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

Thanks as always for the great recommend, bought and installed. Just as you said the improvement was noticed with both speed and range! Particulary important as I've had issues with my WiFi and network lag at a second address.

 

Any thoughts on when RTX 3000 cards will come to either the r2 or the r3?

Debating whether I should purchase an r2 now-ish or hold out for the r3.

 

I must have got lucky with my replacement. My first area-51m r2 ( received August 14th) did have a cl20 then my replacement that I received on Sept 7th has cl17. Maybe I just got lucky on my replacement.

 

No XMP for you!!

 

To R2 - never. To R3, they might announce something in the next few weeks, plus the usual 6 week shipping delay on new models.

 

Gonna wait for the R3 then, unless there's a crazy end-of-life-discount on the R2 (highly unlikely). ;-)

 

Yeah i'd wait for the R3. They should announce it in the next month or two if their previous track record is anything to go on.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/11/22225541/intel-processor-11th-gen-ces-2021-chips-specs

So the i9-11900K is going to be an 8 core processor with a 19% improvement in IPC. So it should perform about the same as the 10900k by those estimations? The extra PCIE lanes are nice though.

 

"According to Intel, the drop in core count compared to last year’s Core i9-10900K (which had 10 cores and 20 threads) is due to that move (the 10nm chips are currently only designed for up to eight cores right now), although it promises that the overall performance on the new 11th Gen model will still be better."

This just in: Intel declares war on cores! AMD trembles in sheer terror!

Hilarious.

 

Excuse me for asking but how do you know what is your cas latency?
Personnaly if i use AWCC it says CL17 but if i use CPUz it says 21. HWinfo semms to say it depends at wich MHZ it runs.
See my picture of the three different source of information:

 

Good Sir.
You answered your own question with this screen shot. Cas or CL is Cas Latency and it says right there that its 21.
Anyone do a CPU ID on there 3200 ram I am interested to see what the chance is on that.

 

This close to a R2 release there wont be a chance to R3 to handle the RTX 3000 series but they will make some motherboard chances and the board will just be 2.0 rev board with better power staging and maybe even a 6th power stage to allow use of the RTX 3000 series DGFF cards.

The good news about this is that the R2 owners should be able to get a motherboard that supports the new stuff.
The micro code in the latest bios 1.6 update did open up the new CPU's so the Alienware Area 51m R2 owners might actually get the first upgradable CPU's

 

Single threaded performance will be better in the new 11th gen for sure and if you are just gaming an upgrade to the 11th gen might actually be something worth doing
but productivity users are still going to be better off with the extra cores on the 10900k

As for a Declaration of war on cores. From what I hear that's not the case at all and we should be expecting to see 10 core parts as early as next year on a 10nm process.
That also depends on if they stay with there own fabs or if the pressure from investors has them outsource.

 

Single threaded performance in 2021... I'm sure vintage gaming fans will be thrilled

Well, that's not very reassuring On the face of it, they are taking 10700K, giving it a bit of a boost and rebranding it as 11900K.

 

Ok so why does Alienware command center display CL17, if you don't mind me asking?
Am i reading it wrong?

Edit: I am thinking this is another AWCC bug. That would not come as a surprise for me.

 

Same for me, CPU-Z shows CL22 and AWCC shows CL17

My guess is the RAM is actually CL22 and AWCC is overclocking it to CL17

 

CAS L = Column Address Strobe Latency
I hope I don't bore anyone to death with the rant I'm about to go on.
There is a Chip on SoDimm's called a S.P.D chip it stores the XMP profiles and information about a ram stick
SoDimm's *Laptop ram* has this same chip. CPU-z read's its current speed
AWCC reads its best possible speed.
I hope this helped people work it out and or understand.

 

The BGA models will get the same Crap from last year. Aka no PCIE-4 support and less PCIE lanes. Tiger lake for BGA max out at 4 cores and being the chips for the lightweight and slimy. The thin AW models will get an even worse upgrade.

Intel went for the single thread and gaming crown with this refresh of desktop processors. One step forward and two steps backwards. This is what we call progress and innovation nowadays.

You should trust Cpu-Z and Hwinfo64. Dell’s own software is a joke! The legacy from Frank Azor. Nothing has changed regarding this bloatware the last decade.

 

Well, at the moment it looks more like a bug (I'm discounting the possibility it's a gimmick aimed at fooling people). There is nothing about changing clocks in this, right? It's about timings.

We should be able to get to the bottom of this.
Does the module support arbitrary modification of timings?
Would that modification not be reflected by other monitoring tools, such as HWInfo? If not, why not?
What are the throughput and latency reported by memory benchmarks? Are they consistent with the CL17 reported by AWCC?

 

In HWInfo look at Memory Timings in the Sensors window to find the current values. Also, can you download sisoft sandra free (unless you have AIDA), and run memory benchmarks?
Any rational gambler would put their money on AWCC being wrong of course

 

@Normimb

AWCC is lying about the timings I guess because AIDA64 shows CL22:

 

Nothing new that Dell's software fail hard 17 R5, OC Controls v1.3.13.1300 fails Windows Security


"This problem is not new, but it is disappointing that Dell Technical Support know about this problem and has not fixed it".

m15 R3, problem AWCC Fusion, no CPU frequency

 

Yes that is what if tought from the beginning to be honnest. That just confirms again how much a piece of garbage this AWCC is.
Below i have made a comparaison of your ram benchmark (3200 MHz) vs my slower ram (2933 MHz). We can notice that even if you ram (3200) is running at CL22 and mine (2933) at CL21 yours is still faster in terms of Latency. What does it mean in real life? I have no idea since i am just beginning to learn about rams.

 

Why hasn't awcc been fixed yet?

AWCC not working correctly

"Is anyone else having problems with AWCC recently? It used to show my 777 temps for my CPU but I reinstalled and now it is showing the correct CPU temp"

Add in my slower ram (default 2133MHz). Lower timings will offset the drawback from slower ram speed. But the Alienwares have locked firmware and you have to live with what you have. Some software/games will benefits from lower timings/latency. And we have the opposite cases where faster ram speed will take the lead. The best is having from both worlds

 

You couldn't make this stuff up. Clear

Haha, I just had a horror moment when my AWCC started upgrading itself. Everything is fine though. Dell must like me

 

I wonder if people that owns other laptop company (asus, msi, clevo etc...) also complains about the firmware (software) develop by their manufacturer.
Even if my M51R2 is working very well (for now untill....) and dell have a good warranty, i asked myself: How is it possible to destroy a good reputation and the overall experience i have using this laptop with bad decisions and the worst ever seen programming? AWCC as been either bad or a disaster for at least 5 years now. It's not acceptable that they have not fixed their problems withs the software.
Is Dell/Alienware the worst manufacturer for programming and taking bad decisions or they all are just as bad?

 

I think you'll need to change the time frame with bugs from 5 to at least 8 years. AWC is probably one of the worst but the CCC software from Clevo ain't much better. I avoid use any proprietary software. Its trash and won't grow in quality as fine wine with the coming years. It will be only worse. And push it to the Microsoft Store won't make it better.

Imagine how it will be when ACC/OCC tool is the only software to make some changes in advanced power settings. Its closer than you think.

 

OK, so 3200 is about 7% faster whereas just by factoring in CL, it should be 4% faster, so something else is going on, likely some bursting. Still, pretty minor difference either way. HyperX would work at CL20 in 3200 mode, so that would bump it up another 5-10% ish- not worth upgrading from Dell's kit, but if one could get HyperX instead of Dell RAM that would be preferable (which is why we shouldn't be surprised if Dell decides to solder down all RAM going forward ).

 

I learned about alienware 5 years ago, So i trust you when you say it started earlier. Thanks for the info on Clevo.

 

Dell won't solder Area 51m Ram.
Don't be surprised if we start seeing RTX 3000 series on a rev 2.0 board for the R2 coming out in the next few months.

 

Is it official? Are you an insider or did you see the future in a crystal ball? They already cut 2 RAM slots, and the shenanigans with RAM compatibility are legendary. I wouldn't be surprised at all anymore.

 

Not official that I know of currently. * referring to the RTX 3000 series.
The Not soldering the ram would move the Area 51m out of the focused market group * Somewhat upgradable PC replacement *

I work in the industry and this would be the smartest move to use the hype train of the 3000 series to help move laptops. *Crystal Ball* It's always "Subject to change" no matter who or what you know.

 

Well, they've given up on the upgradeability completely. We've seen people struggling to upgrade the CPU, forget about the dGPU. People struggle to upgrade RAM too, unless it comes from Dell, or the hidden motherboard variant is right etc. The legendary HyperX still works, it always has so far across different models - but how much longer? The m15/m17 is now soldered so HyperX is out, and so am I

 

For info if any worth I have the same or similar issue with my HyperX RAM, Bizarre...

 

I have not that message

 

and mind you, my test was done randomly, as in, everything was running in the background, Skype, Malwarebytes, Cyberlink YouCam, hide.met VPN, Internet Download Manager, and SVP (Smooth Video Project)

 

What more can I say?

 

probably someone installed it without unblocking the file as usual

Make sure to right click on the file(s) you just downloaded, go to Properties, then hit Unblock from the bottom right as it may be blocked since it was downloaded from the internet, if you don't do this before you run the file or extract it, then it may not install correctly.

To prevent this automatic blocking of files in the future so you don't have to go unblocking every file you download to ensure it runs properly, follow the guide in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/are-you-sure-you-want-to-run-this-file-yes-or-no.825668/

 

Nah that won't do that.

That error message is when the driver isn't signed with a valid certificate. Probably the cert at dell expired and nobody noticed before building/signing the package.

 

Out of interest. Could you run AiDA or Sandra mem benchmark on your HyperX 3200?

 

@Spartan@HIDevolution Just got mine in today. You do anything fancy with installing or uninstalling drivers before installing it? Also, I guess now I can get rid of all this Killer Networking Software?

 

Not so fun with HyperX in Alienware desktops either. Yeah, its Bizarre. Can't be any worse. Enjoy!

Enabling xmp on 4 sticks of new ram fails

Enabling xmp with 4 sticks of ram causes pc to not boot up. I’m using 4 new sticks from crucial that says are compatible. I tossed the original ram.....

 

Sorry about this but I looked back a few pages and could not find anything to do with this Killer Networking software problem. What is it please? I mean, why would you want to get rid of it and what would you replace it with?

I ask because I'm in the process of ordering an R2 at the moment. My current machine is an AW17 R4 and I have noticed on several occasions that the Killer software was either not responding or disconnecting me totally. In both cases the only solution was to reboot.

 

Not sure there is any issue per se with Killer Networking - I haven't seen any since 2016. It's just a bit heavy in principle, so you could ask what the point?
* Killer Double Shot Pro - if you use Ethernet+WiFi combo this promises some load balancing benefits. Haven't really used it so can't comment (OK, I did use it a few times and seemed counter-productive)
* Gamefast - OK, used it with no issues - whether it was helpful, can't say I noticed much
* Xtend - used it once or twice. Comes in handy once in a while I guess
* Intelligence engine - not sure really, the WiFi hotspot advice is not that accurate - ideally WiFi roaming should be automatic

Spartan is a purist, so I'm sure the a above features are not enough for the software to justify its presence on his machines, and I wouldn't say that's an unreasonable policy.

 

No problem, I'll check when back from work and post you the results.

 

Does AWCC do automatic updates now? I had downloaded the Install files for both AWCC and OC Controls to perform a clean update per @Spartan@HIDevolution guide this weekend. I shut down last night and booted up this morning and noticed the alien head power button was default blue; it should be red as that's the default color I changed it to. Upon opening AWCC the alien head initiated the default them color(red) and stated that i needed to install the extra OC Controls. Checked the version of AWCC and saw that it was indeed the 5.2.106.0 version.

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

The windows store will update it if you don't disable auto updates inside the windows store app.

 

Ohhhhhh. I should have thought about that before, thanks for letting me know. So far the good thing is I still have all my FX themes so I wont have to redo everything which is a pain.

Appreciate the help on this.

 

Years ago when I had my first M17x R2, there was a thread devoted to sharing of FX themes. Is there such a thread for the A51m themes?

 

@etern4l attached are AIDA64 benchmark results for the 3200Mhz stock and HyperX 2 x 16GB RAM modules (as still have the stock RAM to hand). Hope its useful, I'm no expert but any feedback from you or the other ninjas about the comparative difference or how the numbers look is always appreciated. Reassuring at first glance the HyperX latency is clearly less at least.

Also for anyone new reading, as previously posted gaming benchmarks and FPS are marginally improved (2-3%), not bad considering the CL difference is only 2ns. Highlights also how poor the stock XMP Dell RAM is at CL22. Best to buy smallest amount of stock 3200MHz (so to ensure you get the correct rumoured motherboard variant for XMP) and upgrade to HyperX. I've also tested the 3200 Crucial Ballistix (CL16) which was unstable and OLOY (CL18) which failed to boot.

STOCK



HYPERX