My A51 ALX

[FranBunnyFFXII]

DUUUUUDE IM JELLY. I freaking love alienware, and their desktop cases.

 

Alienware is legit awesome, I absolutely love what they do.

 

 

And that case, that's the Alienware Area 51 Phobos ALX btw, and oh my god I want one SO BAD. Those cases go from like 800~1200$ average, some people even paying upwards to 2100$ for them.

 

WAAAAANT, cool build dude :3

[TheSLSAMG]

On the topic of the Area 51, I would love to buy this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-Area-51-Green-Full-Tower-Case-just-the-shell-/181210787212?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item2a31012d8c and do a build in it.

[alpenwasser]

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

Yeah... that really shouldn't happen. WTF?

That's like selling a car where the break and gas pedal are switched (OK, perhaps not

quite, but you get my drift ).

I'm pretty astonished that it still runs at all though. If you'd just told me that you'd

pressed the ON button with a faultily wired extension hooked up to your M/B I'd have bet

almost anything that your PC was going to be fried (not that I wish that upon you ).

[ALXAndy]

Well tbh what saved it was the power supply. People rag on Dell all the time but if it didn't have the protection circuitry it does? everything would have fried.

 

I've had it trip out like that on me before when I put the floppy power connector onto the Fatal1ty's IO drive incorrectly. So I figured it would be that or I had knocked the master plug loose.

 

All I can think of is that the Revodrive took a dose of static and it cleared after a few hours. I had that happen years ago with a Soundblaster Live ! I gave it a massive dose of static (blue spark the lot) and it was totally dead (I had really long hair at the time).

 

Four days later I tried it again, worked perfectly.

[ALXAndy]

On the topic of the Area 51, I would love to buy this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-Area-51-Green-Full-Tower-Case-just-the-shell-/181210787212?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item2a31012d8c and do a build in it.

 

Ah the Predator 1.0 Nice case. Basically it's the inside of a Chieftec Dragon with a nice plastic shell wrapped around it. The cooling in them is pretty crap though tbh. Few 80mm fans and that's it.

[TheSLSAMG]

Ah the Predator 1.0 Nice case. Basically it's the inside of a Chieftec Dragon with a nice plastic shell wrapped around it. The cooling in them is pretty crap though tbh. Few 80mm fans and that's it.

And that's what's stopping me. The cooling is terrible.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

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.

The R4 is a generic damn box, no interesting shaping or look too it, just a box, might as well paint a cardboard container black.

Boring cases are boring, look at the top case modders always have something crazy good and impressive to show off. LEDs, Epic cooling, Crazy cool paint jobs.

I cant stand seeing people shove beautiful hardware into drab boxes.

Flash isn't bad, Flash isn't for teenagers, Flash is for people who want to shine and have things that look gorgeous AND perform excellently.

The only time a box is acceptable in my book is if its an ubercheap build and you pick up a cheap box case, or if you're doing a lavish paint like DarthBevis had done on the Queen of Blades build, That thing was featured at the Nvidia booth man.

here, I go to the same lanparties and am in part of the same "clan" as these case modders

http://www.bsmods.com/Gallery.php

See that ADATA case? That's an NZXT phantom 820 with a killer paint job. I sat right next to that at my last LANparty, It wasn't even complete yet.

http://www.bsmods.com/Home_Page.php

See that rosewill throne? I've also got to see that in person at a previous LAN party.

Boxes are boring, lame and drab I think that says a lot about the person who's proud of them. No offence of course, but there's soooo many better looking cases out there.

NZXT phantoms, rosewill(throne),Alienware, BitFenix, just to name a few that make some hella cool cases.

[TheSLSAMG]

SNIP

Ouch. You don't need to be so mean. Some of us like the R4, including me. All you're doing is suppressing everyone's opinions because you are treating your own as fact.

[ALXAndy]

I couldn't agree more. I have to sit next to my PC for a big chunk of my life and a bland flat box would eat my soul lol.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

I couldn't agree more. I have to sit next to my PC for a big chunk of my life and a bland flat box would eat my soul lol.

this so much.

I put in 41 hours of painstaking pixelart and graphics design, as well as put up an extra 120$ and 4 month wait to get custom artwork on my custom high end laptop build.

So worth it, because that artwork looks Amazing every time I see it slip out of its velvet sleeve.

People see it at lan parties and go "whoa, that's a beautiful laptop."

thumbs up to you dude, Alienware FTW.

 

Ouch. You don't need to be so mean. Some of us like the R4, including me. All you're doing is suppressing everyone's opinions because you are treating your own as fact.

It just shows my distain for the behavior. I can have an opinion, you can have yours, i'm not trying to be offensive, just put character into what im saying, if you find it offensive you want it to be offensive. Its that simple.

[ALXAndy]

I bought a Bitfenix Survivor once. I thought I would be happy with it.. I thought "Time to grow up and move away from the bright coloured rounded cases".

 

It lasted about two weeks before....

 

 

 

 

Full log here.

 

http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/forums/7,modders-corner/280,n-fenix-worklog/

 

So yeah, I got form haha. I was one of the first to chop up a Mac and fill it with PC goodness too. 2004.....

 

http://shiny.testbox.net/mac/

[alpenwasser]

Well tbh what saved it was the power supply. People rag on Dell all the time but if it didn't have the protection circuitry it does? everything would have fried.

 

I've had it trip out like that on me before when I put the floppy power connector onto the Fatal1ty's IO drive incorrectly. So I figured it would be that or I had knocked the master plug loose.

 

All I can think of is that the Revodrive took a dose of static and it cleared after a few hours. I had that happen years ago with a Soundblaster Live ! I gave it a massive dose of static (blue spark the lot) and it was totally dead (I had really long hair at the time).

 

Four days later I tried it again, worked perfectly.

I've had Dell laptops since 2004, and TBH their enterprise models (while of course

higher priced) have always served me excellently (in fact the one I got in 2004

still runs perfectly, albeit it's a bit slow by today's standards :lol: ). Our family

bought a few consumer laptops from Dell over the years as well, and while the price

was pretty good there was a noticeable drop in build quality and they did eventually

give out. At least this way I know I'm actually getting additional value for my

money with the enterprise models.

My cat once jumped on my table while I was working on my laptop and spilled a cup

of tea over it. Turned it off, unplugged it and took out the battery. Waited until

it was dry, powered it up and got to the login screen, after that it shut off and

would only blink its caps lock, num lock and scroll lock LEDs when the power button

was pressed.

So we called tech support, they guy asked what pattern the LEDs were blinking in,

we described it and he just goes "Aw yeah, that's some short circuit protection

capacitor which is filled to its capacity."

Then he explained how to discharge it (shuffling the memory modules around, pressing

the power button for a certain amount of time and restoring the original memory

config), we followed his instructions and BAM! the PC ran again. Had to order

a new keyboard because the old one was sticky from the sugar in my tea, but

other than that the machine was back to full health (it's actually the one that's

still running).

I can't speak for the desktops or Alienware, but their laptops have been very good

to me, and my experiences with tech support have been positive so far.

 

<passionate ramble>

While I can claim to be firmly in the R4 camp, I must admit I think it's pretty cool

that people like different things. I mean, seriously, how boring would the world be

otherwise? While I wouldn't buy an Alienware case for myself, I still like seeing what

other people do with stuff that doesn't necessarily cater to my tastes. For one thing,

I think it's a good way to broaden my horizons and get new ideas for my own projects,

plus regardless of my tastes I can still appreciate creativity and good workmanship

even if I would do things differently.

To me, it's not so much about how exiting the box looks or doesn't look, but much

more about what it can actually do. For example, even if I were to design a 1000 hp

car it would probably still look rather boring (you know, the R4 of cars :lol: ).

My happiness would stem from the fact that only the most awesome engineering and

manufacturing techniques were used, that only the finest materials were chosen

in its construction, that most people would completely underestimate my car and that,

if push came to shove, it could smoke pretty damn near every other car on the road.

But only those who would actually know quite a bit about cars would be able to tell

that just maybe there was a true beast underneath the hood, while everyone else would

be none the wiser.

Or, in PC terms: I like having a boring box which is underestimated and possibly

even dismissed at first glance. And I like the look on people's faces when I show

them what's inside.

But I also like the fact that some people chose a different approach than that.

Anyway, that's my ramble for today. Sorry for the wall of text :rolleyes:

[FranBunnyFFXII]

I bought a Bitfenix Survivor once. I thought I would be happy with it.. I thought "Time to grow up and move away from the bright coloured rounded cases".

 

It lasted about two weeks before....

 

 

 

 

Full log here.

 

http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/forums/7,modders-corner/280,n-fenix-worklog/

 

So yeah, I got form haha. I was one of the first to chop up a Mac and fill it with PC goodness too. 2004.....

 

http://shiny.testbox.net/mac/

 

OMFG I love this case. that looks hellla cool

[ALXAndy]

What was nice was that it inspired others I saw this guy do an exact copy in red, and imitation is always a great form of flattery

 

Yeah it's been tough not taking the paint to the ALX haha.

[ProGearUk]

The R4 is a generic damn box, no interesting shaping or look too it, just a box, might as well paint a cardboard container black.Boring cases are boring, look at the top case modders always have something crazy good and impressive to show off. LEDs, Epic cooling, Crazy cool paint jobs.I cant stand seeing people shove beautiful hardware into drab boxes.Flash isn't bad, Flash isn't for teenagers, Flash is for people who want to shine and have things that look gorgeous AND perform excellently.The only time a box is acceptable in my book is if its an ubercheap build and you pick up a cheap box case, or if you're doing a lavish paint like DarthBevis had done on the Queen of Blades build, That thing was featured at the Nvidia booth man.here, I go to the same lanparties and am in part of the same "clan" as these case moddershttp://www.bsmods.com/Gallery.phpSee that ADATA case? That's an NZXT phantom 820 with a killer paint job. I sat right next to that at my last LANparty, It wasn't even complete yet.http://www.bsmods.com/Home_Page.phpSee that rosewill throne? I've also got to see that in person at a previous LAN party.Boxes are boring, lame and drab I think that says a lot about the person who's proud of them. No offence of course, but there's soooo many better looking cases out there.NZXT phantoms, rosewill(throne),Alienware, BitFenix, just to name a few that make some hella cool cases.

Clean and simple are the way to go. Alienware are for teenagers. Fact.

[ALXAndy]

Well my excitement was a little hasty it seems.

 

My PC is fucked. I was in Windows last night installing stuff and I got a BSOD. I've had them before in Windows 8. However this time it wasn't like others. When I rebooted my motherboard reset and I couldn't get back into Windows (it was asking me for a keyboard region wtf?).

 

I tried installing Windows 7 but that wouldn't even boot a first time, and ended up just giving up around midnight.

 

Something is badly wrong with the hardware. Both of my SSDs are acting up (the Intel one is crawling) and the motherboard is doing some really weird shit. I spoke to the company I bought the cables from and they said they'll get it sorted. All I can do now then really is pray. I don't have the sort of money to fix this so now I'm at a British company's mercy, not a good place to be at

 

And dudes, can we take the age old Alienware argument elsewhere please? this is my buld log ffs.

[alpenwasser]

Sorry to hear about your loss mate

And dudes, can we take the age old Alienware argument elsewhere please? this is my buld log ffs.

There's even a specific thread for it nowadays. And not every post has been constructive,

it hasn't deteriorated into name-calling (yet).

[FranBunnyFFXII]

Well my excitement was a little hasty it seems.

 

My PC is fucked. I was in Windows last night installing stuff and I got a BSOD. I've had them before in Windows 8. However this time it wasn't like others. When I rebooted my motherboard reset and I couldn't get back into Windows (it was asking me for a keyboard region wtf?).

 

I tried installing Windows 7 but that wouldn't even boot a first time, and ended up just giving up around midnight.

 

Something is badly wrong with the hardware. Both of my SSDs are acting up (the Intel one is crawling) and the motherboard is doing some really weird shit. I spoke to the company I bought the cables from and they said they'll get it sorted. All I can do now then really is pray. I don't have the sort of money to fix this so now I'm at a British company's mercy, not a good place to be at

 

And dudes, can we take the age old Alienware argument elsewhere please? this is my buld log ffs.

I hope you get it sorted out, that would totally suck to have a completely dead system.

(also the alienware haters have the ignorance of the most hardheaded sort, sorry for making a few of them blow blood vessels. :< )

[TheSLSAMG]

Well my excitement was a little hasty it seems.

 

My PC is fucked. I was in Windows last night installing stuff and I got a BSOD. I've had them before in Windows 8. However this time it wasn't like others. When I rebooted my motherboard reset and I couldn't get back into Windows (it was asking me for a keyboard region wtf?).

 

I tried installing Windows 7 but that wouldn't even boot a first time, and ended up just giving up around midnight.

 

Something is badly wrong with the hardware. Both of my SSDs are acting up (the Intel one is crawling) and the motherboard is doing some really weird shit. I spoke to the company I bought the cables from and they said they'll get it sorted. All I can do now then really is pray. I don't have the sort of money to fix this so now I'm at a British company's mercy, not a good place to be at

 

And dudes, can we take the age old Alienware argument elsewhere please? this is my buld log ffs.

 

Ouch, that really sucks. I hope everything turns out okay. Or it would end up a giant brick.

 

All things considered, I like Alienware design-wise. They make some awesome stuff, like the laptops and the ALX A51. To @FranBunnyFFXII, sorry for acting like a bit of an ass.

[ALXAndy]

Thanks guys. Well I think I have it nailed down? but tbh there are still many reasons for the failure. I absolutely hate this - THIS is what I hate about building PCs. When something goes wrong it's almost impossible to nail it down.

 

So I was asked to send photos of the cable. Here it is here, obviously with all the wires being black it's hard to make out..

 

 

But when I trace it back? Look at this pic.

 

 

Basically there is a 12 volt wire and a 5 volt wire that have switched places. So my motherboard got a 12v surge into a 5v line on the last four removable pins for extra CPU power. Needless to say? it's fucked my PC. After several reinstalls I have finally began to get to where the problem may be. Take a look at this pic...

 

 

That's with Prime 95 running a stress test at stock volts and stock clock. Half of the CPU fails. Now that could still mean loads of things, basically being -

 

The motherboard's power stages are damaged from the surge and are falling over on providing the CPU with power (I'm leaning this way...)

 

The memory is fucked.

 

The CPU got a dose and is fucked.

 

The power supply is damaged.

 

I've also noticed that my CPU is refusing to clock to 4.2ghz. It sits at 1.6ghz, shoots to 1.8 and 2.7 but when it finally gets to 4.2? the PC either BSOD and reboots or it simply shuts down.

 

Not good. Really, really, savagely not good.

 

The company I bought from (who I won't name because it's sort of not their fault) are being really good about it, but, so were Coolit when my cooler leaked. It was when it came down to actually cutting a check that they told me to get fucked before reciting their disclaimers and telling me they were in Canada so above any legal action here in the UK.

 

Overall? I'm not in a good place right now.

[ALXAndy]

OK so I did some more testing. Mostly out of boredom but hey, I'm getting closer to the truth.

 

So I ran a memory test. It wasn't easy, given the PC doesn't want to boot most of the time. After a reboot this happened..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJYCERD-Eu4

 

I'm not talking to myself.. the guy sorting this with me has the same name

 

Any way obviously I didn't get the memory test results nor could I. PC was too unstable. Any way I decided to underclock the system and disable Turbo.. I then ran Prime 95 and this is what happened...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEiHshTpBA8

 

Watch the volts and clock speed. Totally unstable and incapable of even holding a 3.5 clock.

 

The board and CPU are under warranty with Amazon but I feel like that would be dishonest. However, I've not done anything wrong here so I will go down that avenue should the person who sold me the extension decide to be a douche. At which point I will make it my bloody life purpose to go around every forum on every corner of the internet naming and shaming.

 

Hopefully it won't come to that and I'll be back up and running within the next couple of weeks

[ALXAndy]

Right after being messed around all week I decided to sort the matter.. So I ordered one of these.

 

 

Only AMD board with 8+2+2 power stages. I feel some big overclocks coming !

 

Here's the order ,should be with me soon.

 

[Trail Mixorz]

nice

[ALXAndy]

Well I'm not quite out of the woods yet but I am hopeful nothing else was damaged

[ALXAndy]

R.I.P Area 51 ALX.. So basically it looks like the PSU is dead. I don't have the means to test it right now, but I don't want to risk a ROG board on it.

 

I will no doubt get around to testing it one day, and will sell it..

 

Until then? watch this space