Low-profile PCI, USB or return the forkin puter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dunce
  • Start date Start date
D

dunce

New member
Well, allow myself to introduce..myself..I am the dunce. I ordered what I thought was a great upgrade from my 6 year old 400Mhz to a 2.8Ghz Dell... then I come to realize, this thing is mostly made for USB connections and only supports low-profile PCI cards. Consequently, my 'normal' PCI Echo Gina20 card is ruled out from ever interacting with this puter. Anything worth looking into or should I return this puter, pay the $150 stocking fee, look for another puter... etc.. etc..? Thanks for all help and info!
 
Proprietary Crap !
Dell that is.
I suggest you build one yourself. You can get high quality components and only the software you want for under a grand.

Although USB is not that bad really unless your dead set on PCI.
 
Lot of nice firewire interfaces hitting the market this and next quarter. Maybe something to consider as well..
 
Dell's in serious financial problems anyway.

I'd consider returning it...
 
If you have a standard ATX case I would just buy another motherboard. You would be saving money
 
If you can't return it you could get another ATX case and transplant the Dell guts into that. I think it will fit but you may have problems with the backing plate for the mainboard. Worst case you have to leave the entire plate area open which isn't a huge deal. Get a case without a power supply since you have to use the Dell power supply. Their mainboards and power supplies are electrically proprietary although I think they will physically fit in a standard AXT case. The other thing you could do is simply leave the side/top open a bit. Otherswise like sae said you might have to get a case and a mainboard to transplant the rest of the gfuts to. THis will also involve reformatting and installing XP again since it will surely be "mupped" if you simply install the harddrive to a new mainboard and try to boot. If you get another mainboard with the same chipset you'll have better luck getting it up and running without having to format and re install....
 
If you got to pay $150 to return it, probably not worth it. A new case would be a better option.


Rock >> dunce << Hard place
 
Thanks for all the help and recommendations guys! So I settled on shipping it back, just for the cost of shipping.. a little bit of a waste, but less of a waste than actually holding on to the thing. I've taken the recommendation to build my own and get the M-Audio sound card.. that thing looks sweeeeet! I'll be stopping back here for more recommendations. :) Thanks again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top