Dell Alienware Area-51m Questions

Thinking of getting the Dell Alienware Area-51m laptop. If you have one, can you let me know answers to following. Assume I'm talking about the high end (i9-9900K, RTX 2080)

1) What's the difference between plugging 1 vs 2 power bricks in? Online seems to indicate "reduced" performance with only one power adapter, but can anyone clarify what that means exactly? CPU, GPU or both?

2) How hot does it run? Keyboard cool to touch most of the time?

3) How loud is it when not gaming? Do you usually hear the fans outside of gaming?

4) Size/Weight... seems like a beast (almost 10lbs) on paper, do you find it actually that large/massive to carry around?

Thanks in advance!

 

I can really only answer the 1st questuon and thats having ready the dedicated Area 51m thread and watching several Youtube videos.

Either power brick on its own should/will give you 100% CPU ability, however, regardless of whatever power brick you have plugged in, it will give you reduced GPU performance. Both are required to give you 100% power to both the CPU and GPU, hope that makes sense.

 

I was hoping for an owner, not someone who just watched video but.. I actually tried one in a Microcenter store with prime95. It had the 180W and 240W plugged in. The CPU definitely dropped when only one power cord was in. It went from like ~4.9Ghz to 1.8Ghz on the 180W (or no power cord), and jumped around a lot with just the 240W. They did not have the 330W, as this was the second-tier build.

Also, at peak it was running at 90C with fans blazing. The keyboard and sides were completely cool, but the rear exhaust was an oven. Did not do any tests with GPU.

 

Oh, and for my personal 'hands on' feeling now that I saw it in person? It is big.. I tried a few bags at the store and let's just say you're not putting it in a small messenger back or backpack. It is also quite heavy, although the power bricks were relatively lightweight and slim (no 330W tho). That said.. it's surprisingly comfortable to type on. It feels like typing on a desktop. It doesn't look overly big, until you pick it up.

For sound, it did appear to quiet when not gaming/stress test, but I couldn't hear much in that store. Would have loved to brought it to a quiet room and listened.

 

Hi there,

I am a 51m owner, I have the 9700k-2080 combo. My cpu is just at 100% with just 1 brick plugged in with both adapters it behaves like this. The gpu performance is like halved when only 1 is plugged in. This makes games like WoW playable but when i'm playing newer games i plug both in.

It is mighty cool on whatever profile i choose. The keyboard never gets hot to the touch. The only part that gets hot is the plastic near the power button.

When not gaming the fans are like idle. It does not make any sound when not doing intensive tasks. Even on balanced profile most games just run without revving up the fans to much. Even on the performance profile i find the sound it makes soothing and believe me i had laptops with high pitched sounds when the fans went full blast. Not this one.

About the size, i expected it to be way bigger than it is actually. I love this desktop replacement and i find it the best laptop i've ever owned.

Greetz!

 

I have A51M with 9700K/2080 and so far extremely happy with it.

1) I always have 2 power adapters plugged in during gaming. When playing GTA V having one 180W adapter plugged in dropped my FPS from 85-90 to 35-40. When I plug in only 330W adapter, then my FPS drop was not as drastic from 85-90 to 55. However, battery drain will be faster and you might have to plug in immediately.

2) I undervolted my CPU and downclock it to 4.3 ghz. Mine never goes above 67c during gaming. I have also set my GPU thermal limit to 75c. Never had any issues with my A51M running hot. Keyboard is always cool and comfortable to touch.

3) I always use Full speed profile so it is loud during gaming. I always switch mine to Cool or Quiet profile when not gaming and it is always quiet. You will only hear noise when you set your Thermals to Full Speed or Performance.

4) I came to A51M from Asus G703GX and that is a behemoth compared to this. For a desktop replacement, this was not as heavy as I anticipated. I felt like 17R5 was heavier than this. It will be difficult to carry both laptop and 2 adapters together. But holding laptop by itself it not that large to carry around.

 

Does the BIOS support XMP settings? Like getting 2666 RAM (specifically BLS2K16G4S26BFSD).

Online it seems like mixed results on whether or not the bios has XMP open or not. Anyone with a computer that can confirm?

 

This may have already been asked but can the Alienware M51 be setup to power on at a set time every day?

 

Nope!

 

Hi,

Does anyone know/have experience with this running INTENSE workloads for days/hours?

Motherboard and GPU died. Now in for a 3 week repair. Out of 9 weeks, I have had it for 2.

Motherboard and GPU. Now in for a 3 week repair.

When I called they first offered me 100 credit, then 200 usd credit. Then a replacement.

I kept saying "no" because I need the refund.

What is the purpose of spending this much, if I still need a backup stationary computer next to it?

I can still keep it and take the offer.

But.

Does anyone even have some that survived?

And since this died with MB and GPU.

Will the replacements be the same?

I would be nervous using this, as I use it for studio work and our (studio rate) for work is 800 USD pr. day. So each day lost work costs the business, alot. (not my pay.. I can almost afford the M51)

Any experience? I am about to just get the refund and buy the MSI Raider and keep it next to the work station, using the raider for VR demos, and the station for many day long renderings.