*OFFICIAL* Alienware Area-51M R1 Owner's Lounge

It doesn't even make sense that they would block off the vents for the 2060 model. That would mean more tooling, and restricting an upgrade in the future.

 

Read...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/intel-drivers-updates.782418/page-34#post-10891433

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/intel-drivers-updates.782418/page-27#post-10801874

"Forced installation of unusable drivers generally may overwrite actually in use other drivers and can cause degraded performance or a lack of features".

 

The vents are not just blocked. There are no pipes going to the side at all. Two less pipes. Don't believe what dell tells you. Sad that they have no idea what they are selling. That is way I sent it back and got the 2070. I may refuse that order because of how long it is taking to ship and all the issues. They are not even offering me anything for compensation.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g25vieglw9atqim/2060%20top%20module.jpg?dl=0

 

I highly recommend this USB Type-C Hub which has 3 USB ports + Micro SD + SD Card slots!

USB C Hub, TOTU 8-In-1 Type C Hub with Ethernet Port, 4K USB C to HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 Ports, 1 USB 2.0 Port, SD/TF Card Reader, USB-C Power Delivery, Portable for Mac Pro and Other Type C Laptops (Silver)

 

Indeed, and I was put off as well to discover that 2060 model hasn't been designed where you can just plug out the old gpu and plug in a new one.

You can refer to the details here:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Area-51m-side-exhaust/td-p/7257371

Here is a response snippet from dell which is interesting:

"We've been digging to find the most accurate info we could get for you about this. The 2060, indeed, as Umar mentioned on his tweet has a different design. However, the PC's upgradeability is not affected by this. You can always get the 2060 version and upgrade it down the road to the 2070/2080. Do keep in mind that you will need a new thermal module too if you decide to do so in the future."

Hope this helps!

 

Wait, the 2060 version doesn’t allow you to swap processors? Physically or is there just a thermal limit to the gimped heatsink when upgrading from the base cpu ?

 

Anyone know how to configure a macro key to quick switch the fan profiles or would it require scripting the key to open ACC / do the switch on the active profile?

 

Allow me to correct myself, dell have only mentioned that you need a new heatsink when upgrading from 2060 to 2070/2080, they haven't said anything about the processors. I'll edit my post as well

The upgrade, however, might be challenging due to a gimped heatsink. I don't think anyone would have upgraded their 2060 now who can confirm whether it is feasible - we might have to wait a couple of years before that happens.

Dell might be your best bet who can confirm how upgradable 2060 version is and what additional components you'll need.

 

Ahh got it. Either way, bad move by dell. How cheap can they be to scrap some copper off the heatsink and plug up some plastic vents? On such a high end system?

 

FYI, the code 250OFF1999 will get $250 off an order for the 51m as long as it's over $1999.

 

As far as I've heard, Dell say 2060 won't have side vents option on A51M for upgrading to higher end GPU in future. And its not a barebone Clevo system.
Have you looked at other brands like MSI,Lenovo? I don't think India has got RTX models laptops

 

To all:

I ordered on 3/7; after several delays I tweeted Frank (no reply) and DellCares. Dell apologized, I filled out some info, and they got me in touch with a US based rep. Last week he provided some updates, said my build was complete, and everything was a go for 4/4.

Mon, no update, so I emailed. No reply.

Yesterday, no update, so I emailed. Said it was odd and he’d look into it. No follow up.

Today, another delay until 4/14. Insanity.

*** LET ME BE CLEAR *** I know several of you and on R/Alienware have their machines, love them, and that’s great! Truly, I am thrilled people enjoy their machines and I know good experiences are out there. But just like others who have had their machine light up in smoke, I believe I have a duty to this enthusiast board and to others considering making this purchase to share with them the frustration they could be looking at.

So, I intend to begin spreading the word; and I’ll start with my most recent note to Dell:

***

Hey (support contact),

I’m really trying to be level-headed, and I understand this is not your fault, but I am supremely disappointed in the customer service at Dell. This has been, without question, the worst buying process I’ve experienced purchasing a new laptop, ever; and I purchase at least one a year - Surface Go in October ‘18, Surface Book 2 in January ‘18, and a ‘17 15” MacBook Pro when it was refreshed just a little before that are the most recent. This is a near $4,000 purchase and once again the machine has been delayed without any heads up, and for *two weeks.* it now has a 4/15 estimated delivery. It makes our engagement over the last week seem rather pointless if I’m still getting the same delays and the same lack of warning. I have zero confidence in that delivery estimate, and even less confidence in the support I would receive from Dell during its 3yr warranty. If this is the experience I get handing over money, I’d hate to imagine the experience once Dell already has it.

What can be done to have this laptop delivered by next week? 4/15 is unacceptable - it’s a fourth or fifth delay (I’ve legitimately lost count), and more than a month after the initial order. Additionally it, will be three full weeks since I was told the machine was built. I’ll begin spreading the word on various enthusiast boards and social media; see if others can’t offer better guidance.

I look forward to an answer today. Again, I understand this is not your fault and I do appreciate your time. I just need better support than I’m getting from Dell/Alienware.

**

 

Hey guys,

Ive got a 51m with 9900k and 2080 gpu.

I’ve repasted it with Kyronaut, but my temps went up just a smal amount, so thinking of redoing the paste. But in addition I’ve thought about delidding the CPU, and giving it a copper IHS.

Anyone done this with success?

My question is - does the altered total hight of the installed CPU with IHS, cause a problem between the heat sink and CPU? Or does the heat sink just adapt to the small change of hight on the CPU after the delid?

Thanks in advance.

Few pics from the repaste, and a picture of the delid I was considering.

 

Also don’t forget that the 2060 models also come with weaker power bricks so you’ll have to at least buy a higher watt power brick, a new heat sink and the new gpu if you are upgrading from the 2060. This was my first choice in laptops until I found out about the blocked side vents of the 2060. It seems a little silly and done on purpose for money to block the side vents as having them open would mean you system would run much cooler. It actually cost them money time and effort to cover it up. If the design was the same from the 2060 - 2080 then it would keep their cost way down as it’s easier to produce one singular design than a variety of designs. I would say it’s a weird design choice by an engineer or something but it seems more like a money play, kinda like day one dlc in games or loot boxes of items that should come in the game for free, like a red dot sight haha.

 

Customer Service is a joke. Order from a third party like HIDevolution and save the hassle.

 

I agree! If you bump up the specs of 2060 and 2070 models to have the exact same specs(except for the gpu obviously) the price difference is around 300. I believe that is expected on par price difference. It doesn't make sense to not have the heat sinks on par. Feels like a marketing gimmick so that people who are looking for upgradability as a USP of the laptop, shell out atleast 3k and not go for the base version. At least, that's what I feel personally.

 

I agree! If you bump up the specs of 2060 and 2070 models to have the exact same specs(except for the gpu obviously) the price difference is around 300. I believe that is expected on par price difference. It doesn't make sense to not have the heat sinks on par. Feels like a marketing gimmick so that people who are looking for upgradability as a USP of the laptop, shell out atleast 3k and not go for the base version. At least, that's what I feel personally

 

what was your temps before and after?

repaste looks good but the stock paste is the best stock paste i have seen, i got really nice temps which is why i opted not to tamper with a good thing

 

So given the 120w power limit on the 2070, I still
Managed to break 20K overall and 22k graphics. Can’t wait for the 2070 vbios with higher tdp. Here is my run with the 9700k and 2070

Https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/35134895?

 

I agree with your frustration and anger at being told it was ready to ship and then delayed. However, if you're going to ask them for a faster turnaround, do it based on customer support experience, not length of time since order. I waited over a month for dell order before, but it was normal, I was not misinformed about it's progress. You're ordering something that needs to be built and (very basic) tested before it ships. It's not a surface or MacBook where the company has them already built in cookie cutter configurations ready to go out the door.

That being said, I would be furious over being fed misinformation.

 

Well happy day. I was not even ready as my delivery date was April 16 and I ordered on March 28th so I really really was not expecting this. I checked yesterday and it said confirmed so I didn’t even answer the door until the fedex guy was gone, long story short there was a car chases after I looked at my phone and it said there was a delivery to be signed for. Caught him and got my package he was like wtf... I was just like man I wasn’t expecting to see this so soon, but you’re my new favorite person right now. So anyways ordered on the 28th and got it the 4th so keep up hope guys.

 

Specs?

lol, f me haha

 

I ordered mine from HIDEvolution and still experienced delays with no explanation as they did extra testing (without telling me and delaying the order) and didn’t want to ship partially imperfect systems. I’m glad they have thorough testing in place, but don’t expect to have super quick turn around with them either.

 

It really pisses me off to see that on the Alienware Belgium website (which is Where I bought mine) the Delivery dates changed back to "ships within 3-5 days" while my replacement for which I have been waiting on for 3 weeks now, still says expected delivery date of 29/04
So according to their website. Anyone who orders a new Area 51m in the following 10 days, all get their laptop delivered earlier than mine. As if they are mocking me.

 

9700k cpu and 2070gpu and I have base level everything else. I got a deal for hp nvme ssd ex950 that came yesterday so I’m gonna make that my main drive.

 

Maybe just get a refund and then reorder it, and you’ll probably get it earlier than you we’re going to get your other one back anyways?

 

They are literally so busy and sell so many computers they could care less for your email, their mentality is you'll get it when you get it, if you don't like it go buy somewhere else... It's the sad truth, I went through the same crap, if you say you want to cancel your order they'll cancel it before you even finish your sentence.... They are in charge, they are the boss, if there was better option in competition it would be different. But there isn't (right now)... Try to be "level headed" will get you nowhere, and you sending a long whiney email like that tells them they got you by the balls, which litterally get your order put into the low priority pile.

At the end of the day, it is an awesome machine if you are able to hold out till you get it.

 

I agree your order should be placed at the top. No excuse to make a person that they already have had your money for a long time wait.

 

From my experience you lose your right to refund once the period is over or when you accept a repair which again pushes you outside the normal refund period. They should "freeze" the counter while the laptop is with them, in my opinion, and they should also freeze the warranty, but they do not and it's ticking while your laptop is not even with you. For these two reasons I chose to get a refund on my first AW17R5.

 

So I have been messing around with overclocking this system and to be honest I have not done much else since getting it 2 weeks ago, I started off with AWCC then moved to XTU to Afterburner to Precision X1 and now back to Afterburner, each time I have switched I have uninstalled each and then deleted info from regedit, appdata and program data. The issue I am running into now has been Firestrike stopping the benchmark test and telling me the user has ended the test, I have adjusted and gone back but every time now it ends in the first graphics test. I was able to get a 24,300 overall score but since then I have been running into this issue and the system does not get hot and I do not feel much heat coming from the fans.

Do you guys know what could be causing this? at this point I do not think the system is even close to crashing

I have a delidded 9900k - 2080 with 40 GB ram and 2 500GB Samsung 970 Evo plus m.2 SSD cards with the OS installed on one and the system in AHCI

 

My Dell rep emailed me and said my order is in "Shuttle, meaning in transit from our build facility to the domestic completion facility to be shipped to me". So i guess 3-5 more days. Just FYI for people waiting i ordered March 11th. 9900k, 2080 build spec'd out pretty well. So whatever parts shortage there is must be getting filled. My order was delayed only by about 1.5-2 weeks.

 

Try it after disabling Tobii. See what other background apps you have running too

 

Seems like they did a piss poor job for you. You're hitting 99 on your m15. I wouldn't recommend hidevolution with those results.

Edit - with liquid metal mind you.

 

Try compiling it exactly as your machine is on the website and see if the date changes? Some dell machines do ship a lot earlier if the configuration is using all available parts and it can show on their website

Or maybe I'm giving the Belgium site too much credit :\

 

See what happens when you play a game for a few hours (if it lets you). Make sure you don't get the magic smoke.

EDIT: In all honesty, this would be my thought process if it was my 51m. I would put it through a real world stress test of playing games and monitoring temps trying to rule out a hardware issue. If troubleshooting the software yields no results, (I would take @ThatOldGuy 's advice and try disabling things like Tobii and any other background apps). After that, I would start reinstalling things, Windows included if needed to make sure I'm starting fresh.

 

On a related note. If you are having issues playing VR games with the area-51m, turn off tobii eye tracking. I have noticed it causes issues within SteamVR.

 

Another 2 week delay from Dell, so XoticPC notified customers. Cancelled my order through notfault of theirs. Loved their customer service the whole way through, but I just don't want the Area-51m and I got a great deal on other stuff. Hope you guys enjoy the laptop! It has been fun benchmarking (even though my first unit was unable to keep up). I might consider a future version of this. The Lunar Light is by far the classiest desktop replacement out there. Even if a Clevo or something edges it out, they are still hideous in comparison

 

Thank you! So based on what I read, I shouldn't worry about it, but... if I do another windows reinstall, then download the one listed or?

Any harm in downloading it now? I certainly don't want performance degradation.

 

is that stock or overclocked?

if when oc'd the oc is not stable

 

Cinebench R15 990K 5.1 Ghz -.48 Uv 2152 by GizmoSlip posted Apr 4, 2019 at 5:04 PM

My best score so far for Cinebench R15 is 2152. That's with clocks set to 5.1 ghz, -0.48 undervolt. I wouldn't consider this stable performance as the score does degrade to 2050 after about 5 runs. I can consistently hit about 2100 or so at 5.0 ghz, but the heat sinks do get saturated and you end up thermal throttling at 100C after about 8-10 runs in a row. Throttled score goes to about 2050 as well.

Of course, this is all with Full speed fan profile and my 9900K is sillicon lottery binned at the highest level as well.

EDIT: I also want to add I'll be doing a full thermal testing and benchmarking video that will go into a lot of detail about what the max performance I can get from my machine. So stay tuned for that in the next few days or so.

 

Looks like you are throttling below 5ghz

this is @5Ghz



and this 5.1ghz on mine

 

Because they can track it through their database and see who it was sent to, this could harm the future relationship between them and dell, they may not be so warm anymore. It's just the right thing to do.

 

I wonder if that's because my undervolt is too much. HWInfo and HWMonitor both show consistent 5.0 Ghz clock speeds. What voltage and/or offset are you set at?

Nice scores by the way!!

 

5ghz -100mv

 

Any other reasons why my score would be lower? I have all other applications and programs closed. As far as I can tell, the clocks are staying stable at 5.0 ghz. I am open to any ideas or suggestions that might be causing the drop in score.

Edit: I also wanted to add that my undervolt becomes unstable at 5.0 ghz if I undervolt more than about -0.80 ghz, depending on the task I am working on it.

 

Regarding the heatsink dilema. The 2060 will come without side vent heatsink. There will probably be a plastic piece blocking the side vents to prevent dust.

This isn’t anything new from AW. They’ve been doing this for a very long time. Those of us with M18x series laptops had to upgrade CPU/GPU heatsinks as well if we started with base specs.

If you ever choose to upgrade from 2060 to 2070/2080 then you would also buy the better heatsink.

That seems kinda low for 5.1Ghz

Here’s my old 5.0Ghz score:

 

No matter what I do, whether I undervolt it, or if I OC it, I cannot get a score in cinebench r15 above 2000. 1932 is my highest.

 

What offset are you using? Using throttle stop?

Thoughts or suggestions I should look into for figuring out why I am scoring lower?

 

I am also trying to get a more thorough grasp of overclocking. What are the differences between using an adaptive offset and setting a static voltage?

Whenever I look up 9900K overclocking guides, they almost always set a static voltage and test for stability at various clock speeds, but when I see laptop overclocking guides, they almost always use an offset approach. What is the reason that most laptop owners use an adaptive offset approach instead of a static voltage approach?

I believe I read somewhere that the CPU can be dropping clock cycles even though it technically says a constant 5.0 ghz. I wonder if that is what is happening to my Area 51m. I am curious what the best way to fix this is.

 

Yes, that is actually low for 5.0 Ghz and 5.1 Ghz.