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[SlickShoes]

I ordered a special offer Alienware on Friday, heard nothing other than my order receipt so gave in and called DELL. They decided today it wasn't in stock and claim to have cancelled my order but I see no evidence of that but then I couldn't even find the order existing.

Anyway they couldn't offer me anything similar so I've took a chance on an outlet refurb one for cheaper and with better processor and ram. Praying it works out and is not a lemon.

 

[SlickShoes]

I just got my Alienware from the Outlet and the CPU seems to be running far too hot.

It's hit a max of 98 degrees on one core while playing BATTLEGROUNDS. The lowest temp core was at 84.

Surely these numbers are too high? The fans sound like the thing is about to take off.

The GPU sits comfortably at 70 though.

 

[K.Jack]

I just got my Alienware from the Outlet and the CPU seems to be running far too hot.

It's hit a max of 98 degrees on one core while playing BATTLEGROUNDS. The lowest temp core was at 84.

Surely these numbers are too high? The fans sound like the thing is about to take off.

The GPU sits comfortably at 70 though.

Which model is this?

 

[SlickShoes]

Which model is this?

15 R3 with i7 6820HK

I've just done a BIOS update that came out a couple of weeks ago but it still seems to hot.

Core 0 is peaking at 94 and sitting when playing at 88 or so. core 3 is only peaking at 79.

edit: it's now hovering around the mid 80's at its hottest, the other cores are 75-80.

 

[K.Jack]

15 R3 with i7 6820HK

I've just done a BIOS update that came out a couple of weeks ago but it still seems to hot.

Core 0 is peaking at 94 and sitting when playing at 88 or so. core 3 is only peaking at 79.

edit: it's now hovering around the mid 80's at its hottest, the other cores are 75-80.

Is the CPU overclocked?

 

[SlickShoes]

Is the CPU overclocked?

Nah i checked that in the BIOS, its just at stock, one of the cores has it 97 again.

 

[ty_hot]

I see that there is a i7 7920hq processor now. Is it just running at a higher clock than the 7820?

 

[batrush]

Nah i checked that in the BIOS, its just at stock, one of the cores has it 97 again.

Had the same problem with my 13 R3, those temps aren't normal according to the Dell tech that assessed my machine.

 

[SlickShoes]

Had the same problem with my 13 R3, those temps aren't normal according to the Dell tech that assessed my machine.

yeah, I didn't think they were, I'll probably just send it back and get a refund and shop around for something else then.

 

[madmook]

I see that there is a i7 7920hq processor now. Is it just running at a higher clock than the 7820?

http://ark.intel.com/compare/97496,97462

Looks like 200MHz difference.

 

[Max_Po]

- Posted in the PC thread, I will try my luck here:

Hi guys, I am in Canada.

My Laptop (Dell XPS 9560) has a Samsung 512 gig NVMe PCIe Drive and I want to upgrade the internal hard drive to 1 TB. I have some rewards dollars with DELL and I want to get this drive:

WD Blue PC SSD WDS100T1B0B - Solid state drive - 1 TB - internal - M.2 2280 - SATA 6Gb/s

Will this fit the same M2 Slot ? I know it is a bit slower but I want the ssd drive for productivity and not to wave my e-peen online with read and write speeds. I am a bit confused on the whole M2 and M.2 2280

Please advise.

 

[Mountainmohawk]

So I got an Alienware 13 with the OLED, a 1060, and i5-6300hq. Build quality is flawless.

I saw the same machine with a bigger hard drive, and an i7-7700hq, for a hundred dollars more so I jumped on it. The backspace key is mushy and thermals are ATROCIOUS. 93 degree CPU and 83 GPU atrocious.

Is there enough of a difference between the cpus for me to try and get the i7 model fixed? (It was outlet, so I'm not sure if they do replacements)
I'm happy there's no flaws with my i5 model, but I'm worried I'll be screwing myself with the older slower CPU.

 

[Max_Po]

So I got an Alienware 13 with the OLED, a 1060, and i5-6300hq. Build quality is flawless.

I saw the same machine with a bigger hard drive, and an i7-7700hq, for a hundred dollars more so I jumped on it. The backspace key is mushy and thermals are ATROCIOUS. 93 degree CPU and 83 GPU atrocious.

Is there enough of a difference between the cpus for me to try and get the i7 model fixed? (It was outlet, so I'm not sure if they do replacements)
I'm happy there's no flaws with my i5 model, but I'm worried I'll be screwing myself with the older slower CPU.

are you temps during gaming? or stress tests ?
I have the same, i7 7700 hq/16 gig/1060 .... the temps are much higher however I can live with that due to the sweeeeet baby OLED!

 

[derFeef]

Are there ROG models without the colored WASD keys? :-/

 

[SlickShoes]

Are there ROG models without the colored WASD keys? :-/

I think all the ROG ones have it now for some reason, the older models it was much more subtle.

 

[TheDragon]

I'm certain that's a CLEVO P650HP6, sold in the US as the Sager NP8156.

Good laptop.

Thanks for the additional info! Seems to be a good laptop for 1333 USD.

 

[SlickShoes]

I managed to get DELL to look at my issues with the Alienware and he done some stress tests on the CPU, had it going 100% and it peaked at 92 but was consistently running at 80 or less.

Perhaps the game I was playing is causing the issue? is that possible?

I have just run a torture test? on Prime95 and it peaked at 87 degrees but was pretty stable during the test at 76-82 degrees. It's now idling at the desktop at 36-39 degrees.

Does this seem more normal?

The fans are still loud but only really and issue when the thing is going full on gaming.

 

[Izuna]

goddamnit I hate how framerate limiting works on pc

stuttering everywhere

Ryse looks like at 4k30 tho

 

[X05]

Perhaps the game I was playing is causing the issue? is that possible?

Is the game running at a super high framerate?

Also, the Skylake 15 R3 have some documented issues with temps with both undervolting and repasting the recommended actions apparently. As a side note, it seems those were fixed with the Kaby Lake release, since the 7700HQ in mine peaked at 81º C during gaming (haven't run Prime95 yet)

 

[K.Jack]

CPU temperatures are not uncommon on the Alienware laptops, especially with the unlocked 'K' CPUs.

You can look to the Notebook Review forum for confirmation, and solutions.

 

[SlickShoes]

Aye thanks guys, I have undervolted it now and all the issues are gone.

The core temps are all within 2-4 degrees of eachother and I played a game earlier and it evened out about 70 degrees.

I've done a couple of different stress tests running the CPU at 100% and it's going to about 82 degrees max which seems fine.

 

[K.Jack]

Aye thanks guys, I have undervolted it now and all the issues are gone.

The core temps are all within 2-4 degrees of eachother and I played a game earlier and it evened out about 70 degrees.

I've done a couple of different stress tests running the CPU at 100% and it's going to about 82 degrees max which seems fine.

Teach me how to undervolt.

Also, have you overclocked your CPU yet? I have mine running at 4.1Ghz.

 

[Killer Queen]

Not really looking like MSI wants to give me what i want so i might see if i can get an Omen

 

[Max_Po]

Teach me how to undervolt.

Also, have you overclocked your CPU yet? I have mine running at 4.1Ghz.

Throttlestop ..download and then its easy.

 

[SlickShoes]

Teach me how to undervolt.

Also, have you overclocked your CPU yet? I have mine running at 4.1Ghz.

I haven't overlocked it, I think I am happy where it is for now.

To undervolt I downloaded Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, I think it's more for overlocking, then once its all open and running go to Advanced Tuning > All Controls > Core Voltage Offset.

I have mine set to -0.120, other folk have done it to -0.180 but I am sure mine got hotter when I went that low so I've stuck to the above setting.

I think with throttlestop you have to make it launch at startup to keep the settings whereas this intel one just keeps the undervolt setting. The only time it will lose it is if you put it to low and crash the computer then it will just reset to 0.

I played BATTLEGROUNDS just there and the highest temp was 81 and the average was 75. Last night playing the same game without the latest BIOS and no undervolt the highest was 98 and it was averaging about 92.

I am amazed how much difference it's made, now the fans only go nuts when you are really working it with a big game. In heroes of the storm the CPU never went above 70.

 

[K.Jack]

I haven't overlocked it, I think I am happy where it is for now.

To undervolt I downloaded Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, I think it's more for overlocking, then once its all open and running go to Advanced Tuning > All Controls > Core Voltage Offset.

I have mine set to -0.120, other folk have done it to -0.180 but I am sure mine got hotter when I went that low so I've stuck to the above setting.

I think with throttlestop you have to make it launch at startup to keep the settings whereas this intel one just keeps the undervolt setting. The only time it will lose it is if you put it to low and crash the computer then it will just reset to 0.

I played BATTLEGROUNDS just there and the highest temp was 81 and the average was 75. Last night playing the same game without the latest BIOS and no undervolt the highest was 98 and it was averaging about 92.

I am amazed how much difference it's made, now the fans only go nuts when you are really working it with a big game. In heroes of the storm the CPU never went above 70.

Don't let that 6820HK go to waste, it needs an overclock, especially if you have the 120Hz screen.

You should at least see how the temps hold, around 3.9Ghz. It should easily be able to stay below 90C there.

 

[Killer Queen]

Is it possible for me to get an HDD in the new omen?

 

[SlickShoes]

Don't let that 6820HK go to waste, it needs an overclock, especially if you have the 120Hz screen.

You should at least see how the temps hold, around 3.9Ghz. It should easily be able to stay below 90C there.

Cool I'll give it a bash at some point once I'm happy with everything and get all my crap moves over from my ASUS so I can get that sold and pay off a chunk of this!

 

[MilkBeard]

I'm looking to get one of those gaming laptops released this year with the i5 (or i7) and the GTX 1050. Can't wait to get one, although I have to wait to afford some other expenses first. But as soon as that is taken care of, I'm going to be leaning either on the Lenovo Legion Y520 or the newest HP 15 series (they literally all have the same cpus and gpus, it just depends on some of the other details). The good thing about the HP is that it doesn't have the ridiculous "lolgamerz" styling.

I would have chosen Dell's Inspiron 15 7000, but that screen is quite bad. It's a shame, because it has a nice form factor.

I'm excited, because I'll literally be paying the same as what I payed for my current laptop 5 years ago, which is sans dedicated gpu. Tech has improved.

 

[GameAddict411]

15 R3 with i7 6820HK

I've just done a BIOS update that came out a couple of weeks ago but it still seems to hot.

Core 0 is peaking at 94 and sitting when playing at 88 or so. core 3 is only peaking at 79.

edit: it's now hovering around the mid 80's at its hottest, the other cores are 75-80.

Some of the older Alienware laptops before the Kaby Lake refresh have uneven heatsink because of thermals pads that were too thick. They were fixed later by Alienware, but it easily fixable if you are up to it. Just Google Alienware 15 R3 uneven heatsink fix.

 

[GameAddict411]

So I got an Alienware 13 with the OLED, a 1060, and i5-6300hq. Build quality is flawless.

I saw the same machine with a bigger hard drive, and an i7-7700hq, for a hundred dollars more so I jumped on it. The backspace key is mushy and thermals are ATROCIOUS. 93 degree CPU and 83 GPU atrocious.

Is there enough of a difference between the cpus for me to try and get the i7 model fixed? (It was outlet, so I'm not sure if they do replacements)
I'm happy there's no flaws with my i5 model, but I'm worried I'll be screwing myself with the older slower CPU.

I have the same model and my temp peaks before replacing the thermal paste was about 82c or high 70s c depending on the load. Now it peeks at 72c for both GPU and CPU. It's certainly not normal even with factory thermal paste in your case. I would ask for a replacement, or if you are tech inclined open it up and change the thermal paste. Alienware warranty is not voided unless you break something or use liquid metal thermal paste(since it's toxic).

 

[K.Jack]

Is it possible for me to get an HDD in the new omen?

It has an HDD bay, yes.

I'm looking to get one of those gaming laptops released this year with the i5 (or i7) and the GTX 1050. Can't wait to get one, although I have to wait to afford some other expenses first. But as soon as that is taken care of, I'm going to be leaning either on the Lenovo Legion Y520 or the newest HP 15 series (they literally all have the same cpus and gpus, it just depends on some of the other details). The good thing about the HP is that it doesn't have the ridiculous "lolgamerz" styling.

I would have chosen Dell's Inspiron 15 7000, but that screen is quite bad. It's a shame, because it has a nice form factor.

I'm excited, because I'll literally be paying the same as what I payed for my current laptop 5 years ago, which is sans dedicated gpu. Tech has improved.

The Dell can now be had with an IPS display, and a 1050 Ti, for abound $899.

It's by far the best choice in the price range.

 

[MilkBeard]

It has an HDD bay, yes.



The Dell can now be had with an IPS display, and a 1050 Ti, for abound $899.

It's by far the best choice in the price range.

That's great to hear. Yeah, I really wanted that dell until I saw that nasty screen. Glad they changed it, I will look for it.

EDIT: Yep, I just went to the website and noticed that you can get choose an IPS display option for an extra $50. I would gladly pay that. And lol, I read the first comment on this page, but didn't realize they were talking about the same thing.

 

[madmook]

Got my Dell Inspiron 7567, everything seems swell, but it appears that "adaptive vsync" doesn't work on Optimus laptops... fuckin' why?! 😥

 

[K.Jack]

Yeah there's no AVS with Optimus. Also no display overclocking, downsampling, G-Sync, etc.

I will never own another Optimus machine, nope not ever.

 

[AlexFlame116]

So tomorrow I might be getting my first laptop from my grandparents since they've been really grateful that I've helped them out the last 24 years. I told them to not waste so much on me but they won't listen (they also get mad about it).

Anyways I'm thinking of which one to get. I saw the OP but I was wondering if there have been any newer laptops that are very good.

I'm looking for a laptop thay can handle not just college stuff but also really good at gaming. Not just something like Tetris but also Skyrim Special Edition with mods (is that even possible?) and also Starcraft II.

My grandparents say to just get a really good MAC since it's almost virus free and stuff but I'm not really keen on going through the hassle of partitions and not being able to handle certain games or programs on it.

Any good recommendations? Also I'm hoping for not something extremely expensive. I don't want to take advantage of them and if I have to sacrifice higher end graphics than so be it.

 

[T-Rex.]

Thoughts on this laptop? http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...3-gaming-laptop-shadow-mesh-10153696-pdt.html

Mate wants to buy it for gaming, and it seems ok to me, but I thought I'd ask in here first.

 

[K.Jack]

So tomorrow I might be getting my first laptop from my grandparents since they've been really grateful that I've helped them out the last 24 years. I told them to not waste so much on me but they won't listen (they also get mad about it).

Anyways I'm thinking of which one to get. I saw the OP but I was wondering if there have been any newer laptops that are very good.

I'm looking for a laptop thay can handle not just college stuff but also really good at gaming. Not just something like Tetris but also Skyrim Special Edition with mods (is that even possible?) and also Starcraft II.

My grandparents say to just get a really good MAC since it's almost virus free and stuff but I'm not really keen on going through the hassle of partitions and not being able to handle certain games or programs on it.

Any good recommendations? Also I'm hoping for not something extremely expensive. I don't want to take advantage of them and if I have to sacrifice higher end graphics than so be it.

You have to provide some type of budget range. What's the absolute most you'd be comfortable with them spending?

Can we do a grand?

Thoughts on this laptop? http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...3-gaming-laptop-shadow-mesh-10153696-pdt.html

Mate wants to buy it for gaming, and it seems ok to me, but I thought I'd ask in here first.

Might as well buy this one, it's the updated model with the Kaby Lake processor, at the same price.

 

[Venom.]

I want a laptop predominantly for Adobe Premiere and some gaming. I have been considering the new Dell XPS 15 but have seen the Gigabyte Aero 15 which has the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. So is powerful in a light package. One question I have, it has 16GB RAM that can be upgraded to 32GB. Does anybody know how it is upgraded, e.g. is there a RAM compartment or does it require the case be removed? Thanks.

 

[ricardo_sousa11]

Hi everyone,

Im in need of a laptop for work, because ill spend some time away from home later this year and cant take my desktop. I do video work, so I need a laptop that can edit 4k video without much struggle (Adobe Premiere and After Effects), but also play some games for my free time. Im also a color grader, so a good screen is a very big plus to me!

I dont like Mac, so it has to be PC.

My budget is limited to 1000€ and I have to buy it somewhere in Europe (maybe Amazon, or Fnac, what do you guys recommend?).

What do you guys recommend?

 

[AlexFlame116]

You have to provide some type of budget range. What's the absolute most you'd be comfortable with them spending?

Can we do a grand?

Yeah I think so. My grandparents want me to buy a MacBook and the one I casually mentioned was about 1000 so anything up to that.

Please and thank you!

 

[TeamLeftMatch]

To update about buying the Alienware 15 refurbished. Just got it today, and before a get into the laptop. Man that was a big box for it.

Now onto the laptop.

This thing is pretty heavy. I know that's the thing with Alienwares but it was heavier than expected. Starting up the laptop the idle fan is not that bad but you can definitely hear it. The mouse feels fine buts it's only a track pad and the keyboard is good but I'm going to need some getting used to. Checking the specs, everything seems to be in order but I am confused with 2 things
1) why is the hard drive and SSD less space then said I know it's never exact but why is the 1TB only about 913GB?
2.) Why is the SSD counted as a C drive with the 41GB used up for installation? Haven't used an SSD before so I thought that the 1TB would be where the system memory is stored.
Also is there anyway I can stress test this laptop for temp and Fan nois?

 

[Dylan]

To update about buying the Alienware 15 refurbished. Just got it today, and before a get into the laptop. Man that was a big box for it.

Now onto the laptop.

This thing is pretty heavy. I know that's the thing with Alienwares but it was heavier than expected. Starting up the laptop the idle fan is not that bad but you can definitely hear it. The mouse feels fine buts it's only a track pad and the keyboard is good but I'm going to need some getting used to. Checking the specs, everything seems to be in order but I am confused with 2 things
1) why is the hard drive and SSD less space then said I know it's never exact but why is the 1TB only about 913GB?
2.) Why is the SSD counted as a C drive with the 41GB used up for installation? Haven't used an SSD before so I thought that the 1TB would be where the system memory is stored.
Also is there anyway I can stress test this laptop for temp and Fan nois?

OS's are generally installed on the SSD because that's where you see the most benefit from that type of drive. You generally want your computer to boot as fast as possible, so that's why people prefer to have their SSD as their primary drive.

 

[kami_sama]

To update about buying the Alienware 15 refurbished. Just got it today, and before a get into the laptop. Man that was a big box for it.

Now onto the laptop.

This thing is pretty heavy. I know that's the thing with Alienwares but it was heavier than expected. Starting up the laptop the idle fan is not that bad but you can definitely hear it. The mouse feels fine buts it's only a track pad and the keyboard is good but I'm going to need some getting used to. Checking the specs, everything seems to be in order but I am confused with 2 things
1) why is the hard drive and SSD less space then said I know it's never exact but why is the 1TB only about 913GB?

Because Windows and the drive makers use different types of numbers. Windows uses GiB (Gigibytes, or 1024 Megibytes etc), but the drive makers advertise in GB (Gigabytes or 1000 Megabytes), so in the end, 1 GB is less than a GiB.

2.) Why is the SSD counted as a C drive with the 41GB used up for installation? Haven't used an SSD before so I thought that the 1TB would be where the system memory is stored.
Also is there anyway I can stress test this laptop for temp and Fan nois?

Windows should always be installed in the SSD. The greatest benefit of a ssd is that the power-up is a lot quicker. If you have windows in the HDD, windows would be slow and the ssd would be not very useful.
For the temps and fan noise, fire up any reasonable game (OW for example) and play for a while, although gpu-z has a way to test cards, so you can use that.

 

[TeamLeftMatch]

OS's are generally installed on the SSD because that's where you see the most benefit from that type of drive. You generally want your computer to boot as fast as possible, so that's why people prefer to have their SSD as their primary drive.

Ahh ok that makes sense. Again I've never dealt with SSDs before so this is new to me. Just curious, where do my downloads go? I usually download a lot of crap so I don't want to waste space without realising it.

Because Windows and the drive makers use different types of numbers. Windows uses GiB (Gigibytes, or 1024 Megibytes etc), but the drive makers advertise in GB (Gigabytes or 1000 Megabytes), so in the end, 1 GB is less than a GiB.

Windows should always be installed in the SSD. The greatest benefit of a ssd is that the power-up is a lot quicker. If you have windows in the HDD, windows would be slow and the ssd would be not very useful.
For the temps and fan noise, fire up any reasonable game (OW for example) and play for a while, although gpu-z has a way to test cards, so you can use that.

But yeah I should find my most demanding game and see how the temps go. But isn't there a application that shows the CPU and GPU temps.

 

[Dylan]

Ahh ok that makes sense. Again I've never dealt with SSDs before so this is new to me. Just curious, where do my downloads go? I usually download a lot of crap so I don't want to waste space without realising it.

As a general rule, keep your SSD free of anything except for your system folders.

Even if you have a bunch of space leftover, your SSD will stay healthier the less space is used, so throw everything else on your HDD.

 

[TeamLeftMatch]

As a general rule, keep your SSD free of anything except for your system folders.

Even if you have a bunch of space leftover, your SSD will stay healthier the less space is used, so throw everything else on your HDD.

Is there any way to keep my downloads strait to my HDD?

 

[Dylan]

Is there any way to keep my downloads strait to my HDD?

If you mean from Chrome, you can set it by going here:

chrome://settings/

If you mean something like steam, you can manually set your games folder. Same with Origin and most other programs.

 

[TeamLeftMatch]

If you mean from Chrome, you can set it by going here:

chrome://settings/

If you mean something like steam, you can manually set your games folder. Same with Origin and most other programs.

Done, and done. Thanks for the tip. This should keep my SSD cleaner than usual.

 

[Tripon]

I can go into a rant about putting a HHD as a primary drive in a laptop, but I'm typing on my phone.