[Irinikus]

I want to upgrade this system to be the maximum that it can be!



This is the CPU that I want to install:



This is the CPU cooler that I want to install:



The current BIOS revision on the Motherboard doesn't allow for me to fit such a CPU, as it's too old. 

The interesting thing here is that Alienware has kind of locked the BIOS, so that you can't simply update it with the latest version for the NForce 680i SLI BIOS.

To overcome this problem, I'm simply going to order in a new BIOS chip for the motherboard that has been flashed with the latest BIOS revision for the board:



Here's where the BIOS chip sits:



I will carry this upgrade out later next year!

[Gamefan]

Looking forward to seeing your progress on this one.

[Irinikus]

I've ordered the following upgrades for my Area 51 7500: (They're taking forever to get here!!!)

Ultra low latency DDR2 800 CL4-4-4-12



An Intel QX6850 (The best CPU that the EVGA nForce 680i SLI can take)



Thermaltake Pacific RL120 Custom Water Cooling Kit (As the Alienware area 51 7500 can only accommodate 120mm fans)



Once I have these items in my possession, I'll fit them into the machine and test to confirm that they all work.

I'll then completely disassemble the machine and send the inner, metal case off for powder coating (matte black), as this will make it look far better!

Once I reassemble everything I'll fit the Thermaltake liquid cooling system with hard tubing.

THEN THE TESTING CAN BEGIN!!!

[Shiunbird]

WinXP for games?

[Irinikus]

I'm going to be running windows 7 or 8.1 on the machine.

It currently has Windows 8.1 installed, but I'm going to do a reinstall once the Revodrive 3 X2 arrives.

The PCIe SSD should make a huge difference to the overall responsiveness of the machine!

[Irinikus]

Here are some pics of a Thermaltake Pacific RL120 Custom Water Cooling Kit (Besides providing cooling for the intended overclock, it will add a nice touch to the system!)

[Irinikus]

QX6850 slotted! (I'm currently running it with the standard cooler for now, just to test it)



The temp with the standard (crappy) cooler toped out @ 68C, while playing Crysis with very high settings. (I will only fit the liquid cooling loop once I've got all of the components for this system and tested them and powder coated the inner case!)

The RAID 0 will be fitted next, once I receive the SSD brackets and new (black) SATA cables. (I'm going to clone the current windows setup onto the RAID). Once this is done, the spinning rust will go!

This machine now renders test.blend in Blender 2.75a in 12.31 seconds, compared to the 27 seconds it took with the E6850, so the CPU is performing properly at its stock speed!

This is what the system looks like inside currently (Notice the interface card for the Quadro Plex in the slot where the GPU would usually sit!)



The missing PCIe blank is marking the place where the Fusion-io ioDrive2Duo 2.4TB MLC Flash SSD PCIe Accelerator Card will be fitted once I receive it! (Hopefully this card works!!!!)



Once I've tested all of the new components that I'll be fitting, it will be completely disassembled and the inner case will be powder coated matte black.

[Irinikus]

Here are some disk benchmarks showing the striped RAID 0 performance on the Alienware system: (Not as good as I'd hoped for, but better than spinning rust! Just remember that the base machine here was assembled in 2006!)



The CPU upgrade, together with the system disk upgrade have improved the systems Crysis performance, now I'm still waiting on the Ultra Low Latency DDR2 800 and the ioDrive, so lest see what benefits the next upgrades bring! (Crysis is now definitely running more fluidly on this setup!)



These are the settings I'm using:

[Irinikus]

I've just run an experiment, to see the yield that a 10% CPU overclock (multiplier set from 9 to 10) gives me, suing 3DMARK 6 as a measuring tool, as it's period correct performance measuring software (3DMARK VANTAGE also scaled in the same way.)

And it show that the systems performance pretty much scales perfectly! (Once I have the water cooling fitted, I hope to get it to the 4GHz range!)



Blender also confirms the 10% increase in performance (10.88 seconds): (The original render time, with the stock CPU clock, was 12.31 seconds.)

[Irinikus]

Today I went ahead and installed the liquid cooling loop (I just couldn't wait!)



I must admit that I was kind of apprehensive, when it came to filling the darn thing!



I'm now doing some testing: (The ambient temperature is rather high, as it's currently summer down here in Southern Africa!)