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

This machine runs all my games quite nicely, compared to my 5 year old desktop setup. Lately, I can't stop playing Subnautica (original). I'm on the fourth play through, now. Beautiful game with addictive game play and great story.

Also, Tomb Raider is visually very nice, Assasin's Creed Origins and Odyssey are beautiful, Witcher 3, even an old Batman:AC looks and plays very well.

Despite the occasional mechanical issues some are experiencing, the system runs quite well, from my experience.

Edit: Just wanted to add, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyessey was visually beautiful and I found mouse/keyboard to be the preferred control scheme, despite the recommendation of using a controller. I ended up playing that one three times, through.

FYI, Witcher series is 85% off on steam, atm, in case you were interested.

 

Warcraft 3 ( classic )
WoW
OW
Stellaris
Dead Cells
Octopath Traveller sometimes

 

I Still play a LOT of RDR2 and ACO, NieR:Automata, Witcher 3, Subnautica, I still fire up Fallot 4 and Skyrim ( both heavily modded), and many more, I like lots of open world with great graphics. I go back and forth between fantasy Sci-Fi and more realistic, I'm not that picky about which type of world the studio creates as long as it's fully developed.

Don't even get me started on Switch I have spent way too much on Switch games lol its addicting as all get out.

 

apex legends ...

if anyone wants to play , I’m decent.

CrayCray2K19 .... add me lol

 

Thats the same as myself, I tend to get right into games and play them until I am sick of them. Thats why I try to play 3-4 at a time now. I keep meaning to get into the Witcher 3 but have only managed the 1st couple of missions/tasks.

 

I mean, the temperatures I am having are quite concerning aren't they?
Are you guys experimenting anything similar from your end ?

 

What temps are you seeing, I can't find your previous post.

 

I mean even tho I've still seem setups on Reddit where ppl do not travel and buy this laptop ontop of an expensive a as hell monitor keyboard etc and leave it there? No need for trivial reminders, reddit has it all.

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

 

Below was my initial post with the temps I am having.

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​

 

Same, playing all 4, (all DCS in VR) and also Project Cars 2.0, Dirt Rally 2.0 and Elite Dangerous in VR. My home office has a Next Level racing rig with Buttkicker, and my desk is equipped with modded Hotas Cougar joystick and rudder and Warthog throttle. A51M powered.

Near future plan since we are on lockdown is to move everything over to my newly rebuilt desktop and relocate the A51M to a different room so that I can make real use of room-scale VR gaming. Right now I only sit while doing VR mostly due to space constraints.

Never bored

 

On your original pic where you showed your OC settings, slide both of the lower sliders all the way to the left. Currently, you are running a slight OC and using standard CPU voltage. These CPU's do not usually require the standard. Set the voltage slider and slider below all the way to the left and let us know how your temps react.

They should improve dramatically.

 

I see this from time to time. The only cases I can think of that this makes any sense are: 1) people who might be tempted to go to a friends house or remote location to play periodically, or hope they might, or 2) Students/young people who want a very small foot print and again, want the option to take it on the go, or 3) are somewhat "transient", meaning they have a room in a home with other renters, etc. and may need to move out in short order without a clear idea of living space in the future.

 

Hey guys, really dumb question but... Just to make sure, the RTX 2070 in the Area 51m I am getting *is* the mobile version? The one described and benchmarked here?
https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2070-Laptop-Graphics-Card.384936.0.html

I'm only slightly confused because there are desktop GPUs with the same name, as well as (I think) now three different versions of the mobile 20-series GPUs: there's the one I linked above which I *think* is the standard mobile one. Then there's the Max-Q versions, which as I understand are undervolted or generate less heat or something? Then there are these "super mobile" versions of the 2070 and the 2080. I was hoping maybe I was going to get a SUPER mobile GPU, but it does not look as if they've been released yet.

It's a bit silly, especially since this is such a big upgrade as it stands already, going from a 970 to a 2070.

 

As @S1ammin said, you want to undervolt the CPU to try and lower those temps a bit.

If you haven't done so already, I'd look at using ThrottleStop or Intel XTU. If you do use either please make sure that you set the OC Profile in AWCC to off.

@B0B whos a member here as well has made a pretty straightforward guide for ThrottleStop and its this guide that helped me start using it.

The CPU is different but the principles are the same. As an example my 9700k is set at 5ghz all cores with -0.95mV undervolt.

 

It's the mobile one, helps to read at least one review before buying a $3k laptop. NBC tends to do decent ones: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-Area-51m-i9-9900K-RTX-2080-Laptop-Review.414667.0.html

 

Lol, I read (and watched) quite a few reviews, not only of the Area 51M itself but of the components, too. But that doesn't mean it's impossible to get confused about certain things, or start to feel unsure or worried at the last minute. I had assumed all along it was the standard mobile RTX 2070 being used, but I am just feeling like, really nervous because it IS a huge 3K purchase, and part of me wants to be absolutely certain about some things. Just reading and seeing some things about both the Max-Q and Super Mobile iterations made me feel unsure - I had thought that there was, essentially, one version of the mobile 2070 and that was it; but there are three versions. But then, thinking about how different the A51M is with its desktop processor, the fact that the mobile version this time is just called 'RTX 2070' and not "2070m", I started to wonder if it even freaking was a mobile GPU or if it could possibly be a desktop GPU and I just did not notice. I know this all seems a bit stupid, but I just... wanted to hear from someone human in plain words about this. Yes, I am being dumb and somewhat irrational; forgive me.

On a side note, yeah, I have some anxiety problems. Lol.

 

You have had it for a year...did it always run like this?

I have my cougar in the basement. What mods u running?

 

You have exactly the config I started with. I added a 970 EVO Pro 1TB as a 2nd SSD, and have 64 GB of RAM coming in the next few days to go in it (2666 but will run at 2400).

Here's the interesting thing: I run the CPU overclocked to 5.1 Ghz (-124 volts, -5 voltage offset), no overclocking on GPU (don't ever feel its worth it) and for whatever case and reason my GPU clocks at full tilt with HWInfo show: 1905mhz max, far above the 1215/1440 clocks. So far I have found no explanation on why this can bump so high, but as I write my current is bouncing between 1875 and 1905Mhz average - go figure. To be sure, when it is idle I get the normal 1215 clock, so not sure why the boost reads so much higher then stays fairly sustained, yet to get an answer on this one, might be a HWINFO bug. That being said, you can get some decent benchmarks off of it for a 2070 (Mobile).

 

Ian J's NXT Uber II with CubPilot's hall sensors. It's been so long that I dunno if either are available anymore. My Warthog stick is in a closet somewhere because there is nothing better than Ian's mod for the original Cougar stick IMHO.

 

I find that I'm pretty much always GPU limited, even at 1080p/144Hz. Currently I'm playing a lot of BL3 and RDR2 with friends, and I don't think I've ever experienced a CPU limitation. I would honestly dial back the CPU frequency and push your GPU harder.

Another point - games have the highest proportion of cache misses out of most types of workloads, so CPU frequency scaling is actually quite poor compared to something like Cinebench and other synthetics (Intel published an infographic/paper about this last year showing that the cache is only hit 50-60% of the time in games). So what you really want is more L3 cache, and/or faster memory (and lower latency).

 

No problems with your Valve Index, or no problems with your Alienware? If the former - please share what adapter you're using and which settings/drivers.

If your laptop... that's not very helpful. Happy you haven't run into problems, but it's an objective statement to say I'm not alone in many of my troubles.

 

@Matcube64, I wish I could help but I have no idea what could be going on there. My Index just works. I use it on both an Intel (A51m) and an AMD rig and have never seen that error you are seeing. I wish I could even offer any suggestion other than Google.

 

Huh. Appreciate the nice words, regardless. Like I said, works flawlessly on my other older desktop - and I'm definitely not alone with the A51 issues. But odd that yours is flawless. Which MiniDP->DP cable do you use, and are you on the most recent Nvidia drivers?

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HNF0KF0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This one.

 

Im not sure why you guys feel the need to drag us through this. This is a laptop forum. Some people just like owning laptops, why need a reason. Hobbys are suppose to be enjoyable and not logical. People may paint all there life because they like to do it, not because its there only source of income which does not generate for them. We are passionate about laptops here, that is what this forum is for. If you want to post how much more logical it is to own a desktop, go to the desktop forums and express your love for them there. People buy stuff all the time because they enjoy the stuff. What else needs to be said? Why crap all over Area51m owners because it doesn't make sense to you given there are these things called desktops. We have had this discussion over the years many times and it never fails to be painfully not needed.

Its like you guys are completely oblivious to the real world. I wouldnt go post on the BMW forum telling the entire community how unlogical it is to buy there vehicles because there are Toyota vehicles that are more reliable and better value. It frustrating to watch you guys crap all over the mobile community like this all the time. I know a lot of you come from eastern countries or that life style but get a grip. Theres no need to drag us through your crap opinions why Laptops dont make any sense any more.

rant concluded, you may continue with your scheduled broadcast. I will not mention this drab subject again in this 2000 post thread. Beware of other threads through!

 

My apologies... Just mad about the investment I made and got just a waste out of it in the end, but to those that are happy with your 51M I'm glad and I'll maybe look into the R2 of its ever a thing. Happy gaming!

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

 

It's lovely. Dell take more care of their old Aw models than their latest and greatest. Older systems as m15/17 have already got the fall/winter security fixes from Intel implemented in latest bios while the newer AW models is totally forgotten. Maybe Dell use their old systems as guinea pig? This below is just a reminder of what will come.


Probably a new dead graphics... Area-51m, not booting, #3

 

Hmmm i want to buy the index but seeing all the problems with it i’m scared of dishing out 800 euro’s

 

Whilst trying to sort my DPC Latency (audible pop whilst watching videos) I have somehow managed to break my inbuilt speakers. Audio jack and USB still play sound. Don't know why I just can't let things be.

 

On the games response, I am going from a YT video that measure max frames vs. I think it was 1% low, and the 9700K "drops" down further on the 1% than the 9900K, so that is what I am referring to. Applications like say a large compression, etc. or rendering will be weaker than the 9900K. I do the OC to 5.1 simply because I can

The GPU OTOH, like I say, I am mystified. My benchmarks seem relatively normal, bit towards the high end, but I cannot guess why the GPU clock shows so much higher... not sure I could push it higher ..... still, at the end of the day, the 2070 is not equal to a 2080, but its no slouch either for a laptop video card in this day and time, I guess that's my point. Even a 2080 Mobile falls about 5% below a desktop 1080.... a 2070 Mobile, about 20%. My only real gripe with the A51M is that you cannot drive the internal display with the AGA....

 

Dude.... chill. The post was a small discussion about why some people opt for a laptop over a desktop and I offered cases where it made sense despite being more static. FWIW, I came very close to just going laptop but at the time the power difference didn't justify it. In fact, I think if power is your first concern which it is for the average buyer, then often a desktop just makes more sense....

No one is the least bit "oblivious" to the real world here, in fact this forum is obviously by its nature supportive of owning laptops and I think we all have one that we love to use. As I speak, I am on my A51M which I keep on my kitchen bar (much to my wife's disdain but she lost that fight) while my Aurora R7 sits in my office. I love both equally, along with my AW13 R3 as my most portable option. As an owner of oh, at least 9 different AW laptops, and two desktops, I am very friendly to the concept of a laptop. My point was that there are other reasons for owning a laptop beyond power.... where a more static configuration still justifies the concessions (and cost) of a laptop. No one is crapping on mobile I really don't get how you read this out tbh, I guess the "makes sense" part touched a nerve. My apologies if that seems as if I am decrying just owning a laptop, but if you never move a system and want the most power, then yes a logical decision is a desktop no question. A laptop is then an emotional decision and that is okay too.

 

Run boot diagnostics, do a sound diagnostic. For me this has happened a few times... it always happened by updating to intel's latest chipset drivers... stick to the ones Dell provide. I’ve never had it happen again.

Also, sound diagnostics seemed to reset the sound card... it’s almost as if the chipset drivers make it freak out and stop working temporarily (like “stuck”). I’m sure people have had their sound card replaced because they thought it had died... but I’m sure it was this.

Run boot diagnostics and test sound, let us know if you hear the test “beep” sound. If you do, reboot into Windows and sound *should* be back.

 

Dell seem to have a local discount @ 12%, but I still want to see what a possible refresh will offer. :-/

 

Maybe they will "suddenly" release a 51M R2 version?

 

I've restored my machine back to an image I took a few days ago when sound was working and had no joy. Running the Diagnostics setup from BIOS worked but found no errors, I also didn't hear the loud annoying beep on completion of the tests.

I've tried uninstalling the device and driver from Device Management, then let Windows install the driver. Then done the same process but installing the Dell driver, still nothing. This was all before restoring back to the 'working image'.

The sound troubleshooter doesn't find any issues either. USB and audio jack sound both work. Its like I've unplugged the speakers as volume controls work and the sound setting (that show volume for all apps) shows volume going up and down like its playing, but just no audio coming from the inbuilt speakers.

I annoy myself at times, I blame you lot for making me try new things. If this was my old laptop I wouldn't have even known what DPC latency was or even attempted to fix it.

 

Well, I got Area 51M last night! Came in around 5PM via UPS, and boy oh boy was I glad to see it.

First impressions... Good god is this thing BIG! I have never actually owned a 17-inch laptop for more than a few weeks once, and I've always been more of a 15-inch laptop kinda guy. But this thing.... hot damn. I *really* love the keyboard - I thought it would be essentially like the one on my old AW 15 R2 (or maybe it was R1) but regardless, the keyboard was nowhere near this nice and solid, and the lighting was amateurish compared to this.

Everything seems to be the way it should be, more or less! It started right up and I have not had any obvious issues of any real kind. I did, uh.... disinfect the box it came in before I touched it, and all the surfaces of the laptop itself, but uh, that was just a precaution.

There is one thing I would be remiss not to mention because this KIND OF concerns me.... The display panel. I thought I was going to get one kind of LG display because I had (of course) gotten all the possible upgrades on the display, since G-SYNC is VERY important to me to get working.

Anyway, the hardware ID for my panel is CMN175F -- this initially worried me, and I am still very worried. Googling it seems to bring up different varying answers regarding G-SYNC issues and BIOS updates from this forum and others, so I think it would be best to just ask up front...

Is this a problem? Is the CMN175F panel like... the cheapo crappy one they put on when they just don't have any of the LG ones left, or no hope of getting more? Or is this fine? I mean, frankly, it looks fine and bright and pleasant. But I'm going to be pissed if they gave me a screen not even compatible with G-SYNC.

 

Not at all. Its the newer installed Chi Mei panel. I did some reading on this panel and Chi Mei on this, it's fine. One bonus is the color and possibly contrast are better than the original panel. I really like it, its better looking than I first expected, and this from a guy with the AW3418DW desktop monitor; it actually has _better_ refresh rate with Gsync and contrast ratios than that monitor, though color saturation is not _quite_ as good, its still pretty good in my opinion. I do recommend using a colorimeter like a Datacolor Spyder Express to calibrate it though, it will help make it that much better. In short, the 1.5.0 BIOS on back I believe doesn't support the panel for Gsync, but the current ones of course do. I use it all the time, it works fine. Its a firmware type Gsync, not a the hardware module, but who cares its logically equal.

 

Try again... I had it times when the diagnostic didn’t make the sound and then rebooted, tried again, and it did make the noise.

Try it again... specifically, interrupt the whole scan and solely try clicking the audio/speaker test only.

I had it once when it seemed it wasn’t working for good and after a 2nd or 3rd attempt at diagnostics, it worked!

 

Oh, *phew*

Thank you so much for being knowledgeable and knowing what's going on with this sort of stuff. The display panel was like, the one thing I was a little bit unsure about.

Any other tips on how I should set this beast up initially to run in the optimal manner? In the control center, there are two overclock presets - Overclock01 and Overclock02 - I haven't spent enough time working with the software to have a freaking CLUE what I am doing, and I have no idea if I should trust either of the presets, or even if the alienware control center is the best thing to use to overclock.

Also I am told I might actually want to undervolt the processor? God, I am feeling stupid. I guess I need to read and study up on some of this.

There are some options I am not too familiar with, like the 'thermal' options, I'm pretty sure this has to do with the fan but it doesn't seem like a direct control/switch for it. I always generally set the power setting to optimum performance, which I assume everyone does. But the 'thermal' one definitely confuses me.

And I suppose the last thing has to do with the BIOS. Should I check that, change that? I have been hearing it needs adjusting in some cases, so I'd rather address this before it causes problem in my experience.


Thank you again docsteel, and thanks so much to all the other posters here who have been *so* helpful in answering my questions and dealing with me. I honestly appreciate it a lot, y'all

 

I'll definitely give it a go thanks for your support. Dell support asked me to provide the sound diagnostics report, so I'll give it another few tries. Just being a bit pessimistic due to the image restore not even resolving it.

Will keep you posted thanks again.

 

Reflash the same BIOS version that you have, you can do it through Windows now no need to use the recovery flash USB. then load setup defaults immediately, save and exit then re-enter BIOS again, now change Firmware Capsule updates to Disabled then boot to Windows and check

 

I'll also try this brother thanks! Assume this won't mess anything to do with the RAID0 setup?

 

Yeah man! Like Spartan says too, I remember resetting BIOS settings while attempting to fix it.

It does work... it’s a software/firmware glitch I’m 99% sure of it. The chipset drivers trigger something in the audio daughter board that makes it misbehave. Reset BIOS, try diagnostics again, restart, etc...

Reflash BIOS is an option, but I never had to do that.

 

nope

 

I'll give these suggestions a try, thanks alot for the advice its appreciated. I'll report back and let you know.

 

No worries, different folks go to different depths on overclocking, etc.

You don't have to technically change a thing with what you have off-hand, but if you use OC1 or OC2 they are just profiles to kick up the CPU/GPU for clock speeds resulting in better performance pretty much out of the box. I will say that from what I understand (someone correct me if I am wrong) that if you run your cooling profile on balanced, it will reduce power somewhat, you need to be at Performance or higher to get best results for speed for gaming and benchmarks, otherwise normal use just use balanced in most cases.

The only other thing is you might want to go into the Nvidia control panel and change the power management mode setting to Performance but here there is some disagreement but I personally think its best for most people.

The AWCC tools are fine for first getting into it, but stick to the fixed settings, but explore the advanced and learn what they do. Most people strive to OC but reduce voltage for heat.

EDIT: Rule of thumb, don't change any settings unless you feel you have a good grasp of what they do! However, the AWCC built-in OC settings are safe in most cases, but I know on mine I couldn't do the OC 2 with a graphic issue, so I made a custom profile to not OC the GPU.

 

a couple of our job sites got shut down because of the stay at home order (HVAC install and service) even though we are an essential business so i'm playing a lot more games now.

I've been playing Doom Eternal the last few days and i am about to start Half Life Alex in VR. i have also been playing a lot of Apex Legends with friends but that has been on Xbox One X since that is what they have.

 

do you have the index by any chance?

 

Macrium Reflect Rescue Disk ISO v7.2.4808

Don't forget to unblock the file after downloading it, any file you download from the internet by default has a BLOCKED status. Go to properties of the file and hit the Unblock button at the bottom, then APPLY, then OK. To stop this stupid auto blocking of downloaded files, see: "Are you sure you want to run this file?" [Yes or No]

This is the FULL Macrium Reflect ISO which supports cloning to dissimilar hardware.

Use Rufus to create a bootable USB Flash Disk from it so you can backup and restore your system without needing to install the app.

@Mr. Fox @iunlock @kojack @ssj92 @Prema @Papusan @bloodhawk

 

Add me to the list . Got mine over the weekend and I must say this is a fairly well built machine. Delidded the 9700k and did a @Mr. Fox edition voltage curve on the 2070 and am having a blast with it so far. Anyone have any recommendations for fan control ? AWCC is inconsistent as hell with trying to make a fan curve work as everything results in 80% fan speed. I've seen where hwinfo would work, but will it mess with any of the Throttlestop settings ? And can't we technically nuke AWCC all together and just let Throttlestop and MSIAFTB handle the clocks we want ? That way we arent using portions of XTU? Also , I came across a post somewhere asking about the Intel Thermal Dynamic driver and it being with a bit of age from Dell. I upgrade a few of the outdated drivers with newer versions and have not had any issues-- Other than the fan curve stuff, but that was before I started testing the newer drivers anyway lol.