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

Anyone else upset Dell is not offering a 8K display?..this is supposed to be cutting edge. I can go to a store and buy an 8K panel, but alienware could not add that to their flagship product? What happened to them?

They have fallen as far as falcon northwest

 

Seriously? Hopefully your being sarcastic to the ridiculousness of a 4k panel on a 17"?

Have you ever sent a laptop in for repair to MSI?

 

So I am 50 and wear readimg glasses...I researched the system before I purchased it. 1080 is fine for me. I wonder....I noticed you don't list a 51M in your stable....are u unhappy you can't buy one 4k? You have one but have buyers remorse its not 4k?

Not starting a war...just curious....

My friend...you understand me.
But don't tell anyone else....I want to see who piles on...its a social experiment.

 

LOL. Even 4K is horrible to me on less than about a 24 inch screen. 2560*1440p @ 120-144Hz is the resolution sweet spot for a 17" laptop. For 15" 1080p @ 120-144Hz is perfect. Those 15-inchers also often have weaker GPUs to accommodate the crappier cooling, so that works out good with 1080p as well.

Hmm. I like how you think. Cute. Very cute.

 

New Alienware OC Controls app is out. But nothing special has been added.

New Alienware Command Center app is out...
This package contains the Alienware Command Center application. The package includes Main Dashboard, Games Library, Game Profile Manager, AlienFX Lighting Manager (AlienFX compatible systems and peripherals only), Macro Manager (Supported peripherals and systems only).
Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes
- Fixed the issue where Alienware Sound Center is not displayed in Fusion tab when the application is updated from older version

 

Bump up.

 

Nop never had to. Support engineer walked me through repairs over the phone

 

Stay away from these gimmicky mods on this machine unless you are mounting a nitrogen cooling system on the back or planning to submerge the entire laptop in mineral oil and running solely via external cable connected display. The stock IHS is as good as you can get with the available heat sink. Plus, a minute z-height difference (and there is huge difference in rockit one, I have it and don't use it in this machine for the very same reason), you might end up warping your heat sink. P.S., AX200 works quite well. But it will be fruitless to upgrade to that unless you are willing to upgrade your router as well.

 

I have never owned a 51m and would absolutely not spend my money on anything less than a 4k screen at 17". I'm not a gamer. I want the machine for productivity and creativity, plus one game which today I play at around 30-50 (sometimes 10) FPS due to the inadequate horsepower of my current rig. 1080p is simply insufficient real estate, and I hate the crude, jagged nature of the large pixels. I'm fed up staring at then.

Given that I can work at 3200x1800 on a 13.3" screen, moving to 17.3" would require 4162x 2300 for the same pixel density. 4k would suit well enough. 1080p would not.

 

1440p is a reasonable screen for 17" version and 1080p is not half bad either (for gaming). I have owned MSI GT75 Titan before my Area 51m and it had a 17" 4K 60Hz screen. I have an external 17 inch 1440p screen, an external 17 inch AND 15 inch 1080p screen and a couple of regular 1080p 144Hz gaming monitors. Unless you pop your eyeballs out and physically drop them on top of the screen surface, you will NOT be able to see the individual pixels even at 1440p resolution in 17 inch rectangle. 4K on my MSI was good, but I could not tell the difference between that and my 1440p screen based on anything except Windows glitches when switching windows from screen to screen while all screens having different native resolutions (and I don't wear glasses). I don't think high refresh 4k panels will be coming in 17 inch models anytime soon. If you want 4K (who the heck plays at 60 FPS?!), you'll have to get an external monitor. A few of them have been listed here: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-4k-gaming-monitors-pc-144hz,6023.html

 

Undetstood. Defiantly not the machine for you. Maybe R2....

you should try gaming. Great stress relief.

 

Does anyone else have an issue where sometimes after a restart, the audio from the speakers sounds like absolute garbage? Like, before restarting it'll sound full but after it sounds thin. I've checked that no audio drivers change; it stays the same version. As far as I can tell, none of the sound effect options or anything else changes; it seems like it just restarts and decides to sound awful. To fix it, I have to reinstall the audio drivers (from Dell). It's not the worst problem to have, but it is a little annoying.

 

Are you using the Realtek Drivers 6.0.8699.1?

 

Stats overload....

 

Yeah, I've only been using that one since it's the newest. Is there another one that people are using instead?

 

Since I completed my tear down and re-assemblly of my 51m for the thermal pad upgrade, I have noticed my power switch led is no longer working. Did I mess up the re-assemblly somehow?

 

Every other thing working ? Led at the bottom back , led on back of monitor , all keyboard lights , tobii

 

To sum....

Above average sound

Throttling fixed by using Msi utility. Has comand center bug...

Slight underclock worked best.

Destroys every other laptop in gaming benchmarks.

Wishes more display choices

Sounds about fair....

 

Any ideas what's new in 1.7.2 BIOS ?
Got it from Windows Update

 

Hey good news! No r2 announced at gamecon!

Their website doesn't list a 1.7.2 yet so I doubt anyone will know

 

Considering the m15 and m17 r2 came out of no where and so quick after the r1 version that's actually surprising.

 

Are there not a few days left yet? I thought it was on until the 24th.

 

Id think a monster like the 51m would take center stage with the new Aurora and useless monitor upgrades they announced. I can see the new 15/17r2 wanting to get on the same design platform so all their product lines match esthetically.

 

Don't jinx it!!!

 

I’ve been gone for a while, did they ever release the vbios with the higher TDP for the RTX 2070 in this machine ?

 

hey the ACC update fixed the memory leak that happened when the thermal profile monitors were running in the fusion tab. nice.

 

So for anyone thinking the MSI GS65 is better....perhaps review this thread. I will sum up. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

Unreliable.

Bad Customer support

Bad thermals.

Throttling.

But hey...240kz screen( that is irrelevant)and mechanical keys (admittedly neat)

https://slickdeals.net/f/13326004-m...i7-9750h-32gb-ddr4-rx-2060-1600-free-shipping

 

Nope

 

Lame, still at 115 watts. A few months ago I heard someone was working on a modified vbios for the 2070 and 2060

 

Yup all works.

 

The rockit copper IHS is not the same Z height as the stock IHS.
Because there is very little room, chances are the heatsink will bend/warp when tightened.
It also most likely will cause contact problems of some sort.
If you are going through with the IHS anyways I would be curious to see your results.

 

I wonder if they changed the thermal throttle limit on the GPU again with this one?

 

Dell is refunding my laptop... Should I try again with a new order? There's not a whole lot of other choices out there with these specs...
@hmscott @Mr. Fox

 

Alienware Area-51m System BIOS 1.7.2

They fixed their bad spellings @Ultra Male will probably be very happy

 

while i cant confirm on the bad thermals and throttling issue cos i was using a GT model and the thermals are pretty good, i can definitely confirm it's unreliable and the customer support is horrific to put it mildly. it's basically non existence.

 

My results were 100 degrees celcius at boot with rockit IHS (Arctic MX4). The thing throttled as long as it stayed on. (I swapped that IHS with an 8th gen IHS which worked for quite a while before I reverted back to stock IHS with better results). And I noticed that after replacing the heat sink with a new one that I purchased, my temps improved which is evidence that the rockit IHS somewhat deformed my heat sink, but that was fun nonetheless. The IHS itself was in great shape and is working quite well on another 9900K in a desktop machine with noctua dual fan cooler.

 

LOL. So, more of an OCD fix? Who wants to be the Guinea pig to test this BIOS?

Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

Fixed it! Removing the base cover and i/o cover exposed the power button ribbon cable. I re-seated the cable and the light is back. I am so glad I do not have to tear the whole thing apart to find the issue.

 

They spent the time on a new BIOS just to fix SPELLING ERRORS???!!!

I'm at a loss for words.. I don't forsee a 2070 TDP update or 2666+ memory support any time soon, if ever.

 

It's your money at the end of the day. Do as you please. I'd buy a new machine.

 

I must have excellent eyesite, 4K on my Clevo P870DM looked amazing (with 150% scaling lol) There's definitely a difference when I went from 4K 60hz > 1440p 120Hz > 1080p 144Hz but the non scaling issues of 1080p are nice. Even til now there are some scaling issues in windows.

Anyone with 1.7.2 can confirm throttle point for GPU?

Ah there goes my idea to try this in the Area-51m: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gt72s-subwoofer-installation-m18xr2.821387/

 

Thanks for the info. But did you in fact use the 9th Gen copper ihs from rockit or an older version. I also purchased solder remover I think called quicksilver. This removes the indium solder leading to a lesser z height of the die itself, so I fear the original ihs won't make any good contact with the die anymore when liquid metal is used and my understanding was that the rockit 9th Gen copper heatsink compensates this height difference but has in total the same height as the original cpu including the original ihs by using a thicker ihs.

Gesendet von meinem EVR-L29 mit Tapatalk

 

This was mentioned many times here in the past, I, for one, have never expected to get 2666Mhz support in this system in the first place. And I'm willing to bet my house on it that the GPU throttling limit has not been raised in the new BIOS.
Azor's dream of having a 200W vBIOS in this system evaporated the moment they realised the power draw of the system was unmanageable and they quickly released a 180W vBIOS to save some systems, much less than the original 190W by the way.
What we have right now with 1.3.2 BIOS and 200W vBIOS is the best performing Area 51m we can expect to have, although, it's the hope that kills, isn't it?


Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

Yeah, it's not so much that I'm expecting it, just hoping for it.

Maybe one day. Maybe not. Can't really complain as it's still a very high performing laptop and I enjoy it still. It just sucks to have the hardware limited by something as silly as software.

 

Tried 1.7.2 out. It throttles at 75C. But at least no stutter occurs it just clocks down my 2080 to say 1800MHz to keep the temperature at max 75C. However, I oc with afterburner and uninstalled alienware command center. Maybe this was the trick to avoid the stutter bug clocking down to around 300Mhz for a couple of minutes. Now, if the temp target could be raised to 87C everything would be fine because the new bios supports also g-sync on my chi mei panel. The problem seems to be the buggy command center and Alienware is doing literally nothing to fix this crap software.

 

But it looks so pretty!

The 300 Mhz issue is sounding similar to what I was experiencing with my unit before I returned it. But, my issue was caused by not having both power bricks plugged in and having to reboot the system before it would recognize the second power brick again.

I imagine even if you uninstall ACC you'd still be limited to 75C though? Since that would be baked into the laptops bios and not ACC itself? Just curious.

 

Hey guys. I have a quick question. I'm considering two options: A51 with 9700/2070 or gs75/gx701/m17 with 9750h/2080max q. I just want gaming power. Some reviews show that 2080mq is more powerful then 2070 others don't. Aaaaand what's the truth? Is a51m 2070 more powerful? Ntbkcheck graph shows 2070 desktop is better then 2080mq but how about 2070 in A51?

 

Go on give it a try, surely it will help a little and then it will provide us with some inspiration.... will be way above my ability right enough

 

If you care only about performance, Area-51M i7-9700K / 2070 will be your best option.

 

I had a Area 51m with 9700/2070 from Best Buy. I had on par performance with a 2070 maxq and a 2080maxq actually out performed the 2070. The 2070 will synthetically beat them but real world gaming not really.