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

Third party sticks only don't work you have to use Dells ram which is slower.

R2 had improved power delivery 12 phase power delivery versus the 6 phase of the R1 and seemingly more reliable mosfets. It wasn't really a overheating issue as such but when the 2080 ran at high power for sustained periods it caused the mosfets to fail/burn out. It wasn't really the die temps which caused it more the high power draw. Limiting the card to 75'c obviously makes it clock lower and draw less power. It's like cutting your arm off so you can't burn your hand. It works but is a stupid solution. Especially as they fixed the cards in the later R1's but kept the restriction in place.

 

I have to add in some info for this mess. Dell with Azor changed specs for the graphics card over night when they saw Asus already released 200W graphics cards in their models. Dell tested and validated their hardware with a lower TGP vBios.

Exactly same happened also for the models who come with GTX 1080. And all know what happened with higher graphics TGP in combination with the TRIPOD and unified heatsink.

 

Well, clearly Azor cared about 51M. In the end they messed the rollout up, but at least he was out there trying to push the envelope with this one last product.

 

This is a funny article: https://www.cnet.com/news/dell-to-acquire-alienware/

"I still think it's a bad idea, and a bad fit," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD Techworld. Alienware's customers buy from that company in part because of its image as a technology-driven company that understands the needs of gamers, while Dell is viewed by those customers as a stodgy corporate supplier.

Even though Gonzalez said Alienware will operate separately and not promote Dell on its site, "Alienware customers are smart enough to understand" that Dell will own the company, Baker said.

Interesting analyst opinion.

 

Imagine if Alienware still sold Clevo based laptops. They'd be completely different than the pitiful state they are in today. Dell's aquisition has made the quality of their laptops go down over the years.

 

Yes, the latest products leave something to be desired.

 

Well, I got home and put the Hyper X ram in, all seems good and it's reporting running at 3200mhz

Since I forgot last time, specs are 10700k, 32gb DDR4 Hyper X 3200mhz(Ordered with 16gb 3200mhz), 2070 super, 512gb SSD, 1tb HDD, 360hz display

So far, hottest temp was from 3Dmark Time spy at 92c CPU and 66c GPU.

So far, I'm liking it to spite the drawbacks.

My last Alienware was a 17 Ranger and I was fighting with a 1060 from Eurocom, one motherboard has something wrong with it and it will not do a NVRAM reset even with a CPU swap, the other motherboard blew two power management chips for AC power

 

Hmmm- thoughts?

 

Just following up. Bought the Amazon one from Deal4Go. Works great and includes absolutely everything you need (tray, board, screws, heatsinks, and cables). Everything appears to be Dell OEM or a really good copy. The interposer board itself doesn't match the color of the one shown in the service manual (green vs blue in the service manual) but the traces, components, and everything else appear to be 100% identical. Could just be its an older (or newer) revision. Mine has a manufacture date of May 2020 on it.

 

Let us know if you run into any down the road issues with the 2xnvme tray

 

So I decided to join the club and buy a shiny new area 51m, and my screen is acting horribly out of the box. Flickering and I can see lines between rows of pixels. Problem is replacement lcd's 144hz are on backlog.

Can I replace this with a non dell or alienware lcd or will it cause issues? The flicker is so bad at times it causes a headache.

 

i7 10700, 16gb 3200, 1660ti, 144hz panel. Nothing special but better than my 2018 r7 dekstop. But the screen is faulty. Now just waiting game for a replacement.

 

In theory i guess a screen of the same dimensions would work but on a brand new machine i wouldn't settle with having to replace it myself. Contact dell and ask them to send you another or send a different part like the 360hz screen. Unless you only wanted a 144hz?

 

Well, it's behaving since I undervolted it, and all seems to be well.

They didn't snap the LCD bezel down and when I first picked it up, it let out a sickening crunch
I snapped it down and it's behaved ever since.

Now just to plot on getting another 1TB SSD, and probably a 2TB HDD or interposer board and more SSD's

 

So, my new A51 arrived this afternoon. Haven't done much with it yet apart from going through Windows setup.
I wanted to check out the FX options and cannot find any way to illuminate the word ALIENWARE at the bottom of the screen. What am I missing please?

 

This doesn't light up. It's grey on black.

 

Yeah, it's yet another own goal for Dell. For the last 9 years, all my Alienware's had the backlit screen logo with full FX. It looks as though the LED lighting is still behind the logo but the Command Center hasn't been programmed to use it.

It's not the end of the Earth but it was a nice little touch which added a bit of class to the machine.

 

How is the performance/cooling of the Area 51m R2 compared to the m17 R3 and the Dell Precision 7720/7730/7740 models?

 

These things are at a discount now and have some questions. I am looking at the base model with gtx 2060. I am still on my m18x R1 from 2011, and dont understand why an 18" of this thing isn't being made, but whatever....

1) does it have switchable graphics?

2) What is the battery life with general web browsing on the base model with non-k cpu?

3) can you disable the eye tracking device?

4) for the base model can you just run it off one gpu without loss of performance?

5) does it support RAID 1?

6) does it come with the side vents even on the base model?

7) what is the performance difference of the gtx 2060 VS 2070 super, what is the wattage of the 2060?

 

1) no

2) I have a K cpu but since none of them use the intel graphics the result will be the same. 1-2 hours tops.

3) yes you can disable via software or disconnect the device on the motherboard.

4) I assume you mean one psu? I don't know with the base model with the 2060 but with it's low TDP i would assume the loss of performance would be minimal if anything.

5) It has intel RST which supports raid 1.

6) AFAIK all models come with side vents although i can't be certain on this.

7) https://www.notebookcheck.net/GeFor...orce-RTX-2060-Mobile_10229_9581.247598.0.html

 

The K is 95w to 125w, and non-K is 65w, so with the rtx 2060 at 90w I was hoping for 3 hours battery life. It appears that you get 2 180w bricks with this order. I wonder why they don't give you a single 320w brick instead.

 

For some reason, my 51m R2 with non k 10700 and rtx 2060 comes with a single 330w and 180w power adapter. I'm mostly use the single 330w.

 

Can you plug the 330w brick into either slot? I assume there is no performance penalty by running that way. Since you have the exact model I am looking at can you state what the battery life is when the thing just sits idle or normal web surfing or video playback, if you know?

 

Someone used those thermal pads? It looks like they have really good conductivity.

 

Too stiff. All too high hardness (Shore). Save your money!

 

Ok, thank you for the advice! I will keep using gp extreme.

--------------

A little story of mine that I wanted to share with you guys..

DELL changed my motherboard, heatsink (the new one has a broken screw), GPU and Display due wrong colors.

So after the service the new motherboard in HWINFO showed EC sensor. The old mb this sensor was locked so I couldn't see PCH, SODIMM, Chipset temperatures as well the CPU and GPU fans RPM or change RPM of the fans. Is EC sensor is locked in your systems too or my old motherboard had a problem? Maybe there is a new mb revision?

P.S.
The new GPU has a terrible coil whine even when I don't use it under load (5-30W). When I put the GPU under 150-200W the sounds can be heard from the other room
I requested for a new GPU... but they told me that they will change once again the motherboard, GPU and heatsink. I am not sure if I want to change the motherboard if they put again new one with locked EC sensor.

 

[QUOTE = "b.kolev, post: 11077571, member: 682908"] Ok, gracias por el consejo. Seguiré usando gp extreme.

--------------

Una pequeña historia mía que quería compartir con ustedes.

DELL cambió mi placa base, disipador de calor (el nuevo tiene un tornillo roto), GPU y pantalla debido a colores incorrectos.

Entonces, después del servicio, la nueva placa base en HWINFO mostró un sensor EC. El viejo mb este sensor estaba bloqueado, por lo que no pude ver las temperaturas de PCH, SODIMM, Chipset, así como las RPM de los ventiladores de la CPU y GPU o cambiar las RPM de los ventiladores. ¿El sensor EC también está bloqueado en sus sistemas o mi antigua placa base tenía un problema? ¿Quizás hay una nueva revisión de mb?

PD
La nueva GPU tiene un terrible zumbido de bobina incluso cuando no la uso bajo carga (5-30W). Cuando pongo la GPU por debajo de 150-200W, los sonidos se pueden escuchar desde la otra habitación:enojado:
Solicité una nueva GPU ... pero me dijeron que volverían a cambiar la placa base, la GPU y el disipador. No estoy seguro de querer cambiar la placa base si vuelven a poner una nueva con sensor EC bloqueado. [/ QUOTE]
Es una lástima que Dell usa repuestos de mala calidad, cambiaron mi placa y estaba defectuosa y el reemplazo está en camino, lo bueno es que el técnico que viene me deja las partes viejas como reemplazo así que si algo anda mal vuelvo para usar su parte original, y luego sigo insistiendo en soporte técnico ... (actualmente tengo Coil quejándose en la GPU y la cpu)

 

So...how common of an occurrence is a loose SSD connection, or the system just not recognizing a drive?

I have SSDs slotted into all 4 ports, and this seems to be the second time one has suddenly disappeared from Explorer, and it's the same SSD. When it happened the first time, I took off the rear cover, unseated and re-seated the SSD in question, and it worked again.

I have been regularly taking out the laptop from a cubby hole of sorts (Ikea Kallax) sometime after I wake up, and then setting it up on a foldable table for gaming. Before I go to bed, I put the laptop away into the same cubby hole. I'm guessing that this constant hefting around may be unseating the SSD in question because this never happened until a month ago when my laptop was always stationary...but is this heard of? Or should I use my warranty and request a new motherboard?

 

I have had it happen a couple times when I was repasting. I wasn’t sure if it was the cable or the ssd, when I opened it up I reseated them and re-plugged cables and they came back up. Check your cables next time as well.

 

It could be a faulty SSD?

 

This has been happening to me a lot the drive in slot 3 doesn't always show up and i have to reboot to get it to do so. It does however always show within the bios.

I reseated it the other day and the connector for the daughter board it seems to occur less now but still happens on occasion.

There are posts about some other WD ssd's behaving like it though so could be a firmware/ bad ssd thing. https://community.wd.com/t/wd-black-sn850-not-detected-by-bios-on-bootup-from-power-off/259168

 

The 3rd of my 4 NVme 'SSD isnt recognised by windows, occasionally when I reboot the machine.

I have my Page file on it and windows tells me it has had to create a new page file.

So far every time I have then rebooted the drive is recognised.

An inconvenience and more than that a concern for me.

 

Hello fellas,

I am having issues the mic jack and with the Realtek Audio console, It says "can not connect to the RPC service"

I wouldn't really mind about the software but, I am having an issue where both audio jacks on the left side of the notebook are headphone jacks.

If I use windows native drivers I can get the mic jack to work (though the audio is very quiet and distorted), its when I install the latest Dell drivers the mic jack isn't recognised anymore.

I wonder if it has something to do with AWCC providing audio functions and robbing the service from the RealTek console?

When I purchased the machine this all seemed to work together fine, and when I plugged in a mic for the first time I was asked what device I had plugged in.

This all seems a bit messy and complicated given all the different software involved, does anyone have any experience with working through this issue?

Many many thanks.

 

How can I diagnose SSD issues and make sure it's that rather than the motherboard?

It's also the third slot for me, interestingly enough.

 

Try Swapping the drives from slot 3 and 4 and see if you notice a difference?

 

hey do you think I could run the i7 10700 with 1660ti on a single 330w power supply?
It would be nice to not lug two PS with me to work every day.

 

I can place the 330w brick to either slot and playing games like Apex Legends/ Red Dead Redemption 2 / Overwatch has no impact on performance. Adding the 2nd powerbrick slightly increases my performance to about 20%. Using the 180w brick alone however, there is a performance drop.

 

It sounds like it is intentionally limiting performance with one brick, regardless the size of it. I guess it's not a big deal for general usage, although it still requires 2 bricks to lug around.

 

One 330w power brick is enough. If I want to go overkill, i use 2 powerbricks

 

What I mean is that it appears that it is intentionally limiting performance so the end user doesn't experience instability issues and bothers tech support due to the upgradable nature of the system. So if the system was initially purchased with base configuration and then the user upgraded cpu and gpu to max configuration on his own while avoiding the 2nd psu it is easier on a product level to just keep limiters in place for power delivery on single psu regardless of spec to avoid instability.

 

I did this a few minutes ago; I jotted down the serial number for the functioning SSD previously in #4 and swapped #3 and #4.

Now to wait and see what happens between now and a couple days later.

 

happens to me randomly in the SSD which is installed in m.2 slot 4. A reboot fixes this. Just random glitches it's not about the seating of the SSD

 

“Random glitches”? Is this Dell’s idea of a bloody joke?
I maxed out my SSDs so that I would not have to rely on external drives. Do I now have to worry about data loss because of these “random glitches”?

 

It doesn't ever drop when mounted it only doesn't mount on boot sometimes. I'm not saying it's not **** but you won't lose data.

 

I don’t think I worded my issue correctly. Sometimes the drive doesn’t show up - so using your words, it doesn’t mount. Other times, it does show up but the files can’t be accessed.

But holy hell, I find it mind boggling that this happens in the first place.

 

I never get that issue. That's something different and sounds like the SSD. I only ever get the issue where sometimes it doesn't mount (D:\ drive doesn't exist)

 

Such events as you describe shouldn't happen. Not even with an sub $200 Jokebook. What with ssd drives that come orginal with the machine from Dell? Does it matter?

Have you checked in the reliability monitor to see if there have been some events outside the normal? Should be clean not as the mess you can see in the post above.

 

@Papusan is right. ,@ratchetnclank, @Justin Stuever @Spartan@HIDevolution, @kylera, you souldn't accept this as normal or exception behavior. You should all still be under Dell's waranty since you own a 51MR2 (less then one year old) . You should call tech support and complain and ask for the problem to be fixed.

Edit: Personnaly my third disk drive is a Sata 5400 rpm so i have encounter no issues.

 

Anyone hear any rumors of an R3? Based on previous releases my best guess is April-May. Has anyone heard anything concrete?

 

Next clevo will have a 150W 3080. MSI has annonce they discontinued the GT75 and it's now replaced by GE76 with 3080 150W.
Alienware M15R4 will have the 150W version of the 3080.

Seems like there will not be a 200W version of this card for laptops wich translate in: THE END of Area 51M Rx laptops. That's my deduction but dell has not announce it yet.