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

Paid for this?
Battery warranty - 1 year.

 

Nope

 

Not sure what I should do? Been running the latest driver from nvidia for some time n in order to run a certain game and all is well.

 

Just keep running the latest nvidia. Some games will not run period using older drivers. Dell is always a few weeks or months behind on drivers.

 

It’s beyond me why people insist on using Dell's GPU drivers. Just use Nvidia's, installed via GeForce Experience... and call it a day.

There is NO difference...

 

I just got an Alienware 51m with 9900 non-K (since notebookcheck says there isn't much heat room for overclocking, but there are still side vents so I hope its got the best thermal module), RTX 2080, 32GB of RAM, 512GB SSD (2x256GB RAID0) + 1TB SSHD, 144Hz + Tobii eye (not sure about the eyesafe stuff but it uses Chi Mei cmn175f panel with G-SYNC, does anyone have any comment about this panel?).

the texts on the screen don't look good, like they are pixelated, unlike that on my xps 9570. is it because of the panel? or is there anything I should install to get it fixed? I can see that nvidia driver is already installed. thanks

 

Not sure how I can help you. This is the latest driver from Dell, take it or leave it.

 

A quick question. I was using Intel XTU to undervolt my CPU. I think after the last aliewnare CC update, it now reverts itself to the default profile after each restart. Not sure why exactly, but I think it has to do with the fact that Alienware CC also uses the Intel XTU drivers to do all the overclocking stuff.
Now I see that I can also do an undervolt myself through Alienware CC, but it only goes down to -100mv. While my stable undervolt is more around -150mv.
So is it possible to go lower than -100mv through the Alienware CC?

 

I also have a dead pixel. Can't see it unless I really try. I have premium support until next july. The question is, for the sake of one dead pixel do I want the Dell techie to put his hands on my laptop?

 

Catch 22, I do feel the same but also thinking the price paid for this thing should mean its perfect (I know nothings perfect).

 

Over 1500 pages now and most due to the "Explosive Nature" of this DTR...

Funny how most others are less than 1/4 that. My play it safe radar is at full power atm and contemplating the "go with what I know" route with just another GT75..lol
I would prefer something newer though, having 2 laptops that are physically the same is kinda mundane.

 

Another keyboard warrior, I doubt you would ask someone that to their face if you were talking in person.

The market for a 24" "desktop replacement" would not be for everyone the same way a 17" desktop replacement is not for everyone. No one buys a "desktop replacement" to bring to a coffee shop, most owners have it setup with an external monitor.

If you want something that can play games on the go than go buy one of the razerbook pro laptops.

 

had mine since April, not a single issue. Bought locally in Dubai. Maybe Dell Dubai builds these laptops to cope more with heat since Dubai is hot as hell

 

Yeah, not that I dont trust HIDevolution, just AW in general. Quite frankly the GT76 even without Gsync is tempting.

 

That's why I have a 4 year warranty bro. As we all know Dell will give you a brand new current model system in the future if something happens and they don't have the parts which has happened to me twice before when I had an Alienware 18. It's like you're paying for a subscription based laptop but you actually own it

 

Yeah, though $500 is a good chunk of change.

 

Well it's worth it IMHO and what's great about Dell is you can upgrade the warranty at any time you don't need to necessarily purchase it with the laptop to reduce your upfront cost.

 

Not sure why you're rattled but:
1) Why would I be afraid of asking someone if they're high, or voice my opinion? This is hardly a sensitive topic.
3) A 24" laptop would have a significantly different market than any 17.3" laptop, desktop replacement or not. I don't think you understand how big or expensive a 24" laptop would be.
2) Not going to argue about your opinions of laptop mobility.
3) Already bought an area 51m, so moot point.
4) I still think it would be a dumb idea.
Regardless, if they ever make one you're welcome to buy it, I couldn't care less. Opinions are opinions, moving on.

ANYWAY... As a follow up - I made a post that I had really bad/high 9700k temps even when UC'd so I did a repaste/repad with gelid extreme paste/pads on the GPU and CPU and things are way more consistent now. They put a ton of paste on both from the factory and had 4 different types of thermal pads. Temps dropped about 3-4 C on GPU and honestly 10-15 C on CPU. Sounds crazy but I think they just messed up the install or the heat-sink wasn't tight enough. All good now!

 

Doesn't mean you don't have to pay, bruh

Too late if you hadn't the money and paid before the smoke pop up from where you don't want it. Same as it's too late hoping for a new battery after the 1th year obligatory warranty has expired

 

Well as it is there are only 3 options.
1. GT75 8SG
2. GT76
3.Area51

GT76 is Optimus, not much data on this with the RTX cards.
I already own a GT75, so it's the same but upgraded internals.
Area51, well, it's a gamble at best.

 

I would pick a Area-51m any day over a soldered-book.

Soldered Cpu, GPU, Ram, Wifi or Storage is a Huge No go! One of them or everything soldered doesn't matter.

 

The WT75 was another option. But .. i think max upgrade on the GPU is the GTX 1070.

 

I'd like to see a temperature curve while the laptop is allowed to run in a non-aircon room during the afternoon there. I doubt it will survive that cruelty though. I have a friend in Kuwait and he tells me that during the day, it is normal for the temperature to cross 65 degrees Celsius during summer.

One dead pixel and your screen can be replaced. I got my screen replaced over 1 dead pixel. These laptops are covered with Dell's perfect display guarantee policy.

There is a built-in option in this laptop's bios that allows you to turn off the charging when battery reaches an arbitrary percentage of charge. I have set mine up to stop charging at 75% and restart charging when it reaches 65% or less. Since I use my machine always while plugged into the wall, my battery keeps sitting at 75% all the time. This is pretty neat and fantastic for getting some real longevity out of your battery.

 

Highest temperature recorded on Earth - Wikipedia

 

Alienware Area-51m System BIOS v1.7.3

Fixes & Enhancements
- Not Applicable

 

Thanks!
Sad to see how such machines have these "dangerous" batteries, hope this never happens.

This nice idea gets passed over when they just put a thermal/chemical fuse between the battery and power source, so when the controller fails and the fuse break the circuit you have to get rid of the battery as soon as you can.

 

Excellent, hopefully hearing from them today.

 

Bios 1.7.3 is out!

 

Maybe if you opened your eyes you would've seen me post it just a couple of posts above with a link even.

 

If you can abide a second hand machine, there are plenty of barebones (Clevo, Eurocom, Skycom, Kunshan) that can be bought without internals (no CPU, RAM, GPU, SSD/HDD) BUT you get a machine that can guarenteed run for 5 years without issues. Myself i'm looking at a Clevo barebone which can be tuned from the ground up (just like building your desktop) purely for the options you get when putting your machine togheter.

 

Not to pull a post out of obscurity, but I think noticed this as well on my 780w adapter. I would plug it in right now to test, but I sent mine back to them and they've had it for about a month, unable to reproduce the following problem. I have horrible coil whine from the power supply at LOW draw. Once I load up a program that draws some load the whine goes away.

This reminds me that I need to follow up with them as to the status of it.

 

Anyone have an idea why these keys stopped working ?

 

Keyboards go go bad from generally 2 things, a drop of liquid, or simply too much heat. You will want to replace under warranty.

 

have u installed it yet... lol?

 

I've read (and it makes sense to me on the surface) that RAID Striping two M.2 disks together might not really perform any faster than the same M.2 drives would individually (970 Evo's in this case,) in theory.

Has anyone actually tested this on the Area 51m and seen what the performance difference is between 970 EVOs in RAID 0 versus non-RAID config?

I did find a benchmark of the factory SK Hynix M.2 NVME drives that shows a max performance of approximately 3.6 GB/s read and roughly 2.6 GB/s write in the RAID 0 config. Elsewhere, I found a single SK Hynix M.2 drive benchmark that was around 1.7GB/s read and 1.1 GB/s write. So, it would seem that with slower M.2 drives, the RAID 0 helped them achieve faster overall throughput on large sequential files, but that is only by comparing two separate benchmarks to see what might be the case.

With all the people here, I figured someone might have tested this already? If not, I certainly don't mind testing it when my laptop gets here. I have 2 drives ready to put in there. If I have to image them twice, that's not a big deal.

 

100% this. You will only regret it later on.

Besides of being stuck in an unupgradable hw limbo, you're at the mercy of the soldered components. If one of such components happens to die, you can't just switch out the faulty component and move on. No, you're most likely having to replace the whole motherboard.

And that's a pretty penny outside of warranty.

 

Hi All,

Just received my Area 51M today and am trying to install my SSD with a clean windows install, but can't get the BIOS boot menu to recognise a USB. It only gives option for Windows Boot Manager / IPV6 & IPV4?

I've tried reinstalling the boot software 3 times, so the USB is fine, but can;t get the USB option.

Can anyone advise?

(First post, so hope it's in the right place)

 

I remember struggling with this myself on day one of my a51m. If you didn't replace the factory drive, are you able to boot windows, insert the USB, then advanced startup options (or hold shift when selecting restart) and can you boot from your USB device there?

 

Marked Urgent no less. Mark an update as urgent with no changelog, isn't that special.

 

Question, I want to replace the factory small ssd 128gb with a
Sabrent M.2 NVME PCIe Internal SSD (1TB, PCIe 3.0)

How can I be able to keep the original licenced windows and all the drivers and alienware specific software ?

 

Clone the drive to the new one, macrium reflect is a good program but there's many others as well.

 

You can clone the current setup to an external HDD using Macrium Reflect then restore it on to your new SSD once you get it. Make sure in Macrium Reflect that you create the Macrium Reflect Rescue Media so you can boot off it and perform the restoration after installing your new SSD.

Macrium Reflect Installation/Usage Guide

As for the Windows license, you don't need to save it anywhere, once activated, your machine's hardware ID is sent to Microsoft so the next time you install that same edition of Windows (ie. Home or Pro) then it will be auto activated the moment you go online.

 

Turn secure boot off in bios.

 

never needed to do that. His Windows 10 USB is not created properly that's why he can't boot off it.

The only time you need to disable Secure Boot is for installing/booting off Linux or other OSes not Windows 10

 

I am aware of this, I am currently on the GT75 with the 8950HK chip, it runs 4.5-4.7 all day long. I usually keep it locked around 4.6. Only issues I have had were driver related, temps hit 80c max after hours of gaming.

 

I’ve tried booting on two separate SSD’s and still no joy.
Tried two USB with the media creation tool and nothing (work fine in 2nd laptop)
Tried in FAT32 and ntfs....nothing.
Tried updating BIOS....nothing
Tried all USB ports...nothing
Tried turning off secure boot....fail
Tried pulling my hair out....nothing
Tried throwing laptop out window.....nothing

Help needed

I can’t see boot from USB in Bios for reference.....driving me crazy

 

Did you create the Windows 10 USB using the same method mentioned in this guide?

Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide

 

Yes I did.

I didn't have any option for boot speed or CSM though

 

yeah those options are for older BIOS on older machines. Nowadays it defaults to UEFI.

Quick question, check in your BIOS settings and ensure USB Emulation is enabled. If that's disabled then you can't boot off USB sticks.

Then try inserting the USB stick in the left side USB port and reboot, then keep hitting F12 to see if you get a choice to boot from it from the boot options.

 

LOL My thoughts exactly.