Micro-ATX to Dell

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olikicksmacs's picture
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Micro-ATX to Dell

Hi,

I have a 450mhz pentium 3 computer that has the most boring case. It is a Micro-ATX Mobo and i would like to put it into a Dell Optiplex Case. Does anyone have one and/or has put a mobo in a case. Would it be plausable?

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Isn't the Optiplex the one wi

Isn't the Optiplex the one with all the funky cooling? I'm guessing it'd be hard to cool the new motherboard properly within that enclosure... other than that, can't offer any really useful suggestions. Smile

Dr. Webster's picture
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Which Optiplex case are you r

Which Optiplex case are you referring to--the minitower or the small form factor desktop? A Micro-ATX board should fit into either just fine, but you'll have to make some sacrifices if you go with the SFF case--say goodbye to the use of your PCI slots, and you'll have to use a laptop floppy and optical drive.

Eudimorphodon's picture
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Depends on the Optiplex

Any of the "small" desktops, I.E., the ones that are less then 4 inches tall, won't work. Those machines use a proprietary riser card to place their PCI cards horizontally. Further, many of the older "large" cases won't work either. The old beige Optiplex GX1 series (The ones that bear a superficial resemblence to Beige Macintoshes) for instance has all the PCI slots mounted in a removable card cage, and the shape of the motherboard isn't even remotely ATX.

"Recent" (Black) full-size Optiplex towers are close enough the mATX to work with only minor swearing. Of course, whatever came stock in such a system is going to be better then what you plan to put into it. (They didn't switch to that design until the early Pentium IV era.)

--Peace

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