Moving Alienware X51 to new case

[alexnaut]

i'm in the process of moving my alienware x51 to a new bigger case, with a better psu and gpu, and the case i bought has led's and i don't know where to plug them or the power/reset switch in the motherboard.
Also would like to know if i'll still get wifi

 

[Math Geek]

where to plug them in depends on your motherboard. a lot of the dell (alienware is now owned by dell) higher end pc's i have seen use a weird floppy connector to connect the power switch and the front ports. if yours is the same, you won't be able to plug in the power switch to your new case since there will be no pins for it.

i can't find a pic of the mobo so can't be sure if this is the case or not. can you post a model number for the mob?

 

[alexnaut]

where would i find the model number?
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviewimages/alienware-x51-desktop/alienware-x51-desktop_inside.jpg
this is the exact same way my pc was set up

 

[Math Geek]

It'll be on the mobo somewhere. Usually around the edges. Should be a brand name followed by a model number. Might not be a brand you recognize but it'll be there

 

[alexnaut]

did some searching, closest i could find is "Alienware 06G6JW"

 

[Math Geek]

man was that an adventure. you got the mobo model right but it still took me a long bit of searching to find what i was looking for.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN150689/en

these series of pictures tells me what i thought was true. your front i/o slots including the power switch ran through a board that connects to the mobo through a usb header. there is no actual power switch pins on the mobo itself. to make it work you'll need to somehow mount the i/o panel from the x51 case into your new case and connect it through the usb header like it was. more than likely you have the room to tuck it into a 3.5 inch drive bay or into the internal hdd rack to get it out of the way. can plug in the new case's front usb and audio ports to it as well just like the original case so you can still use them since the only usb header will be taken up.

 

[alexnaut]

thanks alot for the help! i have been without my desktop or almost a week now, feels good to have it back
While i managed to get everything working it seems like i dont have wifi.
will i need to be wired in all the time? or will i have to buy a usb wifi adapter?

 

[Math Geek]

if i recall isn't the wifi built into the mobo or was an add-on chip used? you should still be able to use it so long as it's hooked up right. should have been an antenna of some kind to help with the signal. that teardown page i linked to should help you see how it was connected and help get it back together.

if it won't work the good news is a new one with bluetooth and such built in are pretty cheap and can be had for less than $20.

as a side note, now you can see why folks here are usually so hateful toward eom cases. dell is the worst but these kind of weird issues exist because for some reason the oem's can't figure out the 2 wire power switch that EVERY case maker/mobo maker in the world uses. they have to go out of their way and have special mobo's made just to be a pain in the ass to upgrade.

 

[EmperorDragon]

I thought I'd update this thread as I've been asked about this as well recently.

You do not need the two smaller PCBs in the X-51 setup, just grab the main board and you're good to go. You can simply treat it as a standard ATX board, everything goes in the same places.

Any new case's standard 2-pin power switch can be connected to the X-51 motherboard, the pins are below the SATA ports, in line with the PCI slot. The power switch, HDD LED, power LED etc. pins are also colour-coded just like your standard ATX boards. I haven't tested the LEDs yet since the X-51 has everything attached on-board, I just connected the power switch.

I built my X-51 R2 components over into a new case some time ago, the only problem I get is that the PC does not detect a power sensor on startup since power sensors are all on the X-51 case's internal PSU. The X-51 does have some built-in features that won't work on a new case, like the AlienFusion setup as well for example (depends on the new case, PSU and personal modification, really). Apart from that, it works just like a normal PC, with lots of ventilation and expansion space. I simply got a plain old Astrum GameDemon case for 20 quid, nothing fancy, and just grabbed a 550W PSU lying around in my apartment.

As for WIFI, just mount the antenna wires somewhere unobstructed in the case, I mounted them on the front of the case above the DVD drive, underneath the front cover and all works well.

Here's a quick diagram I made to show the basics:

 

[jimanth]

not to beat a dead thread, but, thanks for the diagram, just did the same, wanted to add, if you go in bios and turn off error reporting you can boot without the power sensor hit f1 to continue error as well