Re-ALX

[AlienALX]

Update. So I got a couple of things done today.

In the bottom of the case there is a piece of trunking that hides all of the lighting wiring. However it had faded and gone very flat. So I first repainted it (removing the Noctua logo) and then designed this for it.



Take into plotter software.



Cut.



And then fit. I think they look nice, giving it an accent to the black.



Then I moved onto the PSU cover. Thankfully I had a piece of scrap that was the perfect size and shape. So once again it was off to the plotter.



Start picking out all of the excess pieces..



Remove waste..



They say that there's no I in team. Well it took me about five minutes before I even noticed there was no I in this logo. I then started to panic because I had used the very last piece of matt black vinyl... Desperate thinking eventually led me to glue a spare piece (very small) to an A4 sheet of paper and cut an I out of that.



Then mask and fit.



Add one of these that I cut from a tiny scrap piece of 3M carbon dinoc...



And the PSU cover panel is complete.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so here is what I got up to today. Apologies for the awful photo quality but when it's dark there really isn't much I can do about it.

So I marked up the second and final cover panel. It needs a relief for SATA/Power cables to run through it.



Tools out.



And cut.



Then cover.



So the Mars came today.



So I figured I would create a graphic.



And done.



That can go in later..

 

[Davva2004]

Very nice job mate!

 

[AlienALX]

Thanks!

The 1055t should arrive tomorrow so that should give me something to do

 

[AverageNinja]

You got a great deal on that GPU at £125 imo mate! Really liking what you're doing with those graphics too. Keep up the good work.

 

[AlienALX]

You got a great deal on that GPU at £125 imo mate! Really liking what you're doing with those graphics too. Keep up the good work.

Yeah I must admit it definitely got me excited. 760 sell for around £70 each still and this card cost way more than two 760s when it launched.

It's probably about as quick as a 780ti tbh.

But most of all it's the rarity of the card. Whilst not quite as exclusive as a original Mars, Mars 2 or Ares 1/2 they are still very scarce.

It should still tear 1080p to pieces and my 65" TV and really comfy sofa bed are both calling me

I've been given the 1055t for free which was awesome and 8gb DDR2 800 was £9. So even with the PSU and SSD the whole rig will have cost me less than £250.

I love AMD OCing too, it's serious fun attacking the FSB.

 

[AlienALX]

Yay I haves a 1055T ! Many thanks to Will for sending it to me

So I set everything up ghetto style.



And had a look.



Whilst checking for RAID I noticed this board also did AHCI which I was quite surprised about given its age !



OK so let's see what overclocking options I have..



Everything you need is there. I am a little confused about the memory right now though. I stuck in 210mhz from the standard 200 FSB and I was then greeted with this.



Not good. I need that to be 400mhz or lower but no matter what I did it just continued to rise. Now usually the memory divider is on the same page as the FSB and NB etc so you just adjust it all there, but I found an old article showing it on a different page. Bit of a PITA, but I'm sure now I know what to look for that I'll find it

 

[AlienALX]

Wow so the overclocking on this is very different, even to AM3 boards I have had.

What's very strange is that the memory speed shown there ^ is not halved. That's the full dual rate speed. I thought it was odd..

Any way, after playing around for about two minutes I gave the CPU 1.4v which is pretty low, then shoved the bus up. I now have it running at around 3.4ghz after just a few minutes and I can really play with the ram settings.

Thing is right now I have a 1gb stick in there and I am buying 8gb today which should arrive Saturday. So there's little point pushing on because it's not even in the case yet and not running the ram I want.

 

[AlienALX]

Update. I've been trying for two days to take pics but sadly it just isn't happening. It's been dark since I've opened my eyes until I close them again, and today is no better. Taking pics is close to impossible but I did manage to get something half legible yesterday.



The rig is almost finished now with all of the panels and hardware fitted. There are a couple of small jobs left to do (like tidy up the SATA cables where they meet the motherboard) but once done it will be ready to be set up on the TV. I've taken plenty of time to overclock but the best I can manage right now is 3.5ghz with the memory running at 800. Having spent about two hours playing Fallout 4 on it yesterday the game seems to run along fine at 1080p with everything on ultra apart from the shadows (I was warned about running them on high in SLI atm) and the Godrays, which look just as good on low as they do any higher.

Temps are good, the highest I saw on the Mars was 64c after an hour of Valley.

I will get some better pics once we actually get some daylight, though I'm not quite sure when that will be.

 

[Warchild]

Update. I've been trying for two days to take pics but sadly it just isn't happening. It's been dark since I've opened my eyes until I close them again, and today is no better. Taking pics is close to impossible but I did manage to get something half legible yesterday.

Get a bright white picture on your monitor and turn this towards your PC

 

[AlienALX]

Get a bright white picture on your monitor and turn this towards your PC

I tried that. Sadly because half of the monitor is behind the PC (just no room on the desk at all) it didn't really help. I can't really move it in any direction either because I will either scratch the PC it is sitting next to or the monitor itself (which I have already done once )

In a couple of days when the cables arrive (5m HDMI and 3m power extension) I will lug it down to the kitchen where I have more light that I could possibly need

 

[0100001]

Nice to see the old alienware cases making a come back. Good job man