transplant dell into antec

roadrunr · 02 Oct 2010

ok, so I've got a dell vostro sitting in the other room, core 2 duo 6550 (I think), cheap vid card, blah blah blah....

and I've got a pretty nice antec case in the basement with a P4-2.8 that I no longer use. built it a while back...

I'd like to swap the dell guts into the antec case, the only thing holding me back is that I cant seem to find the pinout for the case connector block that dell uses (the antec stuff is all labeled, I just dont know where it needs to go on the dell motherboard).

profdlp · 02 Oct 2010

You could try just manually tracing each set of wires. Take them off the Dell one by one and label them as you go. Things like "Power Switch" and "Reset" shouldn't care about the polarity. For the LEDs, if they don't work simply reverse them.

If you need USB pinouts, they should be standard standard. I can dig up a diagram if you need one.

Are you sure about the "Vostro"? All the ones I saw were laptops/netbooks.

madtownidiot · 02 Oct 2010

You will have to splice the dell connector to the antec case panel wires because dell deliberately designs their motherboards and cases to be incompatible with generic cases and motherboards. It's a difficult chore at best, but try going to the dell support site and entering your service tag, then look for a service manual.. they don't offer service manuals for every system, but if they have one it will change what you're trying to do from a nearly impossible task to a mere pain in the a**

SledgeDG · 02 Oct 2010

There are Vostro Desktops as well.
I believe if you google the model number on your motherboard you'll find the right documentation.

-DG