Alienware 7500 PC Case Build

looking good the Alienware from the early 200's were a thing of my dreams but crazy expensive. shame dell got hold of them :-(
They were weren’t they! If you get lucky the cases can come up at reasonable prices.

Hoping to update this soon as a finished build, i’ve since managed to get it booting to bios initially.
 
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looking good the Alienware from the early 200's were a thing of my dreams but crazy expensive. shame dell got hold of them :-(

Was the best thing that ever happened.

That is how and why these cases made it into the wild. In around 2006 when Dell took over Alienware they were forced to sign an EU document that stopped them shoving things into landfill. The Alienware factory was in Shannon Ireland and the document made them sell off returned orders and etc to third parties for recycling, instead of sending them to landfill.

My first predator 2 (the bogey, cyborg green) was bought for less than £300 as a whole PC. Core 2 Duo E4500, EVGA 680i SLi 750w PSU etc. The RRP was about £1300. All of my cases came from the same company, who bought PCs and cases by the pallet and sold them off on Ebay. My silver one (the only one I still have, ALX) came from them also. IIRC I paid £120 for the black ALX case, then bought a silver regular non ALX case for £60 and swapped the silver panels onto it. Still got it too.

Nowadays they sell them themselves. They started the Dell outlet to do just that. As I said, they are under contract now. Before? they would literally send a customer return PC to landfill as they could not resell it as new. But yeah, they soon learned they would make far more money selling it on the outlet rather than selling it at auction by the pallet load.
 
Did you solve the boot issue? Nothing more frustrating than completing a build and "computer says no"! :mad:
I did! Currently trying to install windows, my next task is to work out how I can shut the side panel without completely ruining the GPU power cables. Aside from bending them i’m tempted to try a 90 degree connector but fear might fry at somepoint.

(I would show a pic but struggling with imgur embedding)
 
What a wonderful case. Rarer than you might think, in such good condition
Thanks appreciate it, it took me a while to find and I had to ‘settle’ for black rather than the neon ones. Would love to get the lights working on it at somepoint, i’ve seen it done via a raspberry pi.
 
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Would love to get the lights working on it at somepoint, i’ve seen it done via a raspberry pi.

You might also want to look at ESPHome. It pairs very well with Home Assistant but it can be done on its own. ESP32's and ESP32 S3's can be had even cheaper than Pi's. ESPHome would let you program them with a bit of YAML script.... which you can largely copy and paste from Google :D
I rather like the M5Stack Atom S3 Lite (which you can get for about £7) as they come with a button, an RGB LED and various other bits like an IR sender, not to mention a case.
 
You might also want to look at ESPHome. It pairs very well with Home Assistant but it can be done on its own. ESP32's and ESP32 S3's can be had even cheaper than Pi's. ESPHome would let you program them with a bit of YAML script.... which you can largely copy and paste from Google :D
I rather like the M5Stack Atom S3 Lite (which you can get for about £7) as they come with a button, an RGB LED and various other bits like an IR sender, not to mention a case.
Thanks didn’t even think of esp32’s. I’m hopefull as I still have the original controller board with dip switches that if i can power it maybe via molex then it might do something :)
 
I did! Currently trying to install windows, my next task is to work out how I can shut the side panel without completely ruining the GPU power cables. Aside from bending them i’m tempted to try a 90 degree connector but fear might fry at somepoint.

(I would show a pic but struggling with imgur embedding)
Does anyone have any advice for me? I really don’t want to bend the 8 pin connectors on my GPU (its a 9070XT pulse so it has 2 8 pins towards the middle facing straight at the side panel!)
 
Does anyone have any advice for me? I really don’t want to bend the 8 pin connectors on my GPU (its a 9070XT pulse so it has 2 8 pins towards the middle facing straight at the side panel!)
So far as I know, quality 90 degree adapters are safe to use on 8-pin power connectors, it was adapters for 12VHPWR that were recalled.
 
I know you can get 180° connectors for at least some of the combinations of 6+6, 6+8, 8+8. Bound to be some dodgy ones as there are most things but, as has been said, the main issues are with the newer power connectors.
 
Does anyone have any advice for me? I really don’t want to bend the 8 pin connectors on my GPU (its a 9070XT pulse so it has 2 8 pins towards the middle facing straight at the side panel!)
So I've used a couple of 8 pin 180' PCI-E connectors for years now, first on my 3080 for a nice, neat finish on my vertical mount, and now on my 9070XT as well. They're great and no bother whatsoever. Pics with the 9070XT, but they're not so easy to see.

fR7nDeo.jpg

SfK61NK.jpg

And with my 3080, before I got the coloured, braided cables:
D3GYXfu.jpg
 
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RE the lights.

These are very very old RGB bulbs. They have a + for each colour and a ground. So there are 4 wires per LED.

You will be better off using modern RGB. IE replacing the bulbs with strips and etc.
 
So I've used a couple of 8 pin 180' PCI-E connectors for years now, first on my 3080 for a nice, neat finish on my vertical mount, and now on my 9070XT as well. They're great and no bother whatsoever. Pics with the 9070XT, but they're not so easy to see.

fR7nDeo.jpg

SfK61NK.jpg

And with my 3080, before I got the coloured, braided cables:
D3GYXfu.jpg
They look perfect thanks! Will take a look around.

Thanks everyone
 
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