computer case question

skives

I have a dell dimension 4500 and just got a thermaltake kandoff case. I was wondering if anyone knew if the parts of my dell computer will fit into the thermaltake case? I just want to transfer the components into the new case for now.

Thanks

bighornsheep

your machine seems to just be a regular atx tower case, so it should be fine.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500/replace.htm#1101572

kujayhawk93

Even if the board will mount inside the case, here are a couple other things to take into consideration:

I/O Panel: I doubt the I/O panel in your Dell case is removable, so if your new case doesn't have a shield that matches the configuration of your motherboard's I/O ports, it's going to look kind of ugly back there.

Power supply: Dell's motherboards and power supplies are somewhat proprietary, so you'll want to transfer the PS from your Dell tower along with the board. The problem with that is that most Dell power supplies have the power cord socket in a different place than most ATX power supplies (the upper left corner instead of the lower left), so depending on what the opening is like on the back of your new case, you might find that the power cord socket is blocked.

sprkymrk

I've never been able to move the guts of a Dell to anything else.

Slowhand

sprkymrk wrote:

I've never been able to move the guts of a Dell to anything else.

Yup, I've seen this with every Dell from the last five to six years. Dell likes to modify things like motherboards, CPU fans, etc. . . to make sure that you can only buy Dell parts for a Dell computer, and that you can't really reuse the case or move the guts to another case in the future. I once had to tell a customer that, while we had CPU fans for $5 in our store, he'd have to purchase one from Dell for $60 because his Dell computer didn't take a standard CPU fan. What was worse was that he had to call Dell and order the part, himself, since Dell refused to take calls from unauthorized service centers.