new motherboard for an old Dell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roy Gordon
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R

Roy Gordon

I have an old Dell Dimension XPS 300. That's right, with a Pentium II at
300 MHz. How retro can I one be?

The motherboard appears to have croaked and I want to know if there are any
after market boards that I can replace it with.

Does anyone know the form factor for the m/b?

I'm going to put Linux on it.

Thanks.

Roy

P.S. Isn't there a general motherboard newsgroup?
 
Roy said:
I have an old Dell Dimension XPS 300. That's right, with a Pentium II at
300 MHz. How retro can I one be?

The motherboard appears to have croaked and I want to know if there are any
after market boards that I can replace it with.

Does anyone know the form factor for the m/b?
Click to expand...

One thing to be careful of before starting is the power supply. A lot
of the Dell's use a proprietary power supply connector. They look a lot
like the standard connectors but the wiring is different. If you have
to replace the power supply also, which might not be a bad idea as the
original one may be too small for a newer board, you would be better off
to get a new case and power supply and your questions are then irrelevant.
 
No. That machine used a non standard power supply
hookup, also it has a proprietary front panel connector.
 
Thanks, guys.

I think instead I'll get one of those minimal systems via pricewatch.

Roy
 
Roy Gordon said:
Thanks, guys.

I think instead I'll get one of those minimal systems via pricewatch.

Roy
Click to expand...


Roy,

If you're anywhere near a Microcenter, they have a $29.99 case called the
PC-132, which comes with an "Austin" 300W power supply. I just got one, and
it seems to be working fine, and quite quiet, and the case has lots of
space.

Re. newsgroups, there's alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt and
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, among others.
 
You might have better luck at alt.sys.pc-clone.dell.

If memory serves, it's basically an ATX mainboard, but with nonstandard
power (separate 3.3V connector), a proprietary front panel connector, etc.

The Dell case was probably made by Palo Alto Products, but I don't get a
response from their web site.

As the XPS 300 dates from 1997, there may not be much point in salvaging
anything from it. Graphics cards are better, hard drives are larger (and
faster), CD drives are faster, etc.

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Bob Knowlden said:
You might have better luck at alt.sys.pc-clone.dell.
Click to expand...

You didn't peek at the newsgroups line before posting this, did
you Mr. Knowlden?

Newsgroups:
alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,comp.hardware,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus
 
I had problems with the motherboard in my XPS 266 about a year ago. Since I had already upgrade my hard drives I got a SOYO Pentium 3 motherboard (ATX) with ISA slots so I could use my old modem and sound card. I also got a larger powers supply; the original was Dell proprietary.
 
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