Alienware 15 R3 Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

The aliens are back. We did not have the chance to review the first edition of the Alienware 15 R3 (Skylake + Pascal), but we can finally have a look at the promising gaming notebook with the Kaby Lake update. How does the 15-inch system hold up against the competition?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-15-R3-Notebook-Review.196584.0.html

[arok]

There has been some controversy around the cooling on the 15r3.  A dell representative on reddit said these problems(poor heatsink seating and thermal paste issues)  were addressed in January.  How old is the review sample?

[Papusan]

This is not a bug on your test model (uneven core temp and overheating). It's by design!! Dellienware designed the CPU heatsink for the latest AwBook models with 3 legs aka the wellknown Tripod cpu heatsink. These CPU overheating problems were promised fixed early December said by Alienware's ceo Mr. Azor. Now we're halfway through February. Not much has happened from Dell. All of the AW BGA Echo models released, as early as 2015 are all crippled in some way. Alienware is now Dell. Can't recognize this brand anymore. Sadly.
Still havent Dellienware fixed the flawed first AW BGA model from early 2015. A lot of them have massive throttling aka 799MHz clock speed in fully load.

[Gary]

86,, Seriously!  for a 4.5kg, hot, noisy, childish looking notebook...  when the competition has thinner lighter, cheaper and as capable notebooks... I suggest your reviewer go to user forums to read their feedback... as already commented here...  same problem you had with your recent Razor review..

[ThePerfectStorm]

Totally agree with Papusan. This laptop's CPU cooling is crippled.

[sdf]

Worth upgrading from a AWr2 980m 4k 512/1tb model?

[Eng. Mohammed Bhram]

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=FW3GM&fileId=3600557245&osCode=WT64A&productCode=alienware-15-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

this link contain the Update that fix one of the main issue you mention in review

Fixes & Enhancements
1. Graphic performance enhancement.
2.Type C USB devices compatibility improvement.
3.Wireless LAN performance improvement.
4.CPU power consummation improvement.

I Hope from notebookcheck if they update the tested alienware with this bios update to update the review with last improvement .

I would like to mention also and update in review that there is models with 7820HK
below the link
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-15-laptop/dkcwkblf077s

[gc]

s/R9 470/ RX 470/ (not Bonaire, but Polaris)

The early uneven CPU cooling heatpipe seating problem was at least partly due to some wrong thickness thermal pads on components adjacent to the CPU.  Sad to see this still occurring on Kaby Lake models.  Seems like someone at the factory isn't carefully distinguishing the thermal pads by thickness.  Maybe they need to make them different color or something to help factory workers tell the difference.  (Or if they are placed by machine, the machine needs a sensor to detect whether it was loaded with incorrect thickness pads.)

[MOFO]

I almost ordered one of these but didn't after reading nothing but complaints from owners, it's sad to see a once great laptop producer like AW now make average performing loud and expensive laptops.
Personally I like the look and solid build quality of these new AW's but with still uneven and high CPU core temps ( that they said they fixed but apparently not ).
Good thing my order was delayed twice for some unknown reason.

[henkhilti]

There is definitely something wrong with the cpu cooler on this one.
More than 10°C difference in the cores and throttling. That is no good.

It is throttling (below it's base frequency of 2.8GHz) in Battlefield 1 and in the stresstest?

Why do you write: "Our stress test was executed with a decent clock of 2.6 GHz."
How is that decent when the base clock of a i7-7700HQ is 2.8GHz?

Maybe you need to revise the stresstest since battlefield 1 makes the CPU and GPU warmer than your stresstest.

The problem with Furmark is that the GPUs don't run at full speed because it is detected by the graphics driver, which in turn slows the GPU down.
The problem with Prime is that it loads the cpu unrealistically (especially newer than v27.x) and there is no processing time left for Furmark.

[ulrich]

I have just recieved my Alienware 15 r3, 16gb ram skylake 6700HQ and with Nvidia gtx 1060 6gb ram. It can handle anything i throw at it at max settings, after playing witcher 3 for a Whole night my max temp was 82celcius and average 75clecius, stresstest 2x10minutes on XTU brought that up to 87celcius. it is a dream machine, sturdy wellbuilt and feels very high end, not the cheap plastic in Asus and Msi computers these days. I looked at this machine for a long time before i bought it, i read all the reviews and listened to all the critique about it, when they promised (Alienware/Dell) that they would solve the problem i february i bought one, not one problem of the ones reported, it is not undervolted or have new thermal paste on it. The only problem i have with this machine is that i could easily do with 2 more usb C ports, but i will cope. Thank You Alienware for making such a beauty.

[justOrderedIt]

Can you cross check the contrast of 120 Hz TN panel? You state 990:1 and I found in other review only 420:1. Huge difference...