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dell motherboard

K

kovans

Junior Member
guys please please give me good help ive looked everywhere and cant find anything. this is the problem my dad has agreed to buy me the Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 case, but there is a problem. I dont know if the motherboard from a Dell Dimension 4500 will fit into the new case. i dont know how i can test it or not i really need to know before changing the cases please guys i really need some good information plzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
More than likely the motherboard in your Dell is a mATX form factor. If the Gigabyte 3D Aurora accepts mATX motherboards then you'll be OK.
 
it supports a wide variety i just dont want to go my the case remove my mobo from the tray its attached too and find out that it wont fit u get my drift but i also heard that if a few of the mounting holes are screwed in that i should not be worried but there is another problem the I/O panel wont fit so i have to see but more than likely i will get the case tomorrow
 
Originally posted by: Fayd
dells have a proprietary standoff configuration.. good luck getting it to fit.
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Weird, considering most Dell motherboards have "E210882" screen printed on them.

E210882 is the UL file number for Intel desktop motherboards. Most Dell boards are straight-forward OEM boards from Intel.

Dell's small form factor boards are proprietary, but not mATX or ATX boards, excepting a few models in the past that used proprietary ATX connectors. The rear I/O shield configuration is probably non-standard or at least very uncommon, though it should be replaceable with one that matches the board.
 
Here's my take on this:

I have both an older Dimension 8400, as well as a couple of mATX boards from my SFF systems. One of the mATX ones is my old Intel brand D945G. Both this particular Intel board, as well as the board in the 8400 have UL E210882. But the Dell boards probably aren't the off-the-shelf Intel boards that you can just buy at an eTailer. There are some important differences:

- The 8400 board has a proprietary front panel USB pinout
- The standoff holes on the 8400 board do not match the Intel board's holes. Nor do they seem to be in any sort of standard position.

As far as the Gigabyte case, I eyeballed the NewEgg pictures, and from the standoff hole positions, it looks like it can take a mATX board. With the exception of the two leftmost holes, I think mATX holes are the same as ATX holes anyway. So at worst, even if a case doesn't have the two mATX specific holes, most of the screws will still be grounded. (someone please correct me here if I'm wrong)

But in this case, we may not have a standard mATX board (or even a mATX form factor one at all). We don't know for sure until the OP posts a picture of the Dell board.
 
Ok, so from looking at the second picture, your board also appears to have the proprietary front panel USB ribbon cable. I have no idea what form factor that is. It looks like it has 5 expansion slots. Too wide to be mATX, but not wide enough to be regular ATX. Hard to tell from the angle where the standoff holes are.

Also, what were you planning on doing about the CPU cooler? That Dell motherboard doesn't have the standard cooler holes, so you'd be stuck with the Dell heatsink. That, in itself isn't bad since it's a heatpipe cooler. But there's also that big green plastic shroud that the Delta fan is attached to, and it's clipped onto the backplane of the Dell case, not onto the heatsink itself. You probably wouldn't be able to use it on the Gigabyte case since it's attached with specialized plastic clips, not screws.

In short, it seems like there are quite a few little potential issues with your plan.
 
You'll be able to mount the MB, but only with a few screws. Buy Abit IP35-E MB, E2160 CPU, and 1GB x 2 HP RAMs. Total cost is around $180. Should hit 3.0GHz without much work.
 
Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
You'll be able to mount the MB, but only with a few screws.
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Correct, and that's all any motherboard needs. The rest of the fastening points can be simple risers, preferrably the plastic type. The 4500/4550 board is ATX with the required/mandatory ATX mounting hole configuration, as seen clearly here:

http://www.vicomelectronics.co...-Motherboard-2P997.htm

The 8400 is one of those weird boards but still should have two or three mounting points that correspond with any standard chassis/tray. The rest can be replaced with plastic risers.

The USB front panel assembly is only an issue when re-using the Dell chassis. When transplanting a Dell motherboard into an aftermarket chassis, a different solution will usually be used for USB front panel (e.g. built into the new case). The new front panel assembly will need to be connected to the standard USB headers rather than the proprietary header, or the cable rewired (which I've done before a few times...not always successfully).
 
i was thinking bout getting the thermaltake 750 bigwater cooling system since i plan on oc'ing my 1.8 ghz p4 chip and yea the only problem would be the usb or i/o panel from the front also where could i get plastic risers from?
 
also the abit motherboard is getting bad reviews from alot of ppl and also i want to use brand names b/c i can trust them to work u get my drift
 
I moved my Dell8400 to a new case (centurion 532) also... sorta... I bought a new motherboard and just transfered all the parts... I went with the ASUS P5K-E/wifi.... hopefully I future proofed my self for at least the next few years.
 
What do you propose that the OP do about the HSF then?
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Use the Dell heatsink. Its not as though Dell uses wood heatsinks or something. They are usually quite beefy.

Originally posted by: kovans
i was thinking bout getting the thermaltake 750 bigwater cooling system since i plan on oc'ing my 1.8 ghz p4 chip and yea the only problem would be the usb or i/o panel from the front also where could i get plastic risers from?
Click to expand...
They're actually called stand-offs or spacers, I don't know why I have a habit of calling them risers.

Might as well buy an assortment just to have handy:

Screw-in plastic stand-off

Push-in plastic stand-off (you can nib off the peg at the end opposite of the push-through to get the correct height)

Assortment baggie

Assortment with case
 
Originally posted by: tcsenter
What do you propose that the OP do about the HSF then?
Click to expand...
Use the Dell heatsink. Its not as though Dell uses wood heatsinks or something. They are usually quite beefy.
Click to expand...
The fan, I mean. I think it's inside the shroud that's attached to the Dell case., not attached to the heatsink.

 
yea its attached to the case but not the heatsink but idk about the i/o board im not scared bout anything else just that
 
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