Guys....

For those using M17XR(x) and M18R1/2 and planned to upgrade GPU (single GPU), here's what I've tested today on the power consumption.

Mine is M18XR1 CPU I7-2670QM (45W TDP) with upgraded GPU (From GTX560M (75W TDP) to GTX780M (100W TDP)). Everything else are factory standard except for an additional of SSD.

Here are what I observed:

a. Fully Charged Battery
1. During idle, Power Consumption is ranging around 35W
2. (Only) the CPU Stress test gain the wattage to around 81
3. (Only) the GPU Stress test gain the wattage to around 137W
4. Stress test the CPU + GPU + FPU + System memory = around 178W Spike at 183W)

b. While Charging
1. During idle, Power Consumption was ranging around 110W
2. (Only) the CPU Stress test gain the wattage to 156W
3. (Only) the GPU Stress test gain the wattage to around 211W
4. Stress test the CPU + GPU + FPU + System memory = around 257W (Spike at 261W)

I am using this wattage meter :



The software : AIDA64 - System Stability Test

My conclusion :
1. When battery full (No charging) with a single GPU (100W TDP GPU), I do not see any problem to use the 240W Power Adaptor.
2. When battery is charging, the 240W adapter should be ok for gaming. Sincerely, I haven't found any game that stress out CPU together with GPU to the max. But if there is one, than you might facing throttling issue or some other problem.
3. If you are using CPU which have higher TDP (than mine) and planned for GTX980M (122W TDP) upgrade, you should consider using 330W adapter.
4. The wattage gain as per TDP specs is real. I mean, if your GPU TDP is 100W, when you stress it to the max, it will give you near exact figure.

Hope this could help someone that still wondering whether should or shouldn't he upgrade the power adapter when upgrade GPU or CPU.

Adios...

thanks a lot for this! that's about most things stock. you can expect the values to go up when you do oc to cpu and gpu, with all sata ports/ram slots filled up, and usb ports connected to accessories.

Very good findings. This might help some of the new buyer for the new Alienware that using GTX 980m clear out the doubts of they either stick with the stock power brick which is 180w or buy a new one 240w/330w

What..? Seriously the new 17" comes with 180w adapter? Wowww...i couldn't say more. Maybe the new machine using less power a.k.a energy saver. They need to test the wattage just to find it out. But maybe it just enough juice to power up all the components. Like i said, i doubt that you wanna play a game which stress all out the CPU and GPU until mouse movement and typing also lagging....

Intel 4th/5th Gen = 47W TDP
GTX980M = 122W
Full blast on both required 169W. Not including mainboard, screen power consumption...blablabla...& if battery is charging too?

i think the change of adapter is a bad move for aw. previously this happened to msi, always shipped with under-powered adapters.

just want to know where can i get a m15x fan PR2H1 replacement, one side stopped running.

pm putochip123 or e_mc_square?

Hello all. I am a proud owner of AW17 R2 still a newbie I might say. So stupid question is, should I remove the battery from the laptop? Is the battery will "kong" if I don't remove it while using the laptop. Some say yes and some say no. So I want to try asking the sifu2 here that have vast experience on using this laptop. Thanks

congratulations on your 17 r2.

about the battery, the answer is no, you don't need to remove the battery from the laptop, even if the laptop is connected to the adapter all the times (to me it's a good protection to power loss). since a few years ago, laptops already have a smart mechanism that prevents battery from recharging too frequently. when it's still above certain limit (i think it's about 90% or more) it will not charge. the charging only gets triggered when the battery is below that threshold.. furthermore, if you right-click on the power icon at the notification area, dell has a battery protection option that you can set up to help reducing recharging. it will cut off the power source, drain the battery, then to let it charge once in a while.

my m17x r4 is always connected to power adapter with battery installed. even after 3 years, my r4's battery wear level is still minimal.

however just bear in mind that battery is still wearable. it will wear more if you're on battery power most of the times.

-Double post-

This post has been edited by ZainRain: Jun 11 2015, 01:29 AM

Thank you so much for the explanation. It really helps me figure out the option in the battery icon at the tray. Never clicked that before since I thought that every laptop will give the same option.

No problem.

Hm i think I gave you some wrong info sorry. I should say that the dell function is for machines that are plugged in most of the times. It's not about reducing recharging, but to help make sure that once in a while, a full recharge is done to the battery. Frequent partial charging is not good for a battery because it create lower max capacity.

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 11 2015, 07:50 AM

Anyone know who selling AW warranty extension aside from dell?

Last time i purchased from mr docter but now got no reply

check with putochip123.

so recently i just bought a second hand alienware 14 , i have a few questions to ask from you guys.. sorry for disturbing

if i want to format this , but the seller lost the box nor the drivers disks, will it be any problem? secondly is i think this model has come with 80gb ssd but i cant find it anywhere , is it mean already combine with the 1tb?

thanks ya sorry because not too familiar on laptops

You can try to perform a factory reset. Is much more easier than format if the seller haven't format the recovery partition.
The 80GB mSata SSD is config as a "cache" drive which you can't see it in windows. Unless you know how to RAID works and you can make it appear in your windows for you to access.

second hand ke whatever hand, as long as warranty is valid you're in good hands. welcome

you should be able to create a recovery usb stick with alienrespawn. if you wanna do clean install, use this tool to download the right version of windows 8.1. (normally it should be windows core, oem. however it might be other windows versions) you can get the exact windows version by running slmgr /dli in administrative command prompt. also download the latest drivers from dell's support page.

as for the caching ssd, you should be able to verify its presence with device manager, under disk drives.

thanks! never know about the AlienRespawn software , it's already inside the laptop , i updated it and now restoring to factory reset , i also back up drivers in my pendrive like they told me , i hope is doing it right

factory reset is pretty straight forward so you should be fine.

nice explaination sir... by da way, alienware laptop has the desktop mode battery charge.. if we enable the mode, does it protect the lifetime of the battery?

- really confuse about this mode.. hehehe