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Modding my Dell Dimension 5150

Author: Phil
Posted: Apr 3, 2009 12:02 pm
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Background: About 2 1/2 years ago or so, we bought some new equipment for my company, one item being a Dell Dimension 5150 Desktop that was going to be a new development machine for me. It was a Pentium D 2.8 Dual Core with a 64-bit processor, 1GB Ram, 160GB hard drive, and on board graphics.

I got a Macbook Pro shortly after so didn't need this computer for work. So I converted it into a gaming computer.

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It has gone through some phases and for the longest time, it has been running with a big hole in the side of it cut out with an Antec fan blowing inside of it. I also sprayed it flat black with no clear coat making it look pretty bad.

So this week I spent some time and cut out a larger hole and put a piece of plexi glass in. I also cut a hole in the plexi glass to fit the fan. Man that was a pain in the ass, I went through 3 sheets of plexi because I kept cracking it. I would suggest using a Dremmel tool for this, I didn't have one, hence why I cracked 3 sheets.

If you are curious why I have a tiny fan outside of the case towards the bottom, it is because I have my hard drive there and I wanted to suck the hot air out that it produced. The fan is actually a CPU fan that I had laying around so it pulls alot of hot air out and is fairly quiet on low speed setting. FYI: I control my fan speed with the fan controller you see on the front of the case.

Lastly, Dell had this big plastic housing around the CPU Heatsink, I just cut out 75% of it and just kept the mounting brackets, it was restricting airflow and I couldn't fit my huge case fan in with that in.

When painting a case, make sure you use like 2-3 layers of clear coat, it makes huge differences in the final product.

Original (Actually the stock Dell Dimension 5150 Pentium D Model is great, its quiet and fast, and I like how it looks)