Tutorial HOW to Upgrade ALIENWARE Area 51 R2 with a E-ATX X99 Premium Mainboard

Tutorial on How to Upgrade the Alienware Area 51 R2 with a Third Party

E-ATX X99 Premium Mainboard. Socket 2011-3

 

 

Here is my Story

 

I bought the Alienware Area 51 R2 Base Config 2 Weeks ago, Brand NEW directly from DELL.

I wanted to do couple of Upgrades at the beginning i did not know much about the possible upgrades  and how they FAIL .

 

i Replaced the Stock RAM with 32GB Hyper X Fury 2400Mhz CL15 Quad KIT ( not Possible to go Higher Speed MHz or 64GB /128GB of RAM)

i Replaced all the Dell OEM Fans, because they are far to loud and not needed to have FANs in there with a 147cfm Air Pressure.

i Replaced Stock OEM PSU850Watt to EVGA 850Watt G2 Plus80Gold 

 

Than i found out that the BIOS A03 is OLD and doesnt give me the FULL Potential which the AREA 51 was build for, they say the BEST PC ever. ( i dont think so not with this Mainboard)

 

The Lack of Nvme M,2 / U2 , SATA Express, USB 3.1c , Dual Gigabit Killer LAN, Support for 64GB or 128GB DDR4 RAM up to 3000MHZ ,Thunderbolt > my list goes on and on

The Alienware OC Features in the BIOS is a Joke.

 

I want to make Clear that i am not Responsible if you do the Upgrade and Damage your Machine.  For Warranty it is better to keep the Stock OEM Parts Mainboard & Cables if needed you allways can Convert back to Stock configuration.

 

1.

 

Find a nice Mainboard   i did Pick the MSI X99 Godlike GAMING  >yes it is in Fact 

E-ATX and not ATX. Will explain later.

https://gaming.msi.com/products/motherboard/x99a-godlike-gaming

2 .

 

There are a FEW Cables that come from AW i/o Board and they are too Short to Connect to the New Mainboard.

 

See Photos for the Right Cables you will need them all.

Connector  > 8 < =  19 Pin USB 3.0 Internal Cable  

Connector  > 7 < =  Front Panel Power Switch, Power LED, HDD LED

Connector  > 5 < =  USB 2.0 Header Internal Cable  

3.

Prepare your System Files so you can Use the Alienware Command Center with the New

Mainboard. There is a Great Guide on How to do that here

http://www.alienowners.com/threads/how-to-install-command-center-for-a-non-alienware-motherboard.7119/

 

4.

Remove the OEM Mainboard, look at my Photos  the E-ATX Mainboard will fit just Fine,  the Holes from ATX and EATX are the same , you need to move 2 Plastic Cable Holders a bit down, just use some Double Sided Powertape

5. Enjoy a Real Premium Machine, with all new Super Speed SSD Features, a Great Bios and Cooling Software. and of Course 100% Future Proof Bios and CPU Support for Upcoming Broadwell E