Alienware Area 51 ALX restoration.

[ALXAndy]

Hi guys. Please note this will be a quite long winded affair. It's not a custom build and it won't contain many, if any, case mods. It's just me restoring what I feel to be one of the best cases ever made. The quality just oozes from every crevice. It won't look terribly nice inside but it never did. However, this case is all about the outside.

 

Just think of this as a more electronics based build log, rather than one with lots of shiny parts.

 

About a year ago now I gave my Area 51 ALX to my step son. It was his 21st and after buying my dream rig I simply had too many rigs and had to get rid. I hate selling stuff I would rather give it away free (to family and friends of course) so at the time it was no biggy. However, I did regret it a little because the Alienware is just so lovely and well built. Not only that but good examples are incredibly rare (due to the size and weight they are so easy to damage) and when new at retail this was a rig that starts at £2700 minimum.

 

So any way, enough digressing. I originally bought the chassis along with a 1200w PSU in 2010. The rig was originally manufactured in 2008 and was sold as a dream rig (I ran the Dell service code and saw the specs. 980x, two 5970s etc).

 

When I got it it was pretty much mark free and in mint condition. Everything worked too, there was just a cold boot issue with the PSU that would happen every couple of months or so. When I gave it to my step son it had a hex core Westmere ES chip in it clocked to 1.8ghz with two 670s and so on. I took out the 670s and put those into the Dark Carnival AMD rig and gave him that as a replacement.

 

Since then I have been going to and fro over it. I had to cut into the left side panel because the 670s were over heating which kinda ruined the originality of the case. This sucks, and was why I have been humming and harring as to whether I should keep it or just take it to the dump. However, after doing some digging I found a new side panel on Ebay USA for $20. Sadly it will cost me around £100 to get it here, but I feel it's worth it.

 

After rigorous testing I found that the PSU was definitely at fault. A while back I bought some cables (braided extensions) and the 24 pin was wired up incorrectly and caused a short, buring out three 12v wires. I took them from anothter unused rail and all was well again, but it seems the PSU never fully recovered. This is a big issue, as the internal IO board that controls the front panel, roof vents and lights uses a proprietary power connector. This means you can't just fit a standard power supply, as nothing would work.

 

Bummer... Here is the IO board in question. It's about half the size of a ITX motherboard to give you some idea of the scale of it.

 

 

As you can see it's quite a complex beasty and has a 10 pin proprietary power connector. After many hours of running search strings through Google I finally managed some success, and, dug up these two images.

 

 

 

They are both identical, aside from the fact that one clever little person correctly identified that one of the 5v lines is a 5vSB. 

 

SB stands for "Stand By" and is used for "Power On" features, such as keyboard power on and/or mouse power on.

 

Setting +5v rather than +5vSB eliminates the possibility of using those features.

 

Thankfully when inspecting the 24 pin ATX connector we come across this...

 

 

Note, one pink 5vSB. So the upshot of this is that I *should* be able to basically buy one of these (already ordered)

 

 

And then strip into the wires, running the Alienware's 10 pin connector from it..

 

Here is the rig here (well, this is not my pic but this is what it looks like)

 

 

Here is where the PSU mounts. I will probably have to hand make some sort of plate to adapt it to take a regular PSU.

 

 

Proposed specifications.

 

Intel 2ghz Ivybridge ES, 8 core 16 thread 60w.

Ram - TBC

Motherboard - custom painted Gigabyte X79 UD3

Graphics card - MSI Titan Black 6gb

Hard drives - TBC, though I have about 8 spare]

SSD - 100gb Intel 320 series

Power supply - Corsair RM 750

Mods - possible internal painting, carbon 5.25 cover possibly with a screen in.

 

One more shot for now. This is the right side panel where all of the hard drives go.

 

 

It's an amazing feat of engineering. You really would think it couldn't be any better, then you realise that it's all completely lit with LEDs that connect to a battery pack, so even with no power going into the rig it still lights up.

 

As I mentioned before, this won't be a terribly exciting log. Well, not unless you are into electronics and the hacking of. I will post pics as I go

 

Yeah I know, TL:DR

[X_Rated_Box]

NOICE subbd

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

This seems intersting...I wanna see what you can do with alienware...Besides buy there rip of products

[beach_boy98]

Im only interested in the PSU thing and everything else LOL. Subbed.

[ALXAndy]

Sorry but I don't agree they're a rip off. Right now I can buy a new Area 51 for around £1500 with a 5820k in it. That's around a £300 mark up over a self built rig,however, many people out there just don't understand how much engineering goes into these cases nor the complexity.

They're not just a standard case with a few things bolted on. Empty the case I have weighs around 30kg. Empty. This is why good examples are very rare because there is no logical way of moving them without damage.

[Stefan1024]

Nice project! If you get confused with the electronic stuff, I can offer some help (I'm electrical engineer).

 

30 kg empty and a lot of features? Of cource it costs way more than a standart case. I hope you can manage it to restore it's glory and make it fully functional again!

[ALXAndy]

Thanks Stefan. From the moment I gave it to my step son I regretted getting rid of it so maybe this is fate. The extension cable is due to arrive tomorrow so I will make up the custom plug then. So, fingers crossed I will know more then

[ashtaroth]

So that one has a MIO (master I/O) board for case functions and rechargable batteries for "offline" lights?

Anyways goodluck with the project.

Edit: look up the dell/alienware forums for MIO board help.

[ALXAndy]

So that one has a MIO (master I/O) board for case functions and rechargable batteries for "offline" lights?

Anyways goodluck with the project.

Edit: look up the dell/alienware forums for MIO board help.

 

From the top of my head..

 

Motorised roof vents. Motorised electronic front panel. Front lights, side lights, roof lights, all fully programmable. The IO board is about half of the size of a ITX motherboard. Then a two AA battery rechargable pack that charges via the IO board to give you internal work lights, external work lights (the IO) and hard drive bay lights. I was thinking about stripping everything out and getting the inside powder coated but it's so much work and I would be afraid of not ever getting it back together again.

 

I will know more tomorrow, because I am going to investigate it fully before plugging anything in. Everything worked perfectly before the PSU died, so hopefully it wasn't damaged. Thankfully the 24 pin extension was only £3 so I have nothing to lose really

 

I do have plans if the IO board is dead, so it will eventually end up being a working PC again any way

[ALXAndy]

OK so I cut off the 10 pin wire that powers the electronics.

 

 

And then soldered it into a 24 pin extension.

 

 

Plugged in the standard PSU, in this case my RM750. Hah, the open vents kind of give it away

 

 

And then...

 

[ungreedy]

sweet ,glad you decided to do this.  

 

subbed  

[X_Rated_Box]

but the noise tho...

[ungreedy]

but the noise tho...

a little dry silicone lube would fix that

[X_Rated_Box]

a little dry silicone lube would fix that

yeah prob. ;D but still...

[ALXAndy]

but the noise tho...

 

 

It hasn't operated for nearly a year dude.

 

The case is filthy. There are parts inside that without major surgery can not be accessed. Thankfully with it all gutted out like that I can get access, so there's serious cleaning to do !

 

It's going to be a long road ahead. Basically it wasn't made to take a standard PSU so I am going to have to really cut about the PSU tray to take the Corsair.

 

But hey, it works. So I'm pretty thrilled about that

[beach_boy98]

Electronics like this are dangerous but so cool.

[X_Rated_Box]

Electronics like this are dangerous but so cool.

Lets hope for something exciting (im sorry:))

[ALXAndy]

Electronics like this are dangerous but so cool.

 

Yes, always risky, especially when you are going from a photo a guy uploaded to the net ! thankfully I found two and they were both pretty much identical.

 

With the case now powering up and the front panel functioning (I won't get to test the lights and so on until I have Windows on there and the USB header connected to the IO board) I have been pondering my options on the PSU mounting situation.

 

The Alienware's PSU is the same width as a standard ATX power supply but it is about 8-10mm taller. So basically you can not just fit a new PSU into the slide out tray (the part with the handle on).

 

So I decided to take the power supply apart given it was dead.

 

 

And then empty it, throwing away everything but the shell here.

 

 

OK. So my idea is to cut off the back and then solder a female power supply plug onto the male one you see there. Then paint it black and use it as a sled for a standard PSU

[simson0606]

 

Yes, always risky, especially when you are going from a photo a guy uploaded to the net ! thankfully I found two and they were both pretty much identical.

 

With the case now powering up and the front panel functioning (I won't get to test the lights and so on until I have Windows on there and the USB header connected to the IO board) I have been pondering my options on the PSU mounting situation.

 

The Alienware's PSU is the same width as a standard ATX power supply but it is about 8-10mm taller. So basically you can not just fit a new PSU into the slide out tray (the part with the handle on).

 

So I decided to take the power supply apart given it was dead.

 

 

 

And then empty it, throwing away everything but the shell here.

 

 

 

OK. So my idea is to cut off the back and then solder a female power supply plug onto the male one you see there. Then paint it black and use it as a sled for a standard PSU

 

maybe it's just me, but the mounting holes on the alienware psu look pretty much the same as a standard atx psu. if that's true you could just mount it normally

[alzh1991]

that case looks sick as hell, can't wait to see its final form ! 

[FranBunnyFFXII]

Man I love that Alienware Area 51 Phobos case.

One of my favorite cases of all time.

Definitely watching this.

[ALXAndy]

maybe it's just me, but the mounting holes on the alienware psu look pretty much the same as a standard atx psu. if that's true you could just mount it normally

 

They're not sadly. Because of the way the PSU mounts I need to make something. Basically you have three in total. The PSU itself, the handle/sled and a cover plate. It goes Cover plate-handle/sled-PSU. IE the screws go through all three.

 

That's what I'm struggling to keep intact and original ATM.

[KronosOne]

 I think I've seen one of these case, completely empty sitting on a shelf of my local, very sketchy independent computer dealer.  May have to make another trip over to take a look to make sure I'm not crazy.  Would make an awesome build.

[ALXAndy]

I can't quote you because Blackberry's browser doesn't work with quoting on this forum but...

If it has a PSU in it make sure you do the paper clip trick and fire it up before handing over any money. The vents should flare three times and the power button LED should come on.

Leave it running and look at the IP board. You should have an orange LED lit.

Without the electronics all functioning you can't even open the front panel,let alone the lighting.

[ALXAndy]

IP=IO.

Sorry for the DP phone doesn't allow me to edit posts either.