Dell Poweredge 900 Case - Problem...

Quicktime · 3 Mar 2007 at 22:43

Hey, I recently purchased a Dell Poweredge 900 case hoping to put my old packard bell board inside it (old case was messed up)...

However, I came across the problem of dell only making cases for there own motherboards :mad:

. It turns out these model of cases used a special type of board which does not require any tools.

Infact the motherboard (dell) which is supposed to fit this case uses some sort of special connecter to attack there motherboards (I think there some sort of plastic adaptors).

Anywho, my only option seems to cut off the connecters (where the screws go) within the old ATX case and use some sort of metal glue.

I was wondering which tools you suggest I used to do this, and if there is... Suggest another way? :confused:

I have seen a lot of custom cases produced from scratch so I was wondering if there was some sort of common screws, bolts etc which could be used.

Thanks a lot for reading!

WJA96 · 3 Mar 2007 at 23:41

Just write it off to experience and walk away. You are looking at putting an ATX board into a BTX case and the two really don't want to go together. Unless you are exceptionally talented you'll end up with a bodge job and probably missing a thumb.

simonnance · 4 Mar 2007 at 02:07

or worse, a screwed up computer, AND a missing thumb.

Chalk it up as experience...... NEVER buy stuff from Dell, unless you are looking for a cheap complete system, and even then........

WJA96 · 4 Mar 2007 at 08:27

simonnance said:
NEVER buy stuff from Dell

As someone who used to sell 250 seat complete systems to corporate users, I disagree. Dell are fantastic if you need a fairly user-proof PC and even for home users, if I needed a PC for a friend or relative who I wanted to have a decent, hassle free computer for 3 years with a Dell engineer on 24 hours call-out, then I would buy them a Dell. They're not the world's No. 1 in computers for nothing. And they're cheap. You try building a Core2Duo system with a 19" Widescreen DVI TFT for what Dell are asking. It can't be done.

simonnance · 4 Mar 2007 at 15:58

exactly, cheap complete systems.

Though there are some other good ones out there for that, my old Evesham did very well until i ripped it to shreds and re-made it again, and i was surprised how well built my dad's was when i took it apart earlier today, FSP 300W PSU, MSI mobo, well designed case layout, halfway decent Hynix DDR400 Ram and its a 3yr old system that wasnt exactly "top of the line". Of course, Evesham's aren't proprietary tech, which helps.

But unless you want a very low budget, low maintainance system, which few if anyone here will want, then DELL and the like arent good places to buy kit from (OK, DELL widescreen monitors are reasonably good).

Drazic · 4 Mar 2007 at 18:30

If you do this mod and need a new rear IO plate thing, one for the mobo IO plate to clip into and the pci cards to fit onto and out i have one form a custom case i was gonna make. You'll just need mobo tray then!

hardc0re_tid · 5 Mar 2007 at 16:42

any dell pc i have ever used has ALWAYS been slooooow, i was fixing my gf's sisters dell for her (2 days after she bought it btw) and the carp it comes preloaded with (mcafee system thing - anti virus this, firewall that, spyware rubish) took an age to load up, then it asks for me to log into mcafee etc etc, only then can i use the computer, oh and dont get me started on the aol browser (IE7 4tw btw) 512mb ram, by the time windows had loaded there was about 100mb free system memory

hardc0re_tid · 5 Mar 2007 at 16:44

simonnance said:
exactly, cheap complete systems.

Though there are some other good ones out there for that, my old Evesham did very well until i ripped it to shreds and re-made it again, and i was surprised how well built my dad's was when i took it apart earlier today, FSP 300W PSU, MSI mobo, well designed case layout, halfway decent Hynix DDR400 Ram and its a 3yr old system that wasnt exactly "top of the line". Of course, Evesham's aren't proprietary tech, which helps.

Multivision computers were good too, still being used to this day, the majority of comps were MSI with a WD HDD and Nanya RAM

Snapshot · 5 Mar 2007 at 20:10

WJA96 said:
As someone who used to sell 250 seat complete systems to corporate users, I disagree. Dell are fantastic if you need a fairly user-proof PC and even for home users, if I needed a PC for a friend or relative who I wanted to have a decent, hassle free computer for 3 years with a Dell engineer on 24 hours call-out, then I would buy them a Dell. They're not the world's No. 1 in computers for nothing. And they're cheap. You try building a Core2Duo system with a 19" Widescreen DVI TFT for what Dell are asking. It can't be done.

Seconded. I recently rolled out 20 desktop PCs and 10 laptops at the school I look after. Not one problem between them and the prices were excellent. Got a nice new rack-mount server arriving next week and they're looking at another 20 desktops in August.

The only thing I'm not keen on for home users is the Indian helpdesk but, for commercial use, why pay HP/Compaq prices?

WJA96 · 5 Mar 2007 at 20:23

Snapshot said:
Seconded. I recently rolled out 20 desktop PCs and 10 laptops at the school I look after. Not one problem between them and the prices were excellent. Got a nice new rack-mount server arriving next week and they're looking at another 20 desktops in August.

The only thing I'm not keen on for home users is the Indian helpdesk but, for commercial use, why pay HP/Compaq prices?

There was an Irish help desk as well (somewhere just south of Dublin), but I think you had to phone it from Northern Ireland or maybe they just moved it to Bombay.

Snapshot · 5 Mar 2007 at 20:35

That was at Dunlaoghaire IIRC. I used to know many of the guys in the factory at Limerick as they'd been evicted from Wang's factory there as Wang shrivelled.

Flanno · 6 Mar 2007 at 16:09

Eh ?
The call centre is in India and also in Cherrywood in Dublin. There is also a call centre in Northern Ireland for XPS customers.

The 2 Dell european manufacturing facilities are located in Raheen Industrial Estate Limerick. One is actually only 100% manufacturing. The 3rd factory was in a unit formally owned by Pako in the same estate but that was vacated 4 years ago. The 4th factory was in Casteltroy in a building formally owned by AST Computers (who I worked for), formally owned by Wang, but the was sold 3 years ago. Sorry to be anal.

Having gone from diy to dell to diy and back to dell, I have to say their desktop pc's are pretty quiet and reliable and even with their modest psu's their core2duo rigs are qualified to run an 8800GTX . See my sig. below. With the exception of the X6800 which I bought myself everything else are Dell parts or Dell sold parts and were actually cheaper then sourcing them myself online. I bought it also as I wanted Vista Ultimate and it was thrown in pretty cheap. Of course the negative is you cannot overclock and that's a big big minus for lots of people unless you know what pre-dell/intel motherboard bios to look for and that's pretty risky or you buy an XPS 710 which are way overpriced and only have moderate overclocking abilities. You can also get pretty unlucky with tech support if you get through to someone who has poor English as many people have found out.

meansizzler · 6 Mar 2007 at 20:34

hardc0re_tid said:
any dell pc i have ever used has ALWAYS been slooooow, i was fixing my gf's sisters dell for her (2 days after she bought it btw) and the carp it comes preloaded with (mcafee system thing - anti virus this, firewall that, spyware rubish) took an age to load up, then it asks for me to log into mcafee etc etc, only then can i use the computer, oh and dont get me started on the aol browser (IE7 4tw btw) 512mb ram, by the time windows had loaded there was about 100mb free system memory

Here, Here, as soon as you get a dell, spend the first hour removing the rubbish they put on, all the useless dell software apart from the trackpad/screen controls, mcfae, that just makes it really slow, ISP software and the rest of the garbage, go into the BIOS and disable intel Speedstep, and while your at it might as well replace that slow ass 5400rpm HD..

Snapshot · 6 Mar 2007 at 20:39

Flanno said:
AST Computers (who I worked for)

So would Goat Wharf, Brentford mean anything to you?

Flanno · 6 Mar 2007 at 22:31

Nope. Should it ?

Probably a HQ in the UK somewhere right.
AST bought out Tandy, then went broke themselves (not long after Samsung buying them) and then sold the AST name I believe to someone who worked in Packard Bell (or a similar consumer orientated PC company) The orginal AST themselves still exist as a company called Arise based in Limerick who do repair work for Dell.

As for Dells being full of bloatware I agree entirely but it's not as bad as it used be. On UK and Irish models all that is usually on it is McAfee which is easily removed in safemode, and possibly Works, the Dell support software and Google Desktop, which is also easily removed. You can actually spec these not to be on the system if you want at purchase time. Anyway a quick defrag later and it isn't any slower then if you did a hand install yourself. That's my experience anyway. If you know what you are at, you can even create your own restore image rather then use the dell one which is handy in case things go pear shaped.

unde4d · 6 Mar 2007 at 23:40

Dell have different support centres for their different ranges. If you have a Dimension or Inspiron, you'll get Dell-India. If you buy a better system, perhaps not technically better, but higher up the Dell Range (eg Precision, XPS) then you'll get the lads in Dell-Ireland. I cant remember what support you get for an Optiplex/Latitude (Mid-Range), but I'd hazard a guess of cream-of-the-crop Dell-India.

Flanno · 6 Mar 2007 at 23:55

That's true but you can still get someone in Dublin if you ring about a Dimension problem. It all depends how the operator routes you. Sometimes you get Bangilor, somtimes you get Cherrywood or Bray in Dublin.

The XPS systems all go to the North of Ireland.

The Plex/Latitude - not sure where they get routed. But they are the business systems and it would depend if the customer had a specific support contract in place. Latitudes and Insprion are the same internals by the way - just different plastics.

unde4d · 7 Mar 2007 at 00:41

Perhaps if you buy a beefy Dimension (like yourself

) you'll get the Dubs, normally the cheapo home system Dimensions mean you get india. Either way, Dell's support is easy to work with:

After reaching a support tech-
Me: My problem is XYZ
Tech: Have you tried the diagnostics
Me: Yes, already done
Tech: Can you try this...
Me: Yes, I tried that.
Tech: What about ...
Me: Yes, i've tried that. Can you send out a technican tomorrow with the parts?
Tech: Yes Sir. I'll email you a Dell Customer Satisfaction survey, please take time to complete..
Me: Yeah yeah yeah, thanks.

Obivously, if it's something reasonbly simple (borked Harddrive, etc), i'll just ask for the parts, apart from that, I'll let the warranty do the work