*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 R2 / m17 R2 Owner's Lounge

@juggar arghh ok good to know for future builds if I don't stick with this. I did do some poking around on the web before but really struggled to find some quality and confirmative info on the lower core 9300h, I guessed because most people just default to ordering the 8750/9750. I suppose one advantage is that it does have that higher single core boost for games that are a bit older and poorly optimised to use 1core only like, Total War Attila/Rome, Stalker, FlightSimX etc. ^Will update on my questions above once I get the unit if no one else beats me to it first^

 

And you seems to forget OEMs love for making cheapo awful bad cooling. They have got proper guidelines from Intel. None force the manufacturers to design cooling around 45w + PL2 headroom. Just look at Apple’s massive thermal throttling etc. Dell even bragging that they have increased PL levels well above Intel’s own specs. They have got the freedom from Intel. But they rather put out the middle finger on this to save on costs!

See also... Intel recommendations for Mobile 6 core unlocked 8950Hk Mobile chips... They recommend PL1 at +100w and PL2 at 125W. This for their 45W H mobile chips. Put the main blame on notebook manufacturers which save on every penny. As well they think the cooling will be much better the thinner and slimmer chassis they design and throw out. Can’t beat the physics laws. But design will always beat functionality. Just sad.

 

got that @juggar it's just frustrating if it plays out like that for this unit because looking at the engineering on this unit, I convinced myself that this was the one! top open grills as all such laptops should have finally, rear heat extraction assembly; surely this time one of them would get it right, but alas reading reviews it seems no. I wonder why they don't extend the copper heatpiping into that rear assembly? I can't understand why they can't crack this given these constructs are just plastic and metal and not of high value. Another idea might be if they had a separate bios one could choose if they wanted to live in the land of sensibility rather than these cranked up nightmares that are designed to try and compete with other manufacturers for the highest benchmark scores

 

Another reason that soldered and non upgradeable wifi is a very poor idea.
https://www.securityweek.com/recovering-wi-fi-password-dragonblood-attack-costs-1-computing-power

Looks like they'll be issuing WPA 3.1 pretty soon.

 

@juggar @FXi Received mine last night. HWMonitor running and on mundane tasks/use it's hitting 100 and thermal throttling frequently so I'm concerned. This is on 'balanced' in command centre. Even if I set it to 'Quiet' it still keeps revving up occasionally and ramping up to the 100 mark so I am concerned...

 

I am going to buy one of these in the coming days. What configuration would you all recommend?

I’m leaning towards the 1660ti/9750/240hz screen.

 

I would start undervolting and pray for a good chip. This is why I have a ban on 6 and 8 core laptops right now. I refuse to be part of this garbage. Right now I have a Ryzen 7 3750h laptop with 1660 Ti and its great.

 

arghh, terrible cinebench 20 score 1443. I ran while a Dell technician was remoting in and all core was about ~2.2ghz while running, severe throttling. It's getting an engineer callout and repaste on Tuesday so will let you know how it goes. @Revan9 if you can bear to wait you might want to wait for the re-pasted result or find reviews for people who've had it ok out the factory. Your choice looks good depending on what you are trying to do, priorities. I heard 1660ti generates higher heat than rtx2060 but go check it's true

 

Just out of curiosity I configured new m15 r2 with 2070 max-q and 240 hz IGZO display, the total was about $2220.00. This is a lot of money - you can get Dell G7 with same CPU and GPU and same display for about $1900.00. Sure, m15 has slightly better fans and better heatsinks (and G7 has smaller battery if you choose model with m.2 and 2.5" drive bays) but it still throttles so it still needs undervolt and repaste so any difference does not show up in real life. Plus Dell G7 looks more professional and less "hey, I am 12-year old Fortnite g4ym3r who watches Ninja on Mixer" ;-)
I think I would order G7. Or maybe new Gigabyte Aero 15 which costs the same as this Alienware model but also doesn't look flashy.

 

@Felix_Argyle I didn't know they had that display too but no 2x m.2 nvme would suck for me. I wish the motherboard wasn't inverse though, Ram wasn't soldered and they hadn't opted for an older wifi card with old bluetooth 4.2 (BT5.0 you can connect 2x BT5 headsets to simultaneously). Also the look and feel of the m15r2 is premium and I'm comfortable taking it into work, just turn off alienfx lighting. If my repaste works I think I'll stick with it. I've researched every single model there is out there