I Bought A BROKEN Alienware Gaming PC On Ebay...

[@Brian0wns]

To be fair if I was a CPU trapped in an Alienware - I would also escape.

[@romail996]

😂

[@this.is.shashwat]

I can imagine poor ryzen running for his life from that dell torture chamber

[@DeepDownInTheOcean]

Man, my old dells components stopped working so that they didn't have to continue running in that absolute dumpster fire of a pc.

[@EDV8ZR1]

Dell equals hell Hot Box PC CPU torture chamber

[@Eeveewashere]

@@this.is.shashwat And would anyone have minded if the Alienware case was thicker? I'm cool with a gaming desktop being not as sleek as a MacBook. But thinner means they save on shipping even if it makes repair and upgrades a hellscape.

[@biiyen8458]

Dawid just finding out it didn't have a CPU after hours of testing is the equivalent of a surgeon operating on a person without noticing that it came into the operating room headless.

[@kcgunesq]

True, but I'm still glad he did it this way. Dawid has a special approach that really makes him stand out positively among YT's pc related channels.

[@Chris-ie2yd]

The head isn't hidden under layers of shit, it's right there at the top. I think a better analogy would be the heart or brain.

[@exxor9108]

@@Chris-ie2yd I agree, the CPU is the heart of the computer.

[@philwolf6721]

Though in all fairness, it would have to be a guy wearing a big hoodie and a fake head.

[@matthewcrabtree4675]

In his defense, how many times have you ever seen a cooler installed without a CPU under it? 😂

[@jasonkristian8386]

Not having a CPU at all in the system is the biggest plot twist of all time because it's quite smart considering people assume there is one due to the cooler.

[@mirzadaullymun7129]

I think it had a 5800X3D in it, they took it out to sell at a higher price given how rare that chip is right now

[@daflipbizkit]

He basically bought $1000 3080 10gb. The rest of the parts are pretty much crap.

[@MrSimandroid123]

@@daflipbizkit At least he got the 3080, they could easily put a less valuable gpu in it or even a broken one cause it was sold as "broken"

[@scottcol23]

@@MrSimandroid123 Absolutely. They could have put a broken GPU in it or even just took it out all together. Unless there was a picture of the GPU installed in the listing they could have removed it with out an issue. When see something listed as "parts only non working" you have to assume the worst. The best thing to do is to click the "contact seller" button and ask a few questions, so you can get an idea of what you are getting. Then after they respond you shoot over a "make an offer" because I never click the buy it now button unless it is a steal of a deal. Everyone lists the buy it now price as their, this is how much I hope to get but will take way less, price.

[@DimkaTsv]

@@daflipbizkit Well, 4080 costs 1200 USD on other side. . .

[@5h4ck]

As soon as I saw it fail to boot with the 3600, my immediate thought was "I bet the BIOS is 5000 series locked." I rebuilt an old HP Omen that originally shipped with a 3000 series Ryzen, and the only thing that would boot in it, was another 3000 series chip. Anything else would fail to POST. Glad to see you tried a 5000 series and got it up and running!

[@Algenhirn]

He used a 2600 which wasn't a great idea in the first place because even regular newer motherboards are likely to have problems with that because of the bios. Atleast that's what I think because when the 3000 series launched it wasn't supported by older motherboards bios and I think this would have been the same issue here as you said.

[@drunkhusband6257]

You would have to do a bios update to run a 5000 series on a 3000 series motherboard. All 5000 series motherboards are backward compatible with 3000, 2000, and 1000 series though.

[@JamieRyan92]

@@drunkhusband6257 Not all, most don't support 1000 Series at all, some don't support 2000

[@GreatMossWater]

Earlier clue was the Ryzen 5000 sticker.

[@cjolney]

My friend bought a Rog Strix X570 and got an RTX 3050 for Christmas to upgrade his ITX pc, I put it together for him with his original 2400G from a B350. It would not post at all, cpu error on the motherboard. I tried to flash the oldest and newest bios with a USB, no change in condition. He ended up buying a 5600G and the system booted right up no issue. For anyone curious about the build, it was a fractal define nano S, with an evga 600w bronze psu and 16gb 8x2 3200mhz crucial ballsitix, I'm pretty sure they were on the QVL for both CPUs.

[@DctrGizmo]

I legit was in shock when you found out there was no CPU. At least the 3080 was working fine 🤣

[@weldsj8847]

I wonder if he could have complained about the seller at a minimum. Big difference between saying a system isn't working and actually not delivering a full system at all.

[@LLiivveeeevviiLL]

@@weldsj8847 Yes, otherwise where does it end? "Yes I said the system does not work, why would it. I sent you a stone".

[@goopah]

Reminds me when I bought my home and went to change the furnace filter. And there was no furnace filter. Those cheap bastards had either taken it with them, or just never bothered to use one. I mean, they're not expensive...

[@badmoose01]

@@weldsj8847the thing is the seller advertised the pc as broken.

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

yeah I mean no cpu so that implies the rest of the system might be fine as it just needed a cpu🤣🤣🤣

[@kalpa_sama]

To think there used to be time when Alienware was every aspiring gamer kids dream pre-built to buy... and then Dell entered the equation xD

[@DSC4]

oh man seeing the big bang theory i always wanted sheldons aw gaming laptop xD and today they are....bad and expensive

[@melon64_]

@@DSC4 They have phenominal laptops, it's the prebuilts, those suck

[@bobsonian]

@@DSC4 I believe I had the same as the Big Bang Theory, Alienware M17XR3 Nebula Red with an NVIDIA GTX 560M with 120hz 3D screen and NVIDIA 3D Glasses. It was awesome until the GPU died after 4 years, then I swore never to get a gaming laptop again and built my own desktop. Happy days

[@kalpa_sama]

@@melon64_ Nah man, they suck as well I have had an A15 R4 and after a year or two it turned to shit... but I guess I can't really blame it on Alienware but more so on gaming laptops in general, they just suck!

[@KOxGaming678]

The Inspiron series are trash Still regretting buying it

[@konga382]

The most gripping episode of Fix or Flop yet

[@siqu7071]

wrong channel

[@tuff_lover]

@@siqu7071 based

[@stephenzulkowski4386]

I was half hoping for a collaboration, haha

[@Rizer1231]

One day maybe we can get a colllab.

[@justinbouchard]

I have gone through this exact same emotional experience modifying and fixing things before. When the gpu worked on a new system and you spent a few moments swearing I felt the same relief I feel when success happens to me.

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

fun fact a computer needs a cpu to boot who would have thought🤣🤣🤣

[@michaelliening2608]

Fun fact. The SpP and the LPN labels mean this was purchased used from amazon before Dawid got it off eBay. The SpP labels are how Amazon keeps track of shipments within their own warehouses, and the LPN label is used when a product is returned and deemed worthy of reselling as "Used" or "As is."

[@airdog46x]

so in the end it was a fraudulent refund

[@blueishgreen76]

@@airdog46x With Amazon, it could just of easily been seller fraud. Be a bit wary of third party tech sellers; Amazon doesn't do much to preventing comingling fraud.

[@Microwave414]

@@airdog46x Probably, makes me wonder if the ram that was inside the computer was swapped out also thinking and rightfully so that amazon warehouse employees wouldn't know the difference. Not the employee's fault IMO but the ass who decided to do this as a means of getting a high end CPU and ram without paying for it.

[@techsenseindia]

Smart scammer mf😅

[@GodzThirdLeg]

​@@Microwave414the chance of getting good RAM out of pre-builts is slim and basically 0 if it comes from an OEM

[@GarryOzols]

I'm old enough to remember when an Alienware system was well designed, well specced and was considered beastly, but then Dell happened and that was the end of that.

[@shadowwolf2608]

same, I remember wanting one because I thought it would help me be a cool youtuber back in High School.

[@mannydcbianco]

Yup, Alienware started out as true and proper enthusiast computers. Built by tech nerds who truly cared, for tech nerds who truly cared. Then, as you put it, Dell happened, and that was that. Went from being expensive but well-built and well-equipped beasts to expensive poorly built and poorly equipped pieces of junk in just a couple years.

[@vinodsrivatsava]

Whenever a big corporate buys a small business which does good they ruin it

[@JamieHamelSmith]

Yep, my boss bought me one as a 3D workstation back in 2002/2003 or so. That was before the cases were custom and ugly. It was just a regular case but metallic green. I think it was a dual CPU model and it had a Quadro GPU. But it was essentially just off the shelf parts.

[@robtech341]

Dell could f*** up a glass of water. Cheers!

[@SirSicCrusader]

My theory is, the seller was not tech savvy, a """freind""" of theirs stole the CPU knowing they wouldn't know how to check for it and just covered it back up with the water block. So when it wouldn't work, all they would see is a normal system that just didn't work and wouldn't know what to do and instead of getting it fixed they just strait up sold it. Anything else and it's just weird that they sent you a working thiddy80.

[@FormerRuling]

Why the friend would steal the very cheap CPU instead of the at the time very valuable 3080 I'm not sure, but I also can't think of a reason the seller would sale the PC with having just harvested the CPU out of it either lol.

[@reloadedspade176]

Maybe the money they sold it for could buy themselves another setup of the same worth or even better.

[@ppnexus2000]

@@FormerRuling They couldn't take out the GPU without the guy noticing, even if he was extremely un tech savvy. And the CPU isn't cheap by any means. A 5800X is still a good end cpu.

[@wmp0074]

My theory is he didn't read the description and the seller clearly said the processor is missing.

[@FormerRuling]

@Jalal Karimov Sure, I guess I can see if it was a crime of opportunity and they didn't have much time to think about it. The card could have been switched out for any cheap 2 fan card though without someone thats never opened a computer being able to tell and a year ago that would have netted him something like 4x the value of that chip and without even bricking the system (the performance drop could be explained to someone that didn't know better)

[@kawaiidestruktor7809]

i laughed so hard when dawid took off the cooler and there was nothing under the thermal paste. I was salty because i was thinking "Why he doesn't test those components in another motherboard?" lmaooo

[@qPalee]

For some reason i doubt that another motherboard would've solved the issue. Idk why though

[@Psi-Storm]

I wasn't even shocked that the cpu socket was empty, people usually pull the cpu out of the am4 socket when they lift of the cooler, because the cpu paste is stronger than the socket pressure on the cpu. When there was no cpu on the underside of the heatsink, i started smiling.

[@kawaiidestruktor7809]

@@Psi-Storm that's exactly what happened to me, i thought that he ripped off the cpu with the cooler, thats why i said "under the thermal paste", it took me a while to realize that the cpu simply didn't exist

[@beaniiman]

@@Psi-Storm That was what I was expecting to see also.

[@I_am_ENSanity]

I remember grabbing an Alienware pre-built back in 2020 during a sale and got a 5800x, 6800xt, 1tb nvme for around $1970. Immediately pulled the parts out and put them in a better PC and have been having a blast since.

[@DetectiveMagnotta]

Ive fixed pcs for many many years and this is likely the first time I've ever come across a "broken" pc basically being broken because someone removed the CPU for some reason. As looking at the CPU cooler the thermal paste seems to have made contact with a CPU by the looks of it.

[@partnermammoth2562]

yh wierd maybe they someone killed the CPU due to over heating or something took it out to test and decided to just decided to sell the whole thing and get a new PC instead after they learnt how shite alienware are XD

[@chadandrade635]

I bet he had a buddy using his new alien pc, then his friend jacked the cpu and said hey man your computer broke it just stopped working. Lol 😆

[@14rs2]

9:38 “We are potentially sacrificing this CPU to the gods of Alienware” Hahaha there are no gods of Alienware only devils and demons

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

I love how they bought the system to get a cpu and sold the system after they got it out of the system🤣🤣🤣

[@empoy65]

And when you'd thought the CPU would be pulled out of the socket! Damn, nobody was ready for that plot twist!

[@1pcfred]

Actually I did see that one coming. When he was saying we'll get to see what CPU I said, if there is a CPU. At this point after all I've seen I tear PCs completely down and rebuild them before I power them up. I found one once where they left the conductive foam on the back of the motherboard. They did a really neat job of installing it too. All you could see was this little pink line that ran around the board.

[@trr4gfreddrtgf]

Same here, I didn't think it would even light up without a CPU installed.

[@1pcfred]

@@trr4gfreddrtgf motherboards are pretty sophisticated today. They have to be able to POST with a broken CPU. At least up to the point where they check the CPU. I could swear I've heard of boards that can POST without a CPU. As in they can give you a BIOS screen. A quick web search suggests it is a feature on some hardware.

[@trr4gfreddrtgf]

@@1pcfred Yep, it's quite impressive

[@1pcfred]

@@trr4gfreddrtgf it is amazing computers work at all. Billions of parts.

[@cppctek]

You can always look up the Dell Alienware service tag number on the case and it will show you the entire spec list it was built with.

[@AoiRozlin]

I just did, looks like it was a Ryzen 7 5800 that was shipped with it. The machine is still under warranty, lol!

[@williamjones4483]

@@outlet6989 I've a strong suspicion that the mobo is defective. Anew one should be able to be gotten with little trouble. A few years ago I purchased a Dell XPS 8500 from a guy dirt cheap. Turns out the mobo was bad. I found a brand new mobo in China. Didn't even have any service tag set into it yet. Maybe this guy could luck out and find a new board somewhere not so expensive.

[@Villosa64]

@@AoiRozlin bro these ppl buying the alienwares are crazy they never check anything, if the machine breaks theyll just auction it off and buy a new one

[@Je-kg8up]

@@williamjones4483 More likely the motherboard is just 'locked' to a particular set of CPUs, it limits the amount of BIOS development required since there aren't as many compatibility options you need to consider.

[@greenmarine5]

If he did that, this video would be useless LOL

[@five5x]

My computer savvy friend decided to buy an Alienware system last year. I was surprised by his decision since he is a computer guy, but I think to sale price was the reason why. It didn't take him long to start messaging me about how loud it was. He eventually changed the fan and that solved most of the issues. He ended up selling it in less than a year and built his own system. So I guess he unconvinced himself that he made a good decision buying an Alienware system.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Removing side panels also solves issues with Alienware 😆

[@baroncalamityplus]

They were clearing out the systems at crazy prices. That's why I got one.

[@ryanengle3188]

I had a tech savvy Friend, his major in college at the time was CS. Bought an Alienware against my advice. This was in 2012/14 somewhere abouts. He got an I3. Bought a new CPU for it bc well I3. Then bought a new GPU for it bc the one it came with was shit. Low spec 900 series IIIRC like a 950. Then realized he needed a new Powersupply bc new CPU and new GFX card needed more power. Then bought a new case to fit the new PSU to power the new 970ti and I5something. Then needed a new MOBO bc the alienware one was some weird Dell spec size that didn't fit. The whole time he was telling me what he was doing I was like, BRUH! Spent 2-3x's more for a shittier system than what i spec'd out for him. That cost LESS than the OG spec Alienware. Thats when i learned just bc people are in the Computer Science field doesnt mean they understand anything about computers. He seriously graduated and got a job doing computer stuff with the CIA. I was interviewed 3x's by the FBI in his vetting process.

[@-opus]

"My computer savvy friend decided to buy an Alienware system last year." No sense made.

[@trr4gfreddrtgf]

@@-opus Consider reading it again, it made sense to me.

[@37Kilo2]

I remember early Alienware, when they had metallic green, and purple cases. The cases were based on the beautiful Antec/Chieftec chassis' that I still love.

[@joostvandijck8171]

Dawid, congrats on approaching 0,5 million subs! It's awesome to have seen your channel grow so much these years :) Never change, your style sets your channel apart from others like LTT J2C etc. Keep up the great work!

[@KudaKae]

This config usually came with a 5800x or 5900x. so besides the cpu not being there, the owner probably thought the gpu broke

[@feieralarm]

When the Alienware already reaches 82C with a 5900X, it must've been absolutely scorching with the 5800X that seems to have been in there before.

[@100500daniel]

A 5700x would do fine. Probably not surpass 80°c under full load.

[@OmPrakash-pc1ec]

perhaps the previous cpu evaporated

[@ffwast]

They have the same TDP but with only one 8-core die,so probably not a whole lot of difference.

[@feieralarm]

@@ffwast The TDP might be the same, but the 5800X only has a single CCD and, compared to the 5900X with its 2 CCDs, a much more focuses hotspot, making it extremely hard to cool and the hottest Zen 3 CPU on the market.

[@baroncalamityplus]

I don't believe the R10 was offered with anything above a 5800x

[@stephena2720]

That machine is the perfect candidate to test one of the newer 120mm aio's from EK, Arctic and Deepcool. Would be sweet to see if any of them could sort out the thermals.

[@BrooklynBalla]

It probably wouldn’t t help that much.The airflow in those Alienware cases is horrible.

[@drunkhusband6257]

120mm aios are horrible.

[@ShowXTech]

Good luck trying to mount it with alienware's proprietary stuff

[@drunkhusband6257]

@Lux Aeterna And the junk 120mm AIO

[@AmazingChinaToday]

I'm so glad I bought a Cooler Master HAF-932 case. Giant, low RPM fans (silent), on all sides of the case, no component ever gets hot.

[@GGigabiteM]

If the PC came with a Ryzen 5000 series CPU, then you must use a Ryzen 5000 series CPU. Due to AMD keeping the AM4 socket around so long, they ran out of room in the standard 16MB UEFI ROM to store microcode for the entire AM4 range. The fix was to support smaller groups of CPUs, generally in the same range and one prior range. This means that not all AM4 motherboards are compatible with all AM4 CPUs. Some manufacturers did release special stripped down UEFI implementations to make more room to support more CPUs, but it isn't common. If you have a motherboard compatible with Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, then the farthest back you can generally go is Ryzen 3000, excluding the APUs. A Ryzen 2600 definitely won't work.

[@yobson]

true

[@Ba_Yegu]

Thanks to Linode for supporting Dawid in purchasing suspicious crap from the Net.

[@jediguy634]

Is it even a Dawid episode if Linode doesn't sponsor the video?

[@Snoopmasta]

Glad that you got a 3080 out of that! I was worried that you'd been scammed completely!

[@FuelX]

Working mobo, working psu, working aio, working gpu, likely working ram and an ugly case on top. There's no scam there. It was advertised as broken. Likely the CPU was fried and the previous owner didnt bother to put it back in.

[@sakaraist]

@@FuelX Nah you'd definitely get a refund if you applied for one. A CPU is implied when you sell a COMPUTER. pretty much a scam. It's also a proprietary motherboard, proprietary psu, proprietary case & a single dimm ram stick. The only things in an alienware from the oem that aren't a scam is the fact that you get a stock-standard CPU & GPU.

[@FuelX]

@@sakaraist I'm not sure. As Dawid paid for a complete broken computer I suppose he should have received the broken silicon. However, he paid for an alienware, so he was willingly buying dell junk. And there was no cpu spec on the ebay listing. So he got what he paid for. It might be a little scammish but not outrageously :)

[@sakaraist]

@@FuelX enough that you'd unquestionably be able to get a full or partial refund on ebay, But yeah anyone buying anything from dell is already okay with getting scammed.

[@Baalaaxa]

@@FuelX A broken computer is different than a cannibalized computer with essential parts missing entirely. If you buy a car "with some problems" and then turns out it's missing the whole engine, or the gearbox, would you be happy? A classic move taking only the CPU because it's conveniently hidden behind that cooler block. A missing GPU would be too obvious. It's a scam alright, at least for that price. You should tell if you've removed critical parts from the product you're selling, broken or not. Obviously the computer doesn't work if there's no CPU, lol. But, of course it's possible that the seller didn't know either and was scammed too. Maybe the computer was "serviced" by someone else and then deemed broken by the previous owner.

[@Cielos88]

I spit out my coffee laughing when I saw it didnt have a cpu XD

[@Gassit]

IKR, at least the socket wasn't packed full of thermal paste.

[@MrPaxio]

so for $1.1k, they sold you a $700 gpu, useless cheap mobo, useless ram, and took the cpu? wtf. if they didnt say the cpu is missing thats kind of a scam

[@ShitpostZach]

Why the owners took out the CPU is a mystery to me. With another CPU it was working like new (Which still is terrible considering its Dell) but STILL

[@LordCohliani]

Yeah it makes no sense. I can't think of a logical explanation.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

Took it out and put it in a system with non-proprietary components, better airflow, and a better GPU probably.

[@LordCohliani]

@@philtkaswahl2124 yes but then why list it as broken? I wonder if someone sold it as "no CPU" and the second guy didn't have the right CPU so he sold it as "broken"

[@philtkaswahl2124]

​@@LordCohliani Or we could be overthinking this and the one who made the listing was just someone who doesn't know much about computers and got handed it by someone who told them it wouldn't work, and then just decided to sell it.

[@LordCohliani]

@@philtkaswahl2124 overall, David got pretty lucky.

[@Sayonkiller]

I'm sure somebody else must have said this already in the comments but if you find the Dell service tag you could find the original configuration of the Alienware before the missing CPU.

[@emlyndewar]

Now it’s working. It’s time to do an "improving the Alienware" follow-up.

[@scudsturm1]

indeed

[@gnash58]

The first thing I would do is pull everything useful out of that case and toss it. Then it gets a new case, new cooler, new motherboard, dual channel RAM, and PSU.

[@jayb2705]

Time to shove a 4090 and 13900k in there, and watch the world burn

[@gnash58]

@@jayb2705 Neither of those would fit. It's a Ryzen motherboard and you couldn't physically fit a 4090 in there. Plus I doubt that PSU could even handle a 12 pin power connector. (and yes, I know you were just kidding)

[@soumyadeepghosh7815]

Shows a ryzen 7 5000 sticker in front of the case at the start, still keeps checking for cpu, then puts in a 2000 series cpu which most likely wouldn't work and then he takes the gpu out to test on one of his 100 systems he has. Man, I love his vids. XD

[@Fal9111]

9:35 “that’s good enough logic for me “ Actually made me LOL. Good job man . Entertaining stuff !

[@TheOriginalFaxon]

Thank you LINOOOOOOOOOODE for supporting Dawid's irresponsible purchasing decisions so that we can get this kind of top quality content at regular intervals, I don't know what Dawid would do without you XD

[@JohanHultin]

@enrique amaya oh praise the lord! Praise HIM!

[@twyx6928]

This thing's more cramped on the inside than a mall two days before Christmas.

[@Bill-lt5qf]

when i hear "we have a sponser for this episode", i now hold my breath in fears of hearing those dreaded words, "established titles". thank goodness it's just good old linode.

[@drewa3597]

or raid

[@illisimo]

I took the panel of dangerously wrong and was surprised it made a noise it wasn't meant to.

[@illisimo]

@Official_DawidDoesTechStuff0.. you ripped it right up you have you pull the latch and pull up and sideways

[@LifeofBoris]

dumbest purchases are the best purchases 🔥

[@michaelilie1629]

Hey you watch Dawid too!!! Big fan of your channel as well!!!

[@TriloByte101]

bought a expired mint condom once... my sausage is never been the same since... divine experience opaaa!!

[@kekikus5026]

yo

[@wunna2323]

damn bro is here as well

[@LenasSun]

Rarely

[@cosminmilitaru9920]

With that suffocating CPU cooling, the best thing would be an R5 5600 non-X, those work at least up to 4.45 GHz at 1.184 V which is quite the low voltage and don't heat up at all. And an RTX 3060 or an RX 6600. Not like there's airflow happening in that case.

[@marvinfernandez2583]

I'd probably put a 5700x in there just for peace of mind in balanced pairing with the 3080.

[@joshb6470]

you know, after watching this fully including the sponsor ad since you do those so well, I have to say the biggest thing here has to be that you did not need to uninstall 497 gigs of alienware bloat from the system too

[@diminaenterprisesllc]

The issues I run into with pre built system builders is they all use weird proprietary components in some way. These components are often time 25% to 200% more than the custom build equivalent and some come with reduced performance. They are not designed to be serviced by non techs and are expensive to fix. I'm working on upgrading a HP workstation right now, I think I can definitely resell it but instead of dropping in my own psu and a Rx 570 4gb with some ram I'm forced to buy all HP certified components so it can't take more than a 4gb Rx 550 with 16gb HP ddr4 and the PSU has only 3 cables but the motherboard has a ton of adaptor headers it's going to be a good system to someone but the headache on upgrading is painful to system builders

[@franklidgad]

Maybe pick up a lottery ticket as you seem to have the good luck on your side. Quick put it up for sale before everything craps out because of the high CPU temp. You can at least recover your money and them some before it's too late. 😎 I was looking at getting one of these R13's but after hearing this system running I would have to wear hearing protection just to have it in the same room. Sounds like a jet in take off mode and where's the fun in that ? If you are going to keep it maybe try reducing the noise by replacing the fans and doing a before and after video and I might reconsider getting one.

[@nightwheel]

I think the CPU situation gets even crazier. If you look when he first lifted the cooler to look under it. The thermal paste was still in a nice round circle. Which means the computer may have not even shipped with the CPU in the first place. That or the CPU cooler is a new replacement.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

that should be theoretically covered by RMA, but then again it's a Dell

[@DJProPlusMax]

No. If that happened, there would be a little bit of thermal paste in the socket. It was clear in the video that the thermal paste WAS squished down at some point in it's lifetime. So maybe Dawid was scammed or he is screwing with us.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@DJProPlusMax scammed by an ebay seller that sold something "for parts"?

[@15fakeaccount]

"RGB lights up, good enough" -Alienware QA

[@talos86]

@@DJProPlusMax why should be a thermal paste in the socket? The manufacturers are always using different kind of pre-applied thermal paste on the coolers coldplate than we get it in the suringes. Those are always on the drier side to prevent dripping during shipping.

[@sqtisfy]

I just love when Dawid gets sponsored by Linode

[@MaxskiSynths]

Same for some reason... Linoooooooode

[@MrR2185]

It's the way he says it .....I just love it.

[@Bahumot]

That was a thoroughly entertaining mystery! With a rare happy ending! I have delt with Alienware Machines at home and especially at work. They are bulky, loud, and a tendency to die. I hope you can find some way to turn that giant turbine into something positive for humanity. Also, buying 'broken' systems and figuring out what's wrong and fixing them sounds like a source of a lot of delightful videos!

[@edlee5687]

Honestly if I had a family member buy one of these I'd tell them to either just keep the side panel off or take all the parts out and game like a testbench setup haha either way your thermals would be way better lol..... Or really just return the dam thing...

[@outlet6989]

@@edlee5687, I took the side cover off, and my R8 has never had a heat problem. It is so quiet I can barely hear it, even with the side panel off. My purchase of the four-year extended warranty helps. As in, he bought the four-year contract, so ensure it's carefully assembled and thoroughly tested before we ship it.

[@TheChodax]

Found this video massively frustrating, taking the GPU and testing in another rig should have been the first step.

[@elu9780]

Alienware wasn't innovating with that PSU mount thing - I have a case from early 2000s that does the same thing. Why they dug up something like that to use in any modern system, I have no idea.

[@biscuitdingus]

A case from 1995 does the same thing, I have an AT tower system that originally came with a socket 7 board which has a flip out over-board psu.

[@exxor9108]

Alienware has been in the business of CPU BDSM for decades, apparently.

[@kekistanifreedomfighter4197]

According to highly thumbed up comments in the GamersNexus alienware r13 video from someone claiming to be an engineer from dell... Dell management is just so damn cheap they still use the same base case design from almost 25 years ago to avoid spending money on new manufacturing equipment, engineers to design a new case, or license another company's case design. So they're putting 100 watt CPUs & 300 watt GPUs inside of a case that was designed in 1995ish to hold parts with a total TDP of only about 100 watts all together.

[@honeybadger6275]

@@kekistanifreedomfighter4197 I mean I guess if you're making products at the same volume that dell does it makes sense but on the consumer side of things its really scummy.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

A broken Alienware PC also known as a new Alienware PC.

[@Rambone72]

Nothing wrong with scoring a 3080 on a gamble. 👍

[@802Garage]

The funniest part about this is if you had just taken off the AIO and added a 5000 series back in, it would have been a 3 min video. Much better this way.

[@MhWow66]

The best way to Run one of these Alienware pcs is to simply leave the side open...

[@RATTU5_]

I kind of want to see a max out build with the only restrictions being keeping the same case and manage to keep it under "normal" temperatures and have it not cosplay as a jet turbine

[@baroncalamityplus]

You did. With the motherboard and case, you can't go any future than what he had here.

[@rustler08]

What? That's essentially exactly what you saw. A 5900X is close enough to a 5950X, and a 3090 won't fit in that case. At most an FE 3080 Ti might fit, but that's barely an upgrade. And no real cooling will fit, yeah.

[@frkssen1820]

Lmao I thought the CPU was stuck at the AIO Block when he pulled it out but it turns out there actually WASN'T anything in there. Eitherway, that 3080 is a win don't know why they salvaged the CPU but didn't take the 3080 along with it.

[@smokeeish77]

they needed it to be there so they can sell it for PARTS.

[@urbsimp5273]

Thumbs up just for Linode sponsorship. Great video as well mate.

[@Boss-zo4lw]

Man , just a sponsor clip can pay for a PC, along with Adverts, free cash on patreon, memberships etc, i can see why they buy a house outright in the first few months, crazy.

[@emmanueldanladi757]

heart literaly skipped a beat when dawid tested the card and got a display, was so relieved the whole pc came back.

[@DjVortex-w]

An RTX 3080 is not "not bad". It's astonishingly good.

[@nickhowatson4745]

Hey Dawid, when my Alienware Alpha R2 hits the bucket or when i upgrade, i will be sure to send it in for free so you can make a video on it. ive been using it since 2016 and its still going strong as we speak. oh and FYI, it ONLY supports single channel RAM as it only has 1 RAM slot so its definitely Skeletor approved. i will throw in my Alienware Graphics Amplifier as well.

[@pewdiepieyepthomi5174]

Noo You send it to me instead. I will use it with all my love instead of it ending up in his basement xD

[@Sniper_Swagger]

Hi bro can you please review the most selled graphics card from AliExpress Mingzhou Rx 580 🤔😄

[@TheRealLink]

Totally gasped when you removed that AIO! Nuts that people would try to sell / scam you like that but hey, glad you were able to fix it! Not the best config temp-wise but hey, nice for an Alienware.

[@benjackson9983]

Don't think I will ever have a use for Linode but always enjoy a Dawid Lenode ad

[@michaelthompson9798]

I’m surprised Dawid hasn’t got himself a hernia with all the heavy lifting and groaning I; his videos 💪👍😇

[@hman6159]

Lol

[@RaidingTutorials]

XD

[@tux9656]

Dawid, I think you may have purchased a stolen computer. My guess is the seller only wanted a CPU and then used eBay to get rid of the rest of it. How long has the seller been a member of eBay?

[@lofnsjoke]

A while. MADCHEETAH-OUTLET is the ebay store that sold it

[@TheLepec93]

And they indicated in the listing that the CPU was missing.

[@lofnsjoke]

I'm sure this was posted somewhere below, but the EBay seller's ID is MADCHEETAH-OUTLET, and the listing does state that the processer is missing... so shouldn't have been that much of a head scratcher to fix. But the video was entertaining.

[@1337Ox]

Yeah most of the motherboards that support Ryzen 5000 had to drop compatibility with older Ryzen CPUs. I was hoping this will be the problem!

[@metamon2704]

Depends on what generation, the 3000-series should work, earlier ones won't.

[@chasejulia]

@@metamon2704 Nope, I had one (bought during the GPU crunch to get a 6800XT). I also planned to swap the 5600 in it for a 3600 I already had, and it wouldn't boot. Put the 5600 back in and it worked just fine.

[@metamon2704]

@@chasejulia Nope, I have one with a 5900X in it and it works with my 3800X, my anecdotal evidence is as good as yours. The fact is the 3000 and 5000 series use the same motherboards that were introduced with the 3000 series.

[@GARZUKII]

first thought that came to mind when you pulled the water block off, someone wanted a free cpu upgrade, returned the unit back to the retailer where eventually you got it. as far as the 2600 not working, on certain boards the bios memory is limited and you have to lose support for older chips to gain support for the newer chips.

[@jdelliott]

Might be my favorite video of yours yet haha the CPU reveal was amazing

[@batboyboy]

meybe the mainbroad not woking!!

[@10blood]

Video starts at 3:39. The rest is just bs.

[@Inflatableorc]

That's awesome man, glad you got it working. great video! Thought about buying an alienware system, but too expensive!

[@TheDigitalThreat]

It is expensive, but while people love to shit talk alienware, I never have had an issue with my r12 and even if I do the warranty covers anything including my dumb ass spilling a drink for 4 years. If som ething goes wrong all I have to do is make one phone call or e-ticket form. Sure, I could "build" one myself for less money (and even thats been hard to do with GPU prices IF you can even get a good one) but then you need to take the time to source parts, build it, etc. Then you have multiple warranty's to track for each component, and most you cant extend the warranty either, so after 1 year the gamble is on you. Its nice to have ONE # to call for everything for years, as opposed to tracking down what broke, where you got it, WHEN you got it, and is it even still covered etc.... Every single build company is shit, so dell isnt alone. If you are building yourself you take on risks. If you buy pre built like dell, you take on other cons like inflated price. In the end as long as it works and you could afford it without going into debt.

[@jordanelbers]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it - do a part 2 video for this, where you ether replace/add fans to fix the noise and temperature problem, or a video on transferring all the components into a better tower…. If that’s even possible.

[@justair44]

It's not really worth it. Yes it will lower noise a little but cooling will remain similar (within a few degrees) To get it down to acceptable levels he either has to install a less powerful cpu... (5700x/g etc.) or install Ryzen Master and undervolt a little.

[@Smithcraft1]

For future reference, it might be easier to open the outer box, open the flaps and flip it over. Then you can just lift the outer box off.

[@Mr-Mag00]

Score over 9000! good purchase. Thank you for your humor and time in the video, have a great day!

[@coolissimo69]

Dude you can open the AIO, and fill up with car coolant or distilled water , as normally the radiators are low in fluid. That will make less noise, and maybe clean the fans.

[@OneximusVerseAI]

I bought a broken r12 a few months back. The GPU was causing constant freezing and crashes and there was no heat sink. The guy who sold it to me on facebook marketplace only wanted 1050 for it but neglected to tell me. But I fixed all the issues and upgraded it so I'm satisfied.

[@christianstonecipher1547]

@1:57 Fun fact, the blue sticker that has BAXT written on it means that the system was returned to amazon and deemed something to be sent to be liquidated. Meaning the Ebay seller likely bought a lot of Amazon liquidation items and is trying to resell them for a profit. Also the comment about crop circles a few seconds later is also something done by Amazon. Any customer information on the box is cut off and thrown away leaving those patches of bare box.

[@windowstherapy]

Your inspection is really great, love that

[@the_beefy1986]

My FIL recently brought over his older Dell system with a 7th gen i7 over. It needed a Windows reinstall. Chassis inside was practically identical to this system. It was not fun to work on. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to latch the side panel back on.

[@Fizzoid]

So even with the AIO to alleviate the airflow problem, Dell still somehow manage to design a system that can still cook itself. Congrats!

[@cjchannel12RC]

Congrats on the eBay gamble win, I wish i could get this lucky with a PC and because of YT i now kind of want to buy an Alienware PC again unfortunately. It's kind of sad what Dell has turned Alienware into i remember wanting an Aurora R4 back in the day but that was before i was able to build my own PC's. I'm so happy my life wasn't polluted by Proprietary OEM Pre build nonsense me and my family had Vista era Acer pre builts back then. Great video Dawid keep it up.

[@beefgoat80]

I have the carcass of an Alienware R8 in my office. It was the liquid cooled version with an i5-9600k. The motherboard couldn't deliver enough power to the processor and kept throttling due to insufficient power. I've taken everything of value out of it and left it to rot in a corner.

[@mahmoudmohammadnezhad2792]

Oh boy! The sound of this system reminds me of my previous gaming pc, which was for MSI! Not only was it so hot, but when you played AAA games in some places, it sounded like a huge truck shaking! At some point where you show how noisy it is, I thought it was a gunshot sound in the game! That was so fun and satisfying, though :)

[@lylerobertson9630]

Made me choke laughing at "filled the room with smelly gym bag" caught me off guard 😂

[@CarnorJast1138]

I may be in the minority here, but I actually LIKE Alienware design aesthetics! My personal favorite design, and one that I own, is the Area 51 R2 Triad Case. Very open design inside, with loads of airflow, a beefy 80plus Gold 1500 watt modular PSU, liquid cooled CPU, very roomy interior, and yes, very unorthodox design! Angles all over the place, but THAT is what makes it cool, for me! It's HUGE, yes, and very heavy (63lbs without a GPU, RAM or SSD's installed). It does have subtle but bright RGB strips on the front, and on the side panels. Personally, I love this case and will stick with it so long as I can keep upgrading parts as needed!

[@nonsensicalpixels]

my grandpa passed away earlier this year, and he left me this entirely mismatched PC that wouldnt even turn on, which i assumed was just e-waste. finally took it apart after a couple of months and it was a freakin' aurora r11, stuffed into some tiny knockoff ATX casing because for... some reason! it was working, just needed a complicated turn-on process because the proprietary motherboard couldnt connect to the power switches... took it apart and snagged an i9-11900KF, RTX 3090, and 32GB of DDR4 RAM. it may be last-gen but was a MASSIVE upgrade on my old 3rd gen i7 and 1GB VRAM ❤

[@bRad96699]

Dawid you have to get the Beelink GTR6 Mini PC and review it. Seems right up your ally!

[@greatkingrat]

Linode….the only sponsor any KZbinr ever had where the viewer is happy to listen to their ad…and only because of the way Dawid says it….”Linooooode”. 😅

[@adfraggs]

Smart thing to do vs short term gratification ... love your choices

[@justair44]

All in all quite the deal I'd say. (in Canadian prices...) board $200 PSU (1000W) $200 Card $800 Casing (meh... 50) Ram (meh... 50) AIO (meh.. 75) So say $1400 worth of parts for 1k. A 5700G would be awesome in that and not run so hot and is only $265 now. Leaving the 5900X in while 83C is toasty it's acceptable limits for that cpu and it won't throttle but you can just install Ryzen master and maginally undervolt the cpu if you really want the 12core setup but not the high temps.

[@bradley163]

This is the equivalent of a person towing their car into the shop, stating it will not start. The mechanic says, trying to withhold hysterical laughter: "It ain't got no gas in it."

[@emsicz]

I just bought two of these. With Dell NBD for 3 years, OEM refurbished, with AIO cooler 5800X and RTX3080 for the same price you bought your broken one. They are being officially sold in Czechia.

[@oskarsjolund6758]

The dad grunts when lifting made the video way better dude!

[@marcoabduarte]

I'm thankfull for not reading comments before watching it. I got to experience the salty of opening the MB without CPU. That was delivered perfectly.

[@glenh2nd]

I have an Alien Aurora R11 i7-10700F with a 2080 super. The GPU starting giving me issues within about two weeks and had to be replaced (under warranty). Luckily it's been good since I moved it into my office. I learned my lesson and build a better computer for gaming with a much larger and breathable case.

[@BasedEMT1776]

TBH, I thought it was just another dead ryzen cpu/dead channel in the CPU. I was like, convinced. I'll take half credit for being half right that the CPU was in fact the problem. Because it wasn't even there. :P But, I'm proud to say I was 100% correct on why the first Ryzen CPU you tried to use didn't work. BIOS compatibility is weird like that. Pretty awesome it worked out! I honestly think it was probably a repair shop or a private party who just wanted the CPU, and didn't need anything else and just decided to make his money back that way.

[@chrisbaker8533]

Dawid's curse of single stick of ram continues. And yeah, dell's "Well something broke" error is one of the most annoying things on this planet.

[@fish_bacon]

I have a collegue who kills for those keyboards. It's the only ones he'll use, and since they stopped including them into Dell and HP prebuilts, they're getting harder to come by in the wild.

[@Pearloryx]

I love the feature of a light with varied delays to indicate a corresponding error, similar to the one in Xbox 360

[@chrishavens7623]

Both Dell and HP have this feature which is nice when troubleshooting with a full lab of these. Goes a bit faster that way. Sometimes you'll also get some audio signals to go along with the lights to help ID the issue. Seeing the no CPU made me very sad indeed, but was nice to see he recouped a bit with the 3080. Still a good score.

[@TTurbolag]

Hey Dawid, for future reference, if you have a dead gpu there’s a fellow youtuber who does GPU repair for $50. His channel is called northwestrepair. Awesome guy and very fun to watch his videos. Hopefully that saves you some cash if you end up with a dead gpu.