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What should I know before buying a used alienware area-51m r2 laptop in Computer Village?
I found a vendor selling a clean used alienware area-51m r2 laptop in Ikeja for a very high but tempting price. This is an extremely powerful and power hungry machine. I noticed it requires two massive power bricks to run at full performance. What specific hardware diagnostics should I run before paying the vendor? Is it common for the desktop grade processors in the alienware area-51m r2 laptop to suffer from motherboard burning issues due to Nigerian power surges? How can I verify that the massive dual power adapters are genuine Dell products and not cheap replacements?
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3 days agoBuying a used alienware area-51m r2 laptop from Computer Village is a high risk high reward scenario. Because this machine houses desktop grade components it requires a staggering amount of electricity which is why it uses two massive power adapters (usually a 330W and an 180W brick plugged in simultaneously). Before handing over any cash you must run intensive stress tests. Do not just look at the desktop screen. Download a free software called Cinebench and run a multi core CPU render test while simultaneously running a GPU benchmark like Heaven Unigine. Let both run for 15 minutes. If the laptop shuts down freezes or the screen artifacts during this stress test the motherboard power delivery system is failing. Walk away immediately.
josh
3 days agoYour concern about power surges and the alienware area-51m r2 laptop is extremely valid. The desktop grade processors draw massive voltage and a sudden Nigerian power surge from a generator can easily fry the motherboards delicate power delivery components. You must invest in a premium pure sine wave UPS to protect it. Regarding the dual power bricks: You must check the BIOS screen. Press F2 repeatedly during startup to enter the BIOS. The system will clearly display the wattage of both power adapters currently plugged in. If the BIOS says "Unknown Adapter" or shows a lower wattage than printed on the brick the vendor has given you a fake or faulty replacement adapter. The laptop will detect this and severely throttle the CPU and GPU performance to prevent drawing too much power making your expensive gaming machine run like a cheap office laptop.
josh
3 days agoI bought a used Alienware in Ikeja. The vendor gave me one original 330W brick and one fake 180W brick. The laptop refused to run games at full frame rates until I bought an original second brick. Check the BIOS!
josh
3 days agoThe sheer weight of this laptop is unbelievable. It weighs over 10 pounds and the two power bricks weigh another 5 pounds. It is not a laptop you can carry in a backpack to a coffee shop. It is strictly a portable desktop.
josh
3 days agoRun a battery diagnostic check. Because this laptop draws so much power people leave it plugged in constantly which destroys the internal battery. Expect the battery on a used unit to last a maximum of 45 minutes unplugged.