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

Welp, after three days of Dell support telling me they don't have 3N3W3 (even after asking them to check refurbs), I went ahead and ordered two JV98R. I hope that doesn't give me any issue...


EDIT: Still on "received" on Dell's site, yet still saying a potential 3/14 (Thursday) delivery. How close to delivery did most people see theirs flip to "processing" or "shipped."

Seems like from the last few pages, a lot of folks get surprise notifications in the 11th hour.


EDIT 2: Also, it's crazy how many folks now have this machine, and I feel like high-quality pics are just completely missing from the internet. Even YT videos a ~month after launch are really sparse and low-quality. Figured I'd be late to the party, but if I get this in the next few days I have some great camera equipment to take some really nice photos for anyone that cares.

 

There you go a nice picture.

 

Nope. I'm using the A51M Vbios @ssj92. (So we are sort of on the same playing field) . I needed to see what 40 more watts can obtain.
All scores and kidding around aside, You are doing a very nice job! These are the things the people need to see now and not 4 months down the road. That is more of why I go to different threads to push the folks in them. If we do not find out early where the issues are and how to address them early, people start to assume that that "is" the norm. When in fact it is not! And that's what I'm after. Normally I would wait on @iunlock as he is very well vest in finding out the real, but he does not have a machine yet. And @ssj92 seems to have an average GPU. And @Mr. Fox no longer owns an Alienware. And Mr. Moo has moved on. Scook9 also has moved on. And the others I forgot to mention....And you get the idea. It took @thattechgirl_viv (With a stock machine using the HIDevolution way of thinking) (And my damn nagging) to show you all what is possible. And from there the movement marched forward.

And that goes for @ssj92 and pushing the 9900K in Cinebench.

And they are basically all the same when it comes to gaming. 7 fps is not an advantage in gaming.(And that is "not technically" speaking either - disclaimer for the % folks. )

Is this all a good or a bad thing? Hard to say. I guess it falls on the eye of the beholder (deeper meaning here)....

 

I think the black looks a whole lot better than the white. Not sure why they made the bezel glossy black. Matte anodized look or brushed black aluminum would have made more sense.

 

@Johnksss What's ur GPU OC value on that 30,700 bench?

Mine maxed out @ +175/+1500

 

200/1000
Artifacting will kill a gpu and lower scores as well over time.

 

Legit beautiful.

I did Lunar White - but honestly think both look fantastic. Think the two-tone just looks a little more "unique" than the black box.

 

Get my unit in an hour and my pretested 9900k end of week. CPU is delidded and pretested with 5ghz @1.1v and 5.2ghz @1.22v prime stable with 4500mhz Ram.

I look forward what this CPU can do in the A51m XD

 

+176/+0 will crash instantly.
I can't get past +175, i bet i'd get more than 30,700 with +200

Did you change the voltage at all?

 

Just remember....Desktop binning is not the same as laptop binning...Just keep this in mind.

drop the cpu over clock to base and try again.

 

@Mr. Fox, got it finally.

and anyone interested in how pretty much recent 41 Wm/k Coolaboratory Liquid Extreme looks and spreads, please scroll to 38:00.

 

@Johnksss but its still better than every average CPU and its delidded. I would Not delid Dells 9900k due to warranty

 

I think i already tried with stock cpu and failed but ill try again tonight.

Have you touched any other setting (Voltage, power delivery, etc etc ..) or it just ran stock +200/+1000 ?

 

Guys want some more pictures, i can't upload larger then 2mb files here but willing to share even if its not the best quality.

 

We shall have to wait and see when you get yours.

@Rocktaze for now, it's just ran as is, but very very cold.

 

@Johnksss and if not i can resell this cpu without loss Germanys desktop oc market is way bigger than Notebook oc. Only Chance to get a good CPU is to try an desktop binned one...

 

Very true.

 

https://postimages.org/

 

me too, I ordered Lunar white, good for a change as all my laptops in the past have been black

 

Finally got a firestrike over 24k and graphics score of over 28k... And that's good enough for me, knowing that my machine isn't gimped at only 27k graphics. Now onto practical performance: getting my machine to run as cool as possible during games.

Right now, having the laptop flat against the desk seems to really cut down on air flow; I propped it up using a box of qtips I had laying around and almost immediately it cut down by several degrees. So now I gotta replace that box of qtips. Certainly going to grab a cooling pad; if I'm going to grab a stand to increase air flow, might as well have it blow some air. I'm thinking of getting one that I can mod to really increase performance, but not sure if it's worth all that work and cost... fans aren't particularly cheap.

So I also picked up the JV98R but I ended up getting an sx8200 pro, which has its own heatsink. Anyhow, I think the JV98R may be a little on the big side; that metal little tab on the end makes it a very tight fit, if it even does. I didn't actually screw it on but did a rough estimate, and I think you'll need to use something to bend the tab up a bit.

 

I will try stock and very very cold @ +200/+0 and let you know the result.
I should be home in 5 hours.

 

Hmm.... well that sucks.

How much "height" is there to play with? Pretty sure I know the answer, but any chance of swinging an EK heatsink?

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=m.2

 

Why should they go? I'm sure a few people are interested in AGA performance on this thing.

 

Has your cooler made much difference to temps?

 

Very cold (for anyone else reading that may not understand) means much colder than your room temperature, unless you live in a meat locker. That means like uncomfortably cold for some and just right if you're a polar bear or an arctic fox.

 

He has an a/c unit from what he has posted. That is a nice start. LOL

 

I also picked up one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Hea...qid=1552410492&s=gateway&sprefix=m.2+h&sr=8-7

And tried it out (in SSD slot 1). It fits with ample room, so something around that size would be good too, maybe even a little taller. I'm not certain how much taller the max would be tho.

 

Personal preference really, mostly in the area of aesthetics. I replaced my 2 year old Clevo device (6770HQ, 980M, 32Gb DDR4) which was really solid and reliable, and although I prefer the style of my Area51m (it feels more premium to hold and look at), from a purely emotionless viewpoint I'm not 100% if the money makes it worth it.

The cooling on the 51m will always be King Vs anything else, which was the deciding point for me.

 

A piece of this (just a scrap) will work about as well as a cooler (better than some coolers). Even if you buy the whole thing it's not going to break the bank. And, you can paint it whatever color you want, or just leave it natural. Totally portable. Easily fits in a backpack, too. Lots nicer than a box of Q-Tips.

Inexpensive Portable Laptop Cooler | Home Depot

 

Hey guys! I have an A51m on the way for work at my company. I ordered one with a 512GB NVMe drive and the 1TB SSHD. Since the IT department over here are super strict and lock down everything with admin passwords, I want to buy my own m.2 ssd and slap it in and boot accordingly. Do I really need a 970 pro or can I go Evo? Any other recommendations? I want reliability over breakneck speeds as I do more audio and video editing than gaming...

The two tone Lunar White is just so sexy, I don't know who would order the black. It also makes the rgb keyboard pop in such an awesome way.

I'm waiting an extra 3 weeks just to get white, since all the ones that came in the first batch are black...

 

Not really, think maybe 2, 3 degrees. Its more to level with the second screen.

 

I was thinking of doing something like a Notepal U3 plus mod, but your slab of wood has convinced me otherwise. Doesn't even need any power to cool!

 

I'm using that ek m.2 heatsink on one of my M.2's. It works in one, but not the other. The bottom of the case interferes with the m.2 drive that faces the front of the machine.

 

Oh... this looks great for way less cost. I just ordered two. Thank you!

 

Thank you for the heads up!

 

How many m2 slots does the 51m have? 3 slots and a 2.5 bay as well ?

Mines shipping with 2 m2's in raid but I have a spare 512gb here lying around

 

What is the current general consensus regarding the alienware 51m?
@Mr. Fox

Is it worth the excessive cost?
Are there any issues/downsides to the system?
I read there were some QC and software issues?

I'm considering replacing my 8 mo old Triton 700 as the battery has already hit 49% wear...

 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/18686754

How is this possible ???

 

Using external card

 

Huh.. that's weird. I'll try the CMOS first and see if that works. If not I'll try swapping drives again.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

You are looking at very different weight and performance class of machines if compared to your Acer Triton.

You have to say what you are looking for in a laptop before any recommendation is made.

While I do not speak for @Mr. Fox , he is no longer interested in performance laptops. His recommendation would likely be to buy a desktop and carry around a cheap laptop. But his use case is not the likely the same as yours.

Basically, what are you looking for, and what are you willing to compromise?

 

Clarification:
I ordered it the 20th February, was in my town the 8th march and their internal Schenker delay with home delivery to 13th.

Everyone cross fingers that I receive one without damage!

 

If you get good price on Smasumg 970 pro then go ahead else pick the 970 Evo Plus, not the evo without plus!'

I have the evo plus 1tb waiting to get installed

 

Will clearing the Cmos by removing it reset my BIOS back to Raid config?

Just curious as I have changed it to AHCI. But I've reinstalled windows three times now, each time I seem to get a different issue, small but nonetheless, annoying. So I might bite the bullet and switch back to raid and reinstall.. as before/after ssd benchmarks are all over the place.

 

If everyone post several of their scores from 2080Ti and the aga in Futuremark this leaderboard for mobile graphics has no value anymore.

 

Honestly Im looking for laptops in this weight category. My Triton's performance has been quite disappointing compared to my old gt80s.

 

Yes I would imagine RAID is default

 

Thanks. So I would need to reinstall windows afterwards if I wanted to go back to AHCI right? Not sure if I want to yet..

 

Yes you would, but apparently there is some way out there on how to do it by updating some MBR stuff, but just do it clean if you can... RAID is fine, honesty I don't think your gonna see a difference in controller speed or otherwise... In achi the system will recognize what kind of HDD you got so if it's a sammy you can get drivers and use magician, otherwise system will show Intel raid.

 

Alright thanks. Yeah that's an issue I'm having even though I'm in AHCI. My SX8200 Pro was getting way better read, but less write speed in RAID. And I tried the Adata SSD Tool in both RAID and AHCI and it still wont show the Nvme, only my Sata SSD.