Alienware Area 51m R2 RTX 2080 Super vs Clevo X170SM-G

[jluo1336]

I'm planning to upgrade my eight year old Alienware M17X to either a Area 51m and or a Clevo X170 since both of them have desktop CPUs and desktop level GPUs. Which one would be the best to buy? Would love your guys' input!

[ssj92]

20 hours ago, jluo1336 said:

I'm planning to upgrade my eight year old Alienware M17X to either a Area 51m and or a Clevo X170 since both of them have desktop CPUs and desktop level GPUs. Which one would be the best to buy? Would love your guys' input!

I have the Alienware Area-51m R1 and Clevo X170SM-G so basically same comparison honestly. 

 

I prefer the Area-51m in every way except audio. X170SM-G has the best audio of any laptop (better than the 16" M1 Pro MBP). 

 

The X170 series are kinda annoying without a Prema BIOS. I actually am debating of getting rid of my X170SM-G. I hardly use it but only keep it around since it has the best audio on a laptop and it's Clevo's last LGA/MXM system.

 

You can't go wrong with either system. So choose based on which you like in terms of looks, build quality, keyboard, etc. 

 

One thing to note, with a Prema BIOS the X170SM-G can support RTX 3080/3070 GPUs (also requires X170TM-G heatsink) but the GPUs alone are $$$$

 

Both laptops max out at 10900K CPUs. The Area-51m R2 has 2 RAM SLOTs (R1 has 4) and X170SM-G has 4 so RAM is limited to 64GB vs 128GB. 

 

If you don't need the 10-cores, a R1 with 9900K + RTX 2080 may be worth it since they're cheaper than R2. 

 

X170SM-G itself is getting harder to find. 

[jluo1336]

Thanks for replying to me SSJ! I'm a refugee from the NBR forums and have been decently active there ever since I got my first M11X back in 2011. I'm a big fan of your MXM work and really want to see more of it in the future.

 

I honestly thought NBR was dead until I saw this forum a couple of days ago, and turned out this is very similar in style to the old one with a lot of the old users namely Papusan, Mr. Fox, etc. 

 

The X170SM-G being upgradable to the 30series cards with Prema BIOS is very interesting and I never heard of it until now! I talked to Eurocom and they said that it wasn't compatible for some reason with the X170SMG but turns out they were wrong. I'm eyeing a reseller called Eluktronics that has the Prema BIOS called the THICC-17. Will your opinion change now that the laptop has Prema BIOS and if you were comparing it to the R2, which solved mostly all the issues regarding cooling the 200W 2080 S and other problems?

 

[ssj92]

I have the X170SM-G with Prema BIOS. I can upgrade to RTX 3080 as long as I also buy the X170KM-G heatsink. 

 

But to be honest, the 170KM-G isn't as stable as the SM-G. Also I'd rather have a 10900K 10-core over the 11900K 8-core. 

 

So for me, I'd still get the Area-51m R2. Actually I'd rather have the R1 because I like the keyboard more and it has 4 RAM slots. The performance difference between 9900K/2080 vs 10900K/2080S isn't significant. However, if you are looking for a brand new laptop and only decided on these two because they were the last ones with desktop CPUs and "desktop class" GPUs, I'd look elsewhere. 

 

I recently got the new Alienware m18 with 13900HX & RTX 4090 and it's way faster than these two. 

 

The THICC 17 is the X170SM-G. They still sell it but with the 10900K & RTX 3080...the price is just as much as a RTX 4090 laptop. 

 

These systems are great but time has passed and they're getting a bit on the old side. I definitely wouldn't pay full price for either system even brand new today since there are other options. 

 

If you want these systems because they are "upgradable" I'd look for used ones. 

[1610ftw]

I would want to point out a few more differences about these Alienware laptops compared to the X170:

 

the heatsink in the R1 is not as capable as the heatsink in the Clevo but the heatsink in the R2 is probably closer

there are different display panels for the Clevo, you have a selection of 1080p 144 and 300HZ, QHD 165 and 240Hz and UHD 60 and supposedly also 120Hz

serviceability of the Clevo is better than the Alienware which can affect you if you are into frequently working on your laptop

the palm rest on the Clevo is aluminium , the palmrest on the Alienwares is rather rubbery and usually wears off to a degree

the Clevo will take 3 x NVME SSDs and one m2 Sata SSD, the Alienware R1 will only take 2 NVME SSDs and a 2.5" Sata SSD, not sure about the R2

 

 

 

 

[1610ftw]

On 7/14/2023 at 6:20 PM, ssj92 said:

I have the Alienware Area-51m R1 and Clevo X170SM-G so basically same comparison honestly. 

 

I prefer the Area-51m in every way except audio. X170SM-G has the best audio of any laptop (better than the 16" M1 Pro MBP). 

 

The X170 series are kinda annoying without a Prema BIOS. I actually am debating of getting rid of my X170SM-G. I hardly use it but only keep it around since it has the best audio on a laptop and it's Clevo's last LGA/MXM system.

 

You can't go wrong with either system. So choose based on which you like in terms of looks, build quality, keyboard, etc. 

 

One thing to note, with a Prema BIOS the X170SM-G can support RTX 3080/3070 GPUs (also requires X170TM-G heatsink) but the GPUs alone are $$$$

 

Both laptops max out at 10900K CPUs. The Area-51m R2 has 2 RAM SLOTs (R1 has 4) and X170SM-G has 4 so RAM is limited to 64GB vs 128GB. 

 

If you don't need the 10-cores, a R1 with 9900K + RTX 2080 may be worth it since they're cheaper than R2. 

 

X170SM-G itself is getting harder to find. 

 

Regarding the keyboard, what are the differences from R1 to R2 and are these per key RGB?

How would you say they compare to the keyboard on an the last of the old Alienware 18?

 

I also like that on the X170 I am able to finely dial in the fans - is that possible on the Alienware or does it have some kind of auto fan modes like low, medium high?

 

I agree that it is nicer to have 4 memory slots, shame that two slots were dropped on the R2.

[ssj92]

On 12/30/2023 at 11:27 AM, 1610ftw said:

 

Regarding the keyboard, what are the differences from R1 to R2 and are these per key RGB?

How would you say they compare to the keyboard on an the last of the old Alienware 18?

 

I also like that on the X170 I am able to finely dial in the fans - is that possible on the Alienware or does it have some kind of auto fan modes like low, medium high?

 

I agree that it is nicer to have 4 memory slots, shame that two slots were dropped on the R2.

The Area-51m keyboard resembles the 18 but feels even better. 

 

The R2 has the keys separated from each other. 

 

AWCC allows you to change fan speeds from different profiles. I personally leave mine on balanced so don't remember if the old version lets you tune the fans, but I do know the new laptops you can change the speed to anything per fan.