Gutting a decade-old Dell

L

LstBrunnenG

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Messages
6,676
I'm going to be building a system with the following specs:

550 MHz Slot PIII
< 256 MB RAM
1-2 PCI SATA controller(s)
Four 500 GB SATA HDDs

Would it be safe to trust this kind of PC to the original Dell PSU that came with the system? The only place I'm really over-speccing it is the number of HDDs.

Thanks.
 
personally i wouldn't feel secure with a decade old psu, though depending on your useage/enviorment it might not be that bad. It also depends what the wattage is. If its a decade old i fear it will be around 300 watts. personally if your running 4 harddrivers and a few pci slots i would go for 400 watts. Im a noob, but its my general understanding.
 
I don't think it is safe to trust all that storage to such an old PSU. Unfortunately, IIRC, early Dell PCs used a proprietary connector. So if you're still using that Dell mobo, you're SOL.
 
All I'll add to this is that the PSU in my GF's old Optiplex (P2 400, Apr 1997) is still solid after 10 years (!!) of running. System was up 24x7 (barring system updates) until January when we moved. I can honestly say that I've never had a PSU last this long.

Kevin
 
That is because it is most likely a Delta Electronics built unit. Delta are solid and put out what they are rated at. Efficiency would be pretty ordinary, but regulation wise, they are rock solid. We have 16 Dells/Delta's that are running for > 5 yrs with ZERO hardware problems.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
It's not proprietary.
Click to expand...

The plug is the same, but the pinout isn't. You have to swap some wires around to make it work with a standard ATX MB. I remember very well working on some Dell boxes in 2000-2001 that had the non-standard plug on them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top