Alienware 13 R3 W/ GTX 1060

[igouvea]

13 hours ago, astec23 said:

 

well, my max budget would be around 1600$ USD, im from Philippines so ill be buying it from a third party seller which would add about 200$ to the price, because of that, i wont be able to afford the 1070 on the 15 or the OLED on the 13 so im probably going with an i7 1060 model on 13/15 and cant decide which would be the ideal size for me, battery life wont matter much since im usually plugged in. 

Because you are from Phillipines, check MSI or Asus. They have international warranty. Which might be important for you. Also for your budget, I see that you are looking for something that AW will give you certain trouble. I went with AW because I got the international extended warranty and I am in US, their quality control is not the best. So I can always return and get a new one. For you, maybe Asus or MSI. There's an Asus with a 1070 for around 1600, if you can avoid tax, you should be set. Plus international warranty and accidental damage. If battery life is not an issue.

[astec23]

25 minutes ago, igouvea said:

Because you are from Phillipines, check MSI or Asus. They have international warranty. Which might be important for you. Also for your budget, I see that you are looking for something that AW will give you certain trouble. I went with AW because I got the international extended warranty and I am in US, their quality control is not the best. So I can always return and get a new one. For you, maybe Asus or MSI. There's an Asus with a 1070 for around 1600, if you can avoid tax, you should be set. Plus international warranty and accidental damage. If battery life is not an issue.

well, the international warranty is very good here in PH, almost the same as in the US with technicians going to your house to fix the problem and replace parts. my concern would have to be returning the unit if i get something with uneven core differentials since i think the most that dell support would do here in PH would be to repair/replace the parts with issues. i am not in a hurry to buy a laptop, maybe around early next year so maybe the new AW parts would be fixed by then. 

[Pendragon]

3 hours ago, lilbman said:

The 13's temperatures won't be as good thermally UNLESS the 15 has a uneven heatsink, like mine.  The 13 will probably be cheaper to get.

The entire Alienware lineup has the same issue. 13/15/17 all have this stupid ass heatsink design. 

[igouvea]

6 hours ago, astec23 said:

well, the international warranty is very good here in PH, almost the same as in the US with technicians going to your house to fix the problem and replace parts. my concern would have to be returning the unit if i get something with uneven core differentials since i think the most that dell support would do here in PH would be to repair/replace the parts with issues. i am not in a hurry to buy a laptop, maybe around early next year so maybe the new AW parts would be fixed by then. 

It is not a matter of getting it fixed. It is Dell's quality control. It won't change. I've already returned an XPS for the same reason (in that case was a faulty trackpad).

Warranties are usually good, but only cover the place where you buy it. So if you buy in US, Dell does not offer international unless you buy the premium support.

Other manufacturers vary. MSI and Asus I am aware that do offer, HP I am not quite sure. And lenovo offers for some notebooks.

 

5 hours ago, Pendragon said:

The entire Alienware lineup has the same issue. 13/15/17 all have this stupid ass heatsink design. 

Completely agree, me personally, I'd rather live with that than other problems..but yeah, not designed by Pininfarina.

But the thermal management is on point, so I am okay with that. Plus it helps with acoustics and keeps the IO away from me. Which I like.

So in the end, its ugly, but so darn functional that Im okay with it..

attached an example...it looks so much cleaner when the lid is open...no cables visible.

PS: Sorry for the mouse, G502 coming... Razer Naga epic broken

[Droidbot]

On 12/4/2016 at 11:54 PM, ScaryFatKidGT said:

My friend has a stealth and it is very nice build IMO and a very nice power brick, also the persons name who is in the title of this forum also liked the 14 and the stealth very much.

 

Sure the AW gets better battery life and runs cooler its double the thickness.... have fun RMAing screen issues and re-pasting ur processors heatsync.

The Stealth is overpriced trash.. sure it's nice, but somehow they made a fucking u series CPU thermal throttle under load.. 

[Pendragon]

9 minutes ago, igouvea said:

snip

How are your temps on it? Per core temp under load.

[igouvea]

16 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

How are your temps on it? Per core temp under load.

Pendragon, attached after 10 min of AIDA64 on full load stressing CPU, GPU, FSB, Memory.

PS: The 95C was a spike in the beginning as you can see by the average. If I wanted longer the average would probably fall further.

Edit: Fun fact that it kept the Turbo at around 3GHz.

[Pendragon]

2 hours ago, igouvea said:

snip

Should probably fix it up yourself with some Fujipoly and Gelid/Liquid Metal + CPU undervolt.

[Guest lilbman]

16 hours ago, Pendragon said:

The entire Alienware lineup has the same issue. 13/15/17 all have this stupid ass heatsink design. 

Have there been any reported problems with the 13's heatsink? 

[igouvea]

9 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Should probably fix it up yourself with some Fujipoly and Gelid/Liquid Metal + CPU undervolt.

Pendragon, I am actually okay with these temps. These are extreme conditions. During gaming I don't get even close to this.

I'll post something with rendering, that might tax the CPU and GPU at the same time...let's see how it goes..

 

EDIT:

I made the most taxing sequence I could think of in Premiere. 4K Footage, Color correction, gaussian blur, mosaic, sharpen, etc. 5 minutes sequence.

Put it to render with and without GPU acceleration.

Without GPU, temps averaging 78C on CPU/

With GPU, temps of 84 average on CPU and 72 on GPU

With CPU GPU and AIDA stressing the GPU even more, 90 average on CPU and 80 on GPU.

The interesting thing is that on the tests the computer was relatively quiet, which tells me is the way Dell programs their fans not thermal throttling.

PS: Turbo was ranging between 3GHz to 3.10GHz in all the tests above.

[Pendragon]

2 hours ago, igouvea said:

snip

You're running a 6700HQ. No OC potential. If you have a 6820HK, you would need to fix it. I personally dislike the idea that my machine isn't operating as specced. But that's because I have really heavy demands that I put on it hours on end. Personally I don't think it's acceptable for machines to be shipped this way, but if that's fine with you that's fine with you.

 

2 hours ago, lilbman said:

Have there been any reported problems with the 13's heatsink? 

Yes. All of them. Just ask some of the leading guys like iunlock about it. 

[Guest lilbman]

11 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

You're running a 6700HQ. No OC potential. If you have a 6820HK, you would need to fix it. I personally dislike the idea that my machine isn't operating as specced. But that's because I have really heavy demands that I put on it hours on end. Personally I don't think it's acceptable for machines to be shipped this way, but if that's fine with you that's fine with you.

 

Yes. All of them. Just ask some of the leading guys like iunlock about it. 

Linus's review unit wasn't messed up.  If it was that important Saint Linus would've mentioned it

[Pendragon]

3 hours ago, lilbman said:

Linus's review unit wasn't messed up.  If it was that important Saint Linus would've mentioned it

He wouldn't know. LOL. You didnt know until we asked you to run proper monitoring software to check it. 

[Guest lilbman]

1 hour ago, Pendragon said:

He wouldn't know. LOL. You didnt know until we asked you to run proper monitoring software to check it. 

He did say the temperatures were good though.  I'm sure they used monitoring software.

[pimno]

34 minutes ago, lilbman said:

He did say the temperatures were good though.  I'm sure they used monitoring software.

He just checked surface temperature, if I recall. Don't remember any mention of CPU temperature.

[igouvea]

4 hours ago, Pendragon said:

He wouldn't know. LOL. You didnt know until we asked you to run proper monitoring software to check it. 

Pendragon, what do you mean "not as expected"? I think it is well within the range of temperature, specially because there's no throttling.

Could you develop?

By the way: Keyboard. Best I've ever used in a notebook. And my main keyboard is a 710+ MX Brown.

[Dark]

@igouvea

95c?  no thanks.

 

If the 'average lowers the longer it is ran' then run it longer and show us the cooler temps.

 

And your 'elapsed time' was almost 7min, not 10min.

[igouvea]

13 hours ago, Dark said:

@igouvea

95c?  no thanks.

 

If the 'average lowers the longer it is ran' then run it longer and show us the cooler temps.

 

And your 'elapsed time' was almost 7min, not 10min.

Dark, I was observing for around 10 min, but took the SS on 7 min. The average fell 1C, not relevant enough to make me take another SS.

I am personally fine with 95C on stress+rendering. During normal use I have never seen anything close to that. Plus, since the turbo boost is still strong, that tells me that the computer was made to run like this.

I've had the GS63VR for a while, before returning it. It throttled a lot, and the temps were close to 90C, not allowing to go further due to throttle. In the AW I can always do an undervolt. But the GS was really bad in managing temperatures, maybe due to it's size. I am happy with the machine, and it seems to be pretty unanimous that thermal management is good (Dave2D commented about it, and Linus obviously approves of the laptop) I hope my experience can help some shoppers.

 

[astec23]

On 12/6/2016 at 3:48 PM, igouvea said:

It is not a matter of getting it fixed. It is Dell's quality control. It won't change. I've already returned an XPS for the same reason (in that case was a faulty trackpad).

Warranties are usually good, but only cover the place where you buy it. So if you buy in US, Dell does not offer international unless you buy the premium support.

Other manufacturers vary. MSI and Asus I am aware that do offer, HP I am not quite sure. And lenovo offers for some notebooks.

 

good point. and as of now that ive still been reading about thermal issues with the new AW but on a less percentage than before thats why im still holding off on buying and risking getting a faulty unit and not having it replaced if repairing/re-pasting wont suffice. maybe in a few weeks when the core differential/thermal issue is FINALLY on a very minimal occasion then i would purchase.

 

my dilemma as of now is about the 13 vs 15

-is the 13 not worth if i dont go with the OLED panel? since i am probably gonna get almost identical specs on the 13v15 minus the hard drive. might as well go with the 15?

 

my 13 v 15 specs @$1550-$1575

 

AW13

i7 6700HQ, GTX 1060, 1080p, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, killer 1435, 76WH battery

 

AW15

i7 6700HQ, GTX 1060, 1080p, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD, killer 1435, 68WH battery

 

-also, there seems to be less issues with the 13 now but then again, only a few units are just released in comparison to the 15/17.
 

[Dark]

7 hours ago, igouvea said:

Dark, I was observing for around 10 min, but took the SS on 7 min. The average fell 1C, not relevant enough to make me take another SS.

I am personally fine with 95C on stress+rendering. During normal use I have never seen anything close to that. Plus, since the turbo boost is still strong, that tells me that the computer was made to run like this.

I've had the GS63VR for a while, before returning it. It throttled a lot, and the temps were close to 90C, not allowing to go further due to throttle. In the AW I can always do an undervolt. But the GS was really bad in managing temperatures, maybe due to it's size. I am happy with the machine, and it seems to be pretty unanimous that thermal management is good (Dave2D commented about it, and Linus obviously approves of the laptop) I hope my experience can help some shoppers.

 

Not sure what was wrong with your GS63 but my GS73 (same heatpipe/fan design) runs cooler than the AW13 while still holding the multi-core boost.

 

Grab temps from 10-15min of gameplay (BF1?).

 

I wouldn't take either Dave2D or Linus's comments about thermal management to the bank. Both of which give praise Razer as well.

[igouvea]

7 hours ago, Dark said:

Not sure what was wrong with your GS63 but my GS73 (same heatpipe/fan design) runs cooler than the AW13 while still holding the multi-core boost.

 

Grab temps from 10-15min of gameplay (BF1?).

 

I wouldn't take either Dave2D or Linus's comments about thermal management to the bank. Both of which give praise Razer as well.

Razer likes to let their computers run hotter, which doesn't mean that it is bad cooling. It is a choice. If they had decent warranty and support I would be personally fine with that. In exchange the owner get better acoustics.

I ran with a slight UC and here are the results.

GPU maxed at 83C and averaged at 76C

During unlimited gameplay, CPU temps are around 55C and GPU maybe going to 69-70C. With limited (VSYNC) GPU = 65C and CPU around 50C sometimes even lower.

[Guest lilbman]

On 12/4/2016 at 6:54 AM, ScaryFatKidGT said:

My friend has a stealth and it is very nice build IMO and a very nice power brick, also the persons name who is in the title of this forum also liked the 14 and the stealth very much.

 

Sure the AW gets better battery life and runs cooler its double the thickness.... have fun RMAing screen issues and re-pasting ur processors heatsync.

Please be sure to tag people when you reply to them

 

The Alienware also gets MUCH better performance than a stealth.  A Razer Blade Stealth has a dual core whereas an Alienware has a quad core.  A Razer Blade Stealth also used the integrated GPU, whereas the Alienware has a pretty powerful dedicated graphics card.

 

We aren't even comparing two computers that are in the same CATEGORY of performance.  A Stealth is an ultrabook, and an Alienware is a gaming laptop.

[igouvea]

9 minutes ago, lilbman said:

Please be sure to tag people when you reply to them

 

The Alienware also gets MUCH better performance than a stealth.  A Razer Blade Stealth has a dual core whereas an Alienware has a quad core.  A Razer Blade Stealth also used the integrated GPU, whereas the Alienware has a pretty powerful dedicated graphics card.

 

We aren't even comparing two computers that are in the same CATEGORY of performance.  A Stealth is an ultrabook, and an Alienware is a gaming laptop.

Libman, did you end up repasting your AW15? Do you feel the need?

I am quite okay with the temperatures I am getting, but some people feel differently. I would love to hear from another owner.

Thanks in advance.

[Guest lilbman]

26 minutes ago, igouvea said:

Libman, did you end up repasting your AW15? Do you feel the need?

I am quite okay with the temperatures I am getting, but some people feel differently. I would love to hear from another owner.

Thanks in advance.

I didn't repaste it as I didn't feel the need.  I haven't undervolted it either.

 

I recorded my temps when I was playing games like CS GO or Project Reality and they are fine.  The OCCT is kind of an unrealistic load IMO.  No game would ever stress a CPU that much.

 

If given the chance to repaste it, I will just because I like taking care of my machines.  I might ask my friend to do it, as he is a computer engineer.  But for now, I am content with my temperatures.

[ScaryFatKidGT]

18 hours ago, lilbman said:

Please be sure to tag people when you reply to them

 

The Alienware also gets MUCH better performance than a stealth.  A Razer Blade Stealth has a dual core whereas an Alienware has a quad core.  A Razer Blade Stealth also used the integrated GPU, whereas the Alienware has a pretty powerful dedicated graphics card.

 

We aren't even comparing two computers that are in the same CATEGORY of performance.  A Stealth is an ultrabook, and an Alienware is a gaming laptop.

I know this, but he has a Stealth not a 14, my argument is a 14" Razerblade 14 makes more sense than a 13" Alienware that is bigger in every dimension and heavier, although the OLED screen is cool. If size doesn't matter why not get a 15" 1070 equipped machine?