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what form factor do pc retailers have?

T

tvdang7

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 8, 2005
Messages
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im thinking of buying some broken dells gateways and velocity micro computers that would be a quick fix , but im wondering if the form factor is atx or btx.
 
Both and most of them are there own preparatory design so you cant replace the motherboard. Some even go as far as using uncompatable front header and power connectors so you cant change the case or power supply.
Emachines are usually the best to work on. They mostly use standard parts.
 
can you provide model numbers ? Have they been diagnosed or just labeled "non working" ?
 
In the last four or five years, most OEMs have switched over to mostly standard parts to lower production costs. Dell had a long BTX streak, but has since gone back to mATX.

As far as the front panel header's are concerned, there's information out there that details what pins are what, and you may even be able to find adapters.
 
ryan_975 said:
In the last four or five years, most OEMs have switched over to mostly standard parts to lower production costs. Dell had a long BTX streak, but has since gone back to mATX.

As far as the front panel header's are concerned, there's information out there that details what pins are what, and you may even be able to find adapters.
Click to expand...

It all depends, Dell is still using BTX in some of their Optiplex line. Recently got 5 Optiplex 330s at work and they are all BTX.
 
The standard form factors go back further than 5-6 years. It's been at least ten years since the majors migrated from proprietary form factors to standard ATX or uATX (ignoring BTX for now). I've got a Celeron 500MHz Dell that uses a uATX board, as well as a 1GHz Celeron machine from eMachines, and both are plain ol' uATX.
 
Mohonri said:
The standard form factors go back further than 5-6 years. It's been at least ten years since the majors migrated from proprietary form factors to standard ATX or uATX (ignoring BTX for now). I've got a Celeron 500MHz Dell that uses a uATX board, as well as a 1GHz Celeron machine from eMachines, and both are plain ol' uATX.
Click to expand...


Early P3 boards were matx as you said, but most later P3 and early P4 Dells were very much proprietary. They often had 5 expansion slots and a different mount hole pattern. Also the power supplies in them were dangerously proprietary.
 
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