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

Unfortunately there is no way in knowing if the BIOS supports the newer "RO" revision of the i9-9900K.. Well, I guess there is one way.. And that's to Install it and if Windows 10 crashes then you know the motherboard needs a specific "RO" Stepping BIOS update.. And with Dell's track record I'm not willing to take that gamble. But if someone can check with CPUZ to see if they have a "RO" i9-9900K then I'm good to go.

 

You mean Dell bought up everything of 9900K chips from Intel shelwes with P0 stepping and continue offer it for machines sold spring, winter 2019/20, then spring and summer 2020 to be able to repair machines that have flaws? Nope. Remember Intel couldn't even produce enough chips (Dell even complained about this). You think intel continued with P0 stepping after they switched to R0?

 

You make a good point.. I just sent an email to dell support.. I wonder if they will even know or will even reply. ‍

 

a bunch of us, if not most of us, are running with R0 stepping 9900k
/image credited from @Normimb

 

Does R0 stepping perform slower than the original batch?

What you saying its a 3D board, and traces are there and if damaged its bye bye. I remember someone posted here stating people @ taibo installed it by drilling new holes on the mobo.

I have a bad memory I wouldn't count on it.

 

Thank you!! How's the performance and thermals...

 

For R0 there are some performance and latency losses due to built-in hardware mitigations for Spectre & Meltdown. As for thermals I went from a P0 to a R0, and I did notice that my R0 chip runs somewhat hotter than my P0. And there are several people out there that experienced the same, R0 chips running hotter than P0, even though they might have a decent volt/freq curve.

 

I think the thermals and performance must still be from luck of the draw as this review of the i9-9900K RO vs i9-9900KF RO greatly favors the i9-9900K RO in all respects.

 

It is very similar to the human pee pee, all lottery in the end

 

P0 paired with disabled mitigations is superior in anything that is latency sensitive, there is no luck of the draw there, since latency is there on a hardware level in R0s. There is a reason why all top spots on hwbot in wPrime32m are P0s:
https://hwbot.org/benchmark/wprime_-_32m/rankings?cores=8#start=0#interval=20

Even Luumis best 9900K was a P0. Cinebench doesn't care about much about memory and latency, which is why comparing an R0 to P0 in it can be misleading, since scaling is more dependent on frequency and cores, as the score being calculated from time spent rendering.

Problem with R0s is that even with lower vcore they run hotter

 

Thank you, good to know.

 

Would anyone happen to know how to completley delete custom over clocking settings within the Alienware Control Center? I created two new profiles and it seems i can only edit their names? When i want to remove them all together and just have the two default ones showing.

 

In awcc select one of the three default profil. Go into fusion tab. Delete the custom profils you created with a right click.

 

Thank you!

 

If we have a new connection system and the AGA will be obsolet otherwise...yeah. I will dremel the frak out of it...

 

That will be totally depend on Intel, if they would come up with PCIE 4.0 in the next 11th gen, then maybe we will have the AGA 2.0

 

Just a bit of information. My windows updated to 2004 and my Bios got updated to 1.10. That essentially stopped throttlestop from undervolting my CPU and my GPU. I reinstalled 1909 and it still wouldn't let throttlestop operate. I ended up downgrading my Bios to 1.5 and instantly throttlestop started working.

Seems like Bios 1.10 is messing with TS

 

by any chance can the Alienware Amplifier run RTX Series 3?

 

Hey guys! It's been ages since I've been here since my R1 has been pretty much perfect for what I do (video/ audio editing plus some gaming)

However I am still on bios 1.3.2 and wondering if I should finally update? Cheers!

 

No!! Don't even think about it. Any BIOS after 1.5.0 causes GPU throttling when it reaches 75C. 1.3.2 has slightly better CPU performance than 1.5.0, probably a couple of hundred CINEBENCH points but there's no point in upgrading to 1.5.0 if you're on 1.3.2 which IMO is the best BIOS and the only BIOS I'd use on this system. I'm on 1.3.2 on my R1

 

Was: INTEL SOFTWARE GUARD EXTENSION endabled in the bios? if yes then maybe it's related to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...locked-out-due-latest-win-update-bios.831450/
also read: https://www.pcworld.com/article/348...s-fix-that-disables-cpu-voltage-settings.html
@Papusan would know for sure if intel: INTEL-SA-00307, INTEL-SA-00289 and INTEL-SA-00317 that comes with this bios 1.10 are the reason for this.

 

Thanks a lot! Appreciate the advice. What about the RTX 2080 firmware? And finally, is there a way to fix the bug in Command Center that doesn't let you adjust GFX power/ thermal limits?

Cheers

 

My KS is RO 127W TDP

 

All KS are R0 revision.

 

Pretty sure they added the limit on purpose. I don't think you'll see an official "fix" There are ways around it..

 

180W VBIOS vs 200W VBIOS, not much improvement there so I'd stay on the 180W VBIOS 1.5.0 to generate less heat (remember the heatsink is unified.)

As for your 2nd question:
Guide: How to unlock the GPU Thermal Limit Slider in Alienware Command Center

 

I have been on 1.32 for awhile. I see you have come around to my way of thinking.

 

@Spartan@HIDevolution might be able to chime in on this. I believe this is a write up on how to fix that issue

 

I have not come to your way of thinking. I've been on 1.3.2 since I got this laptop.

 

Just lovely! Gota love such tech.

"I spoke to a Dell support rep who suggested I install the Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver, which has frankly just made things slower"
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...r3-owners-lounge.833030/page-18#post-11034045

 

I just realized that Dell discontinued the RTX 2080 for the Area-51m R1 = https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop#tabs_section

@etern4l @Fire Tiger

 

They wanna sell those R2s

 

I guess, at least the 2070 doesn't have the throttling issues with a BIOS past 1.5.0 so leads headaches tbere

 

probably recycled it for the R2.

 

I'm actually quite shocked the RTX 2080 situation is still going on even with 1.10 BIOS. I mean they should realize by now you can't game if you hit 79C+ temps.

I'll be forever stuck on 1.5.0 it seems lol, not that the newer BIOS provides anything anyways

 

you lose G-Sync and Tobi eyes sadly. Cant complain on GPU hitting 87C I noticed around 100 Mhz faster speed in BF V, of course BFV stresses CPU and the shared heatpipe can hinders GPU performance

 

If Dell is not going to offer 2080S for R1 how long do they think they will go on in terms of 2080 dgff spare parts since in theory that chip is no longer in production but only while stocks last?

 

Plan is to discontinue R1 and offer R2 only.

2070 isn't compatible with R2, they waiting till they sell everything out.

 

Looking at Dell UK I can't find the R1 at all, its all R2s. I wonder what would happen if my 2080 went up in smoke....

 

Dell UK is retarded. They offer limited AW model selection compared to the US master store. The support would offer you an R2 if they can't fix the R1 anymore though.

 

i think they offer you R2 for a premium price, can be good deal times or totally free if under warranty

 

I expect remaining 2080 will be in stock for coming smoke. This is the reason for not offer 2080, but only 2070 in discontinued Area-51m R1. Be you sure... Dell will have 2080 in stock for long time in their shelves for coming repairs.

 

RTX cards going EOL won't help the pricing either.

 

Gonna take my BIOS back to 1.5.0 from 1.7.3..not sure why I ever even updated lol. Don't need to do anything special before running the .exe right?

**Edit-Nevermind, found S.K.'s force downgrade thread and following that.**

 

Any BIOS after 1.5.0 introduces throttling the moment the GPU reaches 75C which is absurd since that is a very low threshold, run any game for a couple of minutes and you'll be way past 75C.


See:

Force downgrade Alienware Area-51m Bios (or any Alienware) to locked lower versions

Note: The USB Flash Disk must be formatted as FAT not FAT32

Area-51m BIOS / VBIOS Collection (mirrors)


Here is what I recommend:


a) Uninstall Alienware Update AKA Dell Update and Dell SupportAssist otherwise they will keep nagging you to update your BIOS.


b) Flash the BIOS using the Recovery USB which you created using the guide I showed you earlier.


c) Immediately head into BIOS and make sure you disable Firmware Capsule Updates in the Security tab otherwise Windows will immediately upgrade your BIOS!


d) Once you're back in Windows, reflash the same 1.5.0 BIOS again but in Windows, I had to do that last time as I was getting weird behavior (I can't remember what exactly but once you have flashed 1.5.0 in recovery mode, you will be able to flash 1.5.0 again through Windows since you're not technically downgrading anymore you are just reinstalling the same BIOS) so do that to ensure the BIOS is 100% flashed correctly.


e) The moment the BIOS is flashed, go back into BIOS and load setup defaults then save and exit (from the last tab in the BIOS)


f) Now enter BIOS again, set your battery from Adaptive to Custom and tell it to start charge at 50% and stop charge at 90%. This will ensure the battery is never over charged and will thus prolong its life.


g) In the 2nd tab in the BIOS, I recommend turning OFF Power Share as that will drain your battery if your laptop had a USB device that needs power overnight (such as an external HDD or Game Pad)


h) While you're in the BIOS, ensure that Firmware Capsule updates are OFF

 

Thanks for this as well Spartan. I completed the downgrade to 1.5.0 successfully. Though I noticed in your instructions to format usb flash disk with FAT rather than FAT32. I saw this after I had already flashed and was using FAT32 and did not receive any complications from doing so. Any reason for formatting per your suggestion? Thanks.

 

Just going with the old school habits. If it worked, it worked. You do need to REFLASH it again using the Windows BIOS installer for 1.5.0 to ensure proper installation of the EC firmware otherwise you may have issues with abnormal fan profiles.

 

Will do. Thanks!

 

It's for compatability. A bios update is actually a small dos program made to insert bytes of code to your bios chip. It contains a system file that's called IBMBIO.COM and has some basic system components to start the/a process like a shell (COMMAND.COM).

Even though FAT32 is backwards compatible, you're better off eliminating all the risks you can before doing such a dangerous things. Our earth is under contstant bombardments from the stars (radiation from the sun for example), to counter that we've invented shields and new ways to earth our componetents like creating error checking memory.

 

I don't lose those things, I have a first batch Area-51m with the original panel. So for me it's a easy decision.

I know newer batches have the newer panels and people have to decide whether they want G-Sync or full performance.