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

One thing for sure.... Dell need to invest more money into the MB. Better signal routing and power paths for PCIe-4.0 will increase the price point vs the boards for Area-51M R1/2. And Rocket lake will have a very short lifespan. Coming Amber lake, new socket 1700 and DDR5 is out around early spring 2022. Todays question will be... Will Dell take this increased costs (Research and development R&D + more expencive boards) for the short lived Rocket lake in an R3 refresh? They re-use BGA boards as you know and 8 cores Tiger lake for Jokebooks will come this spring

 

If there is an R3, it'll probably come with the advent of Alder Lake CPUs, no earlier.

 

I agree in principle but everything else is fine. I could do without a "engineer" coming and replacing the motherboard for no reason and potentially breaking things.

 

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem with my SSD n ° 4, without solution....

Ty

 

I understand how you feel. Dell's tehcnician (in home) are usually a third party company sending someone who's formation consist at looking at a video of the repair before coming. Many times this will lead to making the situation even worst. Also Dell mostly send refurbished MB (motherboard) if this part has to be replaced and it usually (in my case, many times) leads to an eventual system exchange (wich is nice but you have to be ready to spend hours, on the phone with tech support and taking calm down pills when someone telling you stupid things).

In your case it's a DB (daugher board) i think that is causing the issue or/and the cable connecting both. No technician is bad enough to break anything while doing this basic reapair.
I personnaly would go ahead with any repair but i would recommend you at least ask them to send you the parts (DB and Cable) so you can replace them yourself or tech is ok too (if it's not the MB).

Edit: Just found out the part is named: Interposer board. Part number: D3P25

 

Your number 5 on this forum with this problem then.

Edit: i wonder if anyone on this forum who purchase this interposer board from dell doesn't have the issue with disk 3 or 4?

 

I do not have an issue. Just to confirm, its the one sold by Dell and not off Ali Express!

 

It is an original part Dell ( option 4 x 1to SSD)....

 

Hello,
Short return, i have buy and receive the interposer SSD kit from aliexpress and it seems to work.

 

je just solved the problem ( SAV dell) :

-Uninstall Dell Support Assist
-Uninstall AWCC, OC, FX ...

-Install AWCC with the driver dell.com

24 hours without problem !!!

 

So alienware installed updates yesterday And now I cant overclock CPU or memory on ACC the enable box is gone along with advanced. Ive tried restarting even called them with premium support they told me its “suitable” and working as intended lol! What a joke. they said I am only allowed to overclock GPU and this is normal with the 10900k so I rolled back my computer with macrium reflect to when i first got the laptop. And i still cant overclock it.. im puzzled

 

It seems Dell have fun with their customers. I expect/hope you still can undervolt https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/lm0viq/alienware_15r3_overheating_2021/

 

Hello sir, I suspect your computer is ok but you have spoke to an Alienware incompetent person.
Here is what i think you should do:

When the computer is booting hit F2 (this will bring you to your BIOS) then hit F9 (this will restore to default your bios) then F10 (save and exit).
Now try your undervolt in AWCC and see if it's working.

If it's not working then go in the bios again. Search for performance tab and ENABLE it. Set the overclock to 1 or 2. (If it's working then it means that your laptop is ok but the issue was or is still with AWCC)

If it's not working reistall AWCC following @Spartan@HIDevolution guide.

If it's not working again you will have to do a clean install from scratch.

Remember whenever you have an issue with Alienware laptop, always suspect the ****iest software in the world: AWCC (alienware command center).

 

Thank you this solved my problem by resetting bios. Alienware tech was so incompetent... made me angry

 

Yup I don't, won't call them anymore. Rather slam my dick in a door jam. The only time you should call them is when you have exhausted all other options and even then its just to get them to replace your hardware or send a tech.

 

In my R2, my 2070 super won’t go above 54-56C, I have to stress it a lot for a prolonged period to achieve 56C

I love the cold temp on it, but I feel like it can’t operate properly at 54c

3DMark score is 9510, and reports that it runs at 1750MHz.

i also managed a score of 9540~ish on my AW17 ranger with 4930mx and 1060n

so either the 4930mx and 1060n overclocked extremely well, or this A51M R2 is underperforming, at least how it makes sense to me.

I haven’t repasted or done any work, other than a 5.3ghz overclock on two cores, 5ghz on the rest and an undervolt

 

Something is very very wrong if the Area-51M can't beat your 4930mx and 1060n score here https://www.3dmark.com/fs/22674460

Please post the results from Futuremark.

 

greetings, in cold profile my r2 lowers the clock speed, use the balanced setting and retest

 

Have an Area-51m r2 but customer care will replace it with an m15r4, LOOL

What a joke.

Dell uses false product descriptions and has no integrity

 

My personnal experience with system exchange ( i have had a lot) with dell is: «Escalade the issue please.»
These words seems to magically bring intelligence to my customer care, techn support agent. Next time one of you encounter someone giving you a stupid answer like in this case.... try it.
Speaking to the supervisor serves nothing...but saying «Please escalade» wow this gives results.
Alienware customer services can be very good when you don't accept the firstt answer or resolution offered to you. Unfortunatly most of the people (pacific) will accept the bad answer, service, resolution.

 

hello guys.i have received the interposer board and evrything runs fine no problems at all! all parts included in the pack including heatsinks,screws etc! cheers

 

So i just bought a sabrent rocket 2tb ssd and put it in slot 4. Interestingly the western digital sn730 still drops out on occasion but the sabrent in slot 4 is always visible still.

So either the slot on the board is bad or it's these western digital drives.

 

Hello again. just an update to the problem you guys having!
i had few issues with slot 3 on the interposer board aswell.
mine was getting the ssd very hot to 72 degrees and would come back! i even opened a return case on ebay lol
i thought is the new ssd i bought at first but after i swapped the ssds around same was happening-slot 3 was getting hot!
nothing was fixing it
so i did a latest windows fresh install and and after installing latest drivers from dell turns out it was the controller of the board that wasnt installing properly or was having a bug!
now is all working corectly!
so i sugest a windows fresh install latest of course! goodluck!

 

On the newest firmware? https://www.dell.com/support/home/e...wt64a&productcode=alienware-area51m-r2-laptop

Probably compatibility problems. Same also for the older R1 with the SN530 https://www.dell.com/support/home/e...wt64a&productcode=alienware-17-area51m-laptop

 

Hello all,
Got a scratch and dent in visibly perfect condition minus original box.
10900k 2080 super 4k.

When I try to update to the latest video driver, from A02 to A03, either from Microsoft, Dell or Nvidia, the 4k laptop screen gets corrupted, with black flashing moving bars ??

The hdmi output is fine, just the 4k laptop screen.

Tried restoring from both partition, and latest online direct from Dell, multiple times, but no joy.

Dell service want to send an engineer to replace screen, and possibly graphics card, but I'm concerned, as I am high risk, under the current circumstances.

(They won't send me the parts to replace myself, or replace the whole laptop. It's either repair or refund)

Ideally, I only wanted the 10700k with 2070 super to play fs2020 at 1080p. But I saw a bargain 10900k 2080 4k with 60% discount, and couldn't resist.

My only concern is managing the temps on this spec.

Interestingly, I see the Intel UHD 630, displayed in task manager, zero utilisation. I wondered if that could be causing the problem with the 4k laptop screen ?

Any ideas gentleman ?
Many thanks

 

Ps. All the latest driver and bios updates installed, except for the non functioning video driver.

 

I did just reinstall windows a few weeks ago. Any idea what driver it might of been?

Yeah it's on the latest firmware but i've had a couple of instances where my sabrent drive has mounted but unable to write to it this weekend. So i'm back to the idea that it must be the interposer board.

 

That would be a shame since the RTX3080 Mobile @150W is not far off of an RTX2080 Super @200W. Really, bearing in mind the return to 8 cores on Intel platform, we could be looking an 10900k & RTX2080 Super equipped A51m R2 could be almost at the top of the food chain for a couple of years (unless Dell go AMD+ 200W 3080 Mobile).

 

i grabbed windows 10 pro business 19042.804

installed by itself really! i think you should try a really clean install. completely wipe all partitions on your windows ssd!

 

Hello, I would like to know if all the configuration of the area 51m r2 that we can choose are delivered with tobii or it is necessary to choose a special configuration? there isn't a lot of info on this!

 

You can configure the laptop with a high refresh rate panel that comes with Gsync, tobii eye tracking, or both. The options with no tobii eye tracking hardware are only available on the 2 cheaper configurations. The 2 most expensive ones force you to buy a config with the hardware included.

 

ok I thought I saw somewhere that even the cheapest configurations had tobii! thanks for the info

 

No problem!

These are the options shown on the webpage for the different Area 51M R2 configs:

Link: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/lap...Vh-HACh0HvgzgEAAYASAAEgK-HfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

144hz gsync does have tobii as well. The panel is identified as AUO449D if you are curious.

 

I have already ordered the cheapest black version but with the 2070 super graphics card to have the cooler I thought to upgrade it later by changing the screen to a 4k 120hz and with the next generation of i9 11900k cpu! for tobii i wanted to have a confirmation! thanks

 

11900k will require a microcode update from dell which is unlikely to happen. Be sure to order with 3200mhz ram if you want higher than 2933mhz support even with aftermarket kits. Also be sure to order a K series CPU so you get a vapor chamber heatsink.

 

If Dell offer Rocket MC they have to offer PCIe 4.0 support. I doubt they have added this feature into their current motherboard. Because this would increase the costs.

 

normally the z490 is compatible with pcie 4 ! dell just modifies their microcode to incorporate them into the motherboard! after it is the cpu which brings the pcie 4 so if dell carries the update I think it is feasible! I think they will update the motherboard!

I also remain perplexed for the people who say that dell would use 2 types of motherboard for the compatibility of the ram it remains unlikely in my opinion!

 

Can you elaborate more on the memory and heatsink? I was thinking about just ordering base model now and possibly upgrading the cpu, gpu, and ram in the future.

 

A lot more than a MC is needed to make PCIe 4.0 to work. Not even all MB manufacurers offer it for all their boards. And Dell have already confirmed their upgrade policy long time ago. Both for processors and graphics cards.


Dell don't even offer upgradeability for their Alienware desktops. Just say it couldn't be validated and move on https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...Aurora-R5-support-Intel-I7-7700K/td-p/5596409

In short.... If you have any Dell gaming system don't expect Rocket MC update for any computers ouside new machines.

 

Any one who ordered the 2933mhz memory from Dell cannot upgrade to 3200mhz XMP memory. The HIDEvolution rep states that they discovered different motherboard parts were used based on what memory you order from the factory. Dell does not even sell the OEM 3200mhz XMP memory as a after purchase upgrade either. No idea why they would do this, but it is just what I have seen.

As far as the vapor chamber, Dell claims every model other than one configured with a 1660ti will have it. For some reason I recall someone saying the non-K processor did not have it either, but I cannot find where that report was. You probably want the K processor anyways for the thin die and STIM. With the 10700k it is easier to have reasonable temps without needing a delid. It is far better than the 9900K ever was.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...mhz/apd/ab120716/memory#compatibility_section

Area-51M R2 is in the Compatibility list https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/pfydresults/269144?categoryId=4325

Here is another nice explanation on how Dell do it for Area-51M R2. I expect similar also for previous model.

 

I assume the 10700k will operate under the same thermals as the 10900k because they are both 125w tdp.

I played with one that had the 10700k and rtx2070 super and BF5 would cause it to thermal throttle with the default balanced fan setting.

The non-K series are 65w and I assume they would not thermal throttle with balanced fan setting.

I am honestly against 125w cpu in laptops because they remind me of my clevo d900 systems back in 2005 and looking back at those they simply ran too hot.

I have waited for an m18x replacement as I still have this since 2011 but Alienware moved away from this and it is unfortunate for me. So I might have to make decision and just go back to 17 in size with this new offering.

 

Well.....i believe that explanation to be true. It makes so much sense and no need to have 2 different types of MB.

Perfidious synomym = Dishonnest - Two-Faced- Untrustworthy- Disloyal - Traitorous- Faithless......Dell......Alienware.

 

possible but I am waiting to see when the 11 generation cpu will be released! i don't think they will release an r3 this year so there is still a possibility that they will update their r2

 

Anyone else who has this problem with the m.2 disks in the interposer board. Are you running in AHCI or RAID mode?
I've got a feeling it's related RAID. Which might be why the reinstall helped @Robert Jagroop fix his issue and why slots 0&1 are never affected since they support raid.

That is some insidious **** and makes sense. I guess you just have to flash your memory with a ADATA serial number then.

 

Right here is the **** that has made me swear off Dell. That is just plain dirty.

 

Could be... They could do the same as for the thinner BGA models... Add in a new MB, Cpu and 3000 series graphics. Re-use the same chassis and brand it R3. The major difference between the BGA models and the Area-51M is that you can swap out etc fried Cpu or GPU. As well put in a better Wifi card.

Yeah, its awful. But nothing new.

 

If anyone is looking for a game to stress test their system, connect your VR to it wirelessly and fight the zombies in Half Life Alyx.... Oh my dear lord is that some crazy stuff! Insane seeing the high end graphics in 3D on my Oculus Quest 2. Might be buying the next gen high end VR headset when the new Valve drops.

It didn't put as much load on my 10900k as Cyberpunk, but it is definitely as hard on the GPU! Love it! So glad I bought this machine. The VR side of gaming is finally taking over on the AAA games. I highly recommend yall give it a shot!

 

So apparently there are 64GB SODIMMs now - might work in the R2. Just don't tell Dell, or they might be in touch to "ascertain your warranty".

https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...re-upgrade-to-128GB-memory/m-p/7823538#M40145

(Credits for this gem go to bro @Papusan)

I would warmly welcome @Mr. Fox to say a few words here