• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Dell Dimension 2300 project, first time mod.

Those antec tri speed fans are nice. Got 2 of them that are going into a watercooled e-machine I am working on... Nothing in it is an e-machine other than the case.
 
Silversierra said:
Oh, the mobo you used, does it have oc'ing options? I guess it doesn't really matter though, I'm looking for a socket 478mobo. It says your mobo is agp 4x, can it use agp 8x cards?

It looks like you didn't use the front usb, It doens't look standard, is there any way to get it to work?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it had lame overclocking ability, but i used a fan-less heatsink with the original exhaust fan duct to keep it quiet. A 2GHz Athlon XP was overkill for a HTPC anyways.

I was too lazy to hook up the front USB ports. I wasn't using those anyways and would have just rewired it like the front panel connector.
 
pxc said:
Yeah, it had lame overclocking ability, but i used a fan-less heatsink with the original exhaust fan duct to keep it quiet. A 2GHz Athlon XP was overkill for a HTPC anyways.

I was too lazy to hook up the front USB ports. I wasn't using those anyways and would have just rewired it like the front panel connector.
Click to expand...

I'd like to connect the usb if I can, it wouldn't be that hard if I had a wiring diagram for the case's cable. As is, I don't know which wires do what. I think the mobo manual will say what the usb pins are, but I need to know what the wires are coming from the usb ports.

I guess it can be cooler in the case than the room temp, as in ghetto ac ducts, lol, and liquid nitrogen coolign, phase change, watercooling, but with just case fans I don't think it could ever get much cooler than the room.

I'm getting this cpu cooler for part 2.
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.p...rial=ICC-L81&other_title=+ICC-L81+X Dream III
It's quiet, cheap, socket 478, and blue leds, cool.
 
Try a google search for the mb if you cannot find it in the 3 pages of the dell book :rolleyes:

im sure someone out there might have a pic of what goes where..
- Fold [H]ard - - Or go [H]ome - ​
 
I know the pinouts of the mobo, but I need the pinouts of the wire from the case's front usb. Any ideas on that?
 
I'm trying to figure out how to wire the front usb.
I don't know which wires are for the mic and which are usb, it's a mess.
dellusbfront.jpg

topviewusb.jpg
 
Silversierra said:
Ok more pictures. Here's the front usb pcb. Odd, recognize the name on the usb ports?
I don't know which wires are for the mic and which are usb, it's a mess.
[.IMG]http://www.alienhax.us/uploads/dellusbfront.jpg[/IMG]
[.IMG]http://www.alienhax.us/uploads/topviewusb.jpg[/IMG]
Click to expand...

flip it over and follow the traces.
 
k
SpangeMonkee said:
flip it over and follow the traces.
Click to expand...
I did, it doesn't have the traces on the bottom, they're on the top and they're hard to follow. It seems the color red it usb power, black is ground, yellow is data-, and orange is data+, but that's a guess, I could try it, but I don't want to fry my jumpdrive lol. There's only 1 red(assume power usb), which is odd, shouldn't there be 2 power(one for each port)?
 
Silversierra said:
k
I did, it doesn't have the traces on the bottom, they're on the top and they're hard to follow. It seems the color red it usb power, black is ground, yellow is data-, and orange is data+, but that's a guess, I could try it, but I don't want to fry my jumpdrive lol. There's only 1 red(assume power usb), which is odd, shouldn't there be 2 power(one for each port)?
Click to expand...

unsolder it :)
 
Ok, since my cpu did run a little hot, and I don' t have a decent hsf yet, I modded the green shroud to fit over the 80mms in the back. I also painted it a better color for some "bling" lol. Haven't tried it yet to see if it keeps it cooler.
silverduct.jpg

silvercaseduct.jpg




That's just temporary I think. Once I get a side panel duct, then it shouldn't need it, the duct fan will blow on the cpu hs to keep it cool.

What do you mean unsolder it? The usb port, or the wires in the connector. I don't think I know enough about electronics to mess around with the front usb/headphone thing, but if someone else knows how to do it and could help me, I'd appreciate it, but I realize it might be almost impossible to do.
 
Why does that PCB have so many wires? A dual USB port header only requires 9 pins, and 3 for the speaker connection, add in an extra three so they can run the signal back and make the connector short the signal, and you're still only at 15 wires. I count 20 on the connector. What are the other 5 for?
 
DarkMonkey said:
Why does that PCB have so many wires? A dual USB port header only requires 9 pins, and 3 for the speaker connection, add in an extra three so they can run the signal back and make the connector short the signal, and you're still only at 15 wires. I count 20 on the connector. What are the other 5 for?
Click to expand...
The other 5 are unused. Like you guessed, 6 wires are used for audio and 9 wires are used for the 2 USB ports. 3 would have been used for the microphone + loopback.

Silversierra: you need a multi-meter. :p
 
pxc said:
The other 5 are unused. Like you guessed, 6 wires are used for audio and 9 wires are used for the 2 USB ports. 3 would have been used for the microphone + loopback.

Silversierra: you need a multi-meter. :p
Click to expand...
What would that help? Which 5 are unused, there are 19 wires, 6black, 2yellow, 2orange, blue, brown, lt. brown, red, 2green, pink, white, and gray. What colors are usb? I'm guessing red, black, yellow, and orange. What colors are headphones? Does dell even use standard wire colors?
 
Silversierra said:
What would that help?
Click to expand...
so you can trace a pin on the circuit board to a wire. :p That's how you figure out the wiring.
 
Ok, update. I installed a 80mm blue led side panel duct fan. It looks cool.
3" holesaws are cool. Much better than dremeling a hole.

sideduct.jpg


yesthefanisrunning.jpg


blueled.jpg
 
Ok, I volt modded the side panel fan so it's quieter, and it works, but it doesn't put out much air now. Would it work to connect the fans ground to a -5v lead and the fans + lead to a 5v lead to get it to run on 10v(I have it at 7v now)? Any help appreciated.
 
If you had the fan- on the 5- and the fan+ on the 5+ you get 5volts going to the fan. Anyway you should make your own fan cover thing that just covers the top fan so you still have the bottom one open for the case.
 
I have the cpu fan duct removed now, since the side panel fan is to blow on the cpu and keep it cool, seems to work. I think the fan shroud/cpu thing was only temporary. Now with the side blow hole, it keeps it cool without it, and once I get my cpu hsf I ordered(not passive like current setup) it should be even cooler.

So how does the volt modding work then? I have the 12v psu line to the 12+ on the fan, and the 5v psu line to the gnd fan line, as it said to do on an article here about volt modding. I figured the fan just got the difference between it's ground and power lines 12v-5v=7v, what the volt mod is supposed to yield (so the difference between -5 and 5 =10v?) Help on this?
 
Ok, I'm painting the side panel now. Primered up and sanded.

Can anyone please answer my question above?

primered.jpg

 
The only trick i know of is the 7v trick and that uses 5v+ and 12v+.
 
So 7v is the only trick? How does the 7v trick work then? Couldn't I hook a 3v to the gnd instead of the 5v for gnd and have 12v-3v=9v? I don't get it.

Also, on this pic, the fan is spinning, but it looks like it isn't. I was surprised my camera didn't blur the fan. You can see the one led is on though.

How would I use my multimeter to figure out the usb? What v does usb power use? How about the usb data+ and data-. Does the mic use voltage, is there any way to figure the mic out? Can anyone give me a little help sorting the usb thing out. I know at least some of you know about usb, I've seen usb mods here, so someone has to know some about it.
 
Find out use a old psu and test it.

And the meter is to find out what wires goes to what plug.
 
Wow, that is a cool cooler. After reading about it, I'm like, yeah sure it's good, but let me see the price(expecting about $70, which is way too high), but it's not too bad at $39. It looks huge though. It looks like it goes to the side of the cpu(or is it the top or bottom?),and my matx case might not accomodate it.

I already ordered a cooler from the 'egg so it should be here in a few days(side note what days does fedex ship? Do they work on saturdays? How 'bout mondays?). Here's the cooler I'm getting. It seems ok to me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835103161
 
Ok, the side panel is painted. It doesn't match the dell "midnight gray", but it actually kind of looks cool the way it contrasts IMO. I think the paintjob itself looks good. And the led fan is much bluer in person than in the photos, it looks great.

paintjob.jpg

paintjob2.jpg


paintjob3.jpg


led pic.
paintjob4.jpg

 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
Nice work.

Now you have to paint the other side panel to match. :)
Click to expand...

I don't think I will. It would be a major hassle to do it. Who sees both sides at once anyway?:) It doesn't contrast as badly as in the third pic, it looks more like the 4th one in in use. It isn't very noticeable. I could paint the whole thing, but I don't have enough paint. It was cheapo flat black spray paint, no name brand from Walmart.
 
Silversierra said:
"what days does fedex ship? Do they work on saturdays? How 'bout mondays?"

Anyone know?
Click to expand...

They don't ship on the weekends. The parcels move on the weekends .. So anything shipped on Friday or the week before can still get in on Monday. You can't ship something out on the Weekends though, nor should you expect anything on the weekends. :p Although I'm sure there are some services that allow that.
 
mohammedtaha said:
They don't ship on the weekends. The parcels move on the weekends .. So anything shipped on Friday or the week before can still get in on Monday. You can't ship something out on the Weekends though, nor should you expect anything on the weekends. :p Although I'm sure there are some services that allow that.
Click to expand...


USPS ships on saturdays, they are also cheaper, and have delivery conformation and tracking.


btw that walmart paint, I use it also for less than a buck a can it does well.
 
Ok, Part 2 has started. I will now install a new mobo, video card, cpu cooler, fan grilles, filters, round cables, etc. Here's the stuff.
thestuff.jpg


themobo.jpg

thecooler.jpg

 
mmm good looking parts :D

Looks like you are still doing a great job, keep up the good work!

 
Your mod would look a LOT better if you actually alternated that black colour through-out the case ...
 
Ok, the parts are all in now. Everything seemed to fit ok (except the front usb, I just removed it.) I did have to reroute the front panel pins, but that's expected, got 'em right the first time. So now it has a gigabyte 8IG1000MK matx mobo, my 1.8a ghz p4, 512mb of kingmax dual channel ram, leadtek 6200 agp 128mb, and the coolermaster xdream 3 p4 cooler. This was my first attempt to use thermal paste(always used thermal pad on stock cooling before). I just spread it out in a thin layer and put the hsf on. Seems to have worked, my temps are much lower now after the upgrade. I was able to reuse my oem dell restore cd with the new mobo, which is great, I saved $90. It seemed like everywhere I looked, it said, it's really bad to change a mobo with a full copy of xp and keep it installed, but it's impossible to do it with a oem(dell) restore cd. Well, I just did it, and it seems to work. I just uninstalled a lot of stuff before the install, like my ide controller, integrated video, sound drivers, lan card drivers, etc. At first it had issues with the 6200, but now after installing the 76.41 drivers it's good. Hehe, I also got rivatuner, and my 6200 unlocked to a 6600, awesome. I also got my 1.8ghz oc'ed to 2.4 now, and it seems stable, haven't tried higher(I went from 400 fsb to 533). I got 35,000 in aquamark3, which isn't too bad for a backup machine, and I still could oc' the video to probably about 500 core(300 stock). I accomplished my goal, everyone seemed to think(not on this forum, elsewhere), that I'd be stupid to upgrade a dell. They said Dells use proprietary psus(wrong, my sys. is standard), that the mobos are odd shaped/the case mobo stand offs are different (my matx fits fine), that the front panel can't be connected(wrong, just needs some modding), but the big one I was hearing was, "You'll never get the dell xp cd installed on the new mobo, it's "keyed/tattooed" to the dell mobo and can never work on another board," well I just did it. So Dell's are much more upgrade friendly nowadays, they seem almost standard(except front usb).
theinstall.jpg

thelighting.jpg
 
I think you should put a wire sleeving kit on your PSU but other then that nice work.
 
Ok Update on the final case mods.
fangrille.jpg

fangrille2.jpg


fanbackpanel.jpg


Installed grilles and a filter on the side panel fan. I almost want a window on the case, but It'd take too long, and I already have it painted and a fan installed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top