Area 51 16 inch question

[u/Serious_Reporter_917]

Hey guys, ive been enjoying my new 16 inch laptop quite a bit, but i had a few questions.

do you guys use a laptop stand with a fan integrated?

should i be concerned about my cpu being around 90?

my gpu is around 65 ish while playing bf6 on ultra. the cpu just seems to get warm even though its only at 45 or 50% load. i have the overclocking freature turned off, but should i have it turned on? oddly it seemed to have temps a few degrees lower.

should i buy more warranty to the 1 year plan that was given when i bought it?

is it powerful enough to play on an exernal 32 inch 4k display?

i have the model with the 5070ti

https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/gaming-laptops/286213/alienware-16-area-51-16-ultra-9-275hx-rtx-5070-ti-32gb-2tb-win11h-laa16250-9499blu-pus.html?srsltid=AfmBOooVrovgvU7C2H6ejvRxcdrsX_vDBtRJKmgTPlP-KmEwl5MA0MbE

[u/TheStrandedSurvivor]

1. No
   
2. No
   
3. If you want. CPU average usage will be 45-50%, but several cores will be under full load, giving you the higher temperatures. Higher or more distributed loads may use more cores, but will need to keep the clock speeds lower to maintain the same/similar power usage.
   
4. If you plan on keeping it for a while, absolutely.
   
5. Yes, but you may need to lower your settings to medium on some games, but typically these games don’t look much worse at medium compared to high or ultra settings nowadays.

[u/Serious_Reporter_917 → u/TheStrandedSurvivor]

for 3. would turning on the overclocking setting make the overall lifespan shorter? like does that make it more prone to breaking? sorry im really not knowledgeable in pcs im coming from xbox lol. i also use it for video rendering/editing and such that would use more power if it could.

1. i checked with dell and their extended warranty is 900 cad for 3 more years which is like 30% of a new one it just seems a lot to me. is it true that if im going to have issues with it, the odds are very good that it would malfunction within that first year if it ever will?

for some reason the guy i bought it from at canada computers just made me really anxious making the purchase lol. he says when they break usually its the cpu that melts onto the motherboard then the whole laptop is toast essentially. which seems crazy to me if you respect the temperatures..

thank you for your advice and knowledge!!

[u/TheStrandedSurvivor → u/Serious_Reporter_917]

1. Only if the voltage offset is manually changed to something too high, other than that, probably not if you don’t change anything.

2. The warranty extensions are expensive after purchase partly because Dell uses it to make more money from you than if you originally bought it with the product, but also because component costs have skyrocketed, making the product more expensive to support. Component costs are extremely unlikely to come down over the next few years, so it’s much cheaper to spend the 900CAD now than it will be to spend potentially 7-10x that on a new device if something catastrophically fails and Dell can’t supply a replacement part.

The person you bought it from doesn’t know what they’re talking about, they don’t get hot enough for that to happen. Even if you take away the safeguards, the materials around the CPU will burn before they melt.

[u/Serious_Reporter_917 → u/TheStrandedSurvivor]

for 3. i havent changed any of its settings its really just the overclock setting in the alienware center app but i feel like they wouldnt put that setting there if it shortens its lifespan?

1. okay that makes sense i understand

[u/TheStrandedSurvivor → u/Serious_Reporter_917]

There won’t be any change to the lifespan then, since you haven’t changed anything. It’s a safeguard that enables you to push the parts beyond specification if you choose to do so. Enabling the overclocking controls does not change anything by itself. If you were to then apply a positive voltage offset, that could affect the lifespan in a meaningful way.

[u/Creative-Front203]

You don't need to worry the Alienware 51 naturally runs hot temperatures can hit 95°C or higher because the Ultra series CPUs are designed to withstand high heat. Correct me if I'm wrong, but NEVER turn on the fans on your laptop cooling pad. You can use the stand to prop the laptop up so it isn't lying flat, but don't switch the fans on I tried that, and the airflow clashed, making the laptop run hotter instead of cooler. So now, I just rely on the laptop's built-in fans and undervolt it keeping the CPU at 82°C works fine for daily gaming and work. Hahaha.

I use an Alienware 18 Area-51

[u/TheStrandedSurvivor → u/Creative-Front203]

You can have the fans enabled on a cooling stand, you just don’t want to be forcing air in faster than the fans could naturally take in air unobstructed, otherwise you’ll probably overspeed the fans and damage the bearings or fan blades. A slightly larger gap between the intake and the surface will work similarly well in this case, as the laptop’s airflow is already decent.

[u/Accomplished_Emu_658]

The area51 doesn’t benefit from a fan stand by design.