Aurora R11, cooling

The R11 has the same case inside and out as the R9 and R10, and those both include 1x 3.5" drive caddy, and 2x 2.5" drive caddies. So as configured physical room for 3 sata hdd's total.  

I'd expect 1x m2 slot on the mobo plus the pcie slots (0 available pcie slots if you get liquid cooling for the gpu as shown in photos on Dell's website.)

@markshaheen 

Nobody has one yet, so it it difficult to assess. There are 2 drives offered in the Dell build options

Aurora R11 

I believe the AIO CPU liquid cooler is the same as the previous Aurora series, but with a hotter selection of CPUs. If you pack these tiny cases with a lot of spinning drives, that could be the source of your 'under performing' CPU cooler.

You would need to remove the 2.5" drive bays and fabricate or find a compatible third party 3.5" caddy to have any hope of fitting two large 3.5" drives in there.

@markshaheen :

If you haven't ordered the R11, maybe you can place a note in your order to request for an extra 3.5" drive bracket. No promise that Dell would toss that in there for you but there's no harm asking for it?

Hey. Just wanted to chime in and say I don't understand why your Area 51 R5 would be running that hot. The CPU in my R5 has never gone past 52c while under load and I used they stock aio liquid cooler. The GPU gets up to 80c but that's the nature of the beast with these. What CPU do you have? It doesn't make sense that it would be getting that hit. In fact, I have never seen someone saying they have had problems with CPU Temps in the A51. 

I have the i9-7900x, I replaced the 1080 with a 2080ti.  The TI dumps hot air in the case so I have had to leave the left side off for more air.

Also looks like the 2 2.5 drive holders in the R11 can't be swapped due to the screw locations.  Can one cage be removed and let a 3.5 internal drive sit there?

The drive holders have no screws involved. Well, at least not if you decide to take them off and just let the slot mechanism do its job of holding everything in place.

3.5" and 2.5" locations are interchangeable in my R8 which is the same inner chassis from R5-R11. In picture below, you can see that the screw holes are maxed out at the 3.5" holder and for the 2.5" holder, they are in the same location, just the body folds in for the narrower form factor.

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@GTS81 wrote:

The drive holders have no screws involved. Well, at least not if you decide to take them off and just let the slot mechanism do its job of holding everything in place.

3.5" and 2.5" locations are interchangeable in my R8 which is the same inner chassis from R5-R11. In picture below, you can see that the screw holes are maxed out at the 3.5" holder and for the 2.5" holder, they are in the same location, just the body folds in for the narrower form factor.

 

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Interesting, never noticed they are the same width.  Maybe I should move my 3.5" down to the bottom, and add my spare Noctua up front.  

@r72019 :

Interesting, never noticed they are the same width.  Maybe I should move my 3.5" down to the bottom, and add my spare Noctua up front.  

The only reason why my 3.5" stayed up front was that magnet trick to quiet down the impeller on the EVGA hybrid card. Then I got too lazy to move it down even after both cards got waterblocked.

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@GTS81 wrote:

The drive holders have no screws involved. Well, at least not if you decide to take them off and just let the slot mechanism do its job of holding everything in place.

3.5" and 2.5" locations are interchangeable in my R8 which is the same inner chassis from R5-R11. In picture below, you can see that the screw holes are maxed out at the 3.5" holder and for the 2.5" holder, they are in the same location, just the body folds in for the narrower form factor.

 

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Thanks again for pointing this out, worked great just like you said. 

You guys Rock!

Now any chance someone has the order number for the 3.5 cage?  I can get it before the R11 shows up

Alienware Dell Aurora R5 3.5" HDD Hard Drive Caddy Tray Bracket 13P1-4YN0G01

$14.95 on ebay.

Yea it should be the same, Dell has been using that same internal chassis with the swinging psu arm design since the R5 and still is using based on the R11 photos available so I doubt they changed the 3.5" caddy design but I suppose you'd have to wait to get it to know for sure.AFTER

R11 service manual appears to show the same 3.5" cage, in the same stock location.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/19/alienware-aurora-r11-desktop/alienware-aurora-r11-service-manual/removing-the-35-inch-hard-drive?guid=guid-d9c16c7a-a854-4337-a7dd-a72ca49185ff&lang=en-us

Oem position of 3.5" drive.

EVGA PSU