Alienware Area-51m R1 evaluate: Fast, huge and upgradable

Alienware’s Area-51m flagship gaming laptop computer is huge, thick, and quick, a return to kind that ought to reassure individuals who obtained apprehensive when the corporate unveiled the thin-and-light Alienware m15 final yr. The new Area-51m very properly may be the primary gaming laptop computer to deliver the Holy Grail of options to customers: Upgradable graphics and an upgradable CPU.

Gordon Mah Ung

Alienware Area-51m specs and options

The Area-51m’s spec listing is all great things, and it will value you. Our evaluate unit is the highest-end SKU, which begins at $4,050 (out there at Dell.com) however is $4,500 as configured beneath. For barely extra modest budgets, the lowest-end mannequin begins at $1,950 and is nothing to sneeze at. Also observe, the white “Lunar Light” coloration is a $50 improve over the dark-gray “Dark Side of the Moon” coloration. 

CPU: Intel 8-core Core i9-9900Okay with Hyper-Threading. Alienware additionally presents an 8-core Core i7-9700Okay with out Hyper-Threading and a 6-core Core i7-8700Okay with Hyper-Threading

You may be shocked to search out that the Area-51m is comparatively small, a minimum of in width and peak. However, it is nearly a half-inch deeper than comparable laptops due to its signature-Alienware huge tuckus. 

Gordon Mah Ung

What the Area-51m’s desktop CPU brings

There are two standout options on the Alienware Area-51m: the replaceable desktop CPU, and the replaceable GPU. First, let’s get into the socketed CPU and why it issues.

Once upon a time, most massive gaming laptops used cell socketed CPUs. Beginning with the Fifth-generation Broadwell chips, Intel dumped socketed CPUs for all-mobile CPUs. That meant the power to swap out the CPU down the street was not possible with out additionally switching the motherboard—which, whereas technically potential, financially made no sense.

With the Area-51m, Alienware faucets a typical desktop Core i9-9900Okay desktop CPU in an LGA1151 socket. What that will get you is Eight cores as an alternative of 6, and and somewhat extra clock velocity (5GHz, relatively than 4.8GHz) in comparison with the quickest laptop computer CPU, the Core i9-8950HK. You can see each CPUs in contrast right here on Intel’s ARK.

Gordon Mah Ung

Because this can be a transplant of a desktop CPU, Alienware additionally pairs it with a desktop Z390 chipset as an alternative of the extra widespread HM370 utilized in most gaming laptops. Z390 consumes extra energy than its cell counterpart however presents much more enlargement choices, similar to further PCIe lanes and native 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2.

A socketed processor usually means person upgrades, and two situations make sense. The first is you purchase the cheaper Core i7-8700 and improve to a Core i9-9900Okay down the street after they’re on fireplace sale.

The different state of affairs is upgrading to a “10th gen” Core i7 or Core i9. Given Intel’s historical past of dumping sockets or chipsets overboard, nevertheless, there is not any assure you can do it.

That stated, the probabilities that Alienware would do all of this work with out providing a minimum of one helpful CPU improve could be very unlikely, as a result of it has deeper perception than we do into what’s coming.

Gordon Mah Ung

The Holy Grail of gaming laptops!

The most necessary element of any gaming PC is the GPU. In a desktop, the straightforward reply to raised graphics is to improve to a more recent or sooner card. With a laptop computer, you are normally caught with turning down visible high quality settings or decision till you possibly can not abdomen it, at which level you purchase a brand new laptop computer. 

With the Area-51m, Alienware designed a customized graphics module that—in principle—could be upgraded down the street by the proprietor. While there have been smaller corporations that actively market improve paths (Eurocom deserves a shout out right here), no main corporations have taken this path and…