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

Anyone using Windows 10 Enterprise edition on their A51m? Are there any benefits over Windows 10 Pro? Do you lose any services, such as MS Store (I know its crap but still needed for some stuff, unfortunately). I think I read on here that the LTSC version of Windows does away with MS Store, unsure if Enterprise does as well.

 

I bit the bullet and ordered a 9900KS. Should be delivered in a few days. I'll repaste with Grizzly thermal grease while I'm changing the CPU anyway. Should clear the field for decent temps.

I can probably sell my 9900K for a fair sum, so it's not a huge investment. ;-)

 

This might not be precisely what you asked, but I have to say LUCKILY I tried Enterprise LTSC.

I have Alienware 13 R3. Since I installed 1809 Enterprise (but LTSC) a year ago I have a properly working and stable laptop. Before, I ran Windows 10 Home. Now I have no more stress. Ever.

Microsoft Store can be easily installed afterwards (Google). All is same or better (performance wise) as with PRO or HOME, but without the risk of being given a faulty update from MS, plus the bulkiness of Home or Pro was getting things slow after time.

Updates are stable and without risk.

 

Thanks for this! Does AWCC still work OK or do you not use that?

 

I do not need/use it.

 

Hi guys,

I know some of you were interested in how to overclock/undevolt your GPU in order to keep the thermals in check.
I made a pretty lengthy quite in-depth video about it:


In the last part, I also show how you can use HWInfo64 to bypass the 79/80 Celsius hard thermal throttle that is controlled by the bios.

I hope you will find it useful and if you have any questions please let me know!
Cheers

 

I recommend not buying the 9900ks for its maximum performance benefit. My machine does not properly recognize its 5.0ghz all core boost clock and as mentioned, AWCC does not know what to do with it.

My 9900ks is exceptionally well binned though, so if it is representative of the average 9900ks, you should be able to undervolt it really well. I work in a quiet office so a balance of performance and fan noise is important to me. The 9900ks saves me about 30 watts at a 4.3ghz all-core, non-avx load compared to my 9900k. This allows me to stay on the quiet fan setting in AWCC without getting too warm.

At the top end, you might be able to get another 300 MHz out of a 9900ks compared to a 9900k while staying within the ~130w capacity of the stock cooling system. 300mhz isn't a big sell for me but a much quieter machine sure is.

 

I'm getting the 9900KS mostly for it's thermals and quietness. I'm not gonna OC.

 

You can't really. Oc it much anyway, it has a power limit of 130w in the 51m cause of bios support. You will have to undervolt and underclock it to 4.8-4.7ghz it or it will throttle hard.

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guys area 51m is a quiet laptop while working on it?...using programs with no serios impact on the processor?....curently im using a 8 year old laptop m14 x r2 and in the last 3 years im using in ear headphones cause i cannot work with that kind of loundess...the fans are max out while im only browsing internet for stuff

 

When gaming and stuff depending on the game fans will need to be pushed, it is annoying lol.. But I mean.. Desktop cpu and gpu In a laptop so..

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not while gaming...im fine with that....only when working i meant using progams with low impact on system performace...do u hear the fans while watching 4k video on youtube?

 

So I can't use it at all without undervolting and underclocking it? Urgh... :-(

 

I mean it's easy to do, I can tell you that Temps on a 9900ks will be way better Than a 9900k. I would recommend a KS tho if you can snag one

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Outside of gaming and and CPU/GPU intensive programs it runs quiet.

 

tnks..i hope is the same situation for i9 9900k Fire tiger

 

It should be, browsing, watching YouTube, word docs and the likes of Netflix etc. should not require the fans to kick in. I'm sure some people have even ran such apps whilst running the fans on quiet mode rather than balanced.

 

I’m returning my 51M, and have cancelled the 9900KS order.

I’m not gonna go down the ”fix” route for this amount of money. :-/

I’ll wait and see how the X170 or the 51M R2 pans out.

 

I like my 51M. Haven't had to fix anything although I did do a re-paste just in case. I'm also running the 1.5 bios simply because it works great.

I also am certain something better will come along, but I'm just as certain that I will still be happy with this LT for years to come. It's plenty fast now even with the 9700k and the only upgrade I can see would be to the CPU, but that won't happen until games start requiring more threads.

It's been a set it and forget it experience for me now but I can tell you, it wasn't that way in the beginning. It took me quite some time and effort to find the happy spot of best OC vs. least heat, and this was not easy because like most, I also caught the benchmark bug during that effort.

After getting that bug out of MY (myself) system, my 51M runs amazingly well.

 

Like, I'm 85% of my time running on quiet fans and they are inaudible. They sometimes even disable themselves (with appropriate CPU undervolt and GPU too).

I got the i9/2080 variant.

 

Probably a smart move. Don’t get me wrong the area 51m is a good machine. You just have to spend some time with it and tweak it. And I do agree that shouldn’t be something you have to do on such an expensive machine. But, I have said it before and I will say it again. The 9900K runs hot even on desktops. If you want 5Ghz you need to delid it and do a repaste. And you’ll need to undervolt it. It’s just too hot of a chip to expect that in a laptop. If all your doing is gaming then you should honestly get the 9700K. It runs a lot cooler and in games you may lose 1-2 FPS on most titles.

 

Yea I enjoy mine too. Sometimes I get caught up in having the "ultimate performance" but it's still the best computer I've ever owned. After repasting and re-padding I found a good compromise in temps and performance. I've been totally fine with the temps on my 9700k with a -125mv undervolt and stock OC. My 2080 runs about 10 degrees colder at 1800 Mhz @ 0.9V as well.

If I want quiet gaming, I use my 1600 Mhz setting on the balanced fan setting and it still performs fantastic - think 120-140 fps most games. Been playing Halo MCC on PC lately and I get like 200 fps no problem even with one power brick plugged in.

 

Hi everyone,

I made another video in which I show the difference in thermals & FPS gain/lost using the CPU & GPU profiles I setup in the previous videos.



I used the following games and I played each game for around 30 minutes before capturing the last 5 minutes of the session.
The game I used are as follows:

Metro: Exodus - Huge GPU usage - Low CPU usage:
Part 1 : Quite Fan Profile with "Green" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.
Part 2 : Max Fan Profile with "Best" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.

Battlefield V - High GPU usage - High CPU usage:
Part 1 : Quite Fan Profile with "Green" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.
Part 2 : Max Fan Profile with "Best" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Good GPU usage - Good CPU usage:
Part 1 : Quite Fan Profile with "Green" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.
Part 2 : Max Fan Profile with "Best" CPU/GPU oc&uv Profiles.

Hope you like this comparison!
Cheers!

 

Hi,
I agree with you mostly! Don't take it the wrong way, but Alienware (used to) and Clevo (is) and enthusiast machine: Meaning you will not get the best results "out of the box".
Everyone "loves" to say "for this price", I expect it to "make me food, work for me and even fly me to the moon". Having EXPENSIVE desktop components in a LAPTOP chassis (and the brand Alienware) will obviously cost quite a lot.
If you want an out of the box experience then I would recommend to stick with some "gaming laptops" with max-q or even the Lenovo's without a proper GPU (because you can always put a "gimped by thunderbolt spec" external GPU to it an pretend you have a desktop GPU running on a laptop... Aham) Probably you will pay almost the same as on the Area-51m in total (but you will have a nice bulky external GPU ^_^). And the biggest problem is not even this. Is that once you try to change something (tweak anything hardware related) you will realize that you cannot.

The Area-51m comes very close to a "desktop replacement", but it will not replace a full desktop no matter what (weird software/hardware locks and the lack of a proper bios).
However! The hardware is -5% off the desktop performance (at CPU/GPU stock) and is portable!
I have a full-tower i9-9900k at 5.1Ghz - watercooled by a 360mm radiator and an RTX 2080Ti overclocked to 1950Mhz (the 2080Ti boosts lower than the RTX 2080) also watercooled by a 360mm radiator and any temperature ABOVE 60 Celsius makes me scared! This is because in the past 10+ years I only had watercooled desktops and laptops with LAPTOP components that they maxed out at 75 Celsius. The Area 51-m will have higher temps than that "out of the box", but with tweaking you will be able to "tame" them in the 65-80 Celsius range. (Just don't expect to overclock to 5.0GHz on the i9 and 2000Mhz on the RTX 2080 or something. That is very hard to achieve on desktop, let alone on air cooling).

I am extremely impressed by what the Area 51m can deliver! "Out of the box" is a bit messy, but being able to play Metro:Exodus (without RTX) on ONE 180W power-supply on the COOL profile (the one that cuts power on the GPU to 50W) on Ultra @ 60FPS blew me away! (The fans are basically off). Then I just plug in the other power supply and I can go to full RTX (Ultra) and 180W @ 90-100FPS is basically mind blowing (with obviously higher acoustic discomfort ^_^)

What I am trying to say, is don't expect everything to be fully served! Learn the machine and how it works! Learning how to overclock and undervolt, how the hardware works and why. It is a skill you will use for a long time to come.
And plus, it will give you the ability to tweak it and "personalise" it to your preference.
The performance is there, the cooling is there, which is a marvel in itself! Just don't expect FULL desktop cooling in a laptop.

I would recommend that you re-think your decision (if you are into computers).
If you just want a "sexy laptop" that has good performance but you don't want to deal with any tweaking (and I completely understand that!) then this is not the one for you!

Cheers!

 

I run Balanced mostly and only notice fans when gaming, just normal web and desktop use I don't notice fans at all.

I can run my KS at 5.0 all cores through Throttlestop, and have been, but not really going to see that much difference between 4.8 and 5.0 just using the machine anyway only if your a benchmark junkie.
I have not noticed any throttling on my CPU at 5.0 all cores but I probably have not pushed it hard enough to notice it, games don't push it enough most games these days seem to be heavily GPU intensive rather than CPU.

 

New one bites the dust. Area-51m, LCD turned off, will not turn on

You mean you haven't access to AVX Negative offset settings in bios? There is no need to cripple the clock speed or lower the power limits if you use those settings.

"gaming laptops" with max-q won't make the big differences.... 100C has become the standard out of the box. Aka works as intended!

 

What is considered a good price for a 9900KS?

 

Either that or cripple it’s performance so it runs at a reasonable temperature. It’s so funny to me though since Alienware pumps so much power into their m15/m17 laptops that the cpu just pegs at 100C out of the box, and yet they cripple the gpu on the Area 51m so it doesn’t get hot. Make up your mind Dell!

 

Most if not all laptops will require some sort of change when the come 'out the box' regardless of make and model etc. I'm sure (opinion) some Clevo's without the Prema mod probably need a lot of tweaks to get it just right and even the Clevo's with the Prema mod still need a lot of tweaking using the modded features to get it right.

Its all based on you and how you want it, in my opinion. There will be loads of folks out there happy with the 'out of the box' experience with any laptop. However, most of the people who are aware of temps and look into things a bit more will always tweak in one way or another.

EDIT: I've only mentioned Clevo as it was one of @Muyfa666 potential future choices. Not turning this into a ones better than the other contest.

 

No problem snagging one, but I don't want to HAVE to do this to get decent temps.

Dunno, I could've got one for 666$.

See, this is not quite ok. Of course a enthusiast will tweak and mod to get every single drop out of the unit, but the regular person shouldn't have to - the base functionality without too much throttling and limitations should be there from the start. 100C on the CPU is simply not ok IMO.

 

I still think some other laptops with desktop components could reach 100c out of the box. I mean some other 'gaming laptops' you see being reviewed on YouTube hit 100c outside the box. I'm honestly not defending the A51m, if definitely could be better in a number of areas, nor am I attacking any other laptop or manufacturer. I just think almost all laptops with high-end components will throttle at some stage without necessary tweaks.

I do think your best option is to wait as you have stated, if you aren't happy with the current options. Then wait and see what's to come from the newer Clevo or next A51m revision and go from there.

 

Ok, so walk me through it... if I were to keep the laptop and 9900KS, what will I need to do to get it to work good?

I don't benchmark or overclock, I just want good gaming performance and decent temps.

 

All 3 of my Clevo based (Eurocom and evoc) p870 Based laptops iwith desktop CPU’s hit 100c out of the box without any tweaking. That was paying for HID’s LM and cooling mods.

 

I agree. 100C is too hot for day to day use. But, like I mentioned the 9900k is just an inefficient and hot chip. When I had my 9700k area 51m I could run that thing a 5Ghz all day and never go higher than low eighties. So it’s not really Alienware’s fault honestly. Intel just did a piss poor job making a good product and was just trying to keep pace with Ryzen CPUs. Hopefully they get their act together or we see some desktop Ryzen cpu laptops soon.

 

I only have a 9700k, I repasted my laptop and undervolted to -105mV. Mines does have OC of 5ghz on all cores, but you might find leaving the CPU stock with a UV could help? I'm honestly not here saying you must or should keep the A51m. I wouldn't be happy with the 9900KS having the power limit but thats just me.

I'd go with either the 9700k or 9900k thats actually supported.

 

I can tell you with the 9700K + 2070, it never gets that loud, but even when the fans kick up some its not anything like the high pitch of the M14X R2. I mean if you kick it up to full speed, no question its loud - its a gaming laptop, they are loud by nature. OTOH, I would say every other laptop I have owned to date with the exception being the AW 13 R3 was far worse sounding. The AW 13 R3 can get loud, but its not as offensive for some reason as the older laptops. I've owned an M17x R2, M14X-R2, AW 13R1, AW13 R3 and all models of the AW M11X's.... and and AW 15 R1 so I've had a bit of experience over the years with the brand in addition to two desktops. The Area 51M just sounds less offensive to my ears than all the others, I think the pitch is lower.

The only real gripe I have with A51M currently for me is the inability to drive the laptop screen with the AGA.... that I can do this with my AW 13 R3 and AW 15 R1 is maddening....

 

I’m a bit confused actually. I understood it like the KS would run cooler with same or better base speed, but this is not the case then?

 

I think @Lopt and @Sup3rKillaX have the 9900KS, so they're in a better position to help out. Do you 'need' the 9900 variant K or KS or is it just about having the best available?

I do think though that if you are having concerns or having to spend almost $1k to try and improve things, you might be better of waiting on the newer models you previously mentioned and see how they hold up with hopefully the newer generation of Intel or even Ryzen CPU's.

I don't want to come across like I'm forcing you towards the A51m, just that you might find the same issues with other laptops if you aren't tweaking them.

 

You want ThrottleStop and Afterburner, here is my current setup.

AWCC set to a No Overclock profile, you can create this by Duplicate OC profile 1 and change the settings to 76c for thermal, 0 for OC Core MHz, 0 for Mem OC.

I set high power for demanding games and performance fans.

For less demanding games I can run balanced fans and power.

Setting up ThrottleStop and Afterburner is NOT complicated but there are steps you must follow and we have excellent guides already posted here please search.

In my opinion the Area51m is an excellent machine even with its worts, and is still currently the only one of its kind at this price, so the struggle is worth it IMO.

However you have to be the kind of person that’s willing to work at it, if you expect an out of the box Unicorn experience you may be disappointed.

It all comes down to you and if you have it in you to take a machine that’s almost there and do the work to get it the rest of the way.




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Hello, Thank you for this videos!
With your directions I was able to hit 4639 points in RC 20 in very stable balanced fan mode
Now the question is how to apply and override command center profile on start up

Here is screenshot

 

Yes the KS runs MUCH cooler than the K, I believe it helps take some of the thermal load off the combined heatsink but that's just a theory, you still need to mitigate the GPU heat by undervolting the GPU with Afterburner.

Then everything pretty much works as it should.

Remember it's all connected, lite loads no problems, but when you really push the machine with Graphics intensive AAA title games you have to keep in mind these are DESKTOP CPU and GPU in a laptop box, cooling IS an issue and you have to take steps to control your thermals, put the machine on a quality cooling pad or at least raise the back up off the table a bit to give it clear airflow AND undervolt the GPU.

You really don't need to worry about the KS at all, it runs fine in this machine without any tinkering, I have mine pushed to 5.0 all cores ands undervolted -100mv just because I can not really because I need to.

The KS is just a Premium binned K with an updated microcode which everyone assumes includes Spector and Meltdown mitigation baked in.

With the KS you can literally ignore it if you want, it will be much cooler and performance will be IMO indistinguishable from a K unless your the kind of person that obsess over benchmarks, some do I have been guilty myself from time to time and probably will again but you can literally toss a KS in and forget about it if you can let go of the "got to have best numbers" hangup.

 

I have a healthy UV of -125mV right now and it seems very stable.

3DMark gets me these results after repasting with Grizzly Kryonaut. Two pads had zero pressure on them, so I added 0,5mm to those two.

Max fans (Firestrike ran 2x times)
CPU 77C
GPU 74C

Cooldown in between... not too much thou.

Performance fans (Firestrike ran 1x time)
CPU 79C
GPU 75C

This is not half bad actually.

Will a KS get me even better results out of the box? What about the 127W vs 95W? To me it sounds like it would run hotter? How will this affect me IRL? If at all, that is...

 

Heres a question. Finishing office remodel and have a new monitor coming. 51m will be pretty much on a desk now. Pushing a dell-s3220dgf
I acquired at a good price.

You folks have Lid opened or closed for external gaming?

I'm looking at the vents on the top and wondering what will happen with thermals with lid down.

 

When I push the KS to 5.0 all cores and UV -100mv I get 70's with spikes into the 80's remember these are still basically the same CPU, KS is just better binned, overall it runs cooler in day to day operation it runs in the 60's but when you push it, it will shoot up not as high initially as a K but you CAN make it get hot sure but overall it will still run cooler than a K, how much ? maybe 5-10c or more given the situation and load.

The whole point of this is the max temp of these 9900 CPU's is around 100c or thereabout, now you don't want to get anywhere NEAR that especially when your deep into an immersive game, it will not cause any damage, the CPU will simply step down until it cools down, but I do not believe the HEATSINK design in this laptop is sufficient to handle a CPU at 90c+ AND GPU at 80c+ it simply can't dissipate the heat fast enough even with max fans, which is why the GPU steps down so aggressively to protect it's self.

So the entire idea of this exercise is to lower the temps of both CPU and GPU enough that the heatsink can do it's job over long gaming sessions and when loads spike in AAA games, because you are NOT going to be able to change the cooling and heat dissipation of the laptop by any significant degree.

What I remember of the K I had before it shot up to the 80's right away and was into the 90's awfully quick with games ( this was on Dell stock paste mind you ) it's one of the reasons I returned it.

I wanted to let HID repaste and repad, and make a few other changes that Dell does not offer, many of the folks here have done that work themselves OVER and OVER, LOL I don't have the patience, time or the space to do that, don't get me wrong I could do it fine, but I don't feel like listening to my Wife complain about computer parts spread all over the dinning room table

I much rather pay HID to setup the machine the way I want it and be done with it, I had the money and for me it was well spent, Your situation may be different.

To me the whole 127w vs 95w issue is meaningless as I can not do anything about it, and the machine runs like a bat out of heck anyway.

 

Others may have a different opinion but I would not Game on this laptop with lid closed it needs all the air it can get across all it's vents and surfaces while gaming, try this next time your deep into a heavy game for 30 mins to an hour - touch the area above the F keys and feel how hot that gets.

 

Well, in real life gaming for a good while I get 83C now with repaste and UV. Maybe I'll order the KS after all.

 

I would not even worry about temps if you’d already in the 80’s.

It not like your going to get much lower in games IMO as long as you can keep CPU under 90’s and GPU under 75c your already golden.


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It will eventually damage your laptop screen, and as mentioned, make your laptop run hotter or overheat.

 

Another question, why won't my GPU down clock when things are idle? It seems to perhaps be a driver issue because, and I have not been keeping track of any pattern, but before I last updated nVidia drivers, it would properly down clock to 300MHz and run @ 35c or so. I have noticed in the past where it idles at 300MHz but it's rare. Usually it's always running at 1575Mhz and 50c.

Anyone know why it does this?

 

Found some strange shutdown issues, it will freeze during shutdown but the keyboard stays on, screen just black. Usually this happens when running blender and unity, especially if there are two instances up. It seems that it just gets confused or something. Anyone found something similar?
After a hard power button reset all is fine and normal again. I do put it to sleep sometimes, but that does not seem to be a consistent trigger.

Is this just windows being a d&@¥/?