1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. To chat with the GameOgre community, you need to have at least 100 posts. Once you have the 100 posts, post at Become A New Ogre
    Dismiss Notice

Big Rig Upgrade

Discussion in 'Gaming PC' started by ogreman, Sep 13, 2017.

  1. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Ok, going to have a little journal here of my work on the big rig as it is progresses. Currently learning a lot very quickly so I figured it would be nice to share in this forum:).

    For starters, lets define what the big rig is. The big rig is my Alienware Aurora ALX that I bought way back in 2009. It has been a great PC longer than any of my past PCs by far. The only problem is that I have never tried to upgrade until now.

    After Harvey finally died down in Texas, I got started on trying to upgrade the graphics cards, hard drive, and add ram. I was able to add a hard drive easily, but the rest has been harder than expected with the cards being the real problem. That problem is that I made a bad mistake in 2009 when I bought a dual graphics card setup rather than a single powerful card. Besides never really working, it has only increased the complexity of upgrading the system.

    Removing the two cards was not that hard other than removing a very small connector that was not listed in any diagram and having to get the bottom card around a cable without hurting either. The fun began when I went to get the 1050 GTX to install it in a slot. It is about the same size as the previous two cards combined. Therefore, it would not fit in the top or bottom slot so I am now stuck with what I can do now. Should I get a smaller card to fit one of the two slots or make it fit the bigger card?
     
    Mayonnaise and Blasphy like this.
  2. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    The "platforms" are for inputs in the back of the PC. The bottom one is a network card that is not needed so thinking about removing that one to see. The top input "platform" is sound and has a cable firmly attached to it. Thus, thinking about either trying the bottom card slot after removing the network card or even putting the sound card directly on bottom so I can have all that room above it.
     
  3. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Ok the graphics have been updated as of last night with the GTX 1050 and the Big Rig is back:). Big thanks goes out to Aaddron for helping me during the process.

    Also, finally installed a new hard drive but it hasn't been properly set up yet.

    May get some bigger and better ram before adding that.
     
  4. StormJayne

    StormJayne Big Brute New Ogre

    Messages:
    164
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Credit:
    4,786.68
    can you perhaps list all the specs of your pc..

    just curious tho~
     
  5. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Well, it is an Alienware Aurora ALX from 2009 and it has a GTX 1050 GPU. The rest is stock minus a new 1TB HDD that I recently installed but not really using yet.
     
  6. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Actually, going to try to use that new hard drive before my old one fails.
     
  7. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Ok, finally added the hard drive I installed a month or so ago and backed up my old hard drives that were supposedly failing. The only downside is that now nearly all my new hard drive is taken with the back up lol. Oh well, may have to install one more:).
     
  8. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Upgraded a 2TB hard drive on Halloween and I guess I was downloading too much because my router "cried uncle" all day until about 30 minutes ago lol.
     
  9. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Next will be adding memory. I got two 2GB memory "sticks". Hoping this will work fine since I already have 3 sticks of 2GB in the PC:). Have 6 slots total.
     
    Qsljic likes this.
  10. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Just went back to WoW after 7 years. Not sure if its lack of memory or a slow connection, but some areas are choppier than I remember.
     
  11. Aaddron

    Aaddron Moderator Staff Member GameOgre Moderator

    Messages:
    42,963
    Likes Received:
    3,053
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    277,410.13
    The game is deceptively demanding these days. Don't remember the exact reason.
     
  12. Heromanguy12

    Heromanguy12 Ogre Hall of Fame Royal Ogre

    Messages:
    33,203
    Likes Received:
    1,493
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    1,279,409.98
    Well that sure was a long break! I hope it has been great to come back i assume.
     
  13. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

    Messages:
    51,981
    Likes Received:
    8,869
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Credit:
    497,296.69
    Yes, fairly easy to get back into:).
     

Share This Page