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Converting an older Dell Optiplex tower to ATX

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First post, by oeuvre

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Hi,

This is gonna be a ridiculous project. What I plan to do is take one of those late 90s Dell Optiplex towers and transform it into ATX layout. I'm not terribly worried about the front panel and can deal with that later. I have found the dimensions here

http://facweb.northseattle.edu/tfiegenb/eet/D … cs.htm#physical

and it seems to be bigger than some ATX towers, slightly. This link has some good pictures of the tower mentioned.

https://www.lakemichigancomputers.com/product … =12772673781802

I ordered one of these for cheap https://www.ebay.com/itm/222982248612

This will be used as a sacrifice. Planning to cut out the motherboard tray and rear end in one piece so I can have ATX compliant motherboard tray, power supply fitment, and PCIe slots. Was thinking of using a combination of grinder to start cutting and then using a dremel for more delicate cuts. Anyone have experience doing this?

This would also require likely cutting out a significant (or all) of the rear portion of the Optiplex. Then how to attach the motherboard tray to the back... hm. Anyone who has good ideas or suggestions to help make this project a reality would be great! Thanks. I did whip this up in Photoshop as a rough measure, using the power plug, USB ports, and PS/2 port as measuring devices. https://i.imgur.com/3ht8cOR.png

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 1 of 7, by Warlord

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mount your board to a standard ATX removable motherboard tray. retro fit the tray inside the tower. easy.

you need to line the back of the tray up with the back of the case but you attach the tray, to the old tray.

should cut up the new case so that the back of it (IO) and expansion slots are still connected to the tray, instead of separating them. Then screw the tray down to the old tray with the IO part hanging on to the new tray. Then secure the the IO to the back of the case. This keeps everything aligned. ANd will give you less headaches.

Reply 2 of 7, by oeuvre

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Yeah that's what I was thinking. It looks like a pretty cheap and flimsy case so it should be pretty easy to cut.

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 3 of 7, by oeuvre

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45qutQsm.jpg

Cleaned this case inside and out. Want to convert it to ATX by cutting out the rear end and motherboard tray of an ATX case and graft it onto this one.

2bezUBYm.jpg

The side panel is easy to remove, push a button on the lower end of the front bezel... gently lift it out. It latches on the top and bottom of the case, has nothing to do with the rear!

nE05zhrm.jpg

Rear end of the case

gp0uOnum.jpg

Full view. Will also have to figure out a power supply mounting mechanism... but first...

n5aF3Zwm.jpg

These are the tabs to remove.

19EbK5Im.jpg

Another view

HeD6PUlm.jpg

Will have to cut out most of the rear end as well.

RrnXBW2m.jpg

Roughly something like this, as it won't interfere with the removable side panel and want to leave some of the top for support.

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 4 of 7, by Caluser2000

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Who is Shirley?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

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