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

Again, thoughts and advice for improving adjusting the performance?

 

Try lowering the voltage to like 1.1 along with your under volt. the set multipliers to 50. To much voltage may be cancelling out your optimal runs.

 

just want to add, that i have a 1 week old install and have over 100 background processes , some of the benches posted are with a bone dry install, that will also be effecting your score.

 

Here's my review of the Area 51M:



Thermal testing and benchmarking video will be in a separate video.

 

Do you have a link to that wallpaper? Thanks good work and got a sub from me. Cant wait until the delivery of my new system, it was cruel that my first A51M only lasted a day, just a sweet taste of awesomeness with 3+ weeks of waiting for my next hit haha.

 

This was a great review. Thank you! Subbed.

 

Got my Area-51M today, 9700k/2080(Ordered 3/22). I love it, but has anyone without gsync been able to get optimus working? Battery life is still garbage barely getting 2 to 2 and a half hrs, I have no frigging idea how Pcworld was able to get 6 hrs.... Only reason I opted out of Gsync was the ability to use optimus.

 

If you bought a 51M hoping for decent battery life, you got nothing but disappointment ahead of you, no offense.

 

Thought that would be pretty obvious

 

6 hours lol. You believe pcworld?

 

My Benches are with Dells Bloatware stock OS... nothing optimized. Killer Suite, AWCC, steam, uplay, epic GL, Origin, Dell updater...everything is runnning in backround. Thats not the reason for his low scores.

CBr15 2199, R20 5221, Firestrike 25,7k -> with Dells OS

 

The Unbelievable Gaming Laptop - Alienware Area 51M Review
Linus Tech Tips
Published on Apr 4, 2019
On paper the Alienware Area 51m should be a completely capable desktop replacement, but how does it stack up in the real world?

 

That run was with no offset, stock voltage. Try no offset first, then do -50mV then try -100mV.

Or try static voltage, start at 1.20v then go down slowly

 

No Optimus on this machine. I wouldn't expect to get anything over 2-2.5 hours on this machine.

 

I got 3 hours last time doing school stuff, not bad.

I can get 2 hours easily so battery life is okay for this class of machine.

 

the battery is for me a better UPS XD nothing more

 

Something tells me it won't be running properly but who knows:

https://twitter.com/EurocomTech/status/1113850443757694977

 

Finally some slightly better news.
No info on twitter, no info on my express tech support that I get through premium support, no info on local customer service.
Finally found a number to call for businesses, as my purchase was bought under company. and FINALLY got an answer.

So currently still on my Order status page it says expected delivery 29th of April and when I check the actual Package slip, it states that it will ship the 20th.
This was a "rough" estimation that was done after they knew about the stock shortage. Stock issue as you might have noticed got resolved and shipments are leaving.

So a new internal shipment date has been set for my laptop according to this lady I talked to from Dell business support, and said that expected shipping date is 11th of April.
It's still not amazing. But I'll take it. So my expected delivery date is pulled back by 9 days it seems for the moment.

 

Just check/see how far you can max out a single 330W psu. Should be good for +400w if there is no power cap in firmware. I don't trust what's come out from Eurocom.

 

Impossible to do. Single 330w downclocks GPU just like single 180w.

Need AW to unlock the power with single 330w then we can see.

 

It doesn't matter how large the wattage is, What important is, is the voltage and polarity. If those are the same, it can even be 2KW, The laptop will draw only as much as its need.
The only issue here is that the circuits handling the power from a single power port on the Area51M can handle the full max power draw for area51M. In case it's only rated for 330Watt for a single port max, you can introduce new burning issues.

So yeah, I'd like to see official response from Alienware regarding this, as I do think this is a nice thing to have, but I won't risk it for the moment.

 

I understand all this bruh. I talk about what can be pulled from the wall. Where is the cut point... 170w, 180, 240, 300 or 330w. Or 206W if I take a random number. The small 180w Psu should pull up to 210W from the wall with 85% efficiency.

 

Ah the efficiency rating, sorry misunderstood you then. Yeah to be honest, I wish they also did put 80 plus like ratings for adapters, that would be insetting to see, If no info is given by the product company, I'm afraid that this has to be manually measured and calculated. Though I don't know if it's possible to tell how much a laptop is consuming in total at any given point.

 

good call. unless they have a way to trick the laptop to recognize the second psu, performance from plugging one psu will be artificially capped by alienware for the safety of the official PSU, so i also dont think that eurocom PSU is going to work

 

After going through support hell and getting delayed 3 times. My unit finally shipped on 31/3. I got a tracking number for UPS but it still shows (In transit to UPS) and it hasn't been updated since the 31st. I contacted UPS (since no other information show up) they told me that this means the unit is either lost or stolen and they need dell to contact them to start an investigation. Dell refused and told me this is normal and my system should show up ~next week (did anyone in Europe have a similar experience. In Germany to be exact)

 

This is wrong Information from UPS . UPS tracking shows ,,in transit,, until ur Notebook is in europe. That Step takes 7-10 days. Calm down and wait

My Unit was 7 days in ,,in transit,, and was delivered the next day

 

No need to panic, UPS is wrong here. Where are you ordering from?
E.g. I order from Belgium. I also get a tracking number from UPS, However UPS takes over the package in Netherlands, and ships it from there to me. So e.g. when initially my laptop was shipping on the 13th of march, I got the UPS tracking link. But only like 6 days after I got updates as it only then reached UPS Netherlands. Before that It's sent to UPS from I think the Local Chinese Post office, while which the package cannot be tracked.

And FYI, shipment from Chine to Belgium can take like 8-10 business days usually if there is no delay in shipping.
Just be a little more patient.

 

Thanks alot for the replies guys. Good to know that this is well known for folks in EU like me. Can't wait for this beast !

 

Received my Alienware 51m from HIDevolution on Tue, 3/26/2019, core i9 9900k, 32GB, RTX 2080, with Fujipoly & Kryonaut option.

It didn't last long... :/

during a gaming session on Anthem, my Alienware Area 51m shutdown suddenly and i can't turn it back on even only in battery mode.

However, everything was running very fine, the temperatures of both the GPU and the CPU were more than acceptable as i was keeping an eye on it (around 75 °C).

I noticed something strange and disturbing : when I plug both power supplies on the back of the computer, one the power supply's light turn off as soon as it is plugged on the computer.

I've called Dell to have an on-site repair with a technician, they told me that this could be due to a failure on a power supply element on the motherboard :/...

Indeed, if i get closer to the vents on top of the laptop, i can feel a smell of burnt component or circuit :/

Let hope it's not a factory default on the whole serie (i've seen someone having the same problem on this topic).

 

Bet it's the GPU that's gone!

The PSU behaviour can be the exact same thing with defective GPU's on other Alienware, I would take the "motherboard element " with a pinch of salt, a small number of the 2080s have been dodgy on the new 51-M.

 

I'm taking it with a HUGE pinch of salt... but Dell support decided to replace the motherboard and let the technician see if it's working better thay way...

I'll be inspecting the graphic card if it's not working with the tech guy, got no other choices right now...

Dell even called me to say "don't except a technician today i think they won't receive parts today"

Edit :

I called Dell Tech Support and a nice guy told me that they sent both a motherboard AND a graphic card for replacement.

That's fine now...

 

Great, that's much better

 

New PR with the Area 51M ... it keeps getting better.

Mind you that this is all just sitting at my desk, locked bios, limited RAM capped at 2400 and with power limits. + At only 5.2GHz ... I'm working on tuning 5.3GHz and once I get that dialed in......... even more of a victory than what it has already shown to be able to achieve at its current state.

Fire Strike (PR): 26284

 

By the way guys, I am also waiting since March 7th, and it's definitely frustrating... but I don't understand you guys who are cancelling orders.

I mean, sure it sucks to have to wait a month or even two months... but what will you buy instead? It's not like there's a comparable sexy DTR to buy instead is there? Or is it because you already have powerful systems and can afford to wait for a revision 2 or something?

 

highly likely GPU kaput

 

Did you have the 200w vbios ?

 

I flashed to the 200w vbios update yes (as soon as i got the laptop because it was in the drivers list)

You think i shouldn't proceed the update again if they change the card ?

 

I would not update to the 200w vbios till they do more research into this issue. Definitely wait for the next vbios update or status update from dell.

 

I am hoping it's just a bad batch of 2080

 

You guys started to establish a link between this update and the dying GC ?

Shame they put such an update in a hurry ...

 

no one knows... my RTX2080 has the 200w too and is doing fine since 3 weeks and maximum OC benching... the vbios has 10w more. I dont think a RTX2080 with 190w will run forever while 200w RTX blow up... Then i would rather blow up my faulty one with 200w earlier, than live with 190w gpu in fear to blow it next year or after warranty...

I have oSS... if it fail, Dell will replace it. End of story

 

If it was a bad batch of 2080 we would see more crackling fireworks!

A spare computer is needed. Some can't wait on repair.

 

You dont think they tested it?

I assume they have a regular 30 day return policy. I might give it a shot and see what happens

 

it's not conclusive. there are several factors that can lead to GPU VRMs burn out, but 200W vBIOS in my opinion is the least of the probability. Alienware engineers designed the GPU board to handle that amount of power. they tested it, validated it before pushing the firmware out. if it was problematic, they wouldn't have posted it in the first place, or even if they did and found out it was problematic, they would have pulled the update by now.

sitting on top of my list is the cooling for the VRMs. It's either a poor thermal pad contact issue, poor thermal pad quality with low thermal transfer quality, or the passive heatsink itself is not enough to cool those hot VRMs.

second on my list would be bad QC batch of VRMs from the supplier ON semiconductor.

 

I'm sure they haven't the time validate the 200w vBios. It come out only a couple of days after people start mentioned Asus already pushed out 200W graphics with their laptop's release. As Azor said before... It takes a time to validate higher TGP. Remember the Gtx 1080 release?

 

come on... Most of the users use the a51m for gaming. Gaming is not life critical. oSS fix the notebook within a few days. Most (if not all) of the owners have an smartphone these days to ,,stay connected,,. I dont see a problem here.

What do you think how may of the owners earn their money with the A51m and realy NEED a spare pc? less than 1%?

IF I woould earn money with my PC i wouldnt buy a gaming rig there are better (and, i admit, much more expensive ones with better service)

 

Thanks for the precisions

 

Not all have the same usage as you. Many will buy it due the Desktop power (LGA) for their workflow. And game in addition as second

 

and they still dont ,, need,, it. People who earn their salary with this laptop NEED a spare laptop... you create a problem where no problem is.

every smartphone / tablet can do daily stuff like Facebook / email / office / forums... We talk about a few days the user has to bridge over with his smartphone / tablet until his unit is repaired...

 

Re-read my post #6893 Why make a huge deal of it. Everything was in my post above.