Hi all,

My 15 R4 (i7-8750H, GTX 1070 OC, 1TB HDD) is on its way. I'm curious about the thermals. I've seen forum online that it has thermal issue. Can anyone share their experience?

Got my Alienware 15 R4 with following spec for a week now. Thought wanted to give my experience with it.

i7-8750, GTX1070, 1TB SSD, 8GB 2400mhz, 1080p 60hz (G-Sync Enabled)

Build Quality
As expected, top of the line quality feel. Nice and sturdy, almost 0 keyboard flex and display panel flex. Keyboard is nice to type on. However the Alien Command Center is a bit buggy sometime when starting the computer (missing Home & FX Tab form time to time). Had to close the ACC service and restart the Command Center. The track pad is nice and it lights up! Webcam was okay, although speaker is a bit distorted at high volume. not sure if wanted to call Dell to have a look at it. Battery life is around 2.5 hrs for my normal usage as the display is G-sync.

Gaming
The gaming experience is awesome. Didn't get to play many games. Played Dota 2 with max setting (Dx11), around 120 fps. Tomb Raider on 1080p max setting on the other hand is around max, 150fps, min 70fps and avg of 110 fps.

Thermal
This part is a bit disappointing. At first I didn't believe what they're saying in notebookreview forum. What they discussed is true. Playing Tomb Raider the system throttles on Core # 0, 2 & 4 with temp reach above 90 to even 100. While the other core are at 84 degree to 95 degree. Suspected an uneven heat sink to CPU die as mentioned by iunlock. Running Dell Stress test result in same temperature with max clock of 3.992Ghz.

Due to this temp, I contacted Dell yesterday (17/8/2018). They respond very quickly and will provide replacement parts (asked what part and they didn't reply) and wait for on site engineer to make an appointment. Bought myself Thermal grizzly Kryonaut to ask the engineer to use this instead. Edit: the replacement part is the heat sink.
Today i try undervolting the CPU using XTU. Undervolt to -0.05, Playing Tomb Raider the temperature barely hit 90 degree. Further undervolting to -0.100, resulting temp barely reaching 80 degree and maintain clock speed of 3.992 GHz.
I did accidentally overvolted to +0.100 and ran Tomb Raider. Will this damage the CPU? The system throttles to 3.82 Ghz.

Note: I always rise the laptop to allow airflow.

While in subject of clock, Tried overclocking the display. only manage to overclock until 67Hz, any higher will cause black screen.

Overall
Like the laptop and will keep it. The thermal is the only issue with this laptop. Hope the on site engineer will be able to fix it with the new parts. planning to do LM in the future. For now, ill utilize the on site support that come with this laptop. Will re-pasting with LM void warranty?

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Jul 18 2018, 09:06 PM

Afraid to damage the CPU or reduce its lifespan.

Bought at Shopee for Rm29 (1g). Rm 33 after shipping.

One thing to add, the palm rest has nice rubbery texture. However, it attracts oily/wet palm and cause it to stain. you can wipe with damp cloth to remove it, but it'll show some traces of the wiped area (my sensitive eye). Recommend putting dbrand skin. I Plan to put one on my laptop as well.

Count me in. Bet would look awesome with matte black.

Edit: Dbrand is selling for 25% only for today

I chose the same configuration with the RM 500 rebate as well. However opted with i7-8750h and gtx 1070. 8750h will provide a bit future proofing imo. cheaper 1080 60hz display for mobile gaming and can hook with 4k monitor if want to. besides, GTX 1100 series is coming out soon, can use amplifier to boost performance. So yeah, i opted 8750 for future proofing.

I dont bother upgrading SSD and ram that much as SSD wont add significant FPS to your gaming (faster loading time however), While 8gb is enough for gaming. If need more. I can always add this. Whereas, you cant upgrade then soldered CPIU & GPU.

That said, the i5 is more than capable handling the GTX1070 without bottle necking. However, Dell won't let you choose 1070 with the i5 and error on some confusing windows option.

Don't forget to ask Dell costumer service to give you quotation. Could safe you couple hundred more. I've save another RM 250 on mine

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Jul 21 2018, 09:08 PM

Already deducted. normal would be $50/set.

How's your thermal?

That laptop looks amazing!

Luckily for me Dell replaced my palmrest after the technician broke one of the snapping pin. The new palmrest still have transparent plastic to cover from palm wear, for now. Although still need dbrand skin for long term solution.

Wanna sell to me the other set?

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Aug 21 2018, 10:53 AM

Cool MOD. thinking of doing the same
My i7-8750h 15R4 didn't get any better after re pasting with Kryonaut. Guess the 6 core processor just runs hot. Thinking of contacting Dell again next month.

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Aug 21 2018, 10:54 AM

These are temps while playing Dota 2. Repasted with Kryonaut.







That's what I thought so. They change the heatsink once. and the heat isn't getting any better. Will report next again week.

Wow, that's really out of alignment. My unit fits perfectly with a small and even gap between left and right hinge.

How did you ask for the replacement unit?

D Brand have 15% sell on all skin. There's a new skin pattern as well.

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Sep 19 2018, 05:01 PM

Must be improper contact.

My laptop keep on doing hardware check (Fan check) every so often when i start my laptop. This been happening for last 2 weeks. Even after waking from hibernating, the hardware check will appear. Talked to the support and agree to replace fan, heatsink and motherboard. Today Dell 'engineer' came and replace heatsink and motherboard. Ran Rise of Tomb Raider bancmark, so far so good. Will continue testing.

What shocked me is how these so called engineer dont even bother to clean the old thermal paste on the GPU and CPU. 3 engineer so far. The first one just remove old heatsink and just slap in the replacement heat sink (WTF?). The 2nd didn't even bother until i ask him to clean the old one. The third engineer put thermal grizzly that i bought and didnt remove the stock thermal paste on the new replacement heatsink

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Sep 28 2018, 03:36 PM

Most 15R3 & 17R4 thermal can be solved by repasting. At least that's what i read in notebookreview forum.

What's your system spec and which bios version you're using?

Holy sh**. i was thinking of doing DIY water cooling mod. This is the answer!

Have you guys tried using UniLight? It's an application that syncs your window colour theme to your alienfx and Logitech peripherals. I tried on my 15R4 it manages to turn my logitech G502 mouse. But Alien FX wont turn.

My 15 R4 skin just arrived today. Took 2 hrs to assemble.

https://imgur.com/a/dKiUNQo

Thanks. This is not DBrand skin btw. Found in shopee for RM63 (+ post). Covers top bottom, inside and both sides. The glue is not crazy strong, so can reapply many times

Get yours here: Alienware Carbon Fiber Skin

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Oct 26 2018, 08:52 PM

My screen will do this from time to time. It won't display anything waking up after hibernation. Close the lid (it'll hibernate) and turning it back on again do the trick. Anyone experiencing the same thing?

I get this a lot. At a cafe, office and client's office. But god knows the thermal on this thing.

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Dec 12 2018, 10:08 AM

Indeed too big and heavy. Even when the Light FX is off, it still attracts attention. Planning to get Microsoft Surface Go for mobile use.

Talking about Light FX, have anyone tried the Unilight program by HunterZ? https://github.com/HunterZ/UniLight. I Own Logitech G502 mouse and the program syncs Windows colour theme with the RGB mouse perfectly. But the Alien Light FX doesn't seem to be changing. Installed ACC V 5.2.17.0 on my machine.

This post has been edited by Zelz92: Dec 14 2018, 04:32 PM