Will an ASUS motherboard fit in a Dell Optiplex GX280 Case?

[Tom92602]

I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 minitower and I am contemplating
buying an ASUS motherboard with a 3.8GHZ P4 processor to
upgrade the machine. This is the older style GX280 that was
made of all black plastic as opposed to the new ones with metal
side panels..

Is this possible? Would I have to buy a new power supply?
Would a new power supply fit in there or does dell have an
non-standard power supply mounting bay? I really like the
Dell case, I just want to upgrade the machine...

Thanks
Tom

 

[Gh0stDrag0n]

Motherboards are standardized, ATX boards are mostly 12" X 9.6", m-ATX boards are around 9.6" X 9.6". Measure the board in your computer and find out.

 

[Mr_Bluntman]

I think Dell systems (including their cases) are proprietary through and through. I could always be wrong though...

 

[Oilpatch]

My 2 cents - experience.

Lost the motherboard in my old Dell Dimension to lightning, phoned Dell, new MB cost prohibitive, local shop said cannot install non- Dell MB as proprietary shape, so I bought new motherboard and new case/PSU to go with still good CPU, RAM, HD, VGA etc only to find that Dell's Windows wouldn't re-install as now didn't recognize the machine as a Dell PC .

 

[konigstiger]

I doubt a standard motherboard will work in your case. I work on the GX/SX280's, GX620's and soon the GX740's. The motherboard uses metal mounting/grounding clips that are molded in to a metal surface. There might be one screw that holds the board to the surface. This makes swapping the board a breeze if you get a Dell replacement (board is usually already mounted). Unless you modify this surface and remove these clips, the board will likely have grounding issues which may cause a variety of interesting problems (especially with anything that uses RF).

As oilpatch mentioned earlier, I've seen a lot of people do what he did. It makes sense but you end up having to puchase a case, power supply (unless the case has one), motherboard, and an OEM copy of Windows. So plan on spending $250-300, more or less. At least this would be a good start in case you need to swap the motherboard in the future.

As far as the Dell power supply goes, this depends on what GX280 case you have (desktop, small desktop, mini-tower).

 

[Sloehand]

Yet one more reason (of many) that I prefer to build my own...

 

[Bache]

I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 minitower and I am contemplating
buying an ASUS motherboard with a 3.8GHZ P4 processor to
upgrade the machine. This is the older style GX280 that was
made of all black plastic as opposed to the new ones with metal
side panels..

Is this possible? Would I have to buy a new power supply?
Would a new power supply fit in there or does dell have an
non-standard power supply mounting bay? I really like the
Dell case, I just want to upgrade the machine...

Thanks
Tom

Salvage ram, hard drive, optical drives, floppy and sell the rest in local paper or secondhand shop.

Upgrade new "off the shelf" case, mb, etc.

And never :x buy Dell again 😀