Optiplex 790 MT Case & Motherboard Upgrade

[Usman23]

So I have an Optiplex 790 and its the Mini Tower version. I wanted to upgrade it's case because of some reasons like, I want a new one which looks better than the current one, this one looks a bit too old. Another reason is that I would be able to fit more upgrades in the long term if I upgrade the case (thats what I think currently).

(The cases that I have in mind are linked at the bottom of the text)

I want to know about a few stuff which would really help me out on how to go about this upgrade or if I can initially even do something like that (I hope I can).

1. The stock motherboard of the 790 is Micro-ATX or some other form factor because I think that's the first thing I would be looking at in the case specifications.

2. If the motherboard is a micro ATX so will it be able to fit nicely and without any problems in a new case?

3. Lastly, just a general question if I would be able to actually perform the case swap comfortably without changing anything or without making anything else dysfunctional?

Extra Details:

I have the stock power supply of the 790 which is 265W, the thing about this is, if this would be able to fit in a new case or is it just designed for the specific dell model?

I currently have the R7 260X video card which runs perfectly fine in the current setup, telling this so it is more easier to tell if it would fit in the new case as well.

I also have 2 HDD's, both fit perfectly in the current drive bays. One is a WD 2TB Black, the second one is also a WD Black, but it's the 180GB one.

I think that should be all information I can remember to give at this moment, if any more information is needed to understand the whole thing or if I'm missing something, you can ask me.

These are the cases that I'm planning to buy (rather cheaper ones, but I can currently buy these ones):

http://www.casecom.com.tw/midibusiness/VS93-spec.html

http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002890

http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002891

The side panel window ones are the ones I think look better.

Thanks for reading, any help is really appreciated.

 

[Lutfij]

Since the motherboard you own as of of this moment is matx,

You would be better served getting a case that fits that form factor. SOmething like a CoolerMaster N200 or the MasterBox Lite 3 would suffice.

The down side to working with a smaller form factor case is that the route to get larger boards like an ATX board would be hampered which is something I'd ask you to think about considering you want to upgrade. Speaking of upgrade besides minimal upgrade like ram and adding a GTX600 series GPU(or equivalent AMD counterpart) in there, you're going to need to perform a platform upgrade.

As of this moment, you can buy an aftermarket PSU of a reliable quality and drop it into your chassis and it'll work in tandem with the board.

On the topic of dysfunctional, you're probably going to have a hard time wiring up the front panel LED's/switches since the FP(front panel) block looks like it's not labelled. On further digging, that will be the builds/upgrades Achilles heel.

In retropspect, you might be better off just building an entry level system since you're already on the fence regarding it with a PSU and a case purchase. Mind sharing the SKU or at least the specs to your MT?

 

[Usman23]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Since there would be some problems connecting the board and the PSU problems.

I had another idea if I could upgrade my motherboard and Case together, so that the case swap hassle would be shortened down (I hope).

I wanted to know if this was possible and that if I wanted to change the case and buy a new motherboard, would I be able to have all the things as it as on the new machine? Would I have to upgrade the PSU also if I change the case and the motherboard or would it be fine as it is.

I'm thinking that I could get a mATX board and then get a case that supports it as well. Would really appreciate if you could suggest me some boards as well. Thanks alot again.

Also, my specs are:

CPU: i3-2120 3.3GHz
Motherboard: Optiplex 790 stock motherboard
Ram: 14 GB. x3 4GB DDR3, x1 2GB DDR3
SSD/HDD: 1xHDD WD Black 2TB, 1x HDD WD black 180GB
GPU: R7 260X
PSU: 265W Optiplex 790 stock PSU
Chassis: Optiplex 790 MT stock chassis.

Also, I did not understand what is an SKU, can you explain a little?

14GB of RAM, consisting of 4 sticks. x3 4GB and x1 2GB DDR3 modules (Yes this setup is a bit messy)

 

[Usman23]

I realized that my processor socket is LGA 1155 and most boards these days available near me are LGA 1151 compatible and support 6th/7th gen intel Processors.

At this point, I'm stuck because the board that has LGA 1155 (can support my current processor) has 2 RAM slots and kind of less features. This one is available for me: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H61ME/

I have 4 RAM sticks and the boards which have 4 RAM slots have the LGA 1151 socket. (like this: http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-B250M-D3H-rev-10#kf) I can't upgrade my processor to a 7th gen one if I am upgrading both case and motherboard (budget, cant upgrade all 3 together).

At this moment I feel like I'm in a deadlock, if someone has a breakthrough or a wise solution, it would really help me out.

I could just buy a 2nd gen intel i7 and not worry about anything else but I realized that I would have to change the case and motherboard in the future someday, so I could not leave it and now seems like the right time, I thought the processor upgrade can be postponed but now all 3 of these are creating problems :/