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My Experience with the New Alienware Area 51 R2 (Late 2014): Compatibilities, Damages, and Other Issues
// Last update on October 5, 2015 | The unit is still in process for a resolution
// Last update on January 9, 2015 | The replacement units are damaged again (Pictures on page 6):
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19608440?pi21932=6
// Last update on November 29, 2014 | Section on the drives and RAID
On November 4, 2014 I ordered my New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) with:
Intel Core i7-5960X (8 cores)
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit English
32GB Quad Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz
128GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s Main + 2TB HDD 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s Storage
Dual NVidia GeForce GTX Titan Z with 24GB Total (2x 12GB)
4 Year Alienware Enhanced Support
Total Price: $7,482.56 CAD
Estimated Delivery Date was for December 4, 2014.
On Tuesday November 25, 2014, I received my delivery with Purolator. As you can see in the two pictures below, I was happy until I saw the box was damaged.
The New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) box had only 2 of 4 clips that hold the top-box to the base-box. Purolator delivered my Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) box upside down.
Here is a sample of my conversation with the delivery guy:
Me: It would be nice to see the people to handle it with gently with care.
The Purolator Delivery Guy: Why would I? It’s just a big heavy box?!!
Me: Because you’re holding a super expensive computer the box is damaged. Do you still have the two missing clips that hold the box in place?
The Purolator Delivery Guy: No I don’t have them. I received your box like that when I loaded my truck this morning.
Me: Alright... I’m hoping everything is fine when I’ll open the box. Would it be possible to help me bring this big box upstairs? It’s a bit difficult to handle alone.
The Purolator Delivery Guy: Sure, I can.
Once we got on my apartment floor, I signed on the terminal for the reception of my delivery. Before he left, I told him: I’m worried my computer is damaged.
The Purolator Delivery Guy: It’s normal! The damages happen all the time for a delivery and if something happens to your computer please contact Dell. Plus there are no symbols, signs or icons to show that’s fragile or which side is up. How am I supposed to handle the box if there’s no indication. Normally this kind of box should not be delivered by one guy, but two. Also, the bottom was hanging out so I had to handle it upside down. The clips were not strong enough to hold the bottom part of the box. They should add more tape around it.
Me: Well, I guess they didn’t think that it was necessary.
I noticed Dell changed their packaging this year. They cheaped out a bit with the New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) box compared to the old Alienware Aurora R4 (2013) box. Here’s a video showing the unboxing of the Alienware Aurora R4 (2013) for comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3irfNNI4U5Q
In order to show how the quality of the box has changed, I compared the previous year to this year.
From this YouTube video, you can definitely see the old Alienware Aurora R4 (2013) was really well packaged.
You’ll notice there’s a symbol with an arrow on the box below the kid’s left hand showing the right side up. Also, at the same level on the box, there are other instruction symbols which are not on the New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) packaging.
As you can see in the two pictures below, the big box contains two other boxes, each with padding on the corners.
One of those two boxes is accessories box, with foam compartments for the manuals instructions, discs, mouse, keyboard, power cord, mouse pad etc.
The second box is the computer box that has 4 clips at the bottom.
You have to remove the clips before pulling the upper part of the box.
Inside that box you will find 4 foam corners padding the computer casing and with the computer case protected by a cover sheet, preventing scratches and rubbing the computer case against the foam.
As you can see, the Alienware Aurora R4 (2013) was really well packaged for transportation.
For the New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) Dell has omitted the necessary layers of protection and to secure the unit in place so it won’t have any accidents.
I detached the two remaining clips in order to pull up the upper part box to reveal the contents inside the box.
As you can see the presentation of the Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) box is unpleasant to see and is not grandiose like the previous one I showed above. At the top you‘ll notice the accessories box, however it is not padded like the prior model.
On the top front and back of the computer there are two cardboard triangles, meant to stabilize the computer. However the triangles were squished and essentially useless.
Then the computer casing has a foam hat to cover the top of the computer. But the computer casing was not place correctly in the foam place holder base.
The computer was actually standing on one side corner of the hexagon shape. The state of the two triangles cardboard that’s squished show that they were not strong enough to hold the computer casing in place when the delivery guy flipped the New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) box upside down during the transport. Another important mistake Dell made in the packaging that wasn't present in the previous year, is not having the computer casing covered with a cover sheet or a thin plastic film to prevent rubbing of the foam against the computer casing during transportation.
Due to the lack of protection on the casing, the casing was damaged. Below are pictures of the damage on the computer casing.
Scratches on the right door.
Scratches on the left door.
Scratches on the left door and dents on the black plastic frame and dust.
Other dents on the black plastic frame.
There’s a bend on the left metal frame edge where the left bottom door sits on before the door can be snapped on the casing.
On the picture below, the left door has a gap because the left metal frame edge is bent inside the computer casing.
The gap also prevents the left door LED light from lighting up because the contact doesn’t touch with the Alien FX connector. Also there's no stickers for Express Service Code and the Product Key for the Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit English.
I immediately called Dell.ca to report the issue. For the three hours, I was transferred back and forth between Canada USA where I had to explain my problem to 5-to-6 customer service agents before someone helped me submit a request an exchange.
After I finished the call with Dell Customer Service, I decided to look inside the accessories box:
The box contained manuals instruction, Microsoft Windows 8.1 Recovery Disc, Alienware Disc, Power Cord, mouse and keyboard. The keyboard box was upside down. However there was no mouse pad, no DVI-to-VGA adapter, and no extra modular cable 6 pins to 8 pins to add a third GPU card.
To be sure I wasn’t missing something, I looked inside the computer casing and effectively there’s is no extra modular preconfigured to add a third GPU card.
Dell have completely removed the extra modular cables that were in position R3 and R4 of the power supply.
However the cables should be there because I remember Eddy Goyanes (Alienware Marketing) mentioned the computer will be ship with the extra modular cable at 4:06/5:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xPG3AK9CE0
Joe Olmsted (Alienware Director of Product Planning) also talked about it here at 10:43/13:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-urlcdzvgA
On a side note, for those who want to know the specification of the standard ATX Power Supply 1500W, see the picture below or http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/psu_reports/DELL,INC_D1500EF-00_1500W_ECOS%203950_Report.pdf .
Further, the choice for default drives that comes with the unit could be better. The main drive is a Samsung SSD PM851 | MZ7TE128HMGR. The specifications below will give you an idea of the performance you will get.
The storage drive is a Toshiba HDD | DAT01ACA200, which is average and manufactured on OCT-2014. The date is quite recent like you can see on the picture below.
The HHD specifications and performance are like the other drives in the same category of 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB cache.
http://storage.toshiba.com/storagesolutions/client/dt01aca-series
I’m curious to know what kind of drives Dell will put in the system when you upgrade for the option of 256GB SSD 6Gb/s Main + 4TB 6kRPM SATA 6Gb/s Storage or 512GB SSD 6Gb/s Main + 4TB 6kRPM SATA 6Gb/s Storage. One thing for sure these upgrade come with a storage drive that run slower at 6kRPM compared to Toshiba HHD 2TB 7200RPM.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You will not be able to RAID your SSDs. Dell/Alienware don’t officially support the RAID for SSDs in the bays/SATA ports 4, 5, and 6. They made a really bad decision and design choice for the motherboard firmware. Most of the hard-core enthusiasm gamers will be very angry and furious when they will try to install their SSDs in RAID 0, 1, 5 & 10.
In my case, I can’t even RAIDed all my Intel SSDs 730 Series 480GB the way I want.
NB to Dell or Alienware: Please fix your motherboard firmware and please unlock all the SATA ports for the RAID mode and add the support for the NVMe. Your X99 high-end PC desktop should have all those options available.
To my surprise, my first initial boot up was already done by someone. It has a username of “ooba1”.
I don’t know what happen there? Why is there no initial setup when you boot the first time the computer?
Another surprise, the Intel i7-5960X is not factory overclocked at 4.0GHz like they stated on www.alienware.ca.
It was set at 3.0GHz which is the default speed set by Intel.
To conclude, I’m a bit disappointed to see my New Alienware Area 51 R2 (2014) with all these damages with the delivery, the lack of good packaging, missing the extra modular cables, the issue with the RAID Mode, the initial booting was already done by another user and the Intel CPU i7-5960X was not factory overclocked at 4.0GHz. It feels like Dell was not ready to release and they were rushing to push this product out quickly.
There is a snowstorm in Montreal Canada; winter is here. I hope the next delivery will be better, but I doubt they had the time to improve the packaging so that it is more adapted to the weather conditions and for transport like the older model.
brians4902
27 Posts
0
December 20th, 2014 23:00
Elijah
While my packaging and several others was a complete mess- as well as missing parts- recovery disks. In addition the Thread Starter- still has not received his replacement Area 51- which was physically damaged. Now that would truly suck.
But overall I am very pleased with the Area 51 itself. Its fast and handles all that I throw at it.
I would rate the Area 51 performance and ergonomics an A. I do not game but run alot of graphic software- that usually stresses both my Alienware Aurora Computers and M17 laptop. Like I said I can not even get the fan to barely come on as the Area 51 seems handle all my work effortlessly.
Now I am not anywhere near the Tech Guy as all of you on this board--
So I bought the upgrade to everything so I wouldn't have to perform enhancements myself.
My Alienware had :
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5960X CPU @ 3.00GHz
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z
32 GB, 2133, 2RX8, 4G, DDR4, NU
SSDR, 512G, S3, 7MM, SAMSUNG, PM851
Cost US $7252.00
I think you will be pleased- but I don't understand all the enhancements and difficulty the Tech Guys go through.
brians4902
27 Posts
0
December 20th, 2014 23:00
California
Hey- I didn't even know you had issues.
Did you post your problems- did I miss your post? I try to follow a couple of you Tech Guys on Alienware comment boards and your one of them.. LOL dont worry I am not a stalker. HAHA
How is new Area 51 working?
I am very pleased with my Area 51- just the packaging and missing parts- peaves me.
CaliforniaDude
17 Posts
0
December 21st, 2014 09:00
After receiving PC in November, the PCI fan was picking up speed (near 100%) randomly for no reason since day one. A few days later I noticed the PC running really slow and then I got the blue screen of death. Thereafter it kept crashing ( blue screen) every 5 to 10 minutes. Dell technician troubleshooted it and determined it was either CPU or Motherboard. BTW,AlienAutopsy application is really cool and diagnosed the issue right away. I initially asked to have the parts replaced but after a week it was determined that there was no ETA on when the parts would be in so then I opted for getting entire PC replaced. Got the new one last Monday. So far it has been working great.
-0930-
8 Posts
0
December 29th, 2014 16:00
Dell parts was unable to provide card extender. Was able to source Nvidia Card extender from sabrepc.com
Damien2213
131 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 15:00
I received my Area 51 R2 on Tuesday. Other than a snafu with FedEx over the tracking everything seemed intact. The bottom of my box was not in the greatest of condition. The four pins were all still there but one was about close to lost. I was a little worried about the bottom damage but my PC was elevated on top of foam which protected it. No noticeable damage at all. I wonder how much of this is a product of Dell and how much is a product of the people handling OP's machine. Two machines and both damaged and that is obviously happening between Dell and his residence. This is my third Alienware Machine and I've never had one damaged in shipping (knock on wood). I feel bad for the OP because the last thing you want to go through is a situation like that. I hope they can get you straightened out so you can enjoy your Area 51. I'll try to post some pictures when I can that shows you what the box looked like and the unpacking.
Zero989
59 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 15:00
What's wrong with it? Pictures?
-Donovan-
62 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 15:00
Hello everyone,
Here a little update. I received my new replacement units and it's not better. I still have a damaged units.
Damien2213
131 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 16:00
Donovan BTW what Discs came with your PC? I noticed a red looking disc....I only had a recovery and the instructions how the unit worked. The small manual. A power cord. And the video adapter thing they always send.
Zero989
59 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 16:00
You're missing an Alienware Area-51 Resource DVD
-Donovan-
62 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 17:00
I have a couple scratches, dents, and the right side panel door doesn't clip back easily.
Damien2213
131 Posts
0
January 9th, 2015 17:00
I misspoke, I have the Resource disc so am I missing a Recovery Disc? Though on my Aurora R3 I just used Alien Respawn to return to factory when I wanted to format.
Damien2213
131 Posts
0
January 10th, 2015 15:00
Ouch.....Yeah mine was in much better condition than that. So they both came like that?
What was the red looking disc that you showed a picture of?
-Donovan-
62 Posts
0
January 11th, 2015 09:00
Yes. I received both of them like that.
The red disc Is the operating system Windows 8.1 Recovery Media , and the other disc came with is the Alienware Area-51 R2 Resource DVD.
mhawk1
4 Posts
0
January 13th, 2015 10:00
I unboxed my Area 51 today. It looks in good condition. I was a bit surprised it wasn't wrapped in plastic/padding of some sort though.
Anyway, it turns out mine won't boot up at all. I did some troubleshooting with support but it looks like a dead motherboard. An engineer is coming out tomorrow with a new mb and GPU (just in case) apparently.
GarthMan4
24 Posts
0
January 13th, 2015 13:00
Hi,
I have a Dell XPS 730x (remember that one? Love that case!) and thinking it's time to upgrade. My plan is to get the Area 51 R2 in the base config (with 1500 PSU) as I have dual Nvidia 980's, etc. and will transfer them over.
I noticed in this forum that Dell doesn't provide extra power cables or the SLI bridge (not good for a premium pc). I have a flexible SLI cable - so should be OK there. Have they started including the PCIE power cables?
If not, I see from prior posts I need to order 2 of these cables:
TMR06 = PSU (6P) to GFX (8P) power cable, PCIE1
HPDD5 = PSU (6P) to GFX (8P) power cable, PCIE2
JPV3Y = PSU (6P) to GFX (8P) power cable, PCIE3
Which ones should I get and how do I contact Dell to order it? (do I call the parts department?) I just want to give them the numbers and get them shipped up front...
Thanks so much for the guidance!
-GMan