Hi all,
First of all, this is my first post and I'm not english native so for sure this thread will have errors!
i'm writing this post because I have an Aurora R3 bought in 2011 and lately, I wanted to upgrade it...but I've never found a real clear post saying if it will works or not changing the mobo, etc.... We all know that the MIO board and Command Center could be a problem when changing HW so I will tell my story exactly how it goes.
At first, before changing anything, I've been watching over which motherboard I would like...I'm a gamer and I will do some overclocking so I had two in mind: ASUS Maximus VII Gene and MSI Z97M Gaming...both MicroATX of course. I've printed the layout of the board, open my case and checked all cables that could be problematic with the MIO board because rest is standard. After checking all and of course price, I've decided to buy the MSI Z97M because some cabling to connect the MIO board were easier...and the mobo is really nice also!
I kept the DELL power supply because I've seen that a lot of cables (MIO board, Fan, etc...) are connected directly to it and it's a 875W so I don't really need more now.
About CPU, I've choose the i7-4770K and RAM I took 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws but for the upgrade, of course, these components are not an issue. I bought also Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste and Arctic Silver cleanser to do some cleaning of the watercooling system but here I had some trouble...I will explain later.
Basically, taking out everything inside my Aurora was easy...I've put some labels on cables and no problem at all. Where I had problem was to fix the watercooling system...I was not able to fix the backplate to my MSI, the holes did not correspond, I tried to fix them in different way but I couldn't...so today it's the INTEL fan but I've ordered a Corsair H75 watercooling system I will install next week. I'm sure there's a way but then I thought that it was 3 years old and I could change it also...
About MIO board connection, no problem at all, I've just connected the cables on same position on my MSI and that's it (one cable to USB1 and one cable to Front Panel). In 1 hour I had all set, cables connected and all ready to start.
For Windows, I had Acronis True Image 2014 for a long time to do my backups but then I've upgraded it to PREMIUM because you can do a "universal restore" as they call. You can restore your actual windows to any other computer with different HW. During the restoration, you just have to point to the new drivers...and that's it. So I tried it...I had, of course, some drivers errors during the restore but then, after all finished, my computer reboot.
My first reaction was good because I've seen my Alienware case with the exact same color lightning as before, which means that command center was also working! No errors (only for the pump because it's not connected) but no issues with fans and so on.
I've installed all other drivers that correspond to my MSI but today I can tell that my system is exactly the same as before upgrading, my windows is the same with different drivers and I have no errors anywhere not even in Device Manger...nothing...just all is running perfectly.
Of course, it's only one day but I've been gaming during hours yesterday and really nothing at all.
So, I just wanted to share my experience because before doing my upgrade I was really anxious about the MIO board and lightning but also about my Windows (I didn't want to reinstall all) and I'm really happy to see that my HW and SW processes just worked!
Just one word, before upgrading your Alienware Desktop PC, do some researches and try to find the best HW for you...it's not that complicated...and nothing is impossible!
Keep in touch...