Dell optiplex 990 in a new case or just get a new mobo?

[Spawnofglory]

I'm a bit new to all of this. I recently got a dell optiplex 990 for my birthday from my wife. It came with an i5 2400 Ive slowly upgraded it to 4 sticks of 4gb ddr3 1333 mhz ram and a evga gtx geforce 750ti along wihh a new 600 watt evga bronze rated psu with an ssd for a boot drive now I'm to the point of having a new cool miniatx case sitting in front of me and just wanna switch it out. After doing some research I've realized it Kay not be so easy with the front panel pinout being proprietary. So my question is this. Should I buy a new motherboard for my components or does someone know how to pin out the dell mobo out correctly? Is it easy enough? If not what motherboard would be compatible with my components? Having a hard time figuring it out I guess. 

[Spawnofglory]

I don't make alot of cash for extra things so I'm leaning toward figuring out how to maybe solder the existing wires running from the proprietary switch to the new case maybe if I follow the wire? I have two kids full time with no support from their mother so I'd love to just go out and buy a mobo but even the used ones so for my components seem to cost as much as the Dell. Thank you for the help

[KarathKasun]

Front panel header is usually pretty standard.  Just plug switches and lights into different pins until they do the proper things.

[Spawnofglory]

That easy? It is a 34 pin connector that is just in a single clip atm. 

[Spawnofglory]

If I plug the new front panel stuff into the incorrect pins will any damage occur? I do know that I'll get the old press f1 to boot and there isn't much of a way around that from what I've been reading.

[KarathKasun]

2 minutes ago, Spawnofglory said:

That easy? It is a 34 pin connector that is just in a single clip atm. 

Probably has USB integrated, you can likely find a pinout on the internet somewhere.

[UrbanFreestyle]

I had fun building in my Lenovo P310 case. Uses different proprietary connections for USB3, Audio and power (hdd led and power led too) I managed to find pinouts online for the power that was easy enough to re-pin into a spare connector that would fit my motherboard USB wise i am having to get the plug and ports from another stock case and re-mount to match the port holes on my front IO board.

It can take time but worth it in the end.

 

I would question though in your circumstance it might just be easier to spend a few bucks and get a generic motherboard so you can use the standard connectors and have options for upgrade further down the line

[Spawnofglory]

If I plug the new front panel stuff into the incorrect pins will any damage occur? I do know that I'll get the old press f1 to boot and there isn't much of a way around that from what I've been reading. I have looked and looked and looked and I'm coming up short with just hit and miss links and pics it's not the easiest thing to find. 

[extra8]

fwiw, the 5 pin power switch/LED header is probably the same as for Optiplex 7010, so it should be easy to eliminate the F1 message for the power switch.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/925354-optiplex-7010-power-pinout/

 

The Optiplex 990 is virtually identical to the 790, so this may help with the 34 pin Front I/O connector pinout:

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/960047-dell-optiex-790-front-panel-pinouts/

 

The above link shows this pinout.  Whether the pinout is actually correct, I cannot say.

 

If it is anything like the Optiplex 7010, where the above image seems to show two 'Common' pins next to the audio pins, it wouldn't surprise me if one of them was in fact the 'Front I/O cable detect' pin and not 'Common'.

 

The pinout for the shorter 20 pin Front I/O connector on later Optiplex 7010 is here and may better explain what I'm going on about.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/987783-optiplex-70109010-front-io-panel-pinout/

 

If you get the wiring wrong, then yes there is a risk of damage.  eg. miswiring the USB2 ports could lead to damage to the USB ports on the motherboard or to any attached USB2 device.

[grss1982]

On 1/15/2019 at 11:56 PM, Spawnofglory said:

I'm a bit new to all of this. I recently got a dell optiplex 990 for my birthday from my wife. It came with an i5 2400 Ive slowly upgraded it to 4 sticks of 4gb ddr3 1333 mhz ram and a evga gtx geforce 750ti along wihh a new 600 watt evga bronze rated psu with an ssd for a boot drive now I'm to the point of having a new cool miniatx case sitting in front of me and just wanna switch it out. After doing some research I've realized it Kay not be so easy with the front panel pinout being proprietary. So my question is this. Should I buy a new motherboard for my components or does someone know how to pin out the dell mobo out correctly? Is it easy enough? If not what motherboard would be compatible with my components? Having a hard time figuring it out I guess. 

Can you post the service tag to the Optiplex 990? It's usually found on a sticker on the case.

 

The reason I ask is becuase there's usually three versions of an Optiplex i.e. full tower, SFF, uSFF.