First post, by jamesbeat
I have a Dell motherboard from a Dimension l433c.
The board is an OEM version of the Intel CA810 board, and it has the proprietary Dell power connector.
Looking at my board compared with a photo of the Intel version, it appears that the Dell board is almost identical to the CA810 except for the power connector placement.
The CA810 has a standard 20 pin ATX connector, and the Dell has a similar connector in a different position, plus an auxiliary 6 pin connector.
The motherboard has a total of 26 pads in the power connector block area, and it looks like the only difference is where on these pads the connector is soldered.
On the Intel board, the ATX connector is soldered all the way to the right hand side (as oriented in my photo), leaving the leftmost 6 pads unconnected.
On the Dell board, the pseudo-ATX connector is shifted to the left, leaving the rightmost 6 pads unconnected.
The Dell board has an extra 6 pin connector to the right of the main power connector.
The CA810 has pads for this 6 pin connector, but they are unpopulated.
Here is a link to a couple of photos that I have marked up to show what I'm talking about:
It looks to me like the Intel and the Dell version are identical except for the positioning of the power connector and the addition of the extra 6 pin connector on the Dell.
This certainly makes sense from a manufacturing point of view, because all Intel would have to do when they received an order from Dell is change where they soldered the power connectors.
Would it therefore be possible to desolder the Dell connectors and solder in a standard ATX connector in the correct position?
I know that adapters exist, but this would be a much more elegant solution.