Upgrading a Dell

[lemmiwinks]

I'm thinking about getting a Dell for college but I a friend told that if I ever wanted more memory, I'd have to buy through Dell. I find this extremely hard to believe and was wondering if this was actually true. Anyone got and sure answer?

 

[tooltime]

dell friendly memory is harder to find but i have bought some at crucial for three dell's 8250, 400sc and a optiplex gx260...all have had no problems.

they have memory advisor to help find your model

 

[Twsmit]

no, you can use any normal memory... though your friend is true that your upgrades are limited for other parts.

 

[lemmiwinks]

Originally posted by: Twsmit
no, you can use any normal memory... though your friend is true that your upgrades are limited for other parts.

what other parts?

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: lemmiwinks

what other parts?

Biggest problem I've ran into is power supply. The rest of the parts seem, for the most part, universal. I've replaced AGP cards, etc with no problem. Soaking up power seems to be the biggest concern. Dell has specific requirements for their components, and too much deviation can cause problems.

 

[zzzz]

you can use any ram as long as it is good quality.
You wont be able to upgrade your motherboard. Other than that (or the case) you can upgrade everything else.

 

[zzzz]

Originally posted by: Brule

Originally posted by: lemmiwinks

what other parts?

Biggest problem I've ran into is power supply. The rest of the parts seem, for the most part, universal. I've replaced AGP cards, etc with no problem. Soaking up power seems to be the biggest concern. Dell has specific requirements for their components, and too much deviation can cause problems.

No they use standard power supplies. so any good quality (ANTEC etc) should work.

 

[lemmiwinks]

Originally posted by: zzzz
You wont be able to upgrade your motherboard. Other than that (or the case) you can upgrade everything else.

but I could(down the road) always buy a new case and mobo and just transfer everything else over right?

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: zzzz

Originally posted by: Brule


Biggest problem I've ran into is power supply. The rest of the parts seem, for the most part, universal. I've replaced AGP cards, etc with no problem. Soaking up power seems to be the biggest concern. Dell has specific requirements for their components, and too much deviation can cause problems.

No they use standard power supplies. so any good quality (ANTEC etc) should work.

Do they use standard physical sizes? Maybe they've changed, but the last one I worked on seemed to have an odd PSU size.

 

[zzzz]

Originally posted by: lemmiwinks

Originally posted by: zzzz
You wont be able to upgrade your motherboard. Other than that (or the case) you can upgrade everything else.

but I could(down the road) always buy a new case and mobo and just transfer everything else over right?

of course...

 

[koojoe]

Originally posted by: zzzz

Originally posted by: Brule

Originally posted by: lemmiwinks

what other parts?

Biggest problem I've ran into is power supply. The rest of the parts seem, for the most part, universal. I've replaced AGP cards, etc with no problem. Soaking up power seems to be the biggest concern. Dell has specific requirements for their components, and too much deviation can cause problems.

No they use standard power supplies. so any good quality (ANTEC etc) should work.

They use the same connector as the ATX but they moved some of the pins. If you use a regular power supply you could possibly fry your motherboard. Best to order the power supply from dell. They use really low power supplies... a guy with a 2.4 ghz system I know lost his power supply.. they replaced it for 30-40 bucks. 250w DELL power supply.

 

[zzzz]

Originally posted by: Brule

Originally posted by: zzzz

Originally posted by: Brule


Biggest problem I've ran into is power supply. The rest of the parts seem, for the most part, universal. I've replaced AGP cards, etc with no problem. Soaking up power seems to be the biggest concern. Dell has specific requirements for their components, and too much deviation can cause problems.

No they use standard power supplies. so any good quality (ANTEC etc) should work.

Do they use standard physical sizes? Maybe they've changed, but the last one I worked on seemed to have an odd PSU size.

They used to be proprietory but that was a long while ago. Now I am not sure about their models with the odd shape ( the thin desktops? forgot the model number might be 2300) but with the "normal" looking desktops, the PSs are ATX.

 

[zzzz]

Originally posted by: koojoe
They use the same connector as the ATX but they moved some of the pins. If you use a regular power supply you could possibly fry your motherboard. Best to order the power supply from dell. They use really low power supplies... a guy with a 2.4 ghz system I know lost his power supply.. they replaced it for 30-40 bucks. 250w DELL power supply.

This used to be the case but I think Dell now uses standard PS. From a recent article here

Dell owners beware! Prior to their conversion to standard ATX12v-compliant ATX power supplies for the P4, Dell used a variation of the ATX form factor with the power pins in a different orientation! Use of these older, nonstandard units on a standard ATX motherboard will at best refuse to work, at worst fry the board. Use of standard ATX power supplies in these older Dell computers will usually fry the power supply, or worse fry both the power supply and motherboard!

 

[zzzz]

the non-standard Dell PS seem to be from 1998 to 2002. warning for Dell

 

[gpgofast]

I just bought a Dell 400 SC and have had no problems so far. I have installed 1 GB of PC3200 Infineon RAM(from a Hewlet Packard!!!), an ATI 9200 video card and a Maxtor 80 GB HD. No problems with any of it so far. I will be installing an ATI 9700 this week and expect no problems. GP

 

[Polishwonder74]

I'll tell you one thing:

WATCH OUT FOR DELL GX1's. I've had to upgrade memory on 2 of them and had a MAJOR headache finding memory for them. I checked Dell's spec page and ordered EXACTLY correct memory and it still didn't work. I ended up having to trawl through ebay to find someone who pulled memory from working GX1's. What a MONSTER pain in the nuts.

Otherwise, they're KILLER computers. Dell tends to use top-shelf parts in their systems (nice power supplies, nice hard drives, etc. . .)

 

[Twsmit]

also the cases... the powersupply issue is guess is resolved in their regular line of PC's, but i know back a few years ago they had proprietary lines going from the mobo to the case power switch. Meaning you had to splice the wire to figure out where to put the HDD LED and the on/off switch for a new mobo.

 

[SneakyStuff]

I've owned 3 Dells (All still on working order) And the only problem upgrading them is the fans, because of the proprietary connectors on the mobo, and the PSU because of the odd size. Other than that, I've slapped "non-dell" RAM into 2 of them, no problems, they've used ATI, and nVidia video cards, no problem. The PSU that comes with most Dell systems is nice for the most part. If you don't feel like building a system, get a Dimension 8400

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: zzzz
the non-standard Dell PS seem to be from 1998 to 2002. warning for Dell

Interesting... I just popped open a friend's 4600, ordered about 2 months ago. The PSU is of proper size, but shorter. When compared to an older antec (350w, first P4 compliant one) it looks like it would be too long and not allow the case to close in it's accordian fashion.

Reports are that Dell labels their PSU's in a very conservitive way. The friend I mentioned has a loaded 4600 including an after-market 9800pro, and it runs fine on the smaller dell PSU.