NEW!! Alienware Area-51M LAPTOP!! (to replace alienware 15 and 17)

As the title says.
Behold:
https://geekspin.co/alienwares-area-51m/ (UPDATE: Link is now dead)
(UPDATE 2: Seems like the site is back up, but don't expect it to stay like that)

The alienware 15 and 17 are officially discontinued:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/End-o...-the-Alienware-15-and-17-series.386491.0.html

But with that, the new Aliewnare m15 and m17 are not really satisfactory for the veteran gamer, Especially thermally.

So Alienware came up with the new Alienware Area 51M Desktop Replacement, to replace the existing Alienware 15 and 17.

Looks quite promising.

EDIT: It seems like the site is down. Took them long enough to be honest. Anyway, for the interested, you can still google "Alienware Area-51M" with the extra filter "only past 24 hours" and look at google images, as it is still cached, and you can see them there for the time being. But might disappear fast.

EDIT 2: Added links to official website:

HERE IS THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE LINK!!:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop

So the official dell.com website already did put the area 51m link online, though not many spec details yet.

EDIT 3: More details released:

Pdf with all details:
https://app.box.com/s/h9rfv9cmt8kn0vxab2fx0c1osrx9zk61/file/380112021802

Photos, Pdf's, Videos:
https://app.box.com/s/h9rfv9cmt8kn0vxab2fx0c1osrx9zk61/folder/63323844202

 

I wonder if they needed to include a 90Wh battery seeing as this really is a use while wired kind of machine. With G-Sync and all that processing power, even 90Wh would not yield much battery life, coupled together with it being so massive - they probably would have been able to improve cooling and save some weight/size by putting like a 50Wh battery in it.

This is the first time I've ever complained about too much battery capacity for a laptop .

 

They are most likely going to replace the Alienware 15 and 17 lines with a refresh that includes the new rtx mxm gpus

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looks like alienware is finally going back to its roots. super excited about this. more info!

 

This looks really impressive. Even if its using DGFF cards instead of MXM this is still a great leap from the 17R5 with BGA components.

 

Wow, that's pretty ugly compared to the m15/m17 design, IMHO. Parts of it remind me of an older Apple design.

I do appreciate the return to upgradeable graphic cards, if anything (as in case your dGPU dies out of warranty, the motherboard with CPU and GPU costs as much as buying a used laptop of the same type or more).

 

Ok. So I guess I'll just return my 17R5 then. I mean if I'm battling heat issues and have to re-paste this, it's a no brainier to go wait for this one instead. Even though the price my 17R5 was a nice deal.

 

Looking at the rear of the laptop, I see the AGA port has been redesigned. The port is more oval like instead of the upside-down trapezoid-like shape. Looks like me may be getting a new AGA then.
Hopefully the right side of the laptop has more IO. But I do like the less-gamery design of it.

 

I hope they add 1 more USB C though. If not, at least a USB Type-A please? Also the missing lightning port at the back highly suggests it's on the side. Finally....

 

RIP the Area m51 was taken down.

 

Another thing I wish for this unit, please no shared heatpipes.... This really added to the problem on the Alienware 17s.

 

Couldn't even see a picture of this until I searched Google images.

 

The AGA port is the same. It looks oval due to shadow.

Given the size of keyboard layout with extra column of programmables, and relatively thin bezels, this may very well be a 18" laptop screen in a 17" body.

If they put in LGA CPU I will be thrilled. Can care less about SLI

Before the Images I can find get lost:

 

I see dual power inputs on the back and since there is no light ring, likely a 330w comes with it out of the box. Not a fan of the white plastic but otherwise very encouraged here. Also real mouse buttons, not a clickpad like the new slimmer models.

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OK. Now I see the AGA port looking the same as ever. The third image helped me realize that.

Speaking of that, it doesn't seem to be the only laptop with dual power inputs. The ASUS ROG GZ2700GX also has dual power inputs. Maybe this is to increase power headroom for the 6-core CPU + RTX GPU.

 

Glossy plastic bezel like the m15/m17 it seems

 

If they eventually release an AMD Ryzen + Navi version it will be hard for me to not jump on it instead of being smart and skeptical if I am to be perfectly honest.

 

They won't do an AMD design, too different from Intel one. Would essentially be a whole other laptop

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Then its a pass. Shame.

 

Its magnesoum alloy. So a metal body for this laptop.

 

I hope they offer this in different color design. The two tone is hideous

 

That would be better. I just don't want a light finished surface, more likely to yellow over time and stain from oils in hands.

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This laptop looks totally nuts, I like that it doesnt look like anything out there. Kinda surprised. Frank Azor teased a laptop like this in his replies a while ago but still surprised. Would love to see a bit less powerful 15inch version. Because 17inch laptops tend not to fit in suitcases that can be used as carry on baggage. Something which is important for me.

Also great to see they do offer a solution for the people that want swapable hardware. It isnt very economical to offer yet they still do it.

If ti is propper powdercoating, it should last i think. But I agree it is more sensitive to stains etc.

 

The reddit posts have more discussion, details, and speculations: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...lienware_area51m_to_replace_alienware_15_and/

Consensus from leaks and whatnot, seems that this is going to have a Z390 chipset which means LGA CPU

 

Most of the speculation about the specs make absolutely no sense from an engineering or common sense perspective. Perhaps wishful thinking and suppressed BGA hate is finally rearing its ugly head after several years of turdbook lovers enduring all of the atrocities by living in a perpetual state of denial regarding the acceptability of such filth?

Considering that thermal management hasn't really been their forte since the unfortunate demise of their 18-inch mobile Intel Extreme CPU-powered SLI behemoths, I wonder how they on earth would even pretend to be able to properly cool a 9900K CPU running at full TDP (just at stock clocks) in such a small chassis? There is obviously nowhere nearly enough room for housing robust fans and heat sinks in that chassis. Plus, that would be a really bizarre and poorly balanced CPU choice paired with an emasculated Max-Q GPU. Using a full-powered 2080 in that chassis would be as far fetched as 9900K, even more so paired with one; and, equally silly to expect true desktop performance using a 4x e-GPU solution.

If half of the rumors on the specs that are being batted around on reddit turn out to be true, this would definitely be a good candidate to wait and observe what actually transpires with multiple examples of others playing the guinea pigs/crash test dummies with their wallets first. Clevo have already shown us what happens with small laptops with desktop CPUs turn out like, and it is not a pretty picture... and Clevo are the pros at it, with lots of experience. Alienware cannot even get the cooling right on systems with half as much TDP.

TL;DR - Big CPU/Big TDP + little chassis = thermal abortion. 1+1=2.



I will keep my comments to myself on the aesthetics, as my opinions about that would not add any value to the discussion.

 

I'm tired of typing for Alienware machines past 2013. AW17 gen echo models had tons of Issues from Tripod unbalanced design to the NOS power system cancer (basically this a signature trait that all BGA systems have) and BIOS issues, unable to use TS (So shameless that they blocked the TS ? brothers @Mr. Fox , @Papusan @j95 and brother @Cass-Olé , @svl7 and other still Socketed Alienware owners @Striker1234 @Nomad @TheReciever @EepoSaurus @javers @remek002 +++ know how worst it is with the desktop class Alienware (non upgrade-able Z170 systems LOL) everyone know how this is simply impossible.

Looking at the design, first it doesn't even look like an Alienware inspiration, looks some cheap candy crush style trash recycled from the BGA crap leftover from the RMA land of @VICKYGAMEBOY 's Alienwares (record holder in RMAs, lost count) /jk and the second, even if anything is modular it MUST need Z-Height. Unless they magically created a new interface like Ngreedia showcases (Which I strongly doubt because Ngreedia stopped reference designs even for the Clevo and MSI they make planned obsolescence MXM cards esp Clevo with extra pins (the only company in the world which makes Intel LGA machines) and MSI's notorious ridiculous monster abomination shapes, no one cares, because no one wants thick machines. Even if the power and performance are reduced by huge factor people don't care. Simply put there's no incentive to make all things back to Socket and LGA land, Alienware took a huge downturn with piss poor QC HS fitting, Alienwares used to be famous for their tight fitting heatsinks and good support, both gone 180 degree. So all that saves a lot of cash. Even the new machines are very thin, again less milling required and very thin less quantity of materials needed. Add the supply and demand to the equation, Clevo and MSI machines are way overpriced since less user base vs mass produced and sold BGA machines all over the world.

Add the Intel equation, the Z390 and the 9900K monster is impossible to cool in that anemic chassis. Plus add the R&D costs for the new Motherboards and Intel prep work that only Clevo managed to do so perhaps MSI Whitebooks but brother @Falkentyne knows how pathetic those machines are with half-cooked EC (Pun intended) and throttle master machines with LGA processors even with an i9 9900K and needs mods and edits. Not going to happen, I can challenge that will fail cool a Hotwell 4930MX at 110W.

On top of all this, Alienware Dell contract from what I remember is Dell will overtake Alienware slowly and change entire portfolio which started to happen past Haswell, the last socketed mobile extreme laptops and Dell Privatization in 2013. Look at the Alienware 17 R1 Ranger it was a brand new design which has lots of similarities to it's cousin M17x R4 and M18x R2 era in it's guts (AW18 Viking ? tons of failures brother @Raidriar knows how pathetic the machines were, stupid electronic components causing to blow up and a massive kick in the nuts with the castration of the power supply 330W hard limit and around 400ish peak, can't even run 980M SLI OCed even if officially supported, that the worst). Also while Echo shared a lot of visuals from the Ranger lineup. That's it, the point where the Ranger is last of the machines designed by that engineering team focused on proper venting, massive size and thick chassis, I guess last of the Alienware to have that HDMI Input & capable to cool all components but gimped by Secure Flash, now it's exorcised off that trash anyways.

Now they are again public but it doesn't change a dime. They have EMC, a massive corporate goliath conglomerate the same reason they are coming back to public to finish off the debt and VMWare investment with high profile share holders and going back at socket game means more cash investment and less margins and even less sales plus branching out 2 products one would eat into another... However from my understanding, their contract was to make Alienware a Dell marketing face and sell, they got all the marketing essentials - Brand name , sales etc. They are not coming back, this is not a company run to make lets give people choice and freedom and let them upgrade over the time.

And with new m series advertising thinness and light and that Frank Azor who said socketed machines are bad, Alienware, seriously ? Ugh, even M11x is ashamed tbh. This brand is dead and just a former shadow of the old era, those will always be a part of the great time of notebook era. I will only believe it when I see, Proprietary FF is a strict No No. Useless, can't be sold at all. Look at the Clevo GPUs no one can use them. The highest selling ones are still 980M due to SLI and Std. FF MXM3.0b. Surprisingly Ngreedia still makes Quadro P5xxxx Pascal MXM chipsets in proper form factor but at less performance and TDP than the powerful DT class MSI/Clevo boards. There are new GPUs from Aetina IIRC those have 1070 SLI but no idea how their BIOS and VRM quality of the boards are, Eurocom used the old revisions and blew crap left and right, It's a minefield.

Time will only tell.

 

I can see it still having a BGA CPU but maybe there will be DGFF GPUs. There was a tweet awhile back from Mr. Azor himself saying they may try upgradable graphics again, but we'll see about all that.

I find it hard to believe they would go full Z390 chipset. Icing on the cake would be Z390 9900K + 2x 2080 DGFF cards LOL

Has anyone taken a pic or copy/paste the text that was written on that website before it was taken down? Everyone on reddit saying Z390 chipset lol



Rumored Specs:

Z390 Chipset with LGA desktop CPUs
4 RAM slots
DGFF GPU
17" 144Hz G-SYNC display
height x width x depth: (1.6" x 16.1" x 15.8" )
8.5 lbs
2,5Gbit ethernet
2 power ports (based on the pics?)

 

I'm also the one who posted that.

 

The issue is, AW can do the cooling right but at the factory you have idiots which put too thick thermal pads between the heatsink and chip dies.

This is something that keeps happeningor miscommunication between the manufacturers where board components hit the heatsink and push the whole assembly up again causing improper contact. But once they do make contact, the cooling performance is great. Where some others are struggling with 90c+ temps i am at a comfortable at 77c in a 22c temperature controller room with the same configurations and even GPU overclocks (for which I need a 330watt PSU since the 240watt is insufficient.

But people tend to forget that Dell knows which target audience spends the most money with them and that is what they cater too. Cannot be helped.

 

I think you are focusing too much on all the negative of product that doesn't even exist yet. I agree with whait and see in your 3rd paragraph.

Dell bringing LGA to mainstream consumer laptops is enough of reason for me to be excited. They are market leaders in gaming stuff. So soon other OEMs will likely follow. And that's the biggest deal.

But aesthetically... no other OEM should follow... just why the decided to use a foot pump to inflate one of their inspiron gaming laptops, I cannot guess.

 

i totally agree that we should wait and see what they are going to unveil. we have yet to see the details but straight away condemed it to the grave. Every product deserves a chance to be evaluated. I know alienware has disappointed many for several years now, and i agree their recent models have had their fair share of quality issues especially with cpu contact cooling, but maybe they are getting back to what they are good at, which is building awesome gaming machines like they did in the past. so let's try to keep an open mind on this upcoming model. if they release a truly awesome gaming laptop, we all win. if they don't, we can still consider other options.

 

don't, just repaste with LM, undervolt your GPU (if you have the 1080) and you're good to go. but i would advise you to return and buy and EUROCOM/SKYCOM/BTO/CLEVO/KUSHANS etc and have some real power. Remember, a desktop can perform because it has room to heat up it's component (and cool them properly) a laptop manufacturer (for gaming) who by that logic only makes their laptop slimmer and slimmer each line-up should already tell you that they're not designing it for long life, upgradeability and performance. But to milk your pants dry when your machine breaks down (by having no other option to buy a complete new laptop)

 

To support full performance from an overclocked 9900K, they need a cooling solution that can manage 300W TDP effectively. I do not believe that can be done with such a small chassis. If they haven't been able to achieve good QC results using their current vendors that manufacture their products, it's probably not realistic to expect anything is going to change in that regard. If they continue to produce the same poor results, Alienware's thermal management woes of the past will be eclipsed by the nightmares that will surface when they start using a real CPU with a full load of TDP available to it.

If it actually works right it will be nothing short of a miracle and it won't matter as much if it looks ugly or stupid. If they release another botched product (seeing they have not done anything right, even once, since 2012) it could actually harm the concept of using LGA CPUs in notebooks. Azor is already on record saying using desktop CPUs in notebooks doesn't work. That was a reflection of his ignorance. A company that lives in a glass bubble could point to their own failure as proof. Simply mounting an LGA CPU on the motherboard isn't an accomplishment if it doesn't work well, and their desktops are a engineering mess littered with substandard components. They are legends in their own minds and being the biggest doesn't automatically qualify a company as being the best. That honor belongs to those achieving the best results (not talking about profit) and they're not on the short list of products delivering the goods that perform the best. Their mass appeal to the most ignorant of gamers with access to credit cards isn't a win in my book. They do a nice job with the creative marketing lies and deception though. So, yeah... wait and watch is strongly advised.

I almost did not post anything in this thread, but I figured going on record with the cautionary warnings would be important for some that are not thinking rationally. Plus, if my concerns about their ability to execute effectively using a 9900K in a small notebook turns out the way I think it is going to, I will be able to say "see, told you so" later on. If I am wrong and it turns out nice, nobody will care and we (including me) can all be glad that I was wrong. Time will tell.

 

What about the possibility of being it the first liquid cooled laptop?


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Asus holds that card 2 years ago

 

What I meant was the AIO liquid cooling is built-in inside the laptop itself.


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Well there you have it. A lot of money if that is starting price

 

I've managed to find a quoted part from this article https://geekspin.co/alienwares-area-51m/
here:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=313597

This year, Alienware is looking to change the way notebooks are viewed with the reintroduction of the company’s famed Area-51 laptop. Dubbed the Alienware Area-51m, this upcoming high-performance laptop has been wholly redesigned and upgraded in an effort to create a gaming laptop that rivals PCs.

To accomplish this feat, engineers started by designing the 51m around Intel’s desktop-orientated Z390 chipset. Just recently launched last quarter, the Z390 instantly catapults the 51m into a league of its own. Engineered to be compatible with Intel’s 9th gen i7 and i9 processors, the Z390 allows Alienware to produce one of the first notebooks capable of supporting 8-core processors.

In addition to supporting the chipmakers latest CPUs, the 51m also supports a whopping 64GB of RAM, 2.5Gbit networking, and boasts a 144Hz G-SYNC display.

But perhaps most impressive is the laptop’s upgradability. In fact, one of the primary reasons PC gamers see themselves as superior is other systems like laptops, consoles, and mobile phones tend to have little to no customizability.

In addition to an upgradeable graphics unit, Alienware has developed a set of overclocking tools that allow owners to fine-tune the performance of both the graphics card and CPU.

To keep things cool, the 51m boasts what the company is calling its “cryo-tech 2.0” cooling system, a high-tech assemblage of fans, exhausts, heat pipes, and other advanced thermal control technology.

The 1.6 x 15.8 x 16.1-inch body of the laptop is fashioned from a sturdy magnesium alloy, and all together comes in at 8.5 lbs – including the 90Wh lithium-ion battery.

Available in colorways named “Lunar Light” and “Dark Side of the Moon,” the 51m is expected to officially debut in the coming days.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop/na17a51m_s2e

page is live, it indeed has an Lga CPU and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 with automatic upgrade to latest-gen graphics technology when shipped. sad thing is that if you want to upgrade to an 990k with an gtx 1080, you're going to need to shell out atleast 4699 (tax not included) They only offer a 1080P display, and it comes with an 180W powersupply lol

nahh if this is AW it's attempt to win back enthousiast customers, they're pullin on the wrong end of the stick. i would buy an 51M only if HIDevolution messed with it. can't trust DELL. would like to see how the 9900k and the 2080 is going to be powerlimitted, it's not even funny anymore if you think about what they ask for the price.....

so it seems that their competitors shook them up. I still won't buy an AW anymore. Never again.

 

Apparently, there are dual power inputs on the back, so the only way that it would get enough power, is by using both adapters at the same time:

 

Still not particularly attractive, but the black version is not quite as tacky-looking. But, aesthetics are the least anyone should be thinking about. I remain extremely skeptical that the thermal management will be good or that the firmware will allow full performance. Even if they do everything extremely well, there are too many constraints with the form factor to achieve excellent results, and I think anyone that cannot recognize this is just kidding themselves. It's difficult enough in a SFF liquid-cooled desktop, so to think it's going to turn out nice in a little laptop with a trim profile is kind of a joke. This seems like more of a publicity stunt than a return to greatness. I guess we will eventually see how it turns out. I am kind of scared for those that are eager to open their wallets.

 

The choices on the page are templates/place holders. Seems like some of them are not ready. The screens choices are all the same. Also they say that it comes with a 180W+330W power supply. I'll wait till we get an official announcement.

Honestly though, I'm not not too giddy on the information. Minor pet peeve I have is IO didn't get upgraded but downgraded.

 

Dell's webpage spec sheets are notoriously riddled with errors, especially at launch. I would be super surprised if they don't have a 330w Psu. I suspect it is 2x240w psu if you get top of line GPU and CPU

 

Maybe they are going to throttle the daylights out of it to maintain their "skin temps" specs and avoid thermal shutdowns.

 

It says GTX GPU, do you think they will offer it with the RTX GPUs soon?

 

The Laptop itself seems to be nice, but unless there are some mistakes on their website, it seems odd.
Win 10 home to premium upgrade for 100 Dollars?? - what is that (on available m15 in germany its 30,94€, which is okay)
Why dont they deliver it with rtx gpu alread? They haven´t announced it yet, so why offer it with a 1080 for 500!! Dollars??
3700 Dollars and all you get is a 60 Hz 1080p screen? - what!?????
No matter how good looking and upgradable it is, 3699 Dollars with 1070!, 1080 60hz screen, I7 8700, 16gb ram, 256gb ssd + 1tb hdd - price and value are questionable!
I just hope that this is a very early configurator with faults, if not, its just too expensive considering what it has to offer.
For this price tag, a K-CPU with a better screen would be the minimum (for me at least).
I was really excited by the 51m, but right now, it turned to be a bit of a dissapointment...

 

Guys, the specs and options on that page will be a joke and not reflect finished product - I promise you that. Enjoy this page for the pictures.

What IS encouraging, is that this laptop is thick enough that it could potentially be cooled decently. Haven't seen that since the M18x

 

I am skeptical. 9900K with a delid and liquid cooling in a SFF desktop with small (120-240MM radiators) is enough of a challenge to manage. Add overclocking capabilities and the challenge grows exponentially. Do we really expect Alienware to offer delidded CPUs with liquid metal and robust cooling? Even if they did, it is questionable whether or not that would be enough. They need at lot more room to work with as a starting point for good thermals with no overclocking involved. Alienware 18 and Clevo P870 chassis size really isn't even large enough to pull this off gracefully.

People interested in the specs should not think about price. A flagship product in a niche market is always too expensive. What matters is results, and achieving good results without gimping and compromises in the outcome is where the real challenge will be. The tragedy would be in the outcome. Price won't be an issue... people will overpay for greatness. Equally tragic is the concept of overpaying for a broken product that doesn't work well. This will be where the rubber meets the road. Being hell bent on having thin and light is a recipe for disaster and completely at odds with powerful components on the inside. Results and outcome with the flagship product will make or break the brand image. Bad results with the flagship product will harm the lesser (weaker and cheaper) products that would otherwise benefit only by virtue of brand association.

 

This is the official link to the product, not many spec details available yet though, Also did edit my initial post with this link:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop

 

On the Canadian configuration page, it says free upgrade to next gen graphics when shipped. I assume the GTX 1070 would be upgrade to the RTX 2070, for instance.