Alienware R10

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crosscourt
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Alienware R10

Post by crosscourt »

Just bought one for $550 new. It doesnt have a gpu but I just ordered a RX6600 and a 2TB NVMe ssd. It comes with 8gb of ram but I already have 32gb to use, 1tb hdd with Win10. It has the Ryzen 5600x processor which is perfect as its will run quieter with air cooling versus the 5900X that really needs liquid cooling. The system has a 750w psu and some really nice Alienware software for controlling aspects of the system.Between the GPU and the 5600x Ill average aroun 80-120fps more than Im currently getting with my present system in most games. I run 1080P most of the time so I wont have any slowdown issues anymore. Should be here on Friday.
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crosscourt
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Re: Alienware R10

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System came in today and what a wild looking system. Ryzen 5600X, 32gb ddr4 3200 ram, 1tb HD, 14 USB ports, 1 M.2 NVMe slot, 2 2.5 ssd slots.
Im waiting for my 2tb NVMe ssd and the Radeon RX6600 video card. The case is easy to open and the psu is on a cage that pulls away from the case giving you access to the system, Motherboard is a microatx with one 120mm fan in the front, one 120mm fan in the top of the case and a conventional cpu air cooler. Many have had issues with heat retention and claim the fans are too noisy. The 5600x and the RX6600 dont run that hot so I doubt the fans will have issues. I can always pull the 1tb HD and remove its cage and add another fan in that location. Many opt for the optional liquid cooling, but my only experience with liquid cooling ended up with a leak from a hose and a shorted board. I think between extra fans, better designed fans or better cpu cooler I can solve that assuming its actually a problem. Fan noise in high end systems, particularly in internally small cases is always a challenge. Gaming creates a lot of heat and the noise is nothing new to gamers.
Ill post back once I get it up and running.
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Re: Alienware R10

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Cloned the HD to my NVMe ssd and ran into issues as it would not boot properly. Had to do a redo of the drive using the backup and everything was fine.
Dell defaults to the Raid mode even with a single drive and Ive always had issues when cloning drives such as happened with my old Ryzen system.
Last time I eventually ended up reinstalling the system with AHCI but this time around, performance looks fine so Ill keep the install for now. Already had to do it once and the safe boot method isnt a sure thing so dont want to mess with trying to change from Raid mode when Ive got a working system.
Performance is amazing as everything is so quick. The RX6600 was a bear to install as they dont give you much room and the video card brace wouldnt fit with this video card. May have to massage it some but the card doesnt appear to be having any sagging issues so far. NVMe scores were comparable to my former drive in AHCI. The bios includes the ability to overclock and optimize the system. The Alienware command center has additional tweaks and monitoring of the system.
So much for all the bad mouthing for air cooling as my system as is running at idle between 35-40C and while doing a lot of updating and copying, it never got over 65-68C. Ill be trying it in gaming today and we will see of the aircraft engine sound from the fans shows up. Given the unique shape of the case, it offers a lot of space to reach the hardware its just not a large case. It can use up to 4 drives with one 3.5, two 2.5 and one m.2 2280 slot. The [su on a swivel isnt a problem and in fact is a standard ATX psu, so you can swap it out. Newer Alienware are now using proprietary psus that are smaller an oddly shaped even though it does open up the case.
I like the style of the case overall but it does have some challenges. Given the state of the market right now, if you want to get certain components at a decent price, this is your only recourse. I paid $549 for the system without a gpu and one stick of 8gb ram. I ordered a RX6600 for $329, I already had 4 sticks of 8gb ram and already ordered the 2tb NVMe drive. If you were looking for an upscale gpu you wouldnt have found one at msrp like I did with the less performing RX6600.
The backup and restore software from Alienware was flawless and makes me feel a bit better overall. The initial overall experience was a bit daunting given the situation, but overall its a great system.
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Re: Alienware R10

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Seems like you've got a pretty good set up there! I haven't used my desktop in a while now as it consumes quite a bit of power ( the reason i bought my new laptop ) I've seen some reviews for gaming with the RX6600 and it does perform well, happy gaming :D
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Re: Alienware R10

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For 1080P use its an amazing video card. My cataracts prevent me from using higher resolutions at the moment. Playing Mechwarrior Online last night was interesting given my vision issues but I did pretty well. I was top of the line years ago but things change as you get older. This system isnt as thirsty as many are as I tend to go for conservative setups, but given its performance Im really happy.
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Re: Alienware R10

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Gees, amazed at the frame rates. Depending on what weapons and level Im on, fps has been running between 160-254fps. This is with maxed out graphics settings. You could definitely use this setup at 1440P but at 1080P it can play anything. Pulled out the hard drive cage and added a 120mm fan with some sticky auto tape and temps have been really good with no noisy fans. Not sure though why Dell defaults to Raid mode instead of AHCI. It caused some major issues when I tried to clone the original drive. After that Im afraid to boot into safe mode and try changing to AHCI as I dont want to have to redo the install. Its happened once before.
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Re: Alienware R10

Post by dai_trying »

Switching to AHCI is among the first things I do when I get a new (to me) machine, I have had problems in the past with raid mode and so now it's something I check. Personally I can't see any reason a "normal user" would want raid mode, I have only used it on servers (and only very minimal experience of it too) so I would think manufacturers would default to AHCI mode for personal systems.

Your frame rates are good but do you really use them? I always set them to the max that my screen will allow, which has been 60Hz for the most part. The only screen that is better is my laptop with 144Hz. I would have thought using a higher rate would simply be pushing the graphics card for no gain as you can only get the screen max's frames displayed. But maybe I'm not that knowledgeable in this field as again not too much experience to go on.
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Re: Alienware R10

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The problem is Dell preinstalled Win10 on a drive with raid mode. I had to clone from that drive so I couldnt just set AHCI without having problems. Ive done the safe mode switch but a few times its had issues and I dont want to chance an issue with such a large install. If you want to run Linux youll need AHCI as there arent any drivers for the Intel rapid storage controller for Linux. If you run a single drive raid mode really isnt an issue and theres almost no performance increase.

About framerates, its about keeping the average fps at a level where you dont get lags and slowdowns with full effects. Mech 5 isnt a super demanding game but Doom for instance from 2016 is very demanding and thats where having all that overhead really helps keep the fps up. If you run with no vsync and in my case I run at 75hz my framerate can go much higher easily. The video card though doesnt strain all the time as it adjusts to the demands and measures what it needs to do. Some games though are more cpu bound and others gpu bound so the situation varies with the game,hardware and settings used. In my case Im using Freesync designed by AMD(also supported by my Dell monitor) which is an adaptive no vsync feature that helps prevent tearing.
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Re: Alienware R10

Post by dai_trying »

I guess that explains why I always change to AHCI as I've only really started using Windows again recently.

I still don't get the framerate thing, to my mind if the monitor/screen can only display say 75fps(Hz) but the graphics card/chip is rendering up to 250fps it would appear to me the graphics are producing up to 175 frames that cannot be shown on the screen and therefore wasting resources...
But like I say I haven't been gaming long and only really play one game so it isn't an issue or something I'll lose sleep over :D
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Re: Alienware R10

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I play some games that have a wide range of fps. At times the fps is above 200 but then a lot of enemies and effects are used and it dips far lower. Other games that are more demanding I may only get 100fps at the top end and maybe 50fps on the low end. The numbers I gave you are the top end Im getting with my system but the frame rate varies wildly with the action in the game and the type of game your playing. If I ran the same game instead of at 1080P at 1440P those frame rates would be cut in half. Your system only performs as well as it can based on the game, settings and resolution. If I use vsync my fps would be capped at 75fps but the game may be very demanding and thus the average fps could drop int o the 30fps range. Its all about maintaining a good average frame rate and preventing input lag. Your not hurting your hardware running at 200+fps as in reality thats an indication that the game is not demanding and the system is having an easy time running it. Noone needs more than 60fps in fact but given that fps is dynamic and changes constantly with the demands of the game, its better to be able to run games at much higher fps to avoid issues.
The higher the fps you can attain the less stuttering and input lag youll see which is valuable when youre playng games in particular that have fast action,twitchy type of gameplay. The game in all aspects seems smoother and you can some benefits from a higher rendering processing.
Same game with vsync on even with 60fps may still seem a bit laggy and stuttering or slowdowns can occur. So yes in fact my monitor cant go over 75fps itself but the speed of rendering has speed up hugely and has beneficial affects on top of making sure fps dont drop below 75fps,
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