Do Dell's use proprietary hardware?

[SAWYER]

I am looking at buying a used Dell for my dad and I was told that they use proprietary hardware, making upgrade and repairs expensive. Is this true?

 

[bruceb]

Sorta ... Mainly on the connections to jacks, switches & indicators on the Front Panel
for stuff like USB Jack, Power Switch, LED, Firewire (if extended to the front), etc.
The power supply is pretty standard in most Dells (there are a few exceptions) and
internally, it will be either IDE or SATA to your drives (normal cables) .. Motherboards
sometimes are custom sized & replacements may or may not fit in the case. And then
you need to figure out the front panel connections, if you use a non Dell mobo. And
if a non Dell mobo, then the OS would be illegal as it is a Dell OEM & tied to the BIOS
and the computer it came with.

 

[Slugbait]

For the majority of their boxes in the past, yes. Their XPS series will no longer be proprietary from this point forward, but the rest of their systems likely will have proprietary parts for years to come.

 

[Zap]

Their Vostro 200 and 400, plus maybe Inspiron 530 are all pretty standard micro ATX stuff. Motherboard is a Foxconn G33M (I think it even says so on it), PSU is standard ATX, standard SATA drives, standard RAM, standard CPU cooler (Newegg carries it).

 

[RebateMonger]

All major branded PCs use proprietary hardware to some extent. The best rule is that if you want to be assured of being able to use generic hardware (in particular, motherboards and power supplies), then buy or build a "generic PC".

Major-brand PCs are often great bargains for what you get. Most people buy one and use it, basically unmodified, until it's no longer useful. Then they buy a whole new PC. At most, they add memory, a new hard drive, or maybe a video or sound card. As long as you are content with these modifications, a Dell or equivalent can be a good deal.

Even with proprietary power supplies, the replacement parts are often not outrageously expensive. Motherboards, though, can be....

 

[Modelworks]

Watch out for proprietary motherboards.
Even though you can go out and buy one that might fit, the bios is going to be totally different.

Dell usually customizes the bios and the os that comes with the pc will be tied to it.
So if you do change out the motherboard, you also may have to buy a new copy of the os.
Or you can edit the new bios to make it read as dell, but thats defenitely not something for everyone.

 

[Winterpool]

The sort of kit you'd normally add to a computer to upgrade it (as opposed to remaking it) -- video card, storage, memory -- you can usually add without difficulty, subject to the usual requirements (available expansion slots, power, etc). The biggest problem I could imagine in terms of 'repair' would be a bad power supply, though as bruceb has noted, Dell tends to use more standard PSUs now (I'm pretty sure their XPS series does).

 

[JustaGeek]

HP uses proprietary motherboards, but practically everything else is off-the-shelf.

I upgraded my old Pavilion a250n with the new Video Card (6800NU and 7800GS AGP), PSU, RAM and other components.

Everything worked perfectly until April 2007.

 

[JWade]

What Zap said is correct (I have 2 Inspiron 530's and one 531) they have proprietary bios's but the boards arent. The heatsink/fans are not proprietary in them, in my xps 410 it is as well as the board, but not the Inspiron desktops

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Dell usually customizes the bios and the os that comes with the pc will be tied to it.

Maybe the install cd, but you can always use a regular non-branded oem cd and input the key on the coa. That always works with XP, but I'm not positive about Vista, I don't have much experience with it.


Dell has finally ditched the BTX motherboards. Few years ago they switched to those, not sure when they moved back to ATX, but I worked on someone's new Dell earlier this week and it was ATX.

As for the proprietary power supplies, I haven't come across a proprietary Dell PSU since their Pentium !!! days.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: JWade
What Zap said is correct (I have 2 Inspiron 530's and one 531) they have proprietary bios's but the boards arent.

Looks to me that the most "proprietary" things about their BIOSes are the fact that you're locked out of anything "fun." Then again, we're talking about Foxconn boards, so it's almost stock. :evil:

 

[Blain]

Can the Dell/Foxconn MBs run a FSB other than default to the installed CPU?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Blain
Can the Dell/Foxconn MBs run a FSB other than default to the installed CPU?

Most of the time no.

 

[JWade]

you can get the intel cpu's pin modded to run higher, I want to say his name is jmsanderson who was selling pin-modded cpu's for the Dells. He had modded some 2140/2160 cpu's to run at the higher FSB. The Inspiron 530 runs up to the 1333 bus, i have a e6550 in one of mine.

the disks are NOT tied to the computer, they are tied to Dell, You can use a Dell OEM disk in any DEll (for the most part) and not have to activate it. for example, say you bought a 530 that had vista basic, and you had a Dell disk with Vista Ultimate, you could load the Ultimate onto that machine and not have to worry about activation. Course you wouldnt have the COA for it, I am just talking from a stand point that it could physically be done.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Blain
Can the Dell/Foxconn MBs run a FSB other than default to the installed CPU?

Look up BSEL mod. Basically you can easily go up one "official" FSB speed. For instance, 800MHz becomes 1066MHz and 1066MHz becomes 1333MHz. You can do 800MHz to 1333MHz but it is tough (I did it once). You cannot go beyond 1333MHz.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: JWade
the disks are NOT tied to the computer, they are tied to Dell, You can use a Dell OEM disk in any DEll (for the most part) and not have to activate it. for example, say you bought a 530 that had vista basic, and you had a Dell disk with Vista Ultimate, you could load the Ultimate onto that machine and not have to worry about activation. Course you wouldnt have the COA for it, I am just talking from a stand point that it could physically be done.

Do Dell Vista COA's cover downgrading to XP?
Some people I've talked to have had nothing but headaches running Vista because the sales person talked them out of XP when they ordered.