Hi all, I'm the one that had the D460AM-03 power supply (non 80+) on my i7-6700 + GTX 1080 system. I was having multiple issues with the PC rebooting and freezing. More info on my Alienware Arena thread:
The other issue I was having was that the stock air cooler was extremely loud and on at high RPM too often, I really think this case was designed for liquid cooling with the lack of open space around the CPU and should be made a standard (hopefully Dell starts including the 850W PSU + liquid cooling option as a "free" upgrades since I can imagine many buyers will not be happy with it).
I decided to swap out the power supply and replace it with an EVGA 650 GS (80+ gold, manufactured by Seasonic), along with this I swapped out the stock Intel cooler with a Corsair H60. Here're some photos, details and tips about the process.
New goodies to supe up the Aurora R5:
I first removed the side panels, the connectors for the power button and LED lighting are small and seemingly fragile. Definitely need to take care when dealing with these:
Removing the top cover was probably one of the most difficult parts, it is connected via tabs that are stiff and difficult to locate. I was concerned that I'd break off a tab a couple of times, ultimately made it through unscathed, there are also two piece to the top cover which the service manual neglects to mention.
Here she is before the components were swapped:
A comparison of the two power supplies. The EVGA 650 GS is a bit longer, at 5.9" x 5.9", but still a relatively small power supply which was one of the main reasons I chose it.
The radiator from the H60 mounted perfectly in the top fan cavity. Since the top fan is an exhaust in this case I have the fan mounted on top of the radiator pulling air out of the case, this is not necessarily optimal from a cooling perspective but it works.
I ended up removing my motherboard to install the Corsair H60 backplate, but found that the existing backplate was sturdy and fit the Corsair posts. So no need to go through the task of removing of the MB at least for the H60.
Here's the CPU after the stock air cooler was removed.
I then cleaned off the thermal compound with a little isopropyl alcohol and paper towels.
At this point I have the mother board back in the case and the radiator/fan installed, the power supply has it's required modular cables installed and about to go in.
And finally the power supply is installed and connected. Here's the end result (I know, super sloppy cable routing, neat cabling is not my forte, but no issues with cables interfering with movement of the swing out PSU cage):
I set the pump/fan power as the Corsair manual suggests, with the fan connected to CPU_FAN and the pump connected to TOP_FAN. No issues with any errors using this setup and Prime95 temperatures are down to the the mid 50's from the mid 70's when using the stock cooler.
I've had no crashes for the past 24 hours with multiple stress tests and VR gaming sessions (I could not have said that before the swap). Time will tell if this is going to be reliable long term.
Suggestions to any prospective buyers. The power and LED connections are all proprietary, so don't expect to use the case with any other motherboards or the motherboard with a different case. They are also small and seem much more fragile than your typical header pin connectors, so need to be careful with these.
If you don't plan to gut your new PC, definitely pay the $100 for the PSU and liquid cooling upgrade. They really shouldn't be selling these with the sub-par 460W supplies and the case is really designed for a liquid cooler, hopefully they make the 850W supplies and liquid coolers stock very soon to avoid frustrating customers like this one.
If you do decide to swap the power supply and/or add liquid cooling I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Corsair H60 ($60) and EVGA 650 GS ($85), they were a good fit and seem to be performing well.
the form factor (size) is u-ATX / micro-ATX, manufacturer is Pegatron & model name is IPSKL-SC, a possible internal reference to 'Intel Pegatron Skylake'
HP commissions boards from Pegatron: a close sibling resides in the HP Phoenix Envy Z170 Skylake board, & variations in the brand new Skylake Omen X 900 (packing 6700k & 1300watt power supply) & Omen 870 desktops. ACER Predator G1 Skylake also uses a Pegatron. Did that help answer it?
"replace the radiator fan that comes with the cooler using a 15 mm slim PWM fan connected to your motherboard to avoid any error message during boot up. Obviously you need to do some slight modifications to the front grill panel to properly fit the fan."
_______________________
New Info: Aluminum Overclocking Heatsink for Mosfet / VRMs is said to be part# J46J2
6700k / 7700k upgraders will want this part, if it's absent on your motherboard now
R5 Rumor: liquid cooler part# is 050NP
R6 Rumor: 'Heatsink' part# is UY6VY
R6 Confirmed: liquid cooler part# is MHOHN
if u toss in 6700k 7700k but can't get the stock aluminum heatsink from Dell, someone on AlienArena posted pics of Plan B:
a pack of (EnzoTech) copper Mosfet heatsinks which use an adhesive thermal-tape
I found MH0HN liquid cooler when I ran a 7700K equipped R6 Service Tag to get the Build Sheet
________________________
RED ALERT: R5 / R6 Rear I/O backplate trim isn't removable ... it's permanent
Dremel Rotary Tool likely needed to swap in non-Alien Motherboard
Forum member @AlienOwners, swapped new mthrbrd into an R5 case, says the rear I/O mthrbrd backplate / trim may be permanent (not removable as most trim plates are) and needed 'cut out'. Wow. Plus he made a little headway w/the power on switch & Red Leds:
An eBay/USA vendor listed 20 empty R5 cases for sale, so I asked today about the rear i/o plate:
________________________
Working with the LED Harness
12pin LED Connector must be 'modded' to get an exterior light output + power on/off function, if swapping to aftrmrkt mthrbrd
if spare Pwr On LED PCB is needed, look for 29F15
_______________________
EVGA G3 1000watt PSU Swap
Due to BlackFriday Sale, 850watt was passed over in favor of a 1kW; desktop's liquid cooled, cable management was probably a one hour wrestling match, but PSU swivels shut / side panel goes back on, so it is what it is: a viable swap choice
____________________
Swapping out the base 460watt for the Delta 850watt
See: Alienware Aurora R6 - Upgrading PSU from stock 460W to 850W
the 850w was approved for SLI the whole time, after all
When I go to configure Area-51 this evening on what may be its final day before a change to the sales page, I still can't place a pair of 250w 980Ti or a pair of 250w Titan X in the cart without it saying those configs are forbidden: 1500w PSU mandatory?
today we learn the 850w could in fact power these two cards that entire time ... *ahem*
seeing as how the General Manager of Alienware himself gave the 850w the public blessing that it can power a pair of 300w cards
Before I email them directly, did they (Joe Olmsted & Eddy Goyanes) specifically state,
"Yes, the Area 51-R2 850w power supply can power two 300w video cards.".
Or were they perhaps speaking specifically to the slim desktop Aurora-R5?
I have been really curious about the Nvidia SLI Bridge questions so I did some digging. I went ahead and emailed the Author of the TechRadar article, Kevin Lee and asked him what were his specific problems when using the bridge on new Aurora R5 machines. Since few machines have shipped early reviewers like him are our only source of info.. It turns out it was user error and Kevin had installed his SLI upside down. Which is why the case wouldn't close after installation. Since then Kevin has fixed his bridge, installed dual GTX 1080 and can close his case! Great news for all of us waiting on R5 shipments and thought Nvidia SLI wasn't an option. I also asked Kevin what size bridge he got working and he said short. I have also provided photos of the email correspondence as "proof"
Edit: Kevin told me he used an Nvidia Short SLI Bridge.
I had the biggest issue when Alienware mis-marketed SLI as adding VRAM. I wish I would of screen grabbed what they said (this was probably around December of 2015). For example, they would say something like Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 graphics with 8GB total (2x 4GB) GDDR5. It frustrated me because it did not have 8GB, it only had 4GB... SLI doesn't add VRAM. It amazed me that they could even say that legally, or that NVIDIA would even do business with them.
Now it says Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 with 4GB GDDR5 each, which is still misleading as it still uses the word 'each' which is suggesting that it still adds the VRAM (but its worded better).
Alienwares consumers are not all tech savvy who understand how SLI works inside and out and can easily recognize that VRAM is not added in SLI. It was just pure false advertising (in my opinion) when they literally added it for you and magically took 4gb+4gb=8gb, now I don't know what it is now that they suggest you add it together using 'each'.
I guarantee you that there were people on the border between Alienware and a honest competitor like HP that chose Alienware just because of the misleading VRAM sales information.
I brought it up to Alienware employees, shut down I was...
Otherwise, great critique, you brought up a lot of good points including the price raise of VRAM. $1000 for 64gb...
They finally just recently dropped the price of the TITAN X to +$800 on the A51, but I feel bad for the all the suckers that bought it when it was +$1100 when it was literally the same as the +$400 980ti. Theres still probably suckers buying it at +$800. Keep in mind thats with the base 960, which they probably charged $250 for (so thats $1100+$250 for a TITAN X). They were literally charging $1350 for a TITAN X for months when the 980ti was only a $650 card and they were literally equal in performance. It was a complete scam. When the 980ti came out Alienware should of demanded that NVIDIA bought back the TITAN X's instead of trying to offload the inventory on unsuspecting suckers.
I'm probably on the list for posting here... Oh well...
I should add that I looked it up prior to posting and it was literally "Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 graphics with 8GB total (2x 4GB) GDDR5" (including Triple but 12GB, and across all cards). You can Google it and see a lot of users debating to buy that or another option, so thats how I know it was literally that.
Thank you! I have the aurora R5 arriving this week. Went with the 6700K, 850w, 8gb ram and the founders edition. 1tb hard drive. On sale totaled just over 1800. I was planning on adding a ssd drive and more ram to start, but now I am very skeptical that this will be an easy upgrade after reading this post. Thank you for all the information!
I had a 5TB HDD sitting around so went just a 512GB SSD, but wish I'd gotten the 6700K and 850W supply. I also bought it with 8GB of ram since 16GB was absurdly expensive, so good call. Mine came with Hynix HMA451U6AFR8N DDR4, was just able to buy another 8GB (2x 4GB) of the same memory on Ebay for $30.
You should have a fairly easy time adding the SSD and RAM. The motherboard has an M2 SSD slot, so you can go with one of those (mine came with a Toshiba aka OCZ). The most annoying part is likely needing to transfer your OS over to the SSD from your HDD.
hotarri
24 Posts
0
August 10th, 2016 15:00
Hi all, I'm the one that had the D460AM-03 power supply (non 80+) on my i7-6700 + GTX 1080 system. I was having multiple issues with the PC rebooting and freezing. More info on my Alienware Arena thread:
na.alienwarearena.com/.../new-alienware-aurora-r5-reboots-under-load
The other issue I was having was that the stock air cooler was extremely loud and on at high RPM too often, I really think this case was designed for liquid cooling with the lack of open space around the CPU and should be made a standard (hopefully Dell starts including the 850W PSU + liquid cooling option as a "free" upgrades since I can imagine many buyers will not be happy with it).
I decided to swap out the power supply and replace it with an EVGA 650 GS (80+ gold, manufactured by Seasonic), along with this I swapped out the stock Intel cooler with a Corsair H60. Here're some photos, details and tips about the process.
New goodies to supe up the Aurora R5:
I first removed the side panels, the connectors for the power button and LED lighting are small and seemingly fragile. Definitely need to take care when dealing with these:
Removing the top cover was probably one of the most difficult parts, it is connected via tabs that are stiff and difficult to locate. I was concerned that I'd break off a tab a couple of times, ultimately made it through unscathed, there are also two piece to the top cover which the service manual neglects to mention.
Here she is before the components were swapped:
A comparison of the two power supplies. The EVGA 650 GS is a bit longer, at 5.9" x 5.9", but still a relatively small power supply which was one of the main reasons I chose it.
The radiator from the H60 mounted perfectly in the top fan cavity. Since the top fan is an exhaust in this case I have the fan mounted on top of the radiator pulling air out of the case, this is not necessarily optimal from a cooling perspective but it works.
I ended up removing my motherboard to install the Corsair H60 backplate, but found that the existing backplate was sturdy and fit the Corsair posts. So no need to go through the task of removing of the MB at least for the H60.
Here's the CPU after the stock air cooler was removed.
I then cleaned off the thermal compound with a little isopropyl alcohol and paper towels.
At this point I have the mother board back in the case and the radiator/fan installed, the power supply has it's required modular cables installed and about to go in.
And finally the power supply is installed and connected. Here's the end result (I know, super sloppy cable routing, neat cabling is not my forte, but no issues with cables interfering with movement of the swing out PSU cage):
I set the pump/fan power as the Corsair manual suggests, with the fan connected to CPU_FAN and the pump connected to TOP_FAN. No issues with any errors using this setup and Prime95 temperatures are down to the the mid 50's from the mid 70's when using the stock cooler.
I've had no crashes for the past 24 hours with multiple stress tests and VR gaming sessions (I could not have said that before the swap). Time will tell if this is going to be reliable long term.
Suggestions to any prospective buyers. The power and LED connections are all proprietary, so don't expect to use the case with any other motherboards or the motherboard with a different case. They are also small and seem much more fragile than your typical header pin connectors, so need to be careful with these.
If you don't plan to gut your new PC, definitely pay the $100 for the PSU and liquid cooling upgrade. They really shouldn't be selling these with the sub-par 460W supplies and the case is really designed for a liquid cooler, hopefully they make the 850W supplies and liquid coolers stock very soon to avoid frustrating customers like this one.
If you do decide to swap the power supply and/or add liquid cooling I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Corsair H60 ($60) and EVGA 650 GS ($85), they were a good fit and seem to be performing well.
Cass-Ole
6 Professor
•
1.9K Posts
1
August 17th, 2016 16:00
the form factor (size) is u-ATX / micro-ATX, manufacturer is Pegatron & model name is IPSKL-SC, a possible internal reference to 'Intel Pegatron Skylake'
HP commissions boards from Pegatron: a close sibling resides in the HP Phoenix Envy Z170 Skylake board, & variations in the brand new Skylake Omen X 900 (packing 6700k & 1300watt power supply) & Omen 870 desktops. ACER Predator G1 Skylake also uses a Pegatron. Did that help answer it?
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.3K Posts
1
June 13th, 2016 20:00
More specs here:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2016/06/13/landing-lights-ablaze-alienware-arrives-at-e3-2016
Cass-Ole
6 Professor
•
1.9K Posts
0
June 13th, 2016 21:00
ask questions here: Help for GPU Watercooler
"replace the radiator fan that comes with the cooler using a 15 mm slim PWM fan connected to your motherboard to avoid any error message during boot up. Obviously you need to do some slight modifications to the front grill panel to properly fit the fan."
_______________________
New Info: Aluminum Overclocking Heatsink for Mosfet / VRMs is said to be part# J46J2
6700k / 7700k upgraders will want this part, if it's absent on your motherboard now
R5 Rumor: liquid cooler part# is 050NP
R6 Rumor: 'Heatsink' part# is UY6VY
R6 Confirmed: liquid cooler part# is MHOHN
if u toss in 6700k 7700k but can't get the stock aluminum heatsink from Dell, someone on AlienArena posted pics of Plan B:
a pack of (EnzoTech) copper Mosfet heatsinks which use an adhesive thermal-tape
_________________________
Cooler Direct from Dell.com
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/aurora-liquid-cooling-kit/apd/412-aajj/pc-accessories
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/aurora-liquid-cooling-kit/apd/412-aajj/pc-accessories
cooler part# = MH0HN
I found MH0HN liquid cooler when I ran a 7700K equipped R6 Service Tag to get the Build Sheet
________________________
RED ALERT: R5 / R6 Rear I/O backplate trim isn't removable ... it's permanent
Dremel Rotary Tool likely needed to swap in non-Alien Motherboard
Forum member @AlienOwners, swapped new mthrbrd into an R5 case, says the rear I/O mthrbrd backplate / trim may be permanent (not removable as most trim plates are) and needed 'cut out'. Wow. Plus he made a little headway w/the power on switch & Red Leds:
An eBay/USA vendor listed 20 empty R5 cases for sale, so I asked today about the rear i/o plate:
________________________
Working with the LED Harness
12pin LED Connector must be 'modded' to get an exterior light output + power on/off function, if swapping to aftrmrkt mthrbrd
if spare Pwr On LED PCB is needed, look for 29F15
_______________________
EVGA G3 1000watt PSU Swap
Due to BlackFriday Sale, 850watt was passed over in favor of a 1kW; desktop's liquid cooled, cable management was probably a one hour wrestling match, but PSU swivels shut / side panel goes back on, so it is what it is: a viable swap choice
____________________
Swapping out the base 460watt for the Delta 850watt
See: Alienware Aurora R6 - Upgrading PSU from stock 460W to 850W
https://community.dell.com/message/134257-alienware-aurora-r6-upgrading-psu-from-stock-460w-to-850w
eBay search term = Delta N1WJD
because Area-51 & Aurora 'share' the Delta chassis, stay away from longer Area-51 cables
you need the shorter cable set in photos above
_______________________
to power the DVD using an aftermarket Power Supply (EVGA 850 G3 etc), u need an adapter
eBay search = Dell 1YMGT
eBay search terms = Micro SATA DVD / Micro SATA Power / SlimLine SATA
Alienware Aurora R5 optical drive power cable
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
•
56.9K Posts
0
June 14th, 2016 09:00
the 850w was approved for SLI the whole time, after all
When I go to configure Area-51 this evening on what may be its final day before a change to the sales page, I still can't place a pair of 250w 980Ti or a pair of 250w Titan X in the cart without it saying those configs are forbidden: 1500w PSU mandatory?
today we learn the 850w could in fact power these two cards that entire time ... *ahem*
seeing as how the General Manager of Alienware himself gave the 850w the public blessing that it can power a pair of 300w cards
Before I email them directly, did they (Joe Olmsted & Eddy Goyanes) specifically state,
"Yes, the Area 51-R2 850w power supply can power two 300w video cards.".
Or were they perhaps speaking specifically to the slim desktop Aurora-R5?
Cass-Ole
6 Professor
•
1.9K Posts
2
June 14th, 2016 18:00
mod delete
Goody489
20 Posts
0
July 18th, 2016 10:00
I have been really curious about the Nvidia SLI Bridge questions so I did some digging. I went ahead and emailed the Author of the TechRadar article, Kevin Lee and asked him what were his specific problems when using the bridge on new Aurora R5 machines. Since few machines have shipped early reviewers like him are our only source of info.. It turns out it was user error and Kevin had installed his SLI upside down. Which is why the case wouldn't close after installation. Since then Kevin has fixed his bridge, installed dual GTX 1080 and can close his case! Great news for all of us waiting on R5 shipments and thought Nvidia SLI wasn't an option. I also asked Kevin what size bridge he got working and he said short. I have also provided photos of the email correspondence as "proof"
Edit: Kevin told me he used an Nvidia Short SLI Bridge.
Hockeytown_N
1 Rookie
•
47 Posts
0
July 18th, 2016 12:00
Excellent and thanks for the feedback!
regoodman
1 Message
0
July 24th, 2016 02:00
Mine is shipped and coming soon. It only took a week to ship, so far so good.
Meowland
57 Posts
1
July 31st, 2016 01:00
I had the biggest issue when Alienware mis-marketed SLI as adding VRAM. I wish I would of screen grabbed what they said (this was probably around December of 2015). For example, they would say something like Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 graphics with 8GB total (2x 4GB) GDDR5. It frustrated me because it did not have 8GB, it only had 4GB... SLI doesn't add VRAM. It amazed me that they could even say that legally, or that NVIDIA would even do business with them.
Now it says Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 with 4GB GDDR5 each, which is still misleading as it still uses the word 'each' which is suggesting that it still adds the VRAM (but its worded better).
Alienwares consumers are not all tech savvy who understand how SLI works inside and out and can easily recognize that VRAM is not added in SLI. It was just pure false advertising (in my opinion) when they literally added it for you and magically took 4gb+4gb=8gb, now I don't know what it is now that they suggest you add it together using 'each'.
I guarantee you that there were people on the border between Alienware and a honest competitor like HP that chose Alienware just because of the misleading VRAM sales information.
I brought it up to Alienware employees, shut down I was...
Otherwise, great critique, you brought up a lot of good points including the price raise of VRAM. $1000 for 64gb...
They finally just recently dropped the price of the TITAN X to +$800 on the A51, but I feel bad for the all the suckers that bought it when it was +$1100 when it was literally the same as the +$400 980ti. Theres still probably suckers buying it at +$800. Keep in mind thats with the base 960, which they probably charged $250 for (so thats $1100+$250 for a TITAN X). They were literally charging $1350 for a TITAN X for months when the 980ti was only a $650 card and they were literally equal in performance. It was a complete scam. When the 980ti came out Alienware should of demanded that NVIDIA bought back the TITAN X's instead of trying to offload the inventory on unsuspecting suckers.
I'm probably on the list for posting here... Oh well...
Meowland
57 Posts
0
July 31st, 2016 01:00
I should add that I looked it up prior to posting and it was literally "Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 970 graphics with 8GB total (2x 4GB) GDDR5" (including Triple but 12GB, and across all cards). You can Google it and see a lot of users debating to buy that or another option, so thats how I know it was literally that.
benmanship
3 Posts
0
August 17th, 2016 16:00
What type pf motherboard is used in the Aurora R5?
benmanship
3 Posts
1
August 17th, 2016 20:00
Thank you! I have the aurora R5 arriving this week. Went with the 6700K, 850w, 8gb ram and the founders edition. 1tb hard drive. On sale totaled just over 1800. I was planning on adding a ssd drive and more ram to start, but now I am very skeptical that this will be an easy upgrade after reading this post. Thank you for all the information!
Goody489
20 Posts
1
August 18th, 2016 12:00
@Benmanship U picked all the parts that make upgrading much easier, So good job there
hotarri
24 Posts
1
August 18th, 2016 22:00
Those were definitely good picks.
I had a 5TB HDD sitting around so went just a 512GB SSD, but wish I'd gotten the 6700K and 850W supply. I also bought it with 8GB of ram since 16GB was absurdly expensive, so good call. Mine came with Hynix HMA451U6AFR8N DDR4, was just able to buy another 8GB (2x 4GB) of the same memory on Ebay for $30.
You should have a fairly easy time adding the SSD and RAM. The motherboard has an M2 SSD slot, so you can go with one of those (mine came with a Toshiba aka OCZ). The most annoying part is likely needing to transfer your OS over to the SSD from your HDD.