Foreword
It is absolutely unbelievable to say that the alien Alpha R2 could be selected this time. I am very grateful to Aunt Zhang for her patronage and to those friends who have recommended me to apply for the test, saying that this article is longer, so as not to waste the attention of officials. The precious time, I will not say more, I will directly dry goods, like everyone like.
Unpacking and appearance
As always with the black box and alien LOGO, the design of the outer packaging is exactly the same as the alien game that I have been in contact with in the past. Compared to those fancy packaging designs, this is no longer simple.
The interior of the box is exactly the same design as the Alpha generation. The thick pearl cotton and the partitioned display are absolutely the best self-protection against violent express.
Saying that the Alpha generation once gave away the Xbox handle, but now it is not sent, but the pit is still there.
The black envelope contains three copies of printed documents. There are not many opportunities to use them. It is worth mentioning that there is no software CD provided in this random document. Although this is not a big problem, it has caused a little inconvenience to the subsequent experience. This is a later comment.
The included accessories include a High Speed ​​HDMI cable, power cord, and power adapter. It's worth mentioning that the power adapter has an indicator light design, but it doesn't set the indicator light to the plug position like the alien notebook. Can be a waste of a chance to install X.
The 180W adapter is about the same size as a 5.5-inch cell phone, and the nameplate has anti-slip rubber feet on one side.
Saying that when the alien Alpha generation console came out, it gave me a brighter feeling, and the appearance of the Alpha R2 did not change much compared to the generation, and it felt very good to feel physical.
The volume of Alpha R2 is only 2.2L. The size of the shell is exactly the same as the height and width of two bottles of 1L milk. Everybody can feel it.
For the material of the shell, what I don't like the most is the skin-like coating and the high-gloss injection molding material. The former is easy to get oily and dusty, and it's sticky for a long time. In the case of high-light injection molding, I don’t deny that this process is When the new time is very bright and clear, but unfortunately this effect does not last long, once stained with dust or oil fingerprints, Yan value immediately reduced, and usually when cleaning with a rag will inevitably leave a trace of scratches on it In everyday use, you must not be too rough.
The high-gloss injection molded around the Alpha R2 frame is like a mirror. If I can use the frosted bite-cutting technique like the top, I think it will look more beautiful. At the time, when I saw the decoration of the "person" shape on the top, I thought that I would like to have a light bar inside the game with aliens. However, when I looked closely, I discovered that I thought too much...
The front of the machine, the alien LOGO is also the switch and indicator of the machine, and two USB 3.0 interfaces are provided on the left side.
The lack of angle on the side of the fuselage is quite ecstasy, contains RGB lighting effect, if there is a version of Steam Machine here will also appear Steam LOGO.
Compared to the first generation of Alpha, the Alpha R2 has redefined the output interface, from left to right are the power connector, external graphics card docking port, HDMI input, HDMI (2.0) output, RJ45 cable interface, dual USB 3.0 and optical audio output port. The HDMI 2.0 interface supports 4K @ 60Hz output, which is a significant upgrade for a 4K TV or monitor that is becoming mainstream. The addition of graphics card docking ports makes it possible to "make up" the lack of graphics performance on their own cards. It's worth mentioning that Alpha R2 has both NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards, but only the version with NVIDIA graphics cards has a graphics card. Docking port.
From this point of view we can see that the machine edge uses a beveled design, which will undoubtedly make the machine look thinner. Maybe everyone has found that finding the entire machine has not found a 2.5mm audio port. Yes, the Alpha R2 doesn't provide a 2.5mm audio port. The main thing is to use an HDMI audio output to connect to a monitor and then use a speaker to connect the monitor's audio output. Of course, you can also use an optical audio output port to connect an amplifier or a fiber-optic input speaker. Or use Bluetooth speakers is also possible.
I have to mention that when I open the cover, I see a USB 2.0 interface that the Alpha R2 hides at the bottom of the fuselage.
The measured length of this position is 63.38mm, which is more suitable for the storage of wireless mouse and keyboard or peripheral receiver. The Logitech G930 wireless headphone receiver of the owner can just hide here.
Do not disassemble on a single occasion
The disassembly of the Alpha R2 is not difficult. First, prepare an M3 Phillips head to remove the four screw holes at the bottom. The fixing screws are not hidden under the feet of the anti-slip feet. This is convenient for routine maintenance. After all, the non-slip pad can be peeled off after being peeled off, and it can easily cause unevenness in the corners.
Although there are snaps around the bottom cover, it can be easily removed after removing the screws. The bottom cover is completely a plastic piece and covered with cooling holes.
When you remove the bottom cover, you can see the 2.5-inch drive position on the bottom of the machine. The i5 version of the Alpha R2 comes standard with a 1T mechanical hard drive. The hard drive is installed in this position, and you can see that the hidden USB 2.0 interface at the bottom is through The connection leads out.
After unloading the four screws on the bottom shell, the top cover can be removed at any time. From the figure below, it can be seen that the inside of the top cover uses a metal shield and there is an EMI anti-electromagnetic radiation shrapnel around.
After removing the "movement" after the top and bottom covers, you can clearly see the front USB 3.0 interface and the switch light control panel on the right side.
The Alpha R2's CPU and graphics card use two separate heat dissipation systems. The turbo fan and the plastic air hood are integrated. The air baffle and the fan can be easily removed by pressing the levers on either side of the air shroud.
After you remove the hood, you can see the heat sink on the left graphics card and the right CPU. Since the Alpha R2 uses a desktop-class graphics card, the Alpha generation has been strengthened in terms of heat sink size.
Alpha R2 added support for M.2 SSDs in storage. However, memory slots have shrunk. The maximum support for single-channel DDR4 16GB, and the original machine is 8GB, in other words, the memory upgrade You must abandon the original memory, and at the same time, you may have to use a single channel memory to beat many Virgo players to death.
The original Hynix 8G DDR4 2133 memory is more common in branded notebooks.
According to the owner, the 512G M.2 SSD that comes standard with the Alpha R2 i7 version is available in Samsung and Toshiba, and also supports the NVMe specification. Samsung's SSD model is the PM951 instead of the popular SM951. Samsung's PM951 uses TLC particles, while Toshiba's is the horse brand leader with MLC particles. We can see that everyone running on the Internet is much higher than Samsung. No wonder everyone. Say that the machine received the first boot to see the SSD model, see Toshiba's expressed a long sigh of relief, and the owner of this time seems to be "winning".
The wireless card used by the Alpha R2 is the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260. It supports 2.4G & 5G dual-band, up to 867 Mbps, and comes with Bluetooth 4.2.
After the motherboard is completely removed, the entire metal frame of Alpha R2 can be seen. The material is very thick, and the edge of the frame can be tightly integrated with the EMI shrapnel on the metal shield of the upper cover. The complete machine has a better anti-electromagnetic radiation design.
Since the screw holes of the video card cooler are located on the back of the motherboard, the silicone must be removed to replace the graphics card. Here, a direct light is removed.
Attached to an official motherboard detailed diagram, there are some similarities with our usual ITX motherboard.
By comparing the removed heat sink, the CPU heat sink on the left side is relatively simple. The heat sink of the graphics card uses a combination of copper and aluminum. The heat pipe can be seen through the gap. The larger area also takes into account the GPU core and memory. Heat dissipation.
The standard i7-6700T processor uses an LGA 1151 interface, and the CPU can be replaced. If power supply and heat dissipation restrictions are ignored, it is theoretically possible to install a higher performance i7-6700K processor.
Wiping off the grease on the graphics chip can clearly see that the GPU model is the GM206, and the desktop GTX 960 is undoubtedly, and the 4 on-board Samsung memory chips constitute the 4GB/128 Bit memory specification.
The heat sink's own silicone grease is harder. Here, we replaced the grease with an inexpensive AC MX-2.
Detailed test
Fortunately, after the machine is disassembled, it can still light normally. Haha. As mentioned earlier, the Alpha R2's HDMI output has been upgraded to the 2.0 specification, straight to 4K @ 60Hz without any pear, and without any settings.
Before the performance test, we must mention the core software of alien products: Alienware Command Center (abbreviated as ACC). This software integrates lighting control, power management, graphics card docking station, HDMI input settings, etc., through ACC. Light settings can be set on two locations on the Alpha R2 enclosure. It must be mentioned that the Alpha R2 has been shrunk in comparison with the aliens' own books. The lighting does not support gradients or pulsed lighting, and the playability is reduced a lot.
Take four kinds of more representative colors to integrate into a dynamic GIF image, we can feel that the triangle and the LOGO's light color can be set independently, but the owner still prefers the uniform color.
In front of the box and mentioned HDMI input interface, through which you can export the contents of the external device to the display connected to the Alpha R2 above, this feature is still more practical for the HDMI interface tension monitor or TV, can be passed Shortcuts toggle between the two sides. If the display device itself has spare HDMI connectors, everyone can connect the device directly to the monitor or TV. For me, this HDMI input is not just needed. If you can change the interface to one more HDMI output or DisplayPort interface is obviously more appetite for me.
Having said so much, I didn't want to run for a minute. The i7-6700T has a 2.8G maximum clock frequency of 3.6G and a TDP of only 35W. It is not a low-voltage processor commonly used in notebooks. After all, it uses the same interface and architecture as the i7-6700/i7-6700K. It only reduces the frequency. And TDP, so called low-power processor is more appropriate. Also detected by software, the Alpha R2 uses the H170 chipset instead of the Z170.
Through the following table, you can see the detailed differences between the three 6700s. In general, the i7-6700T does not lose its i7-6700K function except for frequency and cannot be overclocked.
Chess running points, multi-thread running performance points between the i5-6500 and i5-6600K, for such a low-power processor energy efficiency is simply burst out.
Using the CPU-Z built-in Benchmark running scores compared to i7-6700K, after comprehensively testing the two tests, everyone's general performance on the i7-6700T should have been known.
Since memory is operating in single-channel mode, it is also reasonable that memory read/write performance is weak. However, fortunately, most games are not sensitive to memory bandwidth, so the experience for the game in single-channel mode is not too great. Impact, so the design of Alpha R2 has only one memory slot has the biggest impact for us than to upgrade the memory, we must give up the original memory.
As mentioned earlier, the 512G M.2 SSD that comes standard with the Alpha R2 i7 version has both Samsung and Toshiba. Opening the CDI display does not find the hard disk. According to the study, the SATA default setting in the machine BIOS is not the RAID mode. AHCI.
The AS SSD can correctly identify the SSD model, but after running for a while, it found that the write performance was abnormal. Compared with the Toshiba SSD's Alpha R2, which reads over 2000 MB/s and writes over 1000 MB/s, it is a paradise. The difference with the region.
The abnormality of the previous running points is based on the judgment of the owner because the original system did not install the NVMe driver for the Samsung PM951 SSD. However, this driver was not found on the DELL official website. The Samsung NVMe driver shared by users on the Internet would default to the BIOS. RAID mode caused the device to not be installed. However, after the unremitting efforts of the owner, it was finally found that the write speed of the AS SSD test was restored after the “Turn off the Windows Write cache on the device†in the SSD properties was checked and restarted.
This speed is consistent with the online running of the PM951, but this is still a lot worse than the Alpha R2 with Toshiba SSD. It's no wonder that Samsung is not to be seen.
The write performance test anomaly also appeared on the Anvil Benchmark, another popular SSD test software. The write performance before and after the setting was changed drastically, but the Crystal Disk Mark and TxBENCH were not affected, so this is more likely to be only Test software compatibility issues, after all, regardless of whether the subjective use of the feelings did not have any effect on the daily copy and paste speed is not unusual, but in the end people feel uncomfortable.
The previous dismantling has confirmed that the Alpha R2 uses the desktop-class GTX 960, but the latest version of the GPU-Z software does not yet fully recognize the graphics card, but from the core frequency data of the graphics card, you can see that the GTX 960's default core frequency used by the Alpha R2 is 1176 MHz, which is a bit higher than the 1127 MHz of the GTX 960, is really enough to fight. I'm not saying this conclusion casually. The latter test is a good proof. The memory frequency is the same as the male version, which is equivalent to 7010 MHz.
I do not know if everyone found out, Alpha R2 appeared on the test page with the eye-catching "VR experience of virtual reality shock," such words, as well as many values ​​deterred friends, but careful study of the following description shows that it is necessary to build on the "external The premise of the high-level graphics card is, therefore, that Alpha R2 uses the GTX 960, and the VR performance is as bad as the following test results, and the ideal VR experience cannot be obtained without using an external video card.
After all, is the desktop-class GTX 960, 3D performance over the last generation of Alpha is no suspense thing, this run points are also almost the same with the GTX 960 discrete graphics card used on desktop computers.
The overall performance test selected PCMARK 8 to simulate the actual situation of daily use of the computer for objective and extensive testing. PCMARK 8 has several built-in test items. The Home test project mainly simulates the daily use of computers by users, such as texts, web browsing, and so on. The Creative test project has added more entertainment application simulations, such as games, video playback, etc., and the "pressing" of performance is higher than the Home test project. The final Work test project mainly simulates the daily use of computers for office work, and the workload is relatively light. The results are detailed in the figure below, including that the previous tests were all run in high-performance mode.
Game experience
Running only the running game is a rogue. In order to let everyone understand the situation of Alpha R2 running the game more clearly, during the game testing process, MSI Afterburner software was added to monitor the status of the graphics card. We can refer to it.
First of all, "CS:GO", with full 1080p resolution, anti-aliasing and vertical synchronization, the game screen can be stabilized at 60 FPS, the GPU occupancy rate is basically around 40%-50%, and the graphics card is the highest. The temperature is only 67 °C.
As for League of Legends, full-motion effects at 4K resolution can run over one hundred frames. However, for fluency, over 60 FPS are redundant. After setting up vertical synchronization, the graphics card can run at a lower frequency. There is no impact on the gaming experience, but the temperature power consumption and noise can be reduced.
Speaking of game testing here, I think it is necessary to introduce a technical discussion. Since the release of the GTX Titan, NVIDIA has upgraded GPU Boost from 1.0 to 2.0, and GPU Boost 2.0 has enabled the graphics card without sacrificing stability and overclocking capabilities. Get faster, more complete gaming experience and faster graphics operations and many other features. GPU Boost 2.0 is no longer merely to improve performance. GPU Boost 2.0 also supports the inverse of frequency control. When the number of currently running game frames is far greater than their own needs, GPU Boost 2.0 can be used to limit the number of frames to allow the GPU. Boost achieves energy savings. When the graphics card's full-load performance level is reached, the graphics card will reduce the real-time use frequency. Therefore, GPU Boost 2.0 can reduce the running frequency of the graphics card in real time according to the player-defined number of frames, and achieve the purpose of saving energy, cooling, and exchanging better power consumption performance. . This is also the main reason for the decrease in graphics card temperature and power consumption when the vertical sync is turned on in the game. For games such as "CS:GO" and "League of Legends," where the performance requirements of the graphics card are not high, you can reduce the GPU usage of the graphics card while maintaining the highest picture quality and turning on vertical synchronization. This time you can get three drops in temperature, power, and noise.
Some time ago steam summer special to start the "Tomb Raider 9" annual version, this test just to be able to use, saying that this game has been opened before the 2 times, this time into the car can be regarded as the first on the train after the replacement ticket, ha ha. Closer to home, the game set the highest quality and closed the vertical sync, Benchmark results show that the average number of frames exceeds 50 FPS, playing is still very smooth, but compared to the previous test of the two games, "Tomb Raider 9" is obviously more After eating the video card, the graphics cards were fully loaded during the test, and the temperature of the graphics card still reached 83 °C when the fan was roaring.
Next test "Tomb Raider 10", and "Tomb Raider 9" uses the highest frame quality when the average number of frames is less than 40 FPS, showing that this generation is much higher than the previous generation requirements, after repeated Set up and test, get more smooth effect (close to 60 FPS) when turning off anti-aliasing and setting medium quality. Of course, this is the same as the previous tests. The graphics temperature during the game is not low.
Next test "GTA5", as shown below, after setting the high image quality is still relatively smooth effect.
Finally, after testing "The Witcher III", the high-definition image quality and high-quality images under 1080P can not run smoothly. After setting the medium-definition image quality, it can basically reach 50 FPS or more. Even if it is occasionally dropped to around 40 FPS, it is relatively smooth.
To be sure, Alpha R2 has no problem with mainstream games at 1080P resolution. At least you can choose to reduce the picture quality to achieve a better fluency. However, at the end of the game test, you have to give a slot. 8G memory is really a bit tight, take "GTA5" as an example, the memory consumption of the game is already close to 6G, if you do not enter the game before the extra program is closed, it is estimated that it will not play long enough to prompt memory, so If you have a good time, upgrading 16G memory is almost impossible.
Temperature and Noise Test: Have to Say Pain
Putting powerful performance into a small box of only 2.2L, heat and noise are problems that have to be faced, so this temperature, noise, etc. test has become an indispensable part. At present, Guangdong's daily room temperature is 31°C. Under such room temperature conditions, the standby temperature of the Alpha R2 is not high, and the fans of the CPU and the graphics card can all remain quiet.
The i7-6700T TDP is only 35W. Even if the CPU is fully loaded, the core temperature does not exceed 70°C. At this time, the fan has only a slight sound. This performance is really a bit overjoyed.
The next video card temperature test is not so optimistic, using the Furmark pager graphics card temperature up to 93 °C, for the machine on the desktop less than half a meter away from the user, at this time the fan noise has reached unbearable degree , but from the figure below you can see that the video card did not take significant frequency reduction measures due to high temperatures, in the case of full load and high temperature still maintain the core frequency of close to 1200 MHz have to say that this is really too much. However, it is a matter of opinion whether this high temperature and high noise performance is desirable.
When the graphics card is fully loaded, the core temperature of the lightly loaded CPU is even higher than the temperature at which the CPU is fully loaded. It must be said that the effect of the graphics temperature on the entire system is still quite large.
As mentioned earlier, the noise of the Alpha R2 is mainly due to the video card fan. As long as the video card is loaded, the machine will not be quiet anymore, and when the game is running, the overall noise reaches a maximum value.
In addition to the graphics card is a large noise and power consumption, let me understand that the full load power consumption of the machine has reached more than 190W, while the standard adapter rated power is only 180W, although normal use will not be fully loaded like a copy machine. However, this result is always not satisfying.
Cannon's Super Weapon: Alienware Graphic Amplifier Graphics Dock Debuts
When I applied for this test, I thought so. I already had the GTX 1080. If I selected Alpha R2, I would pick up a video docking station again. I didn't expect it to be true, so Alpha R2 had it. Now. However, to be honest, the price of the Graphic Amplifier graphics dock nationwide up to ¥2499 is really not cost-effective and competitive. After all, this is using a special interface for aliens instead of lightning, which is not versatile, and the beauty of the United States purchasing The price is also much lower than that of the State Bank. The key technology is not high in terms of technology, and it is not easy to be bad. Therefore, it is really necessary for a buyer to need a non-general belief. The owner of the dock is from the salted fish. The color is good. There are still more than 8 months of Jingdong warranty. If the price is as low as three-fifths of the new goods, it will be a good deal.
The docking station internally uses a 460W power supply to power the discrete graphics card. The 12V uses three output designs and the total output power is 385W to meet the current single-core flagship graphics card.
Docking station and GTX 1080 fit together. The internal structure of the docking station is not complicated. Except for the power supply for power supply, there are only two PCBs. The larger "motherboard" connects the power supply and a control board and provides a PCIE graphics card slot for inserting the graphics card. .
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the docking station has a limitation on the width of the graphics card PCB. If the card is too wide, the lid cannot be closed. Although it does not affect the use, it feels like the door cannot be closed. People are not at ease. In addition, the front of the docking station comes with a cooling fan, but the noise is quite touching. After unplugging, the entire world is quiet and has no effect on heat dissipation.
After using docking station, Alpha R2 gets more powerful game performance, and also makes multi-screen output possible. Four USB interfaces are also provided to increase the scalability of Alpha R2. In addition, transferring the noise generated by playing the game to the docking station is also a very significant thing. After all, GTX 1080 plays a little bit of sound even when the power fan is added. Play like a roaring noise on the Alpha R2 GTX 960.
However, the graphics card docking station is not small in size, and occupying too much desktop space is contrary to the original intention of the small and compact design of Alpha2, so it can only be used as an alternative, but the length of the connection line between the docking station and the host is 2 meters. Sufficient to move the docking station out of the desktop, with LEDs and buttons on both ends of the cable. When the Alpha R2 is connected to the docking station and used an external docking station, the indicator on the data cable connector lights up. When using the built-in GTX 960, the Alpha R2 keeps track of the physical connection with the docking station. This allows you to quickly determine which graphics card is currently working.
However, it is rather unpleasant that every time you use or disconnect an external video card, you need to restart the machine. It is somewhat regrettable that hot switching cannot be achieved.
After connected to the docking station, alien LOGO lights in front of the docking station can be set in the Alienware Command Center. When the docking station is in the disconnected state, the power of the docking station does not start, so you can also listen to the sound or view The LOGO light on the front of the docking station determines if the external graphics card is working.
As mentioned earlier, there is a button on the docking station cable. When the external graphics card is connected, you can press the button to switch to the built-in GTX 960 (need to restart). However, compared to the alien notebook, you can directly use the hotkey to switch. The words are still not humanized enough.
In addition, it is necessary to spit it out. When the Alpha R2 is plugged into the docking cable, the HDMI input function will be disabled.
Overall, Alienware Graphic Amplifier graphics card docking station currently has many places that are not humanized enough, but after all, this is just an initial product, so the room for improvement is still understandable.
Next, let's take a look at the graphics card docking station with GTX 1080 to improve performance. The GPU-Z shows that the GTX 1080 has been correctly identified and that all parameters are the same as those installed on the desktop, except that Subvendor (manufacturer) has changed from the previous NVIDIA to the current DELL.
After accessing the graphics card docking station and GTX 1080, VR performance immediately exploded.
Excluding the impact of CPU performance on running scores, only examining the 3DMARK graphics points, using the Alpha R2 to connect the docking station is only 5% to 10% lower than the GTX 1080 graphics installed on the desktop, and the performance loss is not large.
Once again, it took the "Tomb Raider 9" and "Tomb Raider 10" with Benchmark. The same set of frames is much higher than the GTX 960 (in the white box).
Write last
Alpha R2's compact size and solid internal workmanship coupled with impressive performance make it completely unblemished in the game Cannon's title. After replacing Alpha R2, the lord's desktop is extremely simple, and the forcing has also improved several grades of wood. Have.
Last but not least, we have summarized and summarized the problems encountered by Alpha R2 for more than a week, as well as some deficiencies in the product. We hope to give some references to the value of Alpha R2.
1. Currently, Alpha R2 comes standard with SSDs of Samsung and Toshiba. There is a lot of performance difference between them, and it may be that they have to fight for character. However, for machines using Samsung PM951 SSD, there is no factory. It also makes people feel uncomfortable that the installation does not provide the proper NVMe driver.
2, only one memory slot can not achieve dual-channel, running some applications that are more sensitive to memory bandwidth will have a certain impact, and the greater impact is undoubtedly to make the perfect party crazy, but also increased the cost of upgrading memory. (Upgrading 16G requires discarding the original 8G);
3, for the whole machine full load power consumption of more than 190W, only the standard 180W power adapter is a bit puzzling;
4. When running large games, the problem of high graphics temperature and noise is the most difficult place for me to accept. Although I can put headphones on to isolate noise, if you want to secretly play several games at night in the dead of night, Do not want to be found by the family, I am afraid this is a bit difficult. In the Alpha R2 size you want to be fast and quiet, I'm afraid to expect the next generation of Alpha R3 with 16nm process GTX 1060/1050 (no responsibility to guess);
5, is still a problem of noise, the intermittent use of the video card fan will appear crazy, even if the temperature is not high. Once this happens, the graphics card fan will continue to run at high speed for a minute or two until the graphics card temperature drops below 45 °C. It is expected that the problem will be resolved by updating the BIOS. However, the current machine has already been used. The official latest BIOS, so this issue can only pin their hope on the next version of the BIOS;
6, the CPU's core graphics card is blocked can not be called, in some as long as the integrated graphics can work well in the scene had to use discrete graphics to increase unnecessary power consumption and noise;
7. The last point is about the official website of DELL. As of the date of the official release, the DELL official website has not released the software of the machine except the commonly used drivers, including Alienware Command Center software suitable for this model has not been provided for download yet. It does not provide software CDs itself, so for those who want to reinstall the system, they can only call for customer service. However, the answer given to me is that they have no alternative but to wait...
Well, the above is the entire content of the Alienware Alpha R2 mini-game PC experience. Due to the short use time and the limited level of mastermind, there are bound to be some mistakes in the text. I hope you can value your friends, and at the same time, thanks again to Zhang Aunt. This time the public test will be held again.