Info on the New Inspiron Desktop Gamer Edition (Intel)

Hi, I'm wondering if you ever found out the answer to you HDD question. I'm thinking of purchasing the AMD Inspiron 3656, but I would like to fit in at least two 3.5" HDD and an optical drive. Even though the motherboard has only two interface connections for HDD and an optical drive, I was planning to add an add-in card for the extra HDD. If you purchased the system, are you stratified with it. Thank you in advance for your help.

Would it be possible to unscrew everything and then transfers the whole set up in a bigger computer case supporting a standard size PSU ?

By the way someone know what is the motherboard name/model ?

No, the reason is because the mother board is a weird shape (AKA proprietary). You could get a new motherboard, but I don't know if they soldered the cpu to it.

Another plan you could do is make a case of your own. That way could make it as big or small as you could make it and the board's shape won't be too much of a problem. Just look up homemade computer case and you should be good.

Yeah, I just bought this computer and am a little upset that they would make the PSU so weak and at the same time so difficult to upgrade. Are there really no companies that make PSU that size?

DmFelt

Sorry to say, there are not, as the power supply is a Dell proprietary unit, as is the motherboard.

Bev.

It is possible to hack it working by removing the power supply entirely and using adapter and placing power supply OUTSIDE the case.

Dual slot SHORT cards(GTX960/970) are fine but I do not think 12 inch long cards fit.

A MODDIY adapter is needed to convert 24 pin to 8 pin.

http://www.moddiy.com/products/Dell-Inspiron-3650-PSU-Main-Power-24%252dPin-to-8%252dPin-Adapter-Cable-%2830cm%29.html

Hey there, I just bought one of these (before I noticed the upgrade limitations...I'm new to the Glorious PC Master Race) and I have a few questions about your setup.  

- I got the same power supply you have... do i need any additional cables other than the 24 - 8 pin adapter (which I also got)

-What gpu did you get?

Bonus

If I decided to find a from factor like the link below, does it have enough cables for the all the needed components including the new gpu

www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

Thanks for your help!

Thanks!  I bought the 500w on sale and it's sitting next to my computer as we speak.  I'm waiting to get extra $ to get a graphics card before a change everything.   I'm still learning all this as I go.  Next time a 700 goes on sale I'll pick it up.

Hate to keep bugging you, but do you know of any cards that are 4 or 6g that meet that 8.5 or less requirement that are worth anything?

Hey Brockyman,

Glad to see your setup progressing. I put an ASUS 960 GTX 4GB card in and it fits perfectly, able to fully close the case. It is able to handle resource intensive games really well.

Hope that helps!

-mike

I purchased the Intel I7 model and wanted to upgrade the PS as soon as I received it. So this is what I determined after the purchase. The heatsink on the processor is a . The power supply is not up-gradable with a standard PS inside the case and is around 240 watts max with a 8 pin molex for main power and 4 pin for PCIE to board power. Dell does not make their motherboards this machine has a Foxconn proprietary board which is useless to switch out to a better case as the front panel USB, audio and card reader ports are part of the motherboard off a L shaped extension. The board is low-line and only supports DDR3L with 16 GB max. 2 slots. Skylake processors will support DDR3L or DDR4 but the board has to have one type slot or the other. This is a DDR3L BOARD WITH A DUMMY DOWN UEFI BIOS. This means you cannot get greater than JDEC with 1T on memory as there are no memory setting and it will not even detect XMP or a higher JDEC like laptops do with faster memory. The power for SATA and the slimline optical come from a proprietary molex on the board and a custom made split-off wire connector.  You can use and adapter to run two SSDs but the PS will only support one 3.5" an factory SATA slimline optical or 2 SSDs and the optical. The other drive cage on the right will support 2 2.5" SSDs or laptop drives with the blue Dell drive sleds thta they do not provide. There are two SATA power locations on the board but you can use only one at time unless you just connect the optical on the left and use a second harness on the right for the two 2.5" drives. There is only bearly 65 mm of height space for a heatsink change and the best you can come up with is the Noctua NH-L9x65 which as a 14MM tall 92 MM fan and you will have to modify (cut a small notch to gain full clearance on the drive cage that hold the optical. Unfortunately the Noctua fan has a proprietary IC in it: the NF-A9x14 uses Noctua's novel, custom designed NE-FD1 PWM IC that integrates Smooth Commutation Drive (SCD) technology. By providing smoother torque impulses, SCD suppresses PWM switching noises and thus makes the fan quieter at lower speeds. This IC is incompatible with this Dell/Foxconn board and the Fan spins up on boot but shuts down no spinning at desktop. Their PWM connection are screwed up and do not do a proper job with temp. I disconnected the PWM wire which makes the fan run at full speed not PWM and used the supplied Noctua fan speed reducer wire which has a resistor in it to reduce fan voltage to slow fan speed. The fan went from 5000 to 3500 rpm which is silent, 5000 is not. This after replacing the I7 6700 with and I5 6600K as I am going to use the I7 for another build and sell the 3650, I found the the processor temps were good at 37 degree to 30 with the fan at 3500 rpm. This machine has 2 SSD's with a modified dual SATA power adapter cable which I shortened to the minimum and moved punch-down connectors to line up with staked SSD's in the drive cage. My machine came with a Win 10 pro restore disk but it is Not the Anniversary edition 1607 but teh original November 2015 Win 10 release. It would have been better to download from Dell the restore files for USB as it might have been closer to 1607 or maybe even includes that. The M.@ slot holds a Qualcomm/Atheros single band 2.5 N card with bluetooth 4.0. It is not a dual band AC card and this is not an Upgrade option when buying from Dell.  This means you would not be able to connect to a 5G router and and are limited to 54Mb max throughput theoretical speed. Wireless card can be changed to dual band. (not a dell card). If you have other question please post.

Not there are only a couple of Chemical caps on this board most are Solid state caps. Still a Dell cheap out.