Sisters Dell Mod project.

D

DR_K13

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
3,491
I built my mom a new Sempron , so I took her old Dell Dimension 4100 and am going to Mod it for my Sister who needs a Computer for her school work. My Sis said thats its ugly, So I will do some mod work to it.

Here are some pics of the crapper.

DELLOLD4.jpg



dellold2.jpg


dellold3.jpg


Ref. Pic

dellold1.jpg


The plan is to Bondo the front Bezel to make it smooth, and only leave a bay open at the top for the CD-Rw. I am going to Paint the case a dark green and also paint the CDR.
I already put in a new HSF and took out the Dell Shroud system, rounded the cables, cut out some of the inner trays.

Its an old flimsy case and Is quite loud, so i am going to add some sound padding.
Last I am going to add a window so she can see the Leds.

I am Cuttin the bezel out and using bondo right now, I left my camera at home, so pics will come tonight.
 
those shrouds actually do a pretty good job. I'd put it back in. just paint it the same color as the case.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
those shrouds actually do a pretty good job. I'd put it back in. just paint it the same color as the case.
Click to expand...


they do a good job, but the fan is all siezed up, I tryed the Fan-lube trick, but no workie!.


So I am going to replace the HSF and add a case fan.
 
go with a glossy green paint and mod one of the drive bays to be a drawer she can pull out and put stuff in.
 
put a cupholder in it. :D

i cut one of those apart for a mod project of mine (AT tower -> ATX tower conversion) but it didn't work too well... i didn't measure all that much. or cut accurately.

anyways, good luck with it. do some wire hiding in there.
<- add about 6k to that, the numbers are off
 
I installed the new HSF

Dellnew%20001.jpg


Here is what the front Bezel is looking like so far, A ton of Bondo, lots of sanding. It looked ok so I put on a coat of paint, and I noticed some rough spots, so more sanding now some wet sanding. Looks like crap right now.

Dellnew%20002.jpg


While I had the paint out, I did the CD drive.

Dellnew%20003.jpg



More sanding tomorrow, then more paint . I am going to polish & sleeve the PSU While the paint is drying tomorrow ( I hope )
 
Nice!

I am in the process of modding a dell as well, but I'm a little luckier, the case I am modding is the dimension 4600, which I would imagine is much easier to work with than that one! :D

Yesturday, I painted it, flat black, tommarow I should be getting in the sleeving, and cold cathodes I ordered from xoxide.

I put in a side window with 2 blue led fans, and cut a hole in the top for anouther fan. I'll start a thread about it when I am finished. :D
 
I love it! i look at those 4100 cases all day at work and just think about the possibilities. We have hundreds of them. I say rip that sucker to bits and mod it to death.
 
well its painted. I had some bad drips because I got a bad can of paint. So I have spent about 5 hours wet sanding. If it looks ok when I am done, I wont put on another coat.

The side panal is cut for the window . What a pain in the ass. There are thin metal strips embedded in the panal. So It took hour to get it looking nice.

I rounded and sleeved my own cables, I also polished the PSU and sleeving that is in the works.



My cam. ran out of Batterys :mad: So pics will come tomorrow.
 
i used to have a comp that looked just like that, except it was the xps t550. Yeah top of the line back then. And i never played games at their full detail or anything. Good luck and looking good so far.
 
Well its Done for now. Not much of a work long since I could not keep my Camera working.:mad:

I needed it to be done Tomorrow for her Birthday. I hope she likes it .

Side shot.

2Sisterdell%20002.jpg


2Sisterdell%20003.jpg


Front/

2Sisterdell%20004.jpg


Close up side with Flash.

2Sisterdell%20008.jpg


Close up side No Flash

2Sisterdell%20010.jpg
 
nice.. but you forgot one thing... pic of the sister.. :D






(j/k)

i miss the old genmay sometimes.. lol

nice job on the pc... and i have to ask, when you painted the cd-rom, you remeberd to get all sides of the volume knob right (spins knob to the right... white... to the left ... white.. DOH... )

/edit... just relised i asked a mod for a pic of his sis.. .LMAO *hides*

thore
 
Awsome mod! But the question is did she like it? It would be sad if she didn't appreciate such a work of art! Great job!
 
thore said:
/edit... just relised i asked a mod for a pic of his sis.. .LMAO *hides*
Click to expand...
i wouldn't worry too much, as long as you're folding... look where he moderates :p

case turned out very nice.
<- add about 6k to that, the numbers are off
 
Flowers are Decals. I might put on a Copper HSF, however , its a 800mhz PIII and it runs very cool. 27C Idle 30C Loaded. I am looking for a 60mm LED fan right now online/
 
rogue_jedi said:
i wouldn't worry too much, as long as you're folding... look where he moderates :p

case turned out very nice.
<- add about 6k to that, the numbers are off
Click to expand...



:p :)
 
Ok I found a copper HSF an a Quiter Fan that I put on, Also added a new Oversize Northbridge Heatsink.

I think it looks a little better.

SisterHSF%20003.jpg


SisterHSF%20002.jpg



What else can I do to this thing in the Next few hours. I am giving it to her in the Morning.
 
DR_K13 said:
Ok I found a copper HSF an a Quiter Fan that I put on, Also added a new Oversize Northbridge Heatsink.

I think it looks a little better.
Click to expand...
That really kicks ass! What a good brother.... I hope she enjoys it. Nice work, too.
 
I'm reviving this thread as I have questions that are specific to the 4100 and hope the OP can still remember.

I retired my 4100 into the living room and made it into a family pc. The problem is that it is very loud because of the notoriously loud fan assembly (not the shroud). So I need to redesign its cooling system and do like what you've done. My questions:

1. How did you attach the case fan (92mm I assume)? The holes from the original fan assembly do not align to the holes on the 92mm or any other standard fan.

2. Why did you replace the original heatsink? There are holes on it for a 60mm fan. And where did you get that copper heatsink with the fan?

3. How did you know the temperature of the processor? As far as I know, that motherboard does not have temperature sensor.

4. Is there fan intake? On your first pic, it looks like there is a bay fan blowing the air in. Did you keep that in after the mod?

5. What else did you use for noise dampening?

6. How loud is it?

7. Awesome job.
 
mich43L said:
I'm reviving this thread as I have questions that are specific to the 4100 and hope the OP can still remember.

I retired my 4100 into the living room and made it into a family pc. The problem is that it is very loud because of the notoriously loud fan assembly (not the shroud). So I need to redesign its cooling system and do like what you've done. My questions:

1. How did you attach the case fan (92mm I assume)? The holes from the original fan assembly do not align to the holes on the 92mm or any other standard fan.

2. Why did you replace the original heatsink? There are holes on it for a 60mm fan. And where did you get that copper heatsink with the fan?

3. How did you know the temperature of the processor? As far as I know, that motherboard does not have temperature sensor.

4. Is there fan intake? On your first pic, it looks like there is a bay fan blowing the air in. Did you keep that in after the mod?

5. What else did you use for noise dampening?

6. How loud is it?

7. Awesome job.
Click to expand...



1- only 3 screws holding it on.


2- the dell fan/shroud did not look good with a window. Plus the Dell fan was getting loud due to old age. I think I picked up the HSF from Compusa onsale.

3- Thermal probe to monitor the temps. Not installed anymore / like this one
Probe1.jpg


4- No, I drop-kicked that loud P.O.S. , I cut away alot of metal from the front, so air flow in is good.

5- used rubber grommets on all screws, even the PSU mounting screws HD screws, fan mounting screws etc etc, also used some Automotive sound dampening.

6- very very quiet.

7- thanks alot man! :D
 
nice

Is that a MTD (magnetic tip driven) 70mm fan?? (looks like the one that comes with Vantec Aeroflows)

The only thing is.... what if you wanted to add another CD/DVD drive or a 3.5" memory card reader?!?!

A card reader would habe looked nice in the top 5.25 slot.
 
i've got an old 4100 as well! I was thinking of modding the heck out of it, but i don't have much time, with school and all... Nice job, especially with a plastic case! I was wondering what you were going to do about the metal 'inner wall' of the side panels, but you seemed to have answered that. Its a 1Ghz PIII with 384mb of ram and a Geforce MX, man it was expensive 4-5 years ago..
 
chrisf6969 said:
nice

Is that a MTD (magnetic tip driven) 70mm fan?? (looks like the one that comes with Vantec Aeroflows)

The only thing is.... what if you wanted to add another CD/DVD drive or a 3.5" memory card reader?!?!

A card reader would habe looked nice in the top 5.25 slot.
Click to expand...

She just surfs the net and Uses Photoshop, Plus i was broke at the time.



:(
 
It looks like one side of the HSF is right up against the PSU. Which kinda stinks for cooling, since half your exhaust from the CPU HSF is blocked. Does that air have somewhere to go? (kinda looks like a perforated area of the PSU right there)

 
Mohonri said:
It looks like one side of the HSF is right up against the PSU. Which kinda stinks for cooling, since half your exhaust from the CPU HSF is blocked. Does that air have somewhere to go? (kinda looks like a perforated area of the PSU right there)

Click to expand...



I replaced that aluminum HSF with a copper one. The fan is big , but the base is very small, plenty of room for exaust on the top side. You can kind of see it in this pic.

SisterHSF%20003.jpg
 
An update on my situation. I took the original fan assembly apart. Put a 60mm fan on the original heat sink and attached the original 92mm fan to the case with velcro (holes didn't line up). To keep the noise to a minimum I undervolted the hsf to 7v and the case fan to 5v. Both fans are blowing out.

4100.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top