Aurora R4, motherboard upgrade, CPU? #3

Still waiting for the pic to be approved... but I assume @GTS81 is right because that does look like a yellow motorcycle jack.  Interesting placement though, if I don't shove my floor jack up against the wall behind the shelving I stub my toe on it every time I pass by and that chunk of metal with miniature wheels is so heavy it doesn't even budge from the hit.  

REPLYING TO: More interested in that yellow jack and what's under the tarp in the background though! 

It's probably just another dustbin pic with a Dell OEM part in it that you both are good at posting. 

@Anonymous  Replying to your commenting about, "possible custom work?!"  *Screams!  I DO value your commenting on this.  You're challenging me to think, and that's exactly what I want, need, and am here for!  So, Thank You, already in advance!  Good Eye looking out!!!  This is all definitely helping me check myself, and potential problems, that I may not be foreseeing.  Gotta get this thing right, hopefully, the first time, so that I have less downtime as possible.

I did see that the Rog Maximus XI Gene "seemed bigger," even though it is a mATX like my own mobo, but there are no ways for comparison with what I have.  My motherboard has no physical dimensions listed.  *Slamming on Brrrreaks!... I'm going to go TRY to get a better scale of my own motherboard, and actually measure my mobo 3 dimensions inside, then the 2 dimensions outside.  This will give me more of a leg up on actual scale/ size.  Brb... Aaaaand, Back!  After trying to make sure I've grounded everything first, I was able to get "As close to, or Approximate Measurements as possible."  Here's what I came up with; 12" Vertically, 9" Horizonally, and about 1"-1&1/2" Thickness or Depth Max for interior.  For exterior, or i/o plating, I came up with about 5" Vertical, and 1"-1&1/2" Wide or Horizonally.  

*I will attach a picture of my interior with current mobo and layout.  Maybe you, I, or someone else will spot some wiggle room examining it more, BEFORE I travel further down this road.  Customs scares me!  Although, again, I'm absolutely certain that I WILL get 1.) Mobo, possibly this Rog Gene, and 2.) i9-9900k processor for my current system.  IMAO, I seem to have more than enough room, with the view of my interior, mobo, dimensions, but possibly Not with my exterior i/o plating as you pointed out @Anonymous .  Not sure how difficult something like that actually is to handle.  New territory for me entirely!  However, the dimensions for the Rog Gene are; mATX Form Factor, 9.6 inch x 8.9 inch ( 24.4 cm x 22.6 cm ).  So, it would appear that The Rog Gene is a bit smaller, but still lacking the actual measurements of depth on interior, and dimensions on exterior i/o panel, again.

"I did realize and know" previously that all mobo's are not created equal, slight to huge shifts in actual measurements for mATX's.  And, "I thought" there were just only 3 sizes; Mini, Micro, and Standard/ Regular Size ATX.  YES, *Everyone laughs now!  I didn't know until "just now" after doing more searching about this particular topic that there are many different sizes, and it also varies over Intel vs. AMD... They just do Not make any of this easy in the slightest, do they?!  Again, so many variables to consider... Let me know any and all thoughts without too much repetition.  Thanks again!

Current & original mATX mobo    

@Catpsychejust curious, but are you planning on installing the new motherboard into your old R4 case? My assumption is yes due to the mATX form factor you're looking for.

That's fine if you are, but if since you're considering replacing the mobo and processor, there are many new case designs out there for mATX and ATX boards that might be more suitable in the long term.

Also, not sure about the R4 but if it has case lighting, Dell's integrations are usually proprietary in nature.  There's a chance you may not be able to control them with the new board.

New cases also allow for better cable management as well as larger radiators and fans.  Just give it a thought before you decide.

One other thing; not sure if anyone's mentioned it but if you're going to go to a 9900k, I assume you're also looking at better GPUs down the road.  If you re-integrate using the old case and PSU, you may end up hitting a wall as far as power output limitations.  I'd imagine at the very least that if you were to keep the R4 case, a PSU upgrade would need to be done as well.

Oh, and once again, here is the Rog Maximus XI Gene gallary photos... I'm looking at that Header too, and I'm definitely seeing that my AIO Cooler, but particularly the Fan/ Radiator, will have to be moved.  Am I seeing that right, as another potential obstacle?  And, is that an even bigger problem?  

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-XI-GENE/gallery/

@amstel78:

One other thing; not sure if anyone's mentioned it but if you're going to go to a 9900k, I assume you're also looking at better GPUs down the road.  If you re-integrate using the old case and PSU, you may end up hitting a wall as far as power output limitations.  I'd imagine at the very least that if you were to keep the R4 case, a PSU upgrade would need to be done as well.

I believe @Catpsyche posted on the Alienowners page the full specs of his/ her current R4. There's a 875W PSU rocking it in there. And from what I see in most of the R4 owners' mods, they are able to reuse the PSU. It's probably because the original Aliens are waaayyy better built than our current generation R5/R6/R7/R8.

@GTS81 Yes, TY!  That is correct.  I have a 875 w PSU, which is more than sufficient.  This I know.

@amstel78 Yeah, just another quick sum up.  I'm currently wanting to put the Rog Gen mobo and the i9-9900k into my R4 with ALX Chassis that I'm more than happy with.  **bleep**, I'd just plug in the i9-9900k into my old mobo if it were possible!  I do already have a new GPU, an Geforce RTX 2060 SUPER, to be exact.  I'm just looking to see if all these pieces fit together, physically, technologically, electronically with ALL the other fine points and variables that must sync up together to make it work, etc.  Really appreciate everyone's input. ^5...

*Below - I'll just quickly do a cut and paste of my specs here, quick links, so that everything is current, with The Exception being my last post just up a few from here.  *Up to my last post - You'll see an insightful conversation with @Anonymous about how the Rog Gen will fit in my rig and a pic of the inside of my rig.

ALL HARDWARE & MAJOR SOFTWARE SPECS - Alienware Aurora-R4 (with ALX Chassis); 3rd Gen - Intel Quad Core i7-3820 CPU 3.60GHz, Intel x79 Express Chipset and Micro-ATX Motherboard 07JNH0, **Dual Drives; *Seagate 4TB SSHD (Servant  Drive) & *Samsung V-NAND 860 EVO 1TB (Master Drive), 16GB RAM (out of 32GB max.) - 16GB Dual Quad Channel (4X4GB) Overclocked DDR3 @ 1600MHz, **Gigabyte RTX 2060 SUPER w/ OC 8GB, GDDR6, 2x Fans - Windforce, Turing, Ray Tracing, DLSS, G-Sync, Nvidia GPU Boost, PCIe 3.0 x16, 256 bit, HDMIx1, DPx3, GDDR6/ 256 bit, Integrated RealTek ALC892 Codex, 2 Optical Drives (Blu-Ray & DVD), 19-in-1 Media Card Reader, Network Wireless RealTek Integrated 10/100/1000 GB Card, MS3871 Bluetooth Wireless Combo WLAN802.11b/g/n, Power Supply is 875 Watt - Multi-GPU Approved Power, **SOFTWARE - BIOS A11, **Windows 10 Home 64 bit... Asterisk/ Star (*) denotes items already upgraded from original specs.

https://www.alienowners.com/threads/catpsyches-full-specs-aurora-r4.8028/

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-XI-GENE/overview/

https://youtu.be/OtYAEhmfBC4

https://youtu.be/XPIsShdo0uc

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/zadak-511-32gb-dc-ddr4-ram,37859.html

https://youtu.be/HvfIeTieXOI

I know Luke said his Corsair H80i V2 (a 49mm wide radiator) had its work cut out when placed over just an 8700k, in spite of the extra cooling mods he did, & when reviews for 9900k landed they said to use an 80i / 49mm rad at a minimum (27x240mil preferred), so I doubt your old 27mm rad w/ aluminum base will cope; I'd probably get a used inexpensive 49mil cooler (570LC) just in case (if you're skeptical of used parts then buy 2, hold one as spare) & get a socket 115x retention ring kit for it from Asetek (in the least, your old cooler would need that ring kit in order to work on newer / different mthrbrd cpu socket). I put up some 38mm wide Aurora coolers for sale today, they'll outperform the original 27mm cooler but won't outclass a 49mm cooler -->rad size matters<--

If u shop for a new 48mm/49mm cooler (like 80i) u can check if it has an 115x ring kit with the accessory pack

@Cass-Ole GREAT that you are pointing that out my old AIO Alienware radiator might not be up to par (in mounting, size, and cooling) with the newer and physically hotter 9th Gen Intel!!!  Now THAT'S what I'm here!!!  Good eye!!!  So, TY again!... And really appreciate all the moral support as well @Anonymous , and all who comment, Kudos, etc. ^5... Christmas time frame is when I'm looking to take the leap, so I have time to weigh all this out.  I'm definitely going to be trying to get more info before then and coming back here to get all of your input.  I love you peps and this community! ♥

One other pertinent info that needs to be addressed here and possibly needs feedback here... Because the Rog Gene mobo is so new and current, particularly being not even a year old & just this summer 2019 it's available in the US, and with it's own 2 Dual Dimms DC (Double Capacity) DDR4 Memory Cards, that only two manufacturers make this card, G.Skill & Zadak.  I can't seem to locate any of these currently available for purchase on Amazon or NewEgg, or any place else now?!  Which that alone scares me, because it should drive up the prices even higher than they already are and will be.  But secondly, I could and would like to simply equip some 2x8 for 16GB at the minimum, 1.) "to save money temporarily."  2.) Will help to wait until prices to drop.  3) I won't actually need all of that memory right away.  4.) This will be the simplest and easiest thing to both install and replace.  BUT, there is this compatibility issue that is completely unknown also here, so I'm unsure of IF I can go the 2x8=16GB route at all, because no one is mentioning that, and/ or there is no info out there on this whatsoever.  So, any thoughts on this as well will be greatly appreciated also.  Sooooo many things to think about!  My brain hurts!!!  LOL  Seriously.

*See the links above in my post before this one for more info.      

Can't relate to smashing toes into jacks but I step on lego and various wooden/ plastic blocks every other night. May I join the club? 

@Catpsyche / @Cass-Ole , I'd like to add that the stock R8 120mm AIO is also limited even when paired with a 6-core 9600K. So yeah, at least > 40mm thickness or 240mm length. I believe the R4 is a bigger chassis that could accommodate that.

I've seen a 240 go into R1-R4 a few times (photos), only if the top comes off, the inside is re-done (to drop mthrbrd) or plumb it into the floor (= ... otherwise, without mods, a 120x49 is as good as it gets

below's a pic I had saved of Maximus VIII Gene 6700k during setup

Since you have a quad 3820, here's a head-to-head from last week ... where even a Ryzen 5 turns things into a blood bath > Sandy Bridge 3960X vs Today's Six-Core / 12 Thread AMD/Intel CPUs

Yeah, please do post a link to build log if possible.

Just came back from looking at case mod **bleep** at overclock forum. 

@ 630 > I can't see your pic yet, I assume you mean the wet boy in photo #3 (white interior?), if so it's an old build seen on LTT, almost all pic-links are broken now

Top (blk interior) was seen on eBay, middle (red interior) was by Justin (DugiHowser) who'd modded the white interior one above & had sold it to the guy. Bottom pic w/ 6700k Gene was sent to me in a PM but I never saw the finished build

My R4 is still original except for Seasonic 1000w platinum + custom sleeved cables

STS, a Texas surplus vendor bought ~40 R4's from Dell's RoundRock HQ years back & listed on eBay, I got my ALX Aug 2014 as a bare case ($130) + Ivy mthrbrd / 38mm cooler (125) + Radeon 290x (230), I put in a new 4820k CPU + memory / SSD from Micro Center, cost at time was ~$950 to get it running. Only future plan is try out a used 4930k or 4960x soon. It hasn't seen much use the past 5years, sits under a drape mostly (my 51s get the most use)

R4 side panels are dull matte black, so I picked up complete sets of R1 Cosmic Black & Lunar Shadow panels, they're semi-gloss (painted) so I took polishing compound & wax to those, buffed out a hi-gloss mirror finish

I also have a full panel suite of the optional R3 Chrome set (metallic paint), like below

This way my R4 can costume change into 4 different looks

I banged out the Seasonic cable set ~6 months ago, materials are Lutro0 MainFrame paracord / 16awg thin-jacket wire / gold tips / empty connectors; black accent sleeves are left-overs from a Cablemod set (strip off sleeves from their 18/20awg & re-use). 24pin is sized down to 21" (from 24), GRFX are 12" each (from 24), CPU is 28" (up from 24), SATA-Molex are close replicas of original cables. The far side cover's off to show I'd sleeved up the various misc. case wires; also added 100mm top fans. It's been a fun desktop to own, & still snappy