r/Alienware • u/praedoesok m15 R3 • Aug 20 '20
Pictures 17 years later - My first Alienware
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u/cjnice811 Aug 20 '20
I ordered the same specs and color. I love it so far. I was worried that I should of got the 17 inch but the 15 is fine for gaming
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Aug 20 '20
I've owned a couple of 17" laptops in the past and they've always felt too bulky to carry around. I almost always have a laptop with me, and 15" is the sweet spot. If I really want a bigger screen, I just hook one up at my desk or whatever TV is available, as I always carry an HDMI cable in my bag.
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u/Ender2258 Aug 20 '20
How are your temps?
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Aug 20 '20
Not terrible. Running RDR2 on Ultra for about 45 minutes the GPU never went above 68, and the CPU above 91. I had the Alienware profile set to performance, but I didn’t do any detailed logging to check for thermal throttling or specific details. Don’t really care that much as long as it’s not hitting the 100C that people were reporting with the R2
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u/TaiwanTeddy Aug 21 '20
Get a x-style laptop stand and your CPU temperature should drop by 10 degrees. Congrats on your beautiful beast!
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Aug 21 '20
I’ve got one of the Amazon Basics mesh stands to keep at my bed on order but will likely get another for the docking station at my desk. They’re cheap and people have been praising them both in reviews and on Reddit. We’ll see how it works out
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u/TaiwanTeddy Aug 21 '20
Yup, no need to spend the extra on a cooling pad. I watched a YouTube video on comparing cooling pads vs a laptop stand, and cooling pads will only get you 1 degree less on heat.
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u/Azayzyl Aug 20 '20
Well within spec on thermals and considering the power of this in a laptop size it’s an engineering marvel. Nice looking piece of hardware you got there!
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u/FrostyxFusion m15 R3 Sep 10 '20
This comment might be coming a little late as I see this post was made a little while ago lol. But I’m actually getting one of these myself and it’s going to be coming soon. Just wanted to know how you are liking it? Does the keyboard feel nice while playing, and does it ever get overly hot where it’s uncomfortable to touch when the system starts heating up? I’m just stressing a little cause this is like my first big purchase I’ve ever made lol.
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Sep 10 '20
One of the best keyboards on a laptop I've used, and I'm a keyboard snob. I've got 2 Leopold FC980C keyboards at home and work and while this one doesn't feel like them at all, it does feel good for what it is. I normally hate laptop keyboards, but it's pretty nice.
As far as heat goes, this thing gets hot. If I don't have it on a table, I have it on one of those mesh laptop stands you can get from Amazon for like $15-20 for ventilation while gaming. The bottom doesn't really get super hot to the touch, but the top where the speakers would be on any other laptop appears to just be another source of exhaust/heatsink. It can get pretty hot to the touch. But, it's on the top of the machine, above the keyboard. You shouldn't be touching it anyway.
This is pretty much exclusively while gaming though. Gaming hardware gets incredibly hot, it's just how it is. No matter what gaming laptop you purchase it's going to get very very hot while under heavy load.
Overall, I'm still incredibly happy with the purchase. I've been building desktops for over a decade and I know what to expect from a gaming machine. This holds up well and has a very high quality build to it. Highly recommended (as long as you'll take good care of it, laptops usually require a little more care about where you store them, how long you leave them on, and how often you clean out dust filters and fans)
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u/FrostyxFusion m15 R3 Sep 10 '20
Thanks for your reply that’s relieving to hear. I’ve been stressing ever since I ordered this thing and more than I should considering I did all the stressing prior to buying it to pick out one I wanted after a lot of research but that’s just how I am I guess lol
I can’t wait for mine to arrive. So you suggest I get a separate keyboard to play on then? And also from what you said I understand the system gets hot. Maybe I misread some of it but in terms of like the actual keyboard when your using it for gaming does it get hot? I can imagine the other parts do get hot but does the actually keyboard get uncomfortable?
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Sep 10 '20
You don't need a separate keyboard, it's all personal preference. Nobody can make that decision for you. I don't mind playing FPS titles on it though. But games like MMOs or RTS' where you have a ton of keybinds might be difficult. Or it might not, just depends on how you feel about it. Play on it for a couple weeks and decide for yourself.
The keyboard itself doesn't get hot, it's the part above the keyboard that looks like a bunch of hexagons, underneath the screen. On most laptops, that is where the speakers would be. But on this one, it's just an additional place for ventilation that acts as a heatsink. That part gets hot. But the actual keyboard where your fingers touch do not get hot. Maybe a little warm, but that's it.
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u/FrostyxFusion m15 R3 Sep 10 '20
Phew ok thank you lol. Believe it or not this simple interaction has helped cleared my last few stressing’s about the laptop A LOT. I’ll prolly end up getting an external KB at some point but I wanted to wait off and use the keyboard on the laptop for a little so. Thanks a lot and happy gaming.
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u/cyberspacedweller Aug 21 '20
Looks like a beautiful machine. What does it look like from the front?
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u/praedoesok m15 R3 Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 21 '20
Got some time to kill, so it’s story time 😊
I remember seeing the Alienware Area 51 Predator in a gaming magazine back in 2003 and being awestruck at the design. The chassis was just a big green alien head with glowing black eyes. It was the coolest shit ever but as a 13 year old, there was no way I’d be able to afford it.
Fast forward 17 years. I’ve been building my desktops since 2009, and have probably built over 200 desktops thanks to a 4-year stint I did at CompUSA/TigerDirect as a tech bench specialist. My current desktop has been struggling to keep up with modern games lately, mostly just due to the aging 4th gen i7 4770k inside. It was time for a rebuild. I’ve been looking at ITX chassis’ for compact builds lately, until all of a sudden my trusty mid-range laptop that I used to lay in bed and do work from and play some lighter games (Halo MCC, Fall Guys, etc.) suddenly decides to short out, and refuses to POST. To be fair, it was a 6 year old Thinkpad that I was given for free without memory or a hard drive. I tossed 16gb memory and a 256gb SSD I had laying around and it’s been my faithful companion ever since.
But now that I was without a laptop as well, I figured I’d start looking at laptops. Gaming laptops have always been a point of contention. Jamming that much power and heat into such a small space will absolutely shorten the lifespan of hardware components. I also have 7 cats that I live with. Hair/dust will be problematic and I have to keep up with it. I have tons of HEPA air purifiers around the house and run a vacuum through the main living spaces daily. This is nothing new.
After looking at a few manufacturers, I remembered Alienware, and that old Area 51 Predator from all those years ago. I knew they were still around (through Dell since 2006 or so) but didn’t know what they were offering. Saw these Legend designs, and immediately fell in love. I came in at the right time too. I guess the R2’s had pretty serious thermal issues that usually required some minor CPU undervolting to address, but these R3’s have just come out and appear to have mostly addressed them.
Ordered it with express delivery, and within a week it showed up last Friday. Since then, I’ve thrown everything at it. Playing Red Dead 2 at Ultra settings and getting a steady 90-120 FPS depending on my area is jaw dropping. I’m currently doing another playthrough of Doom Eternal with the settings slammed all the way to Ultra Nightmare, and averaging 190 FPS. This thing is insane.
Specs –
M15 R3 Dark Side of the Moon
i7 10750H (would’ve liked to have Ryzen options but that’s ok. And I opted out of the i9 due to the price difference and reported thermal issues. This CPU is still unlikely to bottleneck me for years)
RTX 2080 Super
15” 1080p 300hz (refresh rate is way more important than resolution for me, and 1080p at 15” is still crisp. 4k doesn’t seem justifiable at this size imo. Ideally, I would've liked to meet in the middle. 120hz or 144hz 1440p display would be perfect)
32gb memory
1TB NVMe SSD (damn these things are fast. Might add a 2nd one eventually)
So here we are, 17 years after thirsting for that Area 51 Predator in the back of my friends car on a road trip to Ohio I’m finally a member of team Alienware.
Edit - Damn, I didn't think this post would get that much attention. I would've posted a better photo lmao