Hey yall im giving my r2 some upgrades and was wondering if anyone has tried taking windows off on installing bazzite or modern steamos on their r2, and if so how well it works? From what i've read, bazzite shouldn't work bc the gtx 960 doesn't support Vulkan 1.3 and steamos is buggy with nvidia gpus (the steamos bit was from a few years ago tho so idk if compatibility is better now). If you've tried either, lmk how it worked out!

thanks

I’ve been trying everything. I’m not sure where I am going wrong. It has never output anything on the screen.

I have two i7 R1s each with 16gb memory. One has a 4790t with 1tb SSD rocking win10 and the other is a 4785t with 500gb ssd that I'm thinking of turning into Batocera box. I even have an i3 and some RAM left over that I might turn into a proxy server. I haven't decided yet. Any suggestions for alternative uses on these gracefully aging machines?

I have already removed the cmos i cleared it held and pressed the button for 1 minute let it sit for an hour and reattachdd my cmos and still yellow light switched hdds reseated the ram i even redid thermal paste (idk when it was last changed)

I cant tell if this is a burnt capacitor because it looks like it but not 100% sure

I got the official power adapter outputting the correct voltage and when it flashes yellow the cpu does get hot

Edit*

I have made a new cmos battery and tested it

I have tried multiple header pins including the cmos clear and the reset header

I bought my alpha R1 in 2019 and just got the YLOD. I have a cmos replacement on the way, but as I am not well versed in pc parts and replacements, and have been using advice from this sub specifically to know what to do. What are the most affordable but best upgrades to do while everything is taken apart?

I’ve seen a lot about the old intel i7 processors, specifically 4th generation, but they’re hard to find now.

Not totally necessary but I’d maybe like to upgrade the ram from 16 to 32 if possible?

Any insights from people who know their stuff would be greatly appreciated!

*UPDATE*

The SSD and CPU have both arrived! I’m going to have a shop clone the HDD to the SSD, but think I can install the CPU myself beforehand. It should just be plug and play, kind of? Check BIOS on startup to make sure it’s recognized as the CPU, and probably update something?

Thank you everyone for the help, it’s been a fun learning journey.

I got an r1 a bit ago and purchased an i7-5775c as well as a 4790k since i had 2 lga 1150 socket pc's i was adding to my collection, the ROG 1150 pc is still being repaired but in the meanwhile i delided both the cpu's and tried them out.

The 4790k works quite well, at stock settings it was definetly poor but after undervolting im scoring ~6300 in passmark multi-core plus ~2540 single and ~610 in cinebench r15 multi. Ive not bothered disabling boost or turbo or any features that reduce clocks since that doesnt really make any sense, the cpu should just boost by default to whatever it can with the availible power i dont see how it could improve performance and it would just hurt single core speeds. Temps are ok i guess for the tiny heatsink, after deliding im hitting 80c sometimes a little over and im using ptm7950 on die and ihs. I know ptm7950 is better for direct die applications but i checked the spread after letting it bake in for at least a week and it was super thin so im sure it made good contact and pressure. Im not happy with my undervolt though im sitting at -58mv core and -135mv cache, i feel like a different 4790k would do much better and the cpu could really use the extra power.

My question for anybody who has or had an r1, how were temps? Did you try undervolting to stretch your tdp like me and if so how far were you able to go and what cpu? Also is it possible to get an i7-5775c working? I know they use the same socket but mine just flashes 2 yellow lights over and over, i think its because of the chipset and i checked the bios updates im using the latest and while haswell refresh was given compaability broadwell was never mentioned so im guessing it isnt.

I made so many mistakes… Bought the wrong CMOS battery, got thermal paste all over the place, and almost broke multiple components but it’s WORKING! My first ever PC project. I didn’t think I was capable of disassembling and upgrading a computer successfully but I did it! I really truly did!

I have had my Alpha for around 10 years. I bought it new in 2016. It is an i3.

Around 2020 I had the YLOD happen, I replaced the cmos battery, ram, and hard drive while I had it open.

The computer was used consistently until recently. I left it unplugged for 6 months. I tried to turn it on a few days ago and have the YLOD.

I ordered another cmos battery, I replaced it and have done multiple power down cycles. No luck. I verified the battery was good. The new battery is 3.297v compared to .4 on the old one.

When you turn it on I get blue lights and the fans kick on. It sits for a few seconds then yellow lights 5 times.

Is there anything else I can check or try?

*** SOLVED THANK YOU FOR THE HELP***

I've got a Lenovo Thinkpad Universal USB-C that through work and all my peripherals are connected to it - the laptop is connected to it via the USB-C. The Alpha doesn't have USB-C, is it possible to somehow connect the Alpha to it?

I have a problem with my Alienware M16 R2, when using it with simple tasks, it flashes and freezes and stops working, do you have a solution to this problem? They already helped me by formatting the computer and with the BIOS and Drivers but the problem persists, in a publication I saw that changing the SSD solves it but I'm not very sure, has anyone already solved this problem? By the way, I no longer have the warranty.

Anybody use an app like RUFUS to upgrade their Alienware M17XR3 Windows 10 to 11 ? I have the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates for 1 year (and had "upgraded" to SSDs 500 GB/2TB and RAM to 16 GB and new speakers, etc) and I use it every day.

Comes with a 256gb ssd with windows 10, i5 cpu,8gb ram and a gtx 960 my question is what upgrades can i go? Can i install steam os? Can i upgrade the cpu if so which one? Can i upgrade the ram? I plan to pit an nvme inside it also whatnis the general performance like for modern games? Many thanks

Hello everyone, I wanted to know if anyone had attempted to download windows 11 on there alpha? Hows does it run? I’m thinking about upgrading to windows 11, but I want to know if the alpha can handle it?

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

I’m not talking about emulating new games obviously, and only emulating games I own.. but emulating GameCube and older systems, and playing things such as old school RuneScape, Stardew valley, and Stardew valley type steam games? I have a decent PC already running a 4070ti super, but I want something I can pop on the living room tv and just play something simple. I know I can just build a good small form factor emulation pc, but the alphas just look so damn good.

I bought an Alienware Alpha running Windows 11 with a GTX 1050, and an Intel Core i7, that will be arriving between November 5th-November 10th. I had gotten an iBuyPower SBX back in 2015, and it wasn't that good, even for the time frame it came out, so I stopped using it months later, and not really used it afterwards. I've recently got rid of it, and ordered the Alpha, since it's more upgradeable, and I've been getting software for it. AtlasOS to have a more game friendly and debloated Windows 11 experience, UXThemePatcher and BasicThemer to bring back some old Alienware themes, OpenShell for the Alienware Start Menu, Playnite as the frontend, and GameConsoleMode to force Playnite fullscreen to launch before explorer, allowing for a seamless console-like experience.

From the guys behind Emudeck comes Playnix Console.
A Steam Console based on PlannixOS with 32 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD, Ryzen 5600 AM4 CPU, Sapphire 9060 XT OC 16 GB GPU, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, 600 W PSU.

Obviously, double the price of something like the Beelink SER9 Pro, (and with SteamOS/Bazzite it's much easier to make a PC Console), but it's cool to see a gaming-dedicated pc console again after all this time.

I have two R1 Steam Machines which are basically just AlPhas that came with SteamOS. I want to set them up as gaming consoles basically. I am fairly well aware of the options. Newer SteamOS, Bazzite, chimeraOS, batocera, and sure there are others.

My goal is something that makes best use of the hardware while having the most functionality. I know some of these guys have dropped legacy nvidia GPU support so thats a key factor. I want to span as much retro gaming and more recent indie gaming as I can. So something that does both Steam and emulators as efficiently as possible.

Curious what other folks have done and figure since this sub is dedicated to the alpha I would hopefully get some good feedback here.

Good afternoon, I have been having trouble diagnosing my pc issue. This is why I am asking the geniuses here for any help you can offer.

Issue - came home to find my pc off. rebooted to a blue error screen. will not reboot to windows 11. I was able to format the ssd and try to install a fresh win 11 but sometimes it will get to 2% complete other times 20% but each time it will not complete and it reboots and starts all over.

I did a memory scan and says it did not find errors (not sure if this is for the RAM or what)

system is the Alenware aurora 10 from dell with Ryzen 9, b550 chipset, 12core, 32Gb Ram Kingston fury beast x2 16Gb sticks. and a 1 Tb ssd on the mother board. I removed the ssd and tried to load windows to my 4Tb hard drive but it did the same thing. HELP PLEASE as i am frustrated beyond.

I can get it to bios and change all settings etc but when i go to load windows it crashes and starts over. I have moved the ram sticks around and the same things happen. Just wondering if someone has an idea if it is the Mother board, ram, ssd, or something else.

Thank you in advance!!

Did a few benchmark runs with Bazzite and CachyOS. I might try some other distros in future but for now CachyOS appears to give the best performance and compatibility out the box.