[PROJECT] The XPS600 Annihilation!! = The ????? (many pics) - Help Needed

MrGuvernment

MrGuvernment

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Aug 3, 2004
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i'm backkkkkkkkkk, with that dam mod itch! dam me, and all you modders who make me look at your projects!


Lets get this out of the way, yes, i own a DELL XPS600, i got it for an unreal price, so i didnt pass it up and needed to get a decent system anyways.

For those of you who like to diss dell, get the out of this thread please unless you have something contributing to say or thoughts to help, i dont want to hear your uneducated crap about how dells suck this (because %99 of you who do have never owned one anyways), and suck and that i shouldnt have bought a dell if i wanted to mod it blah blah blah! .​


Bottom line, i bought this computer months ago with no intentions of modding, just to simply have a decent comp, so now i want to mod it, i am not going to run out and buy a whole new system, so SHOVE IT! :) Anyways, with this being a dell chassis, any mod i am going to do is going to take more creativity and thought since it is not a standard layout.

Okay, got the drama out of the way.

Quick specs of the system:


  • [*]Foxconn S l-36 Mobo made for dell / dual PCIe 16x SLI capable
    [*]Pentium D 840 (dual core 3.2ghz 90nm pressy's with 2mb L2)
    [*]Dell's 650W PSU - 30A on the 5v rail 25A on the 3.3v rail.
    [*]Sapphire X1900 XT (XTX speeds) (came with an x700 PRO that died)
    [*]2g DDR2-667
    [*]1 x 74g Raptor
    [*]DVDr Drive
    [*]CDRW Drive
    [*]Creative Audigy ZS


This craving initially started when i wanted to consider water cooling my x1900 XT afew days ago, cause yes, it does get loud on %100 FAN, i open the case to see the room is limited, mainly because of dells massive heatsink system for the CPU. I then decidced well, maybe i can change the CPU heatsink, of course, dell is using some weird hole layout on the board, a mix between 775 and 478 but seems a little smaller then both so i cant just buy some stock heatsink.

cpumount.jpg


Shouldnt of been a suprised! but yeah....

I then decide i would like to try and water cool the CPU instead, not sure if i could do both items, so i am going to work on the CPU and water cooling that as that would then open up So much room in the case.

Now, where is the modding coming in? Well, for one, i am considering painting the entire case, adding some better areas for airflow and changing other items - details to follow as i think of them.

I have broken this project down into steps, or areas, as i am not sure in what order things will get done and new items could appear at any time.


  • 1. Gut and disassemble case
    Progress:|||||||||||||||||||| %99

    2. Modify / create air vents in case to provide better air flow
    Progress:|||||||||||||||||||| %0

    3. Sounds proof further if possible to lessen noise more
    Progress:|||||||||||||||||||| %0

    4. Paint / design outside of case
    Progress:|||||||||||||||||||| %0

    5. Create a name for the system for when it is done
    Progress:|||||||||||||||||||| %0


Thatis what i have on mind so far, it doesnt seem like anyone has done a massive dellXPS600 over haul, or at least none i can find around on the net.

Shall post as i progress, plan to have many pics, some useful, just some to stare are pretty computer parts and get to use my 1:1 Macro lens :D

All input and idea's you may have about this project, please feel free to assist and share.
 
1. Gut and disassemble case

P.S the monitor is a 20.1 Viewsonic VX2025WM

This case is not to complex to remove, a few screws here and there, the motherboard has a tray that pops right out, drives and HD's slide right out, all of the wires are easily managed in clips.

The fun part was trying to get the panels off the case, they are really in the system snug.

These case open on a pivot, the pivot point was only a screw with a spring on it, and another standard large PC screw, came off with ease.

I am having some issues with the largeer side panels, they seem to be hooked on something that wont let them just slide off like the top panel did.

Here is all of the hardware removed from the case, except the PSU, which just slide right off from the bottom of the case.

The green fan mount is going to be removed, and a fan places behind the front grill to open more room, their is possibly room for a 120mm under the HD;s cages, but it may also be a good place for the pump for the water cooling.

caseclean01.jpg


The case gutted with the side fan system and the green fan mounts removed
caseguttedall.jpg


Due to dell's case design of having an inner aluminum shell, and then plastic over top, cutting places for windows will have double the fun!, also the way the case is made, i have to be careful not to weaken the case by cutting out too much stuff.

With this i what at least want to cut open a hole on the side to give direct outside airflow to the video card.
sidevidfanmount.jpg


I am considering painting the entire case white, or a pearly white, i am not sure, but i plan to take it to an auto shop and have them do a proper professioanl job.

The top grate area is very restricted for any airflow, so i plan to open that up with some better metal mesh of some sort, could possibly mount a 120mm silent fan as well to assit in pulling air out of the case.
guttedsilver.jpg




The parts that were in the case
parts.jpg


You think your PSU is big ?
psu01.jpg


Since this system was original configured to be able to support SLI 7800GTX's, the PSU has decent specs.
psudetails.jpg
 
Dell offers kickass prices for everything, it's just their pre-loaded crap that sucks =(
 
and the fact that neither the mobo or power supply conforms to ATX specs... but that's what a Dremel is for :D
 
how did you take the little triangular polished dell plate out of the front? please be deetailed cause iw ould like to replace it with something else. Thanks


guttedsilver.jpg
 
Holy crap 3x17a rails on the psu! That's pretty impressive.


Yea, keep the stock cooler. They're Very good, actually. And If you insist on a new heatsink, maybe try an athlon 64 bracket. It *might* fit. probubly not though.
 
German Muscle said:
how did you take the little triangular polished dell plate out of the front? please be deetailed cause iw ould like to replace it with something else. Thanks
Click to expand...


Didnt make that, it comes with the dell.





^^^ for sure, when i saw the PSU specs i was like NO WAY!! - cause you always hear tails of how dell PSU's are so weak and the such, but i guess in their XPS line they step up the quality a little vs normal desktops and the such.

I think i definetly want to go for water cooling on this one, it seems like the one route where making a bracket, if needed, for the block wouldnt be as hard, and now knowing the crystal #, i am hoping CPUFSB will work good on this system, and with water cooling,,,, who knows as i recall getting ym 3.2 pressy before to 4ghz, and this is just 2 x 3.2 pressy together, so aiming for at least 3.5 :)- but not worried about the O/C, that would just be a bonus.
 
Here is the design, previously i was cutting this design out on a case, and lighting behind it, but dont think i could do that on this dell. So i want to have the head of the lizard on the top, and it's body on the left or right side, as if it is climbing, or hugging, the case:

gecko.JPG



So i what i figure is to do the case all white, with this guy, thinking maybe a green, brighter green color, or just straight black for that strong clean contrast look ?


Thoughts on colors?
 
ahahahaa - am such a n00b, i should learn to read :)


when i geta chance i will reassemble the front and take some pics step by step :DA quick note on it is remove the front plastic from the case (it is held on by snap in clips, push them out to unlatch and off it pops, un latch them from the left side (looking from the inside of the case)

once you get the front plastic off, it has 1 screw holding it, unscrew it and push it out :D
 
n00btard said:
and the fact that neither the mobo or power supply conforms to ATX specs... but that's what a Dremel is for :D
Click to expand...
From what I understand the PSUs in Dell's current systems all use a regular ATX pin, my little brother has one of their shitty lowend models and after taking a look and testing it I switched out the Dell PSU for a good Fortron and now a 380w Antec PSU (the one that comes with their NSK2400).

But then again the mobo used in it is almost an off the shelf type, it's been modified for Dell but it's nearly identical to one the retail version. (The CPU mounts are standard s478.)

As for the case mod, I like Dell case mods. I'm going to reuse this uATX Dell case I have for a build at some point after I mod it alittle.

If you're going to watercool then why not make your own mounting hold downs?
 
yeah, ithis board is using a 24pin power plug for the mobo so if i really want to i could mount a diff PSU if needed, this one seems to be doing the job well :).

mmm, thinking now i could gut the bottom area that has the PSU, put most of the W/C parts in there, and then mount a PSU above the mobo, there is room...

Great, now my mind is thinking more..lol

I am going to have to make my own mountain bracket most likely to hold down the water block for the cpu - "possibly" , i need to find the measurements of the storm block, and one of the danger den blocks because the way the mounting block is on the storm block, it looks like i could just drill my own holes in it and it would work fine, if not then definently will be finding a way to mod a mount to hold it down. I am also considering diff cooling for the north bride (right below the cpu socket)


It seems all dell really does to the mobo is changed the socket type on this XPS600 to something between 478 and 603 (not really 775), and also changed the mounting hole locations, but not by much.

i did some searches on foxconn's site, but couldnt find any technical documents to show me the exact layout for the socket, so hoping i can make my own "blue print" for the socket, as i also noticed Danger Den offers to do custom jobs, so that may be an option if it goes over my head, but i definetly want to do it myself, no fun when someone else does all the fun stuff.

I was considering attempting to design my own Water block, but i really dont know anything about water flow and all that fun mathamatical stuff for water cooling.
 
next step, deciding on what rad will work!



I need to find a rad that will cool a Pentium D 840 (dual core pressy's @ 3.2ghz)

the space to use is somewhat limted to 4 possible places to put a rad, pending on what size of a rad i may need.

I was looking at the blackice extreme II 120mm rad, it looks like i could fit this rad in one place on the opening right side panel, it may "just" barely fit with the rad mounted over fans (i dont want the fans sticking out the side) I have to confirm my measurements.

My question i guess was, do you think a dual 80mm rad would be enough to cool the 840 at relatively low temps, and possibly some overclocking (using CPUFSB) ? Or would it be too small ? I would like to have below 50C on full load....

If i later then decided to cool my x1900 XT, i would easily put ina 2nd dual 80mm rad as well into the loop for the vid card...


here are some images of the possible locations i could use for rad mounting, please give me your input, as i want to try and order this rad so then i can decide what i have to cut out of thise case for fan mounts.

On the left panel above the motherboard:
backmobodual90.jpg




On the rear where the previous dell coolers 80mm fans exhausted ou, if i were to place the rad somewhere else i would work on something to make that area look better.
rearmountrad.jpg



On the opening side panel, the only place that would fit the 120mm dual rad.
sidepanelplacement.jpg
 
I had completly forgot i had this piece, it is a covering that goes over the harddrive cage, it has an opening in the bottom right, which went over top of the side fan vent which would draw air from the front, over the harddrives, then blow it over the video card.

Since i will not be using the side duct any more, i am going to cut a hole in this enclosure cover and mount an 80mm fan in it to suck air in from the front and over the harddrive(s), i do plan to fill it with 3 harddrives , one 74g raptor i have now and likely 2 x 500g drives in a raid 1 for all of my photo's and such.


hdtrayopen.jpg


With cover on

hdcaseclosed.jpg


As you cn see i got a good 2 inches of clearence from the end of the drive to the cage front.
hdcagetop.jpg
 
cool project. i think it'd be kinda fun to have certain 'constraints'. makes you become more creative w/ the mods...

just outta curiousity, i'm assuming that standard mobos do not fit dell plates?
 
I love seeing people modding Dells and such to make them look awesome and perform awesome. Did you reinstall everything at least when you got the computer? Dell loads all sorts of crap when they first give you computers...

:eek: @ PSU...
 
Storm, no, it doesnt fit normal board, i dont think... to be honest, ihavet tried,

this dell has the board holes on the corners, fairly close, and one in the moddle below the northbridge, have to find a mobo around and check :)


And yeah synaps3, as soon as i got it, i first did the dell media center 2005 DVD - to see just what they put in luckily it first installs windows, reboots and get into windows THEN tries to install all the extra crap, but you cna stop it :), so it wasnt as bad as previous ones, as well Dell has cut back on the crap on their XPS systems.

i am really excited about this mod turning out, i have it invisioned perfect in my head!


Any thoughts on those rad placements?

i am leaning towards on the right hand panel on the bottom....
 
Decided i am going to go with the 80mm on the side bottom partially under the HD cage

sidepanelplacement.jpg


Of course go figure the day i want to do some cutting, i cant find the piece for my dremel to mount the cutting disks too!!

dammittttttttttttttttt
 
i always enjoy watching people make the hp and dells look nice after some modding

/subscribed
 
I would love to get into our dell xps 400...but dad would kill me cause I void his warranty.

But this looks cool and I like what your doing.
/subscribed
 
darn it!

we could open an Dell XPS modding club..lol


Well today iam off to get some new pieces for my dremel, SO i am hoping to start hacking up the case today!
 
okay, just an update, i leave this thursday for canada for 10 days, i am going to try and buy the rad and blocks in toronto while i am there from bigfootcomputers.

i havent hacked open the case yet, been working on some other projects around the house so decided i didnt want to really get into this one until i am back in Aug 7th.

So once i am back i should be updating this more often and get some progress.
 
okay, since i am in toronto i am going to buy some parts here that i can get, i decided not to buy a $1400 canon lense for my 20D so i am going to get some WC parts.


  • Black Ice *BLACK MICRO-2* Radiator - HW Labs - this should be more then sufficient for my 840.
  • Panaflo 80mm -BX *RPM* 'HIGH' 39.6cfm 32dba H1B Fan I plan to get a fanm controller later so i can adjust the speed as needed.
  • GREEN 1/2" Hose Clamps - since my theme is white and green
  • CLEARFLEX 1/2" ID Flexible Tubing - PER FOOT- cheaper then tygon (by $3 a foot)
  • MCP655 Inline 12v 330GPH Pump - Swiftech - Getting this incase i do cool my x1900Xt as well.
 
Here in jolly old Greater Vancouver, an MCP655 goes for as low as $80.92 CAD.

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

.......................

Keep up the good work with the mod.
 
dam you and your cheap parts..lol

at least tyaxes dropped to %14 here from %15 :D
i could order the parts online from a US store and pay to ship them to costa rica, but figured the custom's and shipping for the company i would use would equal what i would pay in toronto here with taxes.
 
n00btard said:
Here in jolly old Greater Vancouver, an MCP655 goes for as low as $80.92 CAD.

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

.......................

Keep up the good work with the mod.
Click to expand...

Same here. Where about, may I ask?


I find the cheapest w/c stuff to be on forums.
 
wow, I can't believe the xps600 came with only an x700... good thing it died I guess... hehe.. the x1900 is so much better it isn't even funny.

it will be interesting to see how you apply watercooling to the dell... I like mods of OEM computers.
 
Where are you getting your parts from? I'm living across from Queen's Park in the TO...
 
Yashu said:
wow, I can't believe the xps600 came with only an x700... good thing it died I guess... hehe.. the x1900 is so much better it isn't even funny.

it will be interesting to see how you apply watercooling to the dell... I like mods of OEM computers.
Click to expand...

the original owner got it with dual 7800GTX's , so it has a nice powersupply :")



^^^ i am getting the items from bigfootcomputers.com , possibly, they are a little pricey.
 
no real updates on this, my bank is being anal about a double charge THEY did and wont reverse until i give them a frick'n DNA test moire or less, so because of that i refuse to bank with them which means no credit card right now so i cant order my items easily. Once cleared up will let everyone know.
 
subscribed!

I used to have the Dimension XPS Gen 2, same case, it was just blue in the front, and i am raely interested to see how this is going to turn out.
 
I guess this mod is dead, or on extreme hold, which is to bad, many people including myself were looking forward toward its worklog.
 
More so just on hold at the moment, issues with my bank has stopped me from using them, so that means no CC to order online.
and also work things have been happening, and also been getting cluster headache attacks lately :(

but it will be happening FOR sure still.
 
...... money order, maybe?

that's how I got a pump that's been used by two other people :)
 
n00btard said:
...... money order, maybe?

that's how I got a pump that's been used by two other people :)
Click to expand...

i have consdered that, but most places in the U,S wont take standard money orders from costa rica, so i would have to get a ceritifed bank draft = $7 more as well send it via UPS / FedEx which is a min $30 from heree:(

i just got to stop being lazy, and let work calm down so i can get my bank crap sorted out.
 
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