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

Question

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

W8lifts · Answer

Lights work and everything? About to do a all water build Area 51 R2 and was kicking the idea of changing motherboards ,

lithio · Answer

Yes Lights work 100% ,i can Set any Color, also i fixed the MSI ODD eJEct Button Programm ! my Area 51 runs Stable and cool at 4.5Ghz with 32GB DDR4 Hyper X Savage @ 2800Mhz .

next Upgrade is to Replace the DVD Writer with a Panasonic Bluray Writer Super Slim 9.5mm and a Corsair H80i V2 Liquid Cooler.

kallbis · Answer

how did you fix the eject button issue I cant seem to get mine to work I would love it if you could tell me and also how did you install the command center for the led lighting I got everything on mine working besides these 2

thanks

kallbis · Answer

still wondering how you got the odd eject button to work if anyone could tell me how they got thiers to work id be very thankful

kallbis · Answer

hey lithio how did you get the eject button working thats the only thing that's stumped my and I cant find anyone else that has said anything about it

GalacticGuy · Answer

How did you fix the msi odd software?

Locked Topics – Alienware General

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