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seek01

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January 31st, 2020 11:00

Replacing motherboard Aurora R8 with non Dell motherboard

Hello,

Purchased my Aurora R8 in June '19. Everything is good for the rest of the year until about the turn of the new year where my system kept randomly freezing. Went through all the troubleshooting process on my own before I went through Dell/ALienware support. Eventually I got frustrated with the experience and took it to a local Microcenter.

I call back Microcenter on the status of the repair and they said its a motherboard issue (which is different from what Dell Support remotely diagnosed it with) and they're struggling to get Dell to approve the replacement part under the warranty. I call Dell and they said that they will only send out a replacement motherboard if they dispatch the technician (which is annoying because supposedly Microcenter is an authorized technician). At this point I've been without my computer for a month, and wouldn't mind coming out of pocket to resolve this issue sooner-than-later. 

My question is it possible to purchase something a i5 9600k compatible motherboard with the same form factor and have Micro Center just swap it out with that one rather than continuing to go down this path with Dell? At this point, I don't mind if it voids the warranty as I believe I will go a different route if I need to upgrade any other parts and / or get a new system entirely. I also don't care about breaking any of the Alienware bells and whistles like the case LEDs or anything of such.

Thanks in advance,

S

1 person also has this problem

GTS81

2 Intern

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2.2K Posts

January 31st, 2020 13:00

@r72019 :

If you did go the route of a new system with the old parts, note that you'd need to buy a new license for windows 10.  It won't transfer over to a new motherboard.  

Thought I had a good deal when Egg shop dropped Win10 Home OEM to $99. Wednesday's 24-hour email special dropped it to $95. 

GTS81

2 Intern

 • 

2.2K Posts

January 31st, 2020 13:00

@seek01 :

The first issue you'll run into is to physically fit the board into the R8 chassis. Most if not all retail motherboards come with the IO panel at the back. The R8 chassis does not have a physical cut-out of the motherboard IO panel. Instead, the Dell mobo just has bare connectors that slot into the holes on the chassis. So if you want to fit the new motherboard there, you will need to cut sheet metal to remove the existing IO panel.

For compatibility of the headers and jumpers, please check out @HanoverB's pages on case swaps and motherboard connections.

Hopefully after reading his case swaps, you'll be inclined to move out of this nano-case. If you feel bad about it, I bought my R8 a month earlier than you and I'm in the midst of a custom build after having cut open holes in my R8 and bought a spare R6 chassis for accidents.

r72019

6 Professor

 • 

5.3K Posts

January 31st, 2020 13:00

I would say that Dell should be responsible for this, but just FYI that you can purchase OEM Aurora R8 motherboards on eBay. 

If you did go the route of a new system with the old parts, note that you'd need to buy a new license for windows 10.  It won't transfer over to a new motherboard.  

 

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