Yes, I had read reviews and had watched videos about AW M15, particularly Dave2D's video, and I knew that the thermals are not that great, but I never expected 75° just on idle with nothing in background and 107° while playing games and even blue screens. The other reason that I thought I could trust the brand was because my first gaming laptop that I received as a gift was AW 15x which I got in 2010 and I had it for 8 years and I was kind of satisfied with it. Although even that gave me trouble, but was tolerable. I hope this answers your question.
i've got the m15 and with undervolt 125 mv and repaste I get 76 degrees on a cooling pad playing COD MW ... i think if they replaced yours 4 times, it's probably not the laptop, specially if they gave you the max spec and it still wasn't good enough.
Your words speak for themselves. You say you've done -125 undervolt + repaste which requires opening a nearly CAD $3000 machine that you just received from the factory and expect to work. This could cause damage, even for professionals, let a lone me who have no idea of hardware. You also are saying that you have a cooling pad which is against the idea of portability. After all of these, not to mention the cost of doing all of these and the frustration that you can get as a loyal customer who expects to open the box and just be able to enjoy a new machine. The reason that they replaced it 4 times was exactly due to the laptop. Bro, when you spend this much, you should expect top notch quality and longevity. If I have 70-75 degrees just on idle, it doesn't matter to have 16 GB RAM or 32, an 8th gen or 9th gen cpu, 2.4 or 4 Ghz clock speed; because the system will not remain with me for a long time that way and I'll have to deal with a melted motherboard within a year.
Everything that you mentioned, plus a lot of other things including windows hello, I have with my Mag-15, right out of the box with at least CAD $800 cheaper price.
Please let us know your configuration so that we can have a fair comparison.
the cooling pad dropped the temps 20 degrees while gaming, the undervolt and repaste was another 5 tops, so you don't have to open your machine if you don't want to.
congrats on getting the laptop you want, but your experience is anecdotal at best.
Also for the record, the type of table, the monitoring software, the room temp and the cooling pad are all important. I always use HWiNFO for monitoring and AIDA64 for testing. Dell's own Command Centre is literally a liar that never exceeds 100 degrees.
Yes, you are right. This is an anecdote repeated by others. You didn't mention which generation you have? M15 R1 or R2 or R3? I'm not sure if the heat problem is solved in R3 though. You also didn't mention how much you paid. I think Jarrod's tech has the best reviews out there in terms of honesty and professionalism. Others like Tally Ho Tech are also good. So looking at their reviews of M15 R3 could give someone a deeper understanding. And by the way, you actually are the first one that says cooling pad worked for you. At that time that I bought my machine, everybody were saying it doesn't do that much. Please don't forget, if you would like to answer, be specific and talk about cost and full configuration; because these are going to be remained on the Internet for people to see and decide.
I have the m15 r1. It has an i7-9750H, 16 GB ram, 512 GB SSD, and the RTX 2060. i paid 2200 cad. 1700 usd.
when i first bought it i had the same concerns as you. i was playing with it flat on the table and it wasnt getting enough air to cool down. the processor was spiking to a 100 degrees and running at 98 during gaming and the graphics card was running 89 degrees. i bought the thermaltake 200 mm cooling pad and the processor ran at 85 and the graphics card 76. then i changed the thermal paste to kingpin cooling thermal paste and undervolted it and now when i am gaming it runs at 79 degrees on the processor and 72-74 degrees on the graphics card.
i also added 1 tb ssd for the second slot and also changed the ram to a set of 32 gb cards.
Interesting. At the time of this discussion, 06-17-2020, I checked the price of M15 R1 with the exact same specs as mine, i.e 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD, i7-9750H, GTX 1660Ti, which is on sale and reduced from CAD $2,299 to CAD $1,999 before tax, still is going to be CAD $164 more expensive than mine after tax. Not to mention that it does not come with Windows Hello and a powerful 93Wh battery. And again, this is their off price. When I bought mine, it used to be even more.
But anyways, if you are happy with your device that's fine and congrats as well, but for me, I am neither willing to open a brand new $2,000 machine to do a repaste, nor have the knowledge to do so. I have the same 43-45 degrees on idle like you do, but without the cooling pad and repaste and -125 undervolt. Mine comes with -50 undervolt, though. Not to mention that this record was done in best performance mode, which is the ultimate power that windows allows to go to cpu and thus, the hottest temperatures are usually recorded in this mode.
I think what we have in common here is that we both love our new machines. Not to mention that I was once a fan of AW. But what we have in deference is that you are comfortable doing repaste, putting a cooling fan, doing a lot of undervolt (-125 gave me blue screens in my AW m15 R1 and be aware that undervolting reduces clock speed and thus, reducing performance.) and spending extra cash. I believe all of these will defeat the purpose of user experience. If I wanted to do those, I would go with a desktop, but not a laptop that is supposed to be thin and light and portable.
Yes, when I used something like a book to lift the back of my AW M15 for 10-15 cms from the table, I could reduce nearly 10-12 degrees, from say 106 to 95 degrees, but that to me was like a big flaw in engeeniring. Why should I do that? Not to mention that the last one they gave me with everything topped up, I was not able to play Battlefield v with DXR or ray trace mode ON and I had to turn it Off because of a lot of reduction in FPS, to the point of getting blue screens. The whole point of RTX 2080MQ is this ray tracing.
As I mentioned, please do not use Dell's own monitoring software. It is not accurate. Use HWiNFO. You can download it here for free. Here is a screen shot of mine after torturing the Mag-15 in any ways that you can imagine, for nearly 20 hours upon arrival! Also, please mention which mode you did this screenshot, because mine was and is always in Best Performance mode.
The one that you see in the very right is HWiNFO after nearly 20 hours of constant torture!
DankCool
5 Posts
1
June 15th, 2020 01:00
Just curious did you read any reviews before buying the Alienware M15 in the first place?
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
1
June 15th, 2020 12:00
Yes, I had read reviews and had watched videos about AW M15, particularly Dave2D's video, and I knew that the thermals are not that great, but I never expected 75° just on idle with nothing in background and 107° while playing games and even blue screens. The other reason that I thought I could trust the brand was because my first gaming laptop that I received as a gift was AW 15x which I got in 2010 and I had it for 8 years and I was kind of satisfied with it. Although even that gave me trouble, but was tolerable. I hope this answers your question.
Cephas142
8 Posts
1
June 15th, 2020 22:00
i've got the m15 and with undervolt 125 mv and repaste I get 76 degrees on a cooling pad playing COD MW ... i think if they replaced yours 4 times, it's probably not the laptop, specially if they gave you the max spec and it still wasn't good enough.
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
0
June 16th, 2020 19:00
Your words speak for themselves. You say you've done -125 undervolt + repaste which requires opening a nearly CAD $3000 machine that you just received from the factory and expect to work. This could cause damage, even for professionals, let a lone me who have no idea of hardware. You also are saying that you have a cooling pad which is against the idea of portability. After all of these, not to mention the cost of doing all of these and the frustration that you can get as a loyal customer who expects to open the box and just be able to enjoy a new machine. The reason that they replaced it 4 times was exactly due to the laptop. Bro, when you spend this much, you should expect top notch quality and longevity. If I have 70-75 degrees just on idle, it doesn't matter to have 16 GB RAM or 32, an 8th gen or 9th gen cpu, 2.4 or 4 Ghz clock speed; because the system will not remain with me for a long time that way and I'll have to deal with a melted motherboard within a year.
Everything that you mentioned, plus a lot of other things including windows hello, I have with my Mag-15, right out of the box with at least CAD $800 cheaper price.
Please let us know your configuration so that we can have a fair comparison.
Cephas142
8 Posts
1
June 16th, 2020 20:00
i7-9750
RTX 2060
the cooling pad dropped the temps 20 degrees while gaming, the undervolt and repaste was another 5 tops, so you don't have to open your machine if you don't want to.
congrats on getting the laptop you want, but your experience is anecdotal at best.
Cephas142
8 Posts
0
June 16th, 2020 21:00
for the record, mine idles at 45 degrees out the box.
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
0
June 16th, 2020 23:00
Also for the record, the type of table, the monitoring software, the room temp and the cooling pad are all important. I always use HWiNFO for monitoring and AIDA64 for testing. Dell's own Command Centre is literally a liar that never exceeds 100 degrees.
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
0
June 16th, 2020 23:00
Yes, you are right. This is an anecdote repeated by others. You didn't mention which generation you have? M15 R1 or R2 or R3? I'm not sure if the heat problem is solved in R3 though. You also didn't mention how much you paid. I think Jarrod's tech has the best reviews out there in terms of honesty and professionalism. Others like Tally Ho Tech are also good. So looking at their reviews of M15 R3 could give someone a deeper understanding. And by the way, you actually are the first one that says cooling pad worked for you. At that time that I bought my machine, everybody were saying it doesn't do that much. Please don't forget, if you would like to answer, be specific and talk about cost and full configuration; because these are going to be remained on the Internet for people to see and decide.
Cephas142
8 Posts
0
June 17th, 2020 10:00
Cephas142
8 Posts
0
June 17th, 2020 10:00
I have the m15 r1. It has an i7-9750H, 16 GB ram, 512 GB SSD, and the RTX 2060. i paid 2200 cad. 1700 usd.
when i first bought it i had the same concerns as you. i was playing with it flat on the table and it wasnt getting enough air to cool down. the processor was spiking to a 100 degrees and running at 98 during gaming and the graphics card was running 89 degrees. i bought the thermaltake 200 mm cooling pad and the processor ran at 85 and the graphics card 76. then i changed the thermal paste to kingpin cooling thermal paste and undervolted it and now when i am gaming it runs at 79 degrees on the processor and 72-74 degrees on the graphics card.
i also added 1 tb ssd for the second slot and also changed the ram to a set of 32 gb cards.
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
0
June 17th, 2020 15:00
Interesting. At the time of this discussion, 06-17-2020, I checked the price of M15 R1 with the exact same specs as mine, i.e 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD, i7-9750H, GTX 1660Ti, which is on sale and reduced from CAD $2,299 to CAD $1,999 before tax, still is going to be CAD $164 more expensive than mine after tax. Not to mention that it does not come with Windows Hello and a powerful 93Wh battery. And again, this is their off price. When I bought mine, it used to be even more.
But anyways, if you are happy with your device that's fine and congrats as well, but for me, I am neither willing to open a brand new $2,000 machine to do a repaste, nor have the knowledge to do so. I have the same 43-45 degrees on idle like you do, but without the cooling pad and repaste and -125 undervolt. Mine comes with -50 undervolt, though. Not to mention that this record was done in best performance mode, which is the ultimate power that windows allows to go to cpu and thus, the hottest temperatures are usually recorded in this mode.
I think what we have in common here is that we both love our new machines. Not to mention that I was once a fan of AW. But what we have in deference is that you are comfortable doing repaste, putting a cooling fan, doing a lot of undervolt (-125 gave me blue screens in my AW m15 R1 and be aware that undervolting reduces clock speed and thus, reducing performance.) and spending extra cash. I believe all of these will defeat the purpose of user experience. If I wanted to do those, I would go with a desktop, but not a laptop that is supposed to be thin and light and portable.
Yes, when I used something like a book to lift the back of my AW M15 for 10-15 cms from the table, I could reduce nearly 10-12 degrees, from say 106 to 95 degrees, but that to me was like a big flaw in engeeniring. Why should I do that? Not to mention that the last one they gave me with everything topped up, I was not able to play Battlefield v with DXR or ray trace mode ON and I had to turn it Off because of a lot of reduction in FPS, to the point of getting blue screens. The whole point of RTX 2080MQ is this ray tracing.
Poorya0014
1 Rookie
•
44 Posts
0
June 17th, 2020 16:00
As I mentioned, please do not use Dell's own monitoring software. It is not accurate. Use HWiNFO. You can download it here for free. Here is a screen shot of mine after torturing the Mag-15 in any ways that you can imagine, for nearly 20 hours upon arrival! Also, please mention which mode you did this screenshot, because mine was and is always in Best Performance mode.