Where to buy Area-51 Systems?

I've always wanted an area-51 m17x but the price was way too high back then.
Does anyone know where i can find one (except for ebay)?
I'm also considering the M17, area-51 m15x and m9750.
Any help would greatly be appreciated!

 

YOu already mentioned the best source for a used Area 51, fleabay. Even though I own one and absolutely love it I'd recomend a M17 over the m17x as the m17 has more user friendly if not a little less powerful ATI GPU's.

The M17 is still produced, with a different name, it is made by White Book. But you'd have to do with out the ALien FX.

 

To be honest with you, Ebay is the best place, but if you live in a populated area, craigslist can be useful.

 

The Classic alienwares are great and are originals for some reason I really like my m15x, and I swear I like it more then the average m15x user for some strange odd reason. I mean I have an R2 and I still use my m15x more often.

 

I hear ya darloki, I think we are on the same wavelength. As long as my Area 51 M17x can play modern titles Im keeping it. They have that "IT" to them.

 

They are great. My M9750 is still able to play Mw2 at native res, which frankly amazes me for 3.5 year old material.

 

Yep, they dont build them like they use to I have an Area 51 M17x that posts similiar numbers in benchmarks (resident evil 5, HAWX II) that some R2's do. I can play the new Fall Out on native re (1920) all settings on high with about 50FPS, it plays Tier 1 w/ot breaking a sweat. 9800m GT FTW!!

 

mrcrysis, if you purchase one that is working correctly make sure you take care of it. They are like exotic cars not as reliable as a honda but bulletproof if you look after them. Monitor temps, clear out dust, and enjoy!!

 

$700 would be perfect.

 

Well......
Could you sell it without Windows 7?
And a new battery won't be necessary since I'll just use it as a desktop replacement.

Can you also post some HWmonitor screenshots say, after a session of MW2?

 

Yes I can. Do you want it with the original Vista or a formatted HDD? Ill get the screenshots ASAP.

 

There we go. It stays pretty cool. The max on that processor is 105C, so thats very good.

 

those were the fastest GPU's sold in that laptop as well

 

Yes they were. The later 8700M GT SLI were slower but cooler. It amazes me that it still plays newer games at native res.

 

games are not getting more graphically demanding as in earlier years due to the console porting. Just more CPU intensive

 

Very true, however I do find a faster GPU makes games perform better than a better CPU.

 

However, games are soon to be requiring DX10-DX11 as we move along, which might be a problem down the road. I know that my current m15x with it's 9800m GT does not like DX 10 games at all, and I actually only play DX 9 games.

 

I was just saying in a demand wise

ie crysis to crysis 2

 

Yah. And DX10-11 will become mandaroty in some new games. I always found it funny how little support was given to DX10.

 

it was mainly because it didn't really bring anything new to the table

 

Exactly. DX11 is good though, tesselation and what not.

 

I'd strongly recommend against the Area-51 systems. They were not known for their reliability, which was, quite frankly, terrible. The m15x in particular would overheat (not good combined with the defective 8000 series GPUs) and the hinges would break very easily, no matter how well you handled it.

If I remember correctly, the m17x also had problems with cooling. And both the m15x and the m17x overall felt poor quality from what I've heard.

Your best bet is the M17. They were reliable, felt much higher quality, and can still play the latest games very well. (Beware of the quad core systems though; they had a stuttering issue.)

If you can get a good price on them, however, I'd recommend just going for one of the current systems. R2's should be available now for an excellent price, and you can get a well spec-d R3 for under $2000 (when it's re-released). These will run much faster than any of the Area-51 lineup. And, in my opinion at least, overall you get a much better package.

 

Very true, BUT maybe its a driver issue because the m15x is limmited to 186.xx drivers. My M17x is now running the new 266.xx series drivers and plays DX-10 games great.

 

[/QUOTE]
"If I remember correctly, the m17x also had problems with cooling. And both the m15x and the m17x overall felt poor quality from what I've heard."


If you can get a good price on them, however, I'd recommend just going for one of the current systems. R2's should be available now for an excellent price, and you can get a well spec-d R3 for under $2000 (when it's re-released). These will run much faster than any of the Area-51 lineup. And, in my opinion at least, overall you get a much better package.[/QUOTE]

Correct about the M15x's hinges and cooling. However you are wrong about the cooling and quality of the M17x. I have a M17x. The quality is better than the M17 that one of my Marines had. Better plastic and attention to detail. Now is it as good as an all metal new gen M17x, no. The cooling is awesome. Each GPU has a fan mounted on top of it that is directly directed out the back and button of the system. My system now runs 85 for the master and 60 for the slave in games like Fall out NV, Star Wars, and Tier one on Native res setting all on high. Yes, I over heated mine before I ever knew any better (ie never blew out dust and I let it run while on carpet playing a game on my flat screen!!!). Ive had no issues since. The 98oom gt is still supported by the newest drivers, it cant run DX-11 but I haven’t seen any benefit as of YET. Of course that will change. But for now the old M17x is a good bargain.

Would I recommend an Area 51 M17x vs a M17x same price, no. But ive yet to see a M17x for 1000 us there are great deals to be had on Area 51 m17x's. Food for thought. Good luck.

 

Erm, 85 really isn't 'awesome' cooling. Actually, that's close to the region of being inadequate. And if the slave is running at 60 - THAT much cooler than the master - then there's likely something wrong with your SLi. There's no way the cards should run with that large a temperature difference.

The old area-51 m17x is a good bargain if you can get it with SLi 9800Ms, for a good deal less than an M17x. The only M17x's the area-51 can outperform is those with a single 260M. And there's no doubt that the M17x has far better build quality, and cooling, than the old area-51 m17x.

 

my m15x is performing fine like a champ, played like a combined 10 hours of DoW II and CoH yesturday with no problems and I've had my PC for a while.

 

Quick question Crysis. I thought the same thing, how and what do i test to make sure my SLI for my cards are working correctly? Im getting great frame rates, no artifacts, etc. I just attributed the 20c difference due to onle card being a slave. What do you recomend? Re-aply thermal paste? Both cards show similiar memory and clock speeds durring the playing of video games.

 

Glad to hear!!!! Thats because you know the correct way to treat the old girl! Keep her running!

 

GPU-Z should be able to log individual GPU utilisation as you play. Give it a shot and see what you get on each GPU.

Even with differences in paste, etc. there should absolutely not be a 20C difference. Anything outside of a 5C difference is abnormal, particularly if they're on the same heatsink (which they are in the area-51 m17x).

You're one of the lucky ones then.

It might be a case of the people complaining being a small proportion of the buyers, and that there might be many satisfied buyers out there, but there was an abnormally high number of complaints/cases of broken m15x's, particularly where hinges and overheating were involved. That machine was definitely not well made.

 

Well actually in the Area 51 M17x each card has its own fan and heat sink. I just pulled my two cards out, swiped all drivers, re-installed drivers, and now im getting 70C on the slave and 80 for the Master. Not bad if you ask me. Here is a link from the now way old review of the Area 51 M17x in one of the pics you can see the separate fans and heat sinks.

Alienware M17x - Alienware M17x (4)

 

I stand corrected. I thought it had a shared heatsink design. (I'd also heard a number of stories of it running hot.) If it can keep both cards in that sort of temperature range, then that's fine.

 

Can I say, the M9750 I've had for 3 years, and never had a single problem I didn't cause, which was simply me dropping it and messing up the drive. It still plays modern games like a champ, so its perfect.