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

Just canceled my order. Reading this forum and others just makes me feel like the 51M is still in it's early stages and Dell has some issues to resolve. I ordered the Area 51 desktop instead... I'll revisit the 51M toward the end of the year when it should be more refined, stable, and better screen options.

 

MOSFETs are part of VRM

 

Anyone play Crackdown 3 on this laptop? Just played an hour long session for the first time and had some questions/observations:
1. Seems like there is a slight stutter, even just on High settings (though its worse on Ultra), even though the FPS is 100+ at all times
2. Apparently the game doesn't like an overclocked 2080, just crashes, have to play on stock clocks
3. My temps get higher on this game than any other I've tried so far. The Division 2 on ultra even with a slight OC doesn't get this high. After an hour my temps (all stock) were 83 CPU and 73 GPU on Crackdown 3

Anyone else seem to have stutter issues or have any ideas how to fix it? I'm thinking it might just be a poor port from Microsoft, because even Forza Horizon 4 gets a slight stutter from time to time and these are the only two Xbox games I've played on the PC.

 

Yep same here especially in forza. Happens on my desktop too. Also, your temps are actually very low, no worries there


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The AW17R5 has a dedicated subwoofer underneath.

 

It also looks as if the edge has cuts and small dents across - looks like it was mishandled during assembly.

 

Dont forget rtx2080ti has same problems at thr 1st units..

 

Come on. There is an extra woofer in the AW17R5, and I presume in other laptops too, which can reproduce bass frequencies better than the other loudspeakers mounted inside those laptops. The user gets to hear some extra bass. A laptop that's without this extra woofer (eg A51m) is missing out - assuming the same quality in the rest of the sounders. Whatever your definition of "subwoofer" is, the fact is that some laptops have an extra speaker, an extra "bass sounder", that the A51m lacks.

 

I blow dusk off, then use a slightly dampened microfiber cloth for oils and smudges

 

Really easy. It's in the Control Panel > System

Bottom of System screen will have "Windows Activation" and the product key

 

Tech will be here to swap out my DGFF 2070 any minute, wish me luck..

Hope this card has zero issues!

 

And you are sure it's same problem? I'm not.

 

Funny you mention that as that was one of the reasons I returned my m15 for the m17. The 400 Nit brightness makes a big difference when being outside. If I wanted to just chill on my porch and watch something the m15 just wasn't bright enough. I haven't used a TN panel since my Alienware 17X r2. And the viewable angles are alot better that I wasn't sure it wasn't IPS at first glance. Colors are a bit washed out, but when I'm gaming I couldn't careless.

 

Have you tried disabling the Stream support feature in the Killer network app?

 

To find out your Windows 10 Product key that's injected in your computer's motherboard:


Download the latest portable version of RWEverything and launch it as admin


Click on ACCESS > ACPI Tables


Then go to the MSDM Tab:






Now you can use that key to install Windows but do note that if the key is embedded in your computer's motherboard BIOS, then chances are that when you start the Windows installation, it won't even ask you for a key since it will grab the key that's embedded in your computer's motherboard and install the appropriate edition.


So what if your computer's embedded key is Windows Home Edition but you want to install Pro or any other edition from the get go without having to do an upgrade? Then check this thread:


How to select Windows Home or Pro when installing Windows 10

 

I measured the Alienware 51m panel at about 337 nits at center and 298 on the sides. Not bad at all, but don’t understand why they don’t go much higher and allow users to adjust.


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Good to know. When I run the benchmark on FH4 my stutter count is crazy high. When I actually play it doesn't seem as noticeable, so I can live with it.

I have not tried that, didn't think it would have anything to do with the Killer app since I'm playing solo campaign. I was going to try to disable Tobii and the Windows overlay to see if either of those help.

 

Was vrm burn

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nvidia-rtx-2080-ti-founders-issues/

"The problems also appear to be more prevalent in partner cards that use cheaper cooling solutions"

You mean it's the cheap cooling?

 

I have a fire extinguisher next to my Alienware 51m that I’m going to make white with RGB to match


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Its not a bug, its a feature. New dell promotion - matching fire extinguisher included with every 2080 purchase....

 

We will have oled screens on area51m this year?

 

What a day... Story/Vent time.

So as you all know my 2070 DGFF went out, I was due to have a tech come out and replace it today.

Little back story, nearly a year ago I purchased a 17 R5, had a few issues with it, nothing too major.

Had a tech come by and do repairs on it 3-4 times. 3-4 times he those repairs up and made the problems worse, they sent out someone else to fix this guys mistakes. This was brought to Dells attention and the contracting company he works for (I filed a complaint.) I asked them multiple times to not send him out ever again. They actually tried sending him out once before after all of this happened and I told him to leave. This is just a short part of the story btw.

Anyways.. I specifically asked Dell not to send this guy out again, I know his name and what not and gave it to them. They assured me they would send a senior technician. Well.. guess who showed up at my door..

Going through all of the stuff I had been through with my 17 R5 and knowing they were likely going to send this guy again, I pulled the machine apart by myself so all he would have to do is insert the DGFF and put it back together.

He walks in and he says I see you already took it apart, I said yeah I did because I have had problems with you breaking my machine in the past.

THEN he has the balls to say "you filed a complaint on me and I got in a lot of trouble," so i said "YES i did for good reason, you completely up numerous repairs on my old machine!" He then blamed me for him up the repairs on my last machine! He got pissed off and said he wasnt doing it and left, but he left the DGFF card with me to replace it (which I asked Dell to do in the first place for this specific reason!)

So anyways I've already contacted Dell about this, they're investigating. On the plus side, I replaced the card and it seems to be working great.

Just wanted to share this to vent, and bring it to more peoples attention how trash these "techs" can be. I know Dell outsources them and they're a contracting company, but they really need to follow through with complaints. I might call the contracting company again to follow up with this, but we'll see.

I know not all techs are this bad, but just be aware some are terrible. Learn about your machine, pull up the service manual as well. Watch everything they do, sit next to them the entire time and if they have questions, answer them. Or if you see them struggling with something, offer to help, they might get offended but em.

I wish Dell were more willing to let capable customers do the repairs, it would save them money in the long run. Customers will always be more cautious and take better care of their machines than anyone else.

 

No

 

No

 

The sound from the 51m is very good. Actually better IMO than my 17r4 had

 

Sounds like they’re out of alpha testing on customers but still coming out of beta with the issues and no official statements.

Canceled my order. :/

Too much to risk... and yes warranty but that gets old FAST

And who knows ... maybe they’ll come out with an OLED version or too far off... ;D

 

That’s crazy lol. Good thing he just left it. I can imagine many people who buy the 51m are capable of replacing themselves, I’m still curious on how they are going to kit together upgrades and sell them


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After debloating & cleaning the laptop, I finally ran a Cinebenech benchmark with a low score of 4548.

So a stock $4,000 laptop with a i9 & RTX 2080 won't even run games that a basic Xbox One would run!

 

The 51m, even with the lowest spec, smashes an Xbox one in game performance. Something is wrong with how your pc is set up


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What Cinebench are you running? The i9 should score around 1600 - 1900 or so in R15 and. And in R20 400 - 500. Depending on clocks and temps.

The Cinebench GPU test is complete rubbish and should be ignored. GTx 560's will score more than GTX 780s and other rubbish

 

Yeah, I'm curious what kind of twist hes going to put on the story to get out of trouble this time. Glad the new card is working fine though.

Last time this guy came to replace the motherboard on my 17R5 he stripped the screws by using an electric screwdriver on the heatsink, and he has the balls to blame his stupid mistake on me. Dell ended up sending me a new heatsink so I could just replace both and the MB ended up being DOA, so I'm thankful that this DGFF card wasnt DOA.

Edit: There was no "bad" language used on this reply, not sure why it was edited.

 

How do I capture screenshots with this laptop?
The Prt-Scrn button is doing nothing.

I just hit that button & paste the screenshot in MS paint when I'm on my desktop.

 

Just use Snippet, or is it Snip It?

 

FN + Print Screen

If you don't press the FN button, then the key is the HOME Key

 

For a second I thought you were cursing at the Print Screen. Didn't even see the keyboard had a FN button. Thanks for the tip.

 

You spent a ton of Moolah on an item which you seem incapable of running.

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On paper it seemed good to go.
Over speced internals. A single overclock program that will undervolt & overclock CPU/GPU & fan control, what more do you need!


I will say 80% of the crap I been digging through was all Windows crap & not from the laptop itself.

 

It is causing tons of problem. Try disabling the stream mode and let us know if it fixed it for you

 

So i'm in the process of buying an extanded warranty for my Area-51M
I'm being offered these deal.

Basic Hardware service warranty - Hardware Service with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis (Protection from defect)
3 Years total - $240.00
4 Years total - $440.00
5 Years total - $550.00

Premium Support Plus - International Support, Software support, Accidental damage + Hardware Service with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis (Protection from defect)
3 Years total - $850.00
4 Years total - $1,050.00
5 Years total - $1,200.00


I highly doubt i'll keep this laptop 5 years, i'm leaning more toward 3-4 years.
What would you guys pick and why?

 

I would just go with basic hardware + accidental. It's cheaper and you dont need any of the software junk they offer with premium and premium plus support.

 

They charge 170$ per years for Accidental damage so it's actually cheaper to go with the Premium Plus support.

 

Finally I received my laptop yesterday. Here's how it went so far:

1. First thing that I did after taking it out of the box was to remove the RAM and SSHD from it and plop in 1xSamsung 970 Pro 1TB boot drive, 1xSamsung 960 Pro 2TB secondary drive and 1xSamsung 860 Evo 4TB as the big drive.
2. Put in 4x16 GB Corsair Vengeance 3000 MHz Ram sticks.
3. Put that bad boy back together and fired it up. Installed windows 10 from scratch.
4. I was surprised that Microsoft took care of almost all of the drivers except a few (trackpad and a few others), but there was one problem. The wifi driver that Microsoft installed via Windows Updates broke the web browsing experience. Every SSL encrypted website including Dell's own support page for driver downloads started giving ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT error. I ended up disabling windows updates for this driver and re-installing with the help of a secondary computer to fix this annoyance.
5. The temps were HOT on the CPU side. The 9900K thermal throttled even when tested from within Alienware Command Center and I ended up undervolting it all the way down to as much as allowed in alienware command center and limiting the boost clock to 4.8 GHz. Even then it lurked around 97 degrees as max when testing.
6. After 200W GPU Vbios upgrade, the GPU ran at a comfortable temperature of mid 80C mark and immediately the temps went down as I cranked up the fans. However, I am not happy with the thermals.
7. Next step, I have the delid kit lying around in my drawer for the i9 series, metal polish, thermal pads and some liquid metal and kryonaut plus silicon sealant and all the good stuff. I'll be delidding this CPU and possibly shaving off around 0.2mm off of it using a fine sand paper and put it back together with liquid metal and a copper IHS (If direct dye works then I'll skip the IHS).

Let's see how it goes. The gaming experience was FAN-freaking-TASTIC so far! The frame rates are insane and it blows everything that I've seen so far, out of the water in every way! The LG display panel is super bright and beautiful with great colors. I am happy! However I'll not game again until I make this sucker run as cold as it can go.

 

Yikessss. Where are you located? Dells website shows $60 a year I believe.

 

Canada ...

 

Here is my score on cinebench with the AWCC open, showing the temp.


Is the default CPU speeds this slow for anyone else?

It also shows my CPU at 4.3 GHz on AWCC, but is shows 3.6 GHz on Cinebench. Is this a known bug?

 

Ah okay. Well.. I would go with the cheapest option that gives you basic hardware with accidental, unless you dont think you will need accidental, maybe just go with hardware.

Only difference between premium/premium plus is that plus gives you accidental and some software warranty, which isn't needed imo.

 

3.6 is the base frequancy, that's normal.
Have you tried undervolting the cpu? What fan profile are you using? Also what power management option isi selected?

 

Looking forward to your review! Which color did you get? Can we see some benchmarks?

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Dell's answer to the thermal issues since the AW 13 R3 days:

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...ing-a-high-temperature-overheat-issue?lang=en


In other words, no more parts replacements until your system exceeds 100° Celcius. Until then, you're within the operating temperatures and all is fine and dandy!

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