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XPS 8900 motherboard schematics/layout
I am well aware that what I want to do will void whatever warranty I have. Not worried about voiding the warranty.
That said..
I bought a Dell XPS 8900. Core i7 6700, Geforce GT 730 a few months ago, last week I started renovations to my office and when I moved it out of the office to a safe (or so I thought) place while the renovations were happening a shelf collapsed and crushed the case. The motherboard came out unscathed, as did the video card and PSU. I really don't want to buy a new computer being the only thing damaged is the case, so I decided to buy a ATX case.
Here are the questions.
1. at the top right of the board is the pin out for the power switch, Power LED and HDD LED. the case I bought doesn't have the same connector that the OEM did. And on the old case I noticed that there was a jumper connecting 3 of the pins. Is there a schematic for the motherboard so I can connect the Power switch, Power LED and HDD LED.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
2. Which processors are compatible with this system? Or should I just look up the chipset?
Thank you
Dan-H
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November 6th, 2016 20:00
here is the thread I was thinking of, assuming the pinout is the same.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/p/19629462/20791524#20791524
Dan-H
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November 6th, 2016 20:00
The Motherboard is Micro ATX so that opens up a lot of choices for replacement cases.
Normally I prefer a PSU mounted on the bottom but with the OEM PSU, you might want to stay with a smaller case because the power cable lengths are what they are, made to fit the 8900 case. If I recall, the SATA power cable for the optical drive is pretty short so a case with a top-mount PSU might be the best way to go.
If you are on a budget, I'll suggest the Rosewill Line M. I built a low-dollar linux system and while it is fairly basic it is a decent case, and often goes on sale in the $30 to $40 price range.
The chipset is Z170, and I think the CPUs that will work are all of the skylake CPUs, but that will depend on the Dell BIOS. If you have a 6700 the only upgrade choice is a 6700K. I don't think it is worth the cost. I think there are several downgrade paths.
I'll look around for pinouts of previous MoBos, and perhaps it is the same as the case has not really changed between the 8500 / 8700 / 8900
Dan-H
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November 6th, 2016 21:00
Here is the second pic.
Dan-H
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November 6th, 2016 21:00
Here is a photo of the Rosewill Line-M case on the right with an XPS 8700 on the left for comparison. The second photo has an XPS 8700 PSU in it, which I used in a hand-me-down build.
The Line-M is slightly shorter than the XPS case. It has better air flow with a 140mm front fan and a 120mm exhaust.
Please note, I'm not pushing this case, but instead showing it as an example of what I would look for to replace the 8900 case.
Just to be clear, that is not a Dell MoBo in the picture, just some pieces from my 8700. (PSU, graphics card).