I purchased a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2 about a year ago. And I want a new case and power supply. I'm worried that the motherboard that came with the Dell system has been customized by Dell and that it will not fit in a case that I purchase. Any input will be appreciated.
well you could just measure the case that you have now, and then compare it to the one you want. Or take open the case and look to see how much room you'll need, and then compare it. I'm sure theres a proper way of doing it, but I don't know.
You have to be careful when buying new cases for Dell motherboards. Dell mobo's use specific cablees/pin-outs for their front connectors (like power, HD LED, etc.). Some also use specific power supplies. You would have to find out what these are before you could hook up the front connectors to the motherboard.
More often that not dell parts are customized to the other parts and case.....I think I read somehwre that that is why dell pcs are cheap simply because you cant upgrade them unless you send them back to dell and then they charge ridiulously high prices to do this and that is where they make their money...but hey I could be wrong.
I'm not sure which gen it is, but I recall seeing some XPS with the power supply as part of the case and on the bottom of it. You could theoretically get a Dell compatible PSU from PC Power & Cooling, but they tend to be rather expensive for power supplies (although they are pretty much the best you can get), but even then, I don't know off-hand if it'd work for you. I'm not sure if Dell uses their proprietary power connector on all motherboards or what (probably do), but I'm not sure.
