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expired Posted by Grumblez • Jul 1, 2021
expired Posted by Grumblez • Jul 1, 2021

Alienware M15 R5 Laptop: Ryzen R7 5800H, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, RTX 3060

w/ Dell Preferred Account Financing + Free S/H + 2.5% SD Cashback

$1,180

$1,600

26% off
Dell Technologies
220 Comments 97,978 Views
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Deal Details
Dell Home & Office has Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 Laptop on sale for $1179.99 when you checkout with Dell Preferred Account as your method of payment. Additionally, earn 2.5% in Slickdeals Cashback before purchase when you follow the cashback instructions below (PC extension required, before checkout). Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member Grumblez for finding this deal.

Note: You must select "Financing" as your payment method in Checkout. Discounted pricing will be reflected on the Verify & Submit page, where you may confirm your order.

Specs:
  • AMD Ryzen R7 5800H 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor
  • 15.6" 1920x1080 165Hz 3ms with ComfortView Plus Display
  • 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory
  • 256GB PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Video Card
  • Color: Dark Side of the Moon with High Endurance Clear Coat and Silky Smooth Finish
  • Mechanical Backlit Keyboard
  • Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 802.11ax 2x2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
  • Windows 10-Home 64-Bit (Free upgrade to Windows 11 when available)
  • Ports
    • 3x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
    • 1x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
    • 1x HDMI 2.1
  • Weight: 5.93 lbs
  • 6-Cell 86WHr Battery

Editor's Notes

Written by slickdewmaster | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • Please refer to the forum thread for additional details & discussion. -StrawMan86

Original Post

Written by Grumblez
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Dell Home & Office has Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 Laptop on sale for $1179.99 when you checkout with Dell Preferred Account as your method of payment. Additionally, earn 2.5% in Slickdeals Cashback before purchase when you follow the cashback instructions below (PC extension required, before checkout). Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member Grumblez for finding this deal.

Note: You must select "Financing" as your payment method in Checkout. Discounted pricing will be reflected on the Verify & Submit page, where you may confirm your order.

Specs:
  • AMD Ryzen R7 5800H 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor
  • 15.6" 1920x1080 165Hz 3ms with ComfortView Plus Display
  • 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory
  • 256GB PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Video Card
  • Color: Dark Side of the Moon with High Endurance Clear Coat and Silky Smooth Finish
  • Mechanical Backlit Keyboard
  • Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 802.11ax 2x2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
  • Windows 10-Home 64-Bit (Free upgrade to Windows 11 when available)
  • Ports
    • 3x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
    • 1x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
    • 1x HDMI 2.1
  • Weight: 5.93 lbs
  • 6-Cell 86WHr Battery

Editor's Notes

Written by slickdewmaster | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • Please refer to the forum thread for additional details & discussion. -StrawMan86

Original Post

Written by Grumblez

Community Voting

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Top Comments

jonjonk
152 Posts
41 Reputation
this is actually a incredible deal. Almost as good of a deal as the walmart legion 5 pro. You can easily just add another HDD stick, and have the 256 drive act as the OS drive.

edit: only thing you need to keep in mind with the m15r5 is the build quality and ease of access for repasting. The mobo is upside down, so it is incredibly difficult to repaste the cpu, as you will need to take the mobo out to repaste.

edit 2: this is a better deal than the legion 5 pro base model 2060 and 2tb of storage on Lenovo's official website for $1500. You can use the $321 difference to easily upgrade your HDD to 2TB and still have money left over.
Solandri
1311 Posts
1752 Reputation
The need for a MUX switch is actually pretty niche. Nvidia Optimus (dual Nvidia + Intel GPU) work by having the Intel graphics in control of the screen 100% of the time. The Nvidia GPU acts as a co-processor. When you run a game which you assign to use the Nvidia instead of Intel GPU, it draws a frame on the Nvidia GPU, then passes that completed frame to the Intel graphics for display. The Intel graphics always handles the screen drawing. That's how Optimus is able to run multiple programs simultaneously, some using the Intel and others using the Nvidia GPUs. You get the low-power consumption of the Intel graphics all the time, with the higher power consumption of the Nvidia GPU only when a program needs it. 99% of users will be fine running this way.

Having the Intel GPU always in control of the screen has two drawbacks.

V-sync is essentially always on. The Nvidia GPU's draw buffer essentially acts like a v-sync buffer, with completed frames passed to the Intel GPU for display. This adds a small amount of lag, and reduces framerate slightly, but eliminates tearing, just like v-sync. They may have tweaked this slightly when Intel added variable framerate support.
Certain old and poorly-coded newer games assume your computer only has one GPU. It searches your hardware for a GPU, and stops searching when it finds the first one. This will be the Intel graphics since it's connected to the screen. These games cannot use the Nvidia GPU at all because of the way they're coded.
Older Intel graphics couldn't handle some of the higher resolutions, higher framerates, nor adaptive framerates like Freesync like Nvidia and AMD GPUs could. This is pretty much a non-issue with modern Intel graphics, so I've struck it off the list.


A MUX switch lets you disable the Intel graphics, putting the Nvidia GPU in control of the screen. The Nvidia GPU ends up running 100% of the time so you get higher power consumption. But it gives you back the ability to turn v-sync off (at the cost of tearing), giving you a slight fps boost and less lag. And it will allow those old/poorly-coded games to use the Nvidia GPU, since there is no longer an Intel GPU for them to find. If you're not a gamer who demands absolute max fps (in which case you probably shouldn't be using a laptop), and you don't play some of these obscure games which can't run on a second GPU, you won't care about a MUX switch since you will be fine with the Intel graphics controlling the screen all the time.

In lieu of a MUX switch, many gaming laptop makers connect the Intel graphics to the screen, but the Nvidia GPU to the video out port (usually HDMI or Displayport). So if you're in the 99% who are OK with Intel drawing the screen and the laptop doesn't have a MUX switch, you may still have the capability to use the Nvidia GPU directly. If you should find yourself wanting to play without v-sync one evening, or you run across an obscure game which can't use a second GPU, you can still do those things. You just need to play on an external monitor, instead of flipping a MUX switch and rebooting to play on the laptop screen.

The AMD GPU + Intel graphics ran the same way on the laptop I played around with 5 years ago. In fact that's where I first noticed a certain game would only run on the Intel GPU. I incorrectly blamed it on the AMD GPU, before trying the game on an Nvidia + Intel graphics laptop and having the same problem. I haven't had a chance to play with a newer Ryzen laptop with dedicated AMD GPU (haven't run across one). But I assume they're set up the same way.
JosephJ3521
139 Posts
77 Reputation
Repasting a brand new machine is a waste of time. Unless it wasn't applied correctly during manufacturing, changing to a "better" thermal paste isn't going to make any significant difference in operating temperatures.

219 Comments

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Jul 1, 2021
2,508 Posts
Joined Apr 2021
Jul 1, 2021
PowerfulClub4936
Jul 1, 2021
2,508 Posts
Quote from StrawMan86 :
Per the picture in the OP, starts 11am ET on 7/2

These are all test runs to figure out how to do all the things SD users do to get the deals.

Yeah, reading is Hard!

Thanks.
Jul 1, 2021
706 Posts
Joined Jul 2018
Jul 1, 2021
DealhunterPNW
Jul 1, 2021
706 Posts
Quote from JosephJ3521 :
Repasting a brand new machine is a waste of time. Unless it wasn't applied correctly during manufacturing, changing to a "better" thermal paste isn't going to make any significant difference in operating temperatures.
Yep, the bottleneck in cooling is usually the size and density of the cooling pipes and heat sink, not the thermal interface. They are sandwiched together, the paste can only do so much.
Jul 1, 2021
823 Posts
Joined May 2017
Jul 1, 2021
twinturboz
Jul 1, 2021
823 Posts
Date shows starts at 7/1 and it is 9:08am PST which i assume EST is already 12pm... im not seeing it.
Jul 1, 2021
546 Posts
Joined Jan 2008
Jul 1, 2021
buttuh
Jul 1, 2021
546 Posts
Date shows 7/2
Quote from twinturboz :
Date shows starts at 7/1 and it is 9:08am PST which i assume EST is already 12pm... im not seeing it.
Jul 1, 2021
59 Posts
Joined Mar 2007
Jul 1, 2021
hiwaywu
Jul 1, 2021
59 Posts
Quote from buttuh :
Date shows 7/2
On the bottom the page it also said 7/1 to 7/2 so I can see why people are confused thinking that is part of the deal
Jul 1, 2021
9,039 Posts
Joined Dec 2008
Jul 1, 2021
fireballs
Jul 1, 2021
9,039 Posts
What is Dell epp?
Jul 1, 2021
3 Posts
Joined Jun 2021
Jul 1, 2021
AmusedCorn171
Jul 1, 2021
3 Posts
How's the screen on this? Does anyone know how bright it gets? I'm trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on this one or wait longer for the Legion 5 Pro @ Walmart

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Jul 1, 2021
2,508 Posts
Joined Apr 2021
Jul 1, 2021
PowerfulClub4936
Jul 1, 2021
2,508 Posts
Quote from hiwaywu :
On the bottom the page it also said 7/1 to 7/2 so I can see why people are confused thinking that is part of the deal
The way it reads is 7/2 access is if you finance?
Jul 1, 2021
118 Posts
Joined Dec 2019
Jul 1, 2021
gokuthegr8
Jul 1, 2021
118 Posts
This Vs the g15 deal for 1077 with same specs and better SSD?
Jul 1, 2021
29 Posts
Joined Jul 2020
Jul 1, 2021
MerryGuitar2624
Jul 1, 2021
29 Posts
Quote from gokuthegr8 :
This Vs the g15 deal for 1077 with same specs and better SSD?
It's like comparing a Mercedes and a Toyota.
3
Original Poster
Jul 1, 2021
11 Posts
Joined Jun 2021
Jul 1, 2021
Grumblez
Original Poster
Jul 1, 2021
11 Posts
Quote from PowerfulClub4936 :
The way it reads is 7/2 access is if you finance?
Yes from looking at the rest of the Mailer what it means is there are a couple of other items from the July sale that will also be early access. This one is the one that stuck out to me as a super good deal though
Jul 1, 2021
843 Posts
Joined Sep 2010
Jul 1, 2021
RobsTV
Jul 1, 2021
843 Posts
Quote from MerryGuitar2624 :
It's like comparing a Mercedes and a Toyota.
So one has weird part failures and ultra expensive parts and service, while other rarely has issues and if so, anyone can fix it for dirt cheap?
3
2
Jul 1, 2021
1,311 Posts
Joined Oct 2010
Jul 1, 2021
Solandri
Jul 1, 2021
1,311 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Solandri

Quote from lip008 :
I never realized this was such an issue. The fact that you need to use an external monitor to used the dedicated GPU seems like a failed product. That is what the lack of mux is, correct?
The need for a MUX switch is actually pretty niche. Nvidia Optimus (dual Nvidia + Intel GPU) work by having the Intel graphics in control of the screen 100% of the time. The Nvidia GPU acts as a co-processor. When you run a game which you assign to use the Nvidia instead of Intel GPU, it draws a frame on the Nvidia GPU, then passes that completed frame to the Intel graphics for display. The Intel graphics always handles the screen drawing. That's how Optimus is able to run multiple programs simultaneously, some using the Intel and others using the Nvidia GPUs. You get the low-power consumption of the Intel graphics all the time, with the higher power consumption of the Nvidia GPU only when a program needs it. 99% of users will be fine running this way.

Having the Intel GPU always in control of the screen has two drawbacks.
  • V-sync is essentially always on. The Nvidia GPU's draw buffer essentially acts like a v-sync buffer, with completed frames passed to the Intel GPU for display. This adds a small amount of lag, and reduces framerate slightly, but eliminates tearing, just like v-sync. They may have tweaked this slightly when Intel added variable framerate support.
  • Certain old and poorly-coded newer games assume your computer only has one GPU. It searches your hardware for a GPU, and stops searching when it finds the first one. This will be the Intel graphics since it's connected to the screen. These games cannot use the Nvidia GPU at all because of the way they're coded.
  • Older Intel graphics couldn't handle some of the higher resolutions, higher framerates, nor adaptive framerates like Freesync like Nvidia and AMD GPUs could. This is pretty much a non-issue with modern Intel graphics, so I've struck it off the list.

A MUX switch lets you disable the Intel graphics, putting the Nvidia GPU in control of the screen. The Nvidia GPU ends up running 100% of the time so you get higher power consumption. But it gives you back the ability to turn v-sync off (at the cost of tearing), giving you a slight fps boost and less lag. And it will allow those old/poorly-coded games to use the Nvidia GPU, since there is no longer an Intel GPU for them to find. If you're not a gamer who demands absolute max fps (in which case you probably shouldn't be using a laptop), and you don't play some of these obscure games which can't run on a second GPU, you won't care about a MUX switch since you will be fine with the Intel graphics controlling the screen all the time.

In lieu of a MUX switch, many gaming laptop makers connect the Intel graphics to the screen, but the Nvidia GPU to the video out port (usually HDMI or Displayport). So if you're in the 99% who are OK with Intel drawing the screen and the laptop doesn't have a MUX switch, you may still have the capability to use the Nvidia GPU directly. If you should find yourself wanting to play without v-sync one evening, or you run across an obscure game which can't use a second GPU, you can still do those things. You just need to play on an external monitor, instead of flipping a MUX switch and rebooting to play on the laptop screen.

The AMD GPU + Intel graphics ran the same way on the laptop I played around with 5 years ago. In fact that's where I first noticed a certain game would only run on the Intel GPU. I incorrectly blamed it on the AMD GPU, before trying the game on an Nvidia + Intel graphics laptop and having the same problem. I haven't had a chance to play with a newer Ryzen laptop with dedicated AMD GPU (haven't run across one). But I assume they're set up the same way.
Last edited by Solandri July 1, 2021 at 10:47 AM.
1
1
Jul 1, 2021
125 Posts
Joined May 2017
Jul 1, 2021
KeenD
Jul 1, 2021
125 Posts
Can't find it anywhere on the website, does this one comes with the IR camera for Windows Hello login? (Deciding facter for me between this and the $1077 G15.)

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Jul 1, 2021
59 Posts
Joined Oct 2014
Jul 1, 2021
surprisedeal
Jul 1, 2021
59 Posts
I just brought G15 in the last deal for 1224 does anyone if I can return and reorder without major issue

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