[SOLVED] Motherboards in Prebuilt desktops

[ggelli2014]

Hi everybody,

I am interested in buying a prebuilt desktop. I do not have any brand preference (ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc...).
However, in their official sites I could not find any information about the motherboards in their desktops.

This one for instance
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/sho...880-desktop/cai3880w10ph0037#features_section
seems ok. But there is no information on the motherboard.

So I just wanted to ask where I could find the models of the motherboads in these prebuilt desktops. Do these have ASUS/ASROCK/MSI motherboards or do they use specific motherboards? In the second case how do these motherboards compare to the ASUS/ASROCK/MSI ones?

Thank you very much.

 

[lvt]

I never see a Dell computer with a motherboard not having Dell or Intel label.

Maybe those motherboards are made by a big contractor like Quanta.

The only sure way to find out the exact model is to enter the Bios, use a software like CPU-Z, or open the case and look for it.

Generally those made-to-order motherboards are cheaper and can't compete with motherboards for general public from Asus, Asrock, MSI, Gigabyte... in term of features and upgradability, let alone their gaming series.

But quality-wise, if you use them the way they are made for, they will last really long.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I wouldn’t bet on that last line about those boards lasting a long time.

I work as a tech, and once talked to a guy who said he knew someone that either knew someone or worked at one of the large manufacturers. Basically he said that from what he was told, those companies supposedly have truckloads of parts on the lot and that they have people who watch pricing. Essentially what they claimed was for example, if a part was say a nickel cheaper than another brand, that was the parts they used in the run that day.

A few years ago in the XP says it seemed they did last a good while. Now days, seems like their business class systems last a while, but their home systems, be careful.

 

[BoomBoomBot]

One advice i would highly suggest following is not to buy a del prebuilt. It has a lot of proprietary components that usually have no longevity and almost always cant be resold or reused. And not to mention how overpriced they are.

 

[Joseph_138]

Dell uses proprietary designs for their parts. You won't find them on the websites of any motherboard manufacturer. They want you to throw their computers away, and buy another one, instead of upgrading them, or reusing any of the parts. The RAM and the CPU is about all that you can transfer from those machines. Even the CPU cooler can't be used, because instead of screwing into the motherboard, the screws go through the motherboard and screw into the case, which is also proprietary. Steve, at Gamers Nexus, found that out during his teardown of a Dell G5 5000. The XPS 8940 is identical, internally.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMg6hUudHE

 

[geofelt]

Looks like a non standard proprietary motherboard.
Here is a link to the service manual.
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/inspiron-3880-desktop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

If you only want to use what you buy, it may be ok.
But, if you ever want to upgrade, like a graphics card, you will find that the psu will be insufficient and not easy to replace.

From what I can tell, Lenovo uses more standard components.

 

[Bazzy 505]

Both Dell and HP do their own designs. Don't count on picking those apart for parts. Same goes for Lenovo to a degree.

Quality wise outside of Alienware line Dell is generally the bottom of the barrel , with HP very close behind. It's not that they don't want to build better machines, but bulk of those you see push volumes in wallmart, target, best buy. And there on the wholesale level, they have to fit into a very specific price envelope that doesn't allow much room for quality. Lenovo Think line of desktops are very decent quality wise but the prices they charge for it are not exactly on the reasonable size of things.
When you move into small server segment, all three have reasonably good hardware.

Now with ASUS, ASROCK, MSI and Gigabyte. MSI has gone down the Acer hell path a bit in recent years. Asus tends to have these 10 or so year swing cycle when they produce excellent hardware for a while, than they start monkey around to try to make things cheaper by shuffling component suppliers, they screw up on a few models and than they get back to what worked best in the first place. Gigabyte is roughly the same quality as Asus in the better days, but they sometimes are not always transparent about hardware revisions in their boards. ASROCK is a very small manufacturer which came to be as an offshoot or ASUS, solid hardware but not a great support.

 

[Joseph_138]

Both Dell and HP do their own designs. Don't count on picking those apart for parts. Same goes for Lenovo to a degree.

Quality wise outside of Alienware line Dell is generally the bottom of the barrel , with HP very close behind. It's not that they don't want to build better machines, but bulk of those you see push volumes in wallmart, target, best buy. And there on the wholesale level, they have to fit into a very specific price envelope that doesn't allow much room for quality. Lenovo Think line of desktops are very decent quality wise but the prices they charge for it are not exactly on the reasonable size of things.
When you move into small server segment, all three have reasonably good hardware.

Now with ASUS, ASROCK, MSI and Gigabyte. MSI has gone down the Acer hell path a bit in recent years. Asus tends to have these 10 or so year swing cycle when they produce excellent hardware for a while, than they start monkey around to try to make things cheaper by shuffling component suppliers, they screw up on a few models and than they get back to what worked best in the first place. Gigabyte is roughly the same quality as Asus in the better days, but they sometimes are not always transparent about hardware revisions in their boards. ASROCK is a very small manufacturer which came to be as an offshoot or ASUS, solid hardware but not a great support.

Alienwares are nearly identical to their lesser linemates, internally. Gamers Nexus took an Alienware apart and tested the thermals, and they are actually worse than the G5 5000 and XPS 8940 for staying cool.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I own both a recent Alienware Aurora R10 and an HP Omen 30L so I can speak from first hand experience. The HP Omen 30L is basically a standard Mid Tower case. The Omen 30L uses the Dorado motherboard. The Aurora motherboard in the Ryzen builds are made by Pegatron, which I believe is an ASRock motherboard.

FAQ Aurora R10 - Dell Community

I have no info regarding the Dorado mobo in the Omen 30L. The Omen 30L appears to use a standard PSU which is made by Corsair and it also uses a standard RTX 3080 card which came with my build.

 

[Bazzy 505]

I own both a recent Alienware Aurora R10 and an HP Omen 30L so I can speak from first hand experience. The HP Omen 30L is basically a standard Mid Tower case. The Omen 30L uses the Dorado motherboard. The Aurora motherboard in the Ryzen builds are made by Pegatron, which I believe is an ASRock motherboard.

FAQ Aurora R10 - Dell Community

I have no info regarding the Dorado mobo in the Omen 30L. The Omen 30L appears to use a standard PSU which is made by Corsair and it also uses a standard RTX 3080 card which came with my build.

believe it or not that's a good news, ASRock is pretty decent. They used to use much worse in their ODM partnerships , like Chaintech 😛

 

[ScrewySqrl]

For the last few montsh, as GPUs have been impossible o find at reasonable prces, i've been recommending prebuilds

Lenovo tends to have better quality parts, but tends to not use dual channel ram, and has a much higher cost.

Dell is all proprietary settings, cheap parts and single channel ram, they use a cooler more suited to a circa 2000 low-powered intel chip, and their cases are starved for cooling, on top of the bloatware and predatory hidden charges. Don't ever buy a Dell!

HP parts are cheap - but generally better than dell, not that that says much, and use standard form factors, and have Dual channel ram by default.

As such, of the OEMS, I tend to recommend HP's gaming desktops over the other two, but only on relatively low-powered systems (65W CPUs, no GPU higher than a 3060/3060ti)

Others like Acer, MSI, NZXT and Asus are using all their own parts as much as possible, but the same ones you can buy yourself.

System Integrators, like ABS (Newegg's house brand), CLX, CyberPower, IBuyPower, Origin PC, Digital Storm, etc., buy off-the-shelf parts at wholesale, put the system together, and sell it for a markup. Build quality is the only difference among them all.

 

[Eximo]

At this point I would go to a builder like CyberPower and pick and choose the parts you want, they have good stuff, if, overpriced. Consider it the premium for getting a GPU at near retail, and it works out. Best to avoid most of their standard selections for ram and power supply though.