PCTech Forums

Hello all,

The computer I bought from DELL approximately 3 years ago, has been updated often enough, but now I'm considering getting a new motherboard bundle to replace the P3 1 GHz 512 MB SDRAM thats inside right now.

I was wondering what factors have to be considered when replacing the bundle as such.

I have a GF3 Ti-200 Video Card, a DVDROM drive, and a CD-RW drive, a 40 gig, and 80 gig WD hard drive. Should I be wary of any conflicts? Perhaps my power supply? Is the physical SIZE of the board any different?

I am not looking into going top of the line, I'm thinking of spending $200ish for the whole bundle. Oh if anyone has any suggestions for my purchase they will be much obliged.

Thanks in advance for your help.

most dells use standard atx motherboards. As long as the board will fit it should work out fine. One thing you may have trouble with though is if your pc has custom wiring harnesses. The ATX power connector might not be long enough if the board you buy has the connector in a different place than dell's OEM board. Same issue with IDE (hard drive) connectors. And come to think of it you'll probably have a REALLY hard time trying to get power/hd lights to work.. and even power/reset buttons. The case you have probably has a custom connector that you'll need to reverse engineer.

You may be better off to buy a cheap case, and use the dell as a machine to "play" with

Also, Dell's Windows License key will probably NOT work with your new solution, so you might have to buy another copy of windows. The license key that dell uses HAS to talk to the DELL motherboard, so that might cause you major problems if you need to re-install