tear apart a dell?

2007-12-12 18:24:25

#1

Yellowman03: Once Again, We Meet at Last; +108|6712|Texas

Unfortunately, I own a dell for gaming (not XPS), but at the time it was a good buy for the price.

I just want to know if it is possible to take apart a dell for parts (the mother board, hdd, cd/dvd drives,)?

I mainly wanna up my vid card, processor, and ram and put it all in a cooler case.

I would prefer getting knowledge from previous dell owners, espcially one's who have done this sort of thing, but all are welcome to express their insight

-Yellowman

2007-12-12 18:35:52

#2

Cheez: Herman is a warmaphrodite; +1,027|6916|King Of The Islands

Everything is fairly standard.

Most of the time, they have some stupid arse front-panel connector on the mobo.

My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.

2007-12-12 20:29:28

#3

Reciprocity: Member; +721|7058|the dank(super) side of Oregon

you wanna take the parts out and put them in another case? things like the hdd, cd/dvd drives, gpu, cpu, and sound card.

depending on the computer, the mobo and psu may be proprietary, making cpu/gpu upgrades difficult. it might help if you give us some specs.

I had a first gen xps and i also considered a major upgrade using the existing parts. by the time I figured out what I wanted to upgrade and took the time to study up on the technology, it was fiscally stupid to spend a bunch of money on an old computer.

you might also check the dell website, i think you can punch in the serial # and they can show you what is upgradeable.

2007-12-12 20:35:12

#4

RoosterCantrell: Goodbye :); +399|6957|Somewhere else

From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.

2007-12-12 22:23:02

#5

Reciprocity: Member; +721|7058|the dank(super) side of Oregon

RoosterCantrell wrote:
From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.

I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.

2007-12-12 22:44:20

#6

Freezer7Pro: I don't come here a lot anymore.; +1,447|6675|Winland

Well, you should basically be able to save everything but:

The motherboard (Often non-standard, and no marks on the front panel connector, can take hours to get it right)
The CPU cooler (Specific for Dell chassis)
The PSU (Shit anyhow)
The RAM (Often a bit non-standard and won't always work with non-Dells)

But the CPU, graphics card, HDDs and optical units should be salvageble.

The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP

2007-12-12 22:46:28

#7

RoosterCantrell: Goodbye :); +399|6957|Somewhere else

Reciprocity wrote:
RoosterCantrell wrote:
From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.
I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.

Interesting. I ordered some RAM for someone's dell, as I was looking for it, I ran into a slew of RAM that was "Dell only" I kinda just went on the safe side. Good info none the less

2007-12-13 06:26:31

#8

heggs: Spamalamadingdong; +581|6866|New York

I upgraded my little brother's old Dell with a 7800GS agp card, and a new power supply. The card went in fine, but the case sucked for the psu. The back was cut specifically for the Dell psu, which had a different layout than the psu I bought. Incidentally, I 'modified' the case with a pair of pliers to get proper access to the new psu. I also took note of the motherboard, which was proprietary, and as such, so was the case. There was a postage size square taken out of the motherboard on the bottom right corner, so there was no way you could get another motherboard in there.

Dell is shitty in my opinion, but the upgrade helped quite a bit.

Remember Me As A Time Of Day

2007-12-13 06:32:19

#9

OrangeHound: Busy doing highfalutin adminy stuff ...; +1,335|7127|Washington DC

You should be able to do the upgrades ... but there is one thing to always keep in mind about upgrading:

Your OS that came with the Dell may not work if you put in a different motherboard.

2007-12-13 07:19:31

#10

Poseidon: Fudgepack DeQueef; +3,253|7015|Long Island, New York

I have a Dell at my father's house. I tore it open and was able to salvage only the optical drive, HDDs and video card. Everything else was a P.O.S. or dell-specific (AKA the memory...you have to buy RAM upgrades for your dell off of dell.com: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/memc … mp;stype=1 )

2007-12-13 07:23:42

#11

Agent_Dung_Bomb: Member; +302|7214|Salt Lake City

I doubt you can keep the motherboard. The last time I serviced one here at work for a bad mobo there was no way you could have used a standard board. Rather than holes that you use to mount the board on standoffs the board had slit shaped openings and the new board they sent me was already mounted to the metal back plate. That forced me to remove and replace the entire back plate to replace the motherboard. I suspect they do something similar in all their models.

2007-12-13 13:11:39

#12

loubot: O' HAL naw!; +470|7056|Columbus, OH

if you put the mobo in a different case, you may need to purchase an I/O shield.

2007-12-13 18:19:27

#13

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6760|Pennsyltucky

RoosterCantrell wrote:
From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.

I put two gigs of G-Skill in my Dimension 5150 w/o a problem.

The memory is rated at 800 but only runs at 533 due to the FSB, not even noticable.

2007-12-13 18:24:35

#14

Yellowman03: Once Again, We Meet at Last; +108|6712|Texas

Do you guys know a way to find out if my ram is dell specific?

i'm busy now...but i'll put specs up soon...prob tomorrow

thx for the help guys...i was about to buy some 2 gigs of ram, but now i'll wait.]

EDIT:

should the sticker on the ram say dell...or does it not matter...cuz the dell site has ram that says dell on it.

Last edited by Yellowman03 (2007-12-13 18:25:54)

2007-12-13 18:34:31

#15

Brasso: member; +1,549|7108

Reciprocity wrote:
RoosterCantrell wrote:
From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.
I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.

Well I put 2 gigs of G.SKILL memory into my friend's 2 year old XPS and they worked fine.

"people in ny have a general idea of how to drive. one of the pedals goes forward the other one prevents you from dying"

2007-12-13 19:19:12

#16

Reciprocity: Member; +721|7058|the dank(super) side of Oregon

haffeysucks wrote:
Reciprocity wrote:
RoosterCantrell wrote:
From past experience with dells, the RAM is Dell specific.
I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.
Well I put 2 gigs of G.SKILL memory into my friend's 2 year old XPS and they worked fine.

did the mobo recognize the sticks at their native latency. that's the only real problem I've heard of. dell mobos are very anal about the ram voltages. otherwise, the whole dell specific ram thing is a bullshit trick to get people to waste money on their overpriced, slow shit ram.

2007-12-13 20:26:11

#17

Maj.Do: Member; +85|7229|good old CA

Well i still use my old dell alot, which is an 8400. The PSU plug if i remember correctly was completely different than the standard ones and if you wanted to upgrade your psu, ud have to use a dremel on the back of the case. Other than that, everything else in the computer is pretty much standard. What model do you have?

2007-12-14 01:43:00

#18

T.Pike: 99 Problems . . .; +187|6760|Pennsyltucky

Reciprocity wrote:
haffeysucks wrote:
Reciprocity wrote:
I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.
Well I put 2 gigs of G.SKILL memory into my friend's 2 year old XPS and they worked fine.
did the mobo recognize the sticks at their native latency. that's the only real problem I've heard of. dell mobos are very anal about the ram voltages. otherwise, the whole dell specific ram thing is a bullshit trick to get people to waste money on their overpriced, slow shit ram.

When I put my 2 1 gig G.Skill sticks in I took out the two Dell 512 sticks becuase they were adifferent speed (800 vs 533)

They system booted on the first try, no errors but bios said the 800 memory was only running at 533.

I put the Dell sticks back and run it like that without a problem.

I haven't changed any settings as far as voltage latency etc.

2007-12-14 11:42:38

#19

Brasso: member; +1,549|7108

Reciprocity wrote:
haffeysucks wrote:
Reciprocity wrote:

I had pretty good luck putting corsair valueselect in my old xps. you're usually safe if you stick with name brand, modest latency sticks.
Well I put 2 gigs of G.SKILL memory into my friend's 2 year old XPS and they worked fine.
did the mobo recognize the sticks at their native latency. that's the only real problem I've heard of. dell mobos are very anal about the ram voltages. otherwise, the whole dell specific ram thing is a bullshit trick to get people to waste money on their overpriced, slow shit ram.

I actually didn't check. I just checked that the mobo recognized the RAM for its size. Whoops. Better check that next time I go over his house, lol.

"people in ny have a general idea of how to drive. one of the pedals goes forward the other one prevents you from dying"

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