you could but the R6 proprietary power button would need to be rewired to turn on new board.

also the case LED will likely be all OFF since they were designed to work with R5 LED controller header only.

R6 case is not great for cooling open air type gpu.  Blower type is better suited.

It makes absolutely no sense to purchase a new motherboard, new processor, new power supply, and jam it all into a poorly designed, poorly engineered case like the Aurora R6. That air flow stifling swingout PSU contraption is the worst thing that ever happened to Alienware. You can buy a better case than the Aurora Series for $39.99 . I would recommend spending more than that to make it worth your efforts, but a new case will be less expensive than your new mobo, CPU, or PSU, and should provide much better air flow to all of those components . . . plus get you away from the aforementioned Dell proprietary nonsense.

I agree with the professor, and would even go a step further: do not skimp out on the case, select a good one.

There are review sites out there for cases, to make an informed decision. Spending $100 or more on a case might sound like a lot, but a good case makes all the difference to your component selection and in many cases to your hands and fingers.

Good cases are easy to build in, and don't have any sharp edges to cut yourself on, good airflow, lot's of room for components, meet regular ATX standards, decent silent fans, fan controllers etc...

I use a Lian Li Lancool II mesh performance black, best case I ever worked with. Review 

This might look initially a bit over the top, but I can assure you it's super easy to work with and looks amazing.

Re: I’m sure “everyone” is tired of this question but I am struggling to figure it out on my own. 

you seem to know the response you will get already. If you really like to keep the R5 case and are willing to give up on the alien LED light of side panel/power button, and do some work to rewire power switch then yes.  It is your project and you can do whatever you like.  Some call it retro pc hobby. In 2023, R5-8 case is going to join the retro Dell case line soon.  It is not as straightforward as R1-4 case, but still possible. 

The Lian Li lineup of cases is one of the most popular for water cooling because of the well engineered design and the reasons you mentioned.

To this point, while I said up-thread that "it makes absolutely no sense", I will call myself out for hypocrisy because it makes absolutely no sense to spend $10K for and Area-51 R5 . . . but here we are

I see a dust bunny!

I should have kept reading lol Alright, this will be my case then. Ordered

I mean I’ve been playing on my R5 for a long time with no heat problems but I’ll take your word for it and if you recommended a case I can convert everything to I’d appreciate it. 

I don’t though. I understand a mot of the hardware and I’m sure I can figure out how to rewire things simple as lights to make then compatible but I don’t have a clue what cpu gpu and motherboards are compatible. I know DDR4 and DDR5 are different ram sockets and that there are fittings each motherboard has for certain types of processors. I don’t care much about the aurura case or lights, but I’d like to know things like what all that came in the R5 is compatible if I were to put in a motherboard that supports a AMD Ryzen 5 7600X what else do I need to upgrade other than the power supply and case.