Re-case my dell 5150c

Spider · 4 Oct 2007 at 17:58

Dont know if its possible, but i have a dell 5150c pC here which sounds like a small aircraft. i want to rip the guts out of it and put it all in a new case with some SILENT cooling, but i dont know if its possible due to it being a dell?

Does anyone know if it can be done alright and recommend a suitable case (and quiet psu)?

Thanks

Darg · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:16

My old dell motherboard was an unusual shape that wouldn't fit into any usual case. It was a mix between ATX and mATX and oddly shaped. That was a dimension 8300. have a look at your motherboard and see if it would fit.

GhostlyPea · 4 Oct 2007 at 20:57

Dell use an awful lot of propitiatory pieces in their machines. Basics like the CPU, Ram, graphics and addon cards should be able to be switched to a new case with no problems, however the PSU, motherboard, drives and probably much of the cooling will not fit into a new machine. This would mean changing the motherboard. The problem with that would be having to purchase a new copy of XP. Dell OEM software is tied to the dell MOBO and as such, not using it any more, you'd need a new copy.

- Pea0n

Spider · 9 Dec 2007 at 09:19

Thats ok. No worries about the OS. i have both XP & Vista here in non-OEM form.

Could I then just buy a new case, Mobo, psu and gfx card (to replace this one so i can run dual monitors) but salvage the CPU (Core Duo but sufficient for my needs), Ram (2gb), HDD (replaced myself already) and the slimline dvd burner (laptop style)?

shaffaaf27 · 9 Dec 2007 at 16:17

they are BTX iicr.

the thrmaltaek armours have a BTX and ATX case in one.

RoachycaL · 9 Dec 2007 at 21:06

shaffaaf27 said:
they are BTX iicr.

the thrmaltaek armours have a BTX and ATX case in one.

I think only the new XPS are BTX. I believe Dell use completely their own style.

allllec · 9 Dec 2007 at 21:44

They also use (in the optiplex series at least) there own USb and power button connector thingies iirc.

Darg · 10 Dec 2007 at 20:52

From my experience their motherboards are completely unlike eachother and anything else. Each case seems to have it's own style of motherboard. For example my Dimension 8300 motherboard was a completely different layout to the PCs I saw in my old job which were office style PCs.

Mul · 10 Dec 2007 at 23:02

Darg said:
From my experience their motherboards are completely unlike eachother and anything else. Each case seems to have it's own style of motherboard. For example my Dimension 8300 motherboard was a completely different layout to the PCs I saw in my old job which were office style PCs.

Few years ago that was indeed the situation. The 8xxx's for example used a propreitory form factor from fan headers, to motherboard dimensions to ATX pin outs and the case/usb pins. However, the Dimension 2xxx's/4600/4700 used mATX boards in a mATX case.
Nowadays they all seem to have a type of BTX design with the graphics cards facing upwards, the motherboard mounted on the other side of the case.

I'd hazard a guess that the 5150 is one of the models that use the new range of chassis' that are "BTX" like. A new motherboard will be in order.

CPU/RAM/Drives/Expansion Cards should be recoverable, of course.