Area 51 R1 CPU Cooler Fan Connector Question

[identitycrisis20]

So today I purchased a complete, but in pieces Area 51 - R1. I was able to reassemble the case and components, plug in all the connectors etc...

But i'm having trouble with the CPU Fan connector. Instead of a standard 4 Pin PWM Fan Connector it has the same 5 Pin Connector the Pump Has. I've tried plugging it into both of the "VGA Fan" connectors on the Cooling board up top, but neither make it spin.

What am I missing here?

Cooler PN is 0W550R on the CPU Assembly.

Thanks!

 

[Cass-Olé]

A picture would help

1st, the Pump & the radiator fan plug into the top left powerboard, in the extreme far left headers, labeled as CPU_LC_Pump1 (black 5pin single-row) & Sys_Fan2 (basic 4pin PWM white)

Instead of your term CPU Fan, could we also use my term Rad-Fan? It's up there in the cooling caddy behind the radiator? If so, could we also call it Sys_Fan, or System Fan? Sys-Rad-Fan, lol

I've seen Dell server fans that have a 5pin on it (like the pump motor has), like these ... otherwise W550R is the correct pump but nearly 100% of the time it's coupled to the 120x38mm PP749 4pin PWM fan. Maybe the prior owner just tossed any old fan in there, thoughts?

I don't know what fan u have, but a qwick google of Dell 5pin fan diagram nets some results above. Looks like the wires are mismatched & would need to be changed over to the 4pin PWM pinout (see below). Attack the back of the 5pin, use a thumbtack or needle or precision tool, push down (compress) on any slot-pin-arms, back pin out, re-set the pin arm to 45degress-ish, push pin back into new slot til it cliks in place, ez-peezy. Do that til u have a PWM pinout, but with one exception: the pinout has to align with the powerboard white header relative to the black 5pin positive top latch, see photos below to make a new (mirror-image) pinout

Since you want to stay away from the black VGA headers, which will make your fan run at 100%, instead
simply push your 5pin over the Sys_Fan2 header as above so the latch touches the white header tab which helps them stay together

***Note that a cooler pump 5pin is shown since this is my photo I use to help people plug the pump into a basic 4pin pwm header. I did however paint in the black-red-white-blue boxes & circles for you to use as a guide if needed

***Bottom line: convert your 5pin over -or- buy a PWM PP749 fan

 

[identitycrisis20]

Wow! Thanks for the great response!

Yes I am referring to the radiator fan. And my connector is the same as one of the 5 pins you provided the pinout for. Thanks so much.

What's troubling is that I would have been happy if the fan spun when plugged into one of the vga ports on the cooling io board.

I actually purchased the Area 51 R1 with one of your evga area 51 MIO board kits I believe.

I also wanted to see if you were still selling the adapter for an after market AIO.

Thanks again!

 

[Cass-Olé]

I assume you got rad-fan converted over, per your photo see the color-chart. After u make it Blk-Red-Wht-Blu, place it onto Sys_Fan2 for variable speed use (monitored, CmndCntr). While it could plug into the VGA header it would run at 100% full-speed at all times (the rest of the white 4pin PWM headers also run 100% at all times = no control)

Also per your photo, your cooling powerboard wiring & CPU 8pin cable should be tucked behind the back wall, using the bottom left & top left access holes (goes in, goes up, comes out, photo right, which is from someone who plugged cooler pump into wrong VGA header). I assume prior owner took EVGA PSU & installed original case harness. PM me here if u need a mind-meld cooling adaptor, $12.50/mailed using PayPal

 

[identitycrisis20]

I assume you got rad-fan converted over, per your photo see the color-chart. After u make it Blk-Red-Wht-Blu, place it onto Sys_Fan2 for variable speed use (monitored, CmndCntr). While it could plug into the VGA header it would run at 100% full-speed at all times (the rest of the white 4pin PWM headers also run 100% at all times = no control)
View attachment 3086View attachment 3087
Also per your photo, your cooling powerboard wiring & CPU 8pin cable should be tucked behind the back wall, using the bottom left & top left access holes (goes in, goes up, comes out, photo right, which is from someone who plugged cooler pump into wrong VGA header). I assume prior owner took EVGA PSU & installed original case harness. PM me here if u need a mind-meld cooling adaptor, $12.50/mailed using PayPal

Thanks so much for the information!. I did not get the pins sorted I didn't even look at the machine yesterday short of snapping that picture of the fan connector.

I think what I will do for the time being is install a pair of fans that came with my Enermax CPU cooler, they should push plenty of air for some basic testing. Can I use a splitter to 2 standard PWM fans off of that one fan header?

My goal here was to get the system up and running, make sure I understand how the vents and lighting work, etc... with the original hardware installed. Then tear it all down again to rebuild it with my 9700k rig

I didn't realize the loom wasn't installed at first then when I saw where it needed to run I had already had the drive cage cover back on and the motherboard installed. this is temporary. I have to take it all apart and remove the plastidip that the previous owner sprayed on. he did a pretty good job, but I don't like the texture or dust it picks up.

for reference, i started with this:




And made it here with windows installed:

 

[Cass-Olé]

Ah, u bought Luke's case ... for a costume change out of the Lunar Shadow I would've personally headed to eBay & bought the entire Cosmic Black or anodized Space Black panel suite

Yes. Sys_Fan2 is the only header on the powerboard that's 'smart' variable-speed, based on CPU Temp (the other x3 headers I believe all push out constant 12volts = full fan speed); the PP749 server-grade rad-fan is rated at ~1.5Amps, so if u run a pair of fans off a splitter, make sure each fan doesnt exceed .75Amps rating (most 25mm fans never go above .5A, the 32mm-38mm types tend between .5A-3A, depending)

 

[identitycrisis20]

I'm not sure where the Previous owner got the case from, he was out of Maine. I'm not sure of his username but he is a visitor of these forums.

i'm going to try and remove the plastidip and see what kind of shape its in underneath. i'd like it to be original, but removing the plastidip from those fins at the top is going to be a pain. I would assume this system was black and not the Silvery color, but I could be wrong. I don't see anything that indicates the color. I'll have to look up the Dell Service ID to see if it tells me.

 

[Cass-Olé]

Ok. I know Luke got EVGA converter kit from me & plasti-dipped his grey case then put it in the for-sale subforum here. P701R top Activent is found on Amazon, I haven't seen any on eBay in a very long while. R841R (grey) front panel there also by same vendor

 

[identitycrisis20]

Ok. I know Luke got EVGA converter kit from me & plasti-dipped his grey case then put it in the for-sale subforum here. P701R top Activent is found on Amazon, I haven't seen any on eBay in a very long while. R841R (grey) front panel there also by same vendor

Where is there a complete list of the components? My service manual doesn't list them or I haven't read it carefully enough. I'd like to shop around and see what I can find. My gut tells me that removing the plastidip isn't going to be as easy as its supposed to be. But I also can't pony up more cash to buy replacement parts for the exterior.

 

[Cass-Olé]

ALX Files: Alien Autopsy | Area-51 R1 Part # List for a Full Restoration

When part shopping, there isnt a common language, the same part may go by several terms, have or won't have a part# with it. In the old days I'd head to eBay - search term = alienware area 51 - then filter results by All > US Only or (N. America) > price low to high > view all results > then deep dive everything for sale. Exact part#'s can go into google also. Example, maybe U561R isn't on eBay (like they used to be) but shows on a google result

If you include the top Activent fin assembly & can source a front panel, a full exterior resto may be $175-$250, depending where & whom u get it all from. Buy what u can when u can. Otherwise, research goop removal best u can, maybe the panels can be saved, dunno, never sprayed it on anything nor took it off

 

[identitycrisis20]

Well, question answered...

I picked at a small pull in the plasti dip the majority of the face came off in a piece or two, and then took some 70% Alcohol pred pads made short work of the plasti dip on the edges of the doors. Unfortunately it revealed doors that are in much tougher shape than i'd like. the motherboard access side is OK, but the hard drive access door is pretty rough in some spots. at least its on the side i don't look at where my pc is setup.
needs some polishing compound and a coat of wax to bring it back up to a shine, unfortunately I don't know if the front door is going to be this easy.

 

[Cass-Olé]

What. was it black underneath? Service Tag, Dell.com/Support, SystemConfig/View Original etc > chassis section tells u the color, but ALX doors are black inside, Cosmic & Lunar aren't (= bare metal)

From experience u can't polish the matte-satin ALX doors (if u use wax, which u can, it may deepen the color also, compared to non-waxed panels) .... but u can polish out Cosmic black & Lunar doors; issue would be u have to do the entire door, not just a small spot. If u polish the entire door u might find u have to polish all the other panels so they all blend. The rubbing compound can/will remove the top 'hazey' layer & reveal the hidden hi-gloss underneath. If u polish a small section, even just once/twice, you'll see the before/after (shiny) spot. Compound changes the look of it fast, & if u want a way out then buy a new door = an option. Whether u saw my polishing post or not it's linked here for whomever ALX-Files: ABOVE TOP SECRET

 

[identitycrisis20]

It's black underneath. Cosmic black? I checked the service tag. That's what it says. It's not an ALX Machinr.

The black ball is the plastidip it essentially came off in a single piece, pretty cool.

 

[identitycrisis20]

Made progress last night, all plastidip removed. Installed push/pull fans on the CPU Cooler. Windows is installed and the venting and lighting works.

Also go the painted surfaces all polished and a quick coat of spray wax on them:

before:



After:


comparing sides:


removing more plastidip:



quick polish and a quick coat of wax:




It's far from perfect, but it looks pretty good, front door system has a few dings in it and it doesn't slide well, neither does the top cover for the front I/O i have to look at how to correct these issues. I also have a few more pieces to install.

 

[identitycrisis20]

I haven't had much time to do anything with this machine, but i have begun to gather things for the reason I bought this rig. The case is for me. the internals or some combination of my spares is for my son's first PC.

So the question is... what kind of Xeon can I put on these x58 boards? is one of the 2 motherboard variants better than the other for this compatibility?

I ran an X5670 on a Gigabyte X58 platform until December of 2018 as my primary gaming rig for 3 or so years. I think it's good place to start for him (he's 6).

It's that or I give him the 3770 system I have with intentions of using as a plex server.

 

[Cass-Olé]

post is edited
There a long time ago the mods at the Dellware forum said there was no Xeon support, & maybe back then prices were high so almost no one took a chance to try one, which means there's no list of which Xeons work or don't. Turns out they did sneak in micro-code for some Xeons in the later Bios updates from say A09 A10 A11. The one time I handled this question was here Area-51 R1, 2009, cpu upgrade help … prior to that the erroneous forum consensus (fed to us by the mods) was there was no support so we never tackled it & may have discouraged people trying which is maybe what the mods wished for, lol. The other consensus is J560M & XDJ4C are otherwise identical, but since XDJ4C is a revision 2.0 it may be the preferred board & may have been purpose-built with the later 980x 990x in mind; when in doubt I choose it over the prpl/lime J560M. Since they share Bios versions, we've treated them as identical … I've owned both & noticed no real difference when viewed side-by-side or when running. Google Area 51 XEON (or Area 51 R1 XEON) & see what u find. Since the OEM for these alienboards are made by MSI, u could google MSI XEON X58 & perhaps see who is using what, or perhaps find a CPU 'QVL' type list of CPUs they support (since MSI probably helped write the Bios for A09 A10 A11, snuck in some XEON support etc). Hope that helps

edit: looks like I tried to link to a verified J560M + X5660 chip paired together for sale (link expired, Bios was A11), & Westmere Xeon Upgrade/ project as the only info I had … we could of course google J560M XEON / XDJ4C Xeon …

 

[identitycrisis20]

I found those threads myself, I don't just ask without googling first haha! I'll probably pick up an x5675 95w 6 core and see how it turns out. I can get one for about $20. That's about as far as I'm willing to take this system. I wish it had 1600mhz ram but that part of this board is extremely limiting and it probably won't get used for much.

 

[identitycrisis20]

Well, I ended up picking up an x5675 (6c/12t 95w 3.06ghz) off of the ebay for about $19. It arrived today and I was able to successfully get it installed and running.

My question, though is that I have seen posts indicating there is a BIOS A11 and Overclock Profiles 1-3 on these motherboards in the BIOS. But I don't seem to be able to get a BIOS higher than A10 or the overclocking preset levels, am I missing something, or are these on later models?

Either way I consider it a win! I've messed around with overclocking x58 enough in the past that I should be able to get a decent overclock on it.

 

[Cass-Olé]

For J560M & XDJ4C MS-7543 mthrbrd, A11 is found in Historical Drivers

Pretty sure most Xeons can't be overclocked (by unlocked multiplier), they wouldn't have had factory support (an OC profile pre-set in Bios). Some Core i7 CPUs had LEVEL 1 2 3 pre-sets, others had Level 1 2. If you have no levels in A10 or A11 for the Xeon, I doubt it's a mistake, & bet that the only support they gave it was enough that it boots up (= I guess u crank up the BCLK value manually

 

[identitycrisis20]

You;'re right on the Xeons, multiplier overclocking is not really a thing, you can adjust them at most to the turbo multi depending on the mainboard I believe. I am familiar with overclocking them using the BCLK, I had an x5670 overclocked to 4 ghz on a Gigabyte x58 board and gamed on it for quite a while.

I did not see the PC Level feature even with the i7 960 I had installed, but admittedly I didn't REALLY look for it prior to swapping the CPU.

Thanks for the BIOS tip, for some reason when I enter my Service tag into the dell support page the best I get is A10.