I just installed Ubuntu MATE on an Alienware M14x R2. The fan always seems to run pretty high no matter what the temperature is. I’ve heard it might be an Nvidia issue. I’d like to be able to switch to the proprietary driver but when I try to change it within the additional drivers tool, it goes all the way through the process and at the end I’m using the open source one again.
Nouveau is the the only one that works at all; the other ones make it actually run hot and kick the fans into overdrive and the battery life into nothing. I thought issues with Nvidia on Linux were a thing of the past. 