Area51 x58 ALX Upgrade

[LukeG310]

I got my hands on an all Black Area 51 7500 Predator 2.1 case AKA Area 51 x58 case.

I saw on a different forum about Project Dianoga that was an inspiration. I tried to create an account to thank AlienALX for the inspiration but OC3D.net wont verify my email...

My Alienware Area 51r1 with Active vents is amazing tower but I needed to get something smaller and wanted to put a 360mm radiator to cool my processor. I got an extra radiator shroud to mod and mess around but it looked like I need to do heavy cutting and did not have the tools or skills.

Ebay notifications let me know of an Area51 7500 case on sale and I had some ebay bucks which ended up being a win-win situation. I looked online for custom towers and found AlienALX's mods.

After studying every picture I got the parts and was able to do my conversion. Below are the pictures of my journey.


360mm radiator shroud installation connected and painted to hide the cuts.



360mm radiator shroud installation connected and painted to hide the cuts. Since I used wire cutters and a small dremel I ended up bending some of the metal so it took a while to straighten out the metal to mount the fans.


Everything connected with a cardboard shroud to hide the messy cables. Upon powering on the computer the AlienFX was not working!!!



I noticed my C2D ALX case had this adapter. Upon further inspection I noticed it had two cables that connected to the AlienFX/MIO board.




Adapter installed, AlienFX working! I did some cable management to cleanup the clutter. I also modified the 92mm fan holder to work with the slim profile Noctua fan.




Computer complete!

 

[Eakers]

Nice!

Good work, very cool that you swapped the fan, and the front cooler is sick!

 

[LukeG310]

Thank you Eakers. I am still trying to find a way in my mind to put the 140mm mod you recommended.

 

[MattyB]

Awesome work. Looks clean.

 

[LukeG310]

Thank you!

 

[LukeG310]

Cass-ole is a miracle worked. He was able to build me a custom adapter. Now my case is compete.

Side note. I’m experimenting with bottom mounted fans to see if they help my GPU. I’m thinking of drilling couple of holes for air and installing taller feet.

 

[Allen25151]

View attachment 2680

 

[Allen25151]

Have two of these same setup with fans. Installed same 120/140 adapter on a P-1 120 rear fan.

 

[Eakers]

Good afternoon everyone,

I happened to drill a hold in the bottom of my case, to add a fan for airflow. This helped drop case temps by 4-6 degrees C. Right now, I have a dual 140mm cpu cooler, and no rear case fan, as the CPU cooler is only about an inch from the rear of the case.

Has anyone noticed a colling difference once an external rear fan is added? I would only look into doing this if it at least added around 3 degrees C. Otherwise, I have seen some people use about an inch of duct-like material, to create an airflow channel to move the air directly towards the case exit.

 

[Allen25151]

Hi, Take in account of the positive or negative case air pressure from total fan airflow. Fans Inflow and exhaust volume with panels in place. Example Five fans with Three pushing in and Two exhausting along with open vented area. See if open vent area is exit or entrance of additional airflow. A simple test is pieces of tissue paper (kleenex) taped over part of open vents to see flow direction. Just a basic air flow test and then change fan speeds to see if tissue piece moves. Without airflow testing equipment this is a simple test to see how fans are doing on case airflow. Use a small LED flashlight to view paper if moving inward at venting (inside) with case closed up. Exterior air flow at vents without fans should be visible when fan speed changed. Rear fan on outside even if single adds clearance to coolers and has worked on lots of cases in past. If case has grill crown just add a spacer or stack old gutted fan same size. Positive case pressure is best for pushing out dust at air cracks and not becoming dust bunnies. Check it out and see what you get.

 

[LukeG310]

Update to my build.

-I swapped out RAM and got some Corsair Dominator's and the Dominator cooler.
-My Corsair ML-120's were collecting dust so I went ahead and mounted them on the radiator and on the bottom to help blow air.
-Ordered a PCIE stand to keep the fans and GPU from sagging.

My case did get louder so I had to adjust the air flow on the corsairs to help keep them at a good level of air flow and stay quiet. I used two 3 fan splitters and had the fans set on 60%. The temperatures on my CPU did drop about 6-8 degrees on load. The temperatures on my GPU dropped about 5 degrees on load.

Overall I am happy for $25 dollar mod (PCIE holder , PCIE 92mm/120mm fan holder, 2 3PWM fan splitter) I was able to squeeze extra performance. In terms of further mods I am still debating in drilling small holes and adding taller feet for more air flow from the bottom. Eventually when the Chromax version of the Noctuas NF-A12x25 come out then I will have the perfect black/gray color scheme.

 

[Allen25151]

Taller Feet. The old Chieftec pivot feet like on Alienware, Chieftec, Antec will fit on the 7500 P-2 cases for taller feet. But the plastic is not good for finished surfaces. The next step is to put round rubber feet inside the pivot base and are a little taller to add clearance. Rubber Feet on eBay. Also, rubber feet are good sound insulators. Aluminum feet have to small of rubber contact for the weight. I have used these rubber feet with two large washers and without the pivot assembly for extra height under the case. Another method I have used was rubber stick-on pads cut to fit the pivot feet for surface protection and sound buffer. Have you modified the side panel for airflow from the grill?

 

[LukeG310]

Thank you for this information Allen!

I haven’t modified the side panels. It did run through my mind but was not sure if it would add better thermal performance?

I have seen another person do a custom white P2 and he put a different grill After cutting up the sides. I thought this was more for aesthetics.