Dell MB replacement

[smilingmale]

Does anyone know if there is a good replacement for a Dell 8200 motherboard? It has an Intell mPGA478B processor?

 

[Budman]

http://www.dell.com/

 

[cubby1223]

I replaced one once with a Gigabyte i845 board. If you just get a new HSF along with the board, pretty much any mATX board will fit right in.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: Budman
http://www.dell.com/

In other words, you just can't be sure with a brand name system that anything will work in it; they tend to create "proprietary" versions of everything, so that off the shelf parts won't work (this isn't a blanket case - Dell sells a few "Gamers' System" PC's every so often that have the usual parts inside that anyone could go out and buy to assemble one. But those are so seldom asked for by Dell's customers that they are quite rare by comparison to all of the rest).


:brokenheart:

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I replaced one once with a Gigabyte i845 board. If you just get a new HSF along with the board, pretty much any mATX board will fit right in.

Don't you also have to replace the Power Supply? I thought Dell used a non-standard connector to the MB from the PS. Connectors to the drives, etc are standard but not to the MB I think.

 

[juktar]

The easiest thing to do is buy a Motherboard that will fit your CPU and RAM and add a case. No biggie at all as the only proprietary parts would be the case and MB anyways.

 

[Harvey]

If your Dell system is working, it's worth more as a whole computer than whatever you could get for the parts. Sell it, and build the machine you want.

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: Buz2b

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I replaced one once with a Gigabyte i845 board. If you just get a new HSF along with the board, pretty much any mATX board will fit right in.

Don't you also have to replace the Power Supply? I thought Dell used a non-standard connector to the MB from the PS. Connectors to the drives, etc are standard but not to the MB I think.

Correct. Dell motherboards, cases and PSUs are all proprietary designs.

Here's an idea, buy a standard ATX motherboard and shell out another $70 to buy this case. It includes a decent Antec 350 watt PSU. Pretty quiet too.

Throw out your old Dell case and MOBO, keep your CPU, RAM, drives, cables, etc. Those are all standard. You'll end up with a much better computer for the money than a Dell and when it's time to upgrage, you'll be able to use standard parts.