A friend asked me to build a PC, aiming only light desktop applications, no gaming, with the lightest budget possible, for his mom who is struggling with an oldie for a decade, a Dell optiplex 780 ... The challenge is that he asked me if it was possible to install the new hardware inside the Dell case and I said, well, it's possible I think ... but if ever, it will probably need many transformations So I started by gathering all the hardware, starting by a PSU that possibly could fit inside, and the only one I could find with this kind of form factor was a Be quiet TFX power 300w , a bit light but I checked with the be quiet configurator and it looks like it can match the hardware I bought : - MSI B450I gaming plus AC - Ryzen 3 2200G - 16GB of PNY DDR4 3200 Mhz - Samsung 970 evo + 250GB I received all the parts this week, and he came by yesterday evening with the Dell case, and he asked me if I could add a 2TB Hard drive, and I said ...well, yes i think so , and if I was able to finish it before monday, and I said yes again but not sure 100 % So the first thing was to strip the case and make some cutouts to fit the PSU, and I had to cut the tray to earn the necessary space, and the PSU fits if it's really against the side pannel... Other cutouts were necessary to place a motherboard tray, and on the back, I inserted a new I/O back-plate coming from an old ATX case, and it looks like it fits, as of now Then I found this old and sloppy usb tray and a USB 3.0 cable that fits inside... if I have the time I'll try to clean and put a layer of paint on the new parts but right now I must hurry to be sure that all the hardware can be crammed inside, or not... I think I can keep the DVD, if I manage to twist down a little more the PSU cables I'm going to have lunch now, to be continued this afternoon ...
Thank you Arboreal it's far to be clean and sexy modding but the challenge is only to hurry and to succeed in cramming everything inside before monday... PSU is mounted...
That starved chip fan, though. Great work. The best thing you can do with a dell case is toss it. Be warned! Dell are notorious for non-standard wiring. Check the stock fans' wiring before cranking them up. Yes, they even cross-wire fans.
Yeah that's exactly the point, she won't believe her sluggish Dell can run that fast A starved chip fan indeed, I thought so but I'm limited by depth, and, believe me or not, I pre-installed Windows yesterday, it runs really silently and not heating over 42 C in idle... About Dells, I agree, the best place for it is the junk , but I'm not the one who couldn't part with it, , customers are kings we use to say , but don't worry, there are no parts from the Dell kept, except the case and the DVD, I through away everything, including the fan, the one you see is a Noiseblocker blacksilent pro ultra slim kind I mounted almost everything, I need to craft something to mount the hard drive, to wire a connector for the DVD power, and then cut out a hole in the cover pannel above the poor CPU fan and screw on a grill
Everything is installed now, I made a cable to link the DVD power, I mounted the hard drive with 4 standoffs screwed behind, added a starting button, the fan is linked to the MB, USB 3 works well, and the DVD as well, it's almost 4pm and I must deliver it so all the details that could be improved will stay untouched, but it works and it is meaned to be hidden under a desk so... I put a grill to let the fan breath The front is still dirty but well it's now a ITX ryzen build thanks for watching
