State of Prebuilts 2014: Who uses non-proprietary parts?

[plonk420]

so after struggling to do a medium-cheap (but also hearty enough hardware to hopefully last 5-7 years) Intel i5 build (even before Windows), someone other than who i was building the box for asked a question that prompted me to look at prebuilts. and this brings this question to mind: do Dell, Asus, or Lenovo (or others) still use proprietary mobos and power supplies on non-slim towers?

the briefest of google results gave posts from 2007 or so indicate that Dell's only "proprietary" parts are BTX PSUs...

looking at a few Newegg comments, it looks like Asus's warranty gets voided if you even just open the case.

 

[snoturtle]

The only thing that is time consuming on the newer Dell machines is the front panel connection
Dell does it with one large plug but most other cases have the connection is separate pieces to plug in where they need to go
Power supplies are atx though some may be short models

 

[plonk420]

ah, just to follow up, it looks like the ASUS G10AC-US011S has screenshots inside the case. it APPEARS that the power supply is standard. and according to a reviewer, the board is, too (H87-M Pro). one downside is that the GPU is 192-bit... however, the 660 was a beast even tho it was only 192-bit. also, there's only 1 stick of ram.

maybe there'll be some Dells on Newegg that show the insides...

 

[cbn]

I think most of them use standard ATX PSU, not sure about the motherboard.

I do know however, that the SFF (slim form factor) Lenovo H520s and H530s use standard Micro ATX motherboards and industry standard TFX PSUs. So you might want to look into Lenovo's larger ATX style offerings (like the H530) to see if they adhere to open standards on those as well.

 

[Fox5]

I kind of like the Acer desktop PCs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883103898

Cheap, standard parts, built in wifi, and you can easily add in a graphics card.

 

[ElFenix]

Nearly everything is standard parts as specifying something only ups cost for minimal gain. Other than the dell front panel plug (which saves assembly time).

BTX wasn't proprietary. Dell stopped using a proprietary psuedo-ATX pin out a decade ago.