You can so still game on that thing too. Don't expect anything crazy, but I will say I'm in the middle of a RDR2 phase recently and I had to replace a 6800Xt with an rtx 3080 and I played through almost the entire game jumping between 720p and 900p (mostly 900p) to maintain a steady 60 fps average and used the HUB optimized settings and the game looked stellar, so you don't have to play every game at 1080p if you are okay with that, or you can play most at 1080p if you don't mind a below 60 fps average, and i was WAY above 30 at 1080p but I hate games even at 50 fps so 55 wasn't cutting it lol.
I have one that I've had for years with no problems at all. I did just upgrade it as a backup to my every day. With a new Graphics Card (GTX1060 6 GB), 16GB of RAM and an SSD to replace the old HDD. It still plays all the E-Sports games at 1080p. :) Mine has the i5 6400 cpu in it and a small air cooler. Running Cinebench multicore it maxes out on temp in the 50s. No thermal issues at all. But yeah, the brackets and stuff can be fidgety if you haven't watched some vids and worked on it a bit.
Constructive advice, not hating or anything. You might want to limit the assumptions a little. I get that it is a fun learning thing, but if you are going to keep giving advice, you should research it more. you are getting views, but not subs. theres a reason. I'm sure you'll grow and get a big audience, but right now you are losing your audience by second, triple, and just straight up guessing and not knowing. It is fine to not know something, but you gotta pick, You can be a discovery channel, or a educational channel. It is really hard to do both. just some friendly advice. You are on the right track. Just gotta decide what you want to be, then you'll get tons of followers
I'll try to keep that in mind in future videos My channel is actually growing though. When I started being more committed about 2 months ago I was at 380 subscribers and as of writing this I am at 546 That seems like pretty good growth to me
I finally retired my X51 R2 last summer of 2023. It had the original i7-4790 and its upgrades were 16GB DDR3 ram, a 2TB Samsung SSD and a PNY GTX 1660 Ti. I never realized how damn loud it was until I built my new PC in a proper Matx case. The X51 was a great PC that served me well for a little over 7 years. But I’ll never go back to a pre-built PC after finally building my own.
That's good it served you well and was reliable for so many years Yeah building a rig is so much better. You have full control over the quality of parts and can build a system tailored to your needs
Regarding that all-in-one liquid cooler, I can only echo Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. Their engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
Mine still works. Upgraded it with a 7700k and a 1070 (after removing the fan in the bottom.) Terrible for so many things but it did its job and played Skyrim, Fallout 4 and even beat Cyberpunk on it before I built my current system. It was a hot little thing but it never let me down except for the 2tb HDD failing after 5 years but that's not that odd. Fits in the footprint of a PS3 or so, only slightly bigger and had a tiny radial blower fan cooled radiator. Also the SSD shares the PCI-e slot with the GPU so there's that gen 3 bottleneck especially when you're playing open world games.
The CPU cooling on these computers is so terrible that they overheat and shut down when the thermal paste dries up, even just idling on the desktop. Which happens about once or twice a year. For $1,800 they sure didn't think that one through. The Shadow Rock LP cooler should be the first upgrade you do to a machine like this!
Yeah lots of proprietary stuff I put new thermal paste on the CPU and GPU Not sure what I plan to use the system for I'd like to put a low profile air cooler in it like the one you mentioned
@@anthonytech For sure, its cool when it starts taking off. Keep it up it will grow even more. On my channel i do less hands on like you and mainly do tutorials. I will keep on watching your content
1080Ti is a legend Back in the days when the top tier card looks like $700 Nowadays to talk to your card is around $2,000. It's crazy! I put together a parts list and for me to build a computer that's actually worth upgrading to is so expensive I'll hold on to mine a while longer
I would have tried to check the fluid on that cooling loop, it didn't show signs of leaking but I know coolant on cars go bad after some time so I wouldn't be surprised if there could be some degradation. Good call changing the thermal paste out on the card on CPU. Would have liked to see a Linux distro installed on the machine though
Yeah I thought it was a bit strange that it had a 970 because when I found the spec sheet on Dell's website there were one of three options for the GPU: GTX 745 GTX 960 R9 370 (I think)
@@anthonytech Well, it seems I may be wrong and Dell's as trustworthy as ever. I looked up second hand X51 R3s in my area and I found one with a 1070 installed. I asked the guy if it's an upgrade that he made and how it's running. He told me that's how he bought it and never opened the case for more than a dusting. I'm genuinely confused
Yeaahh it really does I've heard people who don't know much about computers get all excited and say "it has liquid cooling!" When I saw what a rinky-dink cooler it had I thought "this shouldn't be aloud to be called an AIO"
Hmm that's interesting Yeah I found a small PCB that have the power port on it for the power brick and then a cable ran off of it which was a 6-pin to power the motherboard
I could but really windows 11 isn't much different than 10 Plus it's kinda like why strip out TPM and CPU requirements when one of the focuses of Win11 is to be more secure Even though Microsoft says Windows 10 support ends in 2025 my bet is that they'll extend it for another year or two. A lot of devices are still running Windows 10
Thank you! I try to make videos that are entertaining and informative I also have greatly enjoyed responding to comments from people all over the world. So cool!
So my experience with my x51 was awful it got insanely hot and eventually ended up destroying my gpu cause of lack of airflow. It caused a ton of parts to overheat constantly shutting down was just a bad experience compared to my custom built i did myself its night and day.
Yeah you're exactly right there is not much room at all for airflow And when you're paying so much for a PC you want it to last and with a machine like the X51 that's just a big heat box, it's a huge question mark of how long it'll actually last
Personally these don't interest me in a daily use and I doubt anyone would really use them for that, but as a cheap Linux box maybe steam OS with a cheap AMD GPU upgrade sounds like a fun project.
Nope. Upgraded last year from a gtx 970 and a i7 920 to a 7900xt and a 7700x. The 970's 4 gigs of ram doesn't cut it anymore, not even on 1080p. Older titles, OK, but new AAA, no way. It now serves in my emulation rig.
I might have got my clips a bit out of order I shot 25 different clips Either way it needed a fresh install. If I work on a PC that has a windows install more than 2 years old I recommend to reinstall
Eeeh, 09:30 you shouldn't comment on things you obviously don't understand the first thing of, that CPU cooler has about maybe 6-8 times the surface area to dissipate heat from vs some low profile heatsink thing like you suggest. Dell/Alienware are not always making the most logical choices in some assemblies seen isolated from their context, but in this case there is nothing wrong with what they went with. Your suggested solution would have been 1000 times worse and non-functional as the CPU would have overheated along with all the rest of the components, since the hot air would have been dumped inside the case. Second - if you, like any thinking man would have, had taken a time to watch a few minute video on how to disassemble/open the case instead of ripping it open by force, you wouldn't have broken it. The design is not the problem, you are. If you had worked in a shop as a tech for me, the new case would be coming out of your salary, with the swap/reassembly done by another tech on your dime. Before you start thinking I'm some rando who knows nothing - I used to work as a PC repair tech in a shop, and yes I did end up paying for some bits in customer machines that broke because I did something wrong. LCD panel hinge cable assemblies in laptops to be specific, those are legit difficult to work on, unlike that plastic tab.
The cooler is still awful in terms of repairability. The problem is when it goes bad (and it will) you can't replace it with a standard component. I actually didn't "rip it off" that was your assumption. Once I realized I broke a tab I watched a video. You must've just overlooked the part where I said if it were a customers PC I would either knock a portion off the labor or compensate them in some way. If I make a mistake on a customers machine I let them know. I wouldn't want to work in your shop where you immediately jump to a condescending manner instead of actually trying to teach your techs.
@@anthonytech I'm not saying the cooler is an optimal solution if you have the freedom to adjust other parameters around it, any AIO with a bigger radiator would be better, but there is no space without adjusting the case volume and/or design substantially. Regarding the broken tab, the correct way to handle that in a shop setting is to replace the broken assembly without cost to the customer. In reality alternative solutions are often found for a number of reasons, no1 being cost, no2 time, no3 customer likely doesn't care that much or really understand. But the underlying fact is that the shell of that thing has a potential to cost quite a bit more than the labor you put into doing whatever it is you're doing in there, I think you can guess how I know this. Anyway, most of my critique is based on this coming across in the video as a very tiny issue while it is a major one if you're doing this work in a shop setting, because of the reasons I've already stated. I haven't worked as a tech in about 30yrs, I migrated to software development working as a full stack dev where I control all the aspects of the whole process of doing customer work from speccing it to final product delivery. That way I'm able to ensure every bit and byte gets given the right amount of consideration through the whole process 🙂. I work solo - you already know why.
It's not It held an all core of 3.5 in cinebench which I'm pretty sure is the advertised all-core frequency I wouldn't be surprised if Dell has power limits in place due to the super barebones motherboard
not really forgotten we just want for forget it exist because is trash alien where are not reliable alsoi used too own a steam machine i have my too remind me never own one because my board died i even changed the board and battery only last me 6 months . i build my pc i upgraded it 3 times i build two pcs i use one for streaming and editing and one for gaming dual pc setup is my way of gaming i use the elgato 4k 60 pro mk2 too hook everything up
Crazy what a over engineered machine. At that time i built my own PC for the same money with twice the power. all this only so you have an alien face on your pc lol
Yeaaahh definitely over engineered I hate proprietary components I always try to guide people into building or if they want a pre built get one that at least use a standard parts
I still use my old r3 with the gtx 960 for school work and just normal tasks, even after building my new pc 😂
That's a perfect use for it!
Why throw something out if you can keep it and still use it
@@anthonytech yup! Works like new too after new thermal paste and memory
You can so still game on that thing too. Don't expect anything crazy, but I will say I'm in the middle of a RDR2 phase recently and I had to replace a 6800Xt with an rtx 3080 and I played through almost the entire game jumping between 720p and 900p (mostly 900p) to maintain a steady 60 fps average and used the HUB optimized settings and the game looked stellar, so you don't have to play every game at 1080p if you are okay with that, or you can play most at 1080p if you don't mind a below 60 fps average, and i was WAY above 30 at 1080p but I hate games even at 50 fps so 55 wasn't cutting it lol.
I have one that I've had for years with no problems at all. I did just upgrade it as a backup to my every day. With a new Graphics Card (GTX1060 6 GB), 16GB of RAM and an SSD to replace the old HDD. It still plays all the E-Sports games at 1080p. :) Mine has the i5 6400 cpu in it and a small air cooler. Running Cinebench multicore it maxes out on temp in the 50s. No thermal issues at all. But yeah, the brackets and stuff can be fidgety if you haven't watched some vids and worked on it a bit.
I enjoyed reading your comment
I'd like to replace the silly "AIO" with a low profile air cooler
I shot tons of video clips to make this one happen!
Love your channel!
Thank you for the support!
Constructive advice, not hating or anything. You might want to limit the assumptions a little. I get that it is a fun learning thing, but if you are going to keep giving advice, you should research it more. you are getting views, but not subs. theres a reason. I'm sure you'll grow and get a big audience, but right now you are losing your audience by second, triple, and just straight up guessing and not knowing. It is fine to not know something, but you gotta pick, You can be a discovery channel, or a educational channel. It is really hard to do both. just some friendly advice. You are on the right track. Just gotta decide what you want to be, then you'll get tons of followers
I'll try to keep that in mind in future videos
My channel is actually growing though. When I started being more committed about 2 months ago I was at 380 subscribers and as of writing this I am at 546
That seems like pretty good growth to me
With the hardware thats out now, it would be awesome if Alienware/Dell came out with a new and better version of that.
Yes that is a bit more repair friendly with as many standard parts as possible
Proprietary components are cringe
I finally retired my X51 R2 last summer of 2023. It had the original i7-4790 and its upgrades were 16GB DDR3 ram, a 2TB Samsung SSD and a PNY GTX 1660 Ti. I never realized how damn loud it was until I built my new PC in a proper Matx case. The X51 was a great PC that served me well for a little over 7 years. But I’ll never go back to a pre-built PC after finally building my own.
That's good it served you well and was reliable for so many years
Yeah building a rig is so much better. You have full control over the quality of parts and can build a system tailored to your needs
Regarding that all-in-one liquid cooler, I can only echo Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. Their engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
HA!
I like that
My buddy ended saying I could keep it so just trying to find a use for it
Mine still works. Upgraded it with a 7700k and a 1070 (after removing the fan in the bottom.) Terrible for so many things but it did its job and played Skyrim, Fallout 4 and even beat Cyberpunk on it before I built my current system. It was a hot little thing but it never let me down except for the 2tb HDD failing after 5 years but that's not that odd. Fits in the footprint of a PS3 or so, only slightly bigger and had a tiny radial blower fan cooled radiator. Also the SSD shares the PCI-e slot with the GPU so there's that gen 3 bottleneck especially when you're playing open world games.
Sounds like a good little system you had
I miss the Pascal era Nvidia cards
I loved my EVGA 1070 SC
good vid
Thank you
I'm glad you enjoyed
Hope to see you around!
The CPU cooling on these computers is so terrible that they overheat and shut down when the thermal paste dries up, even just idling on the desktop. Which happens about once or twice a year. For $1,800 they sure didn't think that one through. The Shadow Rock LP cooler should be the first upgrade you do to a machine like this!
Yeah lots of proprietary stuff
I put new thermal paste on the CPU and GPU
Not sure what I plan to use the system for
I'd like to put a low profile air cooler in it like the one you mentioned
Hi Anthony, I am also a small tech youtuber, just happened across your channel and subscribed! Good content my friend!
Thank you!
The growth of the channel has blown me away but I'm thankful people are enjoying my content
@@anthonytech For sure, its cool when it starts taking off. Keep it up it will grow even more. On my channel i do less hands on like you and mainly do tutorials. I will keep on watching your content
still using a i7- i7-4770K, 16gb ddr3 ram, GTX 1080 ti, works like wonder. still able to run latest games at mid settings.
1080Ti is a legend
Back in the days when the top tier card looks like $700
Nowadays to talk to your card is around $2,000. It's crazy!
I put together a parts list and for me to build a computer that's actually worth upgrading to is so expensive
I'll hold on to mine a while longer
I would have tried to check the fluid on that cooling loop, it didn't show signs of leaking but I know coolant on cars go bad after some time so I wouldn't be surprised if there could be some degradation. Good call changing the thermal paste out on the card on CPU. Would have liked to see a Linux distro installed on the machine though
I just went purely off of sound and it sounds like there isn't much fluid in it
Going to try and replace it with a low profile air cooler soon
I remember wanting one of these loved the design/size reminded me of my old hp firebird
Yeah my buddy ended telling me I can keep it but I don't really have a use for it to be honest
Definitely not a stock GPU. It would've been a Dell branded Nvidia or an Asus AMD GPU.
Yeah I thought it was a bit strange that it had a 970 because when I found the spec sheet on Dell's website there were one of three options for the GPU:
GTX 745
GTX 960
R9 370 (I think)
@@anthonytech Well, it seems I may be wrong and Dell's as trustworthy as ever. I looked up second hand X51 R3s in my area and I found one with a 1070 installed. I asked the guy if it's an upgrade that he made and how it's running. He told me that's how he bought it and never opened the case for more than a dusting. I'm genuinely confused
As Alienware desktops aren't known for good thermals I'm surprised this little machine didn't do worse.
Yeaahh
I suspect Dell has put power limits in place to keep thermals in check
The point of that little AIO is pure marketing. Liquid cooling sells way better for a consumer who doesn't know much about computers :D
Yeaahh it really does
I've heard people who don't know much about computers get all excited and say "it has liquid cooling!"
When I saw what a rinky-dink cooler it had I thought "this shouldn't be aloud to be called an AIO"
14:56 r3 use own nonstandard mobo with psu distributor :(
r1 & r2 use standard itx mobo with seperate psu distributor :)
Hmm that's interesting
Yeah I found a small PCB that have the power port on it for the power brick and then a cable ran off of it which was a 6-pin to power the motherboard
Those systems are so overengineered... Must have been a pain in the ass to disassemble.
Yeah it kinda was haha
But it was a learning experience
Nothing wrong with the power brick hdplex makes em they serve a purpose
It works fine
Just kind of a proprietary way to power a PC
I’d install Windows 11 on it personally. You can remove the tpm and cpu requirements while writing the iso to a usb drive in rufus.
I could but really windows 11 isn't much different than 10
Plus it's kinda like why strip out TPM and CPU requirements when one of the focuses of Win11 is to be more secure
Even though Microsoft says Windows 10 support ends in 2025 my bet is that they'll extend it for another year or two. A lot of devices are still running Windows 10
Nice videos, bro! Subscribed! 👍👍
Thank you!
It truly means a lot
Great vid 👍
Thank you!
I try to make videos that are entertaining and informative
I also have greatly enjoyed responding to comments from people all over the world. So cool!
@@anthonytech keep it up :)
So my experience with my x51 was awful it got insanely hot and eventually ended up destroying my gpu cause of lack of airflow. It caused a ton of parts to overheat constantly shutting down was just a bad experience compared to my custom built i did myself its night and day.
Yeah you're exactly right there is not much room at all for airflow
And when you're paying so much for a PC you want it to last and with a machine like the X51 that's just a big heat box, it's a huge question mark of how long it'll actually last
Personally these don't interest me in a daily use and I doubt anyone would really use them for that, but as a cheap Linux box maybe steam OS with a cheap AMD GPU upgrade sounds like a fun project.
It would make a fine office PC
Maybe pull the 970 out of it to lower power consumption
@@anthonytechyou can still game on those...
Nope.
Upgraded last year from a gtx 970 and a i7 920 to a 7900xt and a 7700x.
The 970's 4 gigs of ram doesn't cut it anymore, not even on 1080p.
Older titles, OK, but new AAA, no way.
It now serves in my emulation rig.
The system was not stuck on boot couse how many of you sow the system booted with 1.15 on the clock when you started unmounting the clock was at 1.17.
I might have got my clips a bit out of order
I shot 25 different clips
Either way it needed a fresh install. If I work on a PC that has a windows install more than 2 years old I recommend to reinstall
Eeeh, 09:30 you shouldn't comment on things you obviously don't understand the first thing of, that CPU cooler has about maybe 6-8 times the surface area to dissipate heat from vs some low profile heatsink thing like you suggest. Dell/Alienware are not always making the most logical choices in some assemblies seen isolated from their context, but in this case there is nothing wrong with what they went with. Your suggested solution would have been 1000 times worse and non-functional as the CPU would have overheated along with all the rest of the components, since the hot air would have been dumped inside the case.
Second - if you, like any thinking man would have, had taken a time to watch a few minute video on how to disassemble/open the case instead of ripping it open by force, you wouldn't have broken it. The design is not the problem, you are. If you had worked in a shop as a tech for me, the new case would be coming out of your salary, with the swap/reassembly done by another tech on your dime. Before you start thinking I'm some rando who knows nothing - I used to work as a PC repair tech in a shop, and yes I did end up paying for some bits in customer machines that broke because I did something wrong. LCD panel hinge cable assemblies in laptops to be specific, those are legit difficult to work on, unlike that plastic tab.
The cooler is still awful in terms of repairability. The problem is when it goes bad (and it will) you can't replace it with a standard component.
I actually didn't "rip it off" that was your assumption. Once I realized I broke a tab I watched a video. You must've just overlooked the part where I said if it were a customers PC I would either knock a portion off the labor or compensate them in some way. If I make a mistake on a customers machine I let them know.
I wouldn't want to work in your shop where you immediately jump to a condescending manner instead of actually trying to teach your techs.
@@anthonytech I'm not saying the cooler is an optimal solution if you have the freedom to adjust other parameters around it, any AIO with a bigger radiator would be better, but there is no space without adjusting the case volume and/or design substantially.
Regarding the broken tab, the correct way to handle that in a shop setting is to replace the broken assembly without cost to the customer. In reality alternative solutions are often found for a number of reasons, no1 being cost, no2 time, no3 customer likely doesn't care that much or really understand. But the underlying fact is that the shell of that thing has a potential to cost quite a bit more than the labor you put into doing whatever it is you're doing in there, I think you can guess how I know this.
Anyway, most of my critique is based on this coming across in the video as a very tiny issue while it is a major one if you're doing this work in a shop setting, because of the reasons I've already stated.
I haven't worked as a tech in about 30yrs, I migrated to software development working as a full stack dev where I control all the aspects of the whole process of doing customer work from speccing it to final product delivery. That way I'm able to ensure every bit and byte gets given the right amount of consideration through the whole process 🙂. I work solo - you already know why.
Overpriced in its day and now worth less than $50.
I know it's crazy isn't it
I'd say it's worth a bit more than $50 though
just buy old x51 r1 with 330w psu yesterday
Oh nice
What kind of specs does it have
@@anthonytech start specs is now i5-3450 , 8gb ram , gtx 750ti , samsung 500gb ssd with windows 11 pro , intended to upgrade little by little ;p
CPU is probably a laptop version
It's not
It held an all core of 3.5 in cinebench which I'm pretty sure is the advertised all-core frequency
I wouldn't be surprised if Dell has power limits in place due to the super barebones motherboard
this pc look like a version of Xbox 360
Yeah haha
My little nephew thought it was a PS5😆
Lol I have exact same shirt watching this video.
It’s a good shirt isn’t it haha
Go back to BIOS and enable XMP lol.
PNY would not be in an Alienware
The memory is only 2133Mhz I looked at the sticks
I tried to bump the speed a bit but it didn't like it
not really forgotten we just want for forget it exist because is trash alien where are not reliable alsoi used too own a steam machine i have my too remind me never own one because my board died i even changed the board and battery only last me 6 months . i build my pc i upgraded it 3 times i build two pcs i use one for streaming and editing and one for gaming dual pc setup is my way of gaming i use the elgato 4k 60 pro mk2 too hook everything up
Sounds like you've got a good workflow
bro iam cringe on the aio bro 11:50 who make this need to get a 3 months of time out look at this
Yeah the AIO made me cringe too haha
another alienware junk pc they cant make anything rite great video though
Thank you!
I try to keep my videos entertaining and informative
Dell is garbage
I meannn their customer service is pretty bad and a lot of their systems are wayyy overpriced
Crazy what a over engineered machine. At that time i built my own PC for the same money with twice the power. all this only so you have an alien face on your pc lol
Yeaaahh definitely over engineered
I hate proprietary components
I always try to guide people into building or if they want a pre built get one that at least use a standard parts