XPS 420 Motherboard Replacement

If you want to use a standard ATX motherboard (not a Dell motherboard) it's best to just build a new PC and get a new case and power supply.  Dell's tend to have some proprietary items and although an ATX motherboard can be made to work in some models (with some electronics knowledge) it's much less hassle to just buy a new case and power supply to go along with the standard ATX motherboard.  In addtion to the hardware, you will need a new Retail copy of Windows as the Dell supplied is tied to a Dell BIOS and will not install on a non-Dell motherboard.

There are many cases and motherboards - it depends on what you want to use the PC for and how much $$ you want to spend.

Ben Holden

A refurbished Dell OEM XPS420 motherboard can be purchased from HERE

Bev.

fireberd is correct.  You will have to look at getting a new case and motherboard.  I recently did this with my Inspiron 530.  I moved everything over including my Core 2 Quad Q6600, hard drive, optical drive, video card (GTS 250), power supply and memory (4GB).

The following is what I bought:

Cooler Master CM 690 Mid Tower case ($65.99)

Gigabyte P45 775 socket motherboard (79.99)

Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler (25.99)

Upgraded from Windows Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit (Used an upgrade version for Custom install)

Thanks for advice. I've decided to build a new machine. If you could give me some suggestions on what MB, Case and PSU to buy I'd be very grateful. Here are my specs:

By budget is £100 - 200 and I'd like to keep the following components:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad

Graphics Card  - ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB PCI-E

RAM x2 sticks of 1GB Nanya 2Rx8 PC2 -5300U-555-12-E1-667 and  x2 stick of Kingston 512 MB RAM 1Rx8 PC2-5300U 555-12-D1 KWM551-ELG),

Hard Drive -  Samsung HD321KJ

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (ebuyer, overclockers)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: (e.g.: UK)
PARTS PREFERENCES: Anything as long as it's compatible with my GPU, CPU, RAM, and HDD


Much obliged,

Ben

You will have to get an Intel 775 socket motherboard for your Quad.  If your memory is DDR2 type, then you will need a board that supports it versus DDR3.  I would definitely stay with an Intel chipset.  I think you currently have the X38 chipset, but you can use X48 or P45 if X38 is not available as I did not see it.  However, I believe the X48 boards will only support DDR3 memory so this may not be a choice and you will have to stay with a P45.  This one HERE is similar to the one I have.  I would look at Gigabyte or Asus HERE for P45 boards.  The P45 boards support PCIe 2.0 if you upgrade in the future and can also take up to 16GB of ram.  They are also backwards compatible with PCI 1.0 and 1.1 versions if that is what your current video card is. 

As far as cases go, there are a lot of choices.  The most popular and reasonably priced would be the Mid Tower design that support ATX motherboards.  The Antec 300 is extremely popular if you are a gamer at a good price HERE.  The only problem with choosing a case and staying with your stock Dell power supply is if the cables will all reach where they need to go.  HERE are some Cooler Master cases and the CM 690 that I have is shown, but I would not count on your cables reaching where they need to go with these bottom mounted power supply cases.  I really like mine as it has some great features to it, but I also have a retail power supply and they have longer cables versus Dells that are most likely cut to fit.  This is an area where you might want to take a closer look at your case and power supply and determine some measurements.  You have to make sure the case also supports an ATX motherboard if you are looking at the mini or micro cases.  I don't recommend the smaller cases, however, when choosing to upgrade.  You will need to look at the cases carefully to decide certain things like do they have USB front port access and where they are located, fans that come with it and locations (front, rear, side, top), top or bottom mounted power supply, optical drive placement (if they are hidden by a cover or door or exposed).  Choosing the right case is personal and can really be the hardest part.  There are many brands HERE so the only thing you can do is look at all of them to see which one meets all your needs. 

The only thing else you may have to look at is a CPU cooler as the Dell may be proprietary and not work on the new motherboard.  You will need a cooler that is compatible with a 775 socket motherboard.  The one I got was one of the simplest designs are very easy to install and not requiring the removal of the motherboard by using a back plate.  I already had my motherboard installed in the new case before I installed the CPU and cooler so it worked out well for me.  The Dell one was actually screwed into the motherboard with a back plate and I did not want to take the motherboard out to see if the back plate was going to work.  However, I will say that the new cooler I got is keeping the CPU 10 degrees cooler than the stock Dell one.   The one I got (Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 pro Rev. 2) is sold HERE at overclockers so you may want to consider it since it certainly does not cost very much.  It is very quiet and also comes with pre-applied thermal compound so you don't have the mess around with that.  The mounting pin design is nice versus the push pins on others that can present some challenge.  Just make sure the case is wide enough to accommodate these taller coolers.  There is also a great video on installing this cooler HERE.  Make sure you clean the thermal compound off the CPU with some rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth before you remove it from your Dell computer and put it on the new board.

Ben Holden

When a non-Dell motherboard is installed, either a new retail, or OEM copy of windows is required, as Dell's OEM copies are tied to their BIOS and will not activate.  :emotion-5:

Bev.

Actually, they will activate as long as the new motherboard is still an Intel Chipset.  You will have to live with a black background screen, but you can still use windows update for all the critical security updates, however, you will not be able to use any of the optional updates and have to deal with WGA prompts, but it will run.  When I moved my hard drive over to the new motherboard, it booted into Windows Vista and ran fine.   I was prepared to upgrade to Windows 7 anyway.  I had previously cloned a hard drive off my 530 and put it into a completely different computer that ran XP and it still runs fine to this day.  I only did this because the hard drive in the other computer had serious problems with viruses.   Not quite legal, I know.  You cannot of course reinstall the Dell OEM operating system on the new motherboard.