Aurora R1(?) upgrading the motherboard questions

[arnjolt]

I've done some searching, but haven't found exactly what I'm looking for and some conflicting information.

I've got an Alienware Aurora purchased in 2009, I think it would be considered an R1. It has an i7-920. It's old. It runs great, I've upgraded the videocard and ram and even tossed in a SSD. However, the board is limiting it now. I've got some questions.

Can I replace the board and still keep the liquid cooling and fans? I've read conflicting answers on this.
Can I keep the power supply? I've read conflicting answers that Dell is known for swapping cables to keep their stuff propitiatory
What board/chip should I get should the answers for the first two be yes?
Should the answers be no, I'm assuming it will be better off just buying a case and building a new computer.

 

[jayhernandez7]

What is it exactly that your current motherboard is limiting?

 

[holeyguy66]

yes you can swap out to an off the shelf mother board. and yes you can keep all the lights fans and all that. question is why not just use the headers on the affer market mother board. but in order for you to have the command center work which means the lights. you have to install and older version of command center and set it o never update. if it does it will brick the pc to my knowledge. dont worry your command center off you restore disk should work. mine did and i have an r3. but if you are using windows 10 command enter will not work.


no need to unpin any connectors you just need a set of cables like i used to make it all work.

and to answer 1 and 2 yes and yes

chip set is up to you. and depends on how much you wanna spend.

as long as the mother board your looking at is a micro atx board a fullsize will not fit at all. there is some one on here that is working on making that end of the spectrum work.

and last but not least. i am also curious as to what the board is limiting.