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

Happy user of 1.3.2 still. I will upgrade to 1.5.0 after some thorough testing but don't feel the need for it as in my initial tests, I couldn't spot any performance upgrades, so no reason for me to upgrade really. The only change I noticed between 1.3.2 and 1.5.0 was the relatively quieter fans when entering BIOS but who enters BIOS daily? Not me. Plus, I'm a big supporter of "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" mantra.

 

Lol, you need to chill out and learn how to type in complete sentences. It's got full CPU power on one brick but the clocks on the GPU drops to half. So please tell me where I'm wrong. Yes no **** it's a desktop replacement class and I never said it wasn't. I've rocked plenty of desktop replacements in the past but nowadays they are much smaller and lighter than the laptops of previous generations. Am I wrong to expect the ability to lug it around and use it as a laptop especially now that it's much lighter and smaller in profile.

Of course I did my research when I purchase a laptop of this caliber, don't insult my intelligence. I also tweak each laptop to maximize the settings which is actually a pain in the butt with the alienware software. The bios is so restrictive you can't really do much here. Also each update imposes new restrictions which goes against what they previously advertised and promised.

Am I wrong to have expected nvidia optimus when i opted for the non gsync model? No reviewers even bothered mentioning that.

There's a lot of lost opportunities here. Why put a large 94 watt battery without optimus. I just think the Aorus 17 is a better overall product at least for my needs.

A lot of the opinions I have is because I already have a SFF desktop with a 9900k and 2080 ti, so the area 51m to me was not useful for me. Now that's true upgrade ability without dealing with the crazy $1000+ cost to upgrade to a 2080. Obviously each use case is different. That's why I'm leaning towards the Aorus 17 or the Razer blade pro 17.

I think Dave 2D makes a good point in his latest video about thicc laptops. With desktops being more and more portable is this class of laptop still relevant?

 

Computers in general (at least those with Intel CPUs) are probably going to all soon be irrelevant when they all have locked multipliers and voltage due to cancer firmware to deal with the so-called Plundervolt exploit/hoax. The thin and light BGA turdbooks, especially, are all going to become broken space heaters overnight when they can no longer be under-volted to keep them from catching on fire. They were designed with such half-assed cooling systems to begin with that even the most inexperienced noobs on the planet have needed to learn how to undervolt their laptops to merely achieve marginal usability. Grab some popcorn... the drama that is about to unfold around us should be quite a show.

 

Indeed, except my A51m, all my latest computers are AMD. Even went to the trouble of purchasing an ultrabook over the USA since that model wasn't available locally with a Ryzen 3700u. Even I purposely bough my A51m with the 9700K since not only was better for thermals, but also not affected by (most) of the Intel vulnerabilities.

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Sigh....where to start.

1. Response to your post did not warrant complete sentences??? Lol..Nah..low hanging fruit..
But a point about manners. For all u know english might not be my first language....just saying.

2. Yes. IMO it is wrong to expect battery life in opposite to the reviews...or common knowledge on what a desktop class CPU or GPU could draw power wise. You want it to be something its not ..and was never meant to be. I get that....The M17 would seem to have satisfied your needs though. It is marketed precisely for portable power gaming. Although my sons m15R1 runs sooooo hot.....

3...if it was that important to me.......I would have asked about optimus. (Although i agree it would have been nice). My advice...always ask if you don't see a feature listed and u will never be disappointed. Now if u where pissed over the memory issues...or the throttling that's understandable.

4...My results on games are not a loss of 1/2 my framerates on one PSU. The effect actually is negligible. Don't know what to tell you if you are seeing that. I and many others are not.

5...it certainly sounds like you have found the LT for you now... so..congrats! I hope you continue to enjoy your purchase.

6. Trying to set up a small form factor gaming PC in the same situations u would apparently need a " light and portable" LT is... problematic. try setting one up at an airport. Or a coffee shop.

6..Peace bro. Really....no need to up the insults on either side. We all have our opinions...mine are worth the same weight as yours. Or exactly what we paid each other for them. Lol

7. Enjoy the holiday! (Genuine)

 

I don't think its wrong to expect better battery life. Look at the GT76 and ROG mothership they boasts about a 5 hr battery life, despite having equivalent power. With XTU you can limit that power hungry 9900k or 9700k to 15-25 watts.

For reviews Pcgamer I believe quoted 6 hrs of battery life watching a movie with the area 51m. Where they got that figure I have no idea and the alienware facebook page I think even qouted their review. Reviewers these days seem to just pour meaningless benchmarks and specs with minimal input in how people actually use them.

In the same way as most people wouldn't set up a small form factor pc such as at the airport or coffee shop I really don't see myself doing the same thing with a desktop replacement laptop such as the area 51m. Yeah I'd pull out my thin and light 99% of the time, speaking as someone who recently traveled with their area 51m in combination with a thin and light laptop.

If you're not noticing much of a difference in running one PSU then one would argue maybe you would have been better off with a max q or max q variant than the near full desktop variant 2080. I've tested both the area 51m and the razer blade pro with 2080 max q. The performance in the razer blade pro is worst, but not by a huge margin either.

Your entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine I respect that but my posts are meant as insults or attacks. I bring up these points because I see these points as areas of improvement for the next revision. The area 51m in many ways was my ideal laptop, but fell short and hence while I'm looking at other options.

Anyways Merry Christmas.

 

Buying max-Q is like buying BGA when there is LGA. It's a broken chip which you pay full price for. Nvidia removed the "m" or "mobile" monniker with pascal but reintroduced it with turing as max-Q. I'll say it again, you pay full price for a cut down/broken chip which are binned to become BGA/Max-Q. You're better ir buying the real deal even if it has cancer firmware. It has alot more headroom than a thin and light laptop. Not only for gaming but also cooling. A laptop that runs hot ain't surviving for long. Most (AW) BGA laptops crap out after 1.5 years due to cooling.

 

Merry Christmas to you as well. And, everyone else, too.

I think the problem here was that many hoped the Area 51m would finally mark a return to a no-compromise full DTR product that was going meet the expectations of overclocking enthusiasts and be good enough to equal what they used to offer in the M18xR2. Many yearned for that and bought it based on that hope. Battery life and integrated graphics functionality, lighter weight, thinner form factor are important for people that embrace compromise and view performance as secondary... but, all absolutely meaningless attributes and representative of the compromise that was viewed as despicable by folks wanting a bonafide DTR monsterbook. That means, big and heavy and dripping with awesomeness. The market is oversaturated with options that fit customers that embrace compromise to the point of total absurdity. There would be zero point in this product focusing on those attributes, even a little bit. Alienware already has other products designed with those people in mind and it would have been silly to offer another one.

So, it fell short of meeting your expectations because your expectations were not in line with the market it seemed Alienware was trying to attract, and not in line with what most people that were so eager to buy it are typically looking for. Had it met your expectations, many would not have wanted it at all and the product would have been an abject failure on those counts.

Unfortunately, it has equally grievous compromises and some major shortcomings that have caused it to fail to meet expectations of most of those customers as well. It looks nice and has a great chassis, but it fails on the delivery of massive performance, enthusiast-level firmware flexibility and thermal management excellence because the people that engineered it are stupid. They allowed their judgment to be clouded by values that caused most DTR-loving overclocking enthusiasts to hate them and move to Clevo 6 or 7 years ago. Clevo is still the only option, and not a fantastic one. Sadly, there is no fantastic option for this niche. Everything that used to be awesome is an EOL product.

I think the mediocre outcome we have seen here was predictable. Everything they do oozes mediocrity, even in the desktop space. But, it certainly was refreshing to see a period of intense excitement sparked by hope from those that either did not know any better or held onto hope and optimism. I wish that it had turned out a lot more awesome than it did, but there was no reason to expect that it would from my perspective. It would have been contrary to how they operate.

 

You've said it brother, even my locked down LTSC system got a taste of that without any bios/ec updates.

 

I’m still on 1.3.2 an vbios 190watt bought the laptop in feb 19 and it’s served me well 2080 an 9700k. I have bought a further 1 from the outlet to compare the screens and in my view the lg Phillips 144hrtz is best, no light bleed, the auo panel off the outlet while it had very slightly better blacks, the colours didn’t look as good (vibrant) and it had minor light bleed so kept with my original. I’ve been very happy with it. I would only upgrade in 2020 if they upgraded the screen to qhd ips or possibly 4k panel.

 

Didn’t hurt to peg my ask in this thread hahaha:

 

I’m on 1.5.0. 200W VBIOS. Champ performance! No issues ever. 1st adopter. My only sin is the white chassis color. Shoulda gone black.

 

Live and learn. I would have chosen black from the get-go because it looks better to me. But, I get it. I think most people wanted white because it wasn't black and they wanted something special. Black is to laptops today what putty color used to be to all PC peripherals... super-ordinary.

White looks fantastic when it is brand new and pristine. Unfortunately, that only lasts a short time no matter how careful you try to be. It shows every blemish and stains easily. White is best reserved for kitchen appliances and cars that people drive in hot desert climates. (The dirt and dust in those places is usually white as well.) It's also good for wedding dresses, but I'm not sure how often the meaning behind the white dress is accurate for the person wearing it.

 

I have literally ALWAYS purchased black things, in everything. This just looked so cool and stormtrooper-like, that I went for it. Heck it even was $50 more wtf!

I believed Azor when he spoke of the quality of the finishes. Totally misled. I should have trusted myself and my experience. Never again going for white. POS finish IMO, regardless of what it is on... car, dress, phone, computer, watch, anything white SUCKS because it’ll look like crap sooner or later. Fastest to look dirty, stain, or just plain yellow out when exposed to Sun/UV light or humidity.

 

I love black for everything except cars. Black and white are the same for cars to the extent that they are absolutely gorgeous when they are new or freshly repainted. The first time you run a black car through a car wash or drive it through a dust storm or blizzard it never looks quite as awesome again. You'd have to make it matte or flat black for it not to show (even magnify) everything wrong. White (and silver) colored cars are actually better at hiding blemishes, but I think that's probably one of the only places white is effective at hiding blemishes. And, that only applies in sunlight. You can see all the blemishes on a cloudy day, under shade or artificial lighting.

 

And you expect a tweet back?
[A Message From Frank Azor]

 

I’m looking at purchasing this. Is it a good deal?

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/alienware-area-51-m-17-3-full-hd-144hz-gaming-laptop-512gb-1

Thanks in advance!!!

Sam =)

 

It should be much cheaper on dell website. That is a very bad deal. I got i9 9900k, RTX 2080, 32GB ram, 144hz g sync display with tobi, 1TB SSD + 1TB SHDD + Vindicator 2.0 for about 3350$.

 

Thanks for your feedback! This is an Australian purchaser. On the Dell website in Aus we wouldn’t be getting the GTX 2080 for that price lol

 

Well of course he will. Something along the lines of “At dell/alienware they pride themselves on high quality products and service. They will take feedback to ensure the best product is made for future revisions”

 

My HDD is clicking again

 

Not from him of course... it’s the fact that he’s mentioning those 2 other dudes and that they “are listening to the community” is what I was latching onto...

You can give him crap, but fact is he’ll likely always be close to AW in some way, probably as an advisor or part of an informal board just for AW, even if he doesn’t make the decisions or call the shots. He’s got influence.

 

Just a couple of wrist rests and my white laptop is holding up quite nicely. I've traveled with it a number of times as well and it withstood the airport scanning quite well (I have a skin pasted on all 4 sides in order to protect against rubbing marks etc). Plus, I use an external keyboard when I can. Overall, pretty happy with the machine thus far. There is one down side though. I am on my 6th screen. Before this, 2 were replaced due to backlight bleed and 3 were replaced due to dead pixels. The latest replacement screen was installed a couple of days ago which was replaced due to a big blob of dead pixels appearing near the bottom right corner of the previous screen. The replacement that the technician brought a day before christmas actually felt flawless for a few minutes after installing, until a big green line popped up out of nowhere right in the middle lol! The tech had to take it back and bring another one (It was a super sweet looking screen if it wasn't for that central line that popped up, I would have liked to keep that very much). The new one that I have got now once again has backlight bleed around all 4 edges but I am going to live with it now (got tired of replacing screens + the backlight bleed isn't unbearable on this anyway).

Man.... are you for real? Still using mechanical HDD in 2019?!

 

Still have the 51m?

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Yeap.

 

Absolutely. Not ideal, but they don't make SSDs with a high enough capacity and a low enough price (yet) to stop using spinners for data storage. It would be nice to be rid of mechanical drives completely, but we're not to the point that it is practically or financially feasible. Mechanical HDDs will need to be utilized for the time being where a massive storage volume is needed, at the very least over a USB connection. I've always found using USB hard drives to be too ugly and inconvenient for everyday application. Using USB external storage is OK for making Macrium Reflect images, etc. but not for daily driver use.

The 2TB Intel 600p M.2 NVMe drives are getting within striking distance and they are cheap. But, we need 4TB and 8TB M.2 and 2.5-inch SATA versions for the same price (or less) than the cost of equivalent capacity HDDs. We also need more than two NVMe slots to make that alternative feasible for some folks. Being limited to just two kind of sucks. I have 6 M.2 drives in use on the desktop, along with three 2.5-inch SATA SSDs and two 2.5-inch SATA HDDs. All are "internal" and permanently attached. (Permanent meaning not connected by USB.)

 

I love Samsung 860 Evo 4TB drive. Bought a bunch of those on black friday sale dirt cheap and now don't know what to do with so much storage. It is going to suffice for the next few years I guess for my server machines.

 

I'll take one

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Nice! I'd love to have a couple of 4TB SSDs, and I wouldn't care if they were NVMe or SATA, M.2 or 2.5 inch.

What is "dirt cheap" in your view? Same price as a 4TB SATA mechanical HDD? That would fit my definition of dirt cheap. To me the $350 and up price point is totally absurd and I won't even consider that. I paid $199 for the 2TB Intel M.2 and that was the absolute most I was willing to pay. I still thought that was too much for only 2TB, but I was begrudgingly willing to stretch my better judgment to accommodate it.

 

Let me get your guys opinions on thermal paste for gpu: Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut or Phobya Nanogrease Extreme? I've used Conductonaut on my cpu and has been great..though I haven't used it on my 2080 due to it being liquid metal. Currently using Phobya Nanogrease and it's been ok, but honestly not the results I was looking for and thinking about switching it to Conductonaut.

Just curious what everyone else is doing. Thanks!

 

Hi, first post recent lurker made it through all 1700 + posts, learned a lot here and was reminded of a lot that I had forgotten.

Just received my Area51m i9900KS binned RTX2080, and so far so good, still setting up.

Does anyone know other good light weight utility to always display CPU / GPU temps on the taskbar ?

Is RivaTuner still the best option ?

Thanks for any ideas

 

Design/pretty look before functionality is never a good thing. A good look turned to ugliness in no time remove the happiness and instead turn it to anger/disappointment.

My Alienware m17 R2 has a palmrest stain that I cannot remove | 2 hours ago

I expect the cooling is is at the saturation point and can't remove much more heat.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1076#post-10910658

 

There's a reason people take practical over pretty... Looks only last so long.

 

Did your 51M have the 9900KS included in it already???

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Yes I ordered it with a silicone lottery binned chip from HIDevolution.

I read all the good and bad experiences here in the forums and decided to give it a shot, so far 1st day everything seems great. The usual AW nonsense as expected ( uninstall reinstall AWCC to get it working ) fiddled with a few windows settings, and all smooth now, got Red Dead Redemption installed and running good.
I’ll do some 3DMark when I get a chance and post here.

 

What main bios are you on? The 9900ks isn't supported in this laptop yet and has very bad limits there is simply no way yiu can get 5ghz steady out of it. Unless something has changed? Why would they even sell this with it?



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I could be wrong but I'm sure ThrottleStop can be set to show temps on the taskbar.

If its not ThrottleStop it could be HWInfo64. Sorry not at my comp to confirm but defo one of those as I had it setup but then disabled it again.

 

It arrived on bios 1.8.1 for CPU and GPU bios string shows 90.04.3F.00.63

looks to me in HWiNFO64 to be set at CPU base 4000.0 MhHz and 5000.0 MhHz turbo max.

I’ll run some more 3DMark today and post results for out of the box.

ok I found my 3DMarks I ran last night out of the box
Time Spy 10303 and Firestrike 21662
that’s out of the box as HID set it up, looks like it’s running the last AW graphics driver ( not current GeForce release )

does not look like it saves the temps or I did not save the info, I’ll run them again today and note the temps, but last night I was able to hover over the timespy results and looked great temps were nice and low.

I’ll check using HWiNFO64 while playing some RDR2 later today.

 

Yea I’ll take a look, I had TS and Rivatuner setup on my old Predator Helios, I was just checking if anyone had created other options.

Thanks

 

I have heard that HIDEvolution basically buys the stock from Dell's depot, then upgrades them, etc., is this true?

 

Maybe someone else here can better explain that, or even Donald@ HID, I’m not entirely sure I understand their business model, and not sure If they consider it trade secrets or not.

 

I can't believe they sold that to you like that, and that's kinda a rip off to do so. The KS does NOT belong in the 51M by a company because it is NOT officially supported I'm going to call them today and tell them about that, the KS will not run at 5ghz speeds at all in this laptop because it will throttle due to Power limitations in the bios! Look at this https://www.3dmark.com/spy/9618847 I have much higher timespy score 11454 because I had to undervolt my 9900KS to - 120 I have it max at, 4.8ghz on all core the only reason to have a KS in this laptop is because it runs much cooler than a 9900k but don't expect to get higher than 4.7-4.8. I'm actually mad that these laptops are being sold with 9900KS. It's false advertising.

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Well don’t get your feathers all ruffled up friend

I’m happy with the Laptop, my ego does not live at 3DMark

I’m pretty sure this laptop will do what I want it to for a long time as long as I don’t fall victim to any of Dell/AW hardware failures.

As far as HID is concerned I’m pretty satisfied at this point, and I’m glad that they are there to build what I wanted for me,

Sure I could have saved a considerable amount by doing all the upgrades myself and yes I have the experience to do them,

However I’m willing to save my time and energy for enjoying it instead of building it at this point in my life.




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The point is they are selling a 5.1-5.2ghz binned cpu that will NEVER reach that in the 51m in the first place because the bios has a power limitation in it that will not allow over 131W to be used, great you got a good cpu for it I understand but you would have been better off buying the base $600 one and not the binned one because you will never reach those "binned" speeds at all unless dell makes a bios compatible with the 9900KS which is not likely to happen and the fact that HID is wasting people's money in a machine that literally can't handle that is crazy.

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https://twitter.com/aw_umar/status/1204765036939546627

Maybe it is coming... probably they are planning?!

 

Well that’s kind of how the free market works, it’s buyer beware.

If ANYONE is to blame for anything in a situation like this it’s the buyer ( not that I think there is any blame to be had )

Look at it this way, all the information is available publicly for the buyer to make an informed decision and purchase, if there are Techincal reasons why you can’t eek out every last drop of performance out of the components ( as may be the case here )

That’s not the sellers problem nor responsibility, it’s the buyers to understand the Tech involved.

Now in MY case I have a good understanding of what I bought and what it can and can’t do, I bought the best looking ( IMO ) and best featured gaming laptop I could find, it will run anything I can toss at it for some time to come.

If I run into issues down the line I can always start tearing into it and make enough adjustments to keep it useful for me for a long time.

Why a laptop ?

I live in an old converted carriage house over 100+ years old a small but cozy place that has lots of charm and privacy, but ZERO room for me to have a desktop ( the Wife can’t stand all the cords lol ).

In the future if I move into a larger place I can re use the CPU in a desktop I build, as I am sure I’ll need an even more powerful GPU by then.

Or simply gift this one to a relative who has simpler needs, and build whatever’s the best for me at that time.

In the end this is a hobby and it’s supposed to be fun

I don’t waste my time and energy getting all worked up over things I can work around and turn to my advantage.

But I do appreciate your input and I understand where your coming from, your situation and viewpoint are simply different then mine.

No harm no fowl.




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Strong contender for quote of the year.

 

Is it weird to instantly like a person after two posts?

 

But... You got a binned special cpu 21k in firestrike, I got 24k https://www.3dmark.com/fs/21087650 with a normal 9900ks $600 do you really feel that is okay?

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For ME it is, obviously not for you and that’s ok.

There is plenty of room in the world for you and I to disagree on a few things.

I’m going to go play some games and enjoy my new machine now

But please do let me know anything new you learn with your testing about how best to use this setup, I’m sure that at some point the NEW will wear off and I’ll want to tinker

I’ve read all your posts and found a lot of your information useful, I’ve read ALL the posts in the sub took me several weeks and we have some VERY sharp people in here and I really appreciate all the info everyone here shares.




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