X51 R3 Upgrade

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@sessavawrote:

1. and have an Oculus Rift,

2. For example, I was going to purchase a GTX 1080 Mini, which I figured would fit in the case fine, but then I read it requires a 500 Watt power supply, and from what I understand the power supply included with the X51 R3 is just a 330 Watt one.

3. I also was going to purchase an SSD, but again,

4. I do not believe I could easily fit one within my X51 R3.

5. It's also worth noting that I paid for a DVD drive on my X51 R3, but never received one. I complained about this to Dell Support and they basically told me, too bad, so sad.

6. My situation is thus that I want to salvage as much of this PC as I possibly can and move it over to a new case with a new power supply.

7. I am very much against buying the "Alienware Graphics Amplifier" 

8. So I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on cases, power supplies, etc, that work with the X51 R3 parts that I can transfer over to a new build. I was wondering also what the power limitations of this motherboard are.

9. My X51 R3 has 32GB of ram, and an i7-6700 3.40 GHz that I would like to salvage.

10. Thanks for any help you guys can provide. Dell Support has thus far helped me with nothing despite my family's loyalty and support for the company over the years.

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1. Nice. Yeah, this is the wrong computer for VR, but you know that already.

2. Bad idea. It's a laptop-like power-supply architecture, adapted to make a small computer.

3. Good idea

4. Right

5. Yeah, that's lame. However, a 5.25inch DVD-ROM for a normal sized case is like only $20.

6. OK. Are you sure you don't want to keep it whole, demote-it to lesser-role, sell it, or gift-it away?

7. Good, it's kinda lame and definitely trouble-some (just read laptop forums).

8. No, not really. I don't support custom builds here (but there are websites that do ... with helpful volunteers like us). Also, after you get rid of motherboard, it's no longer a Dell. Have you looked at the Aurora-R7. You can get something nice for around $2000.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/XPS-8930-or-Aurora-R7-selection-advice/td-p/6028753

9. The motherboard is not worth keeping. If you can find a motherboard that still supports them, all you can really re-use in the CPU and RAM (and maybe a spinning HDD as D: or USB) Are you sure you want to tackle this? It's a lot of work (building a custom VR/gaming-class computer 100% properly). It won't be exactly cheap either.

10. That's what we Rockstars are here for. Hope this helps. 

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.

I'm not really into the whole building PC's thing (the most I've ever done is change my graphics card and RAM on an older PC) but my brother has built PCs before and I've already paid him off to help me with this whole process, so I figured that would help in doing this. He is pretty confused about the specific nature of this PC, though, and so I wanted to gather as much information as I could before getting him to do it.

I was looking at the Aurora, yeah, which is what I wish I had just got in the first place, but I'm not really in the market for an entirely new PC at the moment. I bought this one roughly two years ago and I'd feel like it's a complete waste of money buying a new one so soon afterwards. My last PC lasted me almost a decade.

From what I've come to understand through my research, I could buy a functional case for this motherboard for around $130~, then a functional power supply for less than that, then a good-size SSD for around $200, which would bring that to around like $400. Then I've been keeping an eye on sales and such for GPUs and was going to grab a 1080 or 1070 TI. But you are saying if I go this route, then I should just ditch the motherboard entirely and get a standard-sized case?

It's possible I might just opt for the Aurora, but the $2000 price is pretty hefty. Do you really think that's worth it over just transferring the current parts into a different PC build and salvaging what I can?

Alright. Again, I appreciate the responses.

So, I know this is a Dell forum at all, but you would recommend the Aurora over other competitor's pre-builts?

And with this Aurora, I wouldn't be in this same situation again two years from now? I would be able to easily upgrade the components of this PC in the future, unlike my X51 R3? For example, when the new GTX cards come out eventually, will I be easily able to slap them into the Aurora, probably?

If you really think this would be the better route for me, I suppose I could just order an Aurora and hand my X51 R3 over to my father. What you say about the risk of failing parts and such concerns me as well.

And do you know anything about the quality of Dell monitors? I might just go ahead and slap one of those on my order if they are of high quality.

Thanks so much for your help!

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@sessavawrote:

 

1. From what I've come to understand through my research, I could buy a functional case for this motherboard for around $130~, then a functional power supply for less than that, then a good-size SSD for around $200, which would bring that to around like $400. Then I've been keeping an eye on sales and such for GPUs and was going to grab a 1080 or 1070 TI.

2. But you are saying if I go this route, then I should just ditch the motherboard entirely and get a standard-sized case?

3. It's possible I might just opt for the Aurora, but the $2000 price is pretty hefty.

4. Do you really think that's worth it over just transferring the current parts into a different PC build and salvaging what I can?

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1. Your prices are off. Check-out ...
Cooler-Master (tower) cases
Corsair (mid-level-model) Power Supplies (700w-800w)
Kingston or Samsung SSDs (a 240gb for Windows, all apps, and a few games will work for now). Large games can go on recycled spinning-HDD for now.

2. If you build this whole computer on top of this old OEM (kinda-lame and tiny) motherboard, (using it as your foundation) you will forever regret it. It might die tomorrow. Check-out AS-Rock MBs. Oh, notice my Sig ... I'm obligated to tell you that to stay "legit", you need a new Windows-10 license. 

3. It's hard to build-one from scratch for much less. For $50, it comes with one-year hardware/software warranty. What warranty will your custom-one have?

Notice the b-i-t-c-o-i-n-miners have driven-up the prices of the retail Nvidia video-card you need. Dell seems to be fairly isolated from this. Did you read that thread I posted?

4. Yes, that's why I bought a loaded Aurora-R6 last year (with 3-year warranty). All these computers are made from "expendable crew-member parts" ... they can die at any time.

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@sessavawrote:

Alright. Again, I appreciate the responses.

1. So, I know this is a Dell forum at all, but you would recommend the Aurora over other competitor's pre-builts?

2. For example, when the new GTX cards come out eventually, will I be easily able to slap them into the Aurora, probably?

3. and hand my X51 R3 over to my father. 

4. And do you know anything about the quality of Dell monitors?

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1. I could not find better last year for $2000. What did you find now? It's OK to say it here.

2. It should be no problem to upgrade to a GTX-2080, but I hear they will be around $1100 (and just a little better than a 1080-Ti). SATA drives and SSDs should be no problem. Other stuff is not so easy. I suggest you get everything else (including ram) NOW ... get now what you think you will be needing in a couple of years. Did you read that link I posted?

3. Now you are thinking smart. It sounds like x51-R3 still works, so why tear-it-apart? Gift it to someone and let them use it (maybe for a slightly less demanding use-case than VR).

4. I like them and so do reviewers. I hear #1 monitor world-wide for 4-years now.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/best-monitors/ab/best-monitors?newtab=true

I personally only buy the (IPS-panel-based) Dell UltraSharps professional/business/work series (they are better). All the UltraSharps come with a 3-year warranty.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/monitor-work/ab/monitor-work

I really like my new:
Dell 27" u2717D UltraSharp Infinity-Edge IPS 16:9 QHD Monitor (it's an all-around good performer). I also still have a Dell UltraSharp u2410 (circa 2010) and two even older ones on desks around the office (hope I'm not jinx-ing myself). :Smile:

Yes, we can pick-you-out a monitor also.

1. Nothing in particular, it's just I tend to see people on the internet talking down on Alienware products and with my experience with the X51 R3, I can see why. My quick research shows nothing at a similar price with similar parts, so I suppose you are correct about this being the best deal.

2. I did read through the threads you linked, and I won't skimp on the parts if I do decide to get it, which is looking pretty likely at this point (Dell can thank you for that), but I was wondering if I could skimp on the RAM and then just slap my 32GB from my X51 R3 into the Aurora, and then slap the 16GB from the Aurora into the X51 R3, then give that to my dad. Is there a reason why this wouldn't work for me? It'd save me $200.

3. I am leaning towards this.

4. I was leaning towards an Alienware 240Hz monitor, as I mostly use my PC for gaming and switching to a higher refresh rate monitor is the main reason I want to upgrade my computer in the first place. I don't know if they offer financing for the monitors, though, or if that would just be included in the total price of financing when I order the PC. If so I'd do it, but if not I'd rather just buy a cheaper 144Hz monitor off of Amazon or something.

Again, thanks so much. I appreciate your frankness. I am glad I did not just go ahead with my plan and slap the X51 R3 motherboard into a new case.

Alright. I went ahead and ordered an Aurora.

Intel® Core™ i7 8700K (6-Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz w/ Intel® Turbo Boost
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB GDDR5X
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1

Came out to around $2600 with two years of warranty. Dell can thank you for the sale. I appreciate all of your assistance.

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@sessavawrote:

Alright. I went ahead and ordered an Aurora.

Intel® Core™ i7 8700K (6-Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz w/ Intel® Turbo Boost
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB GDDR5X
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1

Came out to around $2600 with two years of warranty. Dell can thank you for the sale. I appreciate all of your assistance.

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Perfect. It's gonna be pretty awesome. :Cool:

So, latest Oculus Rift is better than HTC Vive? What about the new HTC Vive PRO? If I was just buying-in now, which do you recommend? I like the idea of using Steam (but maybe it's just the familiarity after all these years).

I would like to play Fallout-4 VR and Star Trek Bridge Crew. So, do games like this normally work with both?

Oh, and confirm that these are both better than Sony's offering. Not that I wouldn't mind getting a PS4/5/whatever, but I guess if I've been doing the PC gaming thing this long, why stop now.

I went with the Oculus Rift over the HTC Vive because of the price and because of the controllers. The Vive does not have joysticks on the controllers, which I have found to be pretty much essential for a lot of games. The controllers of the Rift are really, really great, and make the experience so enjoyable.

At the time I bought the Rift, it was around $200 cheaper than the Vive, and it came with several games, including Robo Recall and Lone Echo, which are great VR games that (I believe) are exclusive to the Rift.

From what I've read about the HTC Vive Pro, it is not worth the money, as it is sort of a "stepping stone" in between this generation of VR and the next generation of VR, and doesn't really add anything to warrant the price. I believe the bundle for the HTC Vive Pro would be around $1100, and adds very little in comparison to the Rift.

I know for a fact that the Rift can run Star Trek Bridge Crew, but you will run into issues when trying to run Fallout 4 VR. I say this from experience, because I tried it myself. The game is not natively designed to work with an Oculus Rift. People have modified it and jury-rigged ways to make it work, and it works *decently* well, but I would not attempt it unless you have a full roomscale VR set-up and a lot of time to spend troubleshooting.

Skyrim VR, on the other hand, runs like a dream on the Rift, and I would say it is the ideal way to play it.

I have never tried PSVR, despite the fact that I own a PS4. I like the open nature that the PC platform provides, meaning you can run a lot of games and applications outside of those sold officially. Many of these experiences are great and are definitely worth your time. There's also generally just more games and more to do on the PC over PSVR.

From what I've read and from what I've understood, I would never recommend PSVR for somebody who already has a really good gaming computer. You'd never get anywhere near the resolution, fidelity, etc, that you could achieve with a PC headset.

A headset I would actually recommend looking into is the Samsung Odyssey. It currently is retailing for around $500. It has the sensors built into the headset, unlike the Vive and Rift, meaning you have to plug less things in and you don't have to have annoying things cluttering up your room. It has a higher resolution, higher field of view, and better contrast than the other currently available PC headsets. I've also heard it has less of a screen door effect. The only issue with it that I've heard is that it is a WMR device, meaning it uses Windows Mixed Reality, which a lot of people consider the inferior platform. I believe it can run a lot of Steam games, though, and I'm sure people have jury-rigged it to work with a lot of Oculus games.

If I bought a VR headset at the moment, it would probably be the Odyssey. After you've used VR for a long while, you mostly just want to use it to pop-in and play for a bit or to watch a movie or two in Bigscreen (a wonderful app) with your friends in a virtual reality theater (which is cooler than it sounds). The hassle-free sensor-less design of the Odyssey encourages that, and the higher resolution, FOV, etc, would lend itself more to watching movies.

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@sessavawrote:

 

1. I know for a fact that the Rift can run Star Trek Bridge Crew,

2. but you will run into issues when trying to run Fallout 4 VR. I say this from experience, because I tried it myself. The game is not natively designed to work with an Oculus Rift. People have modified it and jury-rigged ways to make it work, and it works *decently* well, but I would not attempt it

3. unless you have a full roomscale VR set-up and a lot of time to spend troubleshooting.

4. Skyrim VR, on the other hand, runs like a dream on the Rift, and I would say it is the ideal way to play it.

 

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@sessava ,

Thanks for the detailed post ... it was a good one.

1. So, I guess if you want to make sure a certain VR game works with your headset, you buy the Rift ones from their store, and the Vive compatible ones from Steam. I guess Samsung Odyssey is gonna be a THIRD STANDARD. :Crying:

2. Interesting. Ok, I searched some more. Looks like Bethesda worked-out some kinda exclusive launch agreement with HTC. It might even be free.

https://community.viveport.com/t5/Getting-started-with-Vive/Fallout-4-VR-included-with-Vive/td-p/12025

3. Thanks

https://blog.vive.com/us/2017/10/25/roomscale-101/

4. So, it sounds like the devs could make Fallout-4 VR work (effortnessly) with the Rift if they wanted to (or someone paid them to). IIRC, those game engines are similar.

Now I am having this problem.

Dont have the money to upgrade to the Aurora :((