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

**Snayperskaya** · 02-16-2018, 09:45 AM

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

Cool! I didn't know there was microATX sized dual LGA771 boards. All the ones I've seen were EEB. Nice little system you got there.

**Topcat** · 03-17-2018, 09:58 AM

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

Just a postscript to this thread with what became of the extra board.....

Celeron Compaq? Couldn't be....

Don't worry, it's not!

Now how cool was all that!! This case came from the house of heavy smokers....it was nasty & skuzzy, so it had to be hotwashed twice to get the sludge & stench off it. It also needed a moderate amount of modifying for fitment....but what the hell... Some day when I'm dead and gone, this bizarre computer collection will be worth millions!

I built this one with what I had on hand. Its a dual quad-core Xeon E5410 @ 2.33/1333 8gb RAM and a quadro FX4800 GPU.

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**momaka** · 03-23-2018, 11:16 PM

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

Man, that looks hella-neat!

And the whole system cooling looks like it will all work together very well, with the CPU fans drawing air through the bottom half of the case, and the GPU + PSU from the top half. I bet it runs cool!

... well, maybe save for that FX4800 perhaps.

But seriously, top-notch system!

Originally posted by Topcat

Some day when I'm dead and gone, this bizarre computer collection will be worth millions!

Yeah, at least to those of us who know what a real computer should be built like / have inside. I don't know if any kids from the newer generations will understand this, though. I tried showing my neighbor's kids how to build a desktop PC with some parts I had on hand (a low-power AM2 AMD quad core and not-that-old of a Gigabyte motherboard in a somewhat modern Dell XPS Studio case). They thought the computer would be super-slow because it looked big (they called the computer box "the CPU", lol). I'm not sure if my teaching session changed their perspective, either, even though that PC is likely a lot more powerful than either of their 1-3 year old laptops... when it comes to games, of course. But I digress.

**ratdude747** · 04-19-2018, 08:59 AM

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

I think I found the case SM intended for these things:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Generic-mic...torefresh=true

And as I typed this I won the best offer on it. Now I have a project all right...

**momaka** · 04-23-2018, 10:03 PM

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

^ Nice deal on that case. Seriously, $20 for a case like that is an absolute steel. (lame pun, I know... but fitting

).

**Topcat** · 04-25-2018, 10:09 AM

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

The only external hint that things may not be as they appear to be...

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**Topcat** · 09-29-2019, 12:22 PM

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

My ohh my...............

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**Dan81** · 09-30-2019, 11:44 AM

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

Reminds me of 2 PCs I just revamped.

First one was a Davio "Gamer" - yeah right.

Original specs were a Sempron 2000+ Skt462 with a noname 400W PSU and a 80GB drive running XP, all in a pretty nice Delux MG760 case which imitates a BMW M3.

The new specs are a recapped 500W FSP Bluestorm II, a Core 2 Quad Q9400 (wanted to go for a X5450 but haven't found any), a Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R and 8GB of DDR3 RAM, as well as a 1TB drive and a GTX750Ti.

The second one was some noname Athlon XP 2500+ machine that was halfway gutted. When I bought it, the only things left were the case (made by JNC) , the mobo (ASRock K7S41GX) and that's pretty much all. Not to mention the rooftop on this one was pretty bent. I had a few pieces left from two other cases I trashed, which fortunately used the same kind of metal frame.

Now it sports a recapped Raidmax RX-500XT (made by Pangu Power, and it's pretty decent), a ASUS P5QD Turbo, an plexiglass sidepanel (factory made by JNC, which is something), about 320GB of storage, 4GB of DDR2, a MSI DVD-RW and a Gainward GT630.

The former one with the BMW case is now my main machine (I've put the i3 3220 combo for a sleeper IBM machine until I can get a beefy SFX PSU - it has a 155W PSU as we speak) running Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC (v1809), and the former runs Windows 8.1.

I can post up some pics if you want.

**momaka** · 09-30-2019, 12:10 PM

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

Originally posted by Topcat

My ohh my...............

Another one?!

Nice!

With that GTX480, it should even still be able to handle modern games too - at least Fortnite for sure (well, that's not really modern now anymore, or so the "cool" kids say these days.) But Apex Legends will probably run OK too.

**ratdude747** · 09-30-2019, 01:34 PM

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

Originally posted by momaka

Another one?!

Nice!

With that GTX480, it should even still be able to handle modern games too - at least Fortnite for sure (well, that's not really modern now anymore, or so the "cool" kids say these days.) But Apex Legends will probably run OK too.

Mine runs pretty much all the modern stuff... but it has a GTX970 thrown in:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69058

Solid platform for sleepers, that's for sure.

**Topcat** · 09-30-2019, 09:14 PM

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

Yea, another one....the board was a SM tree freebie..... I picked up 2x 3GHz 1333FSB CPU's for 22 shipped. The big fat solid copper heatsinks were leftover from some old socket 604 system (sinks are the same for lga771)....I actually have 4 of them, I have 2 remaining now. I had 8gb ECC RAM in the bin...but I'll grab more....its cheap, and the board supports 48gb. I did find a case that this will fit.... Goin for the trifecta!! One Dell, one Compaq, and one soon to be HP case....

**momaka** · 10-01-2019, 10:23 AM

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

But but Compaq and HP are the same thing

You should do an eMachines case, if you have one. The silver ones from the XP/P4/AXP era are really well built. I bet no one would suspect an eMachines will ever have such hardware inside.

Just don't be re-using them Bestec ATX-250-12E power supply, haha.

(Though the everell 5VSB fix works pretty well on them.)

**Topcat** · 10-01-2019, 10:25 AM

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

Originally posted by momaka

But Compaq and HP are the same thing

It's prior to their merger....so it still counts.

**momaka** · 10-09-2019, 02:35 PM

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

Originally posted by Topcat

It's prior to their merger....so it still counts.

Oh fine!

I still expect to see an e-Machines, though.

**ratdude747** · 10-14-2019, 05:08 PM

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

Originally posted by momaka

But but Compaq and HP are the same thing

You should do an eMachines case, if you have one. The silver ones from the XP/P4/AXP era are really well built. I bet no one would suspect an eMachines will ever have such hardware inside.

Just don't be re-using them Bestec ATX-250-12E power supply, haha.

(Though the everell 5VSB fix works pretty well on them.)

Beat you to the punch:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69058

That one had a Prescott era celeron in it originally.

**momaka** · 10-21-2019, 07:33 PM

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

Originally posted by ratdude747

Beat you to the punch:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69058

Oh yeah, I forgot that one.

(But now that you linked to that thread, I do remember reading it and thinking that's one really cool project.)

Originally posted by ratdude747

That one had a Prescott era celeron in it originally.

I have a similar silver eMachines case from more or less the same era. Was an Athlon XP system, IIRC. Motherboard (FIC AM37) was dead due to a Bestec 250W 12E PSU (along with the keyboard and mouse connected to that system!

) Now that case is retrofitted with my top single-core AMD chip: the Athlon 64 FX-57. But I might move that in another case and have my next main rig built into this eMachines PC. I'm thinking a dual core Athlon 64 with a X2 4200+ and an MSI MS-7184 board I have. (Yes, that's all very old hardware, but I want to keep it DDR1 and maybe try to squeeze a few more years out of Windows XP Pro - as if I haven't enough already.

)

**Topcat** · 12-19-2019, 06:24 PM

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

Just for those that think I forgot about # 3.....

The case got modded...

More later.

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**Topcat** · 12-23-2019, 02:23 PM

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

All done.....I just used what was on-hand as far as memory & GPU. It's kind of funny, a GTX460 can be had all day long for ~$20 these days... I had 8gb of pc2-5300P RAM in the bin and I just ran with that....if there comes a time it needs more or I rehome this thing, I can always add more, it's cheap too....but for now its done.

All assembled....

Butt shot...

YAY, it works....

OS install.....

...and all finished, of course this post created from it...

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**momaka** · 12-28-2019, 06:14 PM

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

^ AWESOME! ^

Looks so modest on the outside, yet a mini powerhouse on the inside. I love it!

A PSU with a 120 mm fan might have worked better, though, as right now the airflow across those wires looks a bit tight... though I'm sure is more than fine.

Originally posted by Topcat

It's kind of funny, a GTX460 can be had all day long for ~$20 these days...

I know! Isn't that crazy?

The GTX 460 is just a slightly slower, older, and less efficient version of the GTX 560 - and those can still handle some modern games today.

Maybe I should alert you via PMs if I see any other good deals on eBay.

Last month or so, I saw several GTX 260/265 cards sell for under $5! (One ended for just what it would cost to ship the card out - i.e. it was nearly free.

) The GTX 200 series are quite dated now for modern games, but still have plenty of power for CAD and 3D rendering.

At the very least, you should be able to run this on it in full details:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=27

**Per Hansson** · 12-30-2019, 03:53 PM

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

Originally posted by Topcat

It's kind of funny, a GTX460 can be had all day long for ~$20 these days...

Originally posted by momaka

At the very least, you should be able to run this on it in full details:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=27

Don't get your hopes too high, I have a 780 Ti and a 5820k Haswell CPU but the game is quite slow at times with the settings in attached screenshot:

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

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