I actually did need to take a hacksaw to a Dell case when the PSU died, because they used a proprietary form factor. It was just removing some of the back panel and it worked fine.
Once upon a time I think they also had custom pinouts on the ATX connector, so just replacing your PSU with a standard one would fry your mobo
They did, I was about to say the same thing! I had to buy an adapter to make it work right. This was like mid to late 2000's. I work in IT for a company and didn't want to spend money on a new PC yet so I snagged one from work that was no longer used. It got the job done, but yeah it was crazy to see what they did to make it so you couldn't swap or change some things inside.
Yeeeep. I did this. Very disheartening after spending the time with a Dremel to modify the back panel enough for it to fit.
Reminds me of when I made a pc as a media center for my roommates out of old spare pc parts and the box that their xbox360 came in.
Had to turn it on by using a paper clip to short the right two pins, lol.
to short the right two pins
That's the core principle of how switches work. You have done everything right.
Legit badass. "Hotwire the PC so we can watch a movie!"
I test-"built" my first gaming pc with all the parts laying on my bed.
The only computer parts store within cycling distance just put returned parts back on the shelf, so there was about an 80% chance at least one part you bought was dead out of the box.Later I remembered that that's possible, and built a gaming rig with all parts mounted openly on the wall behind my desk.
If it's stupid and it works...
Like a hotrod?
Exactly!
Yup, the back plate for my CPU cooler wouldn't fit because of some weird struts my case has, so I cut open the case, just enough to fit it.
Literally thinking outside the box.
It's a Dell Outieplex.
Lol, nice one
This makes more sense. I worked with those so much
"Think outside the box."
Why even bother putting the side cover back on? I left mine open for years.
Fuckin' eh. My power supply is slung out the side to make room for a video card, with the case panel resting askew on top all perched on a milk crate. Like a slasher flick autopsy.
I did this, except in a cardboard box, plugged into an outlet with no ground, and using it to mine cryptocurrency. Somehow I didn't burn down my apartment.
I have enough money for an angle grinder and a new used graphics card. But not a fancy new case.
With prebuilds like this a lot of times you can't just change the case without also changing the motherboard. Also they could have an angle grinder just laying around. They may even have done it on purpose for the lulz.
I actually just upgraded my Dell Optiplex 990 SFF to a new full ATX case and had to get a new motherboard. Dell does some funky stuff to their motherboard to get it to fit into their custom cases. For instance the CPU cooler clipped into the case through the motherboard This was one of the ways the motherboard was secured into the case. The other mount points were entirely non-standard so no other case would fit. I did consider making some modifications to the case with a hacksaw before deciding to just get a new case and motherboard. The new Motherboard was pretty cheap because I was using a 4th-gen intel i3. Not great specs but good enough for a homebrew NAS.
Yes, from experience, yes. But I used a pair of tin snips.
"Dude, you're getting a DELL."
gettinggutting (or cutting)
If you’re on a budget and it works…
The hole in the side is a speed-hole. It makes the computer go faster.
It was such a good deal bro I had to buy it! 😂
How did you get a picture of my PC!?
I joke...I at least 3d printed a cover for the card lol
That PLA is melting as we speak.
Pet-G brah, only the good stuff
I know a guy who spent hundreds of extra dollars on his build to make sure everything was white. I think maybe I prefer this?
Judge not…
I might judge a little.
The Ryzen 7 5700G can get hot.
I call it DeskMiniMax.
Slightly related: You remember back when cases would have little grommets for water cooling lines because the reservoir and/or the tank would be external to the PC case?
I kind of think more designs should be like that. Let the GPU breathe cold air from outside the case.
Winning. So much wow!
I admit to doing stuff like this to Dells and no-name cases. 😂 It's usually to fit a more common standard PSU though. One time, I put the power supply in the 5 1/4" bay and flipped the rear fans.
Noice.
This looks like a Basic Bitch® office workstation. Surely you could put the same graphics card in a price-comparable gaming rig without having to resort to this...
Most likely. I "reassigned" an old work Dell Optiplex to play about with Linux a few years back, and it didn't like whatever onboard graphics chipset was on the board. I bought an inexpensive GeForce card... not realising that it would end up looking like this bad boi, and that I had to buy a low-profile card.
