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

Something came loose, maybe a screw came loose. I would just call Dell, its under warranty if you don't feel like risking it yourself.

 

This! Anyone notice during repastes that the fan enclosures are sealed/closed/not open-able?

It just begs for dust to go in there and begin to settle...

I think I’ll likely eventually use a very fine and soft pipe cleaner to put it through the heatsink/fan area

 

I'm prob going to open it up today and see what's going on... I really do not Wana contact dell. I'm definitely going to sell this off if this is still happening... Thinking desktop at this point

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I hear it . Might be a bit if plastic or paper. I had a grinding/ screeching back in the day when I had a fan go from bearings.

 

Is it possible for this update to have come right out the box though? Because this issue has been present since day 1. We’ve never seen this laptop perform without this problem. The initial out of box windows setup was even impacted.

Checked and this update isn't intsalled

 

unless you were connected to the internet during the initial setup then no it must be something else. If you were connected to the internet during the initial setup wizard, then Windows would have downloaded any updates and installed them right away whilst you are in the setup welcome setup wizard.

 

I am sorry that I am unable to provide any suggestions relating to this. I haven't owned a system that supports it in ages, and the last one I did was an Alienware. I refused to use it because there was no value in it. It reduced performance. I disabled the BIOS options relating to it (with an unlocked BIOS that allowed me to) so there were no entries in Device Manager complaining about not having a driver installed.

Back in the day when I was experimenting with it to determine whether or not it offered anything of value, I can vaguely remember something along the lines that the only Intel DPTF that would work was the one provided by Alienware. It was probably seven years ago now that I decided it was a waste of time, so my recollection may not be 100% accurate.

Neither my desktop nor my turdbook support Intel DPTF, and neither did my previous desktop or the Clevo laptops that preceded it, so I have no need for the drivers and no recent experience to draw from. To be honest, I was not even aware that Intel DPTF technology was still being used today. As far as I know, it only applies to laptops, and all of the Google searching mostly turns up links relating to laptops and problems people are encountering with it with the latest versions of Windows 10. It seems that Intel hasn't published a lot of detail about it. It may be that the use of it is so limited that Intel only provides drivers to the laptop OEMs and Micro$lop.

Edit: I just checked Device Manager on my turdbook and confirmed there is nothing present for Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework.

Going back to your question... why? If nothing is broken or malfunctioning, just leave it alone. Newer doesn't mean better. More often than not in today's world, the opposite is actually true.

Be smart, like a Fox. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Just curious, what's the issue with Dell Support - you paid for it, do they not come to where you are?

 

I'm like.... Really pissed right now....

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I can see that...

 

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Still didn't work while trying to view it from the forum but when I copy/pasted the URL in my browser and it opened the full YouTube site it worked. How did this happen?

@Papusan was just saying that these fans are meant to be working for the life of the laptop

 

They aren't open today I believe

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Was probably a dud from the factory. I had a bad PSU fan on the first desktop I ever built. Rattled from the time I bought it and one day stopped rattling... it had stopped spinning entirely.

 

Have you open up and cleaned up the fans? I use an electric dust cleaner as in the pict below.


See also... Quiet noisy computer fans with a drop of oil

Have 6 machines up. The oldest is 15 years and all of them with the orginal fans. If Dell has done cost cut it will be all over the line of components (not only MB who can't handle faster memory than 2400 and/or weak components as VRM's etc). The fans will not be an exception from this. It can also be premature failures. This isn't an abnormality as you know.

If you have followed the MSI forum around the web you can see that MSI used low quality fans for some of their notebooks. They often failed after/around a year or so. People was adviced to buy a spare or contact MSI before it was too late. The cost will for some be higher without a working machine a couple of days/week than buy a spare one they can have in backhand/reserve.

 

I think I spotted it’s on a cooler right?

Forcing air into the laptop could cause undesired side effects... from the electric standpoint as well as mechanical! Who knows... like others I’m thinking it likely has to do with it plain failing prematurely

 

It would be logical to assume they are meant to. But, nothing is 100% failure proof. Even if their QC were excellent there would be exceptions.

What we don't know is whether Dell actually provisioned high quality fans or went with the cheapest crap they could find to save money on production costs. We would need to see the manufacturer specs to know what kind of decisions were made.

Unfortunately, I have never seen a stock laptop cooler with fans powerful enough to provide a meaningful improvement. For that same reason it is also unlikely using a cooler would cause any harm. The movement of air is so slow and gentle that it usually can barely be felt. However, even a minor increase could accelerate the accumulation of dust and lint under certain operating conditions if a filter is not used to capture the crud. If a filter is used, I would anticipate enhanced conditions using the cooler, as the laptop would be ingesting less trash using the cooler due to the filtering.

 

As a Lexus owner which gets slightly higher ratings for quality over "regular Toyota", no matter how good a maker is, some defects will occur. I had some issues with my car that were unusual (one quarter had a manufacturing issue), but the vendor stood by it and resolved it. Dell sort of falls in here on both sides...

One the negative side, a real ball-buster like the throttling fix are a sign of bad manufacturer. If they raise the Draconian thermal limit to at least 83' that's .... something. The 2666 memory acting as 2400 is disappointing, but in the grand scheme of things not really that big a deal for most folks, but its annoying...

On the positive side, Dell still _will_ come to your home or work if possible (you might have to ask them though) and will repeat the process until its fixed (likely) or you cry uncle (unlikely).

Game laptops are like sports cars; sexy high performance appliances with their inevitable quirks, few models are purely free of some issue. I have heard of 250K cars with real issues... imagine that.... and we are surprised at the laptop issues on designs that always occur on some level. Too many people make their first foray into buying a gaming laptop without understanding the realities these designs always bring with them. It doesn't excuse the issues but it does make them more..... understandable (but no less annoying). Thankfully, like car forums, the community here has some regulars that help folks out or provide advice that I recall from even from my first AW laptop in 2010 - Mr. Fox, Papusan (my God those nutty icons lol I remember from then) and a few others that at every stage helped alleviate Dell's missteps as best they can.

I guess what I am saying is, its a tricky game with these things, all models have issues on some level which sometimes I think people often forget, thankfully we have folks to help with the issues on here, but all things will have issues sooner or later, but keep it in perspective.

 

That is annoying as hell

 

Gotta love that care package!

 

Goodbye 51M it was fun.

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Now you're cooking with gas, bro.

Let the good times roll...

 

Just from the 51m sold alone I was able to get enough stuff for both my gf and I for a desktop. OP

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All I can say about that is...

You'll never look back. Like a whisper on a scream, doesn't mean a thing.

It's like blue on black...

 

Hi all,

My temperatures fluctuate between 47°C up to 74°C when I am doing basic browsing on Chrome.
When I am playing on CoD: Warzone it hits 95-100°C almost constantly, should I be any concern?
Note that I have the Area 51M, model: i7 9700k and RTX 2080

 

I would be. There isn't any reason for that laptop to not be able to keep the 9700k under control. Are you overclocking ? If not then you need to do a repaste and see if that helps. Are you undervolting the CPU at all?

I don't play that particular game, but none of the games I have and or play at the moment push my 9900k past 75c, so your 9700k should be doing even better.

 

Love my 51m rock solid. Well my desktops are also. All good

 

Hi...

Yes.

Those temps will make the CPU and GPU throttle. This will impair performance.
It probably won't cause any permanent damage to the CPU.
It will most likely eventually kill the GPU.

 

My GPU temperatures aren't reaching those figures, so I am mostly concerned for my CPU..

"Those temps will make the CPU and GPU throttle."​

I actually don't experience any throttling even after intense gaming session.

Are you undervolting the CPU at all?​

I usually slightly OC my CPU (see screenshot below), I've also attached my GPU settings.

 

Well, it seems the actual and real arrival time of my laptop is set to be tomorrow, at some point in time. Which is cool! I am truly excited, and given that I am living in Los Angeles right now, during the Time of Coronavirus, the timing for this laptop getting here just... could not POSSIBLY be better. It's pretty gods-darn boring sheltering in place at home, and having this new laptop will like, drastically increase my quality of life during this 'quarantine' time. I can play better and newer games at the highest settings, and I will have a newer, bigger, and much higher quality screen to enjoy it all on. Not to mention no more annoying inch-width bezel below the screen (the one design aspect of my current AW15 R2 that I truly do not like).


I have to admit that since I've been posting here, I have had a certain degree of uh... buyer's remorse? Not in buying the Area-51m in the first place, no - I'm having the opposite of 'Buyer's Remorse' about that. I mean about the way that I spec'd my machine when I ordered it on the Dell page. I'm starting to think I really should have just splurged a *little* bit more on the higher-quality parts, particularly since I had that generous 17% discount to work with at the time during which I ordered it.


For one thing, I was not aware that the i7-9700k did not have multi-threading - I mean, the reason I did not upgrade it to the i9 was specifically because I thought any gains were more or less negligible since at a glance the overall specifications look very similar if you're unaware of the lack of multi-threading in the i7-9700k. I am a pretty decent hand when it comes to sizing up this sort of thing and making a good purchase, but it was frustrating to learn that I did not have the accurate picture when I made that decision.

However, learning a bit more about the benchmarking, it actually seems as if the i7-9700k actually outperforms the i9-9900 processor - which is the processor that costs +$100 to upgrade to, and the one I think I would have gotten if I'd understood what was going on with the threading. I think when I originally spec'd it, I saw that the base speed of the i9-9900 was lower than that of the i7-9700k, while the i9-9900k seemed to be almost the same as the i7-9700k, but for $350 more - which seemed like a lot for what appeared to be such a miniscule difference in performance. I figured that the difference had more to do with overclocking and potential performance and that it wasn't worth it to shell out $350 for a difference in max-processing power that I probably wouldn't need, so I stuck with the i7-9700k and saved the money.

Obviously my reasoning was misinformed and erroneous for the most part - because I just didn't grasp the truth about the (lack of) multi-threading. That said, I think I actually might have made the right decisions, nevertheless? From what I can tell, the i7-9700k actually does outperform the i9-9900, doesn't it? Seems to be the case in the benchmarks I saw. And of course, the i9-9900k is a bigger upgrade than I thought it was, but I think it's probably more processing power than 'm really gonna need for my purposes, and I probably was better off just saving my money. Do you guys think this is true?


I've also got a certain degree of remorse over choosing the RTX 2070 as my GPU.... especially since I learned that, like, some 'super' version of the 2070 and the 2080 are coming out soon that are like as much as 50% better? Makes me REALLY feel like I should have just dropped the extra $450 on the RTX 2080. I sort of figured, when I made the purchase, that going from the 2060 to the 2070 model was the TRULY important jump to make. The fact that the 2070 was the "alienware recommendation" made me think that it was absolutely good enough; and maybe it is? I sincerely, truly hope the 2070 is good enough and the differences between it and the 2080 will not be immediately extremely evident.

Oh, and at the time I was worried a bit more about the amount of cash I was ultimately spending on it, as I did not know then we'd be getting an economic stimulus check that'd more than cover any slightly over-the-top expenses. I think if I could go back, I'd get the 2080 without a moment of hesitation, and maybe even the i9-9900k.


Should I just stop worrying? Is the i7-9700k and the RTX 2070 probably gonna be more than enough?

edit: OH! Also I am TOTALLY regretting going for the "Dark Side of the Moon" color rather than "Lunar Light"! I chose the black one because I had heard in a review that the owner, who had gotten the white Lunar Light one, was wishing like hell he had gotten the black one because apparently EVERY last speck of dust or the tiniest scratch is highly visible on the white, along with like... heat stains or any kind of stain, or wear and tear.... But I have not heard that from ANYONE else and most people seem to like the white one more.... I realized that I actually might like the white one more...

I don't think it truly freakin' matters, though.... Anyone know if you can safely put stickers on it, or maybe reskin it with vinyl or something i dunno?

 

Let me help you think about this in a better light.... a 9700+2070 runs very cool in comparison to a 9900K+2080, or 9900K+2070 even. You won't miss the hyperthreading for gaming I assure you, and the 9700K is a _good_ processor believe it or not despite the lack of hyperthreading unless you are doing serious graphics work or running lots of programs at once not just idle. There is some loss of frame rate stability for games which would use HT, but not so much you would most times ever notice. A small bonus is the 9700K is unaffected by Intel nerfs for HT vulnerabilities....

The 2080 is on average 15% faster than the 2070, in a few cases 30% but rarely, in a few rare cases the 2070 beats the 2080 at a given resolution. Some good videos on it on YT comparing them out.

If it really bothers you, consider this: the DGFF cards for the Area 51M will probably fall in prices over time, certainly if a compatible 3xxx-series set of cards arrives. Also, 9900K chips will be plentiful for some time, and prices will fall. You have a very good machine, benchmark it and you will see, it beats probably 90% of what's out there...

 

I had somewhat the same thoughts in choosing the 9700K over the 9900K. I knew going in that it didn't have the threading, but I am still glad I chose the 9700k. It overclocks well with a nice undervolt, runs cool'ish OC'd and I knew I was going to update my old Intel desktop with a 16 core Ryzen at some point (mission accomplished).

Now, I did get the 2080, and that said, I can't imagine not picking it over the 2070. You'll be fine with the 2070 and also have less heat to deal with, so OC the crap out of the CPU and GPU if you can!

 

I stickered mine. Got white, worst mistake, stains. Search “stormtrooper” in this thread to find my unit’s pics.

I went all out 9900k/2080... on launch... Frankly, if I was in your shoes and you really wanted the white color (you’ve been warned) and the super cards (go for the 2080 super) ... I’d return it and wait another month...

That is unless you got a really sick discount...

 

@kaworu876 Before I got this Area-51m that you see in my sig, I had another Area-51m but that one was with the 9900K, as casual user who plays games *sometimes* I am noticing 0 difference. What I am enjoying more is lower temps and higher sustained clock speeds due to the lower temps. I run @ 4.7 GHz on all cores all the time and the laptop never reaches anywhere near a throttling temperature so IMHO for gamers the 9700K is best.

 

Hearing all of that totally makes me feel better about all of this Thanks guys!

You're all totally right, as well. I think the 9700k + 2070 will be more than enough power, *especially* with a bit of overclocking which, as you all say, should be totally possible given how cool this thing should run

I actually just like the idea that it'll run on the cool side, in general. I'm so used to laptops that get so hot it feels like you could fry an egg on 'em, and those laptops are *always* the quickest to malfunction, or go bad, or 'die'. Hearing that my A51M should run very cool makes me feel like it'll be with me a long time, and I'm happy to hear that.

....Although, just thinking about that, the fact that the GPU and CPU aren't soldered to the motherboard and a permanent part of this machine really does change everything. Who knows how my machine will end up? Haha

 

Bye Felicia

 

it's how i feel honestly... 51M overpriced, bios limited, trash. :/

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If your primary use case is work/play at the desk, then obviously desktop PC is a no-brainer, you can't jump with it on a sofa or on a train though, even packing it into a car tends to be painful. Sorry for the trivial reminder.

 

So is anyone actually playing any games these days, if so what are you playing on your 51m?

 

Need for Speed Heat

 

Cool, I have not played any NFS series in a longtime. I am mainly flying Digital Combat Simulator f14 module, f16 module and f18 in Persian Gulf and some COD MW in my downtime.

 

Are there any good F16 fighter jet games that can be enjoyed without a joystick? I only have an Xbox 360 Gamepad

 

I take shots each at GTA V, Division 2, Mafia II and Football Manager 2020 throughout the week.

 

Um. Not that I am aware of. Ace Combat maybe but not sure if it has an actual F16. Most of the flight sims I fly or know really require a stick and to make life easier throttle and pedals.

 

Mostly Overwatch, followed by Kerbal Space Program. I have some other stuff I haven't dug into like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption II, etc.

 

I played GTA V once but never was tempted to launch it again. I dunno it wasn't anything interesting for me.

 

Dear Area 51M Community,

Just a quick follow-up on my previous message.
I already own this laptop since a year now without running into major issue.
Do you think I have a faulty unit ? What would be your suggestions here ?

 

If you haven't experienced any issues why do you think it's faulty? I'd say if you've had a year without issue then its the opposite of faulty. Unless your comment was tongue in cheek.

 

Yeah you have a faulty unit because everything is working as it should yeah?

Sell it and buy one that overheats and has "major issues"

 

I have played about 1/3 of it. I tend to get into it for a bit, then tire of it quickly but its engaging for a couple hours periodically. Much more into Overwatch and KSP, might try out the Witcher series since its all everyone raves about.