Aurora ALX upgrades - your help please

For a one monitor setup what you have now is pretty solid for most games/applications. Of course upgrades would make it better. I would go with the SSD for the first upgrade :). thats MY 2 cents.

How about going 3D by changing to NVidia SLI gtx graphics cards and getting NVidia 3D Vision- a whole new experience in gaming!!

I would be worried about excessive overclocking:

1.  Will Dell honor the warranty of components overclocked?  Dell will probably be OK if overclocked using the BIOS but otherwise?!!

2. If nothing else, excess overclocking will wear out components quicker.

I too am waiting delivery of my ALX, due on Friday: i7 920, 6gb 1333 ram, 500gb hard drive, sound card, W7 prof.

I have bought 2 GTX460 cards for it for 3D gaming.

I bought it on the UK Outlet shop for under £800 ( US$1200).

I normally build my own gaming PCs but components are getting expensive in the UK, so this represented better value.

We in the UK still have the same problem with the outlet shop since it was changed: not enough information on the systems- in ALL cases none on the systems specs show the graphics cards included, and in some cases not even the processor!!!  I contacted Dell but they are not interested!!  Perhaps they do not want to sell any Outlet stock!  So I do not know what graphic card(s) I am getting but as I am getting the sound card upgrade, its going to have low grade GPUs.  I'll sell any unwanted components on ebay!

The new 69xx cards from ATi support 3D too so you know! :)

Also you can overclock past the BIOS and it should still be under warranty. A lot of people on this forum do it.

And yes for that price they probably wont be the best GPUs.

I have overclocked GPUs but not other components yet. It seems more complicated when you have to adjust voltages etc.

I wonder how, say Dell in our case, would know whether a component had been overclocked!  I suppose before any engineer arrived, one would have to rest the clocks!

I do not think the ATI cards will work with NVidia 3D Vision.  The 3D vision kit includes 3D glasses and needs high spec NVidia GPUs.  I prefer ATI but NVidia 3D is amazing- playing games in 3D is a whole new experience not to be missed.  Unfortunately, you need about twice as much GPU power to play 3D compared to 2D otherwise the frame rate etc is bad.

Thanks for the suggestions. The 3D gaming is a good idea, but a couple high end Nvidia cards certainly blows my budget right now. Perhaps I'll see if Santa will bring me them later this year :-)

I have a question about the HD 6870's. I have checked around Tom's HW and various sites looking at the reviews, and while this card seems to be OK, it seems to be outperformed by some 5000 series cards which is a bit confusing for me. I understand the nVidea line better as to what card is better than the others, and the PhysX component seems to make a huge difference in benchmarks so I want to go nVidia if it makes sense

To get to my question - would I be better off performance/cost wise to:

1. add a second 6870 in Crossfire (around $260 CDN)

2. switch to a single 5000 series card like the HD 5870

3. switch to a single nVidia card like a GTX 460 or something like that

The price range of under $300 is probably the best I can do right now

I really appreciate everyone's opinions and ideas, as there is so much experience on this board.

The second 6870 is your best option. 

Your 6870 now is better than a 460.

6870s when they first launched performed slightly under the 5870. Now with newer drivers they are beating them in a lot of benchmarks.

1. Both 6870's, or just 6000 series, or mix of 6000 and 5000, etc = Getting another 6870 is the best way to go. Both cards need to be the same and it's cheaper since you got one. You will need to buy a crossfire bridge.

2. Same amount of memory? For gaming the speed of the memory means more then the amount of memory.

3. Same manufacturer? The systems come with stock reference cards so when you buy another ether buy it from Dell or find one that is stock. Needs to be the same speed as the one that comes with the system. If not the faster card will clock down to the speed of the slower card.  Will still work ether way. If you decide to get it from Dell call them because most of the time they don't list the reference cards on the site but they do have them. It will also fall under your warranty if you go this way so if you call support or have any issue with it they will cover it.  Make sure you have them update your system info after adding the 2nd card and make sure they know you bought a refrence card from them and not from some other store.

4. Do they overclock together, or separately? Together.

I think i've decided on dual video cards. Reviews are pretty good for the 6870 card in Crossfire, good price for me, and really I just can't afford to jump to nvidia at this time.

On the DELL site, they only have the VisionTek 6870 offered, so I am assuming that's what will come in the Aurora ALX that I have on the way.  I cant find anything on the Alienware site on what manufacturer they use - probably change it up now and again i suspect.

Does anyone know what manufacturer DELL uses for the HD 6870 cards - did anyone recently get an Aurora ALX and can comment?

Another question. To setup two cards in CrossFire, what is the requirement for each board for Crossfire to be successful ?

1. Both 6870's, or just 6000 series, or mix of 6000 and 5000, etc

2. Same amount of memory?

3. Same manufacturer?

4. Do they overclock together, or separately?

If anyone has a link with more info on it, I would be grateful to learn more.

Thanks

Thanks for the info Morblore. That's a great point re: warranty. Never would have thought of that.

What does 'stock reference card' mean?

Thanks for the info Morblore. That's a great point re: warranty. Never would have thought of that.   What does 'stock reference card' mean?

It means it will have the stock specs that ATI designed for it and will not have a brand name. Some makers will overclock them or change the fan design and so on. These will be OEM cards. I don't know who makes the 6870 for Dell. It could be many difeferent companies or even ATI. Maybe somebody here knows.

Hi

I received my Aurora ALX last week, and decided to upgrade to SLI GTX 460 ( for 3D gaming ) ( single ATI card came with PC ).

I bought 2 cards exactly the same and a SLI bridge.  Both work fine individually.

I set them up in SLI but find the computer crashes when I play games- funny noise from sound and the PC closes down.  I am not sure if its the PSU, motherboard or the cards.  No blue screen, but both cards, especially the top one, VERY hot.  When I take one out, PC is fine.

I think myself that there is not enough airflow for the cards- the top card's fan is right on top of the top of the other with just a few MM gap.  And then the bottom card's fan is over the wiring at the bottom of the enclosure.  I can not see how they can keep cool in such a confined space! 

When I bought the PC Dell told me that the 850 PSU would be fine and GTX460s in SLI would be no problem!

I think my best bet is to return the PC

I contacted Dell and they have agreed for me to return the PC for full refund.

However, not without a fight- be warned- I ordered it online as an individual consumer customer but asked for delivery to my company, and not known to me, they processed the order as a business order with different terms and conditions so they said I was not entitled to return it within 7 days!  Luckily the invoice was in my personal name and the terms and conditions on the back of the invoice were for a consumer.

I think I would be better off with an Aurora Area 51 or better still, build one!

Hi   I received my Aurora ALX last week, and decided to upgrade to SLI GTX 460 ( for 3D gaming ) ( single ATI card came with PC ).   I bought 2 cards exactly the same and a SLI bridge.  Both work fine individually.   I set them up in SLI but find the computer crashes when I play games- funny noise from sound and the PC closes down.  I am not sure if its the PSU, motherboard or the cards.  No blue screen, but both cards, especially the top one, VERY hot.  When I take one out, PC is fine.   I think myself that there is not enough airflow for the cards- the top card's fan is right on top of the top of the other with just a few MM gap.  And then the bottom card's fan is over the wiring at the bottom of the enclosure.  I can not see how they can keep cool in such a confined space!    When I bought the PC Dell told me that the 850 PSU would be fine and GTX460s in SLI would be no problem!   I think my best bet is to return the PC

I bet its a driver issue. You need to ether reinstall windows or:

1) Download Driver Sweeper..it's free

2) Uninstall the Nvidia drivers from Device Manager. Check the box to remove the driver when doing this.

3) Check program files and make sure there is no Nvidia folder in it ( or ATI since it had that) if you see it delete it.

4) Boot into safe mode. Do this by going to Start,Run, Type in MSCONFIG. Boot Tab and then check the Safe boot box.

5) Reboot into Safe Mood

6) Run Driver Sweeper and check the box for Nvidia. Do this for ATI too just to be safe. You may want to repeat this step to be sure everything is gone.

7) Uncheck the Safe Boot box and SHUTDOWN the PC.

8) Remove the bottom Nvidia card.

9) Boot the PC and let Windows install the display adapter. Reboot.

10) Install the latest Nvidia driver. Reboot.

11) After you are back on your desktop SHUTDOWN the pc.

12) Put 2nd Nvidia GPU back into system and boot back up.

13) Let windows install the 2nd card and rebot again.

14) Turn on SLI in control panel.

15) Profit

I myself would just reinstal windows. It will remove the crap Dell and ATI installed and then you can redo the drivers and KNOW you have the latest ones.

I contacted Dell and they have agreed for me to return the PC for full refund.   However, not without a fight- be warned- I ordered it online as an individual consumer customer but asked for delivery to my company, and not known to me, they processed the order as a business order with different terms and conditions so they said I was not entitled to return it within 7 days!  Luckily the invoice was in my personal name and the terms and conditions on the back of the invoice were for a consumer.   I think I would be better off with an Aurora Area 51 or better still, build one!

The Area 51 is a full tower so you get a lot more room to do things like 3-way SLI or USB/SATA 3 expansion cards. But keep in mind it's huge. Mine came to me at 109 pounds! Since then its gained a few more lol.

I myself would and did go with the 3-way sli since I do use that. USB 3.0 is kinda worthless since nothing really uses it and SATA 3 is only good if you plan to RAID-0 with 3 or more SSD's. All the expansion cards and motherboards with it only have two SATA 3 ports so you can't even do that.

I get great tech support. Most people do but since this is a support forum you only see the people that had issues or the trolls.

Their warranty has been GREAT for me.