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December 21st, 2016 22:00
Dimension C521 Dell to Dell motherboard swap - will it work?
Hello,
I have an old dell dimension c521 desktop with a AMD Athlon X2 4400 2.3 ghz CPU. I would like to know if I can swap the original motherboard with another Dell OEM motherboard that supports a quad core CPU, such as a AMD Phenom or Intel Core2Quad. Will I have any issues with powering on the PC with a different dell motherboard? or with the front panel USB, headphone, power button?
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RoHe
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December 22nd, 2016 11:00
Dell typically uses custom connectors between motherboards and front panels. So unless you -or somebody else- has mapped the connector in the c521 case, you may not be able to install a different Dell (or non-Dell) motherboard in this case.
You'll also need to purchase a new Windows OS license from Microsoft because your current license is tied to the c521 motherboard. And, you'll have to reinstall Windows on the hard drive because the motherboard hardware will be entirely different.