AtomSnakes343

Thanks, @Jerryzago! Just to confirm, when you talk about the guy in China who sells custom GPUs, you mean he sells custom GPU heatsinks - right? If so, can you tell me where to find him or provide a link? Is it the guy who sells the 5-pipe heatsink? Because that looks interesting. Is it worth it? Mine came with 3 pipes. Also, where could I find custom speakers?

Hi all. I've got an old Alienware 17 R1 built in mid 2014 and bought early 2015. The original specs were a 500 or so GB HDD, an i7-4700MQ, 16GB of 1600Mhz RAM, and a GTX 880M. This computer holds sentimental value for me and I very much admire its reliability and upgradeability. Even after a decade, no part has failed and it can still open and work just fine - despite the inside being dirty, dusty, and a melon incident a few years ago where yours truly accidentally left a melon on a paper plate on it for two days. Even then, whilst it did leak and caused shadows on my screen the computer still runs fine. I had an issue where the computer wouldn't boot up or POST some years ago, though I'm not sure if it was before or after the melon incident. I think it was before? I dug around inside found out the top RAM sticks' pins were corroded; the DIMM slots themselves are fine. I took one of the sticks out and also had to take the other one out, and from then on I've had no problems other than the keyboard and mousepad failing. So here's where I am right now: I've disassembled practically the entire thing; taken out the battery, HDD, ODD, CPU, GPU, heatsinks and fans, the Wi-Fi card, the speakers, and the entire upper palmrest-keyboard-mousepad assembly in addition to the screen. The computer is really dirty due to age; not much of the melon stuff got inside, though there is some white corrosion and oxidation(?) on the actual metallic parts of the chassis itself plus some green corrosion on the ethernet/LAN port. Considering its age, the melon incident, and the fact that it wasn't used and I let it gather dust....it's in damn good shape. Boots to the OS fine, can do stuff...just throttled to hell and back. I intend to send what remains to some specialist that can clean the chassis, inspect the motherboard - maybe give it an ultrasonic bath and repair anything they find - and change the CMOS battery. All the parts that I've mentioned I removed will be replaced with new ones, with the exception of the ODD. Here's what I'm thinking/what my general plan is: 1. Clean everything and repair the motherboard if needed via an expert 2. Change the CMOS battery 3. Install 32GB of DDR3L-2133 RAM. 4. Install an mSATA SSD for the OS, plus two 2.5 SATA SSDs for storage. 5. Install an i7-4940MX 6. Install an RTX 2070 MXM from Eurocom 7. See if I can get Eurocom to flash me a compatible vBIOS, modify my heatsink, and install proper thermal pads 8. Install new cooling for the CPU and GPU: liquid metal, new fans, and undervolt both 9. Install either a 1080p 120Hz display or a 4k 60Hz display; but, tbh, I can get away with the former for the internal display and the latter being an external one. I've heard you can maybe mod the motherboard to support a 1440p 165Hz or 4k 120Hz display 10. Install new antennae and an AX210 via mini-PCIe to M.2 adapter 11. Install a new palmrest (mousepad included) and keyboard 12. Enable UEFI and Secure Boot, then install Windows 11 via Rufus (damn you Microsoft for retiring Windows 10!!) 13. Install an OEM battery and pair it with a 330W power unit My questions are these: 1. How much should the CPU and GPU be undervolted by? 2. Is that display mod I mentioned possible? 3. If I get the RTX 2070 and flash a correct vBIOS, mod the heatsink, etc., do I still have to screw around with the motherboard's BIOS too much? Will just updating it to the latest version and maybe unlocking it do? I ask because I've heard this is a pain and risky; if I brick the thing, I've little clue on how to fix it. Perhaps I could ask the pros to do it? 4. If I have INF modded drivers, I can still use NVIDIA's software to update my drivers normally - right? Or do I have to do it manually each time? 5. I've heard a lot about people doing GTX 1070 MXM mods and such, but I've found fewer resources on the RTX 2070. I do remember seeing some people doing it somewhere, but I have some difficulty finding it; maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. I know I've seen people attempt and even succeed in putting monster 4080s and such inside (lmfao), so there you go. 6. Is it possible to install a more modern keyboard, like from an R2 or R3, or should I just use OEM? 7. Is there any chance I could get better fans? I mean, even clean OEM ones with new/unused bearings would be much better than what I have now - especially paired with the clean chassis, brand heatsink for the GPU, liquid metal, and undervoting - but I just want to see what my options are. 8. I just want to make sure the 2014 R1 can handle 2133MHz of DDR3L RAM, as mine came with 1600MHz and I've heard some conflicting reports. 9. Is there any more modern speaker I can install, or do I just get the OEM Klipsch? Those were always quite good IMO and I preferred them over anything else I had at the time, but the actual audio drivers have disintegrated by this point. 10. Any ideas for other upgrades? Lol I'm relatively new to all of this, so I apologize if my questions sound dumb or uninformed - though I suppose I AM coming here to get informed, lol. As I said, this computer holds great sentimental value to me and I still respect its reliability and modularity to this day. I do believe it can remain a solid machine even a decade later. I also just need a hobby/something to keep my mind occupied and stimulated, and will probably have to at least learn some programming and computer stuff for my own personal/technical education, so I'm just also really interested in the process and learning. Any help would be appreciated. I've also posted the exact same post on the Dell forums.