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Aurora R1, GPU upgrade, RX 570?
Hello!
Looking to get some more life out of an Aurora R1 a friend of mine gave to me.
Current specs:
- i7 930 @ 3.5ghz OC(1.27v)
- Radeon HD 5670 x2(crossfire)
- 6gb DDR3 1333(Soon to be 12gb)
- 240gb SSD
- 500gb HDD
- 525w PSU(may be 875w I have not had the chance to look)
- BIOS A04
The system will mainly be used for light work and 1080p gaming. The RX570 seems to have the right price to perdormance that id be looking to slap into this time machine. That being said would an RX 570 fit in the machine? I noticed that some of the PCB's for those cards are about 1" taller than the bracket that screws to the case. Also would an RX 570 even work as far as compatability with the PCIE slot and the bios rev? Would a twin fan style blow too much heat into the case vs a blower style fan?
Thanks!
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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February 25th, 2019 17:00
1. Yeah, something like that. See PDF Service manuals.
Did you try looking up Service Tag at support.dell.com . Sometimes, you can see BoM.
2. Both A04 and A09 are old. This is a Legacy-BIOS machine. I only know A09 works fine with GTX-1070.
See "Read-Only" area or this:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Desktop-General-Hardware-Troubleshooting/m-p/5555517#M57436
4. As you wish. I don't buy used video cards. How does a GTX-1060 / GTX-1060ti / RTX-2060 compare ?
speedstep
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February 25th, 2019 05:00
R series Cards require UEFI bios which you do not have.
Best Upgrade after changing power supply to something better would be Radeon HD7950
https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Graphics-21196-00-20G/dp/B00BXVFM3K/
JOcean
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February 25th, 2019 05:00
The following forum posts have a ton of information on upgrades.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Upgrade-Aurora-R1-Graphics-Card/td-p/5564007
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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February 25th, 2019 10:00
Worked fine for me. My Aurora-R1 has the 875w PS.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Recommended-NVIDIA-graphics-cards-for-Alienware-Aurora-R1-2009/m-p/5590870/highlight/true#M92465
New Nvidia cards seem to work fine in these non-UEFI machines. According to numerous forum reports, newer AMD cards do not work in Legacy-BIOS machines like this one.
Tesla1856
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17K Posts
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February 25th, 2019 14:00
1. It might be. The large wattage-label is on top of PS (must remove to see it). The 875w PS was optional back then. The invoice or config/BoM should say also.
2. I'm running BIOS A09 . Works fine so not planning to upgrade it further, ever.
3. Not sure why yours is so old, but you have the i7-930. Mine shipped with A09 back in 2010. I always kinda thought that was the "minimum working BIOS version".
Remember, there is significant "motherboard bricking/killing risk" . See my posts on flashing BIOS outside-Windows with DOS.
4. Now-days, a single (powerful) card is better. You also side-step potential SLI issues with games.
IMO, a single GTX-1070 (or higher) would be better.
rlhartzell88
3 Posts
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February 25th, 2019 15:00
1. I'm assuming to remove the PSU to check wattage-label I can disconnect the wire harness at the PSU block like you would remove any other cable from a modular PSU?
2/3. I guess my main question here is if any of the BIOS updates after A04 added any kind support or enhancements that I would potentially need to run a newer GPU? I probably wont bother if I have to risk updating the BIOS. Also I cant seem to find your post on flashing BIOS outside of windows
4. I meant i was searching for a single used GTX 970 GPU for a decent price since the 1070 is a bit out of reach at the moment.
Tesla1856
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February 25th, 2019 20:00
I also wrote-up this:
https://www.dell.com/community/Vostro-Desktops/Vostro-460-XPS-8300-Upgrade-Adventures/td-p/6054983/page/2
rlhartzell88
3 Posts
1
March 5th, 2019 05:00
Just to recap/close this thread up. EVGA GTX 1060 SC 3 GB runs fine and runs super cool. Idle at 28c, load at 65c.
Tesla1856
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March 5th, 2019 08:00
Good work. :Yes:
So, you got a nice/current video card now, and you already have a bootable SSD.
One of the only other things you might want is a ... PCIe USB-3 card ?