Custom AW17R5 from Ted @ HIDEvolution

Just received my custom Alienware 17R5 from HIDEvolution.

I have been on the search for 18 months now for a mobile workstation that can handle my workload and not melt itself to death. After a crappy, long and drawn out experience with a supposed "professional" Thinkpad P71 (direct from Lenovo) that you can read about here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-p71-owner-mini-review-and-rant.806025/ I decided to wait for the CoffeeLake-H chips then compare my options.

Weight and dimensions aren't a concern. This laptop will move exactly 3 times a month, for one week, while I'm traveling for business. Even then it will just go from home -> hotel desk -> home. I have a thin and light to carry around. I considered the Clevos but having had one before I wanted a better keyboard. Looked at all of the current 17" gaming models trying to find something relatively well built and professional enough that I could have it out in my home office if I have guests and not be embarrassed. The AW17R5 seemed perfect save some well documented thermal issues. I decided to give it a shot, knowing that the issues could likely be overcome with the right internal modifications.

I bought this as a mobile workstation, not much of a gamer. My primary workloads are SQL database work and ArcGIS. ArcGIS especially benefits more from frequency than core count.

I am honestly floored with the quality and performance of the system. I got the 8950HK with a GTX 1070. I had them do the full liquid metal and thermal pad upgrade. Huge shoutout to @Ted@HIDevolution for all the help and update during the build...not to mention responding to my first email on a Saturday evening.

Heat is not a limiting factor for this machine at all, the only "wall" I am running into is the 110 watt TDP that seems set in stone in the BIOS. I can get a 1480 in Cinebench R15 with a 4.6Ghz all-core OC. Temps stay in the 70's during back to back runs. Geekbench 4 single core of 5804 and multicore of 24910. Highest temp during the Geekbench 4 run was 72.

Thumbs up to @Ted@HIDevolution and the entire HIDEvolution team!

 

Congrats man! I wouldn't even consider buying an Alienware laptop if it wasn't from HIDevolution a it will overheat without their awesome cooling mods and build quality.

 

Agreed! It 's kind of like a tuner car...from the showroom floor it isn't impressive, but it doesn't take much to make it scream. Now if I could only figure out how to raise the 110w TDP it'd be breaking records.

 

I suggest creating a new thread in the Alienware Forum here maybe others who have your laptop have a better idea: 2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17

 

A few weeks later and things are still going great! The thermal performance of this machine is unbelievable. Still cant do a true manual overclock due to Dell / AW's locked BIOS, but managed a 1515 in Cinebench R15 at 84C on the CPU.

 

You can improve the score further by disabling Spectre protection using Inspecre. Put the Cinebench process in real time priority in task manager to squeeze 20-30 points.