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Aurora R8, EVGA RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra Gaming, Noctua nf-a12x15-pwm-chromax-black-swap
Hello all,
First off big thanks to all who have posted about GPU upgrades and notably about replacing the front fan, otherwise I would have had to settle for something less. Particular mention for the thread Aurora R8, EVGA Geforce RTX 3090 install results.
Finally my project of upgrading the GPU has completed, just 2 steps, (not hard with the maintenance doc from dells website):
1. Replace the front fan with a Noctua nf-a12x15-pwm-chromax-black-swap. Done 1 month ago.
2. Replace the GTX 1060 with EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA GAMING. Done today after 1 month waiting for the card.
Less hassle as the card fits without cutting the triangle, I am concerned about the stability of the PSU door if the triangle is cut out, applicable for all EVGA RTX XC cards (3070-90).
Thermals on GPU down from 80°C (120hz 1440p) to 73°C (164hz 1440p).
Pictures to follow
r72019
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January 1st, 2021 08:00
HDD cages are swappable
r72019
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January 1st, 2021 08:00
The R8 doesn't come with spare data cables. You can use the one for the optical drive, buy one on amazon, use the one from your R3 that you used for this drive, or get one on amazon.
The spare power cables are located behind the psu in the swing out metal box.
markburv
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January 10th, 2021 05:00
Fixing the Fan in the HDD cage space.
Adding ties to hold it in position, a bit fiddly for the one deep down inside the cage to bend back round and thread back out. Top one was easier.
Pushing zip ties through
Plastic Ties trimmed down
The fan is well wedged in on the scrw at the bottom, just slightly inclined.
Close up look to the ties on the fan and a bit of cable tidying.
For the test before 75°, Top fan offset +35%, front fans offset 67%, the Noctuas are so quiet, the Top fan really covers it. Overall the noise levels are acceptable, a headset is a must for gaming.
AWCC max offset setting for front fans cannot exceed +67%, otherwise the front fan will spin down and stop.
I pushed Top and front fans to max, ran Timespy, 72°C, a gain of 3°C, overall up to 27°C less than before the fan existed.
I am keeping the front bezel off for now, while I think about how to drill/cut/sabotage it
Big thanks still to @Anonymous and @r72019
GTS81
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January 19th, 2021 13:00
@markburv :
It is an OEM fan. Very sharp eyed observation of my tardiness. I was so exhausted after trying to rotate the head that I didn't want to change the fan that time. Actually there's an ML120 Pro sitting on the other side of the radiator doing pull duty.
The Asetek OEM cooler made for Dell features a standard "toothed" design that lets you rotate and grip the pump based on the notches as seen below:
As you have mentioned, rotating the head will cause the rubber tubes to exert rotating force on the pump mounts. You have to hold the pump with one hand to counter the force while tightening/ loosening the screws. I made the mistake of not doing so while unscrewing the pump leading to a stripped screw and taking hammer to rig.
GTS81
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January 19th, 2021 17:00
@markburv :
I was referring to the thumbscrews securing the AIO pump to the motherboard from the top. You don't need to take the motherboard out of the case to do this.
markburv
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January 23rd, 2021 03:00
First off get 2 of these fans, a Y PWM fan cable, 30mm 6-32 screws and washers, I bought a Corsair fan screw kit.
Remove GPU, side panels, top panel, and the cooler assembly, refer to service manual.
markburv
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December 30th, 2020 08:00
Before replacement of card (Fan already replaced)
Removal of GTX 1060
Installation of RTX 3080
markburv
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December 31st, 2020 10:00
Just an update to show what this does for 3DMark on a 2 year old machine with i9-9900K.
And here are the perf indicators during the test, CPU GPU Memory
markburv
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January 1st, 2021 06:00
Hi @Anonymous
It does look big compared to the R8 case and airflow is something I am focusing on. Thanks for the tip. I shall take out one soon, just which one would be better to remove HDD3 (left) or HDD2 (right) if the other has an SSD?
Adding this card has now triggered th need for more storage
Call of duty (free from Nvidia) needs 100GB storage and I only have 90GB left available on my NVMe 512GB (C: OS), I do have a 4TB HDD but I use that for backing up my NAS and do not want to havevery slow loading or bad performance.
As said above, I am planning on adding an SSD and distributing installed games between SDD and the NVMe depending on performance and loading times.
I rediscovered my 1To SSD in my desk drawers previously used for about a year in my R3. So here goes, I shall try the HDD3 slot for now, easier to tidy cables until I remove a slot :
Now I remember why it was in the drawer, I couldn't install it 2 years ago when I first opened my R8 :
No cables for SSDs came inside the R8
I have to look in the box, and if not, other boxes related to computers/storage.
Time to visit the loft LOL !!!
markburv
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January 1st, 2021 09:00
I thought I had already plugged in the power, the cable was already tucked into the HDD2 bay with 2 connectors. I also have an optical drive, so no luck there. Thanks for the tips @r72019
I found nothing in the box, I half expected it, nothing in any other boxes of cables and whatnots
My R3 is being used by my nephew atm, I will certainly pay him a visit if possible before buying off Amazon as I promised replacing the GTX 660 with the GTX 1060, at the same time I will pull off a spare sata data cable
markburv
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January 1st, 2021 09:00
Yeah I noticed @r72019 that they were interchangeable on other posts, thanks.
I must say, when we have questions, both of you are often in the threads, you guys are awesome!
I have the HDD up top (4TB), an SDD to be put down below (1TB) and maybe some airflow fun times as @Anonymous mentioned.
So, should I consider moving things around, maybe add another fan in the 3,5inch bay above the front fan like in your picture? if so what would be the progressive way of doing it? Move then add the fan? add with a Y cable or add to the CPU 3pin slot? which fan? will the OEM that I replaced be ok on a Y cable?
Generally I am not worried about noise atm, I push up the fans using AWCC Thermal profiles attached to games.
markburv
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January 2nd, 2021 13:00
I am now borrowing the SATA cable from the optical drive which I don't use as often.
Installed and reformatted the SSD 1TB, moved all games to it from NVMe and HDD:
markburv
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January 2nd, 2021 13:00
Inspiring from others like @r72019 I added a small fan (3-PIN no PWM) in place of the SSD bay, This fan was a replacement fan for a Netgear RND2000 NAS, so sticky taped it to the chassis and connected to the CPU Fan connector on the motherboard:
markburv
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January 7th, 2021 04:00
Ordering the SATA cable as it is not easy to "pull out" an unused SATA cable out of an R3
I suddenly have that "modding fever" back from long ago, lol. I really want to have this R8 cooling in a respectable manner.
I ordered some other bits too (fan, M2 drive, M2 PCIE adaptor).
So I plan to :
I will be looking for ideas how to open up air intake for this new (upper) front fan. I do not have a bezel to cut some slots.
Does anyone know of any alternatives?
markburv
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January 9th, 2021 05:00
Well I dug around to find the thread discussing dremelling the front bezel and now I see. Big thanks to @Anonymous for your beautiful mod and cable management and to @HanoverB for this awesome post here about cooling with fans, founded by many contributions from the community including Dell630i.
I have started:
Moved the HDD below to make way for the Noctua, the HDD now runs idle at 25°C instead of 34°C. This slightly increased my RTX 3080 fans from ~600 to ~640 RPM when idling at 1755Mhz to maintain the 60°C temp (under 60° the GPU fans cut out).
Added the Noctua 25mm fan as upper front intake on the Y cable supplied joining with the Noctua black front fan. I have not yet fixed it (ties or weather strip) as I am still stumbling how to go about working the front bezel without a dremel tool.