The ALX Files: Goddess Like Gaming with MSI x99a 6850k

It's Alive ! (said in my best Dr. Frankenstein voice). 

- more motherboard & power supply swap info can be found below -

• Area-51 Asus x99 https://web.archive.org/web/20151223002656/http://commweb-ps3.us.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19611899
• The ALX-Files: Area-51 R1 Mthrbrd Swap Asus 4770k USB3.0 CmndCntr 2.08.11
• Area-51 R1 Skylake Motherboard / EVGA 1600 P2 Power Supply Swap >< Paso's PDF Swap File
• Area-51 ALX: the Alien Transplant >< Winter's PDF Swap File
• The ALX-Files: On a Practical Approach to the Area-51 R1 Aurora Power Supply Swap
• ALX Case Mod Project

Three years ago tonight, my Lunar-51 girl Alien, Lolita and I, we debuted here (The ALX-Files: ABOVE TOP SECRET: Uncovering Area-51's Biggest (& best kept) Secret of All) with a new AMD Asus Sabertooth motherboard + FX cpu, both of which were amazing & I say that because they never failed me, not once, not so much as a blue-screen, not one glitch; and while not the most powerful system here at Hangar 18, certainly the most reliable one I've ever had. I just parted ways with those & some other stuff to help make way for some new gear purchased at a discount

CPU & motherboard retailed new for $1150-$1200, I scored those on eBay as new unused items for $514, grabbed 16Gb of G.Skill DDR4 3600 from Newegg (overclocks to 3400 on mine) & a 'new open box' of white Bitfenix cables for $31. The rest of the parts that make up this system (hard drives, power supply, Grfx, cooler etc) are left overs from the last build. The best Grfx card I have here is a Radeon 290x that won't output to my new monitor for whatever reason (the 270x does, grrrr), so I hope to score us something better soon ... 1070Ti??? Regardless, in some ways this is a 'budget build', just a way to spruce things up around here > in the world of SkyLakeX and CovfefeLake, I had my reasons for going with an x99 setup (which I won't go into), & I'm happy with it which is what matters

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edit Nov 3: Revised CPU Bench Scores

6850k pegged a 14533 at stock settings in Win7 the day after delivery, so, it can huff n' puff a little anyways. After doing the registry hack tonight to unpark any parked cores (I forgot to check if the cores were parked > 1/2 were, due to default W7 settings), @stock settings (Bios Load Optimal Defaults + XMP memory overclock only) I joined the 15K Club on a re-run of the bench, scored a 15017 when G.Skill was @2933, brute forced its way to a 15251 when @3400 ... Happy Camper ... (14398 is the current PassMark average)

four cores @4.6 / two cores @ 4.7 / memory at 3400

three cores at 4.6 / three at 4.7 / memory at 3466 / GTX 560 weighing me down

Max overclock for this chip looks like it could hit 4.7jigahurts

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Tech Talk

1st things to note > this is an E-ATX extended mthrbrd & I needed to hand-make the AlienFx MIO daughterboard its own 10pin cable while other cables were modded or custom-sized; to make room for the E-ATX board, the black snap-lok cable organizer was moved over & a new screw + washer were needed to secure it (the old screws do not work in the new hole, a single screw with a finer thread was used), while underneath the snaplok I put a long strip of adhesive cushion to stabilize it. More cushion was used on the outer edge of the motherboard tray (by the 24pin edge) to stop flex on the edges, like when pushing the 24pin in

Last, the front panel harness (pwr on, pwr on LED, HDD LED) was a 1/2" short of reaching the header; I either could've re-routed the harness inside the case or gotten an extension > one way is to buy an extension, here I made my own. The old X58 alienboard is made by MSI, therefore the front panel header wiring (using the 5x5 Dupont USB-type connector) is plug and play, identical headers. Some mthrbrds that use a different front panel connecting scheme would need rewired and/or use a 10x10 Dupont. Other methods are pre-made 'front panel extension harnesses', nearly identical to what I made here

My case is setup with a pair of top external USB3.0 ports, a mod I perfected 2years ago > simply replace two of the three 2.0 ports with 3.0 ports, using a 27" 3.0 cable:

• this motherboard has a pair of USB 2.0 headers, therefore my remaining top 2.0 port and the MIO board's 2.0 harness connectors plug in there
• the old 1394 and E-SATA cables get buried in the case unused

The CPU cooler is the 'Aurora R4 Premium' by Asetek, also known as 01YGW. It's 38mm wide and I'm usin a 32mm wide x 120mm 1Amp CoolJag PWM fan. The Aurora 7pin Molex SL power connector was removed and replaced with the A51 5pin connector

and I've inserted a 12volt red LED to make the Alienhead glow > LED 12v / ground are taken from unused 5pin GPU port in the top left powerboard, next to the 5pin pump connector

The top 120mm white case fans housed in the roof caddy are 25mm, both have fan grilles (one kept off for the photo shoot) and both are screwed into 38mm x 120mm 'spacers' so they drop down > I took a Dremel tool to a pair of old 38x120 fans ie removed the fan blades/motors, turned the square fan body into spacers so the fans can level out with the radiator

All three 120 fans in the caddy are exhausting out; I've turned the 92mm rear fan around as an intake, blowing air into the case. On the outside of that fan I'm using a dust filter ie 'a fine screen'. Beneath the Grfx card I'm using a basic PCI-slot blower fan

As with the original X58 setup, the MIO board has a 4pin CPU_Fan cable which plugs into the mthrbrd CPU_Fan header > the radiator fan plugs into the top left powerboard as normal, CPU cooling is overseen by AlienFx CmndCntr as normal, however, the MSI Bios and MSI CmndCntr both allow manual CPU fan speed control (profiles or manual curves)

Since that just about covers it, last I'll talk about the aftermarket power supply case harness cables

Obviously, just about the whole case must be disassembled in order to remove the old harness and install the new one > if you're doing a cpu cooler swap, depending on what type or size it is, sometimes it's best to leave the caddy alone & remove the whole top Activent assembly, and attach radiator + fan that way, then reinstall Activent > if you're doing a USB3.0 upgrade, then the front panel bezel needs to come off also

If you just need a spring cleaning, then it's best to disassemble everything & do some case dusting plus a wipe down, which is what I did to prep for the white cables, which were chosen because they compliment the other white treatments in the case, namely the top caddy bar, dvd and PCI shroud clasp

Power Supply Cables are by BitFenix & use 16gauge wire in places like 24pin, CPU 8pin, Grfx. They started out as 'Corsair' cables which I thoroughly modified to adapt to the Nzxt Hale90 1200watt front panel with its different connectors & different pin wiring assignments scheme

Main SATA DVD & Molex Peripheral cables are factory

CPU 8pin is factory = these CPU cables are 26.25", the 8pin barely reached but does reach - if it hadn't - my choices were to re-route inside the case (as happened with the CPU 4pin), or, buy / use a 16gauge 8pin extension (here I would make my own extension)

CPU 4pin (was an 8pin) > this 'extra' 4pin CPU cable is for XXXtreme overclocking > you get x2 CPU cables in the box, I de-pinned one of them, removed 4wires & reduced it to a 4pin > If you don't know how to remove power supply pins from a connector, 8pin CPU cables typically come as a 4+4 (a pair of 4pin ends that can combine into a solid 8 or detach into x2 4pins), therefore you would use one 4pin and lay the other 4pin to the side

As far as aftermarket power supplies go, depending on who makes it, you will typically get a 24, 26, 28 or even 30" cable. 24" CPU cables tend to need an extension. My 26" Bitfenix & 26" Seasonic / XFX cables do reach. All of this of course depends on where on the mthrbrd the 8pin port is at ... routing inside the case, or, routing behind the mthrbrd (as I did) and using an extension are two methods for dealing with short cables. Placing the CPU cooler in the middle might buy a smidge of room as well, as it did for me

x6 Hard Drive Bays SATA cables > I could've used (or modified) the factory x2 head or x4 headed SATA cables, instead I hand-made & custom-sized my own by plucking wire from 'unused cables' in the box. I'm using x3 cables with x2 SATA heads on each (as mimics the originals). Each cable is 20" long

14" pair of Grfx cables, 12" pair is in use

Grfx Cables > 12" + 14" Set > The original Grfx cables are 11" and 13", very short. BitFenix gives you x6 Grfx cables, each are 26" long, way too long. What I've done is cut a pair of 26" cables down into 12" and 14" halves which gives me x4 cables, or, a pair of 12s and 14s. From there, I have to rebuild the ends by crimping on new PSU pins and PCI-E connectors. No one does triple Grfx anymore so I only needed to make two sets (burn two 26" cables in half), not three sets as I used to make

24Pin ATX > BitFenix places a pair of 24pin cables in the box (one is a 24-wire Corsair Type 3, the other is a 27-wire Type 4) > Type 3 gets a 3.3v sense-wire / Type 4 gets 3.3 5 12 Ground sense wires > my Nzxt is setup with a 3.3 5 12 front panel sense connector (Molex SL 3pin), therefore, I've used the Type4 cable (& removed the ground sense wire)

The modular end of the Type4 cable branches into a 10pin and an 18pin, so I removed those. Nzxt uses a solid 24pin, so I basically re-arranged all the ATX wires into the correct slots of the solid 24pin (and separated the x3 sense wires into their own 4pin connector); from there, I hand-made a 3pin Molex SL which adapts to a 4pin Male connector, and used white 22gauge wire for them. Okay?

above: x3 22g sense wires couple into a 4pin male/female > to sleeved 20g

above: screen is used to catch screws from falling into the PSU fan

As an upgrade, I crimped & soldered 4 premium gold 16gauge Molex pins onto both 12volt wire's ends

5vSB Jumper Connetor

5Volts Stand-By Wire > the MIO board is factory-wired to have 5VSB power as does the mthrbrd > the original power supplies jump the purple 5VSB wire to both the MIO & the mthrbrd, inside the 66pin bulk connector (ie where your original case harness plugs into the PSU). Therefore I've reproduced this jump, ie MIo will grab 5VSB from the power supply front panel, in the 24pin. To do this, I re-create what the factory did & put a short jumper wire onto the main 5VSB pin, and place a 2pin Male connector on it > now it can feed 5VSB power to the MIO board, who will have its own 2pin Female with which to connect to

MIO 10pin Cable > I managed to scrounge up x9 16gauge wires, about 6.5" long (remember the x4 CPU 8pin wires I removed?, in order to make my CPU 4pin?, that became my spare 16gauge wire for MIO, ie x1 26" wire can become x4 6.5" wires). After cutting, any wire without pins, I had to place my own pins on the ends. The MIO cable is straight-forward: x9 wires need to grab 3.3 5 12 Ground, and the 5VSB wire needs to have a 2pin on it in order to mate with the

24pin ATX 5VSB 2pin jumper I made

Basically, since I already know what voltage types are on the entire Nzxt front panel - all of the pins are identified - the PSU end of the MIO cable has to be pinned out correctly (each wire pin has to be in the correct slot of the connector). Next, the MIO end of the cable, each wire pin has to match up with the 10pin Reference Photo. 10pin needs

• x3 12volts, x4 Ground, 3.3v, 5v, 5VSB
• x3 12v + x3 ground will be grabbed from CPU 8pin port #2
• 3.3V, Ground, 5v will be grabbed from a SATA 5pin
• 5VSB routes to the 24pin (using a 2pin male/female break-away)
• easy

again, the cables go nice with the white plastic case treatments

Iron Maiden | Hallowed Be Thy Name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51LPlP-s9o

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Round Two: Purple Passion

New Corsair SP120 Prpl 120 top fans, they need some accent wires now huh?

yep, revamped my Goddess with Royal Purple from Enhanced Customs

- at times the camera doesn't do the fan LEDs or sleeve any justice -

in person, it's breathtaking, trust me

(5volts Stand By jumper 2pin for MIO pin #5)

the x6 Hard Drive Bays harness pair weren't photo'd but are in there somewhere

each HDD cable is 16gauge wire with x3 SATA heads per cable

it looks amazing up in here

wow, I know right?

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Godlike Gaming: Thunder from Down Under

Oh, about Summer of last year I helped my friend & fellow forum member AVictorD out with his custom A-51, by cutting out the window & supplying the hand-made MIO cable for the PSU swap. He sent me some pics which he's never published, that I'd like to debut along with my own build > it's because of Vic's beasty that I decided to go with this exact MSI mthrbrd (I was jealous, lol). Now Vic can see my build pics ... ... ... I'll load these without comment, other than last time I checked in on him, he was using a Xeon, 01YGW cooler, Corsair DDR4 + Titan Grfx paired to Corsair ax1200i powa supply ... see if you can spot all the cool stuff he did ...

I coulda put my mthrbrd into a black case here insteada Lolita, but, Vic's already shown us how to dress up for that party ...

- Back in Black -

=

- Black Angus -

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Cheers Vic