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Aurora R4, move internals to new case
Hello!
We have a pretty old Alienware Aurora R4 that stopped turning on. The power button just didn't seem to do anything. I should note that the PSU test button did work, turning on the lights and fans and even causing the BIOS screen to display. (It no longer shows BIOS, just lights and fans, but this may be because of monitor issues and/or because we took the entire thing apart and put it back together in the meantime). We were out of warranty, but out-of-warranty support thought it might be a motherboard issue. We agreed to try replacing the motherboard, but the issue persisted (We did get the part cost refunded, but not labour). We suspect that it's an issue with the actual power button on the top of the machine, as it always seemed pretty flimsy and the metallic plastic cover fell off years ago. However, Dell/Alienware no longer makes the Front I/O assembly, so there were no replacements available.
TL;DR: Power button issue (probably) causes complete failure, no spares available.
That brings me to the proposed solution: Move all of the [expensive] internals, or as many as we can, to an [inexpensive] new case. This post is basically a sanity check to make sure we're not trying anything totally stupid. Here are the parts we'd like to reuse:
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Intel i7-3930K processor
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4x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM cards
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the Intel X79 motherboard that came with the Aurora R4 (more on this later)
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The Alienware Water cooling that came with the computer (it cools the processor, nothing else)
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The Blu-ray reader + media card reader
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The ATA 3 hard drive some other hard drives we had laying around (the current build has space for 4, we use 2)
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The Power Supply Unit that came with the computer (I'm not sure of a model number, but the cord we got with it is 125 V. should be 875W)
- 2x 3GB DDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7950 w/ crossfire
So that brings me to my questions:
- What size is the motherboard? Our research showed MicroATX. Is this correct?
- Will the Alienware motherboard work in a new case? We plan on buying a simple case- no lights and/or active vents. Will the Alienware BIOS/software screw things up?
- Do we need to keep the master I/O board and/or buy a replacement?
- Will our current hard drives and optical drives work with any case? Do we need to buy mountings for them?
That's all the questions I can think of, but this is my first time building a computer. Can you think of any unforeseen problems/complexifiers with this plan? If so, comment!
Finally, are there any parts (especially cases) you'd reccomend? This is probably the least important question, but any help is appreciated!
Thank you for your help,
Marsouin223
Cass-Ole
2 Intern
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1.8K Posts
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February 11th, 2019 16:00
jump start motherboard on
If PC jump starts on, then top external power button needs replaced
If PC will not jump start on, issue may be elsewhere
Raw Assembly > gain access to power on button due to possible failed plunger
If you're adventurous, you can disassemble TOP I/O area of PC, remove plastic housing & expose raw power on button, press it, see PDF Owner Manual & AlienTube
If PC starts, replace top I/O
Top I/O part# 5W6MX >< R1 R2 R3 Top I/O = loss of top USB3.0 port
Order temporary power on switch; back front panel connector off & place onto pins 6 / 8; start PC w/ side panel removed if need be
If PC will not start when pressing raw button, nor will jump start w/ tool, nor will start w/ new top I/O (or temporary switch); if new mthrbrd did not fix issue; issue is 'else where' (CPU / PSU etc)
__________________________
Moving Hardware To New Case
It is a micro-ATX / u-ATX form factor Mthrbrd, 9.6 x 9.6
You can relocate to new case, simply drop mthrbrd in, drop parts u mentioned in & leave the rest behind (do not transfer MIO board, nor buy a new one); whether your HDDs need mounting support depends on the case u buy (purchase a case that offers 3.5" drive mounting support)
The larger Area-51 R1 desktop is similar to the smaller Aurora R1-R4; a lady friend of mine contacted me last week, the idea was to remove original parts out of the 51 (place all new hardware inside it), move those parts to a basic case & get it all working
Mthrbrd/cpu/DDR3, cooler rad + fan, HDDs DVD etc transferred into new case, new PSU was chosen (old PSU could have transferred over as can yours; however, yours may need SATA cable extensions if the SATA cables can not reach the new HDD mounting spot)
Your radiator fan will plug into your mthrbrd CPU_Fan header
Your liquid cooling motor needs an ADAPTOR; the most logical type is an unshielded molex-to-fan adaptor R4 mthrbrd does not have enuff chassis fan headers to support a different type of adaptor (basic unshielded fan extension as seen & used on Area-51 below); find & use the one above, plug it into an open Molex 4pin found on the harness that supplies power to your DVD drive area, or the one that powered MIO, or a 4pin cable when using a traditional aftermarket power supply
For Area-51 5pin & Aurora 7pin cooler motor 'special black' connectors:
Photo Edit Below: A51 owner I helped transfer parts into a basic case
Below, 5pin & 7pin can make good contact w/ fan header, 3pin fan also shows
Above, reverse adaptors, 5pin 7pin to 3pin fan for secure connexion
________________
*When de-coupling the cooler motor from the CPU (to transfer), buy new thermal paste
(Phobya Nano Grease / Gelid GC Extreme / Grizzly Kryonaut)(Arctic Silver minimum)
*SandyBridge 3930k CPU can be upgraded to IvyBridge 4930K 4960x w/ Bios A08 or higher
*Part tag for your mthrbrd is on two labels, it is probably FPV4P (Sandy) or 7JNH0 (Ivy) mthrbrd & either can be used if u need a replacement
*If you don't have an SSD (SOLID-STATE-DRIVE), get one (Samsung 8 or 9 Series)(Use Macrium Reflect to clone / image your OS onto new drive or install Windows clean onto it)
*Be sure new case has one or more intake / exhaust fans; if not, purchase fans in the size recommended by the case supplier (see owner's manual etc)
ProTip: Try the jump start methods 1st; ALWAYS be gentle w/ Aurora on/off plunger
That is all the time I have
For those wondering, with my wiring help / specialty cables & advice, her Alien now enjoys MSI TaiChi, Threadripper, Enermax 240, Radeon 295X2, EVGA 1200 P2 power supply & flashy DDR4 (=
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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February 11th, 2019 13:00
You can test the (simple) power-switch with a multi-meter. You can usually turn-on a motherboard without it ... using the old "jump-start" technique.
Yes, trouble-shooting broken computers takes skill (that's why people train for it).
Retro-fitting proprietary motherboard and other parts into an after-market case is an advanced-modding project.
Marsouin223
5 Posts
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February 13th, 2019 10:00
Thank you for all the responses. Will Try it out and update.
If it turns out the power button IS the problem and I can't jury-rig anything, any common-format motherboards you can recommend compatible with my processor and/or the 2 graphics cards? Any suggestions for what to look for?
Cass-Ole
2 Intern
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1.8K Posts
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February 13th, 2019 18:00
Hi. You're contemplating removing this mthrbrd to put something else in its place?
To that I'd say, remove it now & bench test it, which is to say, jump-start it on outside of the case if it will. If it won't, then yes it has a grave issue & needs replaced (so long as the power supply used in the bench test is known to be good, that is, & no user-error involved in setting up the bench test)
The jump-start shorts pins 6 & 8 together momentarily w/ a flat-blade tool, can be done inside the case or outside, a feat which the $2 power switch button can accomplish
I linked you to the FPV4P & 7JNH0 mthrbrds, those are the simplest solutions, just get the same R4 board which will be plug & play w/ your current HDDs & Windows install
The Asus Rampage IV Gene is considered the best micro-ATX X79 (socket 2011)board of its day; because it was, & due to its age / relative scarcity & desirability, it may be expensive or hard to source or both; top mthrbrds do not depreciate in value in the way we'd think they would or should, nor do top chips
Help having Aurora R4 function properly on the Rampage IV Gene please
Due to its age, the X79 Intels may prove hard to find, but other popular brands may be MSI X79MA-GD45 (R4's 'twin') AsRock X79 Extreme4m Gigabyte (did not make an m-ATX X79); the one u have now is made by MSI for the Aliens, it is adequate, what we'd call close-to a mid-Tier board (but neither high-end nor true low-end)
3930k & R4 board, CPU current market value begins at $62 & is readily had for $80, R4 board ~$150
Asus X79 $200 - $300 used
I have an R4, my best judgment is the alienboard now in it is today's best solution, only because the Asus board is & has always been too expensive; I own the AsRock 4m above I linked to, & consider it slightly better than our MSI alienboard but by now not worth the hassle if all we're trying to do is hold onto an $80 CPU, not whilst knowing that way newer (better / faster) hardware can be put in there instead
Here, Luke's R4 is running Gen8 8700k on an EVGA board (which supports Gen9 9900k), you'd chime into his thread there for mthrbrd swap advice
Which new modern mthrbrd + CPU to consider is not something I have time for, due to the multitude of choices (& generations of Intel chips & chipsets since 3930k); I can say that my fave boards are by Asus, MSI, EVGA ... Gigabyte & Asrock pull up the rear, however Giga has stepped up their game for Gen9 w/ the Aorus Master (for 9900k)
In short, your X79 choices (links) are ASUS MSI AsRock, but I didn't see anything for sale ($600 Asus Gene is not practical); so try google / shopping or similar (Amazon etc) ... best easiest solution is still the alienboard ... modern solutions are by manufacturers above, starting with popular chips like 6700k 7700k 8700k 9700k 9900k, some i5-K CPUs may work in those generations (i5-9600k)(the above require newer DDR4 memory, u have DDR3); google & uTube are the two places I look for reviews & comparisons on old hardware & new ...
My best advice: if needed, get another R4 board, then consider upgrading CPU to 4930k 4960x later (sell 3930k or at this point hold onto it as a spare or for sale later if u ever part w/ R4 or R4 mthrbrd so it can bundle w/ it)(board needs Bios A08 or higher for IvyBridge CPU) ... I hope this helped
Marsouin223
5 Posts
1
February 17th, 2019 14:00
Okay! Small update on this particular solution (I see I've gotten some similar sugggestions). For anyone trying to fix a similar problem, here's what I've done:
I attempted to confirm that the motherboard itself was working by jumping pins 6 and 8 with a paper clip as my tool. Something not mentioned in this person's reply is that you DO need to remove the GPU(s) in order to access it. On my computer, the plastic housing for the front I/O connector was missing and the Reset +/- pins had no wires going into them. After initially failing to jump the motherboard, I tested the PSU using its test button to confirm that the motherboard actually would turn on. It took some fiddling, but I was able to jump pins 6 and 8 by touching my pieces of paper clip to the metal contacts on top. Again, I had to fiddle around a bit to get it to work. That's where I've left off for now.
Again, thanks for all your help! I've now confirmed that the motherboard itself is not stopping the computer from booting.
I may try and fix/circumvent the Front I/O assembly whilst in the current case, or move on with buying a new case- haven't decided yet.
In any case, I'll update you guys further and, again, thanks for the help!
Cass-Ole
2 Intern
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1.8K Posts
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February 17th, 2019 16:00
You're right that Aurora has limited hand space for this area of the board
In my 1st photo I showed that u can approach the top of the connector to get at the metal pins shown, while it is also possible to attack the pins inside the connector slots by gently forcing your tool into the slots
Typically we'd back the black connector off entirely & attempt jump-start w/ screwdriver flat-tip on poles 6/8 (with connector off, MIO board may not receive signal to turn on, since it is patched into the front panel connector / wiring); jump-starts using this method are for short-term tests only, simply to verify mthrbrd can turn on manually
Marsouin223
5 Posts
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August 14th, 2019 15:00
Sorry for the long time between replies. So, I managed to disassemble the computer and test that the *actual* button (not the flimsy chromed plastic POS) worked properly. Because I'm not that confident about messing around with the wiring, my current solution is to run the PC with the side off, and the Front I/O assembly just kinda hanging there.
I'm actually relatively happy with this- it's definitely shoddy, but at least I can play games now, and the fix was free.
However, I ran into a problem when getting the system up and running- the computer only detected one GPU. The AMD driver disk apparently saw both of them, but only the #1 GPU shows up in device manager. Currently just running it on 1 gpu, but any advice would be appreciated.
Finally, I wanted to ask a question about the OS. My R4 currently runs Windows 7, but as support is being cut for that OS soon, I'd like to upgrade to windows 10. However, when I last tried to do this (during the free update period), the updater threw an error saying that my PC isn't compatible.
So, my question on that front is: Do I need to replace parts to get Windows 10 to run on my machine? If so, do you know which parts are blocking the install?
Thanks for all your help on this.
Marsouin223
5 Posts
0
April 29th, 2020 13:00
Hello, Everyone! I can now see that it's been more than a year since I began this project. I'm happy to announce that I have successfully moved my PC to a new Case, A Masterbox Q300L from CoolerMaster. I sort of forgot about this post until I stumbled upon it while googling a problem, so I didn't end up using some (very useful!) advice.
Here's what ended up happening: I ended up running the PC with the top I/O assembly hanging out the side, as I said earlier:
Around this time, I started getting intermittent Crashes- just a total shutdown, no blue screen, no nothing. At the time I was concerned it was the PSU, as I had just replaced the 2x 7970 with a single Vega 56, which necessitated using 2 seperate power leads to get an 8 pin AND a 6 pin. I now suspect it's that I was running the PC with stale/old thermal paste- I never scraped and reapplied when I was messing around with the AIO cooler the first time. This is a bad idea, and I can only hope that the crashing issue will now stop.
However, It did lead to me purchasing a new power supply, a corsair 850 watt one (at the time I was considering running my one working 7970 [oh yeah, I found out one of my GPUs wasn't actually working, too] alongside the Vega 56, mainly for distributed computing projects). So that's why that's there, along with avoiding working with this mess:
I managed to move the motherboard to the new case, but Decided early on that taking along the daughter and lighting boards was unfeasible- or, at Least, I didn't want to deal with it. This did mean I only had one fan header on the MOBO.
My initial solution was to replace the AIO with a corsair air cooler, but I ran into clearance issues:
The fan on the motherboard was pretty firmly attached, and I was worried there might be some actual logic in there, So I decided not to remove it. So, i returned the cooler and moved on to plan B: a fan power splitter.
This required adapting Dell's proprietary pump connector, which was accomplished with the help of this post:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/CPU-Pump-power-needs/td-p/5563836
Here's another I didn't use, but which may prove useful:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Aurora-CPU-Pump-black-connector-on-MIO/td-p/5609893
Because the Pins Actually lined up properly, I ended up chopping some of the shielding off of that power splitter and just sticking the pump header on that:
Thus, I could continue using the AIO Alienware cooler. I did run into one last problem, sorting out the front panel connectors. I did so with the help of a diagram on this page:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Aurora-R4-MIO-Reroute-Scheme-Cabling-ID-Need-Opinions/td-p/5561473
Although I believe there's a similar diagram in this thread.
So, a successful project! So far, anyways. There were some compromises and some things are still up in the air. notably:
There's also one last tip I have for anyone trying this themselves: I was able to pop out my Aurora R4's I/O shield on the back and press-fit it into the new case pretty easily. So consider doing that.
I'll let you know if I run into any further troubles, but for now this is mission complete.
Blingo21
1 Message
1
October 18th, 2020 16:00
I'm planning a similar project and I think this will be very useful. My main concern is the fans, how did you get on with the splitter?
I also had issues with the power button but solved them with this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HG7HO22/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Main reason I want to switch is that the fan control doesn't seem to be working that well. Either an incompatibility issue with win10 or there's some degradation of the cooling system but the fans seem to be on high power much more than they used to be.
How did you configure fan control with respect to the temperature and does it work well?