Alienware Area-51 Desktop Owner's Lounge

Hi, a friend of mine selling his Area 51 R2. Is this a good deal for $2.7k?

i7 5960x
32gb ram 2133Mhz
512gb ssd
4tb hdd
gtx titan x sli
bluray combo drive
1500w psu

 

edit: as we know, Area-51 uses a custom MSI motherboard. In your R2, note the Micro Star International compliance sticker front & center on your case floor.

ALL X99 MSI motherboards, their entire lineup of old gen1 & new gen2 were Broadwell-E ready as of April 11-ish with a Bios update. The countdown for when R2 would get its update ... well here it is, 3.5months late:

• Bios A08

Fixes: -Not Applicable
Enhancements: Supported Intel Core i7-6950X 6900K 6850K 6800K

When asked how MSI could get their full lineup Bwell-ready by April, which implied they began work as early as March - yet - the R2 update was missing in action, where the Aliens only need support one & only one motherboard, a forum moderator replied: 'we aren't MSI' ... hell no u ain't ...

 

Hi again,

Does anyone else with the Area 51 R2 have problems with the sound output switching playback devices with each sleep/restart/power on?

If you have found a solution, please feel free to help me out. Thank you so much!

 

Picked up a BEAST for a slickdeal. Paid for just the two video cards and CPU. Got the rest for free from the outlet.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/13109237?

 

Figured I would drop in and say hi on this thread. I just picked up an Area 51 R2 on a crazy clearance deal. Went in to Microcenter to buy a new graphics card for my AW13 with Graphics Amplifier and walked out with 60 plus pounds of accelerated divorce proceedings.

i7 5820k
16GB RAM
128GB SSD
2TB 7200 HD
2 x GTX 980 in SLI configuration
Windows 8.1 (upgraded to 10)

I spent the day updating and downloading and I'm hoping to have a proper session with it over the next couple of days. It's plugged into an LG 34UM94P ultrawidescreen monitor so i'm looking forward to maxing out at 3440 x 1440.

Check your local micorocenter for deals as this bad boy only set me back $1300

 

How's the reliability on Area-51? I'm having an absolutely terrible experience with the AW13 R3 not working out of the box/falling apart quickly. My money is tied up with Dell and they won't do a refund or an exchange for anything else but the same model.

I hope if I can't get a refund at least I can jump ship to a different model but they aren't very cooperative. It has been 4 days since their last email to me. I'm looking for something I can hang onto for years to come.

 

Hey, guys... feel free to share your benches and overclocking adventures here:

*Official* NBR Desktop Overclocker's Lounge [laptop owners welcome, too]

 

Cooling is average and does the job. You can improve it by adding an extra fan and making sure you keep the vents clean at all times. Triple cards will still end up with 85 degree temps when at full load. I am running triple titan x at this time and have had it down to 1 single GTX 980.

I am happy with the system and would rather have my money in a desktop than the overheating bga turdbooks they are pushing right now. I returned 3 laptops all because they can't keep their temps in check. I guess now that it's winter having their overheating laptops might not be a bad idea for this season.

Reliability on the desktop is much better than the laptop. Games run just fine and you can benefit from doing some easy mods like adding a fan or changing the cpu fan/cooler.

Cooling is average and does the job. You can improve it by adding an extra fan and making sure you keep the vents clean at all times. Triple cards will still end up with 85 degree temps when at full load. I am running triple titan x at this time and have had it down to 1 single GTX 980.

I am happy with the system and would rather have my money in a desktop than the overheating bga turdbooks they are pushing right now. I returned 3 laptops all because they can't keep their temps in check. I guess now that it's winter having their overheating laptops might not be a bad idea for this season.

 

I'm considering an Area 51 R4 with a 1080TI but I am wondering if the R4 will be upgradable to the next Nvidia cards and anything else that may come out for the next 3-4 years. I guess I'm wondering if there is anything about the motherboard that will prevent the R4 from being upgraded for a while, RAM, GPU, etc, and if there is, is the motherboard itself upgradable? Also, Will I be ok with the 850 Watt Power Supply even if I decide to run SLI in the future? Thanks for any help.