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

Thanks for you input ! This again show's AW's ignorance towards LGA while other boutiqe manufacturers have been pumping them out since the early days. It indeed shows that the heat almost can't bleed due having a single shared pipe, and the pipes seem alot rounder/thicker than AW's. This is how it should be no tripod/shared heatsink mess. Would like to see how this performs against the 51M (this would clock higher, and for a longer time probably) where still 4 days away from the Nvidia NDA before RTX reviews get's spilled on the interwebs

 

Maybe. I think there is still some truth to the old cliche, " If you build it they will come." And, one thing is for damned sure, if they don't a bunch that would will not. Let's hope they don't go back to excluding the people that actually put their brand on the map that they so lovingly punched in the groin. I have to think their about-face on this was because they realized the brand was in a state of decline and they desperately needed to do something impressive after about 5 years of total mediocrity.

There is still a plethora of pathetic options available for the folks that want the anemic thin and light notebook feces.

 

Well, the Clevo will clock higher simply by virtue of having higher power limits on the CPU, even on stock firmware, to say nothing of Prema Mod. That being said, while I’m not a fan of how unified the heatpipe layout on the AW is due to the potential for heat bleed issues under combined CPU+GPU load (which is probably the reason the CPU has a lower power limit in such cases), it does appear to have significantly higher fin area due to the larger 17.3” frame, and exhausts from the sides of the fans in addition to the rear. At the very least, the unified heatsink should keep either the CPU or GPU well-cooled when one is stressed at a time, such as when video rendering or when playing a primarily GPU-intensive game.

 

I say people should start boycotting those review sites making such claims, or at the very least publicly decry and shame them for idiocy. Let them enjoy their BGA thin-books.

 

Why is it idiocy? People rather carry something light than heavy. Sales of gaming laptops have risen exponentially since they started to become thinner. Laptop manufacturers have way more data than us and can make far more educated decisions. Ofcourse they decide in the favor of what makes money but it is still a balancing act of keeping consumers happy.

If I have to believe statements from Dell, Alienware has grown a lot the past years in terms of market share. So they do see to do something right. Dell will go public again so it will easier to see the numbers later on.

I rather carry less and have 80~90% of the performance than balls to the walls while not being able to have it in an less than obvious laptop backpack.

As far as I know this is only valid for MaxQ options?But if a person is happy with a gimped version at the price for better portability? Why not? Thje only thing that I wish to see is better reliability from all brands. Overbuild motherboards similar to what you can find in desktops with the best of the best caps, mosfets etc. Tighter quality control.

I want to see a level of intergration like in modern high end smartphones with an exquisite fit and finish.

 

I do! They keep showing up in my suggested story feeds on my phone. I can't escape!

 

I purchased an Alienware Area 51M as well. Mine is specced out with a 9700k and the RTX 2080. I don't know if it is a good buy at all. I know that it is early and things will likely become clearer as my ship date approaches but I can't help but be hopeful and here is why.

I have owned several Alienwares over the years but My favorite has been the Alienware 17r1. I currently have as my daily driver laptop an R1 with a 1070 in it. It runs everything I play as it should and I've managed to stretch the 4930mx in it as far as I can. She is getting long in the tooth but I still love her. I see the writing on the wall though. Likely the 10 series is the last to get a proper mxm 3.0b and that's all she wrote. So looking towards the future I jumped on this laptop because of the potential upgradability.

I understand that the card may not be upgradable but an RTX 2080 puts me at 1080 Ti levels or better on a mobile platform which means I should be relatively well off for years. While most guys are complaining about the 1080p panel, I am enthusiastic. I have been playing at 1080p 120hz for years and the high refresh rate is the only way to go. I've owned 17" laptops with 2k and 4k panels and the difference in sharpness just is not noticeable at that size. The extra headroom means you can crank everything to max and reach the 144hz your panel is designed for. It's an excellent option for a gamer who likes his games to be fast and beautiful. Also I am sure they will offer further upgrades as time goes on.

The guys that want balls to the wall speed out of a mobile platform are coming from a perspective that if you pay extra for a component then it should run to it's full potential. I agree but the fact is like it or not a laptop is not a desktop yet. This hits a point where you can get close. I am not a bench queen I actually use my laptop to game. I enjoy benching but mostly I am a tinkerer/gamer. I like to upgrade if I can and love to game when I have time. For practical applications like gaming it rarely needs to be running to the hilt. The 9700k blows my 4930mx at 4.3ghz out of the water by such a huge margin it's embarrassing. Even if it ran at half it's advertised speeds it's still 30% faster then my 4930mx and my cpu keeps up with a mobile 1070 in any current game. Which tells me that for a gaming perspective this cpu will be absolutely killer and may be all I need till computer tech drastically evolves.

The thing that upsets me is the dual power brick solution. It's unnecessary given the power constraints on the components and seems designed just to showoff. A single higher watt psu or even a standard 330w may be able to power the components without issue. It makes the laptop even less portable to have to lug around two power bricks and I hope it will run off of just one.

Lastly is the build quality. I have owned 3 clevos and 1 msi laptop and I have sold every single one. They are cheap plastic and have terrible heatsinks and fans. Not a single one I have owned has come close to my Alienware 17r1 in both heat dissipation or build quality. They perform better sure but even with liquid metal they all ran until they hit 90c on the cpu and gpu and then thermal throttled to maintain that temp. I think likely you can not hope to cool these types of components with laptop heatsinks and fans but no laptop has come close to what my 6 year old 17r1 can do in terms of thermal performance and gaming performance. I run my 1070 mxm overclocked with thermal paste and it stays at 79c. My 4930mx runs at 4.3ghz and stays under 80c with liquid metal. Of course my heatsinks are upgraded independent heatsinks but still they have considerably less mass and the fans run at lower speeds. Likely the alienware area 51m will run hot similar to the clevos I've owned but i have hope that alienware truly engineered something to tame the components.

I am hopeful but skeptical. I may just end up returning it after I receive it because it runs like a hodge podged mess cobbled together by dumb dumbs hoping to overcharge ding dongs like me. BUT! maybe just maybe this will finally dethrone my daily laptop and take me through the next 7 years or so of gaming on the go. I see this as more of a corvette then a stripped down drag racer with just a seat and a roll cage in it. The corvette is fast and semi premium but it's built to give you a taste of both worlds without making you put on a helmet and safety harness.

 

Because it is simple physics. Currently, there's not a good way to dissipate that much heat without requiring adequate cooling systems. It is silly to think otherwise. However, if a chip producer comes out with some new CMOS material that can work at 200C without performance issues or an ODM introduces some new super cooling system at fraction of the height/weight, then that is fine. But for now, I'm all for a thicker notebooks, and wouldn't even bring it up in any kind of review, and would chastise the reviewer which did so for a model of this type.

Note, this is *my* opinion. I don't expect everyone to agree, and I'm not arguing *you* shouldn't want 'thinner', but everyone has to be aware of the trade-offs. If you want something thin at about 80% of performance, that is fine. Go for it. You'll get no argument from me. However, the thinner it is is, for even 10-15% less performance is not a trade-off myself and other like me are willing to make. That is what we've have been vocal about for a period of time now.

Then why all of the excitement / buzz about a *thicker* LGA based laptop from Dell/AW? There must be some market for this; otherwise, why bother? There are plenty of other thin BGA options that fit exactly what a thinner, less performance crowd would be looking for. Getting back to the original point, I'm not sure why the thickness of this model would even be questioned by any reviewer for this type of machine.

 

Note Razer Blade Pro was made way before nvidia released maxq, and as I said before yeah they engineered first design before Specs, their philosophy as always the thinnest on everything, they tried make thinnest ac adapter for full Gtx 1080 in 250 watt as well which is most the problem why it heavily under clocked imo. Yes I agree about thinner the worse in term performance.

 

Dell should have considered AMD CPUs and GPUs as an alternative for this model. At least Ryzen + 2080 would be interesting. It's insane how much performance per W do these new Ryzen chips pack, especially the mobile version. My 2700u pretty much equals a stock i7-4770 at a measly 11W! Now imagine if you had a 45-50W CPU matching that 9900k. That would free up so much headroom for overclocking both CPU and GPU. Not gonna happen though...

 

Now this is what I've been waiting for!

The CES videos I have seen show the system with a desktop 2080. The performance with ray-tracing disabled is quite impressive. And the system with the 2070 outperformed the desktop 1080 by about 14% on average (according to Jarod's Tech). I look forward to this community's reviews.

 

Four more days until we can hopefully see some things about this.

 

This is confirmed that it doesn't need 2 to power it normally.

With this info, Only i9 + RTX 2080 or overclocking i7 K + RTX 2080 setups will need more than 330W adapter

and you can easily get away with a lower clock profile on a maxed out system if you need to be mobile with a single 330W brick

 

Look at any media today nothing is the truth it’s all their opinions....


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well said. which is why we should learn to ignore those marketing BS and stick to the facts. Marketing will do what they do best. over sell and under deliver. just get over it. It's not the first time or first day, nor is this something alienware specific. it's practically every company out there. let them BS their own, we stick to the engineering facts. going over pages and pages on and on about marketing BS is getting old and not productive. lets focus on the actual product here, not speculations on marketing claims.

 

That's why nobody in the mainstream media can be trusted. They always present a skewed (at best) or fabricated (status quo) version of the truth to prop up their agenda. It applies to every subject matter under the sun, both ends of the spectrum, and the luke-warm losers in the middle. Marketing, journalism and reporting of information are laced with deception and hardly anyone involved in those vocations today are true professionals. They are expert liars, and that's about the only talent we can give them credit for. They cannot be trusted to provide accurate and honest information under any circumstances. Sometimes they do, but you can't afford to give any benefit of doubt because it's too rare and they constantly demonstrate that they are unworthy of receiving any trust or benefit of doubt.

 

With that said I’m tryimg to get two RTX laptops reviewed by embargo and I just got the first one delivered today.

It’s trying to get the right balance of enthusiast and average joe info on new hardware within 3-4 days while juggling wife, kids, main job and my daughters birthday party.

It’s 1:30 am, I’m working on overclocking limits on an i9 and I have to be up a 6:00am for work.

Not sure what side of the perception fence that puts me but I’ll do my best.

 

Brother @B0B guys like you and Brother Stephen @OWNORDISOWN are not part of the "mainstream" hype-factory. You guys are rare gems, and you have no agenda. That's why I said "hardly anyone" instead of "everyone." You're not bashful about calling the balls and strikes and passing judgment where it is due. There are a few others out there as well, but no one should trust "company representatives" to give accurate information. They are pushing an agenda or saying what they are paid to say.

I'll be looking for your reviews, bro. I always enjoy them and consider them reliable, even when I am not impressed with the product you are reviewing.

 

If you ever get a laptop for review that runs like this, I will probably want one. (I won't hold my breath.)

 

Not putting you down, but you’re not mainstream media. So it is possible you can be trusted.


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Yeah, any one with half a brain cells worth of free thought knows its a compliment not be considered part of the cesspool mainstream media... gaming or news
@B0B looking forward to your upcoming reviews too.

 

Specs is officially out, videocardz was pretty accurate.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-au/geforce/gaming-laptops/20-series/

 

Shout out to BOB!
Always enjoy your reviews, ( also OwnOrDisown and Jarod’sTech, love that you three do crossovers ).
I really hope that someone gets a early review unit for the M51 and see what this laptop can actually do.
Could of swore I heard Frank Azore say this laptop runs at 35-40 Db under load so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s true or not.

 

Those are reborn of mobile (m) pre pascal gpu, rtx 20xxm and 20xxm Le . I’ll stick with eGPU setting and prefer step it up to 2080ti .

 

There goes Frank and his big mouth again.

In all honesty it would be nice if it had a quieter fan profile for when you're playing older titles. So long as I can crank it to 11 when I want max cooling.

Yeah the 2080 maxq in particular look like they're gonna suck. If things don't work out with the Area 51m for me I'll get an m15 or m17 and get an graphics amp for it and use my trusty 1080 ti.

 

I'm curious what all the hate is for maxq? It's not like the days of old when mobile cards were cut down versions of desktop cards, these are just underclocked (but still have the same cuda cores). You can always overclock it provided your laptop can handle it.

 

Well, they gimp the vBIOS and other parts of those same machines, too. (Which is really what makes it a Max-Q design.) So, even if it could handle it you'll probably be lucky if you can overclock it far enough to match a "normal" stock GPU. But, that's the thing. They are designed on purpose "not to handle it" to accommodate size and weight reduction. Max-Q also sounds a whole lot better for marketing purposes than "crippled" or "gimped" design. The people that hate that kind of thing are not going to buy it anyhow, so it's kind of irrelevant. People that go for this kind of stuff value other things more than they value performance.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it tends to drag down other products with it and the bar keeps getting lowered for laptops. I think that's where the hate comes from. The poop gets splattered onto innocent bystanders that don't want any part of it.

 

Capped Crippled TDP! RTX 2080Max-Q barely 35% of a full 2080 Fe Desktop card. 80/90W vs. 225W.

 

Personally, I don't mind different chips for different cooling capacity. But, no, in many cases it isn't a matter of simply overclocking, as they usually limit TDP via firmware or VBios.

However I'm extremely disgusted with the way Max-Q was handled by Nvidia and the OEMs. I'd say about less than half of product pages even disclose that they have Max-Q. (example is Dell's Precision line, where it was a shot in the dark which Quadro GPUs in the same line had it).

Its also marketed by Nvidia as the the amazing solution. I've seen many posts and people who actually think Max-Q means its faster than the normal chips...

Edit: Finally, if people where actually given control of fan profiles, then the whole Max-Q thing would be pointless.

 

Yes, it is very deceptive and unethical the way that has been handled. They should make it crystal clear which systems are Max-Q and there should be no ambiguity at all that performance is impaired by design to accommodate compromise. People that buy machines like these often do not spend massive amounts of time researching the fine print and some wouldn't understand the information if they found it. But, they do understand when they have been duped after it's too late to undo their decision.

 

Nvidia was unethical when they throw out m design for Max-Q. Charge more for less/equal as m branding!

 

I get that the vbios is "gimped" as well, but it's still a full fledged card unlike the mobile cards of old. All of the MaxQ laptops I have owned have hit their desktop speeds, but to be fair I've only had the lower end ones. I don't get how the bar is being lowered for laptops? It's always been low. Perhaps you mean from full fledged desktop cards like the 1080 was? The Nvidia chart seems to hint that there will be full speed cards still.

Right but it's a laptop, thermodynamics dictates what you can do with the limited space. If you want desktop performance, there's a desktop for that.

I see your point there. They really aren't forthcoming on if it's a maxq or non-maxq product. That's not just NVIDIA doing that though. Dell/alienware/MSI/etc need to list it in their specs...

 

If you were to ask me how I felt about max-q in the last generation I'd say it wasn't that bad. Some laptops with the 1080 max-q could be overclocked pretty close to a desktop 1080. You might have to repaste and use liquid metal, but it was possible.

Now there is atleast three 2080's this generation in laptops. The "Desktop" 150w+ that Alienware is using and a 90w and 80w version. The 80w version had a base clock of 700 something. That's disgustingly low. Like at that point how much of a premium are you paying for a 2080 max-q that you could just go with a 2060 laptop? That's my main problem with it this time around is that they're cutting the performance so much that it's looking like they shouldn't even be offering the 2080 max-q as an option. Clearly RTX cards use too much juice and run too hot to be put into thin laptops.

 

In short @Prema’s tweet put it in correct perspective. As well bro Fox comment in same Twitter post.

Max-Q is the m branded replacement for premium charge!

And both Maxwell and Pascal offered desktop performance in notebooks. I mean the N branded cards. Not Max-Q.

And Max-Q is equal priced graphics as the more powerful N cards. Pay same or more for less! Max-Q won’t get any love from me.

 

But it's not a hardware gimped offering like the "m" was. And there wasn't an increase in pricing going from say a 960m to a 1060max q. Aside from the GTX980 what other Maxwell cards were the same as their desktop offerings?

 

In the beginning was Max-Q intended for a few models. After time went Nvidia put Max-Q for each of their N models. Double up.

Nvidia’s name change wasn’t needed!

 

I can't help to write this LOL

80-90W RTX 2080 would easily cool in my Alienware 13 R3.

 

That's why, "thin" is IN!

It's a freaking scam!

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Yup, a scam and a sham. But, whether "thin is in" depends on who you ask and where they have their bar set. Some value style over substance. That's OK as long as there is still something out there to be had with enough substance to be excited about. Then everyone gets something they want.

 

overclocking it will do nothing except run into the TDP barrier sooner and then it will just downclock itself by force on you
Plus the silicon might be grade D silicon also, much like BGA chips are badly binned, higher voltage, hot running chips that didn't make the LGA cut.

 

Like Lindsey Graham says the “most unethical sham”. All inetwnded for thin and light. I don’t get the thin and light crowd honestly. I’ve never have had and still don’t have a problem carrying my “thick” 17 and 18” laptops with me everyday for work and pleasure. Maybe I should chill my masculine toxicity.

 

I mean when you go from patient room to patient room the thin laptop is nice (plus the flashy gaming laptops looks a little tacky). But different strokes for different folks, I wouldn't play games on a laptop outside of the occasional lan party. I'm glad there are options out there since no one size fits all.

I've never had issues running my MaxQ video cards at their respective desktop clocks long term. The silicon thing may be true, but it sounds like a lot of speculation to me.

 

The vast majority of gamers are "student" age. In which case it makes sense to have a "relatively thin" and light gaming notebook that can fit in your backpack between 3 or 4 textbooks and binders. I would have never been able to use my Alienware 17 Ranger DTR like I did my Alienware M11X back in the day (to play games at the university between classes).

Ultra thin has never been necessary. But 1.3" or less is very nice for space consideration in a backpack.

Now I'm in a place I'm only mobile when I go to my friends house to game or switch around rooms and stuff. I still wan't a laptop to do so, but don't care about mass or size as much.

 

Yup I’m with you there. I’m working on a GT75 Titan now and as I type, testing battery drain in the basement with my son while watching a movie. I’m way past student age and can manage to lug any laptop around where it needs to go next as it isn’t as mobile as a students usage.

I type this because many people who watch my content are going to have a hard time understanding why this big of a laptop even exists. But as you get older you might find it’s actually EXACTLY what you want.

 

Tell me about it. I work in IT and used to carry a AW M18x between meetings and server closets around the continent, haha! All my coworkers with macbook air and ultra-light "business class" machines couldn't understand why someone in their right mind would do that. Now imagine a stakeholders' meeting with me doing a presentation on a Nebula Red 18" BEAST with flashing lights and glowing Alien head! Good old times... People are so boring nowadays. Everything has to be structured, by the book. No wonder we are going exitnct lol

 

I would pay to see that. A room of buissness men and women with like xps 13 and macbook airs. . .then you come along a slap down an alienware like it's no big deal and start a presentation. That would be pricless to see.

 

Did that at an engineering expo conference while in college, the M18x did command some extra attention over your run of the mill notebooks. I did it again recently with my razer blade pro using the green lighting "breathing" effect, since it was a biomedical presentation. Adds some extra pizzazz.

 

I've carried my Alienware M18x, AW 17, Clevo P870DM/DM3, and Clevo P570WM to school.

I just take my macbook now since I've gotten a smaller backpack. But I didn't mind taking the AW. I used to take my M18x + extra battery with me to class last quarter. Didn't have to worry about a wall outlet being available. 3-4 hours battery #1 then hibernate windows > battery #2

 

Max-Q is hardware gimped in terms of the VRM design as well.

 

Here is some nice reading. From the master himself! http://forum.notebookreview.com/search/21562707/?q=Max-Q&o=relevance&c[user][0]=109539

A few pict made from the posts...

Why put in strong enough (oversized for oc'ing) power delivery on power gimped hardware? OEM's is stupid, but not on this level.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-just-near-to-it.814004/page-11#post-10735504