Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

[Topcat]

I picked up a Supermicro X7DCA motherboard on ebay for cheap sometime back, which SM claims to be a mATX form-factor....well, its rather in violation of the mATX form-factor, as its about 1/4" taller than a standard mATX board, which eliminates it fitting in probaly 98% of mATX cases out there.... This extra height eliminates modding the case, as the bottom edge of the board conflicts with the floor of the case, so short of cutting out the bottom of the case, it just isn't going to work.....

I've kept a constant vigil of all the mATX cases I encountered, hoping I'd run into one that has just a little extra room between the bottom edge of the board and the floor of the case.... I finally got one earlier this week when one of the local shops gave me a pickup load of junk.... It was a Dimension 1100 with a 2.53GHz Celeron in it. The motherboard was bad, the PSU needs recapped, and by modern standards, this thing was truly scrap iron!

Anyway....the junk in question:






Junk internals removed....


Yes, that's a dime stuck to the bottom of the case...


The magic board...


I took the case outside and blasted it with the air hose to get all the bunnies out of it, and then came the art of making the square peg go into the round hole...

First off that little platform the HDD bracket/cage mounts to has to go, the back of the board hits it. I'll be mounting the HDD elsewhere anyway, so no loss in losing the original HDD mount point. The large perforated front plate of the case is also a great spot to fit a 120mm fan...I'll come back to that later

Those 3 standoffs to the left of it don't line up with the mount points on the board....so they need to go as well.




With 2x 5.25" bays and no need for an optical, another idea dawned on me.... A bay cooler that takes both bays. This solves the HDD mount issue, adds some additional airflow (has an 80mm fan in it), and fills the 2 bays nicely.


Test fit:


Aww yeahs!!


Now to test fit the motherboard with the OEM air guide....this couldn't have fit more perfect!! Its right over the memory, creating a nice windtunnel to keep that quite hot ECC nice & cool....it's not as bad as fully buffered, but registered/ECC still gets very toasty. I had to trim one small tab off the bottom edge of the plastic tunnel housing, as it was hitting the DIMM modules.




Trimmed.


Zipped the standoffs out with an angle grinder....that was kind of tricky in that small space....but I got it...







Now everything got hotwashed in the sink with simple green, and dried out.


Board attached to mounts. There's MAYBE .25mm between the floor of the case and the bottom edge of the board, its VERY close! No, I do not have an IO shield for this board, I will find one though, Supermicro is good about not having a gazillion IO shields, and uses maybe half a dozen different styles....and this one is pretty standard. Finding one won't be a problem.




There's that 120mm fan I mentioned from earlier. I need to drill a couple holes to attach it, I'll do that when I install the IO shield (board has to come back out).




Now for that goofy single-end front panel connector....


Cured.


PSU & GPU added, and ready for a test fire...


Ignition!


Ubuntu Live.....


It runs quite nice and surprisingly cool. Memory was warm to the touch, not scorching hot like it usually is.

That's all for now. This board is the model without the onboard audio, so I'll have to get a PCIe sound card. The 32-bit PCI slot is rendered unusable due to the mATX constraints, there's no external opening for it...I have no idea why they called this board a mATX, its clear it wasn't really intended to be used in a mATX case at all....but with a little cunning, it can be done. Once I get an audio card & IO shield, I'll finish this one off. I'll also add a HDD of course.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Nice. I love sleeper builds.

That said, back in college people thought my supermicro cases were "noname junk" (same fools who thought raidmax was a high end brand), so in that vein, all of our builds are sleepers.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

supermicro cases = noname junk.....wow! I hope that bozo didnt'/wasn't pursuing a tech degree!

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

supermicro cases = noname junk.....wow! I hope that bozo didnt'/wasn't pursuing a tech degree!

They all graduated with me with BS's in Electrical Engineering Technology. We used to have "computer" in the degree title (as computer engineering is in the department title), but that was reportedly axed eons ago.

They never heard of SM (they were gamerz who loved ASUS and Raidmax)... and didn't know what EATX was. They also said (2011-2013) that my Dell latitude D630 was a "useless dinosaur" and gave me 5 tons of shit about it (and you though I got a lot of shit here on BCN for that laptop, she is one black sheep). To them, if doesn't look gamer, it's slow overpriced shit. Good riddance.

Luckily I'm past those screwed up days...

[tmcw]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Nice build.

Just wondering where you mounted the hard drive?

I'm familiar with those cases, I did something similar with a 2400 case a few years ago, but mine originally had a floppy drive, so removing it left an awkward hole at the front, and I ended up ditching the box, I didn't need it, and no one else wanted it. The board I used wasn't close to yours though, probably 2005 era, E2180 processor or similar, so not too hot.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

The $9 ebay cmedia sound card came. I installed it and booted ubuntu live, it worked.

Nice build.

Just wondering where you mounted the hard drive?

I'm familiar with those cases, I did something similar with a 2400 case a few years ago, but mine originally had a floppy drive, so removing it left an awkward hole at the front, and I ended up ditching the box, I didn't need it, and no one else wanted it. The board I used wasn't close to yours though, probably 2005 era, E2180 processor or similar, so not too hot.

In this (I added):


That holds 3x 3.5" HDD's.

They all graduated with me with BS's in Electrical Engineering Technology. We used to have "computer" in the degree title (as computer engineering is in the department title), but that was reportedly axed eons ago.

They never heard of SM (they were gamerz who loved ASUS and Raidmax)... and didn't know what EATX was. They also said (2011-2013) that my Dell latitude D630 was a "useless dinosaur" and gave me 5 tons of shit about it (and you though I got a lot of shit here on BCN for that laptop, she is one black sheep). To them, if doesn't look gamer, it's slow overpriced shit. Good riddance.

Luckily I'm past those screwed up days...

I remember idiots like that back in the olden days of gaming....like the early Pentium days, when the retards swore by their AMD K5's or cyrix chips, which the gamer cheapskate crowd loved despite the fact they were rather junky compared to the Pentium processor at the time....

[tmcw]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

.

In this (I added):...
That holds 3x 3.5" HDD's.
....

Oh nice, I thought that was just a fan, didn't realise it held hard drives.

[momaka]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Awesome sleeper! I like how the front of the case still has Celeron D and Windows XP stickers.

By the way, I like those Dimension cases a lot better than the clamshell ones from the same era. They also have a bit less plastic, save for the front cover/face. That's probably one of the reasons I never really liked many OEM cases, as they often used way too many plastic panels and covers. The P4-era Dimension, like this one, were a rare exception, as were the more recent Core i5 and i7 OptiPlexes - quite the opposite of a modern Studio XPS tower, which has probably one of the most complex plastic front covers/faces I've seen. Whoever made the thing in AutoCAD (or whatever drafting program they used) must have taken them a LOOOONG time to finish.

The motherboard was bad, the PSU needs recapped, and by modern standards, this thing was truly scrap iron!

Well, that original board appears to have quite a few yellow Fujitsu polymers on it. Also, the green Chemicon KZEs can be reused as well. Oh, and let's not forget the chipset heatsink - way better than the crap you get nowadays on some modern low-end boards.
... at least that would be the stuff I pull out of it.
Maybe the LPC / Super IO chip as well, depending on what it is. You never know when you need one to revive an old retro board that uses the same SIO chip. That eMachines FIC AM37 board you got recently may be on that list.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

I remember idiots like that back in the olden days of gaming....like the early Pentium days, when the retards swore by their AMD K5's or cyrix chips, which the gamer cheapskate crowd loved despite the fact they were rather junky compared to the Pentium processor at the time....

Well, Cyrix was kicking Intel's ass at gaming until Quake came along... Quake's engine used the floating point portion of the CPU in parallel with the main CPU (in a way like hyperthreading), which was a serious speed boost in the pentium (floating point being a separate part of the CPU) while with Cyrix the main CPU and floating point unit couldn't run at the same time. Hence curtains for Cyrix as a major competitor to Intel.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

...until Quake came along...

That's about the time I started really getting into PC's (early 90's)...and was the birth of multiplayer gaming.... What was before? Wolfenstein or Doom? Crap games that would play well on a Cyrix, or a 486? ...But quake + halfway stable networking on a Pentium90 system, the Cyrix geeks never had a chance! If you remember how those old ID Software DOS games (Doom & Quake) would load, long string of dots across the top of the screen would indicate progress.... Us Pentium guys would be in the game, while the K5 & Cyrix guys would be saying "Still got dots"....great times!

[momaka]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

That's about the time I started really getting into PC's (early 90's)...and was the birth of multiplayer gaming.... What was before? Wolfenstein or Doom? Crap games that would play well on a Cyrix, or a 486? ...But quake + halfway stable networking on a Pentium90 system, the Cyrix geeks never had a chance! If you remember how those old ID Software DOS games (Doom & Quake) would load, long string of dots across the top of the screen would indicate progress.... Us Pentium guys would be in the game, while the K5 & Cyrix guys would be saying "Still got dots"....great times!

I got introduced to PC gaming around the mid 90's as well, but I was only a little kid back then, so I didn't know much about computers or anything like that. But I do remember how my mom thought me how to type DOS commands on one of our first computers to get Commander Keen started, as well as load Windows 95. It was one of those classic 386/486 DOS towers with 5" floppy drives and monitor was monochrome. Fun times. Then in the late 90's we got our first "high-end" computer - a 400 MHz Pentium II with Windows 98. One of the first games I got for it (on CD!) was Carmageddon (UK censored version). Then later on Need For Speed High Stakes. I didn't get into multiplayer games until I got a bit older and started going to the local internet cafes. Then there I started with Counter-Strike (1.5 / pre-Steam). Good times! That was in the early 2000's, though, so the Pentium 4 was out by then. I remember when we all drooled at school looking at the first Pentium 4 CPUs (probably Willamate core) that could do a "whooping" 1.8 GHz!
Funny how you now get a P4 Celeron hardware and consider it complete junk.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Just an update on this system....a couple weeks ago, it hard froze and never POST'd again. The motherboard bit the big one. It always seemed a little wonky, it'd do some strange things from time to time...things I've never seen any other computer ever do. For example, after it ran a while or was under load, it would do a very bizarre lag....would completely freeze for about a second, then unlock for a second or two, then freeze again for a second....rinse repeat. Did this in any OS, Windows, linux, even DOS. I never could figure it out. CPU's, GPU's, RAM, PSU all verified good. It did it one last time and that was all she wrote. It felt like some type of strange IO or Northbridge issue.

Seeing this was a rather cool build, I did track down another board for it cheap...they're not hard to find, but they're pricey....for a toy system, I will not pay that, and will bargain hunt. The replacement came with an IO shield, and does have the onboard audio, which allowed me to modify the config a little. I also changed a couple other things around, I'll update the thread when it all comes together.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Well damn. Hope the new board works better. Sweet that you found the better version.

[momaka]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

That's a shame.

The board going out like that does seem a bit like there may have been something with one of the bridge chips. If you have nothing to do with the old board, maybe try a crappy heatgun reflow on the North and/or Southbridge, just to see if it comes back to life?

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

That's a shame.

The board going out like that does seem a bit like there may have been something with one of the bridge chips. If you have nothing to do with the old board, maybe try a crappy heatgun reflow on the North and/or Southbridge, just to see if it comes back to life?

Good call....nothing to lose, that's for sure.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

seems its the memory. Replacement board came, got the same weird lag issue & POST'ing issue.....but it passes memtest, go figure. The memory is Kingston PC2-5300P (reg/ecc). Retested everything with some Samsung PC2-5300P, smooth sailing with both boards. I guess I should have known, I've had issues in the past with Kingston....

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

seems its the memory. Replacement board came, got the same weird lag issue & POST'ing issue.....but it passes memtest, go figure. The memory is Kingston PC2-5300P (reg/ecc). Retested everything with some Samsung PC2-5300P, smooth sailing with both boards. I guess I should have known, I've had issues in the past with Kingston....

Funny, I've had good luck with Kingston.

Now you have a 2nd board... another project? C'mon, you know you want to...

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Funny, I've had good luck with Kingston.

Now you have a 2nd board... another project? C'mon, you know you want to...

Of course!! ...just not sure what yet. The replacement board cmae with a pair of 2.33/1333 5400's and 4gb of ram....so I wouldn't have to round up much.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

Got an old pre-2000 emachines case? As in the freebie with ad-filled internet ones? That would be one hell of sleeper... if you can make it fit.

Or one of the late 90's (windows ME era) compaq presario cases... I still have the CRT and Full-ATX tower (with oddball FIC S370 Coppermine board) of that style (maybe that's a project for me? I may even have the keyboard and speakers to it somewhere???), and from a quick look, the microATX ones are quite roomy (you'd have enough clearance in the bottom; I used to have a couple). Only kicker is that the USB header is an odd pinout (run it straight and you'll possibly fry an aftermarket board, don't ask me how I know that). See picture for what I mean. At least for me they were a unique (and cool) design; Kinda like the first generation iMacs and iBooks, only not made by apple.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell Dimension 1100? ...or is it? The Ultimate Sleeper System

I'm fixin' to raid a shop in Rolla around the end of the month....they called me yesterday and said they want to unload a bunch. Last time I cleaned them out (about 2yrs ago), I literally filled my 8ft pickup bed.