XPS 8930, RTX 3080 compatible?

I will next week as I won’t be near my pc til then. The swing arm is in the way with very little clearance; however I have not seen any throttling as of yet. 3 of my fans are blowing directly on that area though.

I found the @GTS81 thread on the measurements of the RTX 3080 FE into the chassis.

Good pics there.  Take a look at them.

He said even the slim fan inside the case at lower intake might not work from this pic....

if so, his suggestion of moving the slim fan behind the front bezel is certainly possible just using mouilding tape.

That fan should not budge.

This fan pictured is centered on the radiator.

For front intake to the GPU area and to introduce airflow into the case to balance case pressure, just centering the fan to the grillwork is all you would need. 

That Noctua slim fan should fit around the bump at the grill.  I did trim one of the fan legs as you can see on the pics above.   That shoudn't be necessary.   Take off the corner pads, put the tape on there and you should be set.  Then trim some of the plastic pin off the front bezel and should be fine.

Wait till you see  @k412white  pics from his install with CPU liquid cooling and his fan setup.  I only know a couple of ways to liquid cool this CPU, at upper front intake and the LP AIO by Corsair that sits on the CPU from the cooling thread. Maybe he found another way.

Perhaps he can post some numbers from a GPU stress test like 3Dmark to see temps in the case or we can wait for numbers from the Alienware side.

From @GTS81 post and @Anonymous pic it looks like two paths of airflow through that card, one for the VRM next to the PSU bracket and one for the chip near the rear that exhausts air out of the back.  

This case was airflow stressed even with the blower card so interesting to see how this works out.

Thanks guys for that info.

Solid performer for the price. I can see why a high end system and PSU is recommended.  Total System power consumption with i9 10900K from this review   Temps were reported to be 77C after playing F1 2020 for an hour.  

 cable management needs work but that she blows.

 I am going to redo wires but here it is

 @RoHe @GUY1701 @HanoverB @Anonymous @speedstep 

*still being salty running notifier.py*

@k412white 

I like!!  Nice work installing the AIO in that location, that should keep your CPU temps under control.  Worthwhile mod.  .    I don't see a pic of what's under the PSU, which 120mm AIO did you use in your install?

Tight fit with the GPU but it looks like it does fit with that slim fan inside the case.   Yikes, just a few mm to spare!  

Because of the AIO on the CPU, airflow just might be be okay with those front intake fans.  The CPU temps should stay stable even with the heat from the GPU since the radiator is drawing in cooler air as intake.   The Alienware does use the AIO in an exhaust position and GPU heat might be a factor.

Any issues having to turn the GPU at an angle to get it fit in.  Easy to remove as well if necessary?

The PSU bracket and arm is blocking the airflow up through the right side of that GPU, so how are GPU temps under load?

@k412white 

Good info.

With those nice fans you chose to use for the AIO install and for the airflow inside the case, the loudest fan in the case will be the GPU.  Because I had a GPU AIO also, the machine was very quiet even under extreme loads.  Even with the case swapped machines, the GPU fan is typically the loudest fan in the case.

If you are hearing the hoover effect, is it because the GPU is struggling to maintain temps or maybe the acoustics from the fan blowing air up against the PSU bracket?  Is that hot air coming from the top of the card causing an issue? There are few reports on 3080 temps on the Alienware side, but reviews are showing FE idle temps at 36C and only 76C under load in a stress loop.  It seems to run a lot cooler than the older cards. 

What are your GPU temps in the case? 

Also from acoustic testing in that review, that GPU  should not be any louder than the RTX 2080 Turing line and is quieter than the GTX 1080 Pascal line.   

From that review

"The new cooling design looks awesome and 'it just works'. It has made the product 'overall' more quiet. In extremely stressed conditions, we did hit 38 dBA though, but still, that is considered a quiet to normal acoustic level. Depending on the level of airflow inside your chassis, expect the card to sit in the 75~80 Degrees C range temperature-wise under hefty load conditions. As FLIR shows, the top side of the card shows substantial heat bleeding though."

Was the GPU you replaced louder than the FE card you just installed?

@k412white 

I did link your nice AIO install here on that cooling thread so it doesn't get lost.

Head over and post your pic there as well with the swing arm up.

The card fan barely runs. I manually crank the fan to high and let the four decide on its own. They definitely run cooler than old ones. I was able to get a strong 2015 OC with it and the most the card Ramps to is 50%.

Mistype. I manually crank the case fans up. I run the card at steady 2015mghz with auto fan that never goes above 50% fan speed and oc the i9 to a steady 5.1. 

Yes I’m in hvac and I cut a large heat sink and thermal epoxied to them.

It’s enough. XPS 8930, rtx 3080, multiple noctua upgrades, aio conversion(fresh air), slight modification of the case.