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

I think I'm going to study the hell out of some of the better tear down videos on youtube and repaste it myself ... doesn't look all that user friendly but looks easier than the R4 17 tear down ...

Went with a Dell Outlet refurb ... price was just to good to pass up .. Area 51m R2 / 10700K / 2070 Super / 32gb 3200mhz DDR4 / 360hz IPS 300 nits panel / 3 years premium onsite support ... a mere $2395.00 ... crossing my fingers on the condition ... but that price though ... especially considering the 3 years premium support being drastically reduced/on sale ... and also the past week had really good coupon codes (they all expire today) ... just the coupon code saved me $500 ...

 

Anybody out there have an Area 51 with the 360hz/300nits/IPS 1080p panel? If so, how do you like it? My current R4 17 has the LG 1080p IPS panel and I swear I've never seen anything quite like it ... just an amazing, perfect monitor that reaches eye searing levels of brightness and clarity. It's 60hz but overclocks to 100hz easy. Hoping the Area 51m I ordered with the 360hz screen comes close to matching it ...

 

Well finally got the dreaded palm rest staining - its light, tried dishwashing soap, magic eraser (don't do this, leaves a slightly reflective surface at an off-angle in the right light) and even Meguiar VRL stuff.... planning now to put on some kind of vinyl skin to cover it

 

Yeah, be damn careful cleaning the fragile coating. This is one below of the worst I have seen.
If this have been an Apple product it would be a huge case on the web. And none would accept it. Would probably been named Coat-Gate
https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/mktva5/any_idea_how_to_fix_this/

 

Just needs a good respray

 

You can get full body skins for these ... might be a good option as that's dang unsightly; glad I got the black one. The skins come in solid colors and other textured variants ... search around ... I think one manufacturer is "MightySkins" or something like that ...

An option here...

Another here...

Some examples:

 

If this have been an Apple product it would be a huge case on the web. And none would accept it. Would probably been named Coat-Gate
https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/mktva5/any_idea_how_to_fix_this/[/QUOTE]

I cut leather pads out of leather squares from Amazon and stuck them on with 3m sticky squares, been on for several years now no problems.

 

Skins are easy but a respray looks better, in my opinion. I'd love to get my hands on a 51M to try a respray.

 

Apple owners are less tolerant of incompetence. And, Alienware owners imagine quality where it doesn't exist.

 

A very disappointing, but true, statement.
Most disappointing since it wasn't always this way.

 

Thanks. Firstly I tear down the whole laptop. Everything out. Then I lightly sand the lid and chassis. The palmrest on the M18x had the Soft-touch material which had gone sticky so I had to remove this before respraying.
Then I use a primer spray on the lid, chassis and palmrest. Lightly sand. Spray 4-5 light coats of colour (matte black in this case). Wet sand with 2000 grit when it looks good. Lastly I sprayed 3-4 coats of clear coat (matte clear this time).
I leave 2 days between priming and colour and then 2 more days before the clear coat. I also use grease and wax remover after sanding and the colour.
It isn’t quite as easy as it sounds as rework usually has to be done when fine particles land on wet paint. I use a beach tent to spray in to help reduce this but it isn’t perfect


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have it on my m17 R4 and its very good response time wise with good colors. If you are looking for insane brightness though, you will be disappointed. The latest gaming panels are only around 300 nits. It's fine, but I myself also love super bright panels and it's just not available for gaming panels at the moment. To me, the minimum brightness should be 500 plus nits. I don't understand why they make these standard at 300 nits. The 360hz panel is better, around 320 to 340 nits, but still not enough if you want colors to really pop.

 

I ended up getting an R2 with the 360hz panel ... zero backlight bleed; I was so relieved as I simply can't live with BLB. The brightness is pretty good too ... need to find a good way to calibrate it a bit, though as it's a bit warm for my liking ... typical laptop, lacks brightness/contrast and R/G/B settings as well as the typical pre configured Cool/Warm/User type adjustments one finds in full size monitors but I think I can hack it with Win10's color management calibration routine ... but overall, happy with the 360hz panel. Moving windows around on the desktop never gets old LOL ...

Thanks for the input ...

~s1rrah

 

BTW: where did you find an A51m R2 with the 3070? I'd much rather have that than my 2070 Super ... still have a two week return window as well ...

 

Don't have the 51m, I have this panel in my m17 R4

 

How are the thermals on your m17? Have you had to repaste? I was looking at those but thought the thinner chassis would be a throttle monster ...

 

I've torn my A51m down and repasted at least 5 times now LOL ... it gets addictive once it becomes a routine process ... temps are excellent ...

 

Put this in the AGA thread but no one responded yet:

So, question for all on the Area-51m R1 + AGA. I can’t seem to find this answer.

Can or can’t the AGA drive the internal display on the 51m R1? I find conflicting answers in Reddit that it won’t with G-sync on.

So is the answer:

A. “Yes, the AGA is capable of driving the internal display when G-Sync is off”?

OR

B. “No, the AGA is only capable of driving an external display. The internal display is always driven by the internal GPU. To make them work, G-Sync needs to be off”?

Thanks in advance boys!!!

 

It was my understanding you HAVE to use an external disaply when using the AGA on the 51m, I don't know why it was designed this way, but from what I remember it was.

 

I have a MightySkins Glossy White Carbon Fiber on order due to arrive Friday lol... wasn't wanting glossy, but its all Amazon had in stock in white c/f for the R1.

 

I can confirm it CANNOT drive the internal display, this is a (stupid) known limitation, I forget why now. I know and fought it until I called Support and they confirmed its built this way, and afterwards I have read it as well. I'm guessing the R2 is in the same boat.

 

Curious - anyone know if a source (Dell maybe) you can actually buy a replacement palmrest deck from or a 3rd party? When I check Ebay or Google it all I seem to find are refurbs or used....

 

You can order spare parts directly from Dell for your laptop. You can either do a web chat with their sales department (for spare parts) or call them at 1-800-357-3355.
Also, parts-people sells the assembly, but it's refurbished.

 

Why have Dell different rules vs who want to buy parts or what country you live in? Dell-Chris M works for Dell. Dell claiming they have spareparts 5 years forwards but this have never been the case. Maybe in the old day but not now.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/bga-venting-thread.798775/page-272#post-11087819

 

Bet you they are dumping the parts on the market for extra revenue once some statistic is hit after three years, like service requests drop down to a point on a model.

 

Hey guys just wanted to post an update. I ended up getting the eBay heatsink upgrade and as others experienced it was bent on delivery. However! Some tweaking on install and bending, took about an hour to do, and I got it all set with good contact, core temp spread is about 1-3C.

So. Was it worth it? Well I still need an undervolt for the 9700k when doing some heavy lifting but now if I forget to set the undervolt the system can still be used to play games unlike with the OE heatsink. It'll hit 99+C under a super heavy load but add in my usual undervolt (-0.115v) and it'll turbo all day at 4.9 across all cores without going past the low 90s in even the most demanding of applications. And that's with the fans on low. GPU is also improved, it now maxes out at about 77C in the most punishing of tests and keep it's clock speed above 1800MHz, before it'd hit 85C or higher and throttle down to about 1550MHz. CPU idle temps are way down too; sits at around 49-50C under light load and desktop conditions, used to be close to 65C.

So all in all a good investment since I plan on keeping this system long term. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. And it's not as night and day as I was hoping, but I'll take the win.

 

Wich thermal paste did you use?
With the VaporChamber heatsink (area 51Mr2) you probably noticed that it has wave in it (they all do) and i found that the solutioni is to use Thermalright TFX because it's very very very thick and will fill the imperfection.
I think you should give it a try.

 

I used IC Diamond this time. I didn't notice a wave in the cold plate; it was well polished and seemed pretty even but I'll check for it thoroughly next time I have it off, contact pattern was excellent after tweaking though. I'm open to new pastes, I like IC Diamond but I usually use Kryonaut. I just used what I had on hand this time so I'll give that Thermalright TFX a try, thank you for the suggestion.

Did some overclocking too, 5GHz across all 8 cores using ACC lackluster controls just for some non-tweaked results and still managed to stay in the low to mid 90s under extremely heavy load. I'll tweak and tune in XTU and it'll get even better I think. Fans on Performance mode keeps the GPU at 68C max with 1970MHz on core clock, I'm super impressed with that.

 

In general when we test we use this settings and a software like CBR20 for best comparaison.
1-Full fan speed
2-windows powerplan at max performance. Make sure it's the same in AWCC to avoid conflict.
3-undervolt or not but ThrottleStop is much better the XTU (more settings you should try it)

For your GPU you are aware that it will thermal throttle at 79C right?
To avoid this you should create a 78C max profil in AWCC. So when the GPU reach 78c it will lightly throttle down few hundreds Mhz insteand of completely droping to 500Mhz when it reaches the 79C disaster proctection from dell.

If you decide to test TFX (highly recommend it) use an X patern (can't be spread cause it's too thick) on the CPU and GPU. On a shared heatsink this will help a lot.

 

He should be careful. A new one bite the dust.


Area-51m R1, went up in smoke and smell of burnt plastic dell.com/community/Alienware/

A really tragic situation happened here...

My Alienware Area-51m R1 with 64GB RAM went up in smoke 3 weeks ago now.

I was working on it, reading some documents, very low power usage at the time, everything was fine when all of a sudden I heard some electrical noise, like something being short-circuited for 1 or 2 seconds max.

Next thing the screen went black, some smoke came out of my laptop, and there was the smell of burnt plastic. My machine died right there and that was it.

They need the parts for the Premium extended warranty repairs.

 

My RTX 2080 just died in a little over a year too. Freaking sucks. Biggest mistake = not buying extended warranty.

 

just for those interested. I was able to resolve my RTX2070 not starting in Area51M , it was VBIOS related. I have flashed different variant of VBIOS which I believe to be non-GSYNC and since RTX2070 booted and works flawlessly

 

That's interesting to know.

I have a non gsync screen that I tried on my RTX 2080 with Gsync and it wouldn't boot. Wonder if that is all that's needed.

 

Sounds like the old PC no Monitor signal fails to POST that we used to run into back in the old days.

 

non-Gsync laptop screen on a RTX2080 which is as configured a gsync model?

that could make sense, but Im not sure.

if you wanna rid of your GTX2080 I may buy it from you

 

Heh, sorry, my RTX2080 still works just fine. I have a dead pixel on my Gsync screen and an extra non gsync panel. I tried swapping them at one point just to get rid of the dead pixel, but the machine won't boot with the non gsync panel installed, for whatever reason.

 

nvm

 

Hello everyone,

Do you guys think it is possible to repase both CPU and GPU on the R1 (i9/2080) without replacing thermal pads?
I'd just let them in place and make sure they don't move while reassembling the laptop.

 

I did this about a year ago and haven't had any issues. I have the fear about replacing pads. It took about 6 months to build up the courage to repaste the thing.

 

Thank you for your feedback,
I'll repaste tomorrow with some Kryonaut.
Any advice on the process ?
And what was your improvements after repasting ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G965U1 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Here is probably one more. Re: Area-51m R1, dead anyone help? dell.com/support

 

I was looking to add another 2 sticks of ram to my system to reach 64GB but I've seen that somethings have changes since last year. It seems that now we are moving to this "next gen" 16Gbit module density RAM and I was wondering:
Can I put this 16Gbit modules in my A51m R1 (the CPU supports them but does the motherboard?) and can I mix them with my 8Gbit modules?

Consider that the sticks I want to add are exactly the same and from the same manufacturer as the ones already in my system the only difference is the density
Any help from someone that knows more on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have never replaced the pads on any of my laptops as the stock ones have always just worked. I have seen far to many people replace pads and actually make things worse because they don't take the time to do it properly, they just want to use someone else's results and it's not always that simple. I wouldn't look at pads unless repasting is just not cutting it or the stock pads are shot IMO, but that's just me.

You might want to look into something else, Kryonaut will likely need to be redone within a few months. I have generally had very poor luck with Krynoaught in laptops, but to each their own.

Take your time and remember where everything goes. Don't get in a rush and try to have some sort of teardown guide open that you can work off of. It's not a hard process by any means. I firmly belive that my Alienware 17R4 was much worse to repaste then the Area51m. I repasted mine the other day and it was about 30 minutes from start to finish, and most of that was just cleaning off old paste, the actual disassembly / assembly was over fairly quickly, but I also know what I am doing. Just take your time and don't rush, and don't force anything.

 

Hey!
Thank you for this kind feedback.
I repasted my laptop yesterday and things went pretty well!
The most significant and noticeable difference is my RTX 2080 temps under heavy load. I can easily play a whole game of Battlefield V with RTX on @QHD and my GPU won't even reach 73°C whereas I was thermal throttling at 79°C within the first minute before repasting.
The CPU does not seem to make that much of a difference. My Cinebench R20 & R23 benchmarks give me pretty much the same results (maybe with a slightly delayed thermal throttle at 100°C).
I'm globally very satisfied with this repaste as it went great and was quite fast to complete!

I did it with a friend who has the same build but an i7 7900K in place of my i9 9900k. His i7 gained a hefty 10°C while gaming (Watch Dogs Legion) and his GPU was not exceeding 48°C on Ultra settings (Balanced fan profile) @QHD !! (We were shocked, the framerate was always above 70 FPS).

 

Glad to hear it made a difference!

As for CPU temps, are you running overlocked? I don't hit more then 85c when running Cinebench, and even those temps are microburts, the CPU is typically in the 75-80c range at max, I am not touching 100c or anywhere close to it.

 

Here are my results for Cinebench R23.200
I always had high temps on my 9900k even at 4.7 GHz only with 100 mv undervolt.
My results are not that impressive compared to what others get. What are yours when benchmarking?

Tests were run under AWCC's max speed fan profile.
*c refers to the cache frequency

 

I've been using Windows 10 1909 through 2020/2021 without any issue. I wasn't upgrading to 2004 (and 20H2) because of Intel XTU not working anymore on these versions (found a fix since) and also because of a critical issue I've been encountering ever since with my GPU drivers.
I upgraded to 20H2 a few days ago because I want to take profit of my Wi-Fi 6 card with my new router (80 MB/s speeds yeah!).
However, I'm still encountering the same exact issue when trying to install my GPU drivers.
Don't get me wrong, Nvidia drivers updates work perfectly under Win10 1909. Furthermore, there is no OC or UV involved on my CPU/GPU, no USB devices are connected, latest vBIOS is installed.

The issue : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen of death at the end of the driver installation process.

Result : Nvidia/GeForce experience tell me I've got no driver installed.

Good thing (well...) is that the GPU seems to work as I don't have any problems gaming/benchmarking/using my laptop as usual/oc/uv...
But having no drivers installed/no PhysX, no Audio driver is a total mess I cannot accept on my device.

I've so far found nothing to help me (sfc/chkdsk, OEM's drivers, previous driver versions, whatever fix you'd like to hear...).
I'm attaching a BlueScreenView minidump screenshot and file if you are interested in this case (ThankYouMicrosoft.zip).

For the screenshot in French, Aucun = None

 

Same problem here!

I also believe it is related to Win H20 in conjunction with the Intel 630 graphics.
So far I haven't found any information on this on the Internet by myself.

But I have a solution for you:

1. First deactivate the Intel 630 graphics in the device manager.
2. Install the Nvidia driver. The installation should now run completely without a BSOD.
3. Reboot the system in Safe Mode.
4. Activate the Intel 630 graphics again in the device manager
5. Restart now normally.

Everything should work fine now.

Regards!

 

Hello!
You know what?
This weekend, when doing my stuff and doing once again a fresh install of Windows, I did successfully installed OEM's drivers including graphics drivers without any issue. But after everything was installed, I decided to go and install GeForce Experience to get the latest WHQL Nvidia drivers aaaand then once again BSOD at the same moment. Then, I was pretty sure it was due to one of the drivers I installed just before... [so the UHD630 one of course!] I could have guessed it on my own, kinda stupid but yeah, why not?
Anyway, huge thanks to you! Just did it and it works, now every driver are displayed correctly



Must say that I once again encountered the same BSOD, but fortunately it was after the installation process.
I couldn't boot in safe mode and actually did not have to, the BSOD made me reboot normally and reactivated the UHD630 in the meantime