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

No offense to what @Helifax achieved, I actually tried that process and decided it was much easier to just run BIOS 1.5.0

 

Indeed, I decided the same, I'm already dealing with Afterburner, Throttlestop, AWCC, bios 1.5.0... that's enough tweaking... and with that my laptop is hitting 85°c with a repad and repaste on World of warcraft classic, a 15 years old game...

 

There is something very wrong with your repaste and repad. What pads have you used? Where the thicknesses appropriate? What thermal paste did you use?

 

Pads :

Same thickness that was recommended on graphic card and around cpu here : http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1111#post-10911767

I've bought high quality aerocool and thermal grizzly pads. It's not the first time I'm doing this repad work.

For thermal paste I've used Nanogrease.

Did everything as it's supposed to be :/

 

Same here. I have no time or patience to do all that. Stick my recovery USB in and I'm back in business within 3 minutes!

 

I called for Dell Tech support, I'm asking them to send me a new GC and Heatsink + Thermal pads. I'm going to use stock pads and a new GC... Repad and repaste never worked so well for my unit :/

 

Dude, as others have said already something is very wrong with your machine. I am on 1.5.0 and it does not matter what i throw at it but i have not seen it go past 76 degrees while gaming. I have stock thermal paste and pads and it's more than a year old at the moment.

For reference, while playing WoW my gpu does not even break the 70 degrees.

 

That's why I've asked Dell to change GPU and heatsink... I've tried everything from changing with different pads size, undervolt, etc...

 

When I measured the pads from my device, I obtained different thicknesses to those shown by @S.K . My guess is that some of the pads you have been using are way too thick and there isn't good contact between the GPU die and the heatsink.

 

Thanks mate ! I'm going to try this if Dell isn't answering fast enough

 

A trick I use is to use thermal paste on the thermalpads as well. I apply a very thin layer on the component, put the thermalpad ontop and then a small blob ontop the thermal pad. This way if the pad is slightly thin doesn't matter.

Infact, many newer laptop don't use themapads anymore. They give heatsinks a clearance of 0,5mm or less and directly use blobs of thermal paste instead of thermal pads. The idea is to allow for the best contact and highest pressure over the CPU or GPU die. Too bad that this procedure can't be used on the A51m because of the bigger clearances.

 

Ok I've used 2mm on memory, that may be the problem, gotta change it n̶o̶w̶ edit : tomorrow, I'm way to tired to do this now

Do you think going 1mm pad on the memory near the gpu is something dangerous for the board ? I'd like to have maximum gpu contact and forget all those problems

 

You can go 1mm BUT you WILL have to do the thermal paste thing, otherwise the contact will be very bad. Beware that using this method requires a lot of thermal paste since you have to be generous to properly fill in the gap. Don't start with the process unless you have a big tube of thermal paste.

However, just putting 1,5mm thick pads on the memory modules (and the rest of the correct ones on the other modules) will probably solve your issue.

 

Using the sticky wet silicon pads that are extra soft and squishy is generally better on laptops than using hard pads with higher thermal conductivity ratings. You can go slightly thicker with them since they easily compress. You get better component contact while not creating die contact problems that can occur with the hard pads with no give to them.

 

Ended up getting an AGA for $75 via an open box auction. Now to wait for Ampere

 

sooo ...anybody who updated to the 1.9.3 bios running any ram higher than 2400mhz? Just curious.

 

I tried but RAM was still on 2400mhz. I rolled back to 1.7.3 after that.

 

Any performance difference from 2600 compared to 2400 ?

 

Nothing that you're likely to notice, but it is still really annoying that we don't have the option to load our systems up with placebo MHz.



DDR5 on the other hand, that should be pretty juicy stuff.

 

Nope, the BIOS and the options within are exactly the same as any older BIOS

 

So pretty much no one here has a setup higher than 2400MHZ ? This is ludacris.

 

I wonder why Dell even puts 2666 MHz RAM in these machines when they try their best to cheap out on things like using the crappiest thermal paste! This doesn't make sense! and why does the m15/m17/XPS 15 have 2666 MHz RAM and the flagship doesn't is just absurd.

 

If I had to guess it's because they have a load of 2666 laying around and it is much cheaper for them to just use that than it would be for them to order heaps of new 2400 sticks. I'm willing to suspect that they originally did intend for higher memory speeds in the A51m, ordered parts with that in mind, and some last minute engineering issue caused them to patch it up in BIOS and prevent XMP/clocks over 2400 to compensate.

 

Not noticeable for everyday use and gaming. The increase you'd notice in gaming is once you get up into the 3k and 4k speeds.

 

And even then, its a minimal difference, like 5% max fps, more like 1-3%, probably a reliable 2%.

 

That's the problem, even older models could do it. I had the 17r4 and even without memory options at Bios it was possible to configure 3100Mhz Ram by intel Xtu. It was enough to configure it once in Xtu and the settings remained saved even after reinstalling Windows.

 

It isn't possible because XTU interface is disabled in the BIOS.
The question is, is it not possible to do the usual dump the options list with IFR and then use setup_var3 to change those values?

Has anyone tried it?
If so, can anyone dump their BIOS and attach it to this forum?
I can see what happens with the IFR extraction..

 

What do you all think dell is going to do about allowing current 51m users to upgrade to 10th gen intel? Think they will sell motherboard upgrade kits?

 

Depends on the game and if you are able to tweak ram settings.

Dell pick what they have in the shelves. In same way as they do it with storage. None know what ssd's you'll get when you order a new machine. They order in bulk to cut costs. And over 95% of their notebook models support faster ram than 2400MHz so.... Intels specs is DDR4-2666 for their newer chips.

 

Unfortunately I’m gonna go ahead and say no way. They’ll probably make the consumer upgrade to a different machine entirely or only include it in an R2 if it ever happens. If they did sell an upgrade kit for 10th gen it would probably be very expensive.

 

looks like they pulled an MSI and won’t have upgrades after all. The 9900K is still more than enough, but I guess we can wait and see what they allow for GPU upgrades then for the Super cards and upcoming 3000 series

 

Like i mentioned from 2400 to 2666 not a noticeable difference. Its when you get to the higher freqs you start to see more gains.

 

The issue isn't "Whether or not there's any benefit", it's the fact that they lied on every piece of marketing, TOS, and instruction manual made for the Area51-M. There's literally NOWHERE (I emailed there legal asking them to show otherwise, thankfully wife is an attorney) in their documentation that states XMP is locked out unless you purchase their ram and have the clockspeeds setup at the factory level.

I really wish some Alienware/Dell insider just leaks the software they use to override all settings at the root level. Like an engineering tool.

 

Me too... I wish someone in Dell would be a Robinhood!!!

 

Guys that's incredible....

Men.... I replaced Thermal Grizzly with lower cost but good quality pads, blue pads, there's less density on those one but I felt that they are softer and more flexible....

I made an open test without putting all the covers and guess what I achieved perfectly the stress test of 3dmark now... It used to fail each time with scores as low as 87%... now it's passed with more than 98%...

And the temperatures lowered to 72 at max during the test vs 86 at max....

I don't know if it's going to get worse with all the covers back on the computer but I think that's all good now !!

Thanks !





(I now think I've been using eitheir wrong pad size or pads not enough flexible)

 

Good to hear this worked great for you

Enviado desde mi HTC One M9 mediante Tapatalk

 

Hello,

I'm getting a bug that's bothering me so hard these days. For some reasons, and randomly, the screen finds itself at full brightness without any way to dim it. This means the keyboard shortcuts don't work anymore and the Windows slider is ineffective.
Of course it always happens when I'm not in front of my unit so there is no way I could know what provokes this issue.

The only thing to do is restating the computer.
Is this some issue you guys also encountered ?

Thank you

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

All I ended up doing was buying a CPU from Newegg as I'm certain Intel gives Dell all their badly binned units and Dell can say "Well it's a laptop, what do you expect LOL". Used Thermal Grizzly paste and I'm getting an all-core 5.0Ghz OC with an i9 9900K @ 32C idle and 90C max

https://imgur.com/a/U3wBNCK

IF ONLY I COULD ENABLE XMP PROFILES

 

Uninstall and Re-Install your Tobi Software if you have it.

 

Did you repad at all?

 

Nope. Kept everything else stock.

 

Have you disabled adaptive brightness?

 

That's about a best case, 5% on average. The statistics show pretty much that or lower in most cases, with a few odd-ball scenarios that are like up to around I think like 7 or 8%

 

I also roled back to 1.7.3 from 1.9.3. Performance were terrible with 1.9.3 on cinebench R15 and R20. 100 points less with exact same settings.

 

My wife's 51m was doing this a couple of weeks ago. Only way to get it to go back to normal was a system restart. It hasn't happened in a couple weeks though, so no idea what triggered it. It would just randomly do it though.

 

Hi,
There is no such thing in my settings. Not even in power management.
Where can I find that ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Well ... seems like I was speaking too early...

I've reassembled everything, and ... I'm getting quite the same temperatures... got some improvements though.. :

Got 92 % stability test on 3dmark with 86°c at max
Got 84/85°c on WoW Classic (forgot to mention : Full details @ 3840x1200 screen)

Can someone tell me what's the maximum clock speed they got in game... I may be wrong with my curve on MSI AfterBurner and I may apply some overclock without noticing...

I'm feeling wretched on this one... it's like the 6th time I've try to change the pads and try to obtain decent results... I've been trying everything... I'm beginning to wonder if it's not a very bad batch of RTX 2080 and/or Heatsink I'm equipped with...

However it doesn't seem so far from the results I'm reading here :

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-Area-51m-i9-9900K-RTX-2080-Laptop-Review.414667.0.html

 

If you do not have it here:


You can try running Command as an ADMIN and type:

Disable - On battery
powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 FBD9AA66-9553-4097-BA44-ED6E9D65EAB8 0

powercfg -SetActive SCHEME_CURRENT

OR

Disable - Plugged in
powercfg -setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 FBD9AA66-9553-4097-BA44-ED6E9D65EAB8 0

powercfg -SetActive SCHEME_CURRENT

 

Do you use Alienware Command Center?

Enviado desde mi HTC One M9 mediante Tapatalk

 

Yes, but the oc profile is disabled, I used the trick with the profiles file and the read only tick on windows to get sure it won't throttle @ 75°c and it's working... MSI AfterBurner is also working because I can see on GPU-Z that the undervolting is working as intended..

I've managed to get things working a lil bit better, but my GPU is still reaching (with a little bit more delay than before) 85°c on WoW (BFA or Classic) @ 3840x1200 Full details (but yeah it's World of Warcraft, even BFA won't need that much power...)..

Actually on this game, the GPU throttle from 1830 Mhz (max speed adujsted with AfterBurner to be able to lower the voltage under 900mv) to 1650Mhz and 1590 Mhz and stabilizes between the 2 latest values... :/

I don't know if I should ask for a replacement of my unit a second time (yes I'm one of those earlier adopters who had his GPU/Motherboard going in smoke...) from Dell threatening them of any legal action here in France... or if I should sell it an buy something like the latest Razer 15 with RTX 2080 super Max-Q .... at least if I loose some power my laptop will be lighter...

After all what's the point of having such a powerfull laptop where the Max-P card are "only" 15% or 20% more powerfull than those Max-Q equivalent :/