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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
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
124 Posts
0
March 29th, 2016 07:00
lithio
20 Posts
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March 31st, 2016 13:00
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
6 Posts
0
May 13th, 2016 22:00
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
6 Posts
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May 23rd, 2016 09:00
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
6 Posts
0
July 3rd, 2016 14:00
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
2 Posts
0
January 22nd, 2017 10:00
How did you fix the msi odd software?