Aurora R16, my upgrades for PSU, video card, SSD, memory

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing.

The 8 PIN instead of 12 PIN is not giving stability issues? 

I am just thinking that considering the initial cost and the cost of the upgrades, it might have been a better choice to go complete retail and save yourself headaches down the road...

The heat sinks I agree. Why they insist not installing those on lower end configurations is beyond me. Now they need to SKU's for motherboard replacements. One with and one without heat sinks...

@Vanadiel​ The 8 pin was on the 500w PSU, the 1350 has a 12pin, just posted the pic for reference.  Would never try to push 1300+ watts through an 8 pin connector.

The 1kw PSU does come with a 10 pin, FYI.

@Vanadiel​ I wan't worried about cost as I like to do custom builds, plus tinker, "and this gives me something to fiddle with during retirement", have done 100s of custom builds since 1996, wasn't  too concerned, and in the end, pricing everything out, "I" came out cheaper than buying a system configured the way it is now just for the sake of what I was able to obtain the parts for cost wise.

I agree that configuring the system like this initially is probably the best option "if you can afford it at the time".  But the base configuration I had gotten is being sold by the big box stores and I wanted to create this post to show that "if this is all you can afford at the time" you can upgrade the system in the future.  If you are purchasing on the Dell/Alienware website I would at least bump up the system to the 1kw PSU as it's only $50more.

I was actually impressed by the base systems performance and the the 4060ti performed better than I thought it would.  It's a decent system for anyone that want's a decent gamer that just can't afford more.

@chili.red​ The motherboards must have different VRM sections then, 8, 10 and 12 PIN options.

That does not bode well for upgrading...

Or do the motherboards all have 12 PINS and based on PSU wattage less PIN's are used?

It would be a waste of VRM components if that is what they did.

@Vanadiel​ There are 12 pins on the MB and I did ask dell T/S if the 1350w PSU was supported by that MB, they stated not yet as it hadn't been tested and approved, only the 500, 750 and 1k had been so far.  The MB part number appears to be the same one used in the R15, the only difference I did find is there's one less case fan header.

It does appear that the 500 uses 8 pins, "not sure about 750, the 1k uses 10 and the 1350 is using 12.  The VRM layout is exactly the same as the MBs I saw from the R15s, even the heatsinks are the same.

Here's an excellent post where the 1350PSU is broken down and how the power is distributed by it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/1468q26/dissecting_the_1350w_r15_psu_into_a_r13/

500w: 8 pin, c/w XPS 8950/8960, Optiplex 7000

750/1000w: 10 pin, these psu are c/w XPS 8950/8960

1350w: 12 pin, c/w Aurora R13/14/15/16, and backward c/w 10/8 pin motherboard socket

@Vanadiel​ I did find an image of the 750w PSU, it has a 10pin connector, so apparently the 500w is the only one using an 8 pin connecto.

The additional 2 pin of 10 vs 8 pin, or 12 vs 10 pin are are 12V/Gnd pins on top of the 8 pin.  The base 8 pin out is Dell proprietary, and same pinout for 12/10 pin.

the additional 12V pins (power pin) supposedly supply motherboard with more power if needed by the PCIex16 slots.

if you plug the 1350w psu in R13 motherboard 10 pin socket, those two extra 2 pin of 12 hang in air not utilized.

@redxps630​ That is odd because for a video card it's supposed to be 75 Watt for the slot and the remainder comes from the external power sources.

It would be odd, but who knows. Since this is an OEM design it can be anything really.

I am thinking CPU upgrades from 65 watt to 125 Watt might be an issue.

I remember on my R10 I has this odd 8 PIN connector that was wired up as a 6 PIN, and on some R10's it was wired up as an 8 PIN. I also remember I had no BIOS OC options on my 3700X, while others did on their CPU. I had the same 1000 Watt PSU as they did.

I never got to the bottom of it but it looked to me like pending on how many PINS were wired up other options opened up in the BIOS and CPU support.

@Vanadiel​    recall that the Aurora Series up through the Aurora R9 had the auxiliary motherboard EPS 8-pin power connector GPU_PWR for additional PCIe support. The Area-51 triads had this as well.

@ProfessorW00d​ Yes, but with the ATX standard on those boards, the power for the PCI-e slot should come from the ATX connector, not the EPS pins. EPS are for aux power to the VRM section, for the CPU.

I don't know how it is with the new 12 Volt Intel standard. I am thinking similar?

EPS

– EPS12V and PCIe Connectors

While the EPS connector is designed to provide the motherboard’s CPU socket with power, the PCI Express connector is built to provide power to the GPU.

@Vanadiel​   12 volts is 12 volts . . . regardless of the connector type. It would be particularly peculiar if they labeled a motherboard header "GPU_PWR" if it provided power to the CPU.

I guess this is the new standard:

ATX12VO

In the ATX12VO standard, the -12 V, 5 V, 5 VSB (standby) and 3.3 V rails are deleted. The 24-pin connector is replaced with a 10-pin one that carries three 12 V lines (one more than ATX v2.x) in addition to the new 12 VSB standby voltage rail. The 4-pin 12 V connectors would still remain, and still require one to squeeze one or two of those through impossibly small gaps in the system’s case to get them to the top of the mainboard, near the CPU’s voltage regulator modules (VRMs).

So Dell is already deviating from the standard by using 8, 10 or 12 PIN instead of the 10 PIN connector. All this is going to do is cause headaches for future upgrades...

It's supposed to be like this: 10 PIN connector

Not sure what the 12 PIN layout is on the R16 board.

That is why I am amazed it even works without all the pin's being populated.