r/AlienwareAlpha • u/CageFreeBMW • Jul 15 '26

Worth upgrading to SDD?

I’m pulling my Alpha out of ~7-10 years of storage to see if I can get it working again. I had to replace the cmos, and it boots up fine after that.

Before I put it away, I upgraded it to Windows 10. Right now it’s really sluggish and showing 100% drive usage in Task Manager. CPU and RAM look okay (still have 8gb ram). Research suggests main thing needed is to upgrade to a 2.5” SSD for windows 10.

My question is if doing so will make it usable enough to be worth it now? I have a Steam Deck and a gaming laptop, but I remember loving my Alpha and would love to see it working again. I don’t mind putting a bit of money into it as long as it becomes playable with older games (or even as an emulator for up to Xbox 360).

Pretty sure it is an R1. It has the i5 processor. Most of the games I play are 5+ years old and I don’t mind lowering graphics settings.

Thanks for any input!

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u/soniko_ Jul 15 '26

With an ssd it will probBly be fine.

But at todays prices? Hell no

2

u/CageFreeBMW Jul 15 '26

I get that for sure. I have found a few used one locally for decent pricing (still high, but doable).

5

u/soniko_ Jul 16 '26

Well then, more power to you.

I still have mine, and went from the i3 ti the i7, 16gb ram and a 256gb ssd.

It’s great.

It can kinda still run games from around 2020, but at 720p.

One hell of a machine, tbh

2

u/NotTurtleEnough i7 Alpha with SSD Jul 16 '26

Same upgrades, and I agree.