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

I have tried this Samsung SSD on my desktop first with the heatsink that was included from the motherboard and it never exceeded 70C so the SSD is fine.
Yes, the Toshiba SSD delivered with the laptop. I am gonna remove it soon and add another 1TB 970, 256GB is too low for my usage and also isnt performing well.

thank you, I already placed an order for two of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074Y5DZ4N/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pldnSite=1
I hope these will solve the temperature problem

 

Don’t compare with what you get in desktop. And 70C is hot in desktop if the ssd is attached with an heatsink. Have seen much better temp results from others vs. what you get from same ssd and the heatsink delivered with the laptop. Once again. 95C ain’t normal in chassis this thick. Neither for Area-51m if you use the following heatsink.

Why I asked about the Toshiba. It’s dying. The remaining lifespan is already decreased down to 96%. Exactly same behavior as in previous Alienware models. Most likely because it run too hot.

 

Like I said, it will only work in the #2 drive bay, with the bay towards the front there is not enough headroom. The two sides of this heatsink are kind of tough to click together, but this is good because there is no way it will ever detach. You will be happy with the results.

 

yeah thanks, before giving up, I tried all of that, indeed I realized the bios update was failed, so after I tried to do it through a flash drive it didn’t go well, also the battery as it is a common problem on dell laptops, as in my uní department we got spare dell laptops it wasn’t an issue to rip off one and tried that one instead, my colleagues checked about the bios too and yep, the laptop is dead dead.

Yeah just read the article you posted, that’s very bad for the user, in my case Dell just straightforward is sending me a new one instead, I can keep the hard drive and pass the files etc, at least is something, quite slow but that’s what it is,

I’m comparing dell warranty vs AppleCare, as I have apple products as well and under warranty I always got fixed in the same week or less.

 

Yes! These are the best. I bought 4 of these. They work great and fit perfect in the Area 51m. (so long as they are properly fit on the SSD)

I have mine perfectly in both bays with ZERO clearance issues. Its all about where you attach it on the SSD.

 

Wow, good to know! So I guess place the hsink up on the drive closer to the connection. Thanks

 

Can you share pics??? I’d love to see how you mounted them.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi, I'm still waiting your picture to know the way you put the heatsink without collide with the back cover . Thanks!

 

I have two of these sinks in both slots and the cover closes 100% with perfect clearance. It can be done in both slots. Its all about how you mount the sink to the SSD, if it's too far forward or too far back it will not close properly in slot one. If you do it right it will.
I love these sinks.

Let me see if I can find a way to explain and show...
Stay tuned...

Please forgive some of the blurs. I'm in a rush to some meetings and appointments but figured I would get something up asap.



Again my cover closes 100% exactly the same way as if there is nothing in the slots.
Even the clips in the center of the cover clip down properly.

 

Wow, very interested information. In the beginning, I thought the whole surface of the plastic part touch the heatsink, caused the back cover cannot close properly. Thanks for your pictures, I can understand the plastic surface collides on the edge of the heatsink. By placing the heatsink near the SSD's port, maybe you can avoid my issue.

 

Anyone have a positive experience with Dells onsite techs? They want to replace my "sound board" as the headphone jack only plays left channel (unless i use a headpone with a Mike...then it works).

I have reservations....this seems like high risk for a small issue.

 

I wasn't unhappy with mine, but wasn't overjoyed either.

He got the job done albeit a bit too heavy handed for my liking. I also had to provide pointers in taking the 'tron' panel off as he was trying to lift the clips without having removed the screws on the back IO panel. Outside of that it was pretty much straightforward.

 

Anyone else have issues with Geforce Experience?

I personally don't, and upgrade every gpu driver with it, without a single issue.

My wife's on the other hand is a different story.

Everytime she downloads geforce experience her frames drop from about 200 to 40. I think its upscaling the game resolution or something. I tried changing the settings for this, but it never solves it. As soon as she uninstalled geforce, it works flawlessly.

Anyone have a fix for this besides not using geforce?

 

It depends. For me, every fix that was diagnosed was taken care of in 5 days or less. I didn't get my device replaced obviously because in case of macbooks, all the devices are duds when you speak graphics performance wise so you don't care how "fast" the new one is. But in case of proper desktop replacements like this one, I do care about my GPU and wouldn't want a dud at my hands. It depends upon how you approach things and who you contact. If you solely rely on technical support in your region then good luck! I would strongly suggest getting in direct contact with alienware tech support on twitter or @DellCares.

There is your problem. I suspect your heat sink is not making perfect contact because if you tighten the screw all the way and the heat sink starts bending, you won't be able to snug it up good enough for the thermal pad to get compressed enough so it can take the heat away. May be try changing the slot of your nvme drive. Slot 2 generally doesn't have this flexing problem. I have seen this heat sink bending issue only on slot 1 so far.

 

Disable Whisper Mode (Nvidia’s laptop only frame limiter) in GFE. Or change the FPS limit in the NVCP for each game she plays (very bottom setting in game profiles). The default is usually 40 so that’s a dead giveaway it’s probably that.

 

yeah you are right, I not gonna lie, when started to act funky I should have just searched and fixed the problem by myself, or wait until Monday to take it to my lab and have help of my colleagues sorted out, part of myself want to go back and don’t do it tho, was Sunday and didn’t wanted to solve this by myself and thought “well I live in London and I got premium support this should be finished in a phone call or at least as much tomorrow, this people should probably know about this bug as is one of their flagships”, if was acting funky updating on top the Bios would be the last thing I would do but pfff I guess I was tired that day and let myself go with the flow.

yeah I pm’d dellcares in Twitter they just said the same laptop being build and sending me new one, so should be here soon.

it’s ok, I lost some valued time but at least the files and everything is safe and everything is as well backed up in the cloud (I’m a maniac about that so always worried about this scenario), haha quite happy tbh I didn’t lose any file.

 

When you get your new machine, (if I were you in your place, this is what I'd do) take the faulty one apart and pull out both the CPU and GPU and check them thoroughly in terms of performance and peak temperatures and keep the ones that perform better and stay cooler.

 

not gonna lie but was thinking exactly the same, I’m glad that wasn’t the only one hahaha, I forgot about the gpu now you mention it but yes as I was mainly thinking about the 9900k as it usually runs hot xD

does anyone who used phobya nanogrease extreme 3.5g over can maybe give an approximation if it would be enough quantity? Let’s say gpu+cpu, I guess a minimum of 4 times, once with new cpu + new gpu, then old cpu + old gpu, and repeat just to be sure.

I was thinking maybe is good to order more in case I run out of it.

 

Thanks man. I'll have her try this tonight and see if it solves the issue.

 

Howdy folks.

I have a couple questions relating to heatsinks, which I'm sure has been answered somewhere in the 15880 posts but I can't find it, probably until I post this.

How many heatsink variants are there and how do they correlate to sku's? I've seen 3 variants now, 3 heat pipes ( https://imgur.com/XhvgJ7s) 7 and 8 heat pipes.

I ordered the 51m base model + paid the exorbitant upgrade fee for a RTX2070.
Why is there such a high price difference between the 2060/2070?
490-BEYU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready) $750
490-BFJO NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 (OC Ready) $100

Thanks

 

There is enough in one tube for roughly 4-5 repastes (both CPU and GPU).

 

There are only 2 types of heatsink designs, the 3 heatpipe and the 7 heatpipe one. The 8 heatpipe one was a prototype.

In my testing, the 7 heatpipe heatsink is good for a sustained load of ~125W on the CPU and ~170W on the GPU. The 3 heatpipe heatsink is useless.

The expense of the upgrade depends on the price of the base configuration. When ordering is best to play with the website and see what gives you the best deal for your needs.

Enviado desde mi GM1913 mediante Tapatalk

 

Hey guys. Back with same news and question. So I tried to return my 51m but unfortunately couldn't since the law in my country it rather complicated. Anyway. Dell replaced my mobo and now it seems to pass all tests without problems. The one problem is that my disk Adata sx8200 512GB still bug the windows. I mean if I have only one m2 ssd connected the windows start and run fine. Then if I connect Adata it won't. Only alienware logo and nothing more. So I spoke to support and they said that they can't guarantee compatibility of this ssd. And here is my question. Is there any ssd that I can buy that will work? I mean I don't need it to be extremely fast. Just need it to work. Is Intel 660p a safe bet?

 

I have Sabrent Rockets in mine which work fine. I know people here have used Samsung 970, Intel 660p and HP EX950.

Hope you get it sorted.

 

So which sku comes w/ the 3 heat pipes?

 

I believe its the i7 8700 with RTX 2060.

 

i haven't tried the Valve Index, but i have been using a Samsung Odyssey headset for a few months with the same spec A51m. i have mostly been playing Project Cars 2 with a wheel setup, VR golf, and Arizona Sunshine.

 

Just want to try one More thing. Is there any option in a51m to choose from which drive to boot? I think this should be the issue that laptop try to boot from the empty disc

 

Question. I'm on the last BIOS before the throttle down of the GPU. I'm trying to make sure the battery stays at a lower level when constantly plugged in. I changed the option in the BIOS to "primarily AC use" but I didn't see any limit. Dell's power app doesn't let me adjust the limit as I think it's aimed for XPS owners. Someone on here mentioned a way to limit the max charge of the battery. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi guys,

I got my Alienware on the latest 1.7.3 BIOS and I forced downgraded it to 1.5.0.
However, whenever I reboot my computer or turn it on, it automatically reverts to 1.7.3.
Is there any way to prevent the computer from installing the latest BIOS over and over itself?
It's honestly getting annoying.

Thank you

 

Did you disable the BIOS option to not allow windows to flash the BIOS. I forget what the setting is called but just curious if you did. I think the word "capsule" is in the setting name somewhere but I could be wrong.

 

I believe it's in your UEFI settings. See @S.K 's post for additional details - http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1202#post-10917552

 

New Alienware Area-51m owner here and I was curious if any of the experts here had a link or recommendation on where I can purchase a second 330W ac adapter supported for this device? Contacted Dell and they want to sell me a refurbished one for $129 sans shipping but I have to believe I can do better than that so any help would be appreciated! Thanks

 

I have the 512GB SX8200 Pro in mine. Works perfectly fine.

 

Your best bet is to purchase it directly from dell, there are a lot of fakes out there, and with dell, you'll atleast have a warranty.

I think I've seen some on Amazon for fairly cheap though ~$75-$100.

 

Are you looking to have the battery only charge at a certain level etc. Pretty sure @S.K set his this way and its in or around the same menu where you set the battery as 'Primarily AC'. I'm going to check the BIOS now to see if I can help figure out the menu option.

@clayton006 - I checked, instead of setting the BIOS to 'Primarily AC' set it to custom and you can set when the battery charges and discharges. Hope this is what you were looking for.

 

Hi,

I already disabled capsule updates but it still reverts back to the last BIOS.
Maybe it's saved on some temp folders ready to be flashed at next boot ?
I don't know what to do, I already cleaned all the filed linked to Windows Update installed

 

oh dear lord, I remember in March the nightmare case about the heat sink and everyone going wild for the pipes, can’t believe the pipes, no good I would say.

great that sounds good for me, seems I have all the stuff ready for doing it the reparte, waiting for the new system and go for it.

 

See if you can block drivers called "System Firmware" in Device Manager. Follow the guide here...
How to Prevent Windows from Automatically Updating Specific Drivers

 

That's what I was looking for. Will give that a shot! Thanks!

 

I been away for a month or so but I come back to the same non sense I see.... Screw Dell!

On a positive note, my machine is still running like a champ. Gets rebooted about once a week and is mostly running 24/7 hooked to a 3440 × 1440 widescreen. This 2080 is a beast I tell you...

What am I missing guys? Haven't updated my system since 1.3.2



Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

You missed nothing, each BIOS is worse than the previous one.

Oh and this:
Ordered a MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2019)

Bye bye Windows

 

Is it the screen or new dying graphics? Matrix reminds me about Matrix Leader

Seems like my Area 51m is reading the matrix.

 

so u sold the 51m to HID ?

 

Hi are these temps still good or do I need to repaste my gpu and cpu? my unit comes with i7-9700k and rtx2080 config https://i.redd.it/hlmmx668kft31.jpg https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/djzb1d/temps/

 

No, sold locally

 

nice, i too am waiting for the 16inch mac pro to upgrade my ‘12 15inch mac pro, just a few more days for release

by d way welcome to apple eco system, been hooked since 2011, u will not regret it, best warranty company on earth, whether in warranty or out of warranty

 

Dude I don't know where to start from! The integration is insane, like I'm in this thread now right? If I swipe up from the home screen on my iPhone I can see a little link to what I'm viewing and can click it to continue reading/typing on my iPhone!

Another great one, I was on a website, it asked me to send a message to my cell phone to receive an OTP verification code, the moment I got the message on the iPhone, I got a pop-up in Safari asking me if I want to paste the code I received on my phone! That is some wicked crap man!

 

I have the same configuration as you and I haven't repasted yet.

Have you undervolted using XTU or ThrottleStop yet? That would be the first thing to try, unless you are confident in repasting and have all the gear ready to go.

 

I believe it is done through the iCloud, as all your Apple devices are logged in to the iCloud and backup photos and other stuff and obviously, also communicate. Big Brother if you ask me. With Google/Gmail/Google drive it is almost the same.