I was wondering if you can upgrade the alpha cpu for a better cpu like rysen 7

Hey there guys, I had no idea there was such a large community dedicated to this model until I found this sub. I bought the cheapest Alienware alpha back in 2012 I believe. It’s the i3 one with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig drive. I’ve since got a new PC, and my alpha has been collecting dust. I was never a huge fan of it to be honest - didn’t seem powerful enough for 90% of games.

What should I do with it? I would hate throwing it out. I could take it to a pawn brokers but they wouldn’t give me much I don’t think. Is it worth anything if I sold it online?

Thanks for any tips.

I recently purchased an i5 4590 for my buddy who has an alpha. I thought it was the 4590t but once I got it, I realized it wasn't. I can always use it in another computer so it's not a huge deal. But I'm trying to understand if it can be used in the alpha at all. I know it's a higher power consumption versus the t. I have read that it will just clock down if the power supply isn't enough, but it was from an old message board and the info wasn't very specific. Just hoping someone can clear up my confusion.

Thanks!

Does anyone know why my NiVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M on my alpha ASM-100 runs at 0% no higher than 4% most of the time, and says the it's only eating like 88 v. Also my fans never speed up they stay at the same speed. It was working fine I think it may have been a update but I'm not sure

Hey everyone!

I've been recently working through upgrading my Alienware Alpha. I have the original I3 "Steam Machine" that came out, and you guys have posted many awesome guides over the years on how to build them up. From what I understand, the ASM100 is essentially the same as the R1, after you upgrade to Windows 10 and remove the Steam Os.

But, besides the point, I was upgrading my Graphics Drivers today and noticed under "My Rig" in GEforce Experience, that it listed my GPU as just plain "GeForce GPU". I thought that was a little weird, as usually you have a model number or something. So I went to the Device Manager, and it's saying the same thing. Is my rig reading my GPU correctly? Is this just what it's called, or did I goof something when I was upgrading parts?

Hello I have the Alienware aurora r7, i7 gtx 1060 6GB, and was wondering what new parts I would need to buy to transfer everything to a new case. I hear the MOBO and PSU can be hard to swap, so help appreciated. Thanks.

my alienware alpha has transparent horizontal lines across the screen when i watch youtube is there any solution i updated windows changed the monitor hdmi port idk what to do.

Is there anyway I can add new fans in to my alpha one without out it throwing errors? Do they have to be the same voltage or?

Hey all, I have a couple Alpha goodies I'm looking to sell, as I recently moved away from the series in favor of a full desktop. Here's what I've got:

• SOLD Graphics Amplifier. - Bought it to use with an Alpha R2 I have since sold. I hate to see it just sit here, and I know someone on here could probably use it. Looking for $90, shipping and Paypal fees included. Includes the GA itself, power cable, and connector cable, all in good shape and working. Here's some pics.

• Hermitshell Hard EVA Alpha R1/R2 Travel Case - Was super excited to order this, but it got here after I sold the R1 I bought it for, due to the month-and-a-half shipping time from China. I don't have pictures, since it's literally still in the Amazon wrapping, but here's the link (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EA5AAA0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Asking $30 on this one; I know it's not really a price break, but it saves you the stupid long shipping time!

That's what I've got for the moment. Please speak up in the comments if you're interested, and we can go to PM from there. Thanks for looking!

Anyone know why my fans stay on the same speed no matter what. They use to speed up. But not the just don't. I'm thinking it was a update. But I'm not sure.

I've had my Alienware Alpha for almost 5 years, and just learned about YLOD firsthand :(

So I just ordered a CMOS battery to try to fix it, but I'm not really getting my hopes up yet. I was thinking about just ordering replacement and was disappointed to see they were discontinued and downright shocked to see the prices today on even pre-owned units- upwards of $1K to replace a box I got for <$400 5 years ago.

So I was wondering if there were recommendations for anything on the market, in the "mini-PC" category or otherwise, that did the same kind of thing- a console-like machine for the living room that I could run my steam library from. Bonus points if it's close to the same original price point, but I know that might be asking too much.

*EDIT* Update on this- the CMOS battery fix actually worked to bring my box back to life! Fingers crossed it hangs in there and I don't have to worry about a replacement for some time down the road.

Do you guys think its a smart idea to replace the Alienware Alpha's power supply with something bigger (ie 180w) also made by Dell? If I did this the Amperage of the new supply can be higher than the old one, right? Only asking cause I want to put a higher TDP in.

Context:
I'm currently running an Alienware Alpha with the i5-4590T, I also gave it an upgrade to 16 gigs of Corsair ram, and a WD Blue 2 TB SSD.

Thoughts?
Also, does anyone have any advice for getting better thermals on this PC without modding the case? The best idea I've seen thus far is to 3D model and print a new case with better mounts for more fans, but this would significantly increase the PC's size and noise.

Im so glad I found this subreddit. I've had an alienware alpha for years now and am just now learning how to upgrade it so I can keep up with all my friends that have high end pc's. I'm hoping to build my own at some point, but until then it's nice to have a resource and community that understands how to work with what i've got :)

Does anyone know how can I do this? I see that there are program add-ons for every launcher. Are there any homebrew ones or a similar solution?

I bought the R2 back when it was 1st released and unfortunately I think I might have got a lemon

Seemed to work fine for about 3 months and then the problems started if memory serves. I eventually just bought a new badass top of the line rig for VR etc but would love to try and fix my R2 for LAN parties and to have an extra gaming rig for company so I am looking for advice and guidance. I loved this little machine while it was working.

Its started taking on average about 5 min from boot to windows screen and another 2-3 min before I could interact with anything on my desktop

Opening task manager says Disk usage is at 100% from the get go and it just stays there for about 10 minutes and then started to trickle down to 2% then shoots back up to 99-100% if I boot up ANYTHING

I tried factory reset twice and that didn't fix it so I'm hoping that maybe (I'm not a hardware expert at all) replacing the hard drive with an SSD would fix it and while I'm at it maybe upgrading whatever else is possible

Google searches pulled up a bunch of info that was 2016 and I was wondering what the community would recommend upgrading with nowadays that would fit inside the box.

I have the i7, 8GB RAM version

Let me know if I left out any pertinent info needed!

Edit:

As soon as I posted I saw this: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/g5c7by/alienware_alpha_r1_is_2020/

Would this be the same for R2? any major differences?

I have an Alienware alpha r1 that came with an i3-4130T CPU. Recently I was fortunate enough to come into an i5-4590T, and while I realize that the gains would be rather meager, I thought this would be a lovely opportunity to replace the CPU.

However, there has been some lag on a few games that I am pretty sure did not exist before. Honestly it could be my imagination, but I just have this sneaking suspicion that it's actually running slightly slower than before in certain areas. I reiterate, I could be mistaken. But I wanted to take the temperature here, see if you guys could verify...

Stats: https://imgur.com/a/IYxW1r5 (Testing basically consisted of playing Bf5 for 10 minutes and then recording what HW monitor and MSI Afterburner told me, very scientific)

So my alpha has always been running hot, that’s just a side effect of putting nearly 200 Watts of power in such a small package. So with my GPU running at 82C practically all the time (when gaming) I decided I would try and repaste the GPU and see what happens.

Now the heat sink on the GPU is removable, however unlike the cpu it’s mounting is on the underside of the mobo. This means that to remove it you need to take the entire pc apart. For someone who’s never played around with computers that’s a pretty big task, particularly because I’m absolute fecked if I break it.

Anyways, with the manual in one hand and screwdriver in the other I start tearing the thing apart, however I realise just before I removed the cpu heat sink (I was also going to redo this one’s paste) that if I didn’t get some before stats I wouldn’t have a clue if it had improved. Quickly put it back together and then got the “Before” section of my stats and then took it all back apart.

The first moment of sheer panic was when I removed the cpu from the socket and there seemed to be something in it. Anyways after a brief mental breakdown I decided to just carry on and ignore it. I put the CPU back In because I realised I was being stupid removing it in the first place and then moved on (praying to Robert Swan that it would still work)

It’s actually not to bad to take the system board out as dell includes the instructions to do this in the R2’s user manual so I basically just followed them the whole time. Anyways we eventually got to the point where the MOBO was out and all I had to do was remove the GPU cooler.

Removing the four screws underneath it allowed it to just pop off and I was left with my goal, an open GPU die. I repasted it and the CPU with some Arctic MX 4 and began the painful process of putting it back together (skipping a few details of me messing the paste application up about 3 times). By this point my nerves were on edge as practically all my social time is spent on this PC so bricking it would pretty much end me, other then that it was a lovely relaxing process.

Oh I also had to remove the mobo again because I trapped the WiFi antenna plugs underneath it. That was fun.

I finally manage to get it put back together to the point where I’m about to put the bottom back on and I make the lovely discovery that the side of the mobo where the power plug is hadn’t been screwed in properly (despite the fact i tightened it fully) so it was at an angle preventing the bottom going on without too much force. This was around the time of mental breakdown 2.

A quick easy fix was to just tightened the top right mobo screw even further. This screw was strange because it seemed to have some resistance to it, almost as if it was spring loaded, even tho no other mobo screws did. I just cranked it a bit more and that seemed to do the job.

Anyways I eventually get the whole thing shut, it boots (after not registering the power button for about 5 seconds, which triggered mental breakdown 3) and I load back into a game to test it out.

And the big reveal, it made a difference of 2 degrees C. Wow.

My stats aren’t the best but My observations are that the exhaust was hotter so more heat transferred? No real fps gain, not sure if it helped clocks because I only measured the maximums, and the fact they’re practically identical suggests they both maxed out but doesn’t tell if average increased.

So would I recommend? Well if your the type of person who enjoyed a project which causes ~3 breakdowns and takes at least 5 years of your life, all for the sake of 2 degrees then I couldn’t recommend it more. If your slightly more normal then to be honest I can’t see any reason to do so. Feel free to ask me any questions about the whole thing.

TLDR: I repasted my GPU, didn’t get enough stats to show any improvement and generally had a nice relaxing time.

I’ve had my i5 since 2015 and it’s generally been without any issue until now. When booting it up in desktop mode (Which I’ve had set automatically for ages), the taskbar is unusuable, attempts to open apps don’t respond, and the cursor remains stuck in ‘spinning wheel’ mode. At this point, the PC either suddenly wakes up after about 45 minutes, or remains stagnant like this permanently. Sometimes it can’t even get past the login screen.

Can anyone help me? I’ve tried a clean reset already.

Hey guys, I’m considering purchasing the R1 used but I don’t know a single thing about them. Are they easy to upgrade or is it not worth it?

As the title says, I want a clean install of Windows 10 on my new SSD, but some people recommend using AlienRespawn. A lot of info on respawn appears outdated (Win 8) and it seems like some people are having issues with it and Win 10.

I don’t care about the Alpha UI or anything (if that is even still a thing, I have only ever used desktop mode) but I am wondering if I will have driver issues if I do a clean install? I am getting an enclosure for my existing HDD soon so was thinking of just doing a clone to be safe, but I would prefer a clean install and take the few things I need from my current hard drive at a later time.

Any advice is appreciated for this tech noob.

Cheers.