This is one of the cleanest builds I've seen using this case. I miss when people were willing to take risks in case design. Everything is just so.. I don't know.. boring now. You now have a unique piece of computing history on your desk. Take care of it, bro.
The Alienware Area 51 has been my dream PC since I first saw it in my teenage years. And since it's been around for a while, I just bought one for around $440 on Ebay with taxes and shipping included. I plan on gutting it and putting in my Z590 motherboard, i5-11600K, RTX 3060 Ti, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro (4x8GB) and Corsair RM850x. I will also use the same 120mm AiO I'm currently using.
@@howardishereYeah. The one I ordered off of EBay appeared to be in working order (arriving Friday the 17th) but I’m gonna plan things carefully as well. The biggest worry is the case cables not reaching the headers on the board so gonna measure that out once I get it. Found a video that linked the older software needed to get the lights to work on the R2 version so I could probably avoid modding as I want my case to remain stock.
Been rocking the Area-51 r2 version of the case practically since it came out. I got one referbished, so it was a little dinged up. It’s a big case, it will fit any pc part you want (besides 2-3 fan aio) The tooless design for the side panels is genius. I recently upgrade the original specs (i7-5930k, water cooled, gtx980, 32gb 2133 ram) to more recent gear. I snagged a brand new x470-f mobo for 40 bucks. Upgraded to, r9-5900x using thermal right fs140 cooler, rtx 3060, 32gb 3600 cl16 ram, with a 2tb m.2 ssd. Can say the thermals are great. Slightly overclocked both cpu and gpu. Cpu gets to 85c in cinebench, idles at 35ish, never goes above 70c in regular use or intense gaming for hours. Gpu idles at 35c gets to 77c max. Ambient temp is 67-72f.
I bought this pc back when it came out and I am still in love with this case. I've been upgrading throughout the years and with the exception of the front lower fan assembly its awesome. It is a heavy mother though lol.
This is one of the most well made videos I’ve seen in a while. Very well done, great build, great audio, fantastic videography. Well done, you deserve 1 mil subs. Very well done my friend!
Your build looks great! Thanks for the great video. I will have to remember your RGB upgrade for the future. I've been using an R2 that I got at a garage sale a year or so back. I was very lucky that it had all the original hardware aside from the graphics card, and that the i7-5820K was very overclockable. Boosting to 4.5ghz on the stock liquid cooling setup. I replaced the thermal paste, and put a gtx 970 in it. It is very much lagging behind with the current generation of games, but it's very nice for ps2 and ps3 emulation and many games that are only a little old. I'm looking forward to using this case for my next build as time and money allows.
That’s great! I didn’t really like their stock liquid cooling hut in general I just don’t like liquid cooling lol when you upgrade just keep the cables and the front IO board and you are good 👍
I've wanted to do this type of project for a very long time, but finding this as a case by itself has proven... difficult. That or seeing if I could find the whole pc with the componets inside without paying an hefty fee is also difficult, but nevertheless great video! I too hope to be able to do this someday.
Thank you! Try your local electronics recycler that’s where I found mine they were literally throwing these away because they are so heavy and shipping itself would exceed the value of the case
Nicely done. It has been said that it would be impossible to use another motherboard in the proprietary Alienware builds or the RGB lights wouldn't work and you would have to use a dremel for the IO shield. I have the Alienware Aurora r7 (same design language as this Area 51 but smaller) still running strong and I think it's the best looking case ever made.
I have an Alienware area 51 too, since 2016, but it might be getting old. Recently, it crashes more often. I hope one day I can upgrade its hardware like you did
Hey man! I have an Area-51 R2 that I've been gaming on for a while and this video motivates me to upgrade my rig. I want to network with you and learn more in-depth because I'm not as knowledgeable about pc modding/building. Super cool video bro!
I transferred my current build I already had to the Area 51 R2 case. My main build consisted of a Asus Prime Z690-P motherboard, i9 13900K, MSI RTX 4090, Corsair RGB Vengeance Pro 32GB DDR4 3200mhz, Cool Master 240mm AIO, 2 Thermalright ARGB case fans, Samsung 980Pro 1TB Nvme, 4TB Western Digital SATA SSD, and 1050w Thermaltake PSU
Unfortunately I'll have to remove the front panel LED lights and the right side panel ones because the command center ain't picking up the lights even though they are on. So I'll just do what you did with the lights and add my own LED strips.
They should work. I am using Alienware command centre 4.x, and you have to disable usb power when computer is off. How’s the cooling on the 13900k though?
Do you have a direct link for the RGB strip you purchased? Would like to do the exact same to My build Now I've seen yours. This is honestly the best case Alienware ever released. I've turned mine into a plex home server. As there is plenty of room for hard drives at the front of the case.
Lesson learned kids dont do water cooling either man up and get a cpu cooler or a AIO, also forgot to mention people need to bully dell into making another area 51 pc again for sake we are tired of auroras
Alienware aurora r4 for matx and alienware area 51 R2 for atx....both are legend for me.....i bougt this 2 from refurbished shop.....from dead to alive....happy with mine.
People rag on alienware so much but in my opinion theyre amazing for anyone needing high performance on a small budget, well atleast their older used pcs are. Case and point i got a similar auorora r7 with a intel i7 8700 6 core 12 thread cpu and a nvidia gtx 1080ti for 350 dollars! And its beyond impressive how well it games for how old it is. I actually bidded on a r5 like yours that came with a 3060 12gn vram version for 500 but lost the auction at the last2se onds by 25 dollars. Shame as these r5s came with the best i7 of the period the 5200k i think it was which was unlocked and known for its gaming abilities. My pc is similar in that it uses th3 v3ry best 8th gen i7 there is but isnt the unlocked k variant but with that being said mines still runs a steady 4.3 to 4.5ghz clock speed and holds at that like a overclocked cpu would do idk y. Mines also is the watercooled aio version and it works well for me. Naturally i took it all apart and redid the thermal paste upon receiving it and i have zero thermal issues on both the cpu and gpu. So for 350 dollar i got a steal of a deal. The gtx 1080ti for some odd reason still sells for 250 used, i think its cuz its good at mining due to it we rather high core count and vram. That being said i could sell it and get a 4060 for 50 dollar mmore or a 4060ti for 100 dollar more so thats what im l8kely going to try to do.
Yea the used market for these alienwares are usually a bang for your buck. But people don’t like them just because they are prebuilt and not “special”. I love my R5 case and will continue to upgrade in the future.
@@howardishere a big reason people d0nt like them is due to the super unnecessary pushing of using proprietary items for the most stupidest stuff including parts that commonly fail yet aren't sold as replacement parts so from that aspect I get it
This is seriously very good modding. Is the airflow really good ? is the aircooler fine ? may you need a second fan at front of the aircooler ? (like bequiet)
The air flow is really good in this case. Other people say it’s airflow is not good because they have radiators blocking the vents or because the only place to put a big radiator in this case is the front so warm air would introduce in the case if they do it this way. Completely air cool will not have any of these problems. And the top front fan is directly blowing air to the cpu cooler I don’t think it’s necessary to add a second fan to the front of the cooler :) the NH-D15 comes with a second fan I just didn’t use it
I need some help getting all this to work I've been stuck trying to figure out how to get everything to work. I have always wanted to repurpose my old Alienware case and make a lot of upgrades as you did in this video. Did you have to buy third-party cables to get your motherboard to function with the R2 IO Board?
No I reused all old cables. I did try to use extension cables but the pins on the usb and audio cables weren’t the same as the originals so I just swapped back to originals.
@howardishere weird, I'm trying to use the cables that originally came with the alienware PC for the power switch and the USB but the receiving end is smaller than what is on my motherboard. It seems I may need to try and find a female to female cable for it to work. I'll try to take a closer look but I do believe that one end is a bit smaller and cannot use it. I just wanted to reach out to you if you had used any other cables other than those that are for the alienware.
The power switch cable? It should be plug and play the motherboard end of that cable is just one plug so check and see your motherboard (the power switch led hdd led area) the holes should line up with the pins perfectly
Its Alienware Command Centre 4.0.59.0. If your motherboard usbs are set to passthrough power when system is off you need to turn this off, power the computer down and turn it on again. The software will recognize the board.
Hi! I would like to mention that is a very well explain video! The side panel are a amazing idea and very well done! This video just gave me hope! I have a R7 and done a similar job. For some times im trying to figure it out how to get all the light to work. I have done some progress but still not 100%. If i do some manipulation, lights will light up( PLUG / UNPLUG molex ) but its only temporary. When i shut down the pc i need to do everything again. Like you, my pc would give some driver error...I cant see this pc without his light its make it souless... I was wondering if i put a R2 FIO board and a logo board in the R7. I've never find someone with a R7 and make to light to work. I've find many R2 to find a way. That just confirm my theory! Ive got some questions for you if your willing to answer them 🙂 Just to be clear are you able to tell me wich software do you use for the lights? Or at least wich version of command center do you use? If you can, where did you buy the FIO board and the Logo board? Cant find anything anywhere... And how did connect the cable for the front light to work? I mean in your video you point were to connect the cable but sadly i cant see where they are connected. Maybe im blind...Can i use my already connected led cable to the new logo board ( R7->R2) are they the same kind of connector? Sorry for my questions, im just happy that maybe i could get those lights to work! And you just did what i wanted try! Thanks you very much for this video🤘
Thank you! I did play with the R7 front IO board as well and got the same result as you did thats why I went with a R2 front IO board. Now the power button board (logo board) i believe they are the same as I have both and I couldnt see any difference between them. The exact version of AWCC i use is 4.0.59.0. I only use this software to control the lights so i turned everything else off (power control and such) As for where to buy you kinda have to aim for someone from ebay or your local ad, look for someone selling and R2 case with the boards still there. Rarely someone just selling the R2 board, ebay has a few of that but they are pretty pricey. you dont need to reconnect the lights. leave the lights plug in as they are and just change the connection from the logo board from your R7 board which is currently plugged in to the R2 front IO board. then connect the R2 board to your motherboard with USB cable like i shown in the video.
Thank you for your answers! This video is very well edit and very easy to understand. Like i said i was about to try exacly what you have done. I now i have the proof that could work! And even more you where able to answer my other question about he logo board ! Your video give me hope! Thank you again.
![[TF2] The Russian Bear Trap](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YFNSwz2_rOA/mqdefault.jpg)
This is one of the cleanest builds I've seen using this case. I miss when people were willing to take risks in case design. Everything is just so.. I don't know.. boring now. You now have a unique piece of computing history on your desk. Take care of it, bro.
Thank you! Yea cases now are all a rectangular box in similar form.
@Annoye my 8 Alienware over the last 15 years say different. Work great. Stop watching gamers nexus trying to get you to buy their affiliates.
The Alienware Area 51 has been my dream PC since I first saw it in my teenage years. And since it's been around for a while, I just bought one for around $440 on Ebay with taxes and shipping included. I plan on gutting it and putting in my Z590 motherboard, i5-11600K, RTX 3060 Ti, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro (4x8GB) and Corsair RM850x. I will also use the same 120mm AiO I'm currently using.
That’s great! Wanna share some pictures when you are done?
@@howardishereYeah. The one I ordered off of EBay appeared to be in working order (arriving Friday the 17th) but I’m gonna plan things carefully as well. The biggest worry is the case cables not reaching the headers on the board so gonna measure that out once I get it. Found a video that linked the older software needed to get the lights to work on the R2 version so I could probably avoid modding as I want my case to remain stock.
Been rocking the Area-51 r2 version of the case practically since it came out. I got one referbished, so it was a little dinged up. It’s a big case, it will fit any pc part you want (besides 2-3 fan aio) The tooless design for the side panels is genius. I recently upgrade the original specs (i7-5930k, water cooled, gtx980, 32gb 2133 ram) to more recent gear. I snagged a brand new x470-f mobo for 40 bucks. Upgraded to, r9-5900x using thermal right fs140 cooler, rtx 3060, 32gb 3600 cl16 ram, with a 2tb m.2 ssd. Can say the thermals are great. Slightly overclocked both cpu and gpu. Cpu gets to 85c in cinebench, idles at 35ish, never goes above 70c in regular use or intense gaming for hours. Gpu idles at 35c gets to 77c max. Ambient temp is 67-72f.
Great build!
I bought this pc back when it came out and I am still in love with this case. I've been upgrading throughout the years and with the exception of the front lower fan assembly its awesome. It is a heavy mother though lol.
It is super heavy lol
This is one of the most well made videos I’ve seen in a while. Very well done, great build, great audio, fantastic videography. Well done, you deserve 1 mil subs. Very well done my friend!
Thank you very much!
This computer is a dream. But I wish you did a step-by-step for all of us non-techie guys. Regardless, you did a pretty good job.
I wanted to paint the pc case this year so I probably will have another video coming but not anytime soon though. Probably in the summer
I have two of these I bought new from Dell. They're great and still chugging along. I just upgraded to 3080ti for both.
Glad to hear they are still up and running!
Your build looks great! Thanks for the great video. I will have to remember your RGB upgrade for the future. I've been using an R2 that I got at a garage sale a year or so back. I was very lucky that it had all the original hardware aside from the graphics card, and that the i7-5820K was very overclockable. Boosting to 4.5ghz on the stock liquid cooling setup. I replaced the thermal paste, and put a gtx 970 in it. It is very much lagging behind with the current generation of games, but it's very nice for ps2 and ps3 emulation and many games that are only a little old. I'm looking forward to using this case for my next build as time and money allows.
That’s great! I didn’t really like their stock liquid cooling hut in general I just don’t like liquid cooling lol when you upgrade just keep the cables and the front IO board and you are good 👍
bro this is the cleanest and so called perfect video I ever saw.
Thank you!!
I've wanted to do this type of project for a very long time, but finding this as a case by itself has proven... difficult. That or seeing if I could find the whole pc with the componets inside without paying an hefty fee is also difficult, but nevertheless great video! I too hope to be able to do this someday.
Thank you! Try your local electronics recycler that’s where I found mine they were literally throwing these away because they are so heavy and shipping itself would exceed the value of the case
Awesome case indeed. I have an R2 sitting on my desk ready for a ryzen transplant too
It will be so good!
Excellent build and good on you from saving those cases from the landfill. Love it.
Thank you!
Nicely done. It has been said that it would be impossible to use another motherboard in the proprietary Alienware builds or the RGB lights wouldn't work and you would have to use a dremel for the IO shield. I have the Alienware Aurora r7 (same design language as this Area 51 but smaller) still running strong and I think it's the best looking case ever made.
Good to hear! I am rebuilding this computer soon so stay tuned :)
Okay wow man you just earned a sub this is amazing
Thank you very much!
Beautiful build ❤ my question is what happened to the other alienware cases
can only say good shit, bro! Always want to have a Alienware case to build my own pc.
Thanks bro! These older Alienware cases are awesome :)
I have an Alienware area 51 too, since 2016, but it might be getting old. Recently, it crashes more often. I hope one day I can upgrade its hardware like you did
It’s a great case and upgrading the hardware is an absolutely great choice
Hey man! I have an Area-51 R2 that I've been gaming on for a while and this video motivates me to upgrade my rig. I want to network with you and learn more in-depth because I'm not as knowledgeable about pc modding/building. Super cool video bro!
Same here!
Thanks! I will do my best to help if you have any questions
@@howardishere what's the highest I can upgrade to? Everything
@@GamersLifestyle12 there is no limit you can use any motherboard as long as its the correct form factor
@@tony5tark thank you bro
damn crazyyy video bro, i was so surprised at the end when i saw the view count, hope you get like 10,000x that amount 😂
Thank you! Glad you liked it! 😁
I just finished putting my parts in my own case it's very beautiful. I was able to mount my 240mm AIO with no modifications too
Great to hear! What kind of build did you go for?
I transferred my current build I already had to the Area 51 R2 case. My main build consisted of a Asus Prime Z690-P motherboard, i9 13900K, MSI RTX 4090, Corsair RGB Vengeance Pro 32GB DDR4 3200mhz, Cool Master 240mm AIO, 2 Thermalright ARGB case fans, Samsung 980Pro 1TB Nvme, 4TB Western Digital SATA SSD, and 1050w Thermaltake PSU
Unfortunately I'll have to remove the front panel LED lights and the right side panel ones because the command center ain't picking up the lights even though they are on. So I'll just do what you did with the lights and add my own LED strips.
They should work. I am using Alienware command centre 4.x, and you have to disable usb power when computer is off. How’s the cooling on the 13900k though?
Do you have a direct link for the RGB strip you purchased?
Would like to do the exact same to My build Now I've seen yours.
This is honestly the best case Alienware ever released.
I've turned mine into a plex home server.
As there is plenty of room for hard drives at the front of the case.
here is the link:
www.newegg.com/phanteks-ph-neledkt-cmbo-rgb/p/N82E16811984031
Lesson learned kids dont do water cooling either man up and get a cpu cooler or a AIO, also forgot to mention people need to bully dell into making another area 51 pc again for sake we are tired of auroras
Would be great if they reboot this series and do some crazy designs
Alienware aurora r4 for matx and alienware area 51 R2 for atx....both are legend for me.....i bougt this 2 from refurbished shop.....from dead to alive....happy with mine.
Glad to hear!
very nice. did you do a video about building the led-sidepanel?
I have no video footage on that 😭 but I did mentioned it briefly about it at 4:25
People rag on alienware so much but in my opinion theyre amazing for anyone needing high performance on a small budget, well atleast their older used pcs are. Case and point i got a similar auorora r7 with a intel i7 8700 6 core 12 thread cpu and a nvidia gtx 1080ti for 350 dollars! And its beyond impressive how well it games for how old it is. I actually bidded on a r5 like yours that came with a 3060 12gn vram version for 500 but lost the auction at the last2se onds by 25 dollars. Shame as these r5s came with the best i7 of the period the 5200k i think it was which was unlocked and known for its gaming abilities. My pc is similar in that it uses th3 v3ry best 8th gen i7 there is but isnt the unlocked k variant but with that being said mines still runs a steady 4.3 to 4.5ghz clock speed and holds at that like a overclocked cpu would do idk y. Mines also is the watercooled aio version and it works well for me. Naturally i took it all apart and redid the thermal paste upon receiving it and i have zero thermal issues on both the cpu and gpu. So for 350 dollar i got a steal of a deal. The gtx 1080ti for some odd reason still sells for 250 used, i think its cuz its good at mining due to it we rather high core count and vram. That being said i could sell it and get a 4060 for 50 dollar mmore or a 4060ti for 100 dollar more so thats what im l8kely going to try to do.
Yea the used market for these alienwares are usually a bang for your buck. But people don’t like them just because they are prebuilt and not “special”. I love my R5 case and will continue to upgrade in the future.
@@howardishere a big reason people d0nt like them is due to the super unnecessary pushing of using proprietary items for the most stupidest stuff including parts that commonly fail yet aren't sold as replacement parts so from that aspect I get it
I have put this case aside and am waiting for the new RTX 5000 GPU series and then I will start a complete rebuild
Can’t wait to see your build!
Good job. I built mine earlier this year. I like your idea for different LED strips may do that myself if I build up a second case.
Thank you! If I could I would also replace the front panel leds as well but oh well I don’t have the skills to do that yet
@@howardishere probably have to use a front IO kit and a power button kit. A lot of DIY stuff out there.
This is seriously very good modding. Is the airflow really good ? is the aircooler fine ? may you need a second fan at front of the aircooler ? (like bequiet)
The air flow is really good in this case. Other people say it’s airflow is not good because they have radiators blocking the vents or because the only place to put a big radiator in this case is the front so warm air would introduce in the case if they do it this way. Completely air cool will not have any of these problems. And the top front fan is directly blowing air to the cpu cooler I don’t think it’s necessary to add a second fan to the front of the cooler :) the NH-D15 comes with a second fan I just didn’t use it
Nice video!! 👍
Thank you!
That was probably the last good Alienware desktop
Agreed :)
where can I can find and buy an Alienware area 51 r5 or r7 case? LOVE the VIDEO keep it up!
Keep an eye out for your local electronics recycler or your local fb marketplace / Craigslist or something like that.
I need some help getting all this to work I've been stuck trying to figure out how to get everything to work. I have always wanted to repurpose my old Alienware case and make a lot of upgrades as you did in this video. Did you have to buy third-party cables to get your motherboard to function with the R2 IO Board?
No I reused all old cables. I did try to use extension cables but the pins on the usb and audio cables weren’t the same as the originals so I just swapped back to originals.
@howardishere weird, I'm trying to use the cables that originally came with the alienware PC for the power switch and the USB but the receiving end is smaller than what is on my motherboard. It seems I may need to try and find a female to female cable for it to work. I'll try to take a closer look but I do believe that one end is a bit smaller and cannot use it. I just wanted to reach out to you if you had used any other cables other than those that are for the alienware.
The power switch cable? It should be plug and play the motherboard end of that cable is just one plug so check and see your motherboard (the power switch led hdd led area) the holes should line up with the pins perfectly
@howardishere OH! One more question did you have to download alienwares alien command for the lights on the case to work?
Yea you need to download Alienware command Centre. I am using an older version 4.x it works perfectly. Try to Google it and you will find it
thats really similar to my build. as far as specs. i chose water cooling though because this case for the R11 isnt doing its job
Ah right the R11 is much smaller so water cooling would be better
Hello. How did you manage to customize the backlight color on the front of the case if the Alienware software doesn't work?
The software works. Older version software works. I am using version 4.
@@howardishere I check. What is the full version of the program you have?
Its Alienware Command Centre 4.0.59.0. If your motherboard usbs are set to passthrough power when system is off you need to turn this off, power the computer down and turn it on again. The software will recognize the board.
@@howardishere I check! Thank you 👍👍👍🙂
@@howardishere Hello. Disabled USB in BIOS. But Alienware Center Commander does not recognize my PC. 🤔
Nice man, how do you be able to use the IO board from Alienware?
Using awcc ver.4
are u able to control the front panel rgb? i have the same case and switched the motherboard, but idk how to control the front panel lights
Yea using awcc ver.4
i got one and because of transport it got wet - i hope everything will be alright if i turn it on.
If it doesn’t work just rebuild 😁
How did you connect the power supply to the front io board? Im looking around everywhere but cant seem to find a way to connect
Both front io are powered by molex.
so the molex plug right into a modular psu correct?@@howardishere
Yea that’s right
Hi!
I would like to mention that is a very well explain video! The side panel are a amazing idea and very well done!
This video just gave me hope! I have a R7 and done a similar job. For some times im trying to figure it out how to get all the light to work. I have done some progress but still not 100%.
If i do some manipulation, lights will light up( PLUG / UNPLUG molex ) but its only temporary. When i shut down the pc i need to do everything again. Like you, my pc would give some driver error...I cant see this pc without his light its make it souless...
I was wondering if i put a R2 FIO board and a logo board in the R7. I've never find someone with a R7 and make to light to work. I've find many R2 to find a way. That just confirm my theory!
Ive got some questions for you if your willing to answer them 🙂
Just to be clear are you able to tell me wich software do you use for the lights? Or at least wich version of command center do you use?
If you can, where did you buy the FIO board and the Logo board? Cant find anything anywhere...
And how did connect the cable for the front light to work? I mean in your video you point were to connect the cable but sadly i cant see where they are connected. Maybe im blind...Can i use my already connected led cable to the new logo board ( R7->R2) are they the same kind of connector?
Sorry for my questions, im just happy that maybe i could get those lights to work! And you just did what i wanted try!
Thanks you very much for this video🤘
Thank you!
I did play with the R7 front IO board as well and got the same result as you did thats why I went with a R2 front IO board.
Now the power button board (logo board) i believe they are the same as I have both and I couldnt see any difference between them.
The exact version of AWCC i use is 4.0.59.0. I only use this software to control the lights so i turned everything else off (power control and such)
As for where to buy you kinda have to aim for someone from ebay or your local ad, look for someone selling and R2 case with the boards still there. Rarely someone just selling the R2 board, ebay has a few of that but they are pretty pricey.
you dont need to reconnect the lights. leave the lights plug in as they are and just change the connection from the logo board from your R7 board which is currently plugged in to the R2 front IO board. then connect the R2 board to your motherboard with USB cable like i shown in the video.
Thank you for your answers!
This video is very well edit and very easy to understand.
Like i said i was about to try exacly what you have done. I now i have the proof that could work!
And even more you where able to answer my other question about he logo board ! Your video give me hope!
Thank you again.
I got alinware Area 51 R2
👍
other 3 gone?
I still have one extra left
@@howardishere how much?
Bro you have one to sell?
I don’t anymore :(
@@howardishere sadge :(