My A51 ALX

[ALXAndy]

I just do not like the look of them. To me they do not say pc enthusiast enough. I like a clean cut system. I mean metal piping or little to no branding with meticulous care to every detail such as polishing water cooling fittings.

 

You know what I hate? mesh boxes. Square boxes loaded with mesh. I hate Corsair's cases for being too understated and I hate rip offs like the Phantom and others. It's fair to say that I don't really like any case apart from the one I have, and, like many others that's why I have it.

 

The only difference between me and some one who doesn't like Alienwares is that I can restrain myself enough not to go around saying "I hate any case that isn't like mine".

 

Which for some odd reason I have found that me choosing to use an Alienware case tends to attract that sort of person like flies around dog toffee.

 

What I'm saying is this - basically it's just a choice of case and not much else. We all have to sit by our chosen cases for many hours a day, some of us all day. That means we all need to have something we care bare to look at.

 

It really is as simple as that.

[ProGearUk]

You know what I hate? mesh boxes. Square boxes loaded with mesh. I hate Corsair's cases for being too understated and I hate rip offs like the Phantom and others. It's fair to say that I don't really like any case apart from the one I have, and, like many others that's why I have it.

 

The only difference between me and some one who doesn't like Alienwares is that I can restrain myself enough not to go around saying "I hate any case that isn't like mine".

 

Which for some odd reason I have found that me choosing to use an Alienware case tends to attract that sort of person like flies around dog toffee.

 

What I'm saying is this - basically it's just a choice of case and not much else. We all have to sit by our chosen cases for many hours a day, some of us all day. That means we all need to have something we care bare to look at.

 

It really is as simple as that.

I like my R4 because it is clean. The only case I would buy from Corsair would be the 650D. I like something boxy and clean looking. Hey we all have our own opinions and I like how you make your's known. 

[ERSCreeper]

I would paint the internal of the case Black.

[andrevautour]

I like the look of those Alienware cases a lot and I love the look of Palit jetstream cards. nice build. 

[ALXAndy]

I would paint the internal of the case Black.

 

There's no point unless you started cutting windows into it. I'm getting too old for all of that now. The cooling works well, the PC is quick. I've seen them with windows cut into them and it's pretty much impossible to get right any way. Then there was some dude who spent $500 stripping his down and power coating it only to put the side back on. That really made me LOL. Why bother with what you can't see?

 

I was contemplating it tbh but then I just fired up a game and within an hour had completely forgotten about it.

 

I guess I just have different priorities to some. I would rather spend that £150 that I could have spent on nice braided cables on things that make a difference to how the PC operates. The things the Alienware does have on its side (active venting with a rad bolted directly under it, light zones, full active fan system ETC more than outweigh a black interior and some pretty cables for me

 

Edit. Just took a pic with the Killer NIC in. Soon when we move house I'll be setting up a proper wired network and at £15 I couldn't really say no.

 

 

And another little toy I've been playing with. It's a 3" LCD that plugs in via USB and acts as a photo frame when the PC is off, cycling through images you load on. Then once AIDA 64 loads up you program it to read what you want it to, add custom messages ETC.

 

I've changed all the icons but I haven't yet figured out how to remove the RPM bit from my GPU temps as I loaded those into the part that it usually uses to monitor fans. I'm sure I'll work it out eventually but it's a really useful toy if like me you hate having text slapped over the screen when you're gaming.

 

[alpenwasser]

I've seen them with windows cut into them and it's pretty much impossible to get right any way.

Yeah from what I can tell it was a pretty major operation getting that window right in

the mod I linked.

I do like that LCD display, I might have to investigate something like that, but Linux

compatible of course. ;)

[ALXAndy]

IIRC it's open source dude so you should, in theory, be able to code your own software for it. You can find out more here...

 

http://coldtearselectronics.wikispaces.com/USB+LCD+-+LCD+System+info

[alpenwasser]

IIRC it's open source dude so you should, in theory, be able to code your own software for it. You can find out more here...

 

http://coldtearselectronics.wikispaces.com/USB+LCD+-+LCD+System+info

That actually does look promising, thanks mate!

[ALXAndy]

Update time. Fark me this summer has been hot and harsh. Very unusual for the UK. I lost an SSD and had to replace it (which turned into a 6 week nightmare) and my GPUs were getting too hot for Kepler. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. First up was a duct mod.

 

 

God bless the humble hole cutter. I then turned off the Delta in the duct. Good for blower coolers, crap for open ones. Then I was in a dilemma. I couldn't close the case off without choking the fans. So I ordered myself a bunch of modding parts and.

 

 

That works. I can keep the insects out now.

[Nicktrance]

That looks really beastly, so many fans, there must be a tornado in there :lol:.

[CJPowell27]

I like Alienware cases besides the silver insides. Nice build!

[ALXAndy]

I like Alienware cases besides the silver insides. Nice build!

 

That's being addressed soon I'm going to paint the insides black and put in some braided cable extensions where needed (IE where you can see them).

 

I've got a huge bag of orange LEDs I've had for ages so I'm going to try and make some strips. I love soldering

[ALXAndy]

OK so I admit there has been a delay in sorting out the insides for a better view through the window. The reason is this.

 

 

120GB Revodrive. I've always been curious about these things but the price always ruled me out. Not any more ! Scan UK have them refurb for £44 delivered. Considering a SATA III 128GB SSD with similar IOPs and speeds costs nearly double that in the UK it was a no brainer. 

 

Then I hit a snag.....

 

Basically I run triple slot GPU coolers. This means that my X4 slot at the bottom was completely covered, with no real way of uncovering it without removing one of my GPUs. Hint - there's more chance of that happening than being handcuffed to a ghost. So I had to think.. THINK FFS...

 

Then it hit me. Move my second GPU from the X16 slot down into the X4 slot and put the Revodrive in the X16 slot.

 

Before.

 

 

After.

 

 

Just one problem. SLI does not run in X16 X4 mode.. Or does it? 

 

I went off and downloaded HyperSLI and hacked it into action. What sucked was my SLI bridges were too short so I ordered two long ass ones (see pic above). SLI enabled when I booted from HyperSLI.

 

Now riddle me this, Batman. How does one go from this, running X16 X16 (same OS)

 

 

To this running X16 X4.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1182124?

 

Answers on a post card please, sent to POBOX odd...

 

Some shots of the Revo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ALXAndy]

And again the internals have taken a back seat due to my latest acquisition.. Given that I now have the Killer E2100 (got it for £15) and I managed to free up another slot (PCI) I decided to get a high end sound card. I have a pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA2s (amazing surround set) that I'm refurbishing soon (the pads are knackered but I have some inbound).

 

So I did some poking around on Ebay and managed to procure a Sound Blaster X-FI Falta1ty FPS (quite the mouth full).

 

 

£39 on Ebay. After exhaustive research I discovered that it's basically identical to the new X-FI cards, even down to the 64mb XRAM.

[ALXAndy]

Some £2 LED strips..

 

 

 

 

 

[ALXAndy]

So work on the interior transformation has been slow but steady. Nothing to get too excited about yet. I did some braiding on all of the fan, LED, header cables and so on but there's not much to see yet..

 

 

It was basically a large chunk of Molex cables and adapters I braided. Here's a pic of progress so far though it is a bit pointless given that the back of the drive bays will be boxed in in black acrylic.

 

 

As I said, doesn't look like much has been done but there has been a lot done.. It will be far more apparent when my order from QuietPC ! arrives.

 

 

I was going to buy the tools and do it myself but the Alienware has a loom that is wired into the case. No doubt if I removed it I would never get it back in right. There will also be a false floor built into the case and the interior will be black. As I said, not much to see right now and most people don't show this sort of progress.

 

The Sound Blaster is amazing but it's left me with a problem. A ghastly huge great ribbon cable. I will wrap it in Dinoc.

[TheSLSAMG]

I am not the biggest fan of Alienware, but this machine is great!

[ALXAndy]

Hey thanks man !

 

It'll be a lot better once I've sorted the insides out

 

I'm just deciding whether to go black inside or, orange dinoc vinyl.

[TheSLSAMG]

Hey thanks man !

 

It'll be a lot better once I've sorted the insides out

 

I'm just deciding whether to go black inside or, orange dinoc vinyl.

I would think orange vinyl would look amazing!

[alpenwasser]

I'm just deciding whether to go black inside or, orange dinoc vinyl.

Oh, I think orange might look very nice indeed! Maybe throw some black in there as

well so that you don't overdo it with the orange, but where that balance lies is

subjective anyway.

[ALXAndy]

Oh, I think orange might look very nice indeed! Maybe throw some black in there as

well so that you don't overdo it with the orange, but where that balance lies is

subjective anyway.

 

There's loads of black inside already mate tbh. The ducts and covers are all black

 

Then the motherboard, Killer NIC, GPUs etc... All of the cables inside will be black braid too. I'll still have to do some painting (I'm going to use fireplace paint and do it by hand) but it should look OK

 

Biggest issue I have right now is hiding this honking great ribbon cable the Soundblaster I bought has. It's an IDE cable lol.

[ALXAndy]

 

CERBERLS !

 

 

Bit more work done. I have removed both optical drives now (I had them set to different regions for playing DVDs but no longer use the machine for media).

 

 

NOTE ! My desk is NEVER, EVER that messy. It's only because it's literally a work bench right now.

 

 

Bloody state it's in. And under it isn't much better. Just a sprawling mound of boxes and this is only about half of them. I need to bag them up and store them in the attic.

[The Last MeMe]

Omg I love alien wares cases where did you get it from and how u get the LEDs working

[ALXAndy]

Omg I love alien wares cases where did you get it from and how u get the LEDs working

 

Hi. I got it from a Dell recycler here in the U.K. Area 51 ALX chassis are rare on Ebay though so you pretty much have to just jump in. I paid, IIRC.£200 delivered and it included two DVDRWs as well as the PSU (1200w). However mine was listed as having a dead IO board (said the lights didn't work). It turned out that the big plug connector on the PSU was loose so after pressing it back in firmly everything sprang to life

 

To get the lights working you just need to connect up the IO board properly to the mainboard. Basically there is a USB header cable, and what looks like a fan PWM power cable. One feeds power to the lights from your mobo, the other powers up the programmable interrupt controller The software is easily found on Dell's website though you may need to try older versions. This seems to depend on the motherboard you are using..

 

Any way back to the mod log. Last night I had a complete nightmare so I urge you guys and girls now. Do not buy Gelid products. They are cheap but they're cheap for a reason !!

 

So I began to fit the cable extensions. It all went pretty well and looked quite nice. I used black cable ties.. I went to power up my PC and all I got was a quick click from the power supply and nothing else. Took out the power plug, reseated it, tried again. The same.. Just a quick click from the PSU and then it shut down again.

 

Then panic set in. I tried everything, from removing all of my hardware...

 

 

To just trying to get the board to fire with nothing in. Nothing worked. Just a click from the power supply and that was it. In the end I cut all of the cable ties and removed all of the extensions. PC fired... Hmmm...

 

After scrutinising everything it turned out that... You won't believe this... The 24 pin extension was actually wired incorrectly. Un fucking believable.

 

So I went online to find a way to sort that out. In the end I saw that you can use a jeweller's screwdriver to remove the pins. Five minutes later I had it sorted, fired up the PC. But now the PC wouldn't boot. It was just going to the bios splash screen and then sitting at a blinking cursor.. So I decided to run Acronis and restore back to the Revodrive. Restore went OK, still wouldn't boot. So I cleared my CMOS. The PC would then boot, but, only once in say five attempts. Otherwise it was just a blinking cursor

 

So I decided to go nuclear. I booted from the OCZ toolbox DVD (you have to with a Revodrive it doesn't work in the Windows one) and broke down the RAID array. Booted in and nuked the drive with a secure erase. Rebooted and installed Windows on it. Shut down went to reboot.. Blinking cursor. After hours of trying anything I could think of I finally removed it and tried an install to my 80GB SSD (Intel 320). That went OK. Applied my overclock, that went on fine.

 

3AM and I got to the point where I had a Windows install that would boot. Then I put the Revodrive back in and once again secure erased it after rebuilding the array (this time with 16k blocks). Ran a clone from the 80GB over to the Revodrive and it booted. Yay ! sort of. It failed a couple of boots after that but touch wood it seems to be working now..

 

5AM and it was time to crawl up to my bed to be with my lady who I had pretty much ignored all night

 

 

 

Now I need to buy more cable ties as I'm all out.

 

What a pig of a night man

 

I really must do something about this ever growing mound of boxes too..

 

[ALXAndy]

NB. Ignore the honking ribbon cable I have a rounded one at my house. I'm away from home ATM so will replace it as soon as I have access to it