dell optiplex 390 MT case swap

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech · May 25, 2017

Hi, I've got a dell optiplex 390 MT and I'd like to do a case swap but I'm unsure if it's possible. I know this model of optiplex is ATX, so it should work, but I'm not sure how I'd wire up the front panel (power switch, power lights USB ports, headphone jacks, etc.) Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance,
Robert

bambiboom · May 26, 2017

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech :

Robert,

The Optiplex 390 motherboard appears to be a more or less conventional format, but I think that era of Dell will have some proprietary connectors that may not work with a modern power supply.

I'm all for keeping older systems going and improving the performance, but if your system is worth $80-90 and a new case and power supply is another $100 which = $180 or so, the time, effort, and cost would be better spent buying a system with a higher specification. For example:

Dell Optiplex 990 Desktop Quad Core i7 2600 3.40GHz 500GB 4GB > sold for $117

That's a hyperthreading i7 3.4 /3.8GHz 4-core using up to 16GB DDR3-1333 and with some budget left over for a used GTX 750Ti.

Better yet- with a little more effort involved:

Dell Precision T3500's are - beautifully made, reliable, can use a 4-core up tje x5687 @ 3.6 /3.87GHz and 6-core up to 3.57/3.73GHz CPU's, and have 525W power supplies.

Dell Precision T3500 Intel Xeon W3503 2.4GHz 6GB DDR3 ATI FireMV 2260> sold for $40

And upgrade to taste. It can use a wide variety of LGA1366 Xeons.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech · May 26, 2017

bambiboom :

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech :

Robert,

The Optiplex 390 motherboard appears to be a more or less conventional format, but I think that era of Dell will have some proprietary connectors that may not work with a modern power supply.

I'm all for keeping older systems going and improving the performance, but if your system is worth $80-90 and a new case and power supply is another $100 which = $180 or so, the time, effort, and cost would be better spent buying a system with a higher specification. For example:

Dell Optiplex 990 Desktop Quad Core i7 2600 3.40GHz 500GB 4GB > sold for $117

That's a hyperthreading i7 3.4 /3.8GHz 4-core using up to 16GB DDR3-1333 and with some budget left over for a used GTX 750Ti.

Better yet- with a little more effort involved:

Dell Precision T3500's are - beautifully made, reliable, can use a 4-core up tje x5687 @ 3.6 /3.87GHz and 6-core up to 3.57/3.73GHz CPU's, and have 525W power supplies.

Dell Precision T3500 Intel Xeon W3503 2.4GHz 6GB DDR3 ATI FireMV 2260> sold for $40

And upgrade to taste. It can use a wide variety of LGA1366 Xeons.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

From what I've seen on the internet, it is possible to fit an aftermarket PSU. Dunno if you'd need an adapter though. I'm more concerned about front panel connectors, how'd you think that'd work?

bambiboom · May 26, 2017

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech :

Robert,

Due to the age of the motherboard, the key factor is possible differences in the connectors. I had that situation when adding a PERC H310 RAID controller to a Dell Precision T5500 which predated the H310: the HD activity LED lead was four-pin on the H310 but was three pin on the T5500 front panel. There is still no HD activity light on the T5500. By the way, have a look at the PERC H310 as it may work in the 390 and that would increase the disk subsystem from 3GB/s to 6GB/s. On the T5500, the Samsung 840 Passmark disk score changed from 1940 to 2694 without any other change.

The other concern would be the USB ports. Have a look at the connectors on the 390 and see if it possible to download from the manufacturer's site, the detailed parts list for the proposed case. However, if you have the PCIe slot open, consider adding a PCIe USB 3.0 card and that will provide USB 3 and 2 to the front panel and have a couple of each on the rear panel.

It might also be possible to salvage some of the front panel parts from the 390 for transfer.

Is the change of case to be able to use larger GPU's?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech · May 26, 2017

bambiboom :

The youtube vids I've have seen have all just taken the bits and pieces from the dell front panel and sandwiched them into the new case. The other thing I've seen elsewhere is to strip back the cable and wire it up that way, which seems like a plan. Funnily enough the peticular used dell I have my grubby hands on was originally specified with a USB 3.0 card, so there's that. Also I'm not moving case because of GPU size, just because the case I want to move it to is nicer than the dell one

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