Dimension 3000 Upgrade

[marlyred]

I have just been reading up on upgrading my Dell Dimension 3000 by replacing the mobo with a ASUS P4P800-VM. Apparently this will drop in with no mods at all and then I will be able to put in a decent AGP graphics card. However, if I am gonna upgrade the mobo I would really like to drop in one with a pci-e slot. Anyone know a suitable board, same form factor, power requirements etc that will do the job?

[alexander]

What ever you do DO NOT use the same Dell PSU that came with the machine. You will need to buy a new one. I tried fitting a new motherboard into a Dell 4500 and it literally went up in smoke and a really bad smell. Read around before you try anything with Dell stuff. Hope this helps.

[marlyred]

The threads I was reading actually said that there was no problem keeping the original psu. http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/cont...pic/37057/?o=0

[Firelord]

Chances are that it will have dell specific connectors on board from front panel etc.. you'd be better to ditch the dell case, psu and mobo and install in a new case, psu and mobo

[alexander]

Personally I wouldn't risk it. My Dell 4500 didn't have any of the same connectors for the power button + USB ports so I couldn't switch the PC on. I just scrapped the whole idea of Dell and kept their keyboard.

[marlyred]

Well I just ripped this info from another forum.
Quote: Re: Replacing DELL motherboard to add AGP slot and video card. Recomendations? SUCCESS!!!!
FYI. I have had perfect success with my DELL! I replaced the motherboard in my DELL Dimension 3000 PC with an ASUS P4P800-VM, and it works perfectly. I replaced the mobo because the original DELL board did not have an AGP slot. After carefully measuring all the voltages of the power supply connectors and checking the mounting hole locations, I was able to determine that this is a direct drop-in replacement board. What is all the fuss about? Apparently DELL is totaly M-ATX compliant now. (This pc was purchased in 2004). I installed an ATI 9200 graphics card, 2 CD/DVD drives, 2 HD, and 1394 card, and all is working very well on the original DELL power supply (250 Watt). All the mounting screws line up perfectly, all the slots line up perfectly, the fan shrould fits perfectly over the new board CPU socket, the PSU cables all plug direclt in and the pinout is exact ATX with one exception (no -5V lead on the DELL PSU, but apparently ASUS does not require this). The only mod I had to make was the front pannel connectons. I salvaged an old connector from a junk PC and used it in place of the DELL connector for HD led, PWR led, speaker (added), and reset switch. This is very easy to do if you are electronicaly inclined. Please contact me if you have any questions. So, after reading so many scary posts about DELLs, here is my conclusion.

ASUS mobo fit: PERFECT
DELL PSU: 250 W original PSU is fine for ASUS mobo + ATI 9200 + 4 discs
Original DELL DIMMs: Reused in ASUS board with no problems at all (pc3200, DDR400)
No SW or OS reinstall whatsoever was necessary! Just droped in the new board and powered up. Everything was just how I left it. (Important note: I had previously installed an original retail version of XP Pro on the old DELL mobo, this may have made things easier for the transition).

What an improvement in the graphics quality too over the onboard Extreme Graphics 2!

[Flibb]

Dells use of custom PSUs is model dependant. And for added excitement some models had standard fitting MOBO connectors but with the voltages moved around, these were the ones that killed non dell MOBOs