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

I got the Vindicator 2 17 when I had the AW 17 R4 before returning it for a refund as I wasn't happy with it. They let me keep the backpack thou, so I still have it unused. Gonna be a perfect fit for the 51M!

 

Terreos - Ah sorry mate, I am with you now. Thanks for that. Will keep you posted with the overclocking

 

I still have a 15” vindicator for the exact same reason. They refunded me for the laptop as they couldn’t fix it and were not interested in the bag!

 

Even my AW 13 has 2 options there - Fan and CPU performance. Yeah, long gone are the days when we had open AW BIOS's with TDP, voltage and Memory controls. Well, I hope they offer a way to tweak those but not holding my breath. What a bummer...

 

Yeah I am a long time Alienware user and they seem to get more sparse with every release!

At least I got the k cpu so there are a lot of options in intel xtu or throttlestop

 

Huh. Well. Dell sent me an email offering me a 10% discount on cancelled order. So it would be more than I asked for as a discount. And free express shipping. I'm gonna see if they can add some extra warranty at a discount too. Don't see why I shouldn't accept this very gracious offer.

 

Anybody else in the US getting a run-around with their 51M? Bought mine on the 17th of January scheduled to arrive on the 20th. Few days ago they tried to cancel my order over a configuration error (wrong power CORD of all things) Got that figured out. Statues was put that said custom-build item is complete. Then this morning that went away and not getting they are backordered on the LCD screen! Anybody else getting this many issues?

 

Welcome to the party.

 

Man I even DM Frank Azor on Twitter and he said it was going to go on the 20th. This blows big time!

 

Yup. Pretty much this. I cancelled my order a few days ago. A manager reached out and told me they want to fix this for me. I told them what I wanted for collateral. . .and surprisingly they gave it to me. Right now I'm seeing if they can add some additional warranty and I'll reorder mine. So I can't tell about the monitor backorder.

 

My sales rep won't take or return my calls.... I ordered on Jan 10th.... Still in confirmed status..... Dell sales is beyond horrible...

 

What is better than offer you an app from Micro$oft Store?

 

"Most" US arrival dates are set for the 20th it seems. Until that day arrives, I don't see much point in getting bent out of shape.

 

Yeah the gal from the order mod. that I was talking to hasn't returned any of my emails as well. You would think this is a small company or something!

 

I hope someone tries this on a live system to see what is actually changeable and what is just status. Seems like a possible compromise on the locked down BIOS.

Homer

 

True, did you order on January 9th too?

 

Another update on psu. Just been using the system the 180w psu and it behaves the same as the 240w

Good news for me, as the 180w is quite compact and it still has pretty good performance on it (full cpu but gpu about 40% less powerful)

Also just updated the bios 1.2 and they have added the cpu overclock option into the performance tab!

 

Do you mean we can manage with two 180w total?

EDIT: Or do you mean you can run the computer with only the 180w, but not gaming?

 

12th. Same ship date as many others. I have my doubts it’ll arrive on time but I’m reserving judgement until the 20th.

 

Yeah I'm hoping that all this crap is for nothing but I have a feeling there is no way I get mine by the 20th. If so great i'll be eating crap but I just don't see it happening.

 

He said the 2070 GPU performs "40% less powerful" with one 180w adapter.

So it performs like a GTX 1060 max-q (or whatever has 60% of a RTX 2070s power). And would be able to game at 1060 max-q frame rates and game settings.

 

Yep, as thatoldguy said. 1 x 180w adapter will still allow you to game. It gives me full stock 9700k performance and about 40% less gpu (it gives similar results to my full fat 1060 in the fhd Razer Blade Pro)

Looking at Nvidia inspector it locks the gpu to the p3 state with one adapter. I will see if it is possible to adjust those clocks (does anyone know? You used to be able to using inspector via command line in the old day)
Edit, just ran time spy and got a gfx score of 4077 and the system was silent through the test! Great if you fancy some quiet gaming

 

New video:

Maybe check out the new BIOS and compare performance? Should also have more options in BIOS:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...WT64A&productCode=alienware-17-area51m-laptop

Damn, that's a nice discount. What did you say on the phone? lol

If you don't want it send me the quote LOL

 

Yep, installed the new bios about an hour ago. Didn’t notice a lot of difference.
Currently testing out the command centre overclock profiles

 

If you are interested in seeing the app and how it works. Take a look into my older post here with Alienwares second chieef Umar Khan in action... Showing Dell's brand new overclocking features. The app works almost exactly as Razers own propritary tool. Mod bios won't do nothing.

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Some more info...

Be careful with Dell's firmware updates. You will never know what will hit youre system! Firmware Guru @Prema has already posted same warning in the thread.



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And it's about time put out one of the first performance numbers from Azor's "worlds fastest laptop".

The early performance numbers from this model was already known the fall last year (Now, 2018).

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/18155964/fs/16959173#

Lovely?

 

Come-on Papu, let's not make it look worse than it is. 51M results have gotten a lot better since November:

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/18345992/fs/18155964

Edit: Both are stock

 

OK a few pictures of the laptop and the vindicator 2 17" bag.

 

Here is a cinebench at stock clocks and time spy/firestrike with the OC1 profile. The high temps during cinebench is because of dell slow default profile. It allows the CPU to reach 98c before it starts spinning the fans up. Will try it again later on max fans.

 

Wow, within 5%, with the Clevo @ +300MHz CPU. Much better than I was expecting at stock

 

So got off the phone with Dell and reordered the Area 51m. Like I mentioned before they gave me a 10% discount on my canceled order and express shipping for free. They didn't budge on the warranty price, but I'm still spending less on this overall than I was before. So I'm happy with that. Estimated delivery is March 1. So fingers crossed this will go smoothly. Probably going to go ahead and order the Ram upgrades and ssd from newegg. Since they hopefully know what power bricks to ship with the laptop.

 

See the Edit http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-173#post-10865229

 

So the Clevo comes 5 Ghz @ stock? I thought that was on 1 Core. Nice though.

Doesn't change that its impressive given Clevo's LGA petigree that the AW is so close.

I guess where you and @Prema care most is how much you can overclock both systems. In which case the Clevo should be the clear winner. I will be very surprised if the AW can make it within 10% of a fully optimized overclocked Clevo

 

ninja2000's A51's 2070 fire strike graphic score is interesting when compared to what Gigabyte is claiming their Aorus 15 2019 with a 2070 is able to get. They are saying their laptop gets 21,340 (see video below) vs. the A51's of 20,288.



I haven't seen any reviews of the Aorus 15 2019 to validate Gigabyte's claim yet as that number seems higher than other laptop benchmarks I've seen with the 2070.

 

@|Ninja Happy VDay ... I snooped your Tag

it says u have Bios Recovery 2; I'll link below so members can bookmark if needed

'These are the BIOS features that recover from corrupted BIOS, & attempt recovery of a No POST (Power On Self Test) / No Boot issue'; see SJ's post below for instructions; link has video how-to: BIOS Recovery options on a Dell PC or Tablet

2400 mem on sales menu lists 2666 in Tag, confirmed by your pic

Your Bios calls the SSD a Sammy, your receipt = Hynix PC401 ?

• 3N3W3 is part# for 51M SSD Heatsink
• 3N3W3 unavailable Dell/USA (as of 2.19.19)
• JV98R may be alternative part# (from AW17R4) $4.99 each

I didn't see CPU/GPU heatsink listed (nor part#) > see side vents

Q: is that MoonLight finish ok so far w/ grubby fingers?

 

Yeah, its a progress, but Azor know the numbers when he with his team created the promo matrial for CES last fall.

 

Haha that’s ok mate, I realised once I put it up that I should have wiped that out. Anyway yes the ram is 2666 Kingston modules (unusual for dell to use Kingston!) I have tried overclocking the ram in xtu and have not managed anything above 2400 yet.

The ssd is a Samsung pm981 installed and I was pleased to see a heat sink on it unlike the m15 I had recently.

When I get more time I will remove the rib cage and take some good shots of the heat sink.

And with regards to the colour, due to the off white tint I think it will hold up pretty well to grubby fingers. It has a good feel to it and looks good in person.

Another nice touch was they included the 2.5” caddy and SATA cable so I can add my 2.5” ssd. I have had models over the last couple of years where the caddy was missing leaving me the pain of sourcing it through dell

 

Could be a few things going on there. Aorus probably tweaked the laptop before hand. Undervolting and overclocking to give higher than out of box numbers. Once it's released we will see how they stack up.

And I'm sure with some tweaking the Area 51m will make up the lost ground.

 

Guys, I'm getting one hell of an itchy trigger finger. So far so good, it seems.

 

Area-51M BIOS Recovery (Thanks @Cass-Olé ):

1) Download the BIOS you want to flash from the Dell Support website: https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...WT64A&productCode=alienware-17-area51m-laptop

2) Rename BIOS file to: BIOS_IMG.rcv

3) Put on ROOT of USB drive (format as FAT32)

4) Shut down AW and remove AC Adapter

5) Press and hold CTRL + ESC while performing the next step

6) Plug in AC Adapter and press power button

7) Release CTRL + ESC once the power LED turns on

8) Select Recover BIOS option and wait for it to finish

 

You definitely have to ask for bigger discount. Somebody has about 1000$ off, so at least you can try. I think I gonna cancel my order, for two reasons. First of all, cause I don't like that I have to pay more than others for no reason. And also, they lie too much. They promised me additional 100$ to Dell account for the inconvenience, but there is only about 89$ pending, its the same 3% that everyone is get. What if need to fix laptop by warranty, they gonna lie to me all the time? I'd rather buy mITX desktop and some ultrabook than this laptop and be scammed by those Indian smart asses.

 

How to send a message to Frank Azor? I've tried on Twitter too, but still nothing.

 

In my original post I go over that I told them what I wanted to get my business. They gave my more. So I can't argue with that. Plus if you look in the Razer forums you'll see I had to go on reddit to get a refund from Razer that was over a month late. Dell reached out and worked with me. Yes they screwed up. Yes they lied. But the ones that helped me? That speaks volumes to me.

As far as the lucky guy that got $1000 discount? Chances are there is alot more going on than just the rep was feeling nice. Probably knew the rep, had discounts, and coupons. So not everyone is gonna get that.

Remember I preordered back in January the day it was revealed. I was lied too by two reps. So of course any good rep will offer me a discount to get my money. And this far better than anything Razer has done for me.

 

I got $800 off and I got the lowest spec you can get other than I have the 144hz screen with tobii. All I did was call them up and told them what I wanted and what I was willing to spend. At first he suggested I go with an m17 but I insisted that if I couldn't get what I wanted now then I would just wait. He ended up getting it down to the price I was willing to spend with tax and then I took the rest of the money I had and put it toward purchasing my own upgrades.

 

Updating the BIOS on a computer that is working correctly is NEVER a good idea. It is a great way to turn something you like into a malfunctioning piece of garbage. Wouldn't be unusual for Dell/Alienware to release fecesware. They've done it more than once. It really got my attention for the first time they cut the nuts off the M18xR2 and everyone had to blind flash to regain control of their beastbook.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is good advice. Let someone else be the crash test dummy and see how it turns out. Probably three or four somebody else would be even smarter. Most of the notebook manufacturers do not allow downgrading firmware. Measure three or four times and cut once.

The people creating the firmware are not your friend. Only the firmware modding wizards are your friend, and the Nazis have gone to a lot of trouble to prevent them from correcting the problems and functional impairments that are induced by design.

 

I ordered basic HDD as I plan to add my own nvme .... I wonder what the chances are that they include the heatsync for it... I searched for the part number for the heatsync (3N3W3), doesn't show up anywhere...

 

On that note, does it include an extra M.2 “panel”? In the internals picture you sent, we can see your M.2 drive with a black piece of plastic on top of it, holding it down in place. To the left of your battery is the space where a second M.2 drive (that you didn’t purchase) would go. So, do you have the second black panel to secure it (was it included)? I’m nervous now, to think I went with the SSHD only and have an M.2 waiting to go in, but find myself missing that tiny piece of plastic to actually put it in correctly :S.

Please advise!!!

 

I’m very interested also in this one as I’m waiting for my and also ordered a m.2 from amazon to add later when I receive the laptop

 

I'm curious about this too! I have two nvme drives sitting here waiting to go in when I get it...

 

Man, how are you guys getting those discounts LOL

I decided to use the online chat for fun just to see what I can get out of them and this is the "best" they could do:

$5,493.97 after tax
$5,207.50 after discount
i9 9900K, 32GB ram, 1tb raid0, rtx 2080, 4 year warranty with accidental, 144hz g-sync + tobii 144hz lunar light

with 512gb raid0 and basic 1 year warranty (everything else same):

$4,164.99 subtotal
$4,050.00 subtotal with discount