PSU upgrade for my Aurora

You would be better off ordering a Corsair 1000hx over the alienware psu, one its cheaper can be had for 170-230 USD, its rated to keep its 80% eficiency at 1000w but has has a design that is simular to the thermaltake thoughpower 1500w but with a minor difference in its rail config that makes it lose its efficiency after 1000w thus its labeled as 1000w.  The alienwares case wiring you do not have to switch out, but you will just have to remove the alienware psu. You may also want to consider getting some zip ties for cablemanagement. You wont have any issues.

You would be better off ordering a Corsair 1000hx over the alienware psu, one its cheaper can be had for 170-230 USD, its rated to keep its 80% eficiency at 1000w but has has a design that is simular to the thermaltake thoughpower 1500w but with a minor difference in its rail config that makes it lose its efficiency after 1000w thus its labeled as 1000w.  The alienwares case wiring you do not have to switch out, but you will just have to remove the alienware psu. You may also want to consider getting some zip ties for cablemanagement. You wont have any issues.

From my knowledgle, you can switch out the PSU of the Aurora/Area 51, but you will lose some things in the process. For one, no the alienware wiring inside will have to come out. It is modular, yes, but the modular cable is not the same as any aftermarket PSU. The Aurora and Area 51 have 1 giant modular plug for the PSU. The aftermarket PSU's like Corsair, Thermaltake, etc, all have seperate power leads for different connectors. The stock PSU is specifically made for the Alienware system and wiring harness. Secondly, the AlienFX board uses a Dell Proprietary cable (10 pin) which is not standard on any aftermarket PSU. In anotherwords, you will lose control of your case, fans, lighting, thermal sensors, and venting system if you have the ALX.

All other connections will work fine with an Aftermarket PSU though, like the SATA, Motherboard Power, etc. Just the AlienFX board is the problem.

Also, I dont know if the Aftermarket PSU's cable lengths are long enough to go around the cable management wiring in the Alienware Case. The Alienware wire harness on the PSU is made specifically for it, in terns of length, thickness, etc.

IMO, I wouldnt go through the hassle. Just get a supplementary PSU for one of the drive bays which will be a lot easier. I dont think the Area 51's 1.1KW will fit in the Aurora case. Its a pretty long PSU, and probably a lot longer than the Auroras.

psst i have an alx case and my light kit works fine=)

Hardly worth the trouble for the reasons by m3th0d1c4l posted.

Even if the Area51 PS works for other reasons, I haven't seen one up close, so I don't know if it has the plate or if it's the same.

That is a lot of drives ... but 875 w is a lot of power. I find it hard to believe that you are running out of power with only one video card (non-SLI). If it was me, I would stop OC the GTX295, and/or move 1 or 2 of those drives to external eSata enclosures (they have their own power supplies).

I wouldn't think the GTX295 would OC well. Isn't that chip maxed out already stock? It might just be becoming unstable or thottling itself back to prevent destruction.

Actually the 295's with good airflow or a decent gpu that came out of the wafer will oc way past factory stock clocks.,  875w is not really alot of power with what he has in his machine. If he got a gem for a 295 it will oc like mad and chew up alot of power, take my old EVGA 280 GTX FTW cards stock core for them is 675 I do believe or somewhere around there sold them awhile ago, I could get 756 core clocks on air, 800 core clock on water unlinked, my GTX 480 701 core factory 850 core on air without tweaking its voltage, its like luck of the draw if you get a good batch or not, just like the cpu in my sig, I waited for the i7 975 extremes to be about out and posted I was in the market for an i7 965 extreme I got mine under 500 dollars shipped and got to pretty much have whole line up of people itching to upgrade so I got to hand pick mine, its  a gem from a good batch and I hit 4.8ghz on it. No cpu/gpu when you buy it is normally at its max but like I said its luck of the draw on the wafer batch it came from, some will not oc at all if its life depended on it, some will moderatly oc, some will have more ocing potential, some will oc alot, and some are just gems that will oc to hell and back.

Tesla1856, thanks. I missed the power plate on the PSU for the door. The Area 51 PSU does not have that, so it wont work either.

Your best bet is to get a supplementary PSU if you want to OC. I would say just leave the GPU the way it is and dont bother OCing it. Its a powerful card as it is, and for just a few extra FPS or a slightly higher score in 3DMark, its not worth it.

Thanks a lot for the help. I guess I’ll just have to tone down the overclocking of my GTX 295, realizing the solution might not be worth the trouble.

Alienware Aurora
i7-960 @ 3936mhz (164x24)
Kingston hyperX 2000mhz-rated tri-channel 3x2GB @ 1968mhz
Nvidia GTX 295
5xSeagate 1.5TB 7200rpm HD
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 analog/digital TV tuner
2xSamsung PX2370 LED monitor

Hello in response to your question you should be able to use the 1100kw power supplyI have enclosed a link to one I found on ebay while I was trying to find a 1200 kw for myself but no luck. I hope this helps. Syfer. http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-1100W-Power-Supply-Precision-T7500-G821T-R622G-PSU-/200562850554?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item2eb27a3afa

On my Aurora R-1 (X-58) HW-Monitor reads 5v as 5.00v (but we have different motherboards ... you have R-3 which is SandyBridge) . However, on my ASRock MB (in my test machine) it reads some of the voltages incorrectly ... luckily, that board allows me to read voltages inside the BIOS. Bottom line, don't always believe what HW-Monitor says ... use the BIOS or a digital power supply tester (or volt-meter).

If 5v was really that low, I doubt the machine would run at all.

No, you will have to replace the wiring harness like Methodical said above. On the Aurora R-1, the MIO-Board gets it's power from an old-school 4-pin Molex connector (so no problem there). However, it appears that connector has power going to it even when the power is off (but still plugged into the wall) ... so that's different than any power supply that I have ever seen. The MIO-Board may freak on that or maybe not.

A whole machine with a 580 ... under 350w ...

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1482/16/

This guy had problems also (has X-58 based R-1 like me). He ended up putting the Zotac nVidia 580 in the lower x16 slot and it worked fine. Still not sure what the problem was there, but he found a working solution.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19392456/19922296.aspx?PageIndex=3

Plus, you have an R-3 ... unstable R-3's a pretty common . Not sure what ended up being the problem with all those bad machines. It will take a patient and thorough person to fix your machine.

Do you have 2 580's or just one?

If 2 ... while it might barely work ... under heavy load it would be pushing the 875w PS too close to max. (if you can even get enough 12v rails and amps to them in the first place).

Everything else still stands. I left the previous message in-tact in case you are only running one these days.