Dell XPS 720 Mod - BTX to ATX

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lebihan.yannick

Junior Member
Oct 26, 2012
4
0
0
Hello, I wanted to congratulate you for this mod very successful. Above all excuse my English but I am French and I write mode via google translation so if there there are concerns understanding, please let me know. Here is my question, I just bought a dell xps 720 with power modd I want, but I do not know absolutely nothing electronics and would like to know how you have connected the dell switch on the motherboard and a little more precision on connecting lEDs. If possible of course.
Waiting for a response from you, thank you in advance.
Yannick
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
Hello, I wanted to congratulate you for this mod very successful. Above all excuse my English but I am French and I write mode via google translation so if there there are concerns understanding, please let me know. Here is my question, I just bought a dell xps 720 with power modd I want, but I do not know absolutely nothing electronics and would like to know how you have connected the dell switch on the motherboard and a little more precision on connecting lEDs. If possible of course.
Waiting for a response from you, thank you in advance.
Yannick

Welcome to the Forums. I am not sure if I understand your question entirely? I see you purchased a Dell XPS 720 with a Power Mod - Do you mean Power Supply?

Looks like you may need a more detailed layout for connecting the motherboard connectors and LED lights? Are you using the stock BTX Dell motherboard or an ATX motherboard ?

I am happy to help where I can.

Thank you
 

lebihan.yannick

Junior Member
Oct 26, 2012
4
0
0
[FONT=&quot]Hi, I actually wanted to say that I bought a dell xps 720 with his power supply 1000w btx, and I do not know how to connect to an ATX motherboard. I do not know how to redirect the power button dell to the motherboard atx and I was wondering if you could help me please. I love this case, I was looking for a long time but it's true that I do not know much. In addition, I wanted to know if you could explain in more detail the connection of the LEDs.
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thank you for your compréhesion.
Friendly.
NC[/FONT]
 

lebihan.yannick

Junior Member
Oct 26, 2012
4
0
0
[FONT=&quot]Hi, I actually wanted to say that I bought a dell xps 720 with his power supply 1000w btx, and I do not know how to connect to an ATX motherboard. I do not know how to redirect the power button dell to the motherboard atx and I was wondering if you could help me please. I love this case, I was looking for a long time but it's true that I do not know much. In addition, I wanted to know if you could explain in more detail the connection of the LEDs.
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thank you for your compréhesion.
Friendly.


[/FONT]
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
Here is the layout out the 20 pin from the Dell PSU that is not used for a ATX motherboard.
20_pi124.jpg

Capture-1.jpg


You can use the 24 pin ATX power connector as the pins are in the correct locations. This 20 pin connector will need to be taken apart in order to make a 4 or 8 pin P4 connector for your motherboard. They make tools to help do this, I used a couple of sewing pins to push them out. I would do a search online to help you with this.

As you can see looking at the chart you have a ton of 12V and ground wires. You can make extra PCI-E connectors as well.
 
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Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
I know I am just re-posting, but this diagram is top notch for explaining how to make the connections.

720leds.png


I wanted the RED led's only so I used just the Power wires, ground wires and the wire for the RED led. if you want to use all the colors follow this diagram complete. I used a soldering iron as well for the connections. If you don't they will eventually come undone.

The power and ground for the LED's will come from an unused 12V molex from your power-supply. If you connect it like from the diagram you will be using 5V's, which is much better for the LED's.. so they don't burn out. I took apart and old molex plug I had laying around so I could use the pins inside to make a connection the molex that provides power.

I hope this helps.
 
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Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
6,294
171
106
I didn't know you could just cut off ends of power supplies and rewire them to new connections. Quite interesting.

Also, awesome job here... thats a nice looking unique case. My boss has an old XPS in his office that I could probably have but I just checked and its not the same as yours :( Same silver shell but the front is more normal looking, doesn't have that grated style.
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
I didn't know you could just cut off ends of power supplies and rewire them to new connections. Quite interesting.

Also, awesome job here... thats a nice looking unique case. My boss has an old XPS in his office that I could probably have but I just checked and its not the same as yours :( Same silver shell but the front is more normal looking, doesn't have that grated style.

Thanks!
 

Eureka

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
3,822
1
81
I didn't know you could just cut off ends of power supplies and rewire them to new connections. Quite interesting.

Why not? The power supply only supplies 12V, 5V, and 3.3V lines. All connectors are just a different mix of these lines, so you can remix them into a different set.
 

cavey00

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2012
1
0
0
I just joined to congratulate you on the case mod and thank you for the instructions. I have a perfectly working XPS 720 (with a 750w PSU) and have always loved the case. It was my first gaming pc, and also the most expensive pc I've ever bought! I've learned my lesson now and build my own, but as you well know the guts of these things are aging and there is little in the way of upgrading you can do. Once something goes south on mine or I just get fed up and need to upgrade, I'm definitely doing this!
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
I just joined to congratulate you on the case mod and thank you for the instructions. I have a perfectly working XPS 720 (with a 750w PSU) and have always loved the case. It was my first gaming pc, and also the most expensive pc I've ever bought! I've learned my lesson now and build my own, but as you well know the guts of these things are aging and there is little in the way of upgrading you can do. Once something goes south on mine or I just get fed up and need to upgrade, I'm definitely doing this!

Thank you very much! Good to hear that you plan on keeping her alive instead of tossing her out with the trash :)
 

Zwiggy879

Junior Member
Dec 12, 2012
2
0
0
Hey I just bought this exact case yesterday and was searching all over and found this. Yours by far is the most useful from the other information I've found... I just can't find one thing. It's that motherboard tray you have here. What website did you order it from? also, before i start on this mod. Is there any pointers you could give me about some of the obstacles you came across doing this build?
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
Hey I just bought this exact case yesterday and was searching all over and found this. Yours by far is the most useful from the other information I've found... I just can't find one thing. It's that motherboard tray you have here. What website did you order it from? also, before i start on this mod. Is there any pointers you could give me about some of the obstacles you came across doing this build?

Awesome!!! Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...t_info&cPath=130_210_750_753&products_id=3387

Here is the tray I purchased.

If I could give you one pointer - It would be do not cut too much of the back case frame off. Cut little by little and them test fit the tray. You don't want to leave a gap at the bottom like mine. You can't see mine, but I had to trim the case fan in order to get it to work. Also, a good Dremel tool helps as well.
 
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Zwiggy879

Junior Member
Dec 12, 2012
2
0
0
Awesome!!! Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...t_info&cPath=130_210_750_753&products_id=3387

Here is the tray I purchased.

If I could give you one pointer - It would be do not cut too much of the back case frame off. Cut little by little and them test fit the tray. You don't want to leave a gap at the bottom like mine. You can't see mine, but I had to trim the case fan in order to get it to work. Also, a good Dremel tool helps as well.

Thank you so much! And a Dremel. I should probably invest in one of those.
 

gijeff85

Member
Jun 7, 2013
32
0
0
This may be a silly problem, but I can't seem to figure out how to remove the optical drives from my 710. I've gutted everything else and removed the single screw that holds each drive in its bay, but they still aren't budging. Any advice? Thanks!
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
21,126
3,650
126
omg just trying to imagine u hunched over a lamp light trying to get those psu pins in the proper order and sequence...
I think i would of gone mad... im serious... half way though, i would rage like that chubby kid on youtube who gets picked on, and gotten a new psu on amazon that day...

My hat is off to you sir, very excellent work and dedication!!
Anyone who attempts to mess with the PSU 24-pins and gets it done correctly earns my respect.
 
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Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
This may be a silly problem, but I can't seem to figure out how to remove the optical drives from my 710. I've gutted everything else and removed the single screw that holds each drive in its bay, but they still aren't budging. Any advice? Thanks!

It's been awhile since I removed them. But once you remove the screws holding the optical drives in you will need to push on the black retention bracket and Push or pull the optical drive out. There shouldn't be any screws holding the optical drive on the other side, but I would check to make sure.
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
omg just trying to imagine u hunched over a lamp light trying to get those psu pins in the proper order and sequence...
I think i would of gone mad... im serious... half way though, i would rage like that chubby kid on youtube who gets picked on, and gotten a new psu on amazon that day...

My hat is off to you sir, very excellent work and dedication!!
Anyone who attempts to mess with the PSU 24-pins and gets it done correctly earns my respect.

Thank you sir :D
It was a learning experience and I was trying to save as much money as I could at the time. Now there is a Antec Gamer 450 watt in the case and the 1000w Dell is sitting in my closet D:
 
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Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
lol so u gave up half way??? or couldnt get it to work?

No, the PSU came out great and I used it for awhile in my gaming build. Since then, I moved my Media server into this case and I have no need for that much PSU, so I swapped it out with the Antec 80+ unit.
 
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Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
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Johnnyblazing

Junior Member
Nov 20, 2013
3
1
0
thank you both for taking the time to show your work. I'm in the same boat as most of the members here who commented. I'm replacing the capacitors on the dell mobo first to see if that will work, if not,, BTX to ATX 4Me