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

In reading the 9900KS is good for multitasking application work, but for gaming and single app it doesn't buy much. Is the excitement just about "the best" or is there some definite qualitative difference here you would experience outside of say streaming and gaming simultaneously, etc?

 

And then when dell releases a bios update for the 9900KS you realize that the machine becomes unusable for gaming because the gpu throttle will hit you hard.

 

For Me I like that it runs cooler than the K.

One less thing to worry about, and ANY heat reduction in this box is a GOOD thing.


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I don’t think that will necessarily be the case, cooler running KS reduces the heat in the box balances what the heat pipe can do better, IMO I don’t think any further limits on the 2080 will be necessary.

For me anyway KS and 2080 seems to be a good combo.


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My 9700K runs very cool, i'm talking about 50-60 degrees while running RDR2. But when the gpu starts revving in these games it can easily go around the throttle limit and making it useless. Some games don't need the cpu power and fully use the gpu and then you have a problem.

 

Hopefully you can find a sweet spot with your combination.


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Like the previous post says, it all depends on whether an application is more GPU or CPU bound. You may just get an application or game that is more GPU bound, at which point the lowered throttle points of the 2080 will bite you, regardless of which CPU you’re running!

BUT; yes, lowering the heat that the CPU generates is always a good thing, regardless of the situation, and will likely avoid throttling on the 2080 in circumstances where you would have throttled before on a K.

For me, I’m keeping my eye on the horizon for the R2 with 3080 graphics... if I’m selling this to upgrade, it has to be a generation upgrade on the GPU. I’m not switching to an R2 just for a 10th gen Intel processor (+RAM speed, +higher resolution screen, most likely) and to stay on a 2080 RTX. Not worth it IMO.

I’d probably go with a 10th gen Intel (if Ryzen was an option, maybe that), choose between a 1080p or 1440p screen (with high refresh rate; 144 Hz is a sweet spot IMO, since most graphically intensive games won’t reach +150 FPS on high fidelity graphics settings anyway, making paying for 240 Hz a waste of money), and a 3080 RTX (which is going to be on Nvidia's 7 nm architecture, set to release June 2020, but we’ll have to wait for the mobile variant).

Fun fact on the 3080 RTX, it’s architecture of 7 nm is almost half of that of the 2080 RTX (12 nm). Imagine how much POWAH and efficiency can be squeezed into the same die size?! It’s going to be a HUGE leap in performance.

What will others do?

Until then, HAPPY GAMING IN 2020! (cue in: Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, Halo Infinite!)

 

I'm hoping to stay with this for several years at least, even if it means avoiding any mention online when something new comes out

I am not in any hurry to upgrade every 6 months to a year ( as the manufacturers would prefer )

UNLESS I need more POWER for CyberPunk 2077

 

Haha neither am I! I really wouldn’t want to upgrade and meant for this to last for many years too, but 2 things REALLY bite me with this PC.

1. “Upgradeable”: We all took a risk knowing the socket could change relatively soon, but knew that the 9900K had plenty of power now and for the future, so that can last a while. However, we are waiting on GPU upgrades, but even that is at risk of even happening from the differences we’ve seen from the prototype heat sink mount points, so we’ll see. I’m really hoping we get the R1/R2/RN treatment like older AW laptop models with MXM modules. This is why I went with AW, and with this model in particular. So, if I’m unable to upgrade AT ALL; meaning no GPU upgrade, can’t upgrade the CPU already, and the RAM is already artificially limited and can’t even give our processor's spec of 2666 MHz, then this system is already EOL, and IT IS THE CURRENT SYSTEM!!! This is maddening.

...and say we DO get an upgrade made available to move to the 3080, my fear is that the BIOS updates we get to support it will force many of us running a launch 51m on 1.5.0 and the 200W VBIOS to decide between full, unlocked power, with G-Sync and everything working vs perhaps a 3080 with ALSO a lowered throttle point and capped thermal/power limits.

2. My unit is Lunar Light, worst decision ever. I hate how easily it stains. Just from picking it up and setting it down it already has a very faint “browned” tint on the edges on the bottom cover. I am a VERY cleanly person and I always wash my hands prior to using my PC, but the way this finish is holding up is making me think I need to wear damn gloves to avoid touching it with my skin. Users have reported the top lid staining from putting something on top of it. This is just crazy!!! How will I sell this thing if it looks like it was rubbed with dirt all over it?! I’m almost in a hurry to sell it just because of this, while it looks pristine. On the R2 (if I upgrade) I will go all BLACK, like I always have with every other gadget or device in my life.

 

Ah I will have to go back and read - how much is it?

 

I understand what saying and I have some of those concerns as well, I’ll just chalk it up to being 60 and having seen the way things usually go for a while now, I just can’t get all worked up over things I can’t change anymore ( believe me if I worked at Dell / Alienware they would be sick of me pointing out all those issues every day

But since I’m not in that circle I have little to no chance of influencing their decisions.

However, as the Stones said “ You can’t always get what you want, but you may find you get what you need”

As for the Lunar Light I believe they call it

“patina”

It’s a feature! Your laptop will be unique no one else has the same sweat chemistry as you. It will become an original piece of “Art”




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Mine from HIDevolution was $475
Silicon Lottery Binned Delidded
i9-9900KS 4.0-5.0 GHz ( rated to 5.1 GHz)


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“A feature” they said!!! Scoff!!!!!!

 

Not everyone with Lunar White has issues... in fact by the number of reports, it sounds like a manufacturing defect affecting the initial run mainly...

 

That's only because you had some kinda mix up lol, they go for $640 :>

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He might be thinking of a Delta between chips selections?

 

Who knows man but I’m disappointed either way! Black would hold up better regardless.

 

The hided unknown for Dell's graphics upgrade plan... Will last years R1 get special treatment in firmware (gimping) due all burning problems with the older machine vs. coming R2 ? Will you all get exactly same Gpu performance regardless if you run R1 or R2 ?

Only God knows how many owners use external keyboard to avoid the Yellowish color. Or just prefer it over the internal KB. Then you have some who pack it into Decal skins. As you can see there is many unknowns here. I have seen both new and older machines with same problem. Area-51 or the new thinner BGA models all have similar problems.

 

I specifically said I wouldn’t upgrade to the same 2080 GPU, and you also partially quoted me, I specifically said this:

“...and say we DO get an upgrade made available to move to the 3080, my fear is that the BIOS updates we get to support it will force many of us running a launch 51m on 1.5.0 and the 200W VBIOS to decide between full, unlocked power, with G-Sync and everything working vs perhaps a 3080 with ALSO a lowered throttle point and capped thermal/power limits.”

That fear is expressed!

 

You may very well be right.

 

Never mind I think Tapatalk just tricked me into replying to an ancient message lol

Move along nothing to see here...

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Not to be disagreeable but by the sound of it, there are no hard statistics. I would think if people were having this issue 7/10 times, we'd have scads more reports of people saying they applied skins, resorted to external keyboards, etc. I don't doubt that Dark Side is more resistant than Lunar White, but I am not convinced there is some wholesale problem with it either until I see some hard data. That being said, people that are worried that much should opt for black.

 

Just a random post to comment that my A51m wasn't boosting to full power and was stuck at 50W. Had to re-install Alienware Command Center and set up all my lighting and macros and such. Trouble shoot and re-setup lost me a morning of gaming.

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This was sort of what I was referring to in the undervolt guide. I feel like AWCC interferes too much, whereas using the likes of GPU Tweak and ThrottleStop they just do they're own thing. I leave AWCC OC controls as off and only use it for lighting and fans.

 

The problem was that AWCC wasn't releasing the GPU from the 50W power down state. GPU Tweak can't fix that.

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Surely having the OC controls on AWCC would have overridden that? If not then I'm pretty sure its the BIOS? My OC option on AWCC home screen is set to off and as long as I don't use the 200w vBIOS I don't get too much of an aggressive throttle on the GPU. In all my tests AWCC OC were off, so I think its having some impact to your results, I could be wrong but I think you need to test with OC off and then try GPU Tweaks etc.

 

No. I use my laptop with just one power supply very often. That limits GPU power to 50W. AWCC got corrupted for some reason and was keeping the GPU at 50W despite two power supplies where plugged in.

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Hello guys!

Just wanted to ask if the problematic mosfet was resolved already on new batch of this monster of a laptop. Im on the verge of cancelling my order as I have mixed replies from other forums about this.

I didn't order my rig from HIDEvolution due to added import tax and I don't see the need of future expenses on import and exporting if the problem arises.

And how are the thermals on the new batches?

I ordered mine with a 9700k with rtx 2080 and 256 m.2 + 1tb hybrid
I need your honest answer.

 

haven’t seen any reports of gpu issues in a long while.

 

Yeah I have to back read all the posts until mid August and it seems ok now. Were all the issues have been resolved already including the AWCC not working properly.

Did they also resolved the issue of the OS being installed in the SSHD?

 

I'll say that having bought an A51M (2070+9700K) from Microcenter and built in late September, it's been flawless (besides the potential throttling at 78' issue) out of the box with all the software for routine things. I understand that serious tuning of voltage, etc. with AWCC is out of the question, but for simple overclocking as far as I can tell with other utilities it's working properly.

 

Thank you very much. It is reassuring to get some positive feedback. I'm pushing through with my order and scheduled to be delivered on the 20th of this month and about a week before I can get my hands on it since I have to order through dell.nl and have it shipped to my cousins and in turn send it to me.

 

I sold my 51M the other day. I had enough of it. Too many small things summed up to a computer I just wasn't happy with.

Right now I have my eyes on a Lenovo Legion Y740-17 RTX 2080 Max-Q.

 

If its ok, May I know what those little things are?

 

What has changed basically is the BIOS VBIOS and AWCC now constrain the performance and temps to better align with the designed cooling efficiency of this box,
For ME this system works best with a cooler CPU such as the i9-9900KS that I have in combination with the RTX 2080.

As long as you are the type of person that can appreciate this laptop for what it is IMO it’s a great system, are you going to be able to MAX out all the POTENTIAL performance of the CPU and GPU ?

No, not in this box, not in any sustained way, so if your more into benchmarks then form and function you could easily become frustrated by the thermal limitations, however if like me you just want a great looking laptop with top end components that will simply kill any game that’s likely to come out in the next 1-2 years and maybe beyond.

Then IMO this laptop will do that.

I previously had the i9-9700 and 2070 and it was very HOT, I can only imagine what people with the regular i9-9900 go through.


It’s a great design as far as the laptop it’s self very nice to look at and use.

Either repad and repaste yourself or have a competent reseller do it, I don’t believe anyone will be happy with Dell / Alienware stock paste and pads performance.

I’ve had nothing but excellent results with HIDevolution I really could not be happier with how they setup the laptop and the follow up service I’ve had with them.

It’s unfortunate that you can’t just buy it from Dell / Alienware and be happy with it out of the box, but that’s the situation.

I’m just happy that it CAN be tamed and it’s a great gaming laptop once it’s tamed.




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I´m using this thing since launch and i am very pleased with it aside from the bios issue with the gpu throttle. It´s gonna be a year old in march and then i´m gonna repaste i think for the first time altough my temps are still fine so maybe i´ll wait it out. I did send dell a request for the prices to extend warranty because i only have the 1 year. Gonna try to get that to 4 years total for a ease of mind.

 

There are basically five "flaws" in my mind to be aware of at this stage for potential buyers I can think of:

1) Lunar White potential issues (don't forget Dell will replace if needed and covered). Might want to get Dark Side.

2) Thermal BIOS/VBIOS 78' throttling nonsense... need I say more.

3) "Upgradeability" limited for CPU due to socket change

4) No stated commitment for a 3000-series DGFF card upgrade for the R1 with evidence of the difference screwdown for the DGFF 2080 Super supposedly for the upcoming R2.

5) 2666 Memory running at 2400.... wtf... about a 3-5% drop in FPS

Did I miss anything?

 

Sure. As I said, mostly small stuff.

Power. Initially released untamed and prone to frying. This is mostly fixed on a hardware level now AFAIK, but for early adopters we only get software fixes in form of BIOS and VBIOS limits.

Stability. This could be on me, but I never found the laptop to be stable. With UV I found it unstable, without UV I found the AW software sketchy at the very least.

2400-RAM. No biggie, but basically everyone seem to have 2666-RAM today. Not AW thou. Dell hates consumers.

Power bricks. Two f-ing brick-sized bricks. I'll kill a burglar with these. Give me a break.

Weight. My back can't handle picking it up from the table.

Mostly rant, I know, but these are my oppinions, not hard fact.

 

Um.. Go build a desktop with the same specs, and buy a screen and tell me how much that breaks your back.

2 power bricks? Yeah they heavy but still go build a desktop and tell me how easy that is to move.

Big laptop back breaking? It actualy isnt that big compared to a clevo and even clevos have 2 power bricks. What do you want exactly? It's a desktop cpu and a nearly full 2080 in a powerful portable laptop *portable meaning* I can pick it up put it in a bag, and go where ever I wish.

Ohh and I can say this laptop dosent break your back. I loaded my 51M backpack up with 2 laptops actually 3 power bricks, mouses headphones and a laptop cooler pad and I felt fine :0 brought them to my gf family house and set up there. It was pretty fun x3

If I had a desktop I would have never been able to do this, so thank you technology for allowing such crazy machines to be made.
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For the power the A51M packs, it's pretty reasonable. If you buy one knowing the weight and power to carry.... that's not a valid criticism. Its like buying a pick-up and complaining about how hard it is to park... when all you needed was a sedan.

 

7) Capped Power utilization from single 330w power brick.

8) No upgrade paths for the special narrow bezel panel.

9) Flawed software.

10) No subwoofer (only two tiny speakers).

 

Hahaha All this is so true. Sooo: waiting to see what the R2 has in store!!! Maybe I’ll sell my R1 and get an R2, in BLACK! Not until I see a 3080 in it though.

 

When are Ampere cards to be released? I kind of had the impression they might not appear until Spring 2020 at the earliest...

I doubt with the R2 the dual power brick thing is going away any time soon, nor the ****e software unfortunately. Upgradeable screens.... be nice, but not betting on it personally.

 

June 2020 is rumored release of the first Ampere cards for data center applications, followed closely by consumer cards, then mobile offerings likely will hit holiday 2020 or Q1 2021 if the 20X0 RTX cycle serves as an example.

Upgradeable screens will never be a thing and are not part of the upgrade path... we’re all welcome to buy the entire display assembly in our unit's color if we want to “upgrade” manually.

 

In 2021 for mobile!

 

Betwen 2666 and 2400 it s 0 difference.
They can't make them work on 2666 becase of the heat..controller will burn...

 

It makes zero sense to upgrade beyond 1080p in this size screen though! DPI/distance of use for a 17 inch display makes increasing resolution a diminishing returns investment. Beyond 1080p for images in motion, resolution only becomes a detriment to frames per second. I’ll take additional frames (and refresh rate) over resolution EVERY DAY.

Larger than 17 inches? For sure go with more than 1080p.

I have sharp eyes and can see the pixels that make up UI elements in Windows 10 desktop and some UI elements in games, but frankly 1080p with good AA looks amazing and perfectly sharp in games on this 17 inch screen.

There’s math and theory behind DPI, distance, and screens size for a display to be considered “Retina” (when pixels become imperceptible), for our 17 inch screens the sweet spot of distance is about 16 inches away. Exactly how any normal person would use this.

Punchline, in 15-17 inch screens on a laptop 1080p with max refresh rate is great!!!

Who here will “upgrade” to a higher resolution? Why?

 

Yeah I don't know. Watched a Youtube video where they ran various games with different speeds of memory seemed to make a small difference:

But I agree, it's the least of the A51M R1's issues to focus on.

 

Thinking if I keep the A51M R1, I would like to add a second PCIE M.2 SSD - had my eye on a 1 TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus - anyone heard of anyone using this yet?

 

How many is able to run 2400 at Cl12 in Area-51m? From what I have seen it's more like Cl17 with less than stellar latency.