Moving a Dell to a cooler case (1 Viewer)

[Camp]

I'm thinking of jumping in on one of the cheapo (~$400) Dell PCs for use as an audio server. I would want to move the PC guts into a real HTPC case for asthetics. I know the motherboard and power supplies in most Dells are proprietary designs and would like some opinions on what sort of difficulty I might expect by changing cases.

Will motherboard holes not align properly? Will the power supply not fit? Will I be unable to easily wire the power & reset buttons?

What about adding extra hard drives? Are Dells open enough to accept new drives?

 

[Glenn]

Hi Camp,

I don't know the answers to your questions about how it might fit inside of another case but if it is the Poweredge 400SC server there is an unofficial FAQ on the 400SC. It might help with your questions.

http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8

I don't think you will have any problems adding hard drives. I have a 400SC and recently added an 80GB drive to it with no problems.

I would be interested in hearing more of your plans as I am also interrested in doing turning mine into an audio server along with a few other things. I wasn't planning to change the case though.

I'm looking into trying Red Hat Linux as an Operating system. What do you plan to use?

Thanks,
Glenn


>>I'm thinking of jumping in on one of the cheapo (~$400) Dell PCs for use as an audio server. I would want to move the PC guts into a real HTPC case for asthetics.

>>What about adding extra hard drives? Are Dells open enough to accept new drives?

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

The vast majority of Dell mobo's are standard size now, and most of the power supplies are standard ATX. I just ordered a 400sc, d8300, and d4600. I'll be able to say for sure soon.

 

[Camp]

I would be interested in hearing more of your plans as I am also interrested in doing turning mine into an audio server along with a few other things. I wasn't planning to change the case though.

Well, the plans aren't much special -nor are they set in concrete.

It'll be a WinXP machine and the only use will be for music. I'll get whatever the best performance/value combo soundcard I can and drop in a 200 GB hard drive. Other than that, I'll probably use J.River's Media Center or myHTPC as the music interface (via remote, of course). Nothing fancy.