*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

This thread is a place to discuss all things related to your new Alienware 13 and share information your experience with fellow owners, or a place that prospective owners can read and ask quick questions.

 

Well, this notebook has been released already, and orders are coming through... And we still haven't gotten an official owner's lounge yet. Thought I'd start this, even if I won't be buying one, so that we small notebook enthusiasts can discuss this tiny powerhouse. Hope the mods sticky this.

 

Nice reviews so far.

 

Here's a review: http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-13-r3-oled

Sounds like it gets very hot after 15 minutes of gaming.. 107F middle of the keyboard.. yikes.

 

That's mildly hot. Average Arizona Summer. Real question is how many Celsius the CPU is getting.

 

Soon to be AW13 R3 owner - although I remain reserved about a few aspects.

Questions for long-time Alienware laptop owners.

Can these laptops run in clamshell mode?

How seriously "loud" do they get?

If this thing is truly "loud" - how well does the Alienware Graphics AMP help offset that? If I buy the AMP, since it's a steal at 160 (and already own a desktop GPU) - will it significantly reduce fan noise (I'm guessing this question is more nuanced).

Is it feasible to "game on your lap" - or do the vents/thermals/heat get too uncomfortable to do this?

Context - I previously owned a Dell XPS15 - and playing games on the 960M produced around 46dB of sound on average (I use the same dB meter Dave2D uses in the review linked above). 46dB was pretty bad - ultimately I really disliked it. D2D's review above showed this thing running around 42-43dB in the video review, but other reviewers mentioned "it gets loud" without a ton of specificity. 3dB increase in sound is a doubling of power output, so if this thing runs at 42-43 dB, it should be tolerable (and the tonality of the sound matters - i.e., no whining or high pitched sound).

I felt like my XPS15 always elevated one click above just "loud" to - gratingly loud after 10 minutes of a game. I would prefer cool and quiet, but I know it's a laptop with a desktop class GPU - so I'm trying to check my expectations and know their will be louder fan noise. Sorry for all those detailed questions, but I've been somewhat of a "silent PC" guy on my desktop so I'm gauging if I can adjust.

 

107...F?? It might be just me, but that doesn't seem hot at all.

 

I am very interested in this as my next laptop. I am not completely unhappy with my Razer Blade however, god that thing heats up fast. I feel they just tried to put TOO much hardware into that slim of a package. It overheats (to the point of CPU throttling) almost immediately in basic games like Diablo 3. My regular setup is to downclock the CPU to 2 Ghz and 19W and turn all settings to minimum to try to keep the GPU from going full tilt and it still send the CPU over 80c instantly- no throttling but not the full intended performance. it is much quieter this way as well as it is not bouncing off 100c like the stock clocks will. If I do not downclock, CPU throttling and very sporadic game performance follow.

For me, the big deciding factor will be if the cooling keeps up in this thing. Note that the internals (6700HQ and GTX 1060M) are the same as the new Razer Blade so it really is all about thermals for me. Waiting for the new service manual to get put online where I will have good quality pictures of the internals and can make my own assessment of the cooling design. Hopefully we will get some users here who are willing to do a thorough teardown as well and will post pics.

I do not need this to be super powered as it is not my main machine, have a 4770k/GTX 980 Ti SLI desktop for this. The laptop is for travel and Diablo 3 on the sofa or in bed I may get the GPU Dock since it is low priced but really may not use it much if at all - really like the idea though

Looking forwards to the first user impressions here on NBR.

 

So although I can't comment on the aw13, I can on the amp as I own that. The amp is LOUD but it can be modified to be much quieter. I replaced the PSU in mine and unplugged the case fan and its virtually silent now. I will be replacing the fan but the fan connector is a pita so the fan I ordered for it didn't work.

 

Found his link posted in the pre-release discussion thread:

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...3B1051-9384-409A-8D5B-9B53BD496DE8&lang=en-us