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Aurora R8, Experience of Buying
My Alienware Aurora R8 experience
It has been 95 days since I hit the "order" button and at this point, I am glad to say that I am happy with my purchase of the R8. My decision to buy an Alienware desktop started a month before that when I bought another Dell system, an Optiplex 27" AIO with i7 8700 and GTX 1050. At that time, my plan was to use the PC mainly as a surfing/ email machine with some additional juice to run games like Forza Horizon 4. Long story short, that plan fell apart and I decided I needed something that I can have a little bit more control over. Enter the desktop PC.
I've been over to several BYO websites like wepc and pcgamer to look at building my own rig but like many of us here observed, Dell's solution are usually cheaper... provided you're willing to live with what it means to deal with the many colorful issues we see in this forum.
Configured my system as below (trimmed to show the main parts):
1 210-ARGS Alienware Aurora R8
1 801-1540 Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, 1 Year
1 490-BEUO AMD Radeon RX 560X with 4GB GDDR5
1 321-BDXH 850W EPA Bronze PSU Liquid Cooled Chassis
1 801-1493 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Initial Year
1 570-AACN Alienware Mouse Is Not Included
1 580-ABUI Keyboard Not Included
1 555-BDBY 802.11ac 1x1 WiFi and Bluetooth
1 400-AMXY 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s (64MB Cache)
1 370-ADUC 8GB, DDR4 2666MHz
1 619-AHCQ Windows 10 Home (64bit) English
1 338-BSDW 9th Gen Intel Core i5-9400 (6-Core/6-Thread 9M Cache,4.1GHz Processor with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
The order was placed about a week before a US holiday so I was wary of a price drop. However, there was a good 15% discount and that takes a big chunk out of the 850W PSU + liquid cooling upgrade. Total damage is $875 + $76 in tax. I also have DFS account with 12 month interest-free payment and 6% reward.
Like many of you AW owners, waiting for the PC to arrive was a practice of patience. Initially the system showed that it will take ~10 days for it to arrive. I reached out to order support via chat and the rep was very helpful in explaining that other than ready-to-ship AW (like the tons of outlet R7s), most AW systems are built after order received. He did mention he will put a note that we chatted about my wait time concern. I didn't expect that to change anything until 2 days later, I was notified the system was shipped! And 2 days after that, a huge brown box with an alien head sat on my front porch. Without any signature required. Thanks UPS!
Unboxing the system brought me back to my first Dell which was a 17" laptop bought as a college graduation gift in 2003. As I plugged the cables and powered on the system, everything was flawless. Including Cortana's 90dB "HELLO". Ran Heaven benchmark just to get some numbers on the RX560 before shutting down the system and adding/ replacing the following:
WD Blue 1 TB HDD --> Crucial P1 500GB SSD [$61]
RX560X --> MSI RX580 Armor OC 8GB [$160 after $20 rebate]
Reinstalled Win10 with the image from Dell's recovery tool on the SSD. Everything worked great after that until the day I decided to upgrade my RAM...
GTS81
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December 22nd, 2019 11:00
@HanoverB :
Thank you so much for such a detailed walkthrough for this!
Would it be recommended to put some threadlocker over those "auto-threaded" holes so that the soft metal will not cause the holes to enlarge in the future?
I have a slightly different plan if I were to go this route. One way is to cut away almost the entire portion of the front of the chassis and then mount the radiator in place quite permanently. Something like making it part of the chassis so that it provides the structural strength. Another is to cut 2x holes to slot the fans through.
Thank you for the insight on the USB-microUSB and the AIO of choice. Will need to go for an AIO without the ML 120 Pro RGB because another community member recently reported a BIOS boot error with that fan. Strange huh, between 3 different ML 120 variants (standard/ Pro/ Pro RGB), only 1 works.
HanoverB
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December 22nd, 2019 12:00
@GTS81
Not a bad idea. if you are concerned you can use the blue 232 loctite. Acts as lubricant and locker in one.
If you can move the screw hole I made a little to the right towards the 123 cross bracket screw it would likely make the bracket a little more stable. I do know that location I used is safe in regards to the sliding mechanism behind the upper frame. Not sure if it's totally hollow in there. The screw is a required safety precaution. Once you put the side panel on, the PSU bracket is pretty much locked in place from the pressure of the side panel.
@GTS81 wrote:
Sounds good. I did run into the problem with that variant of the ML120 (non-Pro) fan that came with the H100i Pro. It caused a start up error when I went straight to the motherboard PWM fan header on a splitter bypassing the pump head. Might be fine with your headers as XPS 8930 has no adjustable fan control. Some details on the workings of that cooler here. I used it on one of the Phanteks case swaps. There are a few AIO coolers that can work, just make sure they have those rotating barbs. You saw the issue with the large 37mm radiator H80 cooler and the pump head with no rotating barbs.
You don't have to use the micro-usb cable. If you don't the fan speeds default to "Balanced" when controlled by the pump. Or just bypass pump fan control entirely and use a motherboard fan header. Just connect the cable if you want to change the pump head RGB color......
Also, take a look at how the front bezel locks into the chassis. You don't want to cut away too much. That bezel may not lock properly or will slide from side to side if the lock positions are all gone. Careful there. If that happens you can lock it with the moulding tape.....try to avoid that if possible.
HanoverB
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December 22nd, 2019 18:00
I also added this pic to the walkthrough.
With the side panel in place the PSU bracket is fairly stable. At least on the XPS 8930, the inside of the side panel rests very close to the 123 support bracket and the PSU. Also the back edge of the side panel wraps over the PSU. To prevent any vibration, I would put a rubber bumper or piece of felt with adhesive, on the side panel at the location of the 123 bracket and the side panel would lock that PSU bracket even more snugly in position.
You can see on this pic there are two foam squares already on the side panel as it came from Dell to dampen vibration of the bracket and side panel. I added a piece of adhesive backed felt where the 123 cross bracket is for more stability.
HanoverB
798 Posts
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December 22nd, 2019 18:00
One last thing to add......
If you don't want to drill that hole for the safety screw, a zip tie here will suffice.
That opening on the upper frame is not being used by anything as far as I can tell
While you have the PSU bracket out you can just drill a small hole for a mini-zip tie high on that now stub arm next to that opening....that would still look clean.
Anonymous
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December 22nd, 2019 19:00
@r72019 I don't live by microcenter, but this one's next to an airport I fly to often @GTS81
Are there and other brick & mortars besides Micro Center that carry computer cases and gear like that. I would love to burn some time browsing around that place.
After seeing the photos you posted, I am getting a little more anxious . . . I may have to call on Santa a little earlier than anticipated
Also, I think I can see how aznsniper911 was able to do four 480mm rads with push/pull fans . . . it appears that his top radiators are only about 25mm thick, or about the same size as his fans. The front rad looks much thicker. (click to embiggen)
GTS81
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December 22nd, 2019 22:00
@Anonymous ;
Sadly, nowadays there's only Micro Center. Occasionally you may find a local Fry's that does carry some like these? I saw some Thermaltakes in one of the Fry's near my house. There used to be Circuit City and CompUSA but those have gone extinct. Highly integrated portables like laptops and smartphones have just accelerated the demise of build-your-own desktops. Retail component shopping is much more alive and kicking in Asia. Although I don't even want to think how much a 2080 Ti costs in local currency there.
Why are you getting anxious from the photos anyways?
Anonymous
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December 23rd, 2019 07:00
@GTS81 Why are you getting anxious from the photos anyways?
Because they are making me want to start the build (I am referring to the photos of "under the Christmas tree). I really need to do some measurements and designing so I can get the products that will be coming from Deutschland ordered.
I went to my big online retailer account where I had the case (and other things) 'saved for later'. When I opened the Obsidian 1000D the red message said "Only One Left, Order Soon". I really didn't want the last one off the floor that had been kicked around the most, so I went to the Corsair web site. I could order the case from there, but the Corsair message said "available in 2 to 3 weeks". I looked at the calendar and thought . . . perfect! Then I went back to the big online retailer and got the AX 1600i PSU.
GTS81
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December 23rd, 2019 09:00
That makes sense now my friend. You see, I was looking at the remaining 2 C700Ms on big online retailer, going back and forth between "go for it" and "my R8 is already rockin' awesome". After the kids went to bed last night, "go for it" won, but by then, it is all gone.
I'll stick to my rockin' awesome R8 for now. Pray I don't cut off the wrong thing(s) both on the spare chassis and my own body in the coming days.
r72019
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December 23rd, 2019 10:00
I guess I shouldn't mention it says there's one left now @ 404.97
@GTS81 "going back and forth between "go for it" and" [in my case reading negative reviews]
This is exactly how I ended up with my 1500va sine wave ups.
GTS81
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December 23rd, 2019 12:00
@r72019 :
Time now is 12:51pm PST. There are 8 remaining!
I'll go build more rigs in PC Building Simulator to get my mind off this.
Anonymous
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December 23rd, 2019 13:00
@GTS81 @r72019 in my case reading negative reviews
I also saw a lot of C700M negative reviews on some of the forums, and these are from Cooler Master fan boys. A lot of complaints about the RGB failing or partially failing, much trouble getting replacement parts, and PCB hubs catching on fire To be fair, I also read a lot of praise for the case design and flexibility.
Anonymous
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December 23rd, 2019 14:00
@GTS81 Although I don't even want to think how much a 2080 Ti costs in local currency there.
nVidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders back in stock at BB today . . . this time the transaction went through. Not getting a lot done at work today
GTS81
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December 24th, 2019 23:00
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Santa is telling me to stick with my Aurora R8 nano-case and be happy with the 2080 Super XC Hybrid until next Christmas or when Team Red finally has something to kick Team Green off the perch.
@Anonymous , @r72019 , @HanoverB , @amstel78 , @coldfish_91 , @Tesla1856 , @Bmwpower603 : Have a happy holiday and New Year 2020!!!
P.S: Let's see how many of us will remain with this nano-case by this time next year.
r72019
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December 25th, 2019 07:00
YOU TWO!!
Anonymous
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December 25th, 2019 07:00
@GTS81 Let's see how many of us will remain with this nano-case by this time next year.
After all of the time and effort we have spent modifying the nano-cases, we should probably keep them around for a while. My juiced pseudo Alien is running super cool and super quiet; with an i9-9900K CPU, 64 gigs of RAM, 850 watt PSU, and GTX 1080 card . . . that is more than I will ever need.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL!