Alienware Area 51 ALX restoration.

[ALXAndy]

/Facepalm.

 

I realised about ten minutes ago that the bolt pattern on the Corsair PSU is exactly the same as the Alienware's, even though the Alienware PSU is 10mm taller. So in a little bit I will try and fit it into the sled.

 

I do have some updates though.

 

Whilst I won't be painting the interior of the case I will be making it a little tidier in there than a stock unit. I'm going to use cable extensions.

 

I already had some lying around. A couple of 6 pin PCIE left over from the build when it was working as well as two red Bitfenix Alchemy 8 pins from my R7990. I'm going to be fitting my Titan Black to this unit so I need one 6 pin and one 8 pin. Given that I already have one of each I am going to use red and black cabling. Only problem is all of the fans I am fitting are white. So I have decided to go with a red, black and white theme

 

I ordered this yesterday for £7.50 from OCUK. At that price I wasn't going to dirty my hands tbh.

 

 

One thing I will need to make is a super long 8 pin EPS to reach the board. I will have to custom mate that and will braid it black. It will run under the motherboard.

 

I also had a look in my wardrobe and decided on the final spec. Note, some parts will be coming from X8 White Lightning (my hackintosh) which will now be scrapped, bringing me back down to just three rigs (my lady won't let me have any more but it's fair). So here will be the spec. Note, it may change, this is just a rough outline.

 

CPU - Intel ES 8 core Ivybridge @ 2ghz - cooled with a Corsair H55 with Noiseblocker Bionic fan @ 600 RPM

Board - custom Gigabyte X79 UD3

Memory - 8gb dual channel TBC.

Graphics card - MSI Nvidia Titan Black - cooled with a Corsair H55, Noiseblocker Bionic fan @ 600 RPM and held on with a NZXT Kraken AIO adapter.

Power supply - Corsair RM 750

Primary hard drive - Revodrive 120gb PCIE X4

Secondary hard drive/s - 6 x 500gb Seagate Pipeline industrial

Sound card - Asus Xonar DX

 

Mods.

 

5.25 bays will be converted into a 120mm cooling duct with a fan in the front, similar to what I did with Shocking Orange. The AIO fans will be set to push but inside, not bringing air from the outside. This is why I am converting the 5.25 bays into a cooling duct, to bring air into the top of the rig.

 

Floor pan. I am going to try and make a floor pan for the rig to cover up all of the wiring which will be concentrated at the bottom.

 

Cable trunking. I have plenty of this left over from setting up my cinema rig. This will house all of the case's stock wiring.

 

3mm black acrylic plate to cover up the fan holes I cut in the cover duct. I no longer need two 120mm fans over my GPUs.

 

Cooling.

 

Noiseblocker bionic fans in white for the two H55s. Two white Silverstone 120mm fans with their own controllers. One will go in the roof next to the AIO taking hot air out and one will go in the GPU cooling duct. I will tune these manually. In the front will be a Aerocool fan with white LEDs.

 

So that should about do it for now. Last night I stripped X8 of all of its cooling ready for the Alienware.

 

More soon. I will attempt to fit the PSU later on tonight and will post an update once I've tried it

[X_Rated_Box]

noice!

[ALXAndy]

Update. I've been very busy today. Firstly I cleaned the entire inside of the case. It took me a few hours but it's very clean in there now, and all of the dust that was caked inside the front is now gone. So I fitted the PSU, then, ran most of the wiring. Any left over wiring will be hidden in the bottom under a floor panel I am going to make. Any way, here is the Titan Black, now AIO cooled and mounted in position.

 

 

And the CPU cooler and exhaust fan. This is a unit that slides onto a hinge and lives in the roof

 

[X_Rated_Box]

(Y)

[flibberdipper]

Those things were sexy. I have my weekend rig in an old Compaq case, and it is so freaking understated. You don't expect something with an old Sempron sticker and Windows XP sticker to be running Windows 7 and be hauling ass.

[ALXAndy]

Yeah when she's all cleaned and finished she's going to look pretty stunning. When I bought the case it was already quite dirty inside but getting to the front panel means about an hour of stripping down so I never did bother.

 

The side panel arrived with my friend in Maryland, so now I just need to get some shipping quotes. I think when all is said and done it could cost me around $200 but I'm willing to pay it. Especially because I know the hardware is all pretty new and the rig should carry on for a few years yet

 

I'm just thrilled I managed to get the Kraken on the Titan and get it in where it's at. It required some pretty serious modding to fit it there but that's where the old GPU duct fan used to go.

 

The one complaint I had about the rig was the OEM fans. They were Nidec, which are pretty much the same sort of deal as Delta. Sodding noisy. It wasn't helped by the fact that I used to have two open cooler 670s in SLI and that was the only thing feeding them air. I used to have to run it at pretty extreme speeds to keep the GPUs under control.

 

I'm not going to overclock the Titan though. Basically I just want the rig quiet, so when my lady games on it it doesn't drive me nuts

 

The outside is still absolutely filthy though, so there's a good couple of hours there getting into all of the small crevices.

[flibberdipper]

Yeah when she's all cleaned and finished she's going to look pretty stunning. When I bought the case it was already quite dirty inside but getting to the front panel means about an hour of stripping down so I never did bother.

 

The side panel arrived with my friend in Maryland, so now I just need to get some shipping quotes. I think when all is said and done it could cost me around $200 but I'm willing to pay it. Especially because I know the hardware is all pretty new and the rig should carry on for a few years yet

 

I'm just thrilled I managed to get the Kraken on the Titan and get it in where it's at. It required some pretty serious modding to fit it there but that's where the old GPU duct fan used to go.

 

The one complaint I had about the rig was the OEM fans. They were Nidec, which are pretty much the same sort of deal as Delta. Sodding noisy. It wasn't helped by the fact that I used to have two open cooler 670s in SLI and that was the only thing feeding them air. I used to have to run it at pretty extreme speeds to keep the GPUs under control.

 

I'm not going to overclock the Titan though. Basically I just want the rig quiet, so when my lady games on it it doesn't drive me nuts

 

The outside is still absolutely filthy though, so there's a good couple of hours there getting into all of the small crevices.

Nidecs are sex tho. They last FOREVER it seems.

[ALXAndy]

They do. But in this case they were taken directly from Dell's fan inventory and they really belong in servers, not desktops.

 

I just want it running on standard 120mm fans that make the noise of a standard 120mm fan. The Noiseblockers in the top are 600 RPM. The reason being that the Xeon is a 60w CPU and you can't overclock it, and even with just a H55 Prime 95 makes it hit 35c. That's 8 cores BTW. So there's really no need for any noise

 

I originally built it up for my lady who at the time scoffed at it and said she wasn't going to use it. As soon as it went out of the door she said "But I wanted that". lol.

 

Ah well, it's back now and it'll be quicker than ever.

 

Edit haha forgot to mention.. Get this.. So when the board died in my dream rig I put the 8 core Xeon and X79 UD3 in there whilst I sourced a replacement. I put the 60w CPU on a H110 and even in Prime I couldn't break the ambient temps of the room

 

Seriously I think it's the coolest chip I've ever owned. Even more so than my Haswell Pentium !

[arnavvr]

They do. But in this case they were taken directly from Dell's fan inventory and they really belong in servers, not desktops.

 

I just want it running on standard 120mm fans that make the noise of a standard 120mm fan. The Noiseblockers in the top are 600 RPM. The reason being that the Xeon is a 60w CPU and you can't overclock it, and even with just a H55 Prime 95 makes it hit 35c. That's 8 cores BTW. So there's really no need for any noise

 

I originally built it up for my lady who at the time scoffed at it and said she wasn't going to use it. As soon as it went out of the door she said "But I wanted that". lol.

 

Ah well, it's back now and it'll be quicker than ever.

 

Edit haha forgot to mention.. Get this.. So when the board died in my dream rig I put the 8 core Xeon and X79 UD3 in there whilst I sourced a replacement. I put the 60w CPU on a H110 and even in Prime I couldn't break the ambient temps of the room

 

Seriously I think it's the coolest chip I've ever owned. Even more so than my Haswell Pentium !

 

I just wished that the 3960X was eight cores. There is actually 8 cores on the die, but since Bulldozer failed, Intel fused off two of the cores.

[ALXAndy]

I just wished that the 3960X was eight cores. There is actually 8 cores on the die, but since Bulldozer failed, Intel fused off two of the cores.

 

Yeah it's a shame AMD have not been more competitive. I own a 3970x and it's an epic chip, just wish it had the two extra cores I'm hopeful that whilst Zen may not beat Haswell E it will likely come close enough and carry lots of cores.

 

I had a prototype I9 up until about two days ago. A very, very early version of the 6 core Westmere (or Gulftown) 980x. Intel were all set to release a 6 core I9 in response to Bulldozer but I guess they just had a good laugh over it instead lol.

 

I'll tell you what though, at 4k CPU speed means nothing. I run my 3970x at an easy 4.7ghz for day to day use and can get 4.9ghz bench stable with temps 4c from the shut down point in Prime 95 and when I switched that out for the 2ghz 8 core Ivy Xeon it made absolutely no difference to my FPS at all. I really couldn't believe that but I remember reading an article about CPU power not meaning squat at 4k.

[flibberdipper]

They do. But in this case they were taken directly from Dell's fan inventory and they really belong in servers, not desktops.

 

I just want it running on standard 120mm fans that make the noise of a standard 120mm fan. The Noiseblockers in the top are 600 RPM. The reason being that the Xeon is a 60w CPU and you can't overclock it, and even with just a H55 Prime 95 makes it hit 35c. That's 8 cores BTW. So there's really no need for any noise

 

I originally built it up for my lady who at the time scoffed at it and said she wasn't going to use it. As soon as it went out of the door she said "But I wanted that". lol.

 

Ah well, it's back now and it'll be quicker than ever.

 

Edit haha forgot to mention.. Get this.. So when the board died in my dream rig I put the 8 core Xeon and X79 UD3 in there whilst I sourced a replacement. I put the 60w CPU on a H110 and even in Prime I couldn't break the ambient temps of the room

 

Seriously I think it's the coolest chip I've ever owned. Even more so than my Haswell Pentium !

I wish my Pentium would run that cool.

[ALXAndy]

I wish my Pentium would run that cool.

 

Yeah mine's a toaster too.

[arnavvr]

Yeah mine's a toaster too.

 

De-lid!!

[ALXAndy]

De-lid!!

 

A Pentium? hehe not worth the bother really.

 

So today I started making the front intake. First I cut a piece of acrylic and cut a fan hole into it.

 

 

There will be a white LED fan in there. I chose this because it was pretty cheap and looked nice.

 

 

And then for a nice finishing touch I let my lady take her pick from MNPCtech's acrylic grill range. They're not terribly expensive but just the cabling alone on this machine has set me back a bit and then of course there's the Titan Black, 8 core Xeon etc. Any way, in my head I thought "honeycomb" as there are lots on the design of the case.. She picked honeycomb great minds !

 

 

This will bring in lots of air for the upper part of the machine. So mobo fets, rads in the roof and so on

 

Once this is done I need to make a false floor for the machine which will have a 92mm fan in it to feed air down for the power supply.

[Gilbert]

You should totally pain the inside of the case black just to make it look more modern on the inside and not cringe everytime you have to open it up.

[X_Rated_Box]

You should totally pain the inside of the case black just to make it look more modern on the inside and not cringe everytime you have to open it up.

I somehow second this

[ALXAndy]

If only you guys realised just how much work that involved. I saw a guy do it once and when he was finished he put the side back on and guess what? You don't see the insides.

This is a build for my lady. All liquid cooled and some really nice hardware. Once it's built it'll be staying built unless it ever needs repair.

[X_Rated_Box]

...im sorry:D

[ALXAndy]

Don't sweat it man

 

Seriously though this guy spent nearly a thousand dollars on the inside of this case. In the last photo in his build log he showed the machine powered up with multi coloured lights and the vents open with the side panel back on.

 

A total waste of money, just for his OCD.

 

The thing is Alienwares are all designed with the outside as the main focal point of the case. I made the mistake of cutting a window into it and it's costing me £120 just to put it back to stock because they look fucking dumb with windows cut in them. I had no choice but cut it at the time because I was running two 670s with open coolers and they were overheating really badly.

 

If I could go back I would have just changed graphics cards or something but hey, I've managed to find a replacement panel so that's all cool.

 

In all my years I have only ever seen one Alienware with a window cut into it that looked good and that was the original predator case that MNPCtech did. And that wasn't primarily because they did it and charged hundreds of dollars it was because that case looked OK with a window in because it had far less going on than the later models.

 

I just want it to look stock and I did point that out more than once. This isn't going to be a "watch me paint the inside of my Alienware" log it was more electronics based and could I get it running on a stock power supply

[ALXAndy]

More done. All three USB cables have been braided in black and I've made a white floor pan with a Phobya grill in it and a 120mm Gelid slim fan. This will feed air down to the power supply, because the fan in the PSU is about 10mm from the bottom of the case (you can't mount it upside down in here).

 

 

Oh yeah and I trunked those nasty orange wires that were running from bottom to top for the front panel.

[X_Rated_Box]

THis is going so well I cant believe it im so happy for you

[ALXAndy]

Cheers

 

Whilst it won't get black paint inside that doesn't mean I'm going to neglect it any. Every cable on show will be braided (you can see the front panel header ones there, those will be braided tonight).

[andrevautour]

love it. i think the silver interior actually suits this.

[ALXAndy]

Thanks Andre! As I tidy it more and more and hide more and more of the cabling I must say the silver is growing on me.

I almost painted the white upright trunking silver lol..

[ALXAndy]

The postman came with gifts. So here is the 120mm intake I made.

 

 

And that lovely MNPCtech grill

 

 

And in it goes with a new 3.5" blank plate. The yellow Patriot convoy looked bad against the white.

 

 

The HDD bays in the right panel are wired to SATA connectors. Sadly I can't route the SATA connectors the way I want to (they look like poo stock) so I have ordered six of these.

 

 

Flowers not included obs. These will allow me to run the cables through the holes I want to which will make them much cleaner. I also made up a very long molex-molex which will power up a 6 port 3 pin fan hub and a molex to floppy for the sound card (Asus Xonar).

 

The only issue I have now is that the SATA cables are coming from Hong Kong, where they cost £1 each. In the UK they cost £4.99 each and I'm buggered if I was going to hand over £30 for SATA wires. That means there could be a two week wait but I'm starting to realise that waiting isn't bad. I want it right