by "Nibby" (nibby68)
Published 06/09/2017 at 14:35
by "Nibby" (nibby68)
Published 06/09/2017 at 14:35
Tags: BUILD
STARS: 12
This is a Dell Dimension XPS 4100 case. I gutted it and put its Pentium III parts into another case. The first order was to clean everything. Air compressor got rid of most of the dust and everything else was wiped down. Even the edges had grime on them removed via q-tips.
Dell and Micron used Palo Alto ATCX cases for several years in the late 1990s. They are roomy, albeit narrow, but can take ATX motherboards. There were a couple issues here... I couldn’t use the motherboard’s I/O shield and I had to snip a piece of metal from the rear so it wouldn’t interfere with my power supply’s on/off switch.
Parts!
Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P LGA1151 ATX motherboard
Rosewill 80+ modular power supply
Intel Skylake 6700K processor
32GB DDR4 RAM
ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 cooler (just short enough to fit!)
A couple of ARCTIC F9 PWM 92mm fans
NVIDIA GTX 745 4GB (I don’t really game anymore but I had this lying around)
256GB Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD
2TB 7200RPM SATA HD
Beige DVD/RW SATA drive
3.5" USB 2.0 + 3.0 front panel, spray painted
Windows 10
The front panel header had a pin blocked so it wouldn’t fit originally. Removed the pin filling with a needle and it works fine.
Messy cables... I tried to tuck some behind others and into crevices to keep them away from the fan and cooler. The front panel connector is just long enough to reach. I still had to modify the plastic part that holds it in place.
Closeup of the fan + cooler
dem ports... just need to put in some serial + parallel ports and a 56K PCI modem
The front, complete with a Skylake sticker. I chose to use the older style front bezel and I found one for $8 shipped on eBay.
A slightly angled view.
dat ass
Original service tag + Windows 98SE product key included.
It’s ALIVE! It also runs really quiet, which was a bit surprising.
The desk setup
Speccy
Idle temps
Prime95 benchtesting
It was fun! Always wanted to do something like this. dat sleeper build.
UPDATE! Some more pics.
Deyellowed the drive bay panels. Not perfect but a definite improvement.
Comparison
"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform)
06/09/2017 at 14:41, STARS: 0
y in bathroom tho
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:42, STARS: 0
I was cleaning it in there
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
06/09/2017 at 14:45, STARS: 0
So I have this old original IBM XT sitting here I’ve been thinking of doing something like this any advice for Power Supplies Switches.etc?
"Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs" (yowen)
06/09/2017 at 14:47, STARS: 0
Awesome build! I’m glad you were able to adequately cool it. That always seems to be a concern with putting newer hardware in older cases. Although my PC building days are between 5 and 10 years ago, depending on which build. Have temps come down somewhat from those days with more efficient processes?
"garagemonkee" (monke)
06/09/2017 at 14:47, STARS: 0
smart toilet, it’s the future.
"itschrome" (itschrome)
06/09/2017 at 14:48, STARS: 0
ok that’s funny!
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/09/2017 at 14:49, STARS: 1
I love when someone builds a new computer out of an old dinosaur. Your project looks brilliant!!! :)
I was wanting to do such with an old Dell Dimension 3000. I mean, I have so many fond memories of seeing those stupid things everywhere.
But, I guess I never really got around to the project and the case never quite made it to my apartment. Oh well. lol
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:52, STARS: 0
Thanks! The problem though is the Dimension 3000 is BTX form factor which was relatively shortlived and a pain to work with. So it’d be a ton of work to do that!
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:52, STARS: 0
Thanks! The problem though is the Dimension 3000 is BTX form factor which was relatively shortlived and a pain to work with. So it’d be a ton of work to do that!
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:53, STARS: 0
Yeah the temperatures were surprising but I think Skylakes run cooler than C2D and first few gen Core i series
"Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs" (yowen)
06/09/2017 at 14:54, STARS: 0
Ah yeah, I’m working with a 1st gen i-series.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:54, STARS: 0
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Hmm, I am not too sure actually. I know it’s been done, see
https://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=206763
and
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/09/2017 at 14:57, STARS: 0
Good thing I never got to do the project! *whew*
Our current rig is a frankenstein of old and new parts. It’s only running a 1050ti but it’ll play most current and new titles on high.
We want to make a second, slightly less powerful rig for me (which would probably do nothing but play FSX) which I think I want to be in a polycarbonate or glass case.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 14:57, STARS: 3
you know what would be cool, building an mATX rig in one of those IBM Netvistas
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
06/09/2017 at 15:05, STARS: 0
Gives me a starting point thanks.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 15:07, STARS: 1
wow this stupid new button layout makes replying impossible
"CalzoneGolem" (calzonegolem)
06/09/2017 at 15:35, STARS: 0
This is good Oppo! Never change Nibby.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 15:46, STARS: 1
Thanks!
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/09/2017 at 15:47, STARS: 1
I’ve also kinda wanted to build a rig out of an iMac G5 too:
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
06/09/2017 at 15:53, STARS: 1
Well isn’t that quite the sleeper.
"R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet" (r-saldana)
06/09/2017 at 15:55, STARS: 0
Love , love, LOVE these kinds of builds.
That said, I have not seen a Zalman cooler in a literal eternity. Why you no use Cryorig C1 or C7?
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:07, STARS: 0
Didn’t even think about those really
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:07, STARS: 0
Now that would be cool
"R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet" (r-saldana)
06/09/2017 at 16:09, STARS: 0
good results from both, going to trade my corsair h100i for the new copper cryorig line once threadripper goes live.
"CalzoneGolem" (calzonegolem)
06/09/2017 at 16:10, STARS: 0
I had a sweet purple Vaio case that I swapped the guts out of a few times.
It was not quite the performance jump you’ve done. My college was retiring them from a lab.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:13, STARS: 0
Sony VAIO cases were a royal PITA to work with IIRC
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:13, STARS: 1
sounds like a good plan... also tried some Comet + dish soap + vinegar + toothbrush and then lightly sanded it... Not perfect but definitely better
"R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet" (r-saldana)
06/09/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 0
I need to do this some day soon, maybe I will put my 6700k/ gigabyte z170x/64GB ddr4 3200/ dual samsung 950 evo into something ancient when I get threadripper in
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:41, STARS: 0
these cases (dell dimension XPS D/R/T/B series) are easy to work with but they’re narrow so you’ll need a smallish cooler. Other than that it’s not that bad to reassemble. There were also HP Pavilion and Compaq Presarios that were ATX cases around this time, albeit those might be harder to find
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
06/09/2017 at 16:49, STARS: 0
Old case with new guts = awesome. Nicely done.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 16:53, STARS: 0
Thank you
"rockingthe2" (unpredictable-swerve)
06/09/2017 at 19:18, STARS: 0
Dude I picked up one of those AND a Mac Pro (early 06) for $15. My wife still uses the Pro for photography editing. I may hackintosh it and add some better Xeon processors and stuff the ram, but it’s on two dual core 3ghz processors and like 11 gigs of RAM.
"fintail" (fintail)
06/09/2017 at 21:13, STARS: 0
Nice, the P133 bit makes it good. I reckon that’s from around 1995-96.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/09/2017 at 21:30, STARS: 0
Late 96
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
06/11/2017 at 19:30, STARS: 1
So you’ve got the sleeper. Now all you need is a modern high-end case with internals from the mid 90's to troll people with
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/11/2017 at 19:32, STARS: 0
oh yeah working on that too
"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/18/2017 at 08:41, STARS: 0
get a pair of X5650s and bump it up to 16GB RAM, get an SSD, and an HD5770 and you’re golden