Alienware Area 51 7500

[Elf]

Nice machine, I wonder what that all would have cost at the time?

 

[Irinikus]

Nice machine, I wonder what that all would have cost at the time?

A lot, I'm sure!

 

[Irinikus]

This is the best 3DMark06 score the machine could muster before I slotted the low latency Patriot DDR2 RAM:

And it got this score with the new RAM slotted:

So the memory does make a marginal difference to the machines performance! (A 3% improvement to be exact!!!)

 

[Irinikus]

Using MSI Afterburner, the system statistics show that this machine in it's current configuration with the Quadro Plex can do what two 8800 Ultras in SLI simply wouldn't have been able to do, as they'd be out of video memory!

 

[Irinikus]

I've built this system to demonstrate the performance of the Nvidia Quadro Plex 1000 Model IV running on period specific hardware. (This video just shows the setup.)

 

[Elf]

Neat to actually see one of those Quadro Plexes in action, thanks for posting it up

 

[Irinikus]

It’s a pleasure! They seem to largely be forgotten pieces of hardware!

 

[Irinikus]

I had some drama this morning when trying to fire up my Alienware system for the first time in months!!!! (Liquid Cooling Loop Pump failure!!!)

At first I thought that the CPU had cooked itself, but luckily after "de-modding" the system (replacing the original cooler), I was happy to find that the CPU still works!

Nothing like completely rebuilding a PC at 06:00 in the morning!!! (The motherboard had to be removed for me to reinstall the cooler's bracket!!!)

Here's the removed cooling loop:

Here's the "de-modded" system:

 

[Irinikus]

 

[Irinikus]

 

[Elf]

Ouch, what happens when the pump fails? Does it go into thermal shutdown, or can it reach a boil?

 

[Irinikus]

The thermal protection feature of the CPU kicked in, luckily!

At first I didn’t know what had happened, as the machine got to a point where it wouldn’t POST, and wasn’t displaying a video output.

When I opened the machine up, I noticed that the fluid wasn’t flowing in the cooling loop, and there were bubbles on either side of the cooling block, indicating that the fluid had started to boil!

I’m still going to open the pump to see what happened internally. I suspect that the ethylene glycol clogged up the bush that the impeller sits on! I’ll report back on this!

 

[Irinikus]

I cracked the pump open, and the impeller was indeed ceased due to an ethylene glycol buildup.

I cleaned it, and the impeller now spins normally when power's applied!

I won't be installing liquid cooling into any other systems in a hurry!!!