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Dell Upgrade

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R007 3

Registered
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Location
Calgary
Ya i got a dell dude...

I know this has probably been answered before, but i am new here. Is it possible to upgrade a stock Dell Dimension 4100 case?

Looking to upgrade the motherboard. Just curious if anyone has tried and been successfull or not.
 
Welcome to the forums.

Eaglescouter is correct. Dell uses a proprietary ATX block on their power supply and motherboard, so to replace the board you'll have to replace the PSU, too.

The other problems are common to upgrading any mass-market computer. Unless you pick a board with the same layout the I/O area will need to be cut out so you can use the plate for your new board. You should also expect to do a little work to the motherboard tray area, the standoffs for the stock board rarely match a retail mobo. And you'll have to work out something for the power and reset buttons, and the drive activity LED's.



BHD
 
So it looks like a Dell can be upgraded by removing the custom power supply and custom mother board.

All other components are useable in a new system.

Do I have this right?

Interestingly enough when I ordered my Dell XPST 500 the online rep told me I would be able to upgrade my processor or mother board when I wanted to because Dell uses industry standards. Sure turned out to be a load of bull.
 
the online rep told me I would be able to upgrade my processor or mother board when I wanted to

ya thats what they told me too. :(

So to make things simple... a new mobo, power supply, and a new case and i should be able to go from there?
 
ya i think so eaglescouter, but there would probably have to be some retrofitting to the case - which is why i said maybe a case too. Yes/No?
 
I work for a Dell partner. This means I do hear things from Dell, but not everything.

Most Dells have a propritary power connector. Some Dells use standard ATX, I do not know which ones. I can say that the Optiplex GX1s I work on are definatly not ATX power connectors.
The rest of what they use is standard. You can replace memory, processor, hard drive...no problem. The only thing we have to worry about is motherboards and power supplies. There are some slimline cases that use risers or are micro ATX, but most towers are the standard ATX format.
 
Interesting. However in my experience dell uses non standard mother boards and bios also.

Based on my attempt to upgrade my cpu, and the fact that my system would not boot with a slocket adapter, and only powerleap warrants that their cpu's will work for a dell upgrade (and at quite a cost too!)

I know one thing for sure, NO MORE DELL's FOR ME DUDE!
 
So Ridenow, how much of a retro fit if any at all is required to place another mobo into the originals place?
 
Unless you have some really oddball model that I have never seen there should be no need to change the case. Just the PSU.
 
I'm happy to find this thread, because I bought a couple of Dell Dimension XPS D233s just for the Palo Alto case (I really like the way they build) and the power supply because I had a couple of MicroATX boards with no home. My daughter had exactly the same case with a PIII 450 system from CompUSA that had an SE440BXII board that had both Intel and ATX standard connectors and it was a sweet upgrader. I never suspected the ATX power supply would be non-standard.

The problem I was trying to overcome was the modular plug/ribbon cable combo from the front panel itself to the motherboard connector. The modular plug has the same dimension and pin spacing as an IDE cable but has 16 pins with #14 blocked. I was hoping someone else had come up with a handy little male end that was pinned out for standard ATX with the separate connectors for DC Power, Reset, Pled, HDled and Speaker, but have not located anything yet. I was about to start stripping the ATX front panel connectors out of a dead case and stuffing them into the modular plug and siliconing the whole shebang to isolate them. Good thing I didn't get too far along.

OK, so you can replace the power supply--I figured the 200W units would be ok, darn it--and the old motherboard, but what do you do about the modular plug? I didn't want to strip the case down that far, but come to think of it, there must be a little piece of pcb in the front panel that has a matched set of pins to the motherboard for the plug on the other end of the ribbon cable, maybe it would be easier to attack it from there.

Does anyone know if there are ATX front panel wiring extenders? Kinda like stringing up your xmas lights.
 
Yeah not a lot of fun to upgrade a Dell. I converted a Dell XPSR Dimension over to run an Iwill AMD board and ran it that way for about a year. Issues that need to be addressed - replace the PS, modify or replace ATX back plane (hopefully with one supplied with yr new MB), install a little speaker (I yanked one from an old AT case), and strip out and replace front panel wiring (again having an old donor case is handy). Mounting aspects are standard ATX so physically installing everything is straightforward. Applies I'm pretty certain to D's all the way through to 4100.

Dell would prefer you replace the whole works, which is what most Dell owners end up doing. :( Didnt get me though LOL :D
 
calvin, are you running your xp333r in that dell box? Good on you if you are. I've got a couple of Biostar AMD boards I want to put in my Dell Dimension cases and the only issues for me are the front panel connector issue and the power supply; everything else is **** city cause the i/o backplane is Standard ATX, minus the nasty little riser card you find in some Optiplex models.
 
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