Area-51m R2, upgrade

Question

Good day,

I would like to be able to increase the capacity of the hard disk, currently it has 4tb I would like to know if I can increase one more card and improve the graphics card. But when I contact Dell service, some tell me that it is possible and others that it is not, so if someone can help me by informing me how I could know if it is possible or not.

I would be grateful

ejn63 · Answer

This section lists the storage options on your Alienware Area-51m R2.

Your Alienware Area-51m R2 supports one of the following storage configurations:

One M.2 solid-state drive
Two M.2 solid-state drives
One 2.5-inch hard drive and one M.2 solid-state drive
Three M.2 solid-state drives
One 2.5-inch hard drive and two M.2 solid-state drives
Four M.2 solid-state drives

The M.2 drive is the primary drive of your Alienware Area-51m R2.

Table 1. Storage specifications

STORAGE TYPE	INTERFACE TYPE	CAPACITY
2.5-inch hard drive	SATA AHCI, up to 6 Gbps	Up to 1 TB
M.2 2230 solid-state drive	PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, up to 32 Gbps	Up to 256 GB
M.2 2280 solid-state drive	PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, up to 32 Gbps	Up to 2 TB

juan encalada · Answer

Thank you for responding, I explain a little, I have been in contact with Dell customer service to help me by informing me about costs to upgrade my laptop, because I want to see if the capacity of the hard or solid disk can be increased. case, I would like to change the video card to a larger one since mine is the RTX 2080, I would like to see if I can put the 30 series on it, and improve the ram memory, etc.

Well, I have actually had 3 conversations, the first was 4 months ago, the second two months ago and the third today, the first two informed me that it is possible to increase the video card to a 3080, but the ram memory is not its maximum capacity. It's 64 and you already have it.

On the other hand, today the person who attended me informed me that it is not possible to change the video card for a higher one because it only supports up to 2080, which is the one that my laptop already has, I asked him if I could increase the hard drive or solid and he told me no because it supports up to 4tb maximum, which is what my laptop has, and that is where my concern comes in, what types of upgrades or improvements can I make?

crimsom · Answer

Hi @juan encalada welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum.

Please be more specific, what drives, and their capacities are already installed? Alienware Area-51m R2 Storage

Which discrete graphics processing unit (GPU) is already installed?

Does your Alienware Area-51m R2 model have interposer Sled board and thereby four M.2 slots for PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe cards?

Alienware Area-51m R2 with interposer Sled board

Support for Alienware Area-51m R2 Service Manual says there are four M.2 slots: SSD-1 and SSD-2 are on the motherboard, and SSD-3 and SSD-4 are on the NVMe interposer Sled board.

Alienware Area-51m R2 plus NVMe Sled board

crimsom · Answer

Hi @juan encalada thank you for sharing update.

The database in the Crucial System Advisor tool has the current compatible memory and storage upgrades for your system: Alienware Alienware Area-51m R2 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com

Currently there has only been Alienware Area-51m online discussion about Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 Ampere GPUs upgrades: Alienware Upgrades Area-51m and m17 R3 with 360Hz Displays and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs - Notebookcheck.com News

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series requires more power (wattage) than the Alienware Area-51m R2 can provide. Getting an eGPU enclosure and installing a powerful external graphics card is the current solution. Have a look at the sliding table in Best eGPU Enclosures - September 2022 External GPU Buyer Guide, to get eGPU enclosure for your full-size powerful graphics card option.

Alienware

Area-51m R2, upgrade

Was this post helpful?