News/Article
Dell vendor locks AM5 9950X3d CPU to Alienware Area 51 gaming desktop prebuilt - CPU is E-Waste outside of dell motherboard
as the title says, after days of swapping components and making sure every single component is functional ive come to the conclusion that the 9950X3D is vendor locked to the alien-ware area 51 5090 desktop, all motherboards used work all swapped CPUS tested worked, the 9950x3d simply does not work in any mobo besides the alienware prebuilt one, in the end I took it to a repair shop who also works with old dell prebuilts and told me it was vendor locked
does anyone have insight on what can be done, is this reversible? i genuinley cannot find anything else online stating dell vendor locks consumer CPUS or what to do
Yeah, all Alienware prebuilts with AMD CPUs have PSB on them. Even if it's a CPU you buy and stick in the computer it will end up being PSB locked permanently to that motherboard. Happened to me on the Aurora R15 where the original 7900X wouldn't boot in any other motherboard, and the 7800X3D I upgraded it to also didn't boot (yes the 7800X3D actually worked in the R15).
It is unfortunate but this is a known thing from as far back as the Aurora R10 along with many other posts about the R14 and R15. I believe Lenovo also does this too.
Ooo, I had a cousin that asked me to fix their pc. It was an alienware with a 5800x3d. I tried to take out the processor and see if it posts in my system. Nothing or maybe I did something wrong.
It's a thing, and venders have been doing this for years. There's a physical fuse in the cpu that the motherboard pops making it proprietary to that board. It will never post on any other motherboard.
whole pc with the 5090 + 9950x3d and the 6400mt ram was cheaper than buying a 5090 itself
i planned on building it myself using components from the dell, unfortunate
Yeah, they do that for warranty purposes. And it makes sure you don't try and swap CPUs on a RMA or refund. Imagine the guy that buys that build, swaps to like a 7600X and keeps the 9950X3D for a profit. Well, the CPU is then useless and the vender gets the last laugh.
Just use it. Has a full warranty, anything goes wrong, it gets fixed. It's a beautiful trade off.
seems to benefit dell very little and hurt the buyer alot more, if you warranty and they see the cpu is different they should just deny the warranty claim. had i tried another CPU in the alienware that would have become E-waste too
It'll be E-waste in just a matter of time anyways. I remember when there was nothing you needed more than a dual core, then quad cores came out... Dell the company, didn't even notice the loss of a few CPUs. This is a 45 billion dollar company. They do, get the last laugh. Trust me.
are you sure you dont have the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 which is a OEM exclusive?
EDIT: i can see the 5090 systems have the option to go for the 9950X3D2 which yes, is not locked but not a lot of retail boards would be able to support them as they are OEM only
Used on ROG B850-F which lists support, also tomahawk B850 and a third board i cannot remember the name of (yes i was desperate to get this cpu working)
all updated to most recent bios
(Original reply got deleted for linking to another post) This is a thing on all Alienware prebuilts with AMD, they have been doing this since the R10 and there are several posts about it for the R10, R14, and R15 on both Dell's community forums and on Reddit. Usually PSB is used on EPYC CPUs but Alienware (and Lenovo) do this on normal Ryzen CPUs too. Unfortunately it's pretty obscure and most people only find out about this the hard way, including myself.
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u/Ok-Category-642 1h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah, all Alienware prebuilts with AMD CPUs have PSB on them. Even if it's a CPU you buy and stick in the computer it will end up being PSB locked permanently to that motherboard. Happened to me on the Aurora R15 where the original 7900X wouldn't boot in any other motherboard, and the 7800X3D I upgraded it to also didn't boot (yes the 7800X3D actually worked in the R15).
It is unfortunate but this is a known thing from as far back as the Aurora R10 along with many other posts about the R14 and R15. I believe Lenovo also does this too.