Sometimes you get a chance you can't say no to, so that's what happened to me.
After some discussions and exchanging ideas with Dell, I am very happy to announce to you a build with a super case. It's allready beautiful But I'm gonna give it a try ;)
The Alienware Aurora desktop.
And not only the case, but a complete configuration with the following components:
- CASE : Alienware Aurora ALX 875W-chassis (Matte Black)
- PROCESSOR: Intel® Core i7-3820 (4 Core, 10MB Cache, 3.60GHz)
- OPERATING SYSTEM : Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64-bits
- GRAPHICS : 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
- MEMORY : 16GB (4 x 4 GB) 1.600 MHz Quad Channel DDR3
- HARD DRIVE : 256 GB SSD
- OPTICAL DRIVE : 8X Blu-ray Disc-rw-station en 24x dvd+/-rw-station
Before I start, first I want to thank all the great sponsors for making this build possible.
Alienware, for the system.
Nvidia to deliver GPU upgrade (more on this later)
And EKWB for the watercooling components
There will be a lot of pictures again in this build. What is new is that I now going to add videos, think this will be a nice addition.
First contact with an alien:
Always a great feeling to receive packages :) Once everything is dragged into the living room to have another great feeling ..... unboxing
The Aurora is certainly well packed, they have given this some good thought.
A box in a box
Clips to unlock the cover
Almost :eeek:
:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:
The Alienware Aurora
Nice shapes
Front also beautiful and clean
One touch on the Alien head and the panel slides down.
If the PC is turned on and you activate the sliding panel, the lights which illuminate the optical drives will turn on
Acrylic part what looks very nice ... especially when it is enlightened
Power button
Behind this is a pushpanel to the front I / O. containing
(2x) Hi-Speed USB 2.0
(1x) SuperSpeed USB 3.0
(1x) Mic
(1x) Headphone
At the rear is the handle to unlock the side panel.
Pull the last vent
To unlock the sidepanel
The PSU (Alienware™ 875-watt) is also swappable and modular
Another great gadget is the enlightenment on the back. Activated with a push button.
Also a great gadget is the Alienware Active Venting.
Next box. With keyboard and other accessories
The Alienware tactx keyboard with two-zone lighting setup
10-27-2012, 02:29 PM
kier
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
The Alienware mousepad
Some documents
Drivers and utilities
Cables
And two Alienware 3D avatars
Not finished yet ..... a monitor, the beautiful Alienware OPTX AW2310
Specs:
•Connections Dual-link DVI (with HDCP), HDMI, 4 x USB
•Viewable Screen Size 23.5in
•Maximum Resolution 1,920 x 1,080
•Contrast ratio 80,000:1 (dynamic), static not quoted
•Brightness 400cd/m2
•Response time 3ms (grey-to-grey)
Back to the Alienware Aurora .... the inside
First looks without sidepanel
And again a nice gadget: when the sidepanel is removed, the inside is illuminated without the power on.
Powered by rechargeable batteries
Very handy!!!
The caps for the airflow and coverup are very nicely designed and printed
Cap for the GPUs is rotatable and removable
Beautiful swappable, tool-less and cable-free hard drive bays
Also well thought about is the power suply for the side panel (Lights)
On the side of the powersupply are contact points which provide this
For now a Nvidia GTX555 is installed, but this will be exchanged for two Nvidia GTX680
Cooler motherboard
And the beautiful Alienware CPU cooler
Personally I really like this one, so it stays in this build (perhaps modify)
What cable management is concerned, everything is provided. But it looks a bit messy.
This will be better ;)
Module for lighting, fans and other applications
This will be a lot of work, but a very exciting thing to do.
The first change that I'm going to do is swap the Nvidia GTX555 for two GPUs Nvidia has sent me.
Again thank you Nvidia
For sending me two Nvidia GTX680's
Engine Specs:
- CUDA Cores: 1536
- Base Clock: 1006
- Boost Clock: 1058
- Texture Fill Rate: 128.8
- Memory Speed: 6.0 Gbps
- Standard Memory Config: 2048MB
- Memory Interface Width: 256-bit GDDR5
- Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 192.2
Unboxing again
The beautiful GPU's
with one Dual Link DVI-I, one Dual Link DVI-D, one HDMI and one DisplayPort
And installed the new GPU's
10-27-2012, 02:30 PM
kier
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
And now it is time for some modding :)
First a window in the Alienware Aurora. And maybe two, one on both sides.
But this is for later... first one.
The sidepanel
Contacts for lighting has to be kept in mind
And the shapes / curves must be maintained
Everything is pretty easy to disassemble. Black panel removed and drawn the line for cutting
Disassambled the remaining parts
RGB strip for color effects
Detached the Acrylic carefully
What's left...a piece of iron
This is what we gonna use for cutting the window in the plastic panel
After some sawing and filing
Excess plastic also removed with my dremel to place the window (later)
first fit
Next step. We use the jigsaw
Removed the reinforcement strip and drawned the hole slightly larger than the window in the plastic panel
And saw it (and some filling of course)
The points which seem to be thin will be reinforced
Furthermore, it's still a strong frame
And placed everything back. The gap inside between the plastic and iron needs to be filled
And the window is almost finished
A big start topic with a lot of pics and vids, but hope you like it.
Until the next update!!!
Grtz.
Kier
10-27-2012, 10:02 PM
d_stilgar
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
Great start, and a great case to start with. Sure wish I had the Aurora ALX. The fins may have been proven to be more gimmick than performance booster, but I still love them.
10-28-2012, 03:48 AM
Fuganater
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
Nice start. I'll deff be watching this. Never saw someone mod a prebuilt system before. Epically not an Alienware.
10-29-2012, 02:09 PM
_ferry_
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
http://youtu.be/RaA1851L8ug
Were you listening to this song during the search for a new project :P
Oh well, at least the computer is a lot better then the song...
10-29-2012, 05:08 PM
kier
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
Quote:
Originally Posted by d_stilgar
Great start, and a great case to start with. Sure wish I had the Aurora ALX. The fins may have been proven to be more gimmick than performance booster, but I still love them.
Thanks, the vents are nice gadgets and look great. Nothing more :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuganater
Nice start. I'll deff be watching this. Never saw someone mod a prebuilt system before. Epically not an Alienware.
Needs to stay original ;) thanks bro
Quote:
Originally Posted by _ferry_
http://youtu.be/RaA1851L8ug
Were you listening to this song during the search for a new project :P
Oh well, at least the computer is a lot better then the song...
Lol you dont like my music :) was a random choise. next song will be better
11-03-2012, 04:28 PM
kier
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
Update!!!
After playing some games and testing it was time to strip the case.
First the wiring, which is quite a lot in this case. But quite logical because all the gadgets.
PCB and a lot of cables for the lights
The PCB strip at the top for lighting and power pump
2 of these for the lighting behind the HDD bays
And some more cables
After all cables are removed, This is what's left ... for illumination
Also removed the Alienware mobo. Rams will by provided with black ram coolers later on.
Fan bracket for the swap bay
And the fanbracket for the GPU's
The HDD bays are easy to disassemble with screwdriver
Putting the SSD away for later
CPU cooler remains a beautiful item, so as previously mentioned this will be used again in this build later
Removed the midplate.
And mobo tray
Still dismanteling with only a screwdriver ;) Also removed the PSU
Later on this will be black
And the cables which will be a challenge regarding the sleeve job
And removed the covers
Everything is stripped, so this is what's left
Time to think and mod. The idea is to put 2x 360 rads for the GPUs
This is not possible in the original case. Therefore I'am gonna raise the case using an old LL case where I have shortened the vertical bars and put it back together.
Mounted the Alienware Aurora on top and made a bracket around the lower part. Because the lower case is smaller I had some space for the HDD cage to place it in the empty space.
For the sides I have cut a piece of aluminum and bent the curves in it.
Bent everything in the shapes of the lower strip on the existing side panel. This strip is where the new cover is going to be mounted on.
Done both sides and front.
After this cut out the radiators
All assembled and stick together with tape
Shiny :)
Made the covers black
And the end result after some sawing, filing, drilling, bending and pasting.
11-03-2012, 04:29 PM
kier
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
The Alienware Aurora XL version
11-04-2012, 01:06 AM
TLHarrell
Re: Alienware Aurora ALX-XL
Interesting how this is taking shape. I definitely like this. Also, good to see an Alienware rig gutted out.