Alienware Aurora R4 RGB with third party Mobo

[Austringer]

I'm giving my Alienware Aurora R4 a much needed upgrade tomorrow. This is what it has now:

 

i7-3820 3.6Ghz CPU

Alienware Water cooler

16GB RAM

2x 256 SATA SSDs 

2x 1TB 7200RPM HDDs

GTX 1080 (added later, originally came with 2x ATI 7950's)

 

Upgrading to:

Ryzen 9 3900X

New Corsair water cooler

ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PLUS (WI-FI) Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2x16) DDR4 3600

Crucial P1 1TB NVME M.2 SSD

 

I will re-use the 1KW PSU, 4HDD's and 1080

 

Ive been a system builder for a very long time, about 30 years, so Im not afraid of some modding of the case, and I'm extremely handy with tools. 

 

My question is about the RGB. Its not a huge issue if the RGB doesn't work, but it would be nice if it did. I know that the mobo has an RGB controller and leads on it, but I dont know about the compatibility of the RGB from the Alienware case to the controller. Wondering if anyone has ever done this build or not? I'd prefer not to buy a new case at the moment.

[Bombastinator]

So the question seems to be what is the make/model of the controller that comes with the dell aurora r4, and what is it compatible with?

[Austringer]

Yeah, or could I just bypass the controller, and use the controller in the ASUS TUF board. 

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, Austringer said:

Yeah, or could I just bypass the controller, and use the controller in the ASUS TUF board. 

The issue there is the RGB in the case and fans and is it compatible with the asus stuff in the first place.  This proprietary RGB garbage the manufacturers have been pulling is intensely annoying only partially because it’s completely artificial.

[Austringer]

What do you mean by artificial? I won't be too unhappy if I don't have RGB after the upgrade. It would be nice if I did but its not a big deal.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Austringer said:

What do you mean by artificial? I won't be too unhappy if I don't have RGB after the upgrade. It would be nice if I did but its not a big deal.

The deal is apparently that before the computer industry ever got ahold of rgb it had been designed and standardized by the home lighting industry who are the ones that actually make the lights in the first place.  Computer rgb is just rewired home lighting rgb.  The computer industry deliberately broke that standard by taking the four wires it used and swapping them around so they wouldn’t work with each other and creating custom incompatible ports and whatnot.  Every bit as bad as what the ink jet industry was doing 20 years ago.  It’s going to have the same result.  It always does.  The lighting industry is a lot older and they didn’t even bother messing with it, having already gone through that stupidity 40 years or more ago.  They just went for a standard.

[Austringer]

Thanks, I've been buying machines instead of building them for about 10 years, during that time RGB really came into its own, so I appreciate the explanation

 

[oeci]

I'd start with taking a look at the case's RGB wiring. What is it connected to (mainboard, dedicated controller...)? What cables are used (4 pin, 3 pin, something else...)? Knowing these facts could give us hints whether or not compatibility is possible.

[Austringer]

I'll check that out when the new parts arrive, I should be ordering tomorrow