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

OK, doesn't sound like an Earth-shattering improvement then. I'm already on Kryonaut - good performance all around unless I fire up CB20. Thanks for the info, might still be worth trying this paste if I need to run CB20-level loads on regular basis.

 

Run Heaven benchmark on it for an hour or so to ensure stability. Usually it "looks" stable at the beginning until it crashes.
P.S., I hope you are not going to lug it around anymore, because LM (especially conductonaut) can leak no matter how thin a layer you apply, if there is a sharp enough jerk given to the machine. I hope you used some kneaded eraser around the CPU with a foam dam on top with some liquid electrical tape to seal it off against the heat sink as well as a foam dam around the GPU. Don't pay heed to "Oh it never went bad for me" type of comments when using liquid metal because you won't see it coming when those silver goblets of doom decide to wreck your machine.

 

Versions 1.0.0.1, 1.0.0.2 and 1.0.0.3 are exactly the same, they just changed the installer, but all are the same 200w ROM image. I checked that with a binary comparer.

As for the BIOS, all versions are still there, maybe you are not looking in the right place: http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/alienware-17-area51m-laptop.html

 

Yes this is where I looked a week or so ago when I saw that version 1.3.2 Bios and both the old VBios'es were gone! I wonder if they changed something in the new downloadable files or was it just a broken link by somebody's honest mistake!

Edit: Just verified, the newly restored links have the same checksums as the old ones that I had locally. So this means somebody broke the links. But glad to have them all back online!

 

Alienware Area-51m System BIOS 1.6.2

Fixes:
- Firmware updates to address security advisories INTEL-SA-00213 (CVE-2019-0090, CVE-2019-0086, CVE-2019-0091, CVE-2019-0093 and CVE-2019-0098)
- Firmware updates to address security advisories INTEL-SA-00233(CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 and CVE-2019-11091)


Enhancements:
- Not Applicable.

 

Quick question that I think I know the answer to but not 100% on: my Area-51m came with the Killer 1550 wifi card. I purchased the 1650X card off Amazon to replace the 1550. I have no concerns about the physical installation process. On the software side, should I uninstall all the Killer stuff prior to swapping wifi cards? Or, if I install the card, will Windows automatically update the driver, etc.? Just wondering the best practice on this as I've actually never "upgraded" a wifi card within the same family of products (in this case Killer)...

 

Killer is just rebranded Intel cards with added bloatware to it. I'd buy AX200 or AX201 directly instead of going the killer route, but now that you have bought it, you should be good if you get rid of all the Killer bloatware and install the Intel drivers for that card. But that's my way of doing things. I tend to avoid unnecessary bloatware if I can.

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I'm aware these Killer cards are rebranded Intel cards. I would imagine the best way to do that would be to download the intel card drivers first (without installing), uninstall all the killer junk, then physically swap the wifi cards and install the intel drivers saved locally.

 

These drivers should work if it wasn't automatically detected:

WLAN
Bluetooth

When installing the WLAN Driver, uncheck the Killer Software.

Even if you install the Intel Drivers, that means NOTHING, Windows will still detect that you have a Killer Card and then automatically install the Killer Software for you, then you need to disable the Killer Networking Service, Killer Bandwidth Control service, and Xtend services and disable the Killer app from automatically running in the background.





Oh and don't listen to SK, even if you had bought the Intel variant of this card, Windows will STILL offer the Killer Software and extensions automatically through Windows update and the Windows store since you have a Killer LAN in your laptop which you can't replace.

@S.K

 

Thank you. Now, in the past I've had issues with Killer cards/software and just replaced them with Intel or qualcom chips and drivers. But recently I haven't had any hiccups with any of the killer stuff. Beyond the fact that it's essentially pointless, is there any drawback to just running the killer software and drivers as-is for the 1650x?

 

If you don't disable the stuff I told you to, you will immediately notice that your internet is super slow or stuff might report there is no internet connectivity. The moment you disable them, it runs at full speed with 0 hiccups. (make sure you reboot after you disable them)

 

Thank you! I'll follow your advice and disable that stuff.

 

Anyone tried BIOS v1.6.2?

 

Waiting on this as well. Want to see if the low thermal throttle is still in place on this revision.

 

You mean for the 2080? Because your/the 2070 can get over 75 degrees (with quiet fan-profile), also with the "actual" 1.5 Bios (activate a OC-profile in AWCC, then the 75 hard-limit goes away).

 

Are those the Intel fixes in the new bios? Dayumm don't wanna go near that, would probably end up selling this ans buying a ryzen desktop

 

Hi guys, I just notice that the two Alienware logos in my A51m don't show accurate colors compared to the rest of the lighted parts (keyboard keys, touchpad, macros, tron) Could anyone confirm if this is really how the colors are emitted when passing through the translucent white logos. Both AW logos (power button and the one at the back of the lid) shows the exact same color. RGB used is 37,170,255.

Below are photos showing the color of the power button light compared to the keyboard/touchpad and the image shown in the AW Command Center.

Spoiler

Thanks!

 

Some info for you... Worried About LED, OLED Blue Light Eye Damage? Dell Is

Maybe they will offer a short bulletin to warning or offer free computer glasses for their customers who already have bought their models with this types screens/panels. Because as Dell already have stated..." isn't taking any chances".

Most likely a problem on hardware level. Such as Low quality paths/traces on the Motherboards PCB who isn't good enough for faster ram. I can't see an another reason they didn't went with 2666MHz ram support (who is Intels Memory specs for 8/9th gen processors) alrady with the release of Area-51m in Jan/Feb.

You all should try get hold in Ernie Gonzales at Alienware. He make the teardowns videos for Alienware (AW's product manager). See if you find his twitter account and then ask when they will offer the AWCC app with better ram support. But I'm quite sure you won't be allowed to tweak your ram from Bios. Dell doesn't offer that. Only from an proprietary App.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-696#post-10892466

 

Do you have Mr. Ernie's Twitter?

 

I think its here...
https://twitter.com/SpaceCase522

Here is a few from the thread... Expect some annoying quirks. But it still works.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-397#post-10876930

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-397#post-10876930

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-397#post-10876916

 

Thank you Mr. Sherlock Holmes

I tweeted him

@nkc

You once asked me to inform you when the 2TB 970 EVO Plus is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-...plus+2tb&qid=1561675081&s=gateway&sr=8-2&th=1

 

Anyone try the new BIOS yet? Curious how perfomance is and how it compares to the less preferred, 1.5.4 BIOS.

 

I only want moar powah. If it’s not as good as 1.3.2, count me out!

 

There are no quirks. Initially when first released older BIOS(s) didn't properly show overclock options for these K processors.
That has since been resolved. Both the 8700K and the 8086K work perfect and show all BIOS options.

 

I guess nobody is interested in this “fake laptop king" anymore. Just give up this throttling weak crap and wait for the true king GT76.

 

The first review of the GT76 is out from notebook check. Now I always wait for more then one but so far the temps of the gpu are not great cpu is a little better. The difference is not so great. Now to wait for more reviews, re pasting and of course mods for the msi. It will be fun to see how far people can take the GT76.

 

Hi.

I'm mailing back an M17 I ordered from the outlet that had some serious thermal issues. When that's all done I'm going to go for the 51m instead.

The only decision left for me is the color. I kinda prefer the white but I'd rather have the dark one than a white one with stains.

Other than one person on reddit who posted about a staining problem, I don't see a lot of talk about how the finish holds up. Anyone else seen theirs collect grime or stains that can't just be wiped off?

 

You gotta help me out lol

If you have TB3 working then iGPU should be able to work too since it doesn't rely on the dGPU for TB3 video output.

I am trying to use my Apple Thunderbolt display using the TB3 port. Works on my Clevo P870DM in macOS. If I can get TB3 working and then iGPU working with acceleration it'll be perfect.

Anything new in BIOS? 2666Mhz RAM support? LOL

 

It is very puzzling to me how they design these laptops to expel 300W-400W of heat with two tiny fans and a tiny heatsink.

There is ample space for an extra fan. There is room for bigger fans. And more importantly, there is a glaringly obvious design that would allow you to stand your laptop onto a base that would enhance its cooling capabilities. The laptop would snap-in to this base and the total size would be no different than using a laptop stand (ie extra 1.5"-3" height), which I believe most gamers use anyway.

Over to the AW17R5 forum, a user has glued extra passive heatsinks on the copper heat pipes on the underside of the laptop. These are 2-3mm thick heatsinks, as used on SSD drives, and do not make the laptop thicker. A laptop stand's fan blowing on these heatsinks from the underside would make a ton of difference, especially if this was designed and built at the factory and incorporated into the heatsink, and not simply a glue-on. If you want to see photos pop over to the AW17R5 forum.

Therefore, I wonder...

 

Let's see how the GT76 responds, but the first review indicates it's not very promising. Despite the supposedly better cooling, the GPU temps are frustrating. The CPU may run cooler, but you will never need so much CPU power (5GHz on all cores) when coupling with the RTX 2080 for gaming.
The area 51m throttles only if you are on > 1.5.0 BIOS.

 

I haven't tested the new bios version that just came out so can't comment on it yet. Has anyone tested it? Apparently it just has a bunch of security fixes that will likely slow the performance down a little bit (I suspect). It should be safe to install though since one can always go back to 1.3.2 using my bios downgrade guide.

 

I haven't tested it, but I think it will maintain the same throttling at 74c for the GPU that the 1.5.4 introduced and slow down the CPU with the new security patches introduced by Intel to fix the latest vulnerabilities.
I have no intention to upgrade the bios version unless they release a new one with support for 2666 MHz memory modules. Versions 1.3.2 and 1.5.0 seems to be very stable

 

I hope you are not really expecting them to do anything "good" for us. Azor lied to us and left to the dark side.

 

I don't understand what you're complaining about really, it's a desktop 9900k processor which has issues running cool even on a water pumped desktop. How can you expect it to run cool on a 2" laptop?

My 9700k never went beyond 80c while gaming and rendering and I was using it @4.7Ghz on all cores with a -125mv offset. The GPU stayed below 75C @ 1950Mhz (925mV offset)
I think its quite reasonable for a laptop considering the power it packs!



Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

I did a clean windows installation on the laptop. Installed Windows 10 LTSC to get of the annoying windows feature upgrades, cortana and so on.
I installed all the drivers in the order that @Ultra Male pointed out and everything is working fine (I haven't tested thunderbolt yet) including the nahimic services (I didn't have to install them manually). Everything is working fine in the AWCC, including the FX and button to select the audio profile.
I didn't install the Dell bloat such as support assist, OSD, upgrade assistant, etc.
Didn't install Nvidia experience, I don't want more Telemetry crap, I prefer to download the drivers manually.

For the tweaks I applied you can take a look at this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...xes-index-post-1.779394/page-99#post-10927263

 

He he, 1334 pages of fires, heat, throttling BIOS and you "don't understand" ? But I am not "complaining", I was floating an idea, which I think is obvious: have a "base station heatsink extension" - you'd just clip your laptop on to it while it is stationary on your desk and would run much cooler. Seeing as everyone has a laptop stand which already raises the back by 2-3", imagine if instead of a stand you had a base with an integrated heatsink extension and its own fans.

 

Having an ... issue... with my A51M but not sure what's wrong.

Playing overwatch on the built-in 144hz display. Framerate in game is unlocked and does occasionally hit 160+ fps @ 1080p max settings, max FoV.

However, most the time my game is running about 90-120fps. It's totally playable. However, when I first got the machine I was hitting near 200fps at ALL TIMES in Overwatch.

I've scoured the settings. I've done a re-install.

HWINFO shows good temps (sub 60c at all times on GPU). Both power supplies are plugged in. Max performance in Nvidia panel and system panel.

Afterburner shows 98% GPU usage most the time.

CPU is locked at 4.8Ghz (9900k) on all cores. Temps are around 75c most the time when playing.

200w VBIOS. 1.3.2 BIOS.

No matter what I do, my frames are only 60-70% of what they once were.

I guess I'll play some other games and see how things go (determine if it feels system wide)... but I know SOMETHING is up.

 

Just throwing this out there, doubt it's the problem, but you don't have anything set in your NVIDIA control panel global settings for supersampling or anything do you?

 

Really appreciate the quick reply and the idea... but unfortunately, I've reviewed the global settings a few times now, and no, that's not enabled (nor are other performance killers).

 

Woah woah woah.

Yeah, something is up. Big time. Ran a Firestrike. I don't remember all my scores, but I did upload one to IMGUR to share here when I got the machine.

Score at time of purchase: 24,447 with a graphics score of 28,187.
Score today: 13,165 with a graphics score of 14,080.

WTF is going on?

Nvidia drivers are up to date. Nothing goofy operational wise. Machine is running smooth. Temps are great.
Did my GPU kinda die? I've literally never run into something like this before. Surely it's just a setting... just not sure what it could be.

 

Are you seeing throttling on GPU clock speeds? CPU clock?

 

Wow, yea that is bizarre. I'm not aware of GPUs "kinda dying"...the fact that it still scored 14,080 on the graphics score says it is functioning (definitely not somehow running iGPU or anything). In AWCC, what are your OC settings for CPU and GPU? In afterburner, does the OC scanner work on the 51m? I haven't tested that on mine, but if it does, maybe run it and see what it will put your GPU at?

 

No, not at all.

I have a custom frequency profile for the 2080 - it tops out at 1900mhz and RTSS is showing somewhere around 1875 during the entire run.

CPU is LOCKED at 4.8GHz no issues or adjustments at all. Zero throttling. CPU never jumps above 77c on the benchmark.

 

I don't understand. If it isn't throttling, and everything is running at these speeds, how the hell are the scores so low? This is over my (admittedly limited) head...hopefully an expert here can chime in and help.

 

That's why I'm struggling to.

Clocks are high. Temps are good. No throttling. Full (90+% usage) on GPU.

Reduced frames in Overwatch and a FS score that's ~40% less than it was last time I tested. I'm stumped.

I did a re-install of OW; same thing. I may do a CC Clean on Nvidia drivers and try a reinstall there next, but need to head to work...

 

Yea doing a DDU clean of your video drivers is the next easy check to make. Curious...are OW and 3DMark installed on the same drive? Do you have any other drives on the system? If so, perhaps run a game or bench that is stored on that drive and see results?

 

Try with older Nvidia drivers, I experienced a performance drop with the latests ones. Use DDU and try with the latests Dell's GPU drivers just to make sure if it's a software related problem or not. Those drivers from Dell are old but they work better for me.

 

Run a Dell diagnostic test to see if your GPU is actually running in x8. Looks like it is not. Or you could take a quick look at GPU-Z and see what it shows. I'd still advise you to run a diagnostic test (hold down FN key while powering up the machine)

 

Are you on the new Bios? I tried it yesterday, ran firestrike score of 15k! I went back to 1.5.0 and back to 28k gpu score. I did not even try to investigate the issue as when I went back to older bios issue was gone.

 

Have you noticed a difference between 1.3.2 and 1.5.0? I personally find 1.3.2 to be a little bit more snappy compared to 1.5.0. Also felt that average frame rate when playing games was a little bit higher (within margin of error but nonetheless).