Aurora R8, Case Swap *COMPLETED*

Ok, thanks for that information.  So not done yet for a successful case swap.

So there are two errors that need to be sorted out. 

I thought that might be the case when I did that write up about a year ago on doing that potential R7/R8 case swap.  Those were the two errors that were expected that would need to be addressed for a successful case swap.

1) USB IO error:  fixed with workaround bringing IO unit into case or jumpers + USB PCI-E card.

2) Front panel power error, even with the + and - for the new case power switch working:  Not solved

@HanoverB 

Yes if the Dell front IO or the Dell Power Connector isn't plugged in, it results in a boot-up error. Both would need to be plugged into the motherboard to boot up without any errors. Along with the TOP and FRONT fans.

Using the case power switch will always give a bootup error as well whether the front IO is plugged in or not.

@HanoverB 

Well to me it was successful in terms of moving the motherboard to a new case. But maybe to address your theory

• Can it boot up without any errors? Yes but requires OEM front IO and power connector to be plugged in. You'd also lose the front USB ports if the case has a USB header plug for it.
• Can it boot up with the case power switch? Yes but an error will occur at bootup. And for the R8, must be plugged into the 4th and 5th pin slot.
• Can it boot up with the case power switch and without any errors? No

Now the theory is that if we want to go through all the trouble and get the last question to a "Yes", the answer to that question is the BIOS does require the Alienware LED board. This is also due to the fact that the case LED's aren't plugged in so another piece that's missing. If I had the time to splice off the thing and get it properly aligned, I would. But the bare minimum per se is that we can avoid the necessities and live with the error unless the BIOs can be hacked to get rid of any bootup errors at all costs.

But I appreciate you looking into this. The time/effort for a case swap is only worth it if you put everything together correctly. If it was more difficult per se, I'd probably go out and buy a new motherboard which wouldn't be a case swap anymore.

@HanoverB

Good thoughts. I've only built one custom PC before and got an R8 for a very good price. I had the NZXT case laying around and didn't know how it would fit or whether it could transfer. By stumbling on the Reddit post, I decided to give it a try. I will say if you want to spend the least amount of time possible, it's all about knowing how to take the stuff out (which was the hardest) and having excellent cable management on the new case. Taking it all off probably took a good couple of hours and putting it together could take another couple hours.

Was it worth it? Maybe. My system came with an i7 9700 + RTX 2060 so it's hard to say how long I'll be keeping it. The advantage of keeping the motherboard is you don't have to reinstall windows (my config also included reusing the NVME drive) and that the IO has 9 USBS which is more than some standard motherboards.

For anyone else that is thinking about doing it, I can only comment that I wish I had a better case to do it in as the NZXT S340 is a bit outdated. Something like the Lian Li Lancool II has some really cool features such as your drives behind the motherboard and magnetic doors to open up the case. But any Mid/Full Tower case that has good airflow should do.

@Gysper 

Thanks for taking it this far.  You've helped a lot.

This type of endeavor is only time consuming for the first person trying to accomplish it.  Once it’s figured out the next person should find it easier.  You've helped in this respect.

The challenge lies in being able to mod a machine to do something that others said couldn’t be done or to make it do better. More often, the mods are done out of necessity because the machine doesn’t do what you want it to do or does it poorly.  These Dell boards are full of that type of case mods.

Others like @Anonymous  take his Dell case mods to a next level.   It took him hours and hours of careful planning to do.  Totally insane.  But the end results were rewarding and he did it for the fun of it.  Following his detailed instructions, the next person can accomplish what he did in a shorter amount of time. 

A full case swap is easy once some basics are understood.  First timers can do it successfully given direction.  It should take around an hour to do the XPS 8930 case swap and have a machine that is perfectly functional without any BIOS errors.  Even less time for the XPS 8910/8920.  The instructions on how to do it is there. It should take you about that same amount of time to do an Alienware R8 case swap because you’ve done it already.   Then it is just depends on how far one wants to go with a modded machine in surpassing the one it is replacing like @Anonymous builds, the mad modders here or the various case swaps of the XPS 8930 into the Phanteks, Fractal, NZXT, Antec and Corsair cases.

It’s fine to leave your machine the way it is, it is functional and accomplishes what you want it to do.   You documented that case swap and the details of what the problems you encountered are.  That is invaluable.  Good work!

The next step would be to see what it would take to get rid of all the BIOS errors so the next person thinking of doing the case swap can make an informed decision on the effort required to do so and what it would entail.  

Someone will take this challenge on eventually and hopefully manage a swap that is error free.

I was having issues with my new R11 (still going on) and was considering a case swap. How ever when told you mid as well buy a new MB it would make things easier. We I started down that road, once the MB was purchased I simply kept buying parts lol. ended up with a pretty nice PC and adding a new GPU once I can get ahold of a 3080.  You talking about the Lian Li Lancool II sparked my post.. I am still dealing with Dell on the R11 with no luck as of yet. It simply wont run Photoshop and FPS drops hard in games. Any way here is a few images of the build.

Just around two grand with out GPU and this thing is benching better then my R11 or my R8 

Lian Li LAN2MRW LANCOOL II MESH RGB (White)

ASUS Prime Z490-A LGA 1200 (Intel 10th Gen)

Intel - Core i7-10700K 10th Generation

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti from My R11

Corsair Hydro Series, H100i RGB Platinum SE, 240mm

Corsair LL Series, LL120 RGB, 120mm RGB LED Fan, Single Pack- White

Lian Li LANCOOL II-4X 3.1 Type C Cable for for LANCOOL II

Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB - M.2 NVMe

Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW) 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3200

Asiahorse Customization Mod Sleeve Extension (White)

Just a quick update: I actually managed to snag an NZXT H510i case and completed a case swap for it. The irony was when swapping the case, I ran into an issue where the PC would shut down immediately. Had to replace the CMOS battery but here's a picture of it. The H510i uses steel and tempered glass and the drives are mounted to the back. Overall, it would be another good case I'd recommend if you're considering a case swap.

@Anonymous 

Corsair RM850x

@Anonymous Looks like it's a clip to secure the wifi module cable. The card is actually an RTX 2060 but the plan is to upgrade to the 3xxx series.

@Anonymous My brother who has an RTX 3080 did a test fit and it fits nicely with about 1-2 inches of wiggle room. May have to swap the front radiator to the top but a 3070 is the preferred card. 

@Anonymous 

Well to answer the question:

Snagged a 3070 ASUS Tuf and it fits into the case with room to spare. Also here's a size comparison between the old and new one:

@Anonymous Temps are fine, especially with a larger that has exhaust fans. I'm not sure if the original Alienware case would suffice but happy that the card actually fitted. I believe if anyone wanted to put it inside their Alienware's, better to get the two-fan versions of the card. The Zotac 3070 Twin Edge is probably the smallest of the 3070's while the 3080 FE (saw someone post one) can work too but is currently impossible to get.

@Anonymous I thought about this and when I watched a couple of builds on Youtube, all of the front-mounted radiators actually had the tubes at the top. I then realized since the 3070 is much longer, the tubes probably wouldn't have enough room to sit at the bottom without hitting the card.

Nevertheless, the temps are fine and the CPU idles at 30 C. This is actually a huge difference when I had it inside the old Alienware case where it was idling between 35-40 C. I'm sure someone with a better case will have a better solution if they decided to keep all of the OEM stuff, but the moral of this whole post was to show users that a case swap is possible as long as you know some of the limitations (old vs new PSU, using an H60 AIO, power switch, etc)