Aurora Upgrades: SSD, GPU, and Fan Mod 2014

Hello All.

Background:

First time posting, longtime Alienware Owner; bought my first one in 2003 (Area-51 that I, actually, still have).  Currently using an Aurora R1 purchased in Nov. 2010.   I chose Alienware, at the time,  because they have been reliable, durable, upgradeable, and hold their own, performance-wise, for years. Additionally, they have always looked really cool and unique.

Purpose:

1. Upgrade system to improve gaming and overall performance.
2. Extend the life of my current system.
3. Improve Airflow/Temps in Aurora Case.

My original HDD started to "feel" not quite right (You get to know your computer after some time) and I knew it would not last much longer.  I decided to look at upgrades that would not only improve current performance, but also be good for a potential future build.  The Black Friday bug bit and I found great deals on an SSD and a new GPU.



*Note--Before I did anything, I replaced the CMOS battery on the MOBO.  The one I had was the original, and while it did not give me any issues, I felt it might not be a bad idea. Changing it resets the BIOS to Defaults and putting in the SSD requires a couple BIOS changes. Not a requirement to change, yet I erred on the side of caution.

First up was the SSD upgrade.  Installation was simple. Unplug and remove old HDD, attach SSD to adapter bracket I bought, and slide into bay that the old HDD was in.  I decided to do a fresh OS install and had everything else I wanted to keep already backed up onto an external drive. The other drivers, along with AWCC, I was able to download from Dell using my Service Tag.  Thank you Dell for making that part easy.



The SSD is overkill for this system (only have SATA II) but could not pass up the deal on the 850 PRO.  The performance increase over my old drive is significant.  Startup time (pressing power button to system fully loaded and ready) dropped from about 2 1/2 minutes to roughly 30 seconds.  Below is a test using the Magician software:



The next couple days I spent on updates and fresh installing other programs.  The time was also used to make sure everything worked well and ran stable. It was then on to the GPU install, which was also pretty straightforward.  Two screws, remove old graphics card, install GTX 760, attach screws, plug in two six-pin and one two-pin.



I have an audio card in the other PCI-E slot.  The gap between it and front GPU fan was a concern, because it is so small. It was at this point that additional cooling further entered my mind.  I listen to a lot of music, sometimes watch movies, and even the sounds in gaming, so I preferred to not use the on-board sound. It is hard to tell in pic below, but the front space is fine.  Just toward end of sound card is where gap is minimal.

The only games I currently play with any frequency are WoW and TERA. More CPU intensive than GPU, yet the gains were huge.  I do not have any pics, but with GTX 650 Ti, I had issues running WoW on Ultra in crowded environments.  Pre-Upgrade I played on Medium settings and FPS was usually between 40-60.  Currently, it easily runs on Max settings in Ultra around 120+ FPS at 1920X1080.  That is with Vsync set to Adaptive in the Nvidia control panel.

The upgrades went smoothly and performance improved quite a bit, yet the temperatures, while not extreme, bothered me. They increased a bit, mainly due to the new GPU. At first, I tried increasing the PCI and/or HDD fans, and trying different curves with AWCC. Results were not what I hoped.  Additionally, the server fans they have in the Aurora are great, but loud at higher speeds. Therefore, I began a search for alternative options to help with cooling and improve airflow into the case.

Originally, I had planned on using a fan controller and a one bay mesh-front unit.  However, that restricted the fan size I could use to 40mm.  My preference was for one larger fan. I came across an old thread in this forum, did some more research, and decided to install a Dual 5.25" Bay converter like they did.

The one in the old thread was a Vantac, but the one I found available is Evercool.  I think they are the exact same thing, just a different name;  Cost was $22.00.  In my research, people mentioned the fan that came with it was not very good, so if you decide to try adding the bay converter, I recommend picking out a better fan.  In fact, while the converter itself is well-built and looks very nice, the Molex plug on the stock fan rattled pretty badly and I did not trust even trying it out.

There is also a sponge-type filter held in by a clip on the door.  Ultimately, I removed them as they impeded airflow too much. When I blew forcefully into it, there was nothing felt on other side.  Since I clean and blow out my case regularly, I am not concerned with any minimal dust that gets through the mesh screen cover.

In order to have some speed control, without a Fan Controller, or available MOBO plug (That I could see), I chose to use an "Antec 80mm Tricool case fan." This fan has a 3-speed controller attached to it, for Slow-Medium-High settings, and I thought I could figure out a way to make it semi-accessible. It is sleeve-bearing, so not as long-life as others.  However,it has exceeded my expectations and runs fairly quiet.

*Note: Used  the screws that came with the box to attach fan.  Ones that come with Antec fan were not very good.

The new Cooling Box takes up two 5.25" drive bays, which meant sacrificing my DVD or card reader.  Having only used the card reader maybe three times in the years I have owned this, it was an easy decision.  Here is a pic before removing the Card reader and bay cover above it.



Removing the old bays and installing the new unit was simple.  Take off the side panel, remove the Drive Bay Shroud (I believe newer Aurora owners would also have to remove and/or unplug the battery), unplug the Card Reader, lift the securing tab up slightly, then slide the reader and empty bay out the front.  Next, slide the fan wires and cooling box into the opening.

The fit was solid and the box color matched the case perfectly. I plugged the fan into the molex hanging nearby, then tidied up the wires along the side of the box's side rail.



*Note the blades are clear, not orange/brown as they appear in pic from light reflecting off wall.



The fan speed control did not fit through the opening on the side of the bay, yet was close.  Taking a thick Phillips screwdriver, I gently pried the opening to make it wider.  I did it a little at a time, testing the control until it fit securely, while avoiding making the opening too wide.



I re-attached the Bay shroud and was happy to see the speed control was not obstructed. The fan is set on medium in my case, which is quiet enough, yet provides ample cool air being pulled into the case. If I want to change it, I just have to remove the left side panel, which is simple on the Aurora Case.



Next, it was time to hook everything back up and make sure it worked. The fan I bought has a blue LED, which matched the blue profile I use in the FX Editor.



I let it run and, being careful not to touch anything, tested airflow in various spots in the case.  I checked all the intake fans and there was a definite improvement in the coolness of the air.

The airflow in the HDD cage was decent, yet I wondered if I could improve a little.  So I removed the black caddies that were not in use, which did seem to help a bit. No scientific testing, simple small piece of tissue held near.  I wanted to take out the left side cage completely, but could find no schematic to see what is attached to the rear of it.



Satisfied that everything was running stable, I used compressed air to clean it out so that I could run tests using the same conditions present before the bay install.  *Note--This set-up requires the front door on the Aurora case to be down for optimal results, which is fine with me as I never closed it much.*



And a pic with with grill down (I removed that metal clip as mentioned previously).



Test run with everything put back together. *Note--the LED looks lighter/whitish in pics. In person it matches the blue led profile.*

With room lights on:



With room lights off:


It was now time to do some post-install testing to see if there was any improvement in  temperatures. Both pre-install and post-install tests were run under the same room/usage conditions, on consecutive days, and with the SSD and new GPU installed:

1. Computer on, and running, for 2hrs after being completely shutdown for 12hrs.
2. Same AWCC Thermal Control Profile running (see pic below).
3. Room temperature 22C (72F)
4. Computer usage same--no games or high-stress benchmark tests. (I was unwilling to do GPU stress tests, because this card does add a lot of heat going full load).
5. Start Monitoring program and let run while performing tasks mentioned above.
6. After one hour, take a screenshot of Monitor program.

The results were much better than I thought they would be. Not only did the GPU temp drop 3-4C (approx. 6-8F), it happened across the board.  Needless to say, I am quite pleased in the change using an inexpensive and easy cooling solution.



The fan setting and temp sensor from AWCC used for testing (Pic is post-install of Bay Fan):



After a few days of optimizing, testing some games and other programs, I went ahead and ran some benchmarking to see how all the upgrades worked under stress loads.

Current System Specs:

Intel i7-920 @ 2.67Ghz
12 GB DDR3 Triple-Channel RAM (Stock 6 sticks x 2GB)
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD
EVGA 2GB GTX 760 SC ACX Graphics Cardx1
Stock Alienware Liquid Cooler
875W PSU
BIOS A11


To test the GPU, Heaven 4.0 was used. I ran the loops on settings within what I use for games: Everything maxed out except AA and Tessellation (Used 4xAA and Normal Tessellation). The AWCC fan profile was set on a curve and the Bay fan kept at medium. The Aurora was stable throughout and temps never reached close to a dangerous level.



Next, I allowed the system to cool back down to idle levels and ran the benchmark again with ALL settings maxed.  Again, the computer was stable and temps remained well within limits. My results are shown in image below:



Next is a grab from an online review test with same GPU, but much newer CPU for comparison. My results were in line with others using the same GPU, so I considered it a success.  *Note--CPU does not matter much using Heaven 4.0 Benchmark, it is made to stress GPU's.*



The following is a grab I took immediately after the benchmark finished (extreme settings) showing that the cooling bay mod definitely helped maintain temps in the case, as well as, assisting the GPU fans to keep the GPU temps in line. *Note--GPU did hit 84 momentarily but settled around 78 for most of extreme stress test.*



To do a simple system benchmark, I ran a few runs with Novabench to check that my older cpu and original RAM were performing where they should be. They have charts you can look at to see how your scores compare.  Results are below and I am happy that my Aurora is still performing well after four years.

*Note--Novabench has known issues with SSD's, Samsung in particular, so I did not pay heed to that part of the test. Hopefully, it will be updated sometime soon.*



It has been a week since the cooler Bay was installed, about two weeks since GPU and SSD, and everything has been working great.  No BSOD's, no lockups, no shutdowns; it feels like a new computer again.  I am especially glad I found an easy way to reduce temps due to the additional heat generated by upgrading the GPU.  The next pic is a screenshot I took yesterday of HWMonitor (Had it running for hours) showing temps are still doing well since install.

For the games and applications I currently use on a regular basis, my four-year old Aurora is still performing well. The results of the recent upgrades exceeded my expectations and I think I will get a little more use out of this system.

List of Parts Used: pcpartpicker.com/.../ZbFFxr

Some ideas for possible future upgrades/mods I have are:

1. Liquid Cooler Replacement.  It is the original and running well now, but replacement may become necessary as it gets older.

2. RAM upgrade. I have plenty of RAM and simple memory testing checks out okay, yet I suspect one or more of the sticks may not be suffering. Also, when I originally ordered it, I specifically called twice, and was assured twice, that they would use 3 sticks x 4GB...nope, it had 6 sticks x 2GB.

3. Add a second fan to radiator for push/pull. Possible may take out stock and put in two different ones that match.

4. Replace the TIM. Supposedly, it does not degrade much (depends on how was put on), but if I replace the fans, I would change the paste while at it.

5. Install GPU Fan Software to test and set optimal curve to avoid the throttling at 80C. *Note--current games, it never goes above 70c; only hovers at 78- 80C doing Heaven Benchmark on Extreme*.

6. Possible OC on CPU using Load Level 1.  I have never OC'ed my CPU on this machine, but considering trying out a minimal one if performance starts to feel off.


Have fun out there!