I Was Hands on with Alienware Area 51m w/ RTX 2080 and i9-9900K. AMA!

yep thats the deal with laptop. with the 18x R1 to R2, upgrade wasn't a promise and they have no need for it as R1 was a great machine. going to R2 we needed msata cable, HDD bay cable, bottom chassis, motherboard change to take advantage of two more storage slots.

cpu heatsink went from dual to triple pipe. it was one of the best upgrade i've had so with this it isn't all too bad considering you can reuse mobo. the cost of PSU will replace cost of mobo.

not that bad, again this is dell AW we talking about here. much more popular than clevo and MSI so chances are much more cheaper parts will flow around on ebay and other places.

 

Er, just a point of reference, MSI outsells Alienware by a wide margin, worldwide.

 

Not many years ago (3-4 years ago) numbers was showed up with around 100.000 units a year. Maybe Alienware has increased its popularity or increase in sales due bigger gaming laptop sales but we don’t talk about +3-5 times the numbers. Maybe max 250.000/300.00 units a year at best.

 

damn how times have changed, was it always like this for 7+ yrs since the R1? if so then AW just has a lot of parts floating around where as MSI has good control over theirs, which is a shame because its not good for consumers but good for business

 

CB15 4.7ghz all core turbo is around 140w, 130w if undervolt + LM. 120w with binned chip + LM.

125% TDP of 95w.. thats around 120w. if they are okay with a normal chip since they are getting it from dell then they expecting around 4.5 to 4.6ghz all core frequency, thats less than default turbo specs.

now factoring in AVX workload which pumps the power much higher, 4.2 or 4.3ghz all cores doing video editing i guess? numbers just seem to going down and down kinda sad.

 

Rember Power consumption will increase if Cpu run at high max temp.

MSI is big in the gaming notebook world. And don’t forget the massive change Alienware did with their models early 2015. The gamingbook industry has increased and more models is thrown out. The Alienware’s contains only BGA MB and TRIPOD heatsink. Buy it used on the web is probably a big lottery.

 

Hey Ole!!!

Veteran owners know what time it is, so it's the noobies I'd like someone to help lookout for. On the other hand, we haven't gotten positive word there's a basic heatsink & a performance sink; I'm sure there is & that we'll find that out soon & then veterans can survey what it all means & what should get paired with what etc

Smartest CPU to go with in a Area 51m
It's a good question & a good answer in that thread is the 8700k (a CPU not on the sales menu). One answer suggests that if you have 8700k at home right now, then toss it in since it's the 'smartest' CPU to go with

Ok, I'll bite: what are we talking about here, buying the base 8700 then sticking 8700k under the (base) heatsink they send? In this limited state of knowledge right now, I'd ask, given that 9700k is just $100 over the 8700, what if 9700k gets the better heatsink & if so would it not be wiser to purchase 9700k 1st & go from there

More limited details are that 8700 MSRP is $300, 9900k = add +$450 more (street value $525), so 9900k is a $750 option, assume $525 CPU + $225 performance heatsink etc

At just $100 over, it either means 9700k is a sweet deal (cost of better CPU + better heatsink), or, that $100 extra for 9700k doesn't buy the better heatsink. From there one wonders which GPU plays a part in all this, which is to ask: what is the minimum high-end config to get the performance cooling (in order to top out at 9900k later but not now)

Dell Spare Parts - which can get pricey - will / should have the modding-parts at some price tag & one of the veterans will be able to conclude whether buying a base-config + Dell's cooling after-the-sale is worth it or not - or - should buyers dig deeper & pay upfront for some intermediate config that gets the good parts onboard now & at a possible discount for intentions later

That 8700k might run okay on the base cooler (if that's what 8700 buyers will get), or, they may have to go to Dell out-of-pocket for the best cooling at some cost which will or won't make sense relative to the add $100 9700k (which will or won't get the good cooling)

The veterans work all this out & know ahead of time it probably needs worked out, but as of today none of us knows the min high-end config that gets the best cooling. Noobies & the clueless out there that've never heard of NBR might still stumble on Gizmo's uTube & if they're lucky he'll drop a line or two that one doesn't simply move from 8700 to 9900k w/the snap of a finger & at no added expense & that smart buyers will contemplate intermediate configs for reasons, yadda yadda. I'm anxious for the community to reach a general consensus on what the smartest CPU/GPU choices are, based on any number of factors like:

• 8700 MSRP = $300
• 9700k MSRP = $374
• buy 8700 ($300) add $100 9700k = $400 (+$25)
• 9900K = $750 total ($+225)

9700k appears to have no $ built-in for cooling, 9900k clearly does & then how do GPUs get sorted into the mix; it's all a fine puzzle the veterans can have fun trying to tease apart

 

Very valid questions. And is why a wait and see approach is advised too.

However, you forgot one big variable. With CPU TDP maxing at 120W / 136W. The RTX 2080 @ 180W has CPU beat by far. Which leads me to believe it is the GPU that controls cooling configuration. It is also the largest jump in price over its nearest config @ $450

 

The GPU is easier to cool, its heat is spread over a much larger surface area and is direct die contact to the heatsink (no IHS and STIM in the way to increase thermal resistance).

 

if they plan to upgrade later on, chances are the CPU and heatsink price will likely be cheaper than what they are now. CPU i know for sure given fact that AMD bringing out 16 cores within 6 months, the current 8 core pricing will drop massively.

if I am to buy this machine now, then i'd go 8700 or 8700k because its cheaper to get and decent performance. then get a 9900k say 2 years down the road. by that time you'll get the 2 core boost, and 9900k would be much cheaper than what it is today, i'd like to say its the same for 9900k heatsink/other parts in this AW machine from my experience with R1/R2.

but we know i wont be buying this. the TDP limit is literally **** thrown at us enthusiasts, i loved that cpu heat pipe going towards GPU fan, they probably dont even need to do that for extra cooling due to limiting TDP anyway.

 

Wow.. This looks like it would be a beast of a laptop... I wonder what sort of temperatures this thing would reach though... and would this set a trend for fully upgradeable laptops from other companies in the future... hmm.. interesting times.

 

I'd love to see more and more companies with laptop models of this design, and get away from BGA or soldered components.

Getting back to your post, how many companies are needed to set a trend?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...70-g-owners-lounge-phoenix-has-arisen.781814/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...levo-p870tm-g-owners-lounge-phoenix-4.809589/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-clevo-p870tm-r-owners-lounge-phoenix-5.826848/

 

Yeah, the only other ones I know off who have upgradable CPUs and GPUs are the CLEVO/TongFang makers... hopefully with a mainstream manufacturer such as DELL/Alienware making their own, hopefully other bigger companies would follow closely behind... Huzzah for competition xD

 

I'm not sure what happened to Msi and their titan laptops as that was what they were aiming to do back when they first introduced it. So hopefully Alienware doesn't give up on it after one or two tries

 

an attempt to regain its former glory)))

 

They still have the GT75 Titan, but only the GPU is upgradeable IIRC.

 

I didn't realize they still had MXM cards in their newer Titans. That's actually nice to see.

 

It all depends of if there is actual demand ofcourse.

 

Temperatures with the i9 9900K can reach anywhere up to a baking 100 C. You may even see it go over the chip’s thermal limit, which I don’t think is safe for long term useability. However, I think reapplying the stock Dell thermal paste, and under-volting the chip a little should keep those super hot temps under control. The RTX 2080 hovers around 75 C during gaming, very comfortable temps with the GPU.