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

Core i9-10900K Will be incompatible with this machine? New socket?

 

With the r1 no

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I really do wish more people were like this. I’m all for helping people make informed decisions. And this forum is an excellent place to find the information you need to make a good purchase. Plenty of knowledge and seasoned experienced users here. But, it does wear us older folk down to see so many people be mad about a product not being what they want it to be and it’s their own fault for not properly reading up on a product. At least it does me anyway.

Enjoy your laptop.

 

There's a balance to this question of seller and buyer - the seller has a degree of responsibility to make known key aspects of the product to inform the buy and be representative of it. If Dell/Alienware pitches the Area 51M as "upgrade-able" and running full out on clocks, etc. then doesn't deliver there is a degree of misrepresentation. The buyer has a reasonable amount of responsibility to investigate claims on a product, but not be "technical experts"to avoid flim-flammery. The seller cannot just make wild claims that don't begin to meet reality either. There is balance of responsibility here and the laws back this up as well. Dell has walked the line on responsible representation (they have plenty of legal experience on this); you can upgrade the Area 51M, its parts can be upgraded within reasonable limits. What is unfortunate is that Dell rather than take the higher road on a reasonable upgrade path is likely to just take the easy way out legally, gimping the system (somewhat violating the representation of full no-throttle use) and also likely not making the effort to create DGFF 30xx series-cards at least. Legal or not, the court of public opinion is not going to look kindly on Dell's handling here on the Area 51M and a lot of people are now going to think twice on anything marketed as an Area 51M.

 

me too

 

Said with perfection. I bought mine to play games and it does it well!! I don’t live in synthetic 3dmark world. I do run it on occasion with new machines as a baseline. It doesn’t get my parties in a wad if I’m 200 points behind the highest scores lol.

 

I agree, however this is entirely a different issue IMO.

Dell / Alienware fell victim of their own over hype and failed to deliver a product that meets the over hype.

It’s NOT a bad product IMO just not what they claimed it would be.


As far as 3rd party resellers such as HID in my case I stand by my statement, they made no such representations to me, I ordered a custom configuration of a product from them and they assembled and delivered it.

Any expectations I have as to it’s performance or lack thereof ( baring negligence on their part in assembling it which at this time I see none )

Would be on me for falling for the hype

Which if it was major I could simply resolve by return or use of warranty until it was satisfactory.

So we are back where we started at buyer beware, and that’s why we have return policies.


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Not too many people are going to feel that providing a "fix" to a defect which involves downgrading and limiting the system to run against full clocks as advertised just failing to deliver a product to meet hype; they are at the point of sabotaging the systems. You understand that the failure here is one of design; they could fix it if they manned up and took the hit, this is not just "overhype" imnsho. Not concerned btw with HID, just Dell in general in case there is confusion on my interjecting in the thread. I think you will be fine with HID and the CPU, it might be a tad overkill but at the same time if it works...

I agree its not a bad product if one doesn't go whole hog on (OC'd 2080+9900K) which is.... kind of what it was meant to do... hence the perception issue. I just posted a review on Alienware's site (quickly written so its not great but makes the points needed) that point this out: its fine if you get a base system, and only plan to maybe upgrade to a 9900K+2070... I am quite happy with a 9700K+2070 along with the later BIOS'. I have some concerns with finish (Lunar White) but then not everyone has issues with it, and there is a warranty.

The good reviewers that just didn't take Dell's talking points did point out the question of parts on upgrades though for users.

 

Agreed.

IMO Dell / Alienware should come clean and simply admit that it fell short, admit they are “pulling back” on the performance that was promoted by marketing and then do what they can to make it run as well as it can ( however I am pretty sure their legal Dept has a different definition of run well ).

Anyway the folks that know how and want to will tame the beast to the best of their abilities and the folks that don’t and experience problems will probably return.

Companies as big as Dell / Alienware as far as I have seen do not cater to small groups of enthusiasts such as we have here, all there decisions are directed towards the larger masses, if enough are sold ( that don’t burn )
To everyday Joes that are happy with the products performance such as it is out of the box, the product lives and sees mild iterations.

If it does not sell or there are inherent design flaws such that too many fail, the product will be killed.

It’s just business.




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I never let companies off the hook with that one

The enthusiasts are not a "small group" per se I don't think, Dell explicitly went after that market perceiving it large enough to design and market a system aimed at them. It needed to meet certain criteria to back that marketing up; it did up till they sabotaged it. There is no "taming" possible to overcome a hard BIOS limit on power I appreciate what's possible, but there is no way around the thermal limits unless you either reduce performance, or do some weird Frankenstein ****, which in my opinion goes utterly contrary to the marketing of the system.

 

I DO see you point, I guess I am just less optimistic that that the effort will be worth it in the long run, with such short product life cycles now, they will already be thinking about the next thing.

Off to play games now Have a great Holiday !

 

HIDevolution is an Authorized Dell Retailer. We buy from them directly and then do the upgrades.

When you order with any changes to the original manufacturer’s stock configuration or choose any service options from us, we will perform a full quality check - ensure latest stable BIOS firmware and drivers are installed, burn in stress testing for temperature, benchmark testing to ensure it is performing to standard, keyboard and touchpad test, check of ports for functionality, display check for abnormalities, and a physical check of the chassis for blemishes. You can also make notes to the technician if you would like us to look for something specific. A product that passes through our hands has a much lower chance of DOA (defect on arrival).

 

Maybe he want a cool running chips equal stock clocked 9900K ? And from your own testing... Does this mean his chips will run equal? There is something called binning for higher clock speed. Or.... Cooler temps/lower noise.

What with the promised increased utilization from single 330w psu, roll back the crippled Gpu temp target in bios, Normal ram speed and more options for panels? The list is a lot longer than asking for the KS support. Maybe re-tweet and ask once again. Because the promises from the spring 2019 is still not been fulfilled. Not a single one.

 

Didn't I read that Frank Azor left Alienware headed to AMD?

 

Long time ago now. But read this one if you missed it http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1749#post-10978568

 

That's really odd - so what the hell kind of relationship does he have exactly? Trusted adviser? Even in the tech world that seems a bit off to head to an OEM for a supplier and still consult for a potential customer that was also your former employer... seems like a conflict of interest would arise...

 

I think the kids call it “networking” these days ..


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Have been pretty happy with my unit, but a bit worried about the color.

Given all the issues with lunar light, has anyone tried swapping the panels?

 

It would seem theoretically to be possible ("upgrade" design LOL) - people have gotten the wrist wrist top deck replaced, and clearly the lid *can* be as part of a screen change, and the bottom panel easily. My philosophy right now is that some people have had issues, and from what they describe this is possibly an issue with particularly the first run. I mean if everyone with Lunar White had massive issues I think there would be significantly more posts about it relative to the number of owners. On top, Dell has shown that it will replace parts that discolor for no good reason if they can't be fixed with a magic eraser. That being said, if it didn't mean a wait until like February or March (or possibly even April) to get an R2 - I might consider switching to Dark Side of the Moon. At this point by the time I could even place an order I would be out of the period for the R1 return and then waiting forever it would seem to get an R2. I might just sell the R1 at a break to someone if it turns out the options on the R2 warrant it. At this point, I can't see how one could get the full benefit of an QHD or UHD screen option since a 2080 would be needed to really get the full benefit and given the thermal and power issues in the R1, I am currently skeptical of Dell pulling it off... reliably.

 

It'll be on the LGA1200 socket. And it looks to be one crispy chip, boasting 125W TPD at it's 3.7Ghz baseclock.

 

I just bought an Area 51m used and had a question. According to the Dell Service Tag number, I should have a G-Sync 144hz panel, however, I do not see the option to turn on/off g-sync in the Nvidia control panel. Should I be seeing that option? Here's what it says on my configuration page:

391-BEBB : 17.3" FHD (1920 x 1080) 144Hz Anti-Glare IPS Display w/ NVID IA G-SYNC + Tobii eyetracking technology

Any help or advice appreciated. Thanks!!

- Matt

 

Yeah, it should definitely be listed as its own menu on left of Nvidia control panel and gives the option to enable full screen, enable windowed or disable.

EDIT: Unless you have downgraded to an older BIOS and have a newer panel (credit to @jc_denton )

 

Thanks for the info. I have the latest BIOS(ver 1.8.1). I also have a 200W vbios on the 2080(Ver 1.0.0.3). Pretty sure the panel was never changed out. Not sure what this all means then. Might have to do a support case with Dell. We'll see what happens. Thanks!

 

Maybe for you guys it's okay but I know I'm sure as hell not gonna spend an extra $40-100 to have a premium clock speed *bin quality* on a cpu that isn't going to happen anyway when it goes into a system like the 51m. Unless I know for a fact it Wil work... I like to save money ty :3 I mean think about it. Buying a new 51M with a 9900KS included in the price of a stock out of the box one.. But then you have options to go for some beefed up bined quality one, what will that lead to? money down the drain the 51m simply can't handle a 9900ks at 5ghz anyway. So spending extra money will not lead to anywhere but wasteful~

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That might be a driver problem ? For some reason I feel like mine which I got at Thanksgiving did the same thing and it was due to the BIOS being at 1,5.0... what is your BIOS level, and have you updated the Video Card BIOS/drivers? If you run a tool called HWInfo you can see the BIOS for the system easily.

 

To each their own. What might expensive or wasteful for you may not be for others. To degrade what someone else likes or wants to spend their money on is well, pathetic.

 

I put it here...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1692#post-10971574

You as well could go for the much cheaper 9900K. But went instead for the more expencive KS chips. New ain't always better... You could spend the extra money instead on a good binned 9900K who works in the Area. On top it could be better/equal as any KS chips out there.

 

Guys guys guys!

Why does this K or KS thing even matter? To each his own. Everyone can do whatever they want with their money. Knows, doesn’t know, company lied, didn’t lie, whooo careeeeesssss!

Leave others be. So much tension over literally NOTHING.

Let’s talk about something else already... sheesh.

 

So what games you playing on the 5/m?

 

lol, glad you asked.

I recently played the single player campaign for Star Wars battlefront 2 and some multiplayer. I got 1 free month of origin basic because I added my phone number during October’s cyber security month promo or something. It’s a BLAST! Graphics are amaaazing, running on ultra everything and pushing 120+ FPS at all times, most of the time 144.

Otherwise, a lot of BFV. Hahaha I’ve come back to if after being out of it for some time and I’ve loved the latest “War in the Pacific” tides of war event. US and Japan joined the war, that means there’s the BAR, M1 Garand, Sherman tanks, etc. Pure glory!!!

What about you? Others?

 

I’ve sworn of dice and BFv. Still play some BF 3/4. Mainly playing some Modern Warfare and fly lots of f14 and f16 in DCS World.

Oh forgot playing some insurgence Sandstorm and Hell Let Loose.

 

Well after more testing I realized I didn't want my motherboard to bake with a hot 9900k and to find a good binned one I'm either gonna find some ebay crap that can be broken or buy from silicon lottery for 10x the price so in the end I'm glad I got the KS.

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Not pathetic my friend, a realization to pay more attention to what works and doesn't t work so one isn't blind sided by simple facts. Such as.... KS not supported properly... So don't waste more money on a binned chip.. Easy.

Maybe someone dosent realize this cpu wont go to 5ghz, and they use the money on it then get home like YEEEE IMA 5ghz it Up BOII and then one benchmark later and some crippled power 131w bs the cpu goes to 4.5-4.2 all the time and low as f 3d mark scores and well.. Insta return or complaining. I mean if I was selling this laptop with the 9900KS I would clearly put in description that *9900KS WILL NEED to be undervolted to achieve 4.8-4.9ghz due to power limitations but runs much cooler than 9900k at, same frequency due to lower voltage required on better quality KS chip*

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So basically you're saying that after all is a good idea to get a 9900KS over a standard 9900K for the 51m? Lol, then why are you so mad to the guy who bought the 51m shipped with a 9900KS?

Enviado desde mi G8441 mediante Tapatalk

 

It should (KS) have native support in area 51m bios from Dell. Period.

 

Ok some of you may be interested in my latest tinkering, I wanted to see what a little UV would do so I set up my Throttlestop and applied -100, it certainly cools this already cooler KS chip down even further my MAX CPU temp was 74, on one of the cores the rest were lower AVE CPU was around 63 - GPU MAX also 74 AVE 51

I got these temps from HWiNFO while I ran new 3DMarks just out of curiosity

Timespy 10449 up from 10189
Firestrike 22119 up from 21662
Port Royal 6204 no previous to compare

Still have Afterburner to setup, but honestly the CPU UV seems to have removed what little throttling I was having and the few stutters, I'll play some more games and see if I even feel the need to mess with it anymore.

================================================================

Current Games !

Red Dead Redemption 2
Rage 2
Control
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The Division
Metro Exodus
Borderlands 3
Nier Automata

Have Fun!

 

Not mad at him, mad at company's selling the 51M with a 9900KS in the first place

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Well actually HID offers this option:

Silicon Lottery Binned, Delidded Intel 9th Gen Core i9-9900KS 8 Core, 16 Thread, 16MB Cache, Processor, 4.0 - 5.0 GHz (Rated to 5.2GHz)

That's actually pretty vague. How do I read that:

* All 8 cores are guaranteed to run at 4.0 GHz at the same time (as minimum)
* One core will run at 5.0 GHz (as minimum)
* As this is a silicon lottery the chip is guaranteed to run one core @5.2 GHz

Besides that, you can get any possible combination between those clock speeds and cores based on cooling, power, motherboard limitation, etc.

Actually Intel is this vague on the description on all their chips, and leave to motherboards manufacturers to deal with the final numbers

 

Hello friends.

I became an A51m owner this Black Friday, and despite the platform's shortcomings I have been loving it as a total desktop replacement. I've got cancer, so I needed something that I can take when I travel to doctor's visits and for when I have to stay in the hospital.

When I'm home I use it hours per day and haven't had any significant issues, though I've got all of my bios with the throttles and limiters active for now. That said, id like to get as many years out of this machine as I can.

To achieve this I plan to do some basic mods to improve thermal life. Repasting being the most obvious, so my first question is, should I bother with liquid metal on the cpu and gpu, or is nanogrease just fine if I run my fans at performance level under load? I don't want to risk liquid metal if I don't have to but if it's a significant difference over nanogrease to the point where it's worth the risk then I'll do it.

My second question is about thermal pads. Are the pads in newer laptops still really bad? I've never done a thermal pad swap before so I have no idea which ones I'd need to buy, which sizes, etc...

Thanks for any insight.

 

I am very sorry to hear this, it runs in one side of my family so I know it too well, and my step-son just went through treatments for Lymphoma about a year ago, my prayers go out for you friend. I think the A51M despite its limitations is still a worthwhile piece of equipment provided you set proper expectations which you seem to have.

 

I've been addicted to Football Manager for years, I have the latest 2020 revision, which is probably my go to game.

I've recently started Far Cry 5, also got Division 2 downloaded but haven't started that yet.

This is my first dive into PC gaming, all previous laptops were used for Football Manager which is hardly demanding.

I need to get rid of my XB1 and PS4 or maybe keep the PS4 for exclusive PS titles.

Any PC game recommendations, pretty open-minded but am drawn towards FPS or the likes of Red Dead, will definitely be buying Cyberpunk 2077 when that's released.

 

Be careful with buying PC games, especially when they are dirt cheap on sale, else your backlog will only grow and grow

 

Nice, ive played some FC4/5 and The Division 2. I personally have a hard time with third person games for some reason. If you want fast pace Insurgency Sandstorm is a great game especially for the money. Normally $26 but I am sure its on sale on Steam right now. Slower more strategic if you like history Hell Let Loose or Post Scriptum if your in any other country but the US. There are no US servers for Post Scriptum so its hard to play.Then you always have the AAA titles like Modern Warfare which is actually the first COD game ive bought since COD4.

 

Its sort of getting that way already, can't believe some deals you can get on PC games in comparison to console.

Never heard of Post Scriptum but had a quick look there and that might be right up my street. I played the latest CoD on the XB1 and still play online now and again, also had Division 2 for it as well but still went and bought the PC version, can't help myself with a deal. Insurgency looks alright but at the min I'm looking for single-player games as I don't get enough time to master maps then I become frsutrated and rage quit

 

Others here will have great advice for your project several of the folks here have reposted and re taped this beast MULTIPLE times

Personally I’m not a fan of liquid metal, too messy and really not a significant temp decrease over other options IMO

I’m very sorry to hear about your situation I’ve lost 3 family members to cancer in the last 6 years myself,

But it sounds like you have a great attitude! And a project like this may be exactly what you need, I’m a firm believer that good attitude plays a big role in helping your body fight off cancer, so you keep busy and above all ENJOY what you do.


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I’m about 5 games deep so far.
And there are about two more I’m on the fence on. Then cyberpunk 2077 comes out in a few months. Gonna be a busy year.

 

This has been my problem for the past 15 years. LOL!

I have a HUUUUGE backlog.

My problem stems from friends wanting to play the latest... so I only chip away at the backlog every so often, and add to it more often than that... so it keeps growing!!!!!!!

Sooo excited for Cyberpunk 2077!!! Hahaha

 

A 15 year long backlog of games? Man, how do you even begin working on that?

 

I personally dont use LM, never been a fan of all the extra stuff you have to do for safety. I PERSONALLY dont like the idea of traveling with Lm and the laptop being on its side bouncing around. Build all the foam dam's and paint clear fingernail polish all over everything just isnt appealing to me. In the end for benchmarking your still gonna be runing your fans on high to keep it cool etc. For normal daily use and gaming put a good paste like ICD , Gelid or thermal grizzly kryonaut not the conductant. Apply a decent undervolt whatever your CPU can handle, undervolt your GPU and you have a nice gaming rig. Congrats on the killer laptop.

 

Amen

 

I know right?

I have Bioshocks to beat, Batman games, heck, I haven’t even beat Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and I’ve got 150 hours in that damn game already! Let alone Skyrim HA! Haven’t even started that one.