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X51 R3, question regarding factory mounting of radiator
Hello Dell/Alienware team & Dell community members,
I have a quick question regarding how the stock liquid cooler was mounted in the X51 R3 desktop from the factory. I recently upgraded a non-liquid cooled X51 R3 to an i7-6700k and installed the factory water cooler which I purchased online.
When going to install the radiator portion on the back of my X51 r3, I ran into a bit of an obstacle. I couldn't figure out where to screw in the radiator to the back of the chassis as there were no pre-drilled holes for it on my chassis. Being in a bit of a rush to get the cooler installed, I simply drilled some pilot holes in the back and mounted the radiator, just to find that I had drilled the holes too high and the side panel wouldn't close.
When going back and doing a bit more investigation online (I know I should have done this first lol, lesson learned), I noticed that the holes are pre-drilled in those two circular sections on the back of the case. Silly me, I should have looked first before drilling.
Here's what threw me off though. A while back, I was looking at this system for sale to determine the feasibility of upgrading a non lc cooled X51 to the OEM liquid cooler:
Notice, he lists this R3 as having liquid cooling, but where are the holes in the back for the rad? Here's another one that was reviewed when the X51 r3 was new with the factory installed AIO:
Again, no holes.
Here is a factory shipped system, WITH the holes.
This is what screwed me up, and of course banging my head after the installation lol, at least it worked:
So my question to Dell/Alienware or any knowledgeable members, how was the liquid cooler mounted without the screw holes on the R3? Just taped on the inside or some other mounting solution I can't see? Can someone with a factory-installed R3 AIO without the screw holes chime in?
I have tons of photos of this stuff, so please ask if I was unclear about anything and I will do my best to clear it up. In the x51 r3 service manual if you look closely enough at the "removing processor cooler" part for the AIO, you can see the pre-drilled holes in the two circular sections in the back, so how was it mounted without holes???
P.S.: Here's another weird thing. I have an X51 R2 laying around, after screwing up with the X51 r3, I decided, let me look at the back of the R2, and low and behold, it had the screw holes for the rad!:
So what's going on here guys? I know the x51 r2 can support the i7-4790k, so did some systems come with the option to add the R3 liquid cooler to the R2, because I thought the R2 never came with a factory-installed water cooling option?
uberck
8 Posts
0
March 28th, 2020 14:00
bump, anyone?
Vjiron
1 Message
0
April 21st, 2020 10:00
Bump.
Ate1240
5 Posts
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April 22nd, 2020 21:00
off*
Ate1240
5 Posts
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April 22nd, 2020 21:00
only the X51 R3 can accommodate the aio, it has the proper motherboard for it as the R2 only has 1 fan header and not the required cpu pump and fan header. As far as the holes are concerned I bought an aio of ebay and it was "new" which I actually believed because of the perfectly applied round dab of thermal paste on the aio... and it came with all screws (4 total) and the thing sits in there perfectly fine without mounting it in the rear. If you have ocd you may want to drill holes and find screws that will mount it to the back of your case but it's not necessary, the thing is in there so tight it doesn't move. I seen the Alienware installation guide and it also doesn't mention anything about screws for the back so that was case closed for me.
Ate1240
5 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2020 21:00
on* the cpu
Ate1240
5 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2020 21:00
https://content.etilize.com/User-Manual/1032805887.pdf
here is the link to the install. I did the same thing and got a I7 6700k and my temps run at about high seventies when using aida64, otherwise its in the mid 50's. Every once in a while there's a little water bubbling but it goes away pretty fast and the thing is super silent. I did remove the stock thermal paste and used thermal grizzly Kryonaut so that may be something else to consider. All in all it was easy and I only had to reinstall it 3 times due to my incompetence because it was my first time ever doing something like this. A few things to consider is that there is this plastic ring which I don't know what purpose it serves but it's on there so I kept it on there and it doesn't really click into anything and it's more of a guide I guess I really was contemplating taking the stupid thing off but the first time I used too much or too little thermal paste and I was getting temps in the 90's. The second time that stupid ring moved and got in the way of the heat plate siting flush of the cpu, the third time was just right (eyes rolling). The next thing that may mess you up is to make sure your mounting plate thingy is aligned properly, it doesn't lock into anything and it can swivel one little notch over and not be aligned perfectly which happened my first time installing it and may have contributed to the bad temps although the thermal paste was perfectly spread and not all over the place. I hope this helps!
Ate1240
5 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2020 22:00
I would also consider this as a real good option, only $80 bucks plus tax and it runs VERY quiet and fits perfectly, you'll have to ditch the plastic shroud that guides the air out but I installed this in a X51 R2 with the best I7 4790 (non k because the R2 doesn't support overclocking) and it runs temps using aida64 at the low to mid 60's just blowing the air down into the system... which by the way has a pny 2070 super!!! Everything is cool and no overheating issues with the side panels on all closed up. I don't know how it would handle the 6700k but I assume the temps to be right on par if not just a few degrees higher but it works really awesome!