Upgrading the Alienware Alpha

[MuthaBuffer]

So I've started a thread on this so anyone doing upgrades, or thinking of doing upgrades, can post the results of their hardware changes, ask questions about potential upgrades, post useful links or basically anything related to upgrading the Alienware Alpha.

Paticularly useful stuff I will keep/add in this initial post to help those interested.

Alienware Services Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlEE1PblIRU2Dq0gE9VH9rwXbQOsLAvkG
Basic tutorial guides to upgrading and reinstalling software.

Memory and SSD upgrades:

Really comprehensive guide on upgrading both:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGW1ggvCy50

An SSD upgrade only, a bit rough and ready but shorter and covers all the bases:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tFqkTS8IGc

[MuthaBuffer]

I'm just to upgrade mine (i3) with an SSD and 8GB of RAM, I'll let you know how it goes.

[stuntmanmikey]

Upgraded my i3 base model to 8GB of RAM and a 240GB PNY Optima SSD from day one. The system was only booted once with the stock HDD to set everything up and clone the drive.

I didn't use the method outlined in the videos above, I used a USB 3.0 -> SATA adapter and Macrium Reflect to clone the stock HDD to the SSD. Then shut it all down, swapped-out the drives and replaced the 4GB stick with a dual-channel 8GB kit.

Performance is awesome, the system boots into the Alpha UI in a matter of SECONDS. And the in-game stuttering I've seen in people's YouTube footage is non-existent. I haven't ran benchmarks on the system after the upgrade but I'm sure it performs better than the stock configuration.

The only "gotcha" with the way I did it was that you have to remember to shrink the main partition of the stock drive before cloning so everything will fit onto whatever size SSD you buy.

[Jeremy]

Bought the i3 base model and upgraded the memory to 16GB and to 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD. This thing flies. Load times are so fast now. Some people have asked which upgrade I recommend first. I would say SSD. I noticed the biggest difference from that. Hoping to upgrade the processor once they start dropping in price, but for now it has no problem running anything.

[MuthaBuffer]

So upgraded my hard drive and RAM to 8GB and an SSD on my i3 today. See my other thread but basically don't use the DELL supplied USB to re-install your hard drive, it's just 8.1, nothing else. Use respawn to create a factory recovery USB.

Upgraded with Crucial MX100 256GB
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX100-adapter-Internal-CT256MX100SSD1/dp/B00KFAGCWK/

And 2x4GB Kingston HyperX Impact Black
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-Impact-1600MHz-HX316LS9IBK2/dp/B00KQCU3WM/

I know I didn't really need the Kingston HyperX, as far as I can tell the board is limited to 1600MHz, but it's CL9 and I'm future proofing against moving it onwards into a board the can handle faster speeds.

Not done extensive testing, but the Alpha boots in under 10 secs now so call that a win!

[MeGustaChuletas]

Originally posted by MuthaBuffer:

So upgraded my hard drive and RAM to 8GB and an SSD on my i3 today.
Upgraded with Crucial MX100 256GB
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX100-adapter-Internal-CT256MX100SSD1/dp/B00KFAGCWK/

I did the same drive and used Crucial memory instead. I got a deal on it. Though, left the memory, pulled the SSD to go into another gaming rig. I'm not too upset about the boot times, as I'm already wasting time gaming anyway... another 30-40 seconds while waiting to boot the game isn't going to kill me. Then again, I put my steam library on an external USB 3.0 HDD, so that probably negated my SSD upgrade more than anything.

[Joe Exotic]

Would you say upgrades are a must or is it just optinal because im playing games just fine with stock parts on the i3 version.

[MuthaBuffer]

Originally posted by Ditto_:

Would you say upgrades are a must or is it just optinal because im playing games just fine with stock parts on the i3 version.

I played on the i3 with 4GB for around a week before upgrading, it was fine just imo very slow loading and booting. If that doesn't bother you I would say no of course upgrading it is not a must.

The i3 CPU is fine in nearly every game out there, I've yet to find anything it can't handle (although I have not played far cry 4 or unity) so again no way a must.

4GBs of RAM is actually fine for most games, but there are a lot more games that would benefit from having 8GB of RAM than they would any other upgrade you can do. While again it's not a must, I would say upgrading the RAM is the one you should probably do at some point, it will bottleneck the system on more demanding games.

[Gwynbleidd]

does anyone knows how to set up the astros a50 wireless to the alpha. I cant get around to the set up.

[MuthaBuffer]

Originally posted by IXSpartanx1:

does anyone knows how to set up the astros a50 wireless to the alpha. I cant get around to the set up.

I think you will need to set it up via desktop mode first if thats what you mean? If it's not plug and play you probably won't be able to set it up via the Alpha UI.

[cometcruiser01]

Got a question regarding upgrading. I've never done it before so it's new to me
Well, I bought the i7 and it runs just fine but sometimes things take a little while to load or even the task manager takes a few to show up. I wanna get an SSD to make it faster. So what size of an SSD would I need and would I replace the harddrive? If not and I use both the HD and SSD what am I putting on the SSD? Apologies for the beginner questions.

[condescending1y]

Upgrading the HDD involves replacing it with your intended SDD. Whatever GB sized SSD you can afford and need. IMO as a minimum, 256GB SSD.

[MuthaBuffer]

Originally posted by condescending1y:

Upgrading the HDD involves replacing it with your intended SDD. Whatever GB sized SSD you can afford and need. IMO as a minimum, 256GB SSD.

I'd totally agree with this. For an SSD the minimum is 256GB as it will be your only internal HD and having to remove and reinstal things all the time on a 128GB would be both tedious and bad for the drive.

To be fair I was surprised how good the value of a 256GB SSD is now, I remember buying one a few years ago for £300! I got a 256GB MX100 for £70 and it's been brilliant. If you have money to burn paying twice as much for twice the capacity is not an insane upgrade.

Upgrading the hard drive is easy, there are some helpful YouTube videos and all you need is a 16GB (I have found that it wouldn't make a recovery disk from my 8GB) USB and just create a recovery image with Alienware Respawn. New hard-drive in, put in USB and it will install Windows and the Alpha profile like its just a brand new one. For me the whole experience took about 30 mins and then I just went straight into desktop and updated windows before playing.

[condescending1y]

Is 256GB SDD enough nowadays for avid gamers? I'm thinking long-term of upgrading to SSD once and leaving it for good, and whenever I feel compelled to buy an R2 or R3 Alpha, I don't need to worry about having a spare PC console and it's useful spare parts like the SDD.

[MuthaBuffer]

Originally posted by condescending1y:

Is 256GB SDD enough nowadays for avid gamers? I'm thinking long-term of upgrading to SSD once and leaving it for good, and whenever I feel compelled to buy an R2 or R3 Alpha, I don't need to worry about having a spare PC console and it's useful spare parts like the SDD.

Yea as I say, I agree with you it's the minimum. If I had the spare cash a 512GB would definitely be the way ahead. With some games hitting 40GB+, if you're a mainly AAA gamer, a 256GB soon suffers.

[condescending1y]

Originally posted by MuthaBuffer:

Originally posted by condescending1y:

Is 256GB SDD enough nowadays for avid gamers? I'm thinking long-term of upgrading to SSD once and leaving it for good, and whenever I feel compelled to buy an R2 or R3 Alpha, I don't need to worry about having a spare PC console and it's useful spare parts like the SDD.

Yea as I say, I agree with you it's the minimum. If I had the spare cash a 512GB would definitely be the way ahead. With some games hitting 40GB+, if you're a mainly AAA gamer, a 256GB soon suffers.

Since all this Games free from Gold, Monthly 2 free games on PSN+ and steam games sales,
I'm totally peeved with downloading -
what used to be,
- casual 1-2GB Xbox Live arcades,
- ocassional 3-4GB Xbox Live AAA games
- slow downloads of 2-4GB PS3 free psn games
(Gave away my PS3's to my cousins with 500GB HD which I hated upgrading as the
120GB's & 250GB's where nearly full)
- Impressed with PS4 with its 500GB HD as it managed storage much better than PS3
- Cheaper games on Steam compared to Games made for games console

I'm thinking more now about how much storage capacity my HDD has
than before about my shelf space - buying disc games and playing straight away and not games consoles connected to the net and their 1st day 2-4GB patches)

I'm still adjusting my gaming habit to more games downloading before playing,
than what it used to be for me 2 years ago.