*OFFICIAL* Alienware Area-51M R2 Owner's Lounge

I did exactly the same with my area 51 m delid and copper ihs and never had a single issue so I do agree with you .
My R2 will get the same treatment delid copper ihs + repaste + fujipoly pads and good thermal paste and I am sure I'll be supper happy with it .

I do agree it is not normal though with such a high end laptop

 

I do not think we should trust anyone when it comes to laptops. There is no basis for trust to occur. There is only room for evidence and measurements at this point because all of the manufacturers of laptops are unworthy of trust. Some have a worse track record than others, but they all suck in one or more ways. So, for me, it's all a bunch of marketing lies, fabrications and misrepresentations until we have proof. And, proof that fits my/our definition... never their definition.

I only say that based on personal experience. I have owned 5 Clevos and never had to use the warranty except for one machine, one time.

Between the XPS M1730, M17xR2, M18x and M18xR2 systems that I had there were at least 20 warranty repairs and 3 complete system exchanges due to failures during a span of 5 years. If memory serves me correctly, there were 5 or 6 motherboard and/or GPU failures in warranty, and my last motherboard failure was out of warranty. I replaced it myself and sold it. Yeah, it was nice having a 5 year warranty and NBD on-site repair or NBD parts-only dispatch. But, it was actually much nicer never needing it with my Clevos. I purchased the XPS M1730 for over $4,000 in 2007. The M17xR2 and M18x were replacements for it. I built the M18xR2 from parts, most of which I purchased directly from Dell. Some from Parts-People.com.

A nicer chassis kind of loses its appeal when I compare the two experiences. Plastic sucks, but not as much as a system that doesn't work correctly.

Mr. Fox - Dell Systems - Warranty History:

• XPS M1730 - over a dozen repairs, GPU, HDDs and motherboard, replaced by M17xR2
• M17xR2 - unrepairable defect (engineering flaw) replaced by M18x
• M18x #1 - motherboard failure (1), multiple AMD GPU failures, replaced by M18x #2
• M18x #2 - motherboard failure (1), multiple AMD GPU failures, replaced w/ NVIDIA GPUs
• M18xR2 - built entirely from parts - no warranty - motherboard failures (3 - one by fire)
• AW18 - received new as a gift for services rendered - motherboard failures (2)
• XPS 15 L521x (2012) - no failures or repairs in 8 years - belongs to my wife, still using it and loves it (upgraded RAM, installed 1TB SSD and upgraded WiFi module)

Mr. Fox - Clevo Systems - Warranty History:

• P570WM - no failures - bought used from @ssj92 - no warranty
• P750ZM - no failures - bought used from @danyune - no warranty
• P870DM-G - no failures - purchased new
• P870DM3 #1 - defective unit - replaced under warranty in the second week
• P870DM3 #2 - no failures (replacement unit), upgrades 6700K > 7700K > 8700K
• P870DM-G - no failures (the one I modded extensively - still working, no issues - new owner still loves it, emailed me as recently as last week... super happy)

@Papusan @jc_denton

 

It's sad to see a brand like Alienware making embarrassing compromises on the quality of their components, but I would also like to underline that unfortunately many buyers of these portable beasts have no idea what they have in their hands, a bit like some ferrari owners who use them to walk in traffic instead of using them on the track and then complain if they burn

 

@Mr. Fox @Papusan @jc_denton

Does the 10th Gen Intel CPUs also suffer from the Spectre and Meltdown performance hits or that doesn't affect them?

 

Finally ordered mine !!!

Did I get a good price ?

3800 bucks including the 3 years premium warranty and accidental damage

Says it will be shipped within 7 working days

Is that even possible lol

 

That's amazing! What color?

 

Lunar light !!!!
I've always wanted it that color but I've always been afraid cuz of the stain.

Hopefully that has been solved would be a pity to have to call every month to change the shell

 

I also went for the Lunar light as that color is sexy as heck and also went for a 4 year Premium Support Plus warranty which includes accidental damage. I also ordered a Silicon Lottery Delidded 10900K rated @ 5.1 GHz to help keep things cooler.

 

I took exactly the same but there was 20 percent off if you took the 3 years so I just went for it knowing that I could always extend it later on.
No wayyyy you lucky one
How much did they charge you for this option ?
I saw different websites where I could have bought something similar but there were asking something ridiculously high like 1000 euros for the 10900k with this silicon lottery cannot exactly remember what is what rated .
Just gotta hope I'm the lucky who's gonna get a good cpu right away

I'm about to order some thermal pads ,
I can get fujipoly extreme 17 w/mk or gelid extreme those are 12 , do you think there will be such a big dif ? It's just that the fujipoly are three times more expensive

 

You might get a good 10900K but for me, I never had a good CPU so I'd rather have it from the start rather than having to go through the hassle of swapping it later on.

When I had a 6700K in my previous Clevo, had 2 of them which could barely run at 4GHz without overheating then I was shocked how the Silicon Lottery 6700K was able to run 4.6 GHz on all cores 24/7 without even needing to undervolt so yeah, that is one of the most important things IMO especially since we know how much these 9th gen and 10th gen CPUs overheat.

Fujipoly no doubt. Do it once and do it right. It's not a fun job to swap later on if you weren't pleased with the results.

 

Yes you are right but not much else I can do now or complain about in regard of the discount I have been given .
Worse case I'll sell the cpu to buy a silicon lottery one lol

For the thermal pads I'm gonna take 3 of 1 mm and 3 of 1,5 mm , for the 2 mm I'll have to order 1 gelidextreme as I cannot find it with fujipoly ...

Should be more then enough no ?

 

Just buy some 0.5mm ones and stack them..
Also the Fujipoly pads are pretty hard, you either nail the thickness just right or you will end up with contact issues on the CPU and GPU..

 

That's how expensive it was

 

I've always been told it reduces conductivity to stack them ?

 

And in the end it was user error creating the bad contact....

But its so much better to spew a couple rants on how all the laptops suck, but we keep buying them before they are even on sale because MUH sexy and then we will tweak them until they burn and blame something else, because I CANT BE WRONG and "insert random OEM" sucks..

 

Exactly, that's why Gelids could be better for laptops, despite lower thermal specs.

Stacking is not recommended, and probably even worse with a hard pad? Does fujipoly require some adhesive on one side? Gelid gp is like playdough, it just stays put.

The pads used by Dell are def adhesive had to scrape mine off.

 

A tiny bit if the pads are brand new and you stick them with both flat sides together.

I have stacked lots of pads without a problem, and the fujipolys dont need any adhesive,

 

Haven't been on this thread for sometimes, so...the temps on the R2 are actually pretty good? Especially concerning the CPU temps?

 

I've stacked them too, out of necessity. Not sure how you would know if there is a "problem" since there are no temp sensors on VRMs.

 

With old P0 9900K, you could toggle the mitigations on/off. R0 brought hardware level fixes and added latency/performance loss, though you could turn Windows/software mitifations off. For 10th gen they are very similar, but with more hardware level mitigations, that you cannot toggle off.

There are some losses when you stack thermal pads but they aren't a night and day difference. Unless you have to stack 4mm or more, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

Can't wait to see your unit. Seems the best one so far for benchmarks!

Let us know when it arrives!

 

Now that Spartan came out as a HID Representative (congrats Bro, BTW), I have no doubt the unit will surpass wildest imagination of even the visionary engineers at Dell (in case someone is wondering, they are kept in the basement these days )

 

They repeat their mistakes rather than learning from them because people keep spending money on broken and severely flawed products.

 

Couldn't agree more with the points on the 300Hz display - not only that, but AW implementation there is no Optimus option or MUX switch (and no Gsync), so people buy a light laptop with 2h battery life. If one doesn't need portability and battery life then why not get a A51M or X170... ok, there is the extortionate price I guess lol)

BTW I'm curious how this Silicon Lottery could generally work. Surely the SL company cannot just order a bunch of CPUs from Intel, cherry pick to their heart's desire, and then return the ones they don't like, especially after delidding them? Are there any concrete performance guarantees? What do they do with CPUs which fail to perform? Who do they push them onto? Hopefully not on the HID customers who did not want to pay the cherry picking premium...

What would happen if most customers were willing to pay for SL CPUs?

 

They are binned in tiers, 4.9/5.0/5.1 at a certain voltage. Parts that don't meet the spec are binned down into 4.9Ghz. Which is why you have "100% of tested 10900K fell within our 4.9GHz bin or greater."

"What would happen if most customers were willing to pay for SL CPUs?"
10900KS

 

OK, but this binning is done by Silicon Lottery, not by Intel. Does this process result in some sort of permanent marking, or can someone then purchase the 4.9GHz binned CPUs at a discount and pass them off as "stock", when in fact they are the worst of the bunch?

 

Many people is happy with stock or lowest bin. There is no point sell them a discount. And you can still raise clocks on 4.9 bin with increased voltage or if you run tasks that is not as heavy as their testing.

 

We buy the best from them. What they do with others or how they operate, that you'd have to ask them.

 

Let me get this straight:

A company purchases stock chips with the goal of categorising them into, say, 3 bins: 4.9, 5.0 and 5.1. Presumably, there is no way to determine this just by looking at serial numbers, so they test. Now, they obviously sell the top bin at a premium, but at the same time the value of the chips in the lowest bin is lower than stock, since these are the lowest performing units, whereas stock has a mixture and you have a chance to get a 5.1 chip. Now, the thing I am curious about is where do they dump the 4.9 and 5.0 bins, since whoever buys them, particularly the 4.9 bin, either does so at a discount (or they are idiots), or are being duped into paying stock price

Anyway, it kind of sucks that we have a need for this sort of service. This binning should be done exclusively by Intel, so that customers are clear about chip quality at each point, and can choose an appropriate variant when purchasing directly from OEMs. I guess that's the idea of the K variants, but apparently it doesn't go far enough.

 

In the past, during the times where the 4930MX and 4940MX were popular, just getting an MX CPU meant you are on top of the food chain and most of them if not all were good overclockers. @Papusan has the best 4930MX known to mankind straight from the Norwegian igloos . But afterwards, it became like a Russian Roulette. Some get good K CPUs and others get ones that can't even perform well at stock speeds without overheating and thermal throttling. I fully agree Intel should be the one to be doing this and ensuring all K CPUs are decent at least and do not overheat. The quality is just not there any more and thus we enthusiasts love the idea of a Silicon Lottery CPU especially when someone is dropping north of 4 to 5K on a laptop, the last thing he wants is a laptop bottlenecked by an overheating CPU.

 

SL chips are great for benching and overall lower system temperatures, at a given frequency. But you also do get the privilege to pay for that fact, instead of having luck of the draw chip.
In my opinion, SL CPUs shouldn't be 'a must have' upgrade for high end laptops before they can't cope with the thermals of a supported SKU. Rather, their stock thermal solution should take this into account and reflect it. Because you would expect a four grand laptop not to cut corners where it actually matters.

 

It seems like a high specced Clevo will be cheaper where I live, so I guess that's actually a point.

I want to wait for a proper review, especially about the colling and fan noise.

 

My R2 arrives tomorrow so ill post some pics and impressions once i have it up and running.

 

Sweet!

Which config did you order?

 

Intel Core i9 10900K RTX 2080 Super 32GB 2933Mhz RAM 1080p 300hz Display Lunar Light

 

Damn he paid quite a bit more than me for my R1 and I have 4 year complete care.

Guess they must have increased overall price, or maybe OLED option is increasing cost.

Damn that was some nice warranty exhancges, back then when you actually received a better system most of the time, although a friend of mine did get a 17 R5 for his 17 R4 warranty exchange.

Here's my history

SSJ - Dell Systems - Warranty History:

• M14xR1 - Had weird BSOD every few months, nothing I did could fix it, tech replaced MB , still had issues, was 99% sure it was CPU issue. Ended up selling it for cheap
• M15x - My 2nd AW ever, upgraded to i7 920XM & AMD 7970M. AMD GPU died, sold it with 260M.
• M18xR2 #1 - No issues, 7970m CF config, sold off within a year or so?
• M18xR2 #2 - Max config, 3920XM, 680m SLI, I sold this to a friend, who sold it to a friend, and now it's back to me. 780M SLI, no issues, still running strong and will keep this one
• M17xR3 - 6990m GPU, had GPU failure I think (screw AMD GPUs!) Returned to seller since it died in a day or so and seller said it was fully working?
• M18xR2 #3 - No issues, 680m SLI, sold this one as well within a year or so?
• 17 R1 - Sold this one here, had no issues
• AW18 - Sold this one as well, had no issues
• M18xR2 #4 - This was for my brother, ran perfectly, we sold it and got him a MSI GT73VR for more performance, he did like the M18x though
• 13 R3 - OLED best display ever, gave to my sister, no issues
• M18xR1 #1 - Bought this from HIDEvolution as new two or three years ago. 580M SLI. Had 8 beeps, I said it was GPUs, they wanted to repalce MB. Ended up returning it
• M14xR2 - Bought this for my GF so we had matching AWs LOL, Red just like my M18xR2 I have, no issues, upgraded to 2920XM, still have today although she uses a Macbook Air, she wants to keep it
• Area-51m - Works fine, my issue is the white color is discoloring, haven't tried warranty yet, probably not worth the trouble, plan to keep for awhile, 4 year complete care
• M17xR2 - Bought recently since I missed the RGB display (had one in Studio 16). Worked fine until I tried AMD W7170M GPU and MB died (agaun, screw AMD), waiting to see if I get a MB or just scrap it

SSJ - Clevo Systems - Warranty History:

• P570WM - BEAST laptop, probably if I bought it with eDP display, could have had P5000 SLI right now. I had a 10-core Xeon in this, no issues, sold to yours truly
• P870DM - 980M SLI died (both cards), painful warranty process because of Eurocom, ended up with a GTX 980 (desktop) card, sold to my friend, he bricked it with the coffee lake BIOS, @Prema helped me restore it, he has no onboard sound now lol
• P870DM3 - no issues, 1080 SLI, my best config to date GPU wise, sold it here

TBC

You seem to surprise me every time I am here. So now I see a @hidevolution badge on your title.

 

I was waiting for your comment about this

 

I've been losing this lottery since... the Q9200 engineering samples were popular.

 

Welcome to the club. I've NEVER had a good overclocking CPU. It pissed me off every time I'd be in a forum and see people posting their overclocking results yet mine was the crappiest. That's why I appreciate Silicon Lottery so much.

 

Care to enlighten me on the situation

 

Just need them sweet igloo temps for reduced power draw

 

That definitely helps. But, even if you have a golden chip in the top 0.25% it's not going to get anyone very far if it is installed in a system with firmware limitations that cut off the CPU's gonads. Temps and firmware are actually more important than bin quality. Unless the chip is defective, one only needs to give it a bit more voltage and the performance will more or less match the golden chip that needs less voltage. Silicon Lottery definitely has a place and the idea has merit, but (ironically) I think it is more popular among people that are not overclocking addicts. It may be more useful in laptops where thermal management is never easy since lower voltage helps control the temps.

 

Good thing Alienware seems to have spared the central processing gonads of their laptops so far. If XTU works, we are OK I guess.

 

Literally the opposite with me, I must be lucky lol every chip I’ve got I can overclock quite well, worst was in the 60th percentile (9600k). Best chip I’ve ever had was a 3570k, could overclock to 5.2ghz or 5.1ghz I don’t remember anymore lol but that was in the top 10% for sure, it was also a furnace.
GPU wise the worst luck I’ve had is with my rtx 2080 ti, the rest overclocked well and went way above tdp spec

I have yet to kill a gpu with the insane power I feed some of my cards lol

 

Unfortunately, they cap the power limits and that emasculates the performance of the CPU. It started with the Alienware 18 and doesn't seem to have gotten any better. And, there is no fix for it. Even XTU won't override the power limits baked into a cancerous EC.

 

I just noticed silicon lottery is not selling 9th gen any more. Im not that well versed in finding binned CPU's in the wild or deliding. Would it be worth it to buy my own 9900k off amazon and delid it myself or find a SL 9th gen? Also, is copper HIS worth it? Sorry for noob questions. Not planning on changing the CPU out any time soon as what I have works perfectly but a year or two down the road I will.

 

Exactly! The lower temperature is the most valuable benefit of Silicon Lottery. The extra MHz is nice, but not enough to be earth shattering. I do think that being able to get there at lower voltage is also helpful for longevity.

 

It's also about to getting the best out from what you have. SL chips doesn't always mean you will be at the top

This boil down to lower temp. Voltage at stock or slightly overclock with retail chips won't die tomorrow

 

They haven't been selling them for quite a while now. Get an old P0 stepping 9900K, they clock better, run cooler and can toggle off mitigations. As for copper IHS, depends on the quality of contact between your CPU and heatsink. A slightly taller custom copper IHS can do wonders for that problem, noticeably reducing temperatures.

 

Be aware on the unified heatsink. Taller custom IHS will affect GPU contact with the cold plate. None want frying hardware.