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

Hey guys, pretty excited, just ordered an Area51 and got a pretty nice deal from Dell.

i9-9900
RTX 2080
32 Gb Ram
RAID 512 GB (2x 256 gb + 1TB hybrid)

Price was $3247 + tax

 

Which BIOS are you on?

 

1.6.2

After a reboot and adding the game to AWCC, it does not seem to happen for the moment, the GPU now maintain a solid 1700mhz. But maybe I didnt played long enough

 

I recommend go down to 1.5.0 with a 200W vbios and when gaming set fan speed to full.

 

Greatly appreciated.

 

Attached a PDF of the horrid state of the unit I got back from Dell...

According to Dell the following were replaced:
>Speakers, Heat-sink, Palm-rest and Mechanical HW $ Plastics

I also recieved back detailed info on their findings regarding the SSD slot.
They found the slot had an issue but did very little to resolve said issue. Stating I need to remove the standoff in its entirety.

I was under the impression it was attached to the chassis/mobo! Haven't opened the unit yet because of the state it arrived in. Will probably do so once this is resolved.
@hmscott @Mr. Fox

 

Nice build and price! Congrats! Great machine

 

Oh my... found some old HyperX ddr4 in an old notebook and installed them in the Area 51m. It seems the older the ram the better the performance atm. I still hope Dell fixes this 2400 MHz problem...

Gesendet von meinem EVR-L29 mit Tapatalk

 

It will not stay at high clocks by itself all the time. It'll upclock and downclock depending upon the load until you undervolt/oc it manually. That'll fix the clock and it'll stay there then. Try MSI Afterburner. Plus I'd switch back to bios 1.3.2/1.5.0 with 200W vbios.

 

Can you tell whats better about those bios versions compared to the latest release?

 

They don’t limit the gpu to 75c throttle point.

 

Question: my order has not shipped and dell just dropped the price by $265....anyone ever successfully get a price adjustment?

 

Usually have to cancel and reorder.

 

Yup, but let the agent do that for you in the same call, and let them suggest it as the solution, just ask for the discount to be applied to your laptop still in manufacturing that hasn't shipped yet - and do it quickly before it changes status.

So call now, and if needed call back as soon as they are open to take the call for your region.

 

Thank you. I did a chat tonight , they gave me a number to call and said they would give me a credit. Not sure that's binding, but I I have the chat transcript.
apparently I am in ready to ship status. With all the ecards I used it would be a nightmare to reorder.....
I'll update after I call. Maybe it will help anyone else with a pending order.

 

Cool, that's the other way - to get a credit toward future purchases, it's fine if you planned on getting something else later, like a monitor or laptop stand, etc, and best for not disturbing the delivery of your order, great work.

 

Alright guys, I think I’ve grown bored of the Alienware area 51m. Performance is amazing but it’s missing some features I’d like. If it has tobii eye tracking surely it can adjust the brightness according to its surroundings (like a phone, ambient light sensor) and also why didn’t dell put an ir sensor in the laptop. There are like 5 cameras in this thing and to make it windows hello compatible all they had to do was add that tiny component. To be fair I have to hand it to dell, this laptop without firmware updates is a damn good machine in games, no throttling and solid performance all around. Did some rendering too and never saw the cpu reach higher than 80c whilst using 105-110w

I was getting better thermals than let’s say my previous Clevo, maybe lapping and liquid metal made the huge difference.

 

So, from what you've said, you're getting bored of this machine because there is no Windows Hello? That's it?

Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

IIRC there should be a command prompt command (Google) using which you should be able to flash Bios without battery connected.

 

Damn! I'd wanna try that right away. So i should update it to 1.5.0 version, just to be on the safe side?

Getting replacement parts from third party sources seems to be next to be impossible, since the laptop is so new. Right now i'd still need to get ahold of a battery and tobii eye tracker cable to make it wholesome.

I suddenly realized that Dell made Alienware Area 51M's battery cable by using same 13 pin connectors on both sides, motherboard and battery. Such type of a cable is in use in the Alienware 17 R4 D/C port, would i be able to slap 2 of those together to make my own cable?

I mean in theory, it is just a cable and to solder those together wouldnt be a problem for me...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

It's ballzy, i know. What do you guys think?

Update: So right now got the i9 working with the cheeky BIOS update. Core i9 sticker was with this laptop. Had to update the firmware, before i could even start using the processor which was meant to be in it's base configuration.... hmmmm

 

That and the disgustingly terrible speakers this laptop has. Like how does my iPhone XS Max sound better (More bass and clarity) and louder than a £3k laptop? It surprises me, you don’t always need a subwoofer for bass. You just need decent speakers and good drivers, which dell lacks on.

 

The fan full speed mode may seem pointless compared to the performance mode (90% fan speed), but in game it made the difference, keeping CPU/GPU from throttling (GPU 74 and CPU 80-90 on both division 2 and ACU).
With everything stock, latest bios and a ambiant temp of 28c

 

From my older post in the thread... All bigger notebooks than the sub ultrabooks should have subwoofer. With +17 inch chassis there should be more than enough space fit it in.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-784#post-10896800

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-787#post-10896886

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-787#post-10896881

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-784#post-10896789

 

But.... if you're willing to invest THIS much for a desktop replacement, surely, you'll already have a good set of speakers to run this system through? Who buys a desktop replacement worth $4000 and not have a good audio setup to use it through...

I know you got it cheap and it has no warranty and stuff.... but whatever you spent on it, was it worth your investment or not?

Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

Don't know what you're talking about to be honest. The Area-51M has the Realtek ALC3282 sound card. It's a very high quality one. I'm not receiving any odd vibration, distortion, crackling or weird noises from my own laptop, just satisfying high-definition sound, with some bass too. Even at highest volume. The laptop is very enjoyable to watch movies, and play games on, although I have an Ortbitsound virtual surround sound setup, along with an Samsung 40" HDTV that I prefer to enjoy movies and games with.

Need to try re-installing the audio driver, or get into contact with Dell, or your supplier if you're having any sound-related issues.

 

So I was transferred a lot but the last person I talked to was very helpful and gave me a direct partial refund (more then half the delta), with confirmation. Up until then it was a brick wall...

I think with ecards once u use them, if you return the product you don't get them back, so this was fine.

I just used "delta"outside of work ..clearly need a vacation..

Hopefully this helps someone.

 

Maybe he is unlucky as he here in the link. 3 machines in a row and all with same problem... And good soundcard doesn't always help if the rest isn't on same level https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/cqijoj/does_the_51m_still_have_popping_sound_issues/

 

Don’t know anyone who buys a laptop based on internal speakers.

 

Rather more the fully package. And none is equal.

 

Apparently plenty of people buy their laptops based on things that make even less sense, like a brand name.

 

@pathfindercod what @Papusan said. You buy a laptop taking in the facts that there are better ones out there for certain things. Msi laptops for example have amazing sound but bga cpus or gpu in the case of the gt76. Alienware has amazing performance but lacks in the sound quality and features department.
The only reason why I was so hyped up was because reviews say the speakers sound ‘excellent and outstanding’ directly rivalling msi....

For a music geek like me lol alienware doesn’t really cut it. Everyone has their own opinions too about laptops, maybe @Enkeixpress is right in saying that my machine maybe has faulty speakers or the drivers aren’t configed properly or maybe just maybe he hasn’t heard what a gt72/gt73- Gt83 sounds like. That kind of sound quality spoils you

 

MSI is a no go. Have been like this the last 7 years. Good sound is nice but not if the rest is crippled. Hence I went with P870. There isn't many choices for notebooks nowadays. 99% of them is crippled in one or another way. Brand new GT76 with BGA graphics and LGA... What? Nope... I won't touch it!

 

That’s exactly why I’ve tried different laptops too bro, Clevo laptops being one of the main ones that are literally good in every way. And if not you can mod it as you wish, bios mods, heatsink mods even water cooling mods! The list goes on....

 

As I said... 99% of them is not worth pay for. Maybe sub $3-400 but not much more.

Notebook manufacturers lay a lot of eggs, but almost no one is worth eating.

 

You don't have faulty drivers. The speakers of the Area-51m are utter garbage. Sometimes when I'm watching something on YouTube I can barely hear what they're saying at full volume. Then the lack of bass or any form of depth totally destroys the experience.

 

Im glad to know that I don’t have a faulty machine, don’t get me wrong surround sound quality is good but that’s about it, no clarity (muffled sound) and no bass at all.

Honestly, for the price I got it for it’s a DAMN GOOD MACHINE I’ll give it that. But a laptop that costs upwards of $4000 should already have things you shouldn’t have to make up for. No msi or Clevo laptop has these tragic speakers. In all honestly dells precision 77xx series have better speakers, can you believe I’m saying that!!!

Bottom line: it was worth the investment but I shouldn’t have to shell out another few hundred £ for a state of the art speaker system when there is more than enough room in the chassis for something better.

Feels like I’m ranting lol so I’m gonna stop after this post.

 

I have rehabbed poor sounding guitar amps with new speakers...I wonder if there are drop ins available with better sound. If so someone can give me the specs on them (dimensions, ohms, connections), I have a friend who is an audio engineer and builds speakers. He might be able to make suggestions. I bet there are options with the same formfactor...

 

Sell it

 

that’s exactly what I’m doing, I was never going to keep it. First I’ll buy a battery cable for it though

 

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And/Or some nice headphones.

 

another one sadly: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...home_to_see_this_on_my_i92080_51m_on_a_scale/

 

From same Reddit thread. One more if you count the one in last reply. But we don't know about the black numbers (not all post about it on the web).

 

Can anyone please open their AW 51M and tell me what's the part number for a battery cable?

 

damn... looks like they're still failing like bricks trying to fly. a shame, AW could've make this their comeback flagship machine, instead they gave it the GIMPtreatment aka GIMPMENT. hope that the owners are still getting their promised 2600mhz bios update. That's someting that they're obliged to do for the loyal AW owners and buyers of the 51m.
At first it looked like a good machine, but even the 17 R5 had less issues than it's replacement which is a shame. Luckily it can still pack some punches in gaming and benching, but nothing a clevo/eurocom cannot beat.

 

you won’t find it anywhere, I’ve gone down that route, if you must have the part number here it is:



you’ll have better luck doing the soldering technique, both connectors plug in the same way, just purchase two of those cables on AliExpress and solder the cables together. Put the connectors into the laptop and it should work. Make sure the connector position matches the other one in the battery otherwise you will end up with a dead charging/power management IC. If that happens good luck with sourcing one of those chips, they’re virtually non existent...

 

Guess i will try the soldering thing out. Ill also buy the HDD and Tobii cable from AW 17 R model, since it has also the same pin layout.

Did your laptop come with all the necessary screws?

 

yes, came with the Hdd cable and tobii eye tracking cable completely fine. Came with the hdd bracket also. All screws except for the long 12mm that goes into the gpu and through to the palmrest is missing along with the 4 silver wide screws that stop the end cover coming off. Otherwise the screw set is complete.

 

Fun fact: different people have different preferences. Some might not like using headphones (like me). And some might also not like relying on external speakers for many reasons.

And I agree with @DaMafiaGamer it is inexcusable to have bad quality speakers in an expensive laptop. Sadly this is pretty much a norm now, with almost every brand.

I remember old Compaq laptops which had the best speakers, the HUGE JBL speakers mounted on the top side of large palmrest. I wish some other company would do the same. I believe only MSI GT63 has something like this now - top firing speakers of good quality (other MSI models have bottom-firing speakers which is not good if you place laptop on soft surface).

 

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Yes I get what you're saying. Even my old HP dv7 has a subwoofer and great speakers and still running like new to this day. Must be like nine or ten years old.

 

Old toshiba qosmio laptops also has some amazing harmon kardon speakers.