Alienware 15 R1 Setup Help! (New To HWiNFO)

[TricksterMatt]

Hi guys, since the Alienware 15 has rubbish fan tables and they never fixed it properly with the many BIOS versions they released I have finally downloaded HWiNFO as everybody says its a good program for adjusting your fans. I have been playing around with it for a bit but I got a few questions that need answering for the best possible setup for my laptop

1. Should I enable or disable EC Support?

2. When I click on sensors for the first time it asks me if I want to disable DELL EC: Alienware Alienware 15. Should I disable this or just keep using that EC?

3. Are the default values for the CPU/GPU fan tables okay as it is? Or should I adjust it a bit higher? This is what I currently have it as for both the CPU/GPU:

1. 0° - 2000RPM
2. 40° - 2500RPM
3. 50° - 3000RPM
4. 60° - 3500RPM
5. 70° - 4000RPM
6. 80° - 4500RPM

I was thinking of adding an extra 500RPM to each one so it finally hits 5000RPM once it hits 80° what do you guys think?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Martin]

This has been discussed several times here, or at the Tech|Inferno forum, which has a dedicated section about Alienware fan control.
Please search here or check at T|I: http://forum.techinferno.com/hwinfo32-64-discussion

 

[TricksterMatt]

This has been discussed several times here, or at the Tech|Inferno forum, which has a dedicated section about Alienware fan control.
Please search here or check at T|I: http://forum.techinferno.com/hwinfo32-64-discussion

Hi Martin, I just found out by enabling EC Support I get COMPAL EC and by disabling EC Support I get DELL EC. Am I correct in saying it is all a matter of preference and testing to see which one is best for me? DELL EC only lets you set 3 different fan speeds and COMAPL EC lets you do whatever speed. Which one do you think I should use? I only game and don't do any benching whatsoever or anything like that.

And do you think the default fan tables are good enough on the COMAPL EC or would you have them a bit higher? GTX 980M/i7-4710HQ

 

[Martin]

Hi Martin, I just found out by enabling EC Support I get COMPAL EC and by disabling EC Support I get DELL EC. Am I correct in saying it is all a matter of preference and testing to see which one is best for me? DELL EC only lets you a maximum RPM speed of 5200RPM and COMAPL EC lets you go past that.

That's right - it's a matter of testing. Compal EC mode lets you set the fan speed higher and in finer steps than DELL EC, but on some systems this mode can cause higher system latency, stability issues, or problems with system shutdown. This has been discussed several times. So if you don't experience any issues with EC Support enabled, that's the preferred mode.

Which one do you think I should use? Do you think anything past 4500RPM is required? I only game and don't do any hardcore benching or anything like that.
And do you think the default fan tables are good enough or would you have them a bit higher? GTX 980M/i7-4710HQ

That's a matter of testing as well - you need to find out which values suit your usage to maintain reasonable temperatures and acoustics.