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208704
April 9th, 2015 16:00
Aurora R4 PSU upgrade.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. Can an Aurora R4 be upgraded with a Area 51 1500w PSU? Will it fit? Can we buy the part from Dell? My current setup is not stable with a overclocked Titan X. Thanks
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Cass-Ole
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April 10th, 2015 04:00
how about we get your power supply working 1st before deciding it isn't decent. According to the Alienware Arena forum the Aurora psu is decent for running TitanX. I suspect you've made a simple error in your connector scheme, but correct me if I'm wrong. We'll use this photo as a for instance:
you've got two cable pairs, by this photo you have a blu-wht & a blu-ylw. This is proper when running one card: use one cable-color in one port & the other cable-color in the other port. Kapisch? Often-times one of the video-cables is buried in the case somewhere & the owner doesn't know it's there or that it's supposed to be used.
A simple error would be if you took perhaps just the blu-wht - plugged it in - then took that 3 inch jumper blu-wht & plugged it in. In the end that means you're only using one cable. In the photo below, where I've detached Area-51 vid-cables, note how regardless there are 4 connectors present, what we're looking at is one blu & one ylw cable. A video-card would prefer that one connector from the blu & one from the ylw be installed, rather than plugging in the primary & the jumper. Whenever possible, use a cable pair, instead of a cable + a jumper (which in the end is just one cable). got it ???
On Aurora, each cable is on its own 12volt rail, or 12v supply. Your Titan will benefit if you connect it up like in the photo, let it run off of 'two rails', or two cables ... not one cable w/a 'jumper'. If that is how you have it now, fix it, test it. If you are already hooked up like in the photo? Hmmmm. Let me know what your story is 1st.
Here, find a chart to help get the connectors right on a series of nVidia/AMD products:
The Area-51 R2 1500w / 1440w 12v max Delta power supply is available from Dell, it is listed at $465 for just the chassis, before shipping & tax & may or may not include the cord it needs, & may only come with a one year warranty or less, you'd have to ask.
Then you have to purchase each cable separate, making it about a $600 purchase give or take, but you can call Dell to price the cables yourself. Perhaps they have reconsidered & might offer a 'full cable set', where you get everything you need for one lower price. It is difficult in the extreme to recommend the Area-51 power supply in & for Aurora right now. The Delta is an 80Plus Gold rated psu, so by saying you want to use one you are also saying: I am in the market for 80PlusGold.
For instance, the EVGA 1600w / 1600w 12v max Gold psu is or was on newegg for $270 10year warranty with more advantages over the Delta than can be counted:
Your qwestion: can an Aurora be upgraded with the R2 Delta; well, should it be is the real qwestion.
A more suitable psu of about $200 - $300 w/lower watts of say 1000 - 1250, a shorter chassis size & better cable assortment may be a better fit in Aurora, what we call an aftermarket power supply with a lasting warranty. A member here just recently upgraded his Aurora with the 1200watt Area-51 R1 psu, did a few mods to make it work and simply plugged his harness right back into it, little fuss no muss:
R1 & R2 & EVGA 1600w are basically the same length of 8 1/2 inches roughly & would reqwire the same mod or removal of the hard drive bay, & removal of the 'studs', per that thread. A power supply of 1000w - 1250w will be a shorter chassis to work with, 7" - 7.5" & you might keep your hard drive bay & studs, as I have done here:
My recommendation for Aurora with the R2 Delta is to buy a used Delta for $200 - $250 now while they are still 'new' with low miles on them, then take your original case harness, rebuild it with the proper modular fittings and correct pinnings / pinout by doing it yourself or paying someone to do it for you & that someone is not me, since you can recover the use of your tailor-made custom length case harness cables as the best solution to Aurora with its small size and needs.
Nor do I know what Aurora needs yet to work with the R2 cable set, it looks like a pain, my project's on indefinite hold while I enjoy my Seasonic 1250, which is more than enough for one or two cards of any type on the market. Any.
Let's get yours to work for now, then you think about what form of psu upgrade you might be up for. It isn't ez. And there are Aurora psu swap threads in the forum archive, using the search box. Here is one:
Cass-Ole
6 Professor
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April 12th, 2015 18:00
Great 89, thumb's up. Once you go Xfx Pro Black you won't go back. Careful with your new black chassis paintjob. Utmost: have a high-power lamp or flashlight &/or work in the daytime --> the black front panel & black connectors can be hard to see at times w/out a good light available. My best results always came when the case is lying down flat as opposed to upright.
I see your psu calculator recommends a 775watt. I wonder if they mean a single-12v-rail psu:
Only 12vA & 12vB are dedicated to the graphics cables; the other three 12v-rails power other parts of the system (mthrbrd / cpu / main sata / hard drives etc). The bottom line is only 216watts x2 (18Amps x2) of the 825watts 12v max are available to a grfx card(s). A single 12volt rail psu - like a 775watt - has no amperage restriction, short of 775w/12v = 64amps, stays powered until system taps 64amps. Long story short, the '875w' Aurora psu can only deliver half of that to the grfx card(s). huh?
Another tip, before the psu ever even goes in there? Route your cables, all of them save for the graphics cables; pretend the chassis is in there, have your connector ends waiting for it in the area, what we call doing a cable mngmnt dry run. See what you might be in for 1st. Then slide the chassis in 2/3 of the way, make your connexions one by one, cable manage that beast, video cables connect last, route them, then bolt it down when you're ready.
We're blessed with the Black Pro & Seasonic x1250 in that the rear psu trim simply slides right back on no problemo, sh'weet. Don't be rigid, I'm not offering a step-by-step guide, just plan ahead for the chassis, & understand once it is bolted down to the rear, your hand room will decrease, it will get tight.
Also, they give you a cpu cable pair, one's an 8pin, one's a 12pin - both are the same length - but the 8pin may reach further. When in doubt, try the 12pin. We aren't going to be using insane power in Aurora, so plop your 12pin cpu cable into any 12pin port marked as 'pci-express ports', w/out worry I'd say. 8pin/12pin, go with whichever will goldilox for you.
It is worth pointing out Sir Gawain again, he is our case study in cable mangement do's & don'ts. Back in the day he was of the 1st few to step-up into +1200 Watt World:
I'll never know why his hdd cage came out. As well, sometimes, we get in a hurry here to do our mods, take some photos, post them, leave them here for posterity, then later on when things settle down we might go back up in there & tidy it a bit, but not post the improved version we live with day in & day out. When you see his arrangement running dual-cards, he offered ideas, some good some qwestionable, but whether he dialed in his cable mngmnt later or din't, in the end his Alien turned on, his window'd side panel went back on & he lived the dream. Aftermarket psu's will have us back up & running with ample horsepower; dial in the cables best you can when you can, usually from the get-go before the chassis bolts to the rear, then bolt it down & see what happened, then go back & fix it later if you can. Ok? Our Knight of the Round Table had a case octopus in there, arms hanging out every which way, but again it worked & again your alien will fight your aftermarket attempt: the best tool in your tool box that can help bail you out?
Patience. Work slow. You're performing a delicate operation in there, surgery. A 4 hour job worked slow is better than a rush-job where things get broke & scratched. Post your results Sir when you're able. Hopefully no more Octopi left here for posterity in the Alienware Art Gallery (=
cp8989
5 Posts
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April 10th, 2015 14:00
Thank you for the prompt and thorough response. I very much appreciate your insight and knowledge. You are absolutely correct in that I did not have the cable hooked up correctly. I will fix that when I get home and give it a go with an update to follow.
I'm on the same page as you in regards to going with an aftermarket psu as opposed to any dell replacement. Thanks for all that info.
The idea of future proofing as much as possible makes sense to me with a good psu as I would like to sli Titan X's in the future. I think the EVGA 1600w is a smart solution, that will most likely be the route I go.
Cass-Ole
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April 10th, 2015 19:00
You've posted here, your title will become part of any basic Aurora R4 power supply psu upgrade search, so I tend to leave members nuggets of info, knowing they'll stumble on your post someday, like the photos below whether you need them or not personally, others might. We're about to look at an August 2014 snip of the sales-page of the cards offered in & 'approved' for use in R4 right before it was discontinued. Of note are the wattages of the cards approved in R4 for what we think would be the 875w psu. TitanX is a 250watt card, so we'd like this chart to tell us if R4 can run one, and if so, can it run a pair? Yes. If you look at GTX 780, R4 & a pair of them at 250w, & what might be an 'upper limit' for that power supply, an observation not a fact. Find 780's in the bottom right corner:
A chart like this might suggest Aurora can run one TitanX & might be able to run a pair: it was already offered w/a pair of 250watters, meaning each card ran off one cable + jumper. Knowing this, I'd like to think your Titan can duplicate that feat, one card one cable one jumper so that however you have yours connected today or yesterday or tomorrow, there is no 'wrong' way to connect it in the end:
I suggested you try both primary cable pairs in your solo-card to see if it helped, but ordinarily in 250w dual-cards like 780's each card runs off of one cable (one 12v rail) + resistive jumper as it is, it's the only connecting option in a dual-card config. When you lend us your update, we can go from there.
For whatever else I said above earlier, I did hand you qwite a bit of power-supply related info. Be mindful that when running dual-cards you'll qwickly run out of room. In the thread below, bottom of its page, we begin to wonder if the flat-ribbon cables are a good option in Aurora for dual-cards:
In this photo, note 1st the sloppy cable mngmnt; that is fine here, but with dual-cards you must account for the spinning fan or fans if it has two:
Note the use of flat-ribbon cables, & also his mthrbrd 24pin atx cable looks like it ducks half-way out of the snap-lok; if your 24pin can not go up out over & down the snap-lok, do the work-around seen above. The new Seasonic X1250 XM2 is now using ribbon cables; ribbons lay-flat under a bottom card, they're bendable & foldable to help turn corners but they're also 'wide', so a mixed-blessing, not an out-right cable mngmnt cure-all. Do what you can, Corsair ribbon set shown working in the photo (=
'Round' cables, round sleeved-cables, as I've pointed out, might be hard to wrestle with in Aurora due to krevices & kracks & tight kramped spaces: not flat & they can be fat. Our stock cpu cable's 31" long, meaning you may / might need adaptors / extensions on your new 24" cpu cable so it'll reach:
Look at your case harness, you will see Alienware tried to deal with the situtaion by not using sleeve in some areas, for room under a bottom card. Their un-sleeved sexions try to replicate a flat-ribbons behaviour. So. Always be aware that Aurora is tight, & when doing a swap, sleeved-round cables are an issue you need to address, whether that be you there or me here; I never said an EVGA 1600 would be a dream scenario if for no other reason than cable management, be it one card or two cards, Aurora is tight in there, & uses that original case harness for a reason. Space. So watch out, ok?
Next, dual-TitanX in SLI is an issue being worked out world-wide, apparently a bios issue on most new & newer motherboards, reqwiring a bios patch or update to deal w/12Gb gpu memory I assume. Unless Alienware issues a bios update for R4 (which may be never) keep your ear out for R4's running with dual-X's, in case you buy a second-card & can not get it to output display as others are having a problem with, even the A-51 R2's awaiting a bios update as we speak due to a bios conflict, ok? GTX980Ti is set to launch in 2015 sometime, maybe those might work in SLI if Titan will not, we'll wait & see, but be mindful that 1600w EVGA's meant for dual-X's is no promise I've made here for ya. No cake walk either. If you've got one Titan in your R4, your set-up's better than mine so enjoy it (=
cp8989
5 Posts
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April 12th, 2015 11:00
Thanks again for the reply and information.
Initial test runs have been successful after hooking up the cables as you mentioned, using blue/white as well as blue/yellow. When running the card off all blue/white only I was experiencing random shut downs while playing AC Unity during graphic intensive parts of the game. This was the only game I had issue with as I could run BF4 and COD Advanced Warfare with no problems.
Both my CPU/GPU are overclocked and I was able to play for 2+hrs without issue. I am skeptical about running two cards with the stock 875 PSU, as one card on one rail was not stable.
After reading the post by AGN Joe I ordered the XFX ATX ProSeries Black Edition 1250 Power Supply (P11250BEFX). He had great luck with this PSU as stated in the link below.
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/3297994/#Comment_3297994
A few notes on my current set up.
CPU: I7 4820k OC to 4.4GHz
GPU: Titan X OC to 1.4MHz Mem OC 1900+ MHz.
1 SSD
1 SSHD
1 HDD
1 CD/DVD
Using http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp to calculate what I needed for a PSU it estimated I needed 775w. So I will upgrade PSU when I go dual cards for sure.
cp8989
5 Posts
0
May 10th, 2015 17:00
Hi all,
Just completed installing the XFX Pro Black 1250w PSU. I must say it was very straight forward. While you are removing the old power cables/harness you see that running a few new cables wont be that much of a challenge. I will say getting the molex power cable off the mini i/o board was a challenge and resulted in using pliers to essentially loosen the connection. Also I took to using wire cutters to remove the hdd/ssd power cables it was a good decision for me as I knew I was not going back to the stock PSU. Know that the new PSU fits nicely yet I found no real way to secure it. I installed new PSU fan up and after the back plate and cables were stuffed in and up against the hdd racks it was secure enough for me. My cable management isn't amazing so forgive me. I think it's a challenge with that case. All systems are up and running without a glitch. A very rewarding experience. Also upgraded RAM to Corsair Vengeance® Pro Series — 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 DRAM 1600MHz C9 Memory Kit and CPU to I7 4930k which I was able to OC to 4.4 with 45 VID override for max turbo ratio. You will notice on the last pic the PCI fan is backwards, that has been fixed. :)
Cass-Ole
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May 10th, 2015 20:00
you did good brother; very admirable system you've invested in there, which includes the premium 01YGW Asetek/Aurora cpu cooler. Top 100x12mm fans are possible, find them here:
In Aurora cases which have the hard drive sata connectors positioned to the rear at the case wall, removal of the sata harnesses would have included removing the aluminum compartment sill, then unfastening the hard drive caddy screws from the wall then the two screws underneath (extra-long screwdriver is reqwired when backing out the far right caddy wall screws). Once the caddies are freed the sata connex pop out; from there, hook up the new sata connex, reinstall caddy-pair then reinstall sill etc). On a side note, if you were able to install your psu chassis with fan face-up, great. I was under the impression the fan would mount down actually - right or wrong - that is how I have mine, fan face down (I'm not the 1st member here who mounted their fan face-down, others have as well, I thought it was due to the psu mounting hole arrangement that dictated a fan-down install).
My best effort when installing the psu chassis was to lay my case on its side; were you to mount yours w/fan face down, your 24pin atx (branched as a 10pin +18pin) would then orient to the top right & so would your cpu 8pin port, perhaps helping you buy some slack in those cables, worth looking into when you have a little free-time. Also, if you grab the part# off of your old harness you can easily replace it for $20 or less - in case you ever pass your Aurora on, you can take your pricey psu out, stuff the old one back in etc w/a good harness.
Aurora psu swaps ain't hard / ain't ez, right down to the stubborn mio 4pin ... but your XFX Pro 1250, made for XFX by Seasonic, is a righteous power plant, welcome to the Over-Thousand-Watt Club ...
cp8989
5 Posts
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May 10th, 2015 20:00
Appreciate the kind words Cass def loving my new setup. Also stepped up my monitor to Dell UltraSharp U2715H 27-inch 1440p IPS monitor. Let me say it is phenomenal quality, very impressed. Thanks for your assistance and for sharing your knowledge.
doctor_tiki
12 Posts
0
April 4th, 2016 13:00
I just wanted to thank you for saving my sanity! I had recently upgraded my Alienware with a 875W PSU from the initial 780GTX SLI setup to a single card 980Ti setup. Everything was great except in one or two games it would randomly power cycle like this described behavior.
The troubleshooting was a nightmare since it all looked fine! I tested everything I could think of, no BSOD or error events, temps all cool, replaced the UPS for good measure, updated all drivers, ran stress tests, etc.
It was so hard to track down since it would rarely happen, and everywhere I read pointed at a bad PSU or motherboard. Only when I read your post did it hit me, and sure enough that solved my problem.
So once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!