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FYI a Dell Studio XPS 7100 *is* Micro-ATX upgradable
Just a informational post to the masses that if anyone has an old Dell Studio XPS 7100, you can swap out the Dell MB for anything that is Micro-ATX form factor. You'll likely need to upgrade the Power Supply though. I installed a Asus Q87M-E with an LGA 1150 Intel i7 4770K 3.5Ghz CPU and 16GB (2x8) DDR3 RAM. All case connectors were plug-n-play on the Asus board.. no problems at all. The case is not wired for USB 3.0 so I'll have to improvise on that later if I want to feed USB 3.0 from the Asus board connector to the case. The Asus board will hold up to 32GB so I just need to find 2 more 8GB sticks. The old Dell MB was maxed out at 16GB (4x4) DDR3 RAM. This particular Asus board came out in 2013 I think. The Original 460 watt AcBel power supply in the Dell case has enough power for my needs *except* for fact there is only a 4 pin CPU power plug instead of the 8 needed for the Asus board. The 4 pin is powering the 4th gen i7 CPU on the Asus board for now. I'll swap out the old PS for a new 500 watt EVGA power supply in a few days to provide the CPU with its full 8 pin power.Asus Q87M-E Micro-ATX in a Dell Studio XPS 7100
Vince20
2 Posts
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December 20th, 2020 19:00
Thank you very much for this information.
OldTechFart
3 Posts
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June 4th, 2021 20:00
I am looking into doing this myself except there is one issue I am struggling with - the connection of the power switch. The dell power switch is a rectangular shape with 4 pins on one row and 5 on the other. Where does that connect on most other brand micro atx boards? I notice that a lot of boards have a set of headers that is just called the "front panel" connector and I am having trouble figuring out how it would fit. Can you shed light on that?
OldTechFart
3 Posts
0
June 5th, 2021 18:00
Vince, you have inspired me. I just ordered that exact board - particularly because it's the only one that has the "10-1 pin" power switch connector ensuring that you can take the old board out and drop in the new. Thank you!
OldTechFart
3 Posts
0
July 5th, 2021 08:00
Good morning FreonDude -
Your post inspired me to gut and redo my old Dell Studio XP 7100 with a failing system board. I got the exact same ASUS Q87M-E board as you're using here and it all works great. I just have one question that I wonder if you noticed. When I turn it on, the power button comes on orange. Is there any way to force it to come on white? Every light works, every port works, it's all good, just the button is orange.