is good and has good padding but does not seem to have enough free space once you place your laptop inside. The power brick of this laptop is big and you should understand that the sleeve is just to carry the laptop with some additional accessories in the front pocket. Don't even try to squeeze in your Power brick

The reason I purchased my sleeve is to protect it from dust/scratches/..when I am not using it. When I travel, I squeeze in the sleeve to my Swissgear backpack and I feel comfortable.
Hope this helps.

 

Hello all. Really like reading everyone's insight about the new AW 14. I'm expecting mine by 8/5.

Couple questions hopefully somebody can answer for me please. I ordered mine with 8GB or RAM. Can somebody tell me if this comes in 2 4GB mods or 1 8GB with a open slot? If somebody bumped the RAM up on their own like I plan to, what kind of RAM did you install? I may have read it earlier in the disscusion but I cannot recall. Thanks all.

 

The laptop is simply stunninf you wont be dissapointed on bit, for me i dont mind the heat that the laptop gives off, its not bad. my M14XR2 ran hotter.

And as for my "Stuck Pixel" Dell is sending me a tech to replace my screen no questions asked.

 

I run everything in discrete graphics mode, and every game picks up the nvidia. If its in switchable graphics mode then it will display the intel gpu but graphics card will still be running.

 

I asked that over Facebook and they told me since it uses dual channel the AW14 ships with 2 modules in each configuration and it supports DDR3L and normal DDR3.

 

I ordered my AW14 as well, EDD 8/8, and now we play the waiting game lol
Big thanks to Mysfit for sharing the 10% discount coupon, RESPEKT to you good sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

The supported memory is dual-channel. For this reason whatever config it comes with usually ships with identical of the sticks to get better performance. So in your case, it would be 2x4GB sticks. There are a lot of options like Corsair Vengeance etc. and it all comes back to you based on your budget. While purchasing make sure to check for the voltages and speed supported.

 

I might be looking to order later this week so BIG thanks to Mysfit for posting the 10% discount code!

Also, for anyone with the GPU throttling on optimus, it looks like Dell released a new bios: Driver Details | Dell US. The fixes list an intel vbios update and it looks like it fixed the throttling on optimus for someone in the m17x forum.

One more thing: what kind of battery life are people getting with the 14 with light usage (taking notes in word for example)? I'm hoping I can use this thing for classes. Oh and how is the fan noise with light usage? Sorry for asking, I know people have mentioned these things throughout the thread, but its super scattered and some of it was conflicting. The professional reviews aren't all that consistent with each other either

 

Thanks for sharing that info. With light usage, you can get around 3-4 hours of usage but again depends on brightness etc. From what I heard, during normal use like browsing, the fan sound is quiet. Make sure you do not block the air vents on this machine. It will get louder once the temp raises like when you are gaming or doing other performance related tasks. Its better to be a little louder than get fried

 

Hi all, just installed the new A03 BIOS from Dell - whole list of changes is on their site. One thing to be aware of though, I got non-stop BSODs with a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION error with the 326.19 beta drivers. I put back the A00 bios and the errors stopped. Reinstalled A03 and the errors resumed. Restored to 311.48 drivers with the A03 and the errors also stopped. Not sure if it makes a difference, but this is with a DisplayPort monitor plugged in.

Luis, can you pass this along to your engineers?

N

 

Here's the link for the A03 BIOS Driver Details | Dell US

Also a list of Fixes & Enhancements:
1. Update Intel GOP 5.0.1032.
2. Update Intel VBIOS 2175.
3. Modify load default behavior in Setup Menu.
4. Enhance secure boot function.
5. Enhance Panel information interface.
6. Update Microcode 306C3h Rev.09h.
7. Add New ROM part support.
8. Disable WLAN ASPM L0s.
9. Modify SATA configuration behavior for tool load default.
10. Add CMFC OEM Project Function.
11. Enable Nvidia GC6 function

Anyone care to break it down to simple English what these means?

 

Good to see Dell is looking into BIOS updates

 

In case anyone's interested in a great quality, affordable case for their AW14, I wholeheartedly recommend this one by Case Logic. It fits it perfectly, is very well made, and has room for everything I bring to work, including pens, earphones, power cable, mouse, and iPad.

Amazon.com: Case Logic 14-Inch Security Friendly Laptop Case (ZLCS-214): Computers & Accessories

 

I need a big durable backpack for mine so I'm probably going to get this one:

SwissGear 15.6" SYNERGY Computer Backpack Model GA-7305-14F00 - Newegg.com

I've read there and on amazon that this bag has lasted some people over 5 years.

 

I cant think of anything but to get the -

Alienware Vindicator Backpack Details | Dell

But is out of stock for now

 

Mr.Tangerines posted it in the launch discussion thread. Posted here since it is model specific.
Notebookcheck's review of Alienware 14 (English)
Review Alienware 14 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Ok. has anyone found out how to make custom lighting colors. I know there is a way to make everything white but its not in the ui for the lighting scheme

 

Just picked up my new (to me) 14 from a fellow forum member and I have to say that this is the best screen I've seen on an AW yet, so far I'm loving the machine.

 

@SlimShady,

Good to know man, mine should arrive this Tuesday. The waiting is literally killing me inside, probably the only thing Im going to do is put the laptop on discrete GPU so I don't get any throttling issues, and I'll leave the nvidia driver stock for now

Here's my 10 cents, my .02 cent is free...

 

Just ordered my 14 yesterday
Can't wait to try out a real gaming laptop have been tolerating the half throttling gt635m for so long

Has someone tried to undervolt and underclock the cpu using intel xtu yet?
I don't need full power of the i7 for gaming, a longer battery life and cooler machine are much more preferred

 

So here me again after a heavy session of game (Batman Arkham City, just played like..... 3 hours maybe? ) and the tempratures Im getting are very very high, I had to say that I didnt notice any throttle at all (I'm on discrete graphics mode... with 1080p resolution, and almost all in high settings) with the latest nvidia beta drivers and with no mods.... just see the image and see why I'm saying that are very high.



Here is how I had the settings of the game



Sorry for the spanish, but as you can see all is activated and the level of detail its very high.

as for the tempratures I noticed in the keyboard... they are hot, but still comfortable to the touch, in the bottom I have a cooling pad, and its cool to the touch, but well HWM dont lie

 

Wow, that GPU temp

Also, has anyone checked if the CPU throttles on battery?

 

Only if you set the cooling to passive. It will naturally clock in lower from the voltage reduction, but you can make the fans power through the heat on battery mode. If not there will be minor throttling. I get a solid 30-40 frames on borderlands 2 on battery with the fans running.

 

@jacker60,

How are your temps that high?
I hope my temps aren't that high when I get mine -_-

 

Must be the heat of Mexico

 

I think the same, I believe that if the GPU reach the 100 will shut down, maybe was a peak and it was too fast, so HW took it anyway

Well as I said, play Batman Arkham City 3 -4 hours I believed, and you can reach that temparature , with HD resolution and almost all the settings in max

LOL, well it depends on where do you live, as I am in México City, temperatures here are very cool, as I was playing in the night temparature was like 13~15 ° C, if you reffer to another thing, well could be

---- Will play again in the night LOL Its a great game!

 

i don't know temps but i'v played for almost 2 weeks with mine, i'd say 2-4 hours a day. I have always had the beast in my lap and sometimes it will get pretty warm, but nothing near where i'm scared.

One day i had some friends over and played firefall for 5 hours on max and it got very very warm. But nothing alarming, just try to keep the fans clear and you should be okay.

Im in Texas, its been 95+ for awhile now.

 

Did you have the bottom clear for airflow? I played the same and had max temps of 75c

 

Well will try later in the nigt, the fans are clear, even I had a cooling base so its throwing air all the time

Yes, have it clear all the time, you have the same settings (DX11 and all to the max/yes)? will check that in that case, I believed it was a quick peak, one time the fan start to work to the maxium, but only one time, will try it today later and see what temperature reaches

 

you mean a laptop cooling pad with fans on it? (don't know how to precisely call it) In my personal experience on another laptop, pointing the fans on the pad directly to the laptop air intake makes it worse....Try to position the fans around or next to the intake instead(if you can do it like those cooler master u2,u3) just my 2 cents as it may not be the case in AW14...Mine is still being built

 

Hey I just got an alienware 14.... its pretty awesome but I have one problem...
i read from all the reviews it has mad bass, and some sort of subwoofer.
But mine has like zero bass, I have tried uninstalling and resintalling the drivers, anyne else have this problem?

 

Oldmangamer I have the exact same problem.. Is it the new models problem or is something with my machine? There's no bass on mine.

 

Ordered my alienware 14 couple of days ago, base model but with 765m. It's already in production, so I'm hoping it will be shipped soon. Can't wait. This is my first proper gaming laptop. Was surviving on an i3 /520m lenovo.

Kind of regretting not going 1080p for the screen - can anyone tell me how good/bad the 1366x728 on it is? It's too late for me to change - and I'm not returning this thing once it's in my hands.

I'm also wondering about getting a cooling pad. With gpu boost 2.0 I'm wondering what the best cooling solution is in order to get the best performance. Has anyone tested this?

I also figured I'd be able to get several upgrades - RAM - blu-ray drive and ssd cheaper than if I'd gone through dell - what do you think?

Anyways that's me, looking forward to combining this lappy with my home rig.

 

Hi Nyceis, may I know more about your question? You say "with a DisplayPort monitor plugged in", it means that you plug the DP monitor always when you use 326.19 & 311.48 NV driver, right?

 

ok so is there anyway to use the keyboard and the track pad simultaneously this is getting on my nerves especially when i want to do something in class and i do not have a mouse any ideas?

 

Go to Alienware command center, there's an option there you need to slide the slider to use both same time. I had same issue.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta