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

Just got word back from Xotic that the screen is the G-SYNC version. Placing order right now for the build in the above quoted post.

Total cost including shipping and 2 year warranty that includes accidental screen damage (I am at an overseas military base so I don't pay sales tax and will be doing bank transfer that qualifies for 3% savings for cash payment):

$4190.48

Was informed when I placed my order over the phone that they nor any other re-seller will be receiving the laptops before the end of the month. I told them that as long as I get it before I leave Afghanistan to go home on R&R by March 31 I will be happy.

 

Interesting. Those seem to be relatively nice numbers. I have never been so glad that I returned the 17R5 and decided to wait for this. Also is that test using Max fan profile right from the start?

On the other hand, this kinda does not bode well for 9900k but I would like to see a proper test with a 9900k/2800 configuration. Not like I expected it to contain that chip but it would be interesting to see how it performs regardless

 

If you want to have the brand new laptop yanked open (literally), warped, abused and with snapped cover clips, then great, call out the Dell "techie"...

 

1) Price must be a very serious compromise. I bet you can get the same or better performance at 1/3 of the price?

2) Lack of screen estate? A desktop would have a 22"+ screen, whereas laptops (mostly) stop at 17".

3) Complete lack of screen choice - a couple of hundred pounds buys you a new screen, maybe more Hz, maybe better Adobe RGB, maybe higher res - no way to do this in a laptop (or extremely hard).

4) Lack of upgrades as CPU and GPU are soldered - very few laptops have socketed, and practically exchangeable CPU / GPU.

5) Much inferior keyboards and non changeable

6) keyboard stuck right up the screen, so you have to type with arms extended unless you like the screen up your nose

These are all very serious compromises for users of laptops, and each of these could be a game changer for some people. Of course laptops have the one and only advantage, instant portability, for which all the above sacrifices are gladly made.

 

Doofus - So true, I have had dell reps damage a precision and 2 x aw 17s over the last couple of years!

But also they sounded like they had no intention of making a lunar white keyboard. If I liked the black colour I might have pushed for an exchange but I really love the white

 

Can anyone tell me if the 9700K/RTX2070 Comes with 1 AC adapter or 2?

 

Two

180 and 240

 

Thankyou. I must have read somewhere Incorrectly that one of the Spec'd 51M only required 1!

 

About not being able to use official Nvidia drivers... shouldn't inf-modding work?

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvidia-inf-driver-modding-guide.377158/

 

How is the Alienware Area 51M going to support future CPU upgrades if they're on different sockets?

 

Where do you find these? For future reference? ;-)

 

https://premamod.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/j95-nvidia-inf/

 

You just pray that the new intel CPUs support that socket.

I mean the "upgrade" portion of this unit is hinging on whether it will be feasible on future iterations of the GPU and CPU. If it does, hooray! I really can't blame Dell for this. But hey, no BGA is already better than what we can get with most of the DTRs out there. Your board bricks, you now have options if the CPU and GPU are fine Personally for me, the CPU staying safe is more than enough as I can just plop that on a regular desktop motherboard.

 

Y o u r c u s t o m - b u i l t i t e m i s c o m p l e t e .
*Breathing intensifies* Ships by the 21st, arrives by the 26th :O

 

And now I’m worried about ordering from them and getting the B-tier cooling solution. Between lots of confusion on what you get front dell, and considering xotic prolly adds their own 9900k to the lesser device from dell, I’d hate to order and miss the best cooling solution.

 

That’s my fear. Knowing my luck Intels 10th gen sockets will complete with what AMD did with Ryzen and support 3 generations! I might hold fire.

 

So I tried ordering the m.2 heatsinks from Dell Canada. $5.99 each, so 2 will be ~$12
No free shipping though. Shipping is $15. That's more than the heatsinks themselves.

I guess I'll just let my SSDs run hot

 

Thanks!

 

TBH, due to the uncertainty of what package the next gen intel CPUs would look like, I took CPU upgrades to mean within the same generation. For example, upgrading from i7-9700k to i9-9900k.

 

I know no one really knows but what’s the chances Intel 10TH gen will be on the same socket? Surely it’s probably worth waiting and getting the 51M with the next socket refresh? The 9TH gen is already on the same socket as the 8Th.

 

Just ordered mine 9700k with 2070. My first alienware ever! So hyped The wait begins....

 

Well, the system performance is great, to bad that there are a few problems with my system.

- Dead pixels on the left side of the screen.
- Scratches on the bezels from the box out. (Shiny parts)
- Right fan making a humming/buzzing sound on 50% speed. (Granted not a real big problem.)

Spoke to Dell, only option, return it for a refund, or send it to the repair depot.

Utterly dissapointed in Dell, can’t believe they just don’t send me a system swap, think i’m going for a refund, and think hard about re-order or going for another system.

With these kind of prices, everything has to be perfect imo.

 

Interesting, I see the same on my Dell's page, but one day it shows up and then next day its gone. Anyway, today they called me again to say that my order is "good to go", like production is complete at they waiting only for tracking number, so as soon as they get it they may send the laptop. I hope its gonna be in few days, this order supposed to be February 26th, but they promised before that.

 

Guys, anyone knows alternatives for Alienware's backpack? How about Everki? Anything?

 

Congratulations. I hope you will be happy with this laptop. This is mine 3rd Alienware (2 of them returned) and Area 51m canceled 3 timed so far, so will see..

 

Very true!! I remember the last tech who replaced the mobo on an AW15 I had, snapped the back cover lol... I was like "you idiot" lol.

I'll just push for some discount then

 

$4,119 shipped Dell with 4 year complete care

$3,196 shipped XoticPC with 2 year XoticPC warranty

What y'all think? Specs are the same

 

I haven't dealt with xoticpc before. So I can't speak for their ability to repair or customer service prowess.

Dell seems like if you get a good rep you can get things quickly fixed and looked at. But at $1000 premium? I'm not so sure.

 

The dell price is significantly reduced already from what the price would have been (around $4,700 normally?)

I know Dell offers next day on site warranty but I've never dealt with their complete care warranty.

I've heard some things about XoticPC being mixed but I don't like having to ship the laptop for repair and waiting 3-4 weeks.

But the price reduction is huge lol

 

I was talking to memeber here that the on site service is mixed. If you are having them tear the laptop apart you're better off doing it yourself and then filming them while they do the repair. Though he seemed on the opposite hand to be impressed with sending it in for repair alot more.

Though I hear dell will straight up get you a new unit if it's damaged at repair. Not sure Xotic can match that.

I got my rebuild at around the same price as your xotic price with a 2 year warranty from dell.

 

I have 9% sales tax in my area which spikes up the price.

Looks like ordering from XoticPC includes the dell 1 year warranty still so always could add it later I guess.

 

Any owner can give us details about the temps and performance?

 

Search the thread. Many 3D mark and HWinfo screens already. From an RTX 2070 +i7 and RTX 2080 + i9 version

 

One thing to note is adding a warranty later is more expensive. So I'd go with what you want upfront.

Have you gone to Hidevolution? They give discounts to forjm memebers. So you can a long warranty from a what I would consider a good company to deal with.

 

I would say it will be in between so 2,5ms

 

Yeah I'm still waiting for a reply but it doesn't sound like they'll be able to match XoticPC or even Dell's price.

I also need to think if I'll actually keep this for 4 years. I have a problem with laptops swithing normally within a year LOL

 

Ninja2000, did you call up tech support or a sales rep about the issue? As I spoke to them via chat and they were trying to fob me off to tech support. I wouldn't mind having £100 off

 

That's why I went 2 years. Lol. I'm sure something new and shiny will catch my eye two years from now. Unless dell really does give us some upgrades for this thing.

 

that's a bummer, i'm sure you can get a system swap especially when you get a english customer support agent, when calling for the dutch support. Because it took them too long to work with me through the whole system history of my r4 i got an r5 system swap. I called the dutch aw tech support, but got connected with a english/indian support agent. Maybe if you try at another point (or via chat) you can achieve more succes.

 

Spoke to 3 different sales guys before I finally ended up getting about $800 CAD off and an extra year of warranty on a 2080 + 9700k build. Pretty satisfied with that.

 

Can you give me the specifics of your deal?
I'm from Canada as well and i'm currently speaking with a Dell sales reps and the best deal they are offering me right now is

9700K + RTX 2080 + 16GB Ram + 1TB SSHD for 4666$ (15% taxes included) (400$ OFF)
I already have a 500GB 970 evo and 16GB ram so that configuration is good for me.

My rep is not willing to go lower, i'm looking for a 4,300$ deal (15% taxes included) (750$ OFF)

If you could send me the Sale rep email i could always send that person an email and see if he can make it work for me

 

I think I'm going to stick with Dell. I have way too many expensive hobbies and need to stop dropping into them so I can eventually buy a house lol

I'm still trying to buy a new DSLR, some telescope stuff, car stuff, too much. Maybe if I keep the Dell build I'll not buy anything else.

 

Other than the fact that they install (as opposed to drivers straight from Nvidia), what is the benefit of modded INF drivers from Prema's site?

Are they somehow lighter? Optimized? Run a bit better somehow? I’m inclined to assume “obviously not, it’s just so they install easily without modding INF files ourselves”, but I have to ask.

I’ve always simply downloaded from Nvidia and edited configs to install drivers on my P150HM with a 680M, so I’m no stranger to installing drivers when the HardwareID isn’t present.

Anyone know for sure? @Prema?

 

If I understood the maximum that the cpu can drain are 120w... Does it make sense to choose a CPU that needs much more than 120W?
The smartest thing would be to choose the core i7 8700 save some money and have a power close to 9700k with 120w?
I have seen some benchmarks where the 9700k needs about 175w...

 

About LM repast:

@1Schumsta1 or others did you use scotch super 33+ tape in order to protect motherboard to LM? On GPU too? Because i Saw on picture lot of alluminium tape on the gpu...

 

I repasted so many machines and my AW18 with LM and ive never used such a tape... just be sure all is clean and take your time... you dont need to be finished in 1 Minute... im doing it like that and i had never a problem... but everyone should do it as he pleases...

 

These hit the Dell outlet yet?

 

lol, I wished...

 

I'm holding off until we get a larger sample regarding quality control.

Anyone have problems with backlight bleed?

 

I got a Nikon if you got something to trade.