third party mobo in a Dell case?

[flipdon]

am i going to have trouble putting a new DDR-capable mobo in my p3 733 Dell Dimension 4100? are these Dell cases very proprietary in their design? i don't wanna buy some dirt cheap crucial ram for nothing =)

 

[techfuzz]

You'll have to change out the power supply in the Dell case. The power connectors from the PSU in Dell cases are propritary. Best to just get a new case, one that you like.

 

[Raspewtin]

do you really like the dell case? those lian li's are cool. consider it an excuse to upgrade your case.

 

[dietrologia]

Ahhh yes.... another chance for me to bash Dell.

To put it quite simply... it has been my experience that Dells suck when it comes to upgrading. Expensive RAM, proprietary PSU's (a weak-@ss 200 watts), bizarre on-board video set-ups, crap-oh-lah tech support... you name it.

I had an older Dell (optiplex) and wanted to upgrade it. The bottom line was that I couldn't! Couldn't even use the Dell case! Now I'm one week away from assembling my own super-computer from the ground up and the ONLY thing from the orginal system I'm salvaging is the floppy.

Things may have changed a bit with the newer Dells, though. This is just one man's experience.

 

[bonkers325]

dell is junk 🙂

 

[DieselMan]

I'll second bonkers325's opinion. Dell thinks everyone who buys a new computer will eventually throw it away to buy another new computer, without ever upgrading; what a waste!

 

[techfuzz]

dietrologia, the new Dells are even more integrated the their previous models. The newest OptiPlex GX150's for example have the CDROM, floppy, PSU, and most of the wiring pre-assmebled in the case and cannot be easily swapped out. They're going to make you buy a new one instead of upgrading an older PC. Microsoft is doing the same now with their licensing program. No more upgrades! You'll have to buy a new version at full price.

 

[ElFenix]

since most people wouldn't upgrade the motherboard, dell's business practice isn't that weird. IT depts don't upgrade bits, most people are afraid of opening the case. the RAM situation isn't as bad as dietrologia says, not like dell isn't shipping crucial in the box anyway. and hardly anyone not using an athlon uses 200 watts. either that or the dell power supply is better than any other 200 watt PS. p3 700 + 3 7200 rpm drive + cd rom + burner + geforce (the old 16 watt one) and it took it and asked for more.


flipdon - unless you're getting an athlon, even better an athlon palomino, plus amd 760 chipset board, DDR is worthless. on the p3 side SDRAM is just as fast as the FSB can handle, more bandwidth is pretty much pointless. on the athlon side most DDR chipsets suck right now.