Dell Dimension 2350 mods, continued…

This is for posterity’s sake, in case there’s ever anyone out there online trying to figure out how to do this him or herself. Matt thinks I should figure out how to mod Mac Mini’s, but I’m going to put that off until I can scramble $500 bucks together to get one, but that’s going to have to wait, because my priority is getting a kilt in time for John’s wedding in Scotland this summer…

This is my new CPU fan. It’s a Zantec Quiet Cooler, and it keeps my CPU at only ~7°C above room temperature, which is considered pretty impressive!

The Dell Dimension 2350 motherboard has screws that hold the heatsink retention bracket down by connecting to hex screw standoffs underneath the motherboard. The standoffs connect in turn to the case chassis (see below).

If you’re going to move your Dell mobo into a standard case, there’s a likely chance that you won’t find holes in the case for these standoffs. So do like me, and order a new heatsink retention bracket with the plastic pushpins.

Since replacing the retention module involved removing the motherboard, I had to take the whole thing apart, and the wires I referenced in last weekend’s post came loose and I had to resplice them and tape them up all over again.

I’m still trying to sort out front I/O panel USB issues, but that can wait for now, since there are four USB ports in the back. I’m thinking about getting a USB-port to motherboard headeradapter in order to extend the Dell I/O panel to the new case’s USB panel. It will only work for one port though, because it has 5 pins and there are 9 pins on the USB connecter to power both USB ports. (I think one pin is a ground that is shared by both USB channels.)