New Area 51- Delayed Shipping

The delivery dates are estimated and subject to change since they are custom made that is why it’s normal they had changed your delivery date. 

Well thats not much of an answer. Alienware-Milenia!

Saying that it is custom made- is really not saying much- all the parts are interchangeable- RAM- Graphic Cards- Hard Drive. All the pieces are plug and play- and still built on an assembly line in Juarez Mexico.

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SO HERE GOES:

I purchased the Alienware Area 51 top of the line Purchase Price $7,252.00

I ordered the Area 51 at 9:05 October 28, 2014 (the day they went on sale) and was given a delivery date of 24 November.

The Area 51 was in production for a week- and then I got notified on November 6 my order was cancelled no real tangible info explained why the order was cancelled. Alienware then started a New order number and had a New Delivery Date of December 10, 2014.

*Today 21 November - I was notified my order has been cancelled again- and a New Order will be started and the Customer Rep stated it looked like the delivery date will now be January 30, 2015 but definitely before March 2015.  Why the heck did I order the Computer 5 mins after it went on sale for?

Well if this is the CASE - I will cancel my order- I don't need to beg Alienware for the computer, There are plenty of places I can get a High End $7,200.00 computer and not have to wait 5 months for delivery.

Has anyone actually received the New ARea 51 ???? I mean if Alienware doesn't have the parts or ability to build the machines- why offer the Computer for sale? Right now I would say the Alienware Area 51 is not worth the HASSLE. I would also venture to say that there is a Production Problem- with parts.

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I got mine yesterday which was surprising since they also changed my delivery date to 12/10.  So you might get yours today if you are lucky.  I ordered mine the same time as yours.   Having problems figuring out the Overclocking Application though which is starting to really annoy me.

Congrats CaliforniaDude.

Enjoy- I guess I will live the Area 51 experience through your words,, since mine is flat out cancelled according to Dell due to a illegal configuration.

Even Though Dell can not identify which part on the internet web page is illegally configured.

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My Order:

Alienware Area 51

8 Core Processing

Microsoft Windows 7  64bit

Titan Z Dual Graphic Card

Hard Drive 512 GB

Memory 32GB

TOTAL PRICE: $7,252.00

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Here is my experience:

Purchased 10/28/14 at 9:05am.

Area 51 in production for 1 week.

November 6, 2014 I was notified my computer was an illegal configuration.

HUH WHAT??? I selected exactly what was on the order screen.

You only have 5 real choices;;  Hard Drive- Processor- Graphics- Memory- Operating System.

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Dell stated it was an SKU error and started the order over on November 6, 2014.

It was in production for 2 weeks.,

Then yesterday November 21, 2014 ; I was notified again that my order was cancelled.

Once again, Dell states its an illegal configuration.

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So on November 21, 2014 I called Dell and they stated they do not know what is making it an illegal configuration????

Then I talked to the Credit Dept and they stated that it was because my CC was declined.

This was an ABSOLUTE LIE- I called Bank of America and they stated the purchase was never denied and Remains Approved.

Called Dell back and spoke to same person who stated that CC was denied- and she now states she was incorrect it was not Denied- and it is an illegal configuration.

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So I asked what part is making it an illegal configuration?

There are only 5 selections.. which one is causing the defunct?

Dell had no clue as the order looks good. Dell stated they do not know why the Order keeps getting cancelled..

NOW GET THIS-- Dell calls me back and Sales Rep offers to sell me Dell XPS PC at a reduced price.

That should make Alienware HAPPY..  I just laughed and shook my head.

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Alls I can say is BUYER Beware-

Dell has placed its stamp of INEPTITUDE all over a once great and unique Alienware Product.

So I asked what part is making it an illegal configuration?

I think in your case, Dell has a really legitimate reason, except they won't explain it to you explicitly.

Dell is being a responsible corporate citizen in preventing your order from processing.

Some of the component pricing appears to be at least 6 months out of date...you are overpaying more than $2000 above current market prices...it might actully be a lot more than that because the pricing structure isn't very transparent.

Theoretically, there could be very difficult warranty issues, if you made a claim in 6 months time and they have to replace the parts with different but equivalent ones.

Hi Brians,

I did notice illegal combinations when I made my purchase shown as highlighted combinations of power supplies and video cards which may have been the problem for you.  These were clearly marked and I would expect that you would have changed your items accordingly before completing the build.

I did have problems with my order since it was declined right away by AMEX but that was to be expected since it was a large internet purchase.  It was then cleared with AMEX and then the order moved to production.  A week later however, I got a call to call dell about my order and they wanted to confirm it was me.  This was annoying since I called dell the day of my order and was told it had payment accepted and in production.  So this moved my delivery date from 11/24 to 12/10.  But as mentioned was glad to have it delivered on Thursday. 

Everything was working fine except the overclocking mechanism in the Command Center.  The i7-5960X CPU is advertised to be overclocked to 4GHZ  on the Alienware website ( base is 3GHZ) so I wanted to make sure this was the case.  My purchase of an overclocked Alienware Aurora in 2009 was delivered without overclocking so I had to work with dell to update the bios over the phone to get to 3.3GHZ as advertised.

This time around I tried using the OC function in the command center but could not get the CPU speed to increase behond 3GHZ.  I called Dell yesterday and the guy I worked with was not very helpful with comments like "that is the way it is supposed to work".  He tried to show me that parameters were changing in the OC Command window, but could not validate clock speed was actually increasing to 4GHZ.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt but continued my research and was not convinced.  I use CPUZ to measure the actual clock speed and even under heavy game load (Crysis 3) it would not speed up beyond 3GHZ.  Today I called Alienware again and got a much better support person who agreed with me that clock speeds need to go higher and be visible for confirmation  versus taking a leap of faith like the first support guy wanted me to do. 

The long is short, is that after 4 hours on the call today we were able to get the speed up to 3.9GHZ which is still short of the 4GHZ advertised.  Hence a level 3 ticket remains open for their lab/engineers to develop a solution to get it to 4GHZ by Wednesday.  I have seen other users of i7-5960X get their PCs up to 4.5GHZ on the internet so achieving 4GHZ should not be an issue. BTW, Prime95 is a very good free tool to stress test your CPU to max out CPU frequency.

 I was told by the 2nd guy that the PC had only been in the lab for 1 month so they are just figuring things like this out.  That to me is ridiculous, as this PC was developed over several months at least and they should have thoroughly tested the OC mechanism by now.  After all why get an expensive PC with watercooled CPU and massive cooling fans and not get the benefit of overclocking?  

That being said I am still happy with the purchase, the case is really cool and is extremely fast.

My specs are as follows:

Area 51 R2

Windows 7 Profession 64 bit

i7-5960X CPU

32G RAMM

tri-Radeon 290X video cards

512G SSD drive and 4TB drive

4 years support.

Cost $6,4000

Thanks CaliforniaDude.

Great Post great information.

Yes BTW I had no illegal configurations when I ordered online.

What I did was call and order the Area 51 Today via Live Sales Person- that way they could figure this illegal configuration thing out when it was built on the phone.

So we configured the exact same Alienware - as I did online.

And what do you know- He got an illegal configuration- even though the Website doesn't inidcate it.

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The problem is/ was that when you order the

32 GB memory

Dual Titan Z grphic cards

512 Hard Drive

8 Core processor

Microsoft 7 64 bit

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THE PROBLEM: Dell failed to label an SKU for the correct Chasis or outer shell when this configuartion of hardware was selected.

This is has been the problem- and what he told me was everyone ordering that configuration with every upgrade has had their order cancelled for illegal configuration. But sales rep did state very few Alienwares have been sold with every upgrade.

He stated his sales team and his managers are now talking to the design and production teams to get the proper SKU for the Chasis updated when orders are enetered on line.

I can not figure out how Dell Alienware could make such a bonehead mistake and not associate the proper Chasis with each Hardware Configuration......

Very similar to your conclusion that Alienware hasn;t even tested the overclocking. Sounds like a premature launch.

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The GOOD NEWS- the sales team felt really bad about my situation- they put my order at top of build list- suppose to receive by 4 December. Wow Thats fast. In addition- they threw in a Venue Tablet 7 for free and also gave me overnight shipping at no cost.

So my frustration is over.

Anyway I liked your post and will take your advice....Best of Luck

Oh yeah... I hope we are not the guinea pigs here...

Hey Brians,

Glad to hear that you got the issue resolved and that Dell compensated you a bit for the inconvenience.  I was looking at YouTube to see if any other Area 51 owners did an unpacking video yet or personal review but could find nothing.  Makes me think they did not sell that many or I got real lucky and got one of the first ones.

Good luck as well.

 my shipping date is 1/5/15. it appears like it has to do with the gtx 980 graphics cards.

i don't understand the 24 day delay on the gtx980.  i've configured similar configurations with other brands

and they all show to ship in the first part of december.

So because it is Canadian you will pay another $5k in taxes due to GST. LOL!  I grew up in Canada but now I live in "Mercia" in Chicago and don't have to pay those high taxes!

Well as mentioned in my earlier post I got my Area 51 last Thursday.  However since Sunday it has been crashing ( blue screen of death).  Dell will be sending a technician to my home by about 11/28 to replace the CPU and motherboard.  Hope you all have better luck with your PC when you get it. 

Good thing my Alienware Aurora is still running strong after 5 years so I have a computer to use.

Mine just went into production today as well. 

Titan Z has 0 delay

GTX 780s 8 days delay

Tri 980s 24 days delay

As a side note:

They CAN cancel orders in production as I have had one cancelled recently that was supposed to ship the following day, however, it's a huge pain for them and they hate handling it. Especially when it's being processed in India where most of their call centers are located. This is why I call Dell Toronto HQ in Canada whenever I order, to make sure I talk to someone who understands everything, and that if necessary, it can be escalated to the AW Manager.