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

They doubled the phases from the 2080, 6>12. Even if they are el cheapo, they will run cooler than the previous revision.

 

Alienware RTX 2080 uses 6 doubled FET phases. Not sure what the new Dell 2080 Super cards will get. 12 Single FET phases may works better. But won't help much if they go cheapo.

 

I wonder if the 3200Mhz XMP memory will be locked to "certified" memory.

 

At least locked to two sticks

 

This is insane. You either have to go down to 1080p, or too high often at 4K.... why do people seem so adverse to supporting 1440p...

 

The R2 does sport a vapor chamber when paired with 2060S or greater. However, that is a singular vapor chamber, not a separate vapor chamber for both the CPU and GPU, that is unified by heatpipes.

 

Maybe someone in this forum can modify the BIOS to accommodate new CPU and GPU. I never trust manufacturers, as most of aftermarket upgrades to laptops are done and shared by people in this forum. Big companies only care about our wallet.

 

That'll never happen.

 

Heart broken. I really love the design though.

 

Don't blame the messenger. I would love for it to happen more than anyone else. It just isn't, the BIOS is so locked down otherwise you would've seen Prema on top of it with his magical Prema BIOS.

 

Dreaded this day as I knew it would be bad news for us 51m R1 owners.

On the plus side of all of this, I'm going to wait for the 10 series Intel chips to drop, then sell my 51m and build a desktop. Fool me once AW, shame on you.. Been wanting to build a desktop for awhile now, just didn't have enough space, but I'll make do.

Not to sound all negative nancy, but who knows what sort of limitations will be put on the R2. Limitations that may be very well put into place a few months or more down the road (looking at you 2080 thermal limit.)

Going to go with the 2080S and 10700K. Should last me years to come at 144hz+ 1080p gaming. Bit overkill, but why not.. Can't wait to finally build a desktop!

 

how is the "Future Proofing" with the new Alienware m15 r3 and m17 r3

Still soldered rams and inverted motherboards as was the case with their atrocious m17 r2 and m15 r2 design?

 

If you can live with a desktop that would always be better. I'm just gonna use my 51m with 9700k/2080 till the 4 years warranty run out and see how the world is than. Maybe throw in a aga next year if i want and if they ever release a new one

 

You guys know they have the 300hz screen option in the R2 right?

 

It's gonna be tough, but i'll make it work. My "desk" (more of a shelf) will be about 24" in length haha. Going to be fun.

 

Well, in the end, still have a 51m on 1.5.0 running quite nicely, only “downside” for me is the slower RAM.

300Hz screen sounds butter smooth for daily usage, but honestly overkill for most demanding games that won’t make it past ~120 FPS anyway, so the 144 Hz screen is more than great.

I did also go into this hoping to upgrade to a 3080 down the line like I moved from a 485M to a 680M back in 2011-2013. I knew the CPU socket would change, but the 9900K will still be more than enough for years to come. The promise that was really broken and ****ty here was no GPU upgrade path -.-

They did the “Legend” industrial design 2.0 here too... multiple things changed aesthetically, so that pisses me off too (makes the R1 look “old” by comparison, lowering resale value).

Also, watch out for that new chiclet keyboard! Lunar White stains/smudging galore!!! This is one thing I really dislike about the R2. The R1 keyboard is AWESOME.

 

Could be so much worse, bruh. I really hope that Area-51m R1 never will come on the dreaded Black list http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-win-update-bios.831450/page-22#post-11013221

See also....
The Alienware Area-51m’s upgradable dream has failed in just one year
This will be the official post on reddit about the Area51m and not getting the Super GPU's in the R1....

 

If this happens and I get locked out, causing massive temp rises, I will sell this.

 

Im curious to what things you see changed? I can only spot the grill above the keyboard which is different. What's the rest?

 

It was more like a fever dream to be honest.

 

Can this case be treated as false advertising? I hope someone sue them

 

Regarding false advertising. The new ads isn't better than the old from last year.


https://www.alienwarearena.com/experiences/alienware-area-51m-r2

 

Wow the audacity of this company. Maybe we can start something here in this forum so that this kind of practice won't be followed by others!

 

Not so sure it will help... As long people continue jump on it it won't change. This apply most companies. But some has to be... Or better say prefer to be the bellwether/bell sheep.

Nothing have changed the last 15 months...


As I've said repeatedly over the last year... You won't see a change.

 

Best thing you can do is point stuff like this out, so that others are aware of the corporate nonsense slop they're being fed.

 

In the exploded view you can see the simplified render of what the 2080S looks like, and it looks physically different to the R1 2080, the heatsink is confirmed different, so won’t fit physically either. The palm rest has an indentation around the keyboard to fit it under the screen, as well as cutouts for every key, meaning it is a chiclet keyboard like on the m15 and m17. Also the vents under the screen are now around the alien head power button, hex shaped and much more prominent (“47% more airflow” claim comes from that I’m sure). The SD card a lot means the layout within is different to accommodate it.

 

Wondering the same thing

 

This makes my choice in kid 1s new laptop easy...MSI Raider for the win.

I did not really buy the 51m to upgrade graphics internally....BUT...this is obnoxious and feels like an "FU" to brand loyal buyers.

 

Perfect time to visit, didn't even realize the R2 was announced today LOL

So first off, I am going to wait and see the R2 MB design. It's quite possible the 2080S does work in the R1 and could be something as stupid as the heatsink being different (looks like we got some friends in China working on that).

I am mostly interested in that 4K display. When the R2 does come out, I will be definitely on the hunt for one.

 

Further confirmations from Alienware that we won't see any upgradability on the Area-51m concerning the CPU and the GPU.

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Within the same generation of parts.... Maybe you should ask when they will push out bios update for 9900KS

 

Quick question before I go about selling my 51m. I'm pretty sure my 9700K is a fairly good sample and may be worth more than the average 9700K, so I may end up selling it separately or adding to the total price of the machine. But is there any way to verify this in the 51M or will I have to do this in a desktop?

It can run 5Ghz with -0.100+ UV and temps stay around 70C while gaming. The issue is I can't figure out how to get the voltage to stay static with the 51m, even when I set it to say 1.2-1.3V it still fluctuates. I've also benched it at 5.2/5.3 Ghz all core.

Any way to verify the voltage it needs for a stable 5Ghz - 5.3Ghz using the 51m?

 

The "upgradable memory" is also very laughable...

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

I would ask Product Manager Eddy Goyanes. Because he himself said "within same gen parts"

https://twitter.com/EddyGoyanes

 

eGPU is a good solution to this mess, especially with AW linking TB3 directly to the CPU. Pay desktop prices, get close to desktop performance. Which is better than the current situation - pay way over desktop prices, get close to desktop performance.

And with the shared heatsink, you can probably push your CPUs more.

I'm keen to try eGPU when Ampere is released.

 

Sad. bit predictable. So much for the sales pitch about a future-proof upgradeable platform. BIOS is mod-blocked by cancer firmware crap and hardware locks (signed firmware + Intel BIOS Guard hardware blocks) and proprietary form factor GPU and no MXM slot. Dell demonstrated the same wicked behavior on the Alienware desktop side of the house a couple of years ago. While literally everyone else was getting complimentary BIOS upgrades to move from 7700K to 8700K, the Alienware desktop owners were given the option of buying a "next gen" desktop. Owners of motherboards made by EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, ASROCK, Super-Micro and others got a "free" upgrade from their motherboard OEM that cost them nothing but a simple download and flash.

Umar Khan also confirms the treacherous bait-and-switch shenanigan. But, "I told you so" sucks. I hate when people pull that on me, so I won't go down that road here. The pain of treachery stings enough without a brother adding to it. Gloating over the misfortune of other is wicked, and it hurts to see this happening to people I care about. It is equally painful to watch it happen to people that aren't friends.



What's equally scary for the rest of us, we know that some of the victims are going to defend the treachery and make excuses for it the same way they did with BGA filth. The normal people will be livid about the betrayal and won't subject themselves to it again.

 

Who is going to want any Turing cards after seeing Ampere in he next 8 hours 20mins?

 

Probably 2060 and 2070 owners that want to upgrade to 2080 for a fraction of the original value. Same value-hunting gamers that were looking to jump from 780M to 980M or 1060 or 1070 instead of wasting money on a new laptop. At least they could with MXM. Area 51m owners are in the same messed up place Clevo owners found themselves with the PCB layout and size changes when Clevo (and others) began doing goofy things with MXM PCB after form factor standardization got thrown out the window. Clevo, ASUS and MSI went out of their way to make upgrades difficult or impossible. Can't sell laptops that are upgradable because people will buy GPUs instead of laptops. All of the laptop OEMs are dishonest, greedy, selfish bastards.

 

THIS. Sad but true.

I had extremely high hopes that DGFF was Dell’s answer to the whole MXM rubbish. At least that way we knew they could control the destiny of the format (and provide generational upgrades, as understood by everyone, except them) and that for me was the “sell” that hooked me on going for a 51m over any other DTR. Sad sad sad.

There is an interview with Azor saying exactly what I said above. He says something like “with DGFF our hope is that we’ll be able to provide GPU upgrades in the future, and although we don’t control what Nvidia does, if they don’t change anything drastically and if we can still fit it in our DGFF, then we should be able to continue supporting future cards in DGFF as upgrades”. This specific video was what convinced me. I’ve seen the MXM rubbish go sour far too many times. DGFF was the hope. Also, in that video he specifically refers to upgrades as proper upgrades, meaning upgrades beyond the 2060/70/80 cards they were already offering on launch.

The man himself said it, it was intended, it was planned for. Once he left, they did whatever the heck they wanted, and not the original vision.

 

Umar say so nice "they don't create multi-generational upgrade paths". Here is co-founder of Alienware F. Azor talking about possible upgrade paths above current gen DGFF. From 2.5 min...

 

How much truth is behind Umar's statement, "Technical Providers don't create multi-generational upgrade paths"? It has been done for years so what has changed so drastically that Dell can't integrate the newest Nvidia cards into the current DGFF form factor? These multi-generational upgrade paths are perfectly fine through desktop PCIe slots without having to change out motherboards. Are they just passing the blame to Nvidia for their decision to screw the consumer?
I'm not an electrical engineer so maybe it's just not possible anymore with modern day laptops.......

 

Honestly, I don't believe that his leaving has anything to do with it. And, I don't think it was ever intended. I suspect he just conveniently omitted details that served the agenda best, such as the clarification that upgrades to a next-generation GPU would not be facilitated.

Probably can pass it off as truth if they equate "don't" to mean "have elected not to" create them.

 

Is he referring to Nvidia as the Technical Provider or Dell?
What would Nvidia actually give (sell) to Dell to design their DGFF card? Do they just give them a GPU die and Dell design/build the rest of the PCB or are they given a complete PCB and Dell just design the interface for their machine?
Forgive my ignorance with this sorry.

 

I can't see a major change. Only that Dell's engineers have changed the screws location on their DGFF graphics.


As long Nvidia don't force forward changes for the memory chips paths vs the die location on PCB... Nothing has to be changed. And the Super cards have same amount vRam as the older vanilla Rtx cards. + Nvidia don't force Dell to put the graphics on a special place in the chassis.

For Turing desktop graphics...
The EK-Quantum Vector RTX RE D-RGB high-performance water block is an evolution of the original EK-Vector water block where the standard 12V RGB is changed with 5V D-RGB which has separately addressable diodes. This water block is specially designed for multiple reference NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX Turing based graphics cards. This product is also compatible with the reference NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER cards.
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-vector-rtx-re-d-rgb-nickel-plexi

Shouldn't be more difficult for notebooks.

 

New BIOS 1.10.0

Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes:
- Firmware updates to address security advisory INTEL-SA-00307 (CVE-2019-14598)
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisories INTEL-SA-00289 (CVE-2019-11157) and INTEL-SA-00317 (CVE-2019-14607).
- Fixed the issue where incorrect time is displayed in the operating system.

Enhancements:
- Enhanced the compatibility of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier for new generation graphics card.
- Corrected the battery information in BIOS diagnostic tools.

 

Well, much as it pains me - I will most likely get a top spec R2. Too bad there's no 300Hz G-Sync, but 144Hz is ok I guess.

 

I'd pick a 300hz screen any day of the week over crap-sync which makes 0- difference when you have a high end GPU

 

Is the M.2 slot PCIE 4 in the R2?

 

This was always going go be the reasonable multi generational upgrade, constraining laptop design and the ever changing compatibility of parts was always going to be limiting..

 

FYI guys, the new BIOS does NOT support 2666 MHz. RAM so don't get your hopes up.