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

I'm really interested in this laptop but the thought of carrying two power bricks to work is putting me off. I was wondering if anyone knows if the following configuration i7-8700 + RTX 2070, would run doing normal office tasks such as Excel, Word etc on one 330 W brick or is it even possible to run with one brick?

 

You could likely do office related tasks on the single 180w brick. I thought I read here or somewhere else that it was possible (or at least intended).

 

You could definitely get away with only bringing the 180w brick to do things like excel word. Probably some light gaming too so long as it's not a triple A game.

 

Why short customers? I would think they should probably just include 2x 330 watt or 2x 240 watt depending on the model... Can yield a weird and off-putting look with 2 different sized bricks hooked up.

 

If your up for chances, you can get a win10pro upgrade key on the grey market for like $10. I upgraded my Triton to win10 that way and had absolutely no issues. Honestly, to not include windows 10 pro free with such a high end system, both the OEM's and Microsoft are doing customers a huge disservice.

 

Cost probably. Plus I think it's been confirmed on a bios level they limited how much power the laptop can draw. So even if we got a second 330w it wouldn't give us more usable power. Dumb I know. Plus they probably have alot of spare 180w lying around so they're just trying to sell more?

 

So far I've been pretty disappointed with most RTX offerings at this point. Am really considering getting this laptop but was originally hoping for another SLI setup

Someone should try and see if the Eurocom 780 Watt Power adapter can be modded to fit the sockets on the Area 51m... That way only 1 power supply unit would be needed...

Personally, I find it difficult to choose between lunar light and dark side of the moon without being able to feel the material. (I'm guessing for $50 there has got to be some material difference of some sort) Also depending on material, i have worries the white color could get stained/marked and show dirt more.

Last Dell laptop I had (an XPS), the supposed aluminum ring around the outside of it was actually just plastic and covered with "aluminum paint" and it started to flake off after a few months.

Anyone who has this laptop already, would be nice to know you thoughts on how it looks/feels so we can get an idea of chassis quality? Keyboard flex, display flex (often overlooked biggie -- Triton 700 display rubs against the kb leaving imprints and scrapes on the screen), light bleed (previous issue I've seen plague almost all dell laptops), etc. would all be nice to know.

Also does anyone have any experience with the TactX kb? How does it compare to cherry red/brown from the Titan?

 

Does anyone know if the Intel UHD graphics is enabled on the i7-8700 without G-Sync?

 

Not sure if firmware will allow more than 330w from one power socket.

 

I've stayed away from sli setups for years now. You just pay so much more for a chance to have better performance. Even back when I was using an sli desktop it seemed to be a real gamble if a developer properly optimized sli. So I just went with the most powerful card I can afford and call it a day. That being said I'm sceptical about the performance on the area 51m. Based on firestrike scores it should be slightly better. I'm coming from 1080ti with a 5820k. So the Area 51m scores I've seen are slightly ahead. Mostly thanks to the strong CPU. So I'll be curious to see how it does once I play games on it.

The Lunar white color was one of the selling points for me. First video I saw it I was hooked. And dell has that resistant white material on the xps 13. You can wipe off permanent marker. So long as they use something similar it shoild be good. But of course I'd let anyone know if I run into staining down the road.

Unlikely. Even the older 17 r5 and 15 r4 didn't have optimus from what I've read. So I don't see them doing so for this laptop either. You'll get roughly 2hrs of light use based on some reviews of a similarly speced clevo laptop. So make sure you're near a plug.

 

I would imagine so. The usb type C can be used as video connection and it uses the Intel GPU.

 

Hi all! I just finished reading through all 122 pages and have a few questions. I’m coming from a Dell XPS 8300 with an i7-2600, 16 GB DDR3 1333, and Radeon 7970. My desktop has served me well, but with all the traveling I’m doing, I feel like a nice laptop would be more useful than replacing the desktop. I currently fly all over the place and bring my Xbox One X with me, which isn’t fun, especially at smaller airports that still require me to empty my backpack even though I have Pre-TSA. Overall, haven’t been too impressed with the benchmarks of the 2080 compared to the 1080, but coming from my system, it’ll still be a HUGE upgrade.

The build I’m currently set on is the i7-9700K, 2080, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, and the 144 hz g-sync screen. I don’t think this has been brought up yet, but I may have missed it when I started skimming through multiple pages of OLED burn in and how to be the #1 over-clocker in the world.

1. I’m just getting the 1 TB HD and plan on putting my own SSD in it once it arrives. Has anyone noticed from the tear-down videos if the brackets are already in there to mount the extra SSDs, or is that something we need to buy?
2. This is more of an opinion, but it seems like for $50 more, going with a g-sync monitor is the way to go. I’ll admit, I’ve never owned or seen a g-sync monitor, but from what I’ve read/watched online, it can make a big difference once you play games that start lowering the FPS quite a bit, is that right?
3. Hadn’t really thought about it until it was just brought up, but is there a material difference between the black and white for the $50 difference? Not quite sure which one I like better yet, but I’m leaning towards white. If there was a material/finish difference then that would make the decision easier.
4. Seems like the consensus is to extend the warranty through dell, would that be better than getting a squaretrade warranty?

Can’t wait for the benchmarks from actual users in this forum, I’m trying my hardest to hold off ordering until I start seeing them. I’m getting impatient though, I keep building the system on dell.com multiple times a day, even though nothing has changed...

 

It will run fine at full power from one 330W adapter for that config. Should not consume more than 330W with RTX2070 config

Confirmation it works normally with 1 power adapter (page 5)
https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/alienware-17-area51m-laptop_setup-guide_en-us.pdf

 

I'd be concerned with the White "soft touch" finish turning yellow / darkening with use from your palms. And the outside attracting dark marks from casual use. The dark grey / gunmetal color will hide marks very well and should not discolor. (a consideration from someone on the move; where TSA may not care of scuffing against a zipper)

 

That is an excellent point, thank you so much! I used to have an HP Elitebook for work that had that “soft touch” light gray finish and after a few months it did have a lot of yellow stains from my sweaty palms carrying it to all my meetings. Tried hard to scrub it out since it was kind of embarrassing, but no luck. Thanks again!

 

I don't know how you use your laptop but I know mine gets pretty grubby around the keys and that put me off the white. I'd spend more time polishing my laptop than playing with it.

 

The only drawback regarding the in-built G-Sync monitors is they will not work with an Alienware Graphics Amp in case you were thinking of one later on, say after a couple of years when the 2080 is starting to show its age.

This is just my opinion but I am not 100% convinced that the high end graphics, like you are planning, will suffer from screen tear. I can honestly say I have never noticed it in all my years of playing games but maybe others have. Maybe it is of some value where the graphics level is set too high for the capability of the card but ...... As I said earlier that is just my opinion but I am sure there are other more knowledgeable people on this forum.

 

Actually had a friend with an Alienware 13 OLED who swore by it and said burn-in was a non-issue. Next thing I know, its off to the service dept. w/ severe burn-in issues. Is definitely a problem. Having owned OLED/AMOLED phones though, I don't think it is as much an issue as one might believe. You just have to take the right precautions... For one thing, you should ensure you have an active screen saver or the screen times out and you shouldn't have a huge issue.

Honestly, most (if not all) of the oled screens are also glossy, which I'm not a huge fan of anyways. Glossy screens are good for showroom floors but are highly impractical for day-to-day use. For example, when trying to write on my SB (off topic, i know...) it often reflects any lights that are directly above or around it, making it difficult to see stuff on the screen.

There are Pros & Cons to g-sync. TBH it is honestly a bit overhyped. You may want to read up on it more.

Same question on the material differences of the 2 color options.

You should check out Micro Center's warranty. Haven't had to used mine yet but its terms are really really good. I believe if they can't fix, then you get in store credit equiv. to the original value of the unit.

 

Interesting, that actually was my plan if the next gen cards weren’t able to fit into the 51m. Do you mean that the screen on the laptop won’t work with the AGA, or that even an external monitor wouldn’t work since the laptop has a g-sync screen? With the AGA I would be using an external monitor.

 

I'm honestly not sure why they would waste throughput on such a port over USB C/TB3. Honestly I would have rather had another TB3 Port over the graphics amp port...

 

Thanks, I’ll for sure read more about it while I wait for reviews.

I don’t believe I have a micro center around me (Indiana). I just checked squaretrade and its over $500 for a 3 year warranty!!! At that price I would just go through dell

 

I know the internal monitor will not work because G-Sync ties the screen directly to the inbuilt GPU. It might work for an external display but I am not sure. If you don't get a definitive answer here try the Graphics Amp forum.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ll-13-15-and-17.770323/page-415#post-10861205

 

With Dell you can't get money back LOL and can get refurbished replacements, etc. You will probably want to compare the terms of different options closely.

'sides that I probably would't take a 3 year warranty out on a laptop anyways. Even if you can update GPU/CPU/ETC. Some big new thing (like PCIE 4.0) is bound to come out within 3 years anyways.

 

I found this in a review by Laptopmag.com
" I was surprised to learn that the Area-51m comes with an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU. When you're not gaming or doing some other GPU-intensive task, Nvidia's Optimus technology kicks in and switches to this lesser graphics chip."

Link https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-area-51m

 

For some reason my 3d mark acct is broken so I can't see my individual benchmarks, but they are still showing up in comparisons...

Comparing the top prev posted Area 51m Benchmark to my last 3 laptops...
The newer 1070 sli Titan bench is stock I believe. @Mr. Fox
CPU definitely makes a difference.

Just for some sh*ts and giggles:
https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/18207499/fs/16736320/fs/12925841/fs/8357459#

 

So finally, there is G-sync and Optimus working together without any manual input in Area-51M?

desktop work >> auto Optimus (only Intel gpu used)
launch a game>>auto G-sync Nvidia

WTF???

 

Gsync could have been disabled or not present in the review model for performance reasons.

 

Oh no, switching between graphic cards have never been a good function for me. That's just a good way to hide thermal weaknesses. And it makes me feel like I bought a plane to drive around streets

Sent from my MIX 3 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah! WTF! I am currently running a Clevo with a i7-6700K and a G-Sync monitor and I can assure you my Optimus isn't working. I re-read the review and he mentions G-Sync and he mentions Optimus. My understanding was they can't work together, hence my original question regarding non G-Sync monitors.

 

i think it's a mistake from that reviewer, which is hardly a good review to begin with. unless there's a dedicated mux switch to switch between igpu and dgpu, no way it will has auto switching aka optimus. besides, the display on the laptop is connected directly to the dgpu, not the motherboard itself. the igpu for area-51m is only used to drive external display from thunderbolt 3. u can rest easy.

 

There is definitely Intel 630 driver for Area 51-M in their driver support.

 

The specs for the test laptop states 1920 x 1080 144Hz display so it could have been non-G-Sync.

 

***facepalm*** I forgot that this can be ordered without G-sync.

 

Honestly, I almost never take my Triton with me anywhere, its actually considerably lighter than my SurfaceBook, but the performance trade-off to battery isn't worth it.

I think you will find the same will apply to the Alienware 51m. LOL. Honestly i'd probably just go with the GSync. Optimus has sh*tty tradeoffs and is basically a built in performance limiter. The small battery improvements just aren't worth it, esp. with regard to software glitches/issues. Also there might be possibility you can disable GSync and still have optimus (not sure on that one).

What i'm wondering is why no HDR screens are offered...

 

If that is so, then when connected to an external display, do you lose some of the gpu featues, like Nvidia 3d Vision? Will it affect the use of VR Headsets?

Will be interesting to see if the magnesium parts change the stiffness/rigidity of the computer compared to aluminum systems.

 

Looking at the Dell US website the only screen configuration that the reviewer could have had based on his CPU would have been G-Sync. So either Dell have worked out how to use Optimus with G-Sync or the the review is BS.

 

@ alexnvidia, I'm not sure if the switching function will be the same with what people usually get in a MacBook Pro. If that's the case, everytime main GPU kicked in, the fans ran wild. The downside was, at that time, I felt like my laptop having unusual behavior (but in reality, that's what it supposes to be). Also, there're few rare cases when switching failed, the fan kept going crazy when nothing heavy happening

 

I like the idea of Optimus because when I am in the office I sometimes play Hearts of Iron IV and that didn't activate the discrete GPU in my old lappie so I could play and still remain silent. Currently when I do that I make a tiny little bit of noise and a lot more heat.

 

Fan control, battery settings, whisper mode, underclock

 

Yeah I know. I'm just lazy.

 

Arent we all! thats why they keep making those command centers

 

This.

 

I wonder how they'd stop it. An easy test is can you swap around the DC connectors at the back, or are they made in a way that the 180W and 330W go into a specific slot each?

 

I was told it was the G-sync which requires direct connection to the panel and therefore prevents the Intel GPU from being used.

 

Just placed my 2nd order after 1st one was canceled. Though now at least on the order it actually says RTX 2080 instead of GTX 1080 with free upgrade.
Again my order:
- i7 9700K
- Win 10 Pro
- RTX 2080
- Lunar Light
- FHD 144hz + G-Sync + Tobii
- 32GB Ram
- 256 GB SSD (will upgrade this myself to 1TB sasmung 970 pro)
- Also added the 1 year accidental damage as it was cheap (20€)

Total paid: € 2938.34 (without taxes, as it is a business purchase)
My previous canceled order, which was the exact same configuration, was something a little more expensive then € 2600. When I initially saw that price I expected it was a mistake, and I was also prepared to pay more for that laptop to begin with. So for me nothing changed really.
Too bad there is no sales rep in my country that can help me with discounts. Oh well.

 

The upgrade from Home to Pro on the Dell UK configurator is £7.20 so it works out a worthy choice IMO, meaning future reinstalls go without a hitch.

I've heard of these grey market keys failing when reinstalling the OS or making any hardware changes to the machines, so feel they are a risky choice. For less than a tenner to have the Pro version its a no brainer to me - especially remote desktop and ability to stop forced updates!

@Halewafa is it $50 for the white version on the US site, as on the UK configurator it is a no cost option? That's odd from Dell.

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/samsung-cranks-out-industrys-first-32gb-ddr4-modules-for-gaming-laptops/

I wonder if this could be used to free up a tiny bit more juice for ocing? Or to upgrade to 128gb? Anyone know if it will support 32 gb modules?
19 cas isnt horrible i guess.... Still not that great though.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAH418RZ1181&Description=32gb ddr4 sodimm&cm_re=32gb_ddr4_sodimm-_-0RM-002H-000W9-_-Product

Wifi Card doesn't support the new Ax standard?

 

Remember Dell's firmware will recognize which power adapter which is in use. And I’m sure it doesn't matter which socket of the two you use. A simple code string in firmware can easily stop use of modified psu.
And 330w is max adapter size Dell offer for now.

Edit. For the records... I think Dell’s Hybrid Power design will add in some extra power if needed if you use the smaller power adapter. Up to a certain level before the power cap kicks in to save the battery from running into fire.

Maybe bro @Falkentyne can give you some more info on how *proper* Battery Boost features works.

 

Hi
Is it a great deal to select RAID0 SSD 512 (2X256go?) Not too risk?
With my config, and with a dell coupon, this option costs me only 100euros more, and 500Go cost nearly 130Euro in the market.
At first i wanted to buy 1to NVME on market (250euros) but with the price augmentation of AREA 51m, raid 0 512go should be a great deal.
What do you think?

 

I'd be careful with the OEM SSD's...
had to help a friend replace the OEM ssd in his Dell laptop b/c the crap toshiba ssd failed in under a year.
Should cost the same (or less) to buy some nice Samsung SSDs. Also the individual ssds will have warranties that should exceed that of the laptop itself.
I've been using one of the 2 500gb 950 pros I got over 4 years ago for my GT80s Titan in my Triton 700 currently. I have over 30tbw to it and its still running strong at 99% health. The other I sold used for about 30c/gb on ebay.