Dude, you're killing your Dell!

My goal is to mod my Dell until it's no longer recognizable as such.

Here's a summary of my question:
Which should I buy first: a CPU fan, or a mobo/PSU combination? In other words, which is more important: keeping my CPU below 55° C or being able to plug the mobo into the front panel USB, power switch?

Here are the details:
I am tweaking the heck out of my Dell Dimension 2350 Intel P4 1.8 GHz 845GL system. My father got it for me two years ago because it was really cheap, and he thought it would be a good place to start and I could upgrade later. The thought was, at least it's an ATX with a P4, and my old Wintel system wasn't upgradeable to a P4 at all. Unfortunately, when I got it and opened it up, I found I couldn't add another HDD because there's no place for it! I was not aware of Dell's lockbox/proprietary policies before I got it. Needless to say, this is really annoying!

So, I've been putting a lot of effort lately into upgrading, modding, and doing all I can to negate the warranty! But I have a predicament right now, and that is, I've put myself in a place where I cannot just stop where I am. But I'm overbudget on my upgrades for this month, but I've ended up with a PC in a sort of a "transitional phase" and I need to know: what's the most important step to take next, if I can only do one thing?

My first step was to replace the graphics card and disable onboard graphics (and I have confirmed that the onboard graphics are not using any resources, so this is good!)

Then I put my MicroATX 845GL into an Antec Super Lanboy case. And here are my issues:

1. Unfortunately, the spacers that are used to attach black plastic heatsink frame do not correspond with holes in the chassis. Should I get a new mobo, or should I get smaller nuts to replace the spacers with, or should I try to get ahold of the little clear rubber dealios like they use for fan mounting in the Lanboy and use those to attach the black heatsink mount (would it even be able to handle the weight)?

2. The wires for the front panel USB, audio, power, reset, etc. buttons do not correspond to the sockets on the Dell mobo. This is annoying. But I removed the Dell USB panel and power switch and incorporated those into the new setup for the time being. The power switch is sitting on the shelf where the Lanboy's toolbox is supposed to be, and the USB is inside on the bottom of my case. (I plugged my printer into it and have it hanging out the toolbox shelf for the time being... kinda cool, actually, because the cable has red LEDs on it... But obviously it's not the best option!) Are there any wire harness adapters available that would enable standard case front panel wire setups to plug into the Dell mobo?

3. I plugged a 3.5" Enermax (those guys don't speak good english!) thermal monitor into the system and have one of the sensors attached to the CPU heatsink. When I'm idle, it's pretty cool, but if I'm doing something that puts the CPU workload at 100% (like running Seti@Home), then it shoots up to around 55-65° C mark (I just got it up to 65 and my alarm went off, so I shut down Seti@Home). Intel's website says the "thermal spec" for the CPU is 77°. So am I okay? Some people think even 55° is way too hot, and I can confirm that in the Dell Dimension case it never ran this hot, because I placed the green fan shroud over the heatsink (temporarily, since there's no way to mount it), and it instantly dropped 15°. Another fan woe I have is that I have to press F1 every time I boot up the system because it says "Alert! CPU fan not detected" (there are no options in the BIOS for turning this off). You see, the "CPU fan" in the Dell was actually a rear case exhaust fan, but it's plugged into a 3-pin socket in front of the CPU, and its shroud focuses the airflow around the CPU heatsink and thereby prevents it from cooling the rest of the case. The case fans on the Lanboy are 4-pin, so I can't plug them into the 3-pin socket on the mobo in front of the CPU.

So, should my priority right now be the CPU fan, or a mobo that actually plugs into the front panel wires? http://Endpcnoise.com has a Dell PSU adapter that goes from a new PSU into a Dell mobo. Unfortunately, they don't have one that goes the other way. Which means, if I replace the mobo, I have to replace the PSU as well. I don't mind having to press F1 every time I boot up, and I don't mind the funky power switch/USB setup I've got going on for the time being. The most important think to me is making sure I don't fry my CPU. But if I'm well below the thermal spec, than am I okay?

This 4-pin to 3-pin cable might do the trick for my mobo's cpu fan sensor. But seriously, having to press F1 is the least of my worries at the moment.

Dude, I'm NOT getting a Dell, ever again!

Thanks,

LB

P.S. Would pictures help?

 

Update: This, and other pages led me to think the PSU is proprietary. But my mobo doesn't have that other 6-pin dealio that the older Dells had. It looks like a standard ATX PSU. And if you look at the specs for these knockoffs, you'll see it's 20-pin ATX. Does anyone know for sure? A new PSU would almost cost more than a mobo!

 

My advice to you, instead of messing with a peice of shit dell, buy a new tower and take what you can from that computer and put it in the shell. You wont need the shitty power box thats inside the dell because most towers come with there own.

"Something i found with dells"

Feal the back of your pcs tower, at least on my old one there was an electric charge in the back. I gave them shit over the phone.


Check out my pc:

Duel p 4 3.00GHz Procecsor
Duel 1024mb Memory Modules
Raedon 8000x Video Card
Sound Blaster Sound card (Dont no type)


Only gave good stuff. o ya 64-bit lightning Chip

 

I did get a new tower. It's an Antec Super Lanboy (didn't you read my original post?). No PSU, though. I'm just trying to figure out whether the PSU is in fact proprietary for this one, because I don't think it is. It looks like standard 20-pin ATX, so maybe it will power a new mobo without me having to by a new PSU. PSU's are almost more expensive than mobo's are!

 

Yes, I'm killing my Dell

As for issue #1 in the original message, I've ordered a new heatsink retention bracket complete with plastic pushpins from TekGems to deal with that problem. Oh, and I'm getting a Zalman CPU cooler as well!

 

I went to Radio Shack and got, among other things which turned out to be useless, electrical tape! I was able to jerry-rig the power switch and LEDs btw the old Dell mobo and the new case. The I/O panel is going to have to wait until I get my new mobo, though. I'll use my USB in the back for now. (The metal box in the bottom of the case in the pic is the I/O panel from the old Dell case... the computer complains if it's not plugged in.)
Lanboy-Jerry-Rig-002-sm.jpg
Lanboy-Jerry-Rig-003-sm.jpg

 

Actually, the mon's brand new. It's actually the first Dell monitor I've ever had, and I only got it because it was the cheapest 17" I could find, on sale for $250. I like it a lot!

 

Here's my new Zalman quiet CPU fan! Current temp is 25.7° C. That's a full degree cooler than my hard drive! I'm thinking maybe I didn't mount my sensor properly. It's taped onto the south side of the fan motor. I think that's the closest I can get it to the CPU.