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XPS 8930, GPU and CPU Liquid Cooler, PSU, Case Swap, Upgrade
Computer: Dell XPS 8930
CPU: i7 8700
CPU Cooler: UPGRADE: Corsair H60 (2018 Model) Hydro Series AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Graphic card manufacturer / model number: UPGRADE: Liquid cooled MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
Bios: 1.0.12
Operating System: Windows 10 Home v.1803
Power supply: UPGRADE: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold, SSR-850FX, 850W Compact Modular Power Supply
Monitor: Samsung S34E790C - 34-Inch Curved WQHD (3440 x 1440) LED Monitor using Displayport.
Edit: 06/06/19
Case fan upgrades here
PSU upgrades here
Non-Dell GPU upgrades here
Phanteks case swap summary here
Case swap rather than case mod for more cooling options here and here and here
Motherboard connections for case swap here
Full liquid cooling with waterblock here
Tests slim 15mm fans with HWInfo.
Idle CPU Temps 32C.
Idle fan speeds intake 450-500 RPM
CPU FAN and TOP FAN = motherboard headers
***Prime 95 v2.66 CPU Torture Test, Small FFT, 12 cycles. 60 minutes:
CPU temps 66-70C. Max temp 75C (boost)
Clock speeds 3492 mHz (~10% overclock @ 65W TDP), max 4490 mHz
Voltage stable at 1.022, max was 1.3
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 1078
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 1019
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
Prime 95. initial boost of CPU 100% load at 4490 mHz at 110 W / 1.3v. Then tests at stable ~10% overclock 3492-3589 mHz at ~65W at 1.022 volts, temps 66-70C.
***3d Mark Fire Strike Test for system 1080P, ~ 7min.:
CPU Temps: Max 75C
Clock speeds max 4388 mHz
Voltage max was 1.31
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 906
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 869
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
GPU Temps: Max 79C
GPU Fan speed, 1100 RPM idle, max RPM 2822
GPU Clock max 1961 mHz
So far, CPU temps okay. But GPU temps high, will check bezel airflow.....
***3d Mark Fire Strike Test 1080P, ~ 7min
(front bezel off to test airflow restriction)
CPU Temps: Max 72C
Clock speeds max 4388 mHz.
Voltage max 1.31
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 853
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 1183
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
GPU Temps: Max 72C
GPU Fan speed, 1100 RPM idle, max RPM 2611
GPU Clock max at 1965 mHz
Changes with front bezel off:
CPU temps dropped by 3C
GPU temps dropped by 8-10C
CPU temps acceptable through bezel. GPU airflow through bezel needs tweaking!
==========
The install:
Tasks for upgrade in new XPS 8930:
1) Install Corsair H60 (2018 Model) Hydro Series AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
2) Install lower front intake fan/radiator with liquid cooled MSI Sea Hawk GTX 1080 HYBRID GPU
3) Upgrade PSU to Seasonic Focus Plus Gold, 850W Compact Power Supply
I need to accomplish this keeping in mind the following:
-Run the Corsair CPU cooler pump at constant 100% speed
-Requires fans connected to both 4 pin fan headers (CPU FAN) and (TOP FAN) to avoid startup error.
==========
Installing Corsair Liquid CPU Cooler:
New 2018 Corsair Hydro Series H60 has 157 x 120 x 27mm radiator and SP120 PWM fan. Pump has rotating barbs for hose placement to avoid the swinging PSU. Pump connects to a PSU SATA cable for 100% power and the radiator PWM fan to the CPU FAN motherboard 4 pin header. Optional tach cable to monitor pump speed and provide a signal to the fan header to prevent startup errors. Fan specs: SP120 PWM, 1700 RPM, 28.3 dBA, 57.2CFM.
Slim fan for tight location: Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, 1850 RPM 23.9 dBA 55.44 CFM / 1400 RPM 16.8 dBA 41.67 CFM
The 3 pin version is a good option at fixed speed to noise tolerance for constant airflow.
Review below posted 60C temps with i7 8700K CPU 30 min stress test at stock clocks.
https://proclockers.com/reviews/cooling/corsair-hydro-series-h60-120mm-liquid-cooler-review
Nice installation guide here:
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/corsair-h60-review.html
The XPS 8930 chassis is similar to the Alienware R5/R6/R7, but the Alienware allows for CPU liquid cooling by having an opening to mount the fan/radiator through the top of the chassis, an installation bracket, and a top cover to house the unit.
With no such space in the XPS 8930, I saw two possible locations a liquid cooler could be installed: Upper exhaust and front intake.
1) Tried the upper exhaust position first without success with the radiator in the top exhaust fan location. The problem is that the rigid hose fittings protrude into the case 20mm. The PSU bracket is not able to close.
I also tried the radiator upside down with the hoses above the motherboard. But with the radiator lined up with the top exhaust opening, a CPU power connector, capacitor and fan header block the area at the hose fittings.
2) Next the front upper intake position at the hard drive location. With intake cooling, cool air enters the radiator but warm air exits into the case. Should not be a problem if CPU temps are ok.
I found that the radiator can install with hoses up or down. With the radiator upside down, the hoses can spread on either side of the motherboard ATX connector.
Picture bottom install location:
Flipping the radiator upright, the swinging PSU bracket negates any liquid cooling in that location with the hoses up as the bracket cross bar crushes the hoses when lowered.
However, I found that by removing the cross bar off the bracket and a small corner off the bracket support leg it would work.
So I chose having the hoses up as the installation path.
1) Flatten the wire holders in that location.
2) Remove the two support legs and the swinging PSU bracket by removing screws at the leg supports and a few at the rear.
3) Used dremel reinforced cutting wheel to do about 5 minutes worth of cutting, then deburring the cut edges.
Picture dremel cuts. (Additional recommended cut to use 25mm fan here)
4) Then placed the radiator up with the hoses at the front of the chassis. The bottom of the radiator fits between the two screws that hold down the supports of the PSU bracket.
5) Attach the 15mm fan with the model label showing for pull orientation and use 4 - 1” or 1 ¼” 6-32 machine screws to attach the radiator. NOTE: The 6-32 screws used for the radiator have a different thread than the 6-32 hex head screws being used in the case. Big box stores have these screws.
Pic of screws
6) Carefully mark the location of the holes in the radiator and drill four holes to mount the radiator to the front of the chassis.
How I did this was place the radiator, then use tape on the front of the chassis to mark the sides of the radiator position.
Then put another piece of blue tape across the front of the radiator at the middle of the top holes.
With the radiator in position inside the chassis and the sides lined up with the tape, look through the rear grill at the blue tape and mark the height of that tape on the front chassis. Marks represent the height of the radiator holes.
Mark the height of the holes with another piece of tape across the front of the chassis.
You now have the height of the top holes.
7) Place a fan on the chassis between the two pieces of tape at the sides and line the two top holes with the radiator mark. Mark all four holes . Again tape off the case well to make sure you don’t get metal filings anywhere.
Mount the radiator with fan to the chassis using ¾” 6-32 machine screws.
9) Installing the pump head:
Clean CPU with alcohol. You see the 4 mounting holes here
Using th 4 double sided pins, put the lower pins into the mounting holes. No modifications needed, the unit is set up for the Dell motherboard LGA1151 CPU socket. Mount the cooler pump by placing the corner attachment brackets on the upper pins and tighten the thumb screws. You can’t overtighten these, they just won’t turn any further when tight.
10) Connect radiator fan to the 4 pin CPU FAN header.
11) Attach pump SATA power to the PSU.
12) With no cross bracket on the PSU swinging bracket, there is room for the pump hoses to flex under the PSU. There is a smooth rounded edge where the bracket contacts the hoses when closed. As an additional precaution install braid wrap on the upper part of the hose for protection at that point.
Done!
Picture again from top, note no bar on the PSU bracket and the edge of the lower part of the PSU bracket that will contact the hoses when down.
==========
Installing MSI GTX 1080 Hybrid GPU: The 151mm high radiator is installed in a sideways position with the hoses in front. The GPU is 10.5” long leaving little room for both fan and radiator at the lower intake position.
With little space to put a fan on the radiator inside the case, the slim 15mm fan was mounted in front of the chassis and under the front bezel. The front bezel is over 20 mm deep so the fan is able to still pull air from the bezel front side vents.
Picture front bezel
1) The only problem encountered was a large raised hole in the middle of the front of the chassis which interfered with fan placement. Keep turning the fan to the position centered to the radiator where the fan frame doesn't hit that large bump.
2) Check that the side of the radiator is clear of the swinging arm of the PSU bracket. Important!.
3) Drill 4 holes, attach the fan to radiator using 4- 1 ¼” 6-32 machine screws.
I also used a10mm foam compressible Phoyba radiator gasket on the radiator due to the 1" wide flange at the rear of the front chassis.
It supports the Alienware R5/6/7 front intake fan bracket that snaps in at this location. That piece of metal prevents the radiator from sitting flush. The gasket took up that space. It has adhesive on one side to attach to the radiator.
Note: In the picture of the front bezel a large plastic hollow pin sticks up that would hit the fan in that location. Trim with the dremel cutting wheel.
Picture front install, note no bar on the PSU swinging bracket.
4) Connect the slim fan on the AIO radiator to the 4 pin header (TOP FAN). (Noctua NF-A12x15 FLX 1850 RPM 23.9 dBA 55.44 CFM / 1400 RPM 16.8 dBA 41.67 CFM)
Notes
Protect the radiator fins with a piece of cardboard taking the GPU in/out. They are bent easily by the corner of the GPU.
Edit 9/18/18 GPU temps resolved here: (must read prior to installing, grillwork is removed)
Edit 02/23/19 Recommended cuts to use 25mm fan on CPU radiator here and here
Edit 03/15/19 Fixed speed radiator fan CPU temps 55°C range here
**This thread edited for accuracy, add'l pics and current information.
chosmer
10 Posts
0
February 17th, 2019 07:00
Yes, that is the top fan that came with the system. I run 3 AOC - i2779vh 27" IPS LED FHD Monitors. When Running WoW at 5670X1080 in Nvidia surround mode, with graphic settings set to High. I get great 70FPS and it so smooth when compared to my older PC running i4790 and dual GTX970. I am getting a CPU temp @ 81-84C and a GPU temp @ 80-84C. I did add the Alienware Aurora R5/R6 Fan with bracket on the front of the box, but that didn't really help much.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 17th, 2019 15:00
Again, what model liquid cooler are you using?
Stock XPS 8930 case or successful case swap using the H100i Pro?
That 3 pin tach cable is a single wire cable with a pin at 3 (speed sense) the H60 (2018).
Dual wire with pins at 1 (ground) and 3 (speed sense) on the H100i Pro.
Both serve to send a signal through the 4 Pin CPU FAN header so the machine senses there is a cooler on the header to prevent the fan error you are getting on startup.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 17th, 2019 16:00
That is a nice setup you have and those GPU temps are acceptable. That lower intake fan is helping there and the rear blower type card is the one you want. The CPU temps are a little high, especially if they stay there on a several hours session raiding a few nights a week. How loud do those fans on the CPU cooler, front intake and upper exhaust get at load? Should be annoying with the settings you play WOW with and those temps.
Thinking you might want to do something about that top 92mm fan like the rest of us did and change that fan to a Noctua S12A FLX and connect that directly to the TOP FAN header. Will provide a 1200 RPM constant airflow out of the case and should help. Both the lower fan and upper fan upgrades would stay in the case anyway if you decide to change out the CPU cooler. So it's not money wasted.
I did read that someone mentioned having to remove the SE cooler to get that 92mm bracket out. Not sure of that as I thought you just take out that single screw up top from the inside and slide the bracket back and then lift it out.
Adding a upper front intake fan should also help with the case pressure issue that can cause the top exhaust fan to pull heated in air from the back of the case next to the rear blower. That upper compartment just heats up quickly from the lack of airflow and the heat coming from the back of your GTX 1070ti and any heat coming in from the back of the case.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 19th, 2019 19:00
Update on XPS 8930 Case Swap. Not good news.
Friend and I did a case swap into a Meshify C Mini on my XPS 8930 last night.
We then did a swap into a NZXT H500 case today.
Nice case as well. I can see why it is so popular. Other than the hard drive cage, it's easy to work with. Airflow through one side of front bezel and can accommodate liquid cooling in the front intake as well but not as flexible with fan placement up top.. You can get a radiator or fan behind the front bezel. Huge lower compartment. Great bang for the buck if you don't need extreme OC cooling.
What we found out:
The case swaps went fine. It's a working machine so there are not compatibility issues, so not that hard to swap components. We had already watched a couple of videos to familiarize ourselves with the particulars of each case. About 45 min to disassemble the machine, about 90 minutes to swap components into each new case with both of us taking our time and chatting about spring fishing. Used stock fans that came with the Fractal and NZXT case so nothing fancy. H60 CPU liquid Cooler up front as intake and the Seahawk GPU cooler as exhaust. Same components from a known working setup. We could really could appreciate how much room there is in these cases to work compared to the stock case.
The concern was always how this particular XPS model behaves with connectors to the motherboard from a new case.
The end result was we could not get the machine to work with these particular cases without getting similar startup errors.
With a basic front panel connection using the FP LED, Power switch, HDD LED, (and RESET on the Meshify) on the motherboard, the machine would boot but we got a POWER BUTTON CABLE FAILURE ERROR.
We double checked all connections, still got the same error. I always wondered what happened on startup without the jumper wire so that answered that question.
We then jumped pins 5 to 9, the yellow wire which is found on the connector from the Dell power switch to the motherboard.
Machine started up, we did not get a power button error as hoped. However, we were greeted with the anticipated FRONT I/O CABLE FAILURE ERROR.
No surprise there as we knew about this.. Got the IO panel off the Dell chassis and connected both the SD Card header and the USB header that was open and to our surprise still got the same error.
So something else was amiss that we did not anticipate. BUMMER.
We tried different things from updating to a couple of different BIOS versions, trying different front panel connection combinations with and without the jumper. Even tried the power switch off the XPS 8930 (which works when plugged into the header) while we changed connectors around. Front I/O error still persisted. We could recreate the problem so finally figured out what was causing it.
Turns out the USB headers are real picky or there is something about the XPS 8930 that the firmware is looking for that is only there when both USB cables are connected. We got the same result on both of case swaps we tried. The only way to get the machine working without an error was with the jumper in place, SD card header connected and using the original XPS 8930 USB connectors from top IO panel in both of the motherboard USB headers .
With the USB 3.0/3.1 connector on either of the new cases connected, we could not get past the IO cable failure even using the original connector in the second USB header.
Both USB ports on the Fractal and the NXZT case front panel actually are functional when connected but we couldn't get rid of the startup error despite trying different connector combinations. Writing this with the NZXT case swapped machine.
Will update later if we are able to troubleshoot any further. Not looking good at this point. You could certainly try to add a PCIE USB 3.0 card with an internal 20 pin header to connect to the two USB ports on the new case and get them working and bypass the motherboard USB headers. That could be a possible workaround.
chosmer
10 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 07:00
Yes you have to remove the SE cooler. The connection for the top fan is under the heat sink ( poor design there ). That being said, it gave me a chance to redo the thermal paste. So I had a Thermaltake 120mm fan available and replaced the 92mm one. Connected it to the top fan plug. Now the front fan is not connected to that top fan plug and is now running on direct power. So that makes the machine sound like a vacuum cleaner now if I have that plugged in. The video here show the temps I get with that fan plugged in and the new top fan.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NKzECLo5EXSBHDCJ7
As you can see, not to bad, CPU of 70c and GPU of 74c. Getting 80FPS. Downside is that front fan is noisy as **bleep**, and I know that would bother a lot of people. I can connect it back to the top fan plug using the Deep Cool FH-10, just going to be a pain since I have to remove the SE cooler again. It will run a little quieter since it will only run up with higher temps, but then I get an error on boot. It would be cool if they made some sort of internal fan control that you could connect via usb and was software controlled.
Though I did run without the front fan for about 3 hours last night and I was getting about the same temps. CPU of 74c and GPU of 79c. I might be able to live with that 4-5c difference. Maybe if I am doing some heavy raiding I can connect the front fan, since I will have headphones on anyway LOL.
rwgordon
25 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 07:00
HanoverB, thanks for taking the big plunge on this one. I've had a Fractal Design Arc midi sitting in my garage for 3 weeks , not being ready to jump in! The Fractal has 2 external 5.25" bays and I've considered modding a front panel adapter to accept the entire usb/sd card reader and would keep it functional. Aesthetics has held me back on that approuch, planning on having this system for 5-8 years I don't want to look at something cheesy every day. Have considered a new motherboard but not there yet. So my XPS 8930 is running cool and well(thanks to your aio upgrade and fan additions) but some where down the road I'm sure I'll take the plunge on this. Thanks again for all your efforts on these projects and documenting them so well.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 12:00
Just swap out that lower fan in the bracket to a quieter fan and you should be GTG with those temps. Good work.
I had forgotten that that cooler blocks both fan headers as well as the 4 pin power connector from the PSU. Putting a fan control hub makes sense in that situation when you are setting up the airflow in your machine.
NZXT and Corsair both make controllers that can do fan controls and LED lighting that connect to USB 2.0 headers. It is possible to set that up in this machine, let me know if you have an interest. Possible to control fan speeds and noise levels though using the correct fan and low noise adapters available with connections to the motherboard and fixed power.
chosmer
10 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 14:00
Duh! I didn't think about replacing that front fan. That was the one that came with the bracket that I ordered off ebay and is the stock fan for the Alienware box. I have another Thermaltake 120mm fan available I can use. I will certainly look into those controllers as well, though I will probably not need is once I put a quieter fan in the front. I let you know :) Thank for all the input too!!!
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 15:00
AB
Thanks for the suggestions. Likely the Type C implementation has something to do with it as the connectors required for startup are very specific, the blue connector to the blue USB header, the black one to the black.
The 20 pin USB headers are good for 2 USB 3.0 devices. On the XPS 8930, the blue header is for the USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C port and the Left USB 3.1 port. The black header is for the right two USB 3.1 ports. This we tested as we unplugged the connectors in a working machine to make sure.
The front USB 3.1 Type C port is only 5 Gbps, the same speed as the other 3.1 USB ports. Just a different connector. But like you said the blue connector might be looking for some voltage signal from that connector and makes that blue specific.
We tried every combination of USB connections into both connectors.
We did two different cases just in case it was a case specific issue, or perhaps a bad connector in the new case. But we got the same results both times unfortunately and the ports worked once we got past the startup error. The connectors in the new cases look exactly like the Dell connectors. Perhaps there is a case out there that would not cause an error. but not these two models.
The NZXT machine I am working with has no errors on wake from sleep, so it's strictly a startup error.
BTW I really like that Meshify case. Each bag of screws labeled for what they were for, slide in brackets for the 3.5 HDD, steel seemed to be of heavier gauge than the NZXT. Little more quality, but it is also $20-$30 more than that case. I am glad your case swap went smoothly.
Let me know if you think of anything else I can try.
AlienBlaster
20 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 15:00
There is one thing you can try.
One thing that your XPS 8930 has but none of XPS 8910/8920, NZXT H500 and Meshify C Mini has is a front panel Type-C port. It could be the source of your startup error that's specific to 8930.
Since 8930 has only one Type-C port in the FP, I am guessing only one of the USB 3.1 headers on your motherboard is needed to scan that. You may think you need both but chances are you happened to plug that in as the second one.
Well, it's possible that both headers are needed for some reason, but it is worth a try at least.
AlienBlaster
20 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 17:00
In that case, the only thing to try is to plug the H500 header in black, and the Dell blue header in blue. That must be something else then.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 20th, 2019 18:00
Yep. That's the first thing we tried in both cases as it should have worked......oh well.
Must be something about that IO board that is unique.
Thanks for the reply.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
February 21st, 2019 22:00
Update on case swap. Good news.
After exploring the possible workarounds on the NZXT and Fractal case swaps, I was able to complete a successful case swap on the XPS 8930!
It is not as straight forward as on the XPS 8910 or 8920. The machine needs certain connections from the top IO panel to boot without errors. It also requires bypassing the motherboard USB headers as part of the workaround. Not that difficult to do.
Requirements:
Notes:
-I used two different PCIE x1 USB cards that installed in the lower PCIE x4 slot, one powered and the other non-powered. Both worked fine and transfer rates were as fast as the XPS 8930 USB 3.1 front panel ports using CrystalDisk. The USB connection cable on the new case reached that lower PCIE card easily,
-Cost for the case swap would be price of the case + PCIE USB 3.0 card.
-If you need a jumper for the 5 to 9 pins in a pinch, unscrew the power button on top of the XPS 8930 and bring it into the case. Turn it 180 degrees and use the jumpered connectors on pins 5 to 9. Fits fine next to the other connectors on the front panel header. Temporary fix till you can make or find a better jumper.
-The NZXT H500 case is a little larger than the Meshify Mini C. It is the same size as the Meshify (non-Mini) version. The larger case makes it easier to hide the IO panel . Try to secure it the best you can. I was able to fasten the IO panel on top of the HDD cage in the NZXT case using some double sided moulding tape.
-Disassembling the XPS 8930 is relatively easy. The top cover lifts off once you lift up and out on one side. The motherboard, PSU and upper IO panel are removed with just a few screws. The USB connectors and wires, SD card reader connector, and HD audio wires connected to the IO panel pull through the large opening on the top of the chassis.
There are only two connectors from the PSU to the motherboard, the 24 pin ATX connector on the right next to the RAM and the 4 pin CPU power cable in the upper left corner. Pic of motherboard is here. Just take pictures if not sure and refer to the online XPS 8930 manual for particulars. It's not that difficult. The screw locations for removing and installing the motherboard are marked by white circles. These should match up to the motherboard standoffs on the new case.
-The only tricky part is the wireless card. It mounts just to the left of the Dell logo on the motherboard. You have to remove the wires from the card to pull them up through the opening on top of the case. But you have to first remove the single small phillips screw to take the card off the motherboard and pull the plastic cover off the card itself to get to the antennas. They snap onto the connectors which are color coded. Easy once you figure it out.
There are also clips on top of the rear IO shield that open to release the cables. Put the antennas anywhere you want in the new case. I ran the cables up to the top of the case and they stuck on the backside with the glue still on the antenna ends.
Picture of clips
Picture of wireless card and plastic cover you need to remove to uninstall wires
-Several videos on the builds using the NZXT case and Meshify case out there. Too many to count. I watched the ones from Science Studio and the NZXT Builders workshop videos, made putting the parts into the case very easy. Mounted the SSD drives behind the motherboard and my spinning drives into the HDD brackets. Cable management is a breeze.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzfkTRKlUcA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJNNUd79ko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBPlGUwbJT0
-You will need a SATA to SSD cable that has a straight connector on one end when mounting the SSD flat on the panel on the back of the motherboard. The black SATA cables are 90 degree angles in the XPS 8930 for the HDD on both ends, the red optical drive cable is 90 degrees at the motherboard, straight at optical drive. So if you using a SSD, use that red optical drive cable on the SSD when it is mounted flat on the backside of the new case. Two SATA connectors on the motherboard under the GPU need to be right angle at those connections. Flat flexible connector will work as well if you can fold them back. SATA connectors with clips will not fit under the GPU so be forewarned.
The blue connector is the first SATA header, the tan connector is the second SATA header. In a final build I would have the onboard NVME SSD as my boot drive, and have the red SATA cable connected from the SSD mounted behind the motherboard to the first blue SATA header. The black SATA cable can be connected from the second tan SATA header to the hard drive bay if you have any mechanical drives being used as storage.
-The NZXT case comes with a breakout cable you have to use to create individual front panel connectors to the motherboard. Otherwise you will not be able to jump pins 5 to 9.
-For some reason a 20 pin USB 3.0 female to 9 pin USB 2.0 male cable I had laying around when I connected it to the black header of the motherboard did not cause a startup error. Don’t know what the wiring is like in the cable to keep a startup error from occurring. Upside of this is that you can use the cable for USB 2.0 connected controllers for RGB lighting and fan speeds. Otherwise you would run a USB cable with the appropriate end termination from the back IO panel into the case to do that.
Question is now do I keep the case swap machine or revert back to my modded XPS 8930 case.
rwgordon
25 Posts
0
February 22nd, 2019 06:00
More good work HanoverB, do you have a link/ brand of your pcie cards. Seems like if you go to the big auction site there is alot of them but questionable brands and sources. Did Windows require any drivers for them? Did you try the 20 pin to 9pin in a mix with your new case 20 pin usb to see if that would give you an error free start up?
AlienBlaster
20 Posts
0
February 22nd, 2019 09:00
Glad it all worked out! Great job HanoverB. I am sure the extra miles you went brought you extra pleasure.
How are temps now? Seeing any improvement? It might be the key deciding factor for you regarding whether going back to the old case.
Now we have one successful case for each of 8910, 8920 and 8930, I think it's time to make a master thread with focus on case swaps. I know Zeus already has a very nice and detailed thread but that's more specific to a particular model (8920 SE) with a particular case (NZXT H500). As you have experienced, there could be a lot of variables for different scenarios. It will be very useful to have them documented in a central thread.
There is a lot of useful information that we can share regarding to case swaps and cooling and noise control of XPS desktops in general, such as cooler and fan choices, configuration and placement. In my experience, they can make significant differences to the final outcomes.
I know this thread has a lot of related information already, but the problem is that your original title and motivation suggests on liquid cooling which may not be attractive to many users. I recommend you take the lead on making the master thread as you are a true expert and pioneer in many things, and are really good at documenting them. We can then link or copy all related information (such as Zeus's thread) to the master thread to make it easy to read and discuss for everybody.