Aurora R10, RTX 3060 Ti compatible on non-Dell motherboards?

Not sure how one can confirm that the CPU is vendor locked to Dell motherboard.  How many of motherboards and brands did you test with?  One CPU to one motherboard is a flaw test.

About graphics cards, I installed Dell OEM cards (multiple) on other brands PC (multiple) and having no problem so far.  Very likely that your Dell graphics card will work on non-Dell motherboard.

@Chino de Oro​ so far i couldnt even test it, because the cpu was the issue. my motherboard wouldnt POST with the cpu from the alienware. i ordered and will receive a new cpu soon, so can probably test over the weekend. this was just a thought that i had and its giving me some anxiety... 

There are many threads on this forum about transplanting the whole Dell system onto other cases and salvaging components onto retail motherboards.  Many were with success while some were with issue.

If you run into specific issue, just post it here.  There are some Alienware super users on here whom can provide valuable advises to your project.  As the famous poet Samuel Beckett famously put it, "Try again, Fail harder, Fail Better".  Any failure you had would give you better succeed on the next try, so, not too worry.

@Chino de Oro​ thanks :)

so it looks like dell machines with ryzen cpus that came out after a certain time (early 2021?) came with this feature. but of course his could also have been a bios update. this seems semi-confirmed because many users have used cpus and gpus from alienware system and transplanted them into their own systems succesfully. examples i found on reddit for example were from 2020 or earlier...

but we cant be sure, really.

anyway, i will try. i'm too deep into this now to pull out. will have to push through, but if a new gpu is necessary, it will push the project out another month or so.

I moved components from an R10 to an MSI board, which was a 3700X and a RTX 3080 without any issues.

The CPU locking is possible using PSB, but GPU's do not have a locking feature.

@Chino de Oro​ 

This is a feature that is normally not used in retail (consumer) systems, but it is part of the Ryzen CPU architecture. it's called PSB and Lenovo has been using it to lock CPU's to the firmware, which in effect locks it to the board of that vendor.

It now looks like Alienware has done the same with the R10 BIOS, and enabled PSB to lock the CPU to the firmware of the R10 board.

I also know there was a thread a while ago from someone who could not get his CPU to boot in another system and thought it was vendor locked, but it turned out they had a bend pin on the CPU.  Something worth checking...

@Vanadiel​ funny, your 3700x was not locked!? did you ever update the bios on your machine? when did you buy your machine? i did pretty regularly update the bios... my 5800x was definitely locked (evidenced by me booting into linux and checking it with the psb_status command). i guess its possible to enable psb retroactively with a bios update.

@murfilein​ I updated the BIOS to whatever the latest version was before I put the R10 on the shelve.

The 5000 series is a different BIOS and board, so maybe they turned it on at some BIOS update for that board.

Re: The 5000 series is a different BIOS

although there are two different mobo version, there is only one updated bios for both. however when the bios acts on different mobo version (older and newer R10), the result might be different.

If we speculate, the same bios on older board did not cause PSB, but on newer board it did cause PSB?

Re: One CPU to one motherboard is a flaw test.

at least two R10 users reported and submitted PSB proof in linux tool.  I do not think this is flaw one or two only.  waiting for mod to contact R10 bios team to make a disclosure

@redxps630​ The firmware will be different as one is a Ryzen 3000 and one is a Ryzen 5000 CPU. That was one of the "issues" with those boards, as the Ryzen 3000 CPU that came out first could not be upgraded to a Ryzen 5000 CPU. Had to get the new board, which is the equivalent of a new PC since they will not just sell the board.

Having my doubt because the PSB is similar as Boot Guard of Intel ME side.  They were done to protect business servers but have not seen the restriction being implemented on high ends workstations which have average cost of 20K and up. 

Many users were successful with CPU upgrade on Precision line which being release during recent years.  The Aurora builds were very similar to the entry level 3000 series of workstations.  Except for appearances and the use of Ryzen CPU.  

Hence the reason for query about testing method and to understand the reasoning for locking other processors besides EPYC.  

Intel's boot guard uses Management Engine. The ME's boot ROM verifies the system firmware's boot block is signed using a public key that corresponds to a hash blown into one-time programmable fuses in the chipset.  

AMD's Platform Secure Boot is slightly different. Rather than the root of trust living in the motherboard chipset, it's in AMD's Platform Security Processor which is incorporated directly onto the CPU die. Similar to Boot Guard, the PSP has ROM that verifies the PSP's own firmware, and then that firmware verifies the system firmware signature against a set of blown fuses in the CPU. If that fails, system boot is halted.

AMD is more common user unfriendly in the sense that the cpu is married to the motherboard after first boot.

Intel boot guard does not lock cpu to motherboard.

ok, udpate:

i bought a ryzen7 5700x.

my motherboards works just fine with that. so yeah, if you ever want to transplant hardware from your alienware machine into your own build, you have to get a new cpu. keep that in mind.