Refreshing my old XPS 730

[TristanMH]

Hi, everyone I'm new to this forum so if I didn't see an another post for these type of modification please redirect me.

 

 

So I have bought long time ago an XPS 730 when building your PC was kind of niche thing to do. And at that time, I didn't have the knowledge to build it myself. But today I think it's the time. 

 

I really like the design of XPS 730 case and would really like to keep it. Just upgrade the hardware. To do so I want to upgrade these items:

 

-motherboard

-ram

-power supply

-cooling

-graphics card

-storage

-CPU

-etc

 

 

My budget is around 1000$ and my main usage gonna be playing some AAA games but also just browsing Internet. So I don't know what are my need for these kind of usage.

 

To start up can the motherboard be change? 

I checked on other forums and some said it's is a standard ATX motherboard and some don't. How to check myself what kind of motherboard it has?

 

I guess this is a start... Maybe I ask too much but if there someone who can help me I think it would be here. 

 

Thank in advance. 

[Radium_Angel]

10 minutes ago, TristanMH said:

Thank in advance

Oh boy are you in for a world of hurt...I mean great fun!

Many of those Dell prebuilts use parts that are just different enough than industry standards, to fool you.

So here's what you need to do

(1) Take a pic of the inside of your case, let's see what we have to work with first.

Post it here, and either quote me, or anyone who helps you, so we know you've posted back.

[Avocheeseado]

27 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Oh boy are you in for a world of hurt...I mean great fun!

Many of those Dell prebuilts use parts that are just different enough than industry standards, to fool you.

So here's what you need to do

(1) Take a pic of the inside of your case, let's see what we have to work with first.

Post it here, and either quote me, or anyone who helps you, so we know you've posted back.

yep great idea

[Avocheeseado]

Before knowing what your case looks like inside, this is what I would go with. 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$149.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$64.99 @ B&H
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$50.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II Video Card	$389.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	EVGA BR 700 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$74.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1007.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-22 13:50 EDT-0400

 

This will probably change once I have seen inside your case and if anyone has any suggestions to impove this then please let me know

[thrasher_565]

On 4/22/2020 at 9:53 AM, TristanMH said:

Hi, everyone I'm new to this forum so if I didn't see an another post for these type of modification please redirect me.

 

 

So I have bought long time ago an XPS 730 when building your PC was kind of niche thing to do. And at that time, I didn't have the knowledge to build it myself. But today I think it's the time. 

 

I really like the design of XPS 730 case and would really like to keep it. Just upgrade the hardware. To do so I want to upgrade these items:

 

-motherboard

-ram

-power supply

-cooling

-graphics card

-storage

-CPU

-etc

 

 

My budget is around 1000$ and my main usage gonna be playing some AAA games but also just browsing Internet. So I don't know what are my need for these kind of usage.

 

To start up can the motherboard be change? 

I checked on other forums and some said it's is a standard ATX motherboard and some don't. How to check myself what kind of motherboard it has?

 

I guess this is a start... Maybe I ask too much but if there someone who can help me I think it would be here. 

 

Thank in advance. 

i have a red one too haha. one thing your going to need is an mb tray.... or if you don't care about the pci slots (and use a pci cable) you could mount it with standoffs.

Edited February 18, 2021 by thrasher_565

[TristanMH]

 

 Hi everyone,  

 

   

 

 Well to start I never thought there will be someone who is willing to help me out with this build. I'm glad I came here!  

 

   

 

 Here's some pictures of inside of the dying beast... (yeah I know it's dirty in it). I don't need the cd driver so there's some extra space that can be add. 

I will unscrew some of the plastic cover to see more. 

 

Quote

Avocheeseado

 

[TristanMH]

[TristanMH]

[TristanMH]

Sorry didn't know how to quote you... 

 

Anyway I'm dissemble the pc to have a clear view of what it is possible.

[TristanMH]

[thrasher_565]

only btx mb will fit in there and even that i bet the mouthing hols wound line up so your going to need an mb tray...

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by thrasher_565

[TristanMH]

12 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

only btx mb will fit in there and even that i bet the mouthing hols wound line up so your going to need an mb tray...

 

 

Alright thanks for the answer. Guess I'm better to start from scratch.

[Raptor_Fawr]

I worked with dell components and I must say it's not that easy to figure things out.
You can fit an ATX board on that one, provided you can get rid of the plastic part that's under the CPU, that is not an issue at all. 
The mounting screws looks like they are placed correctly but you might want to check out if you need to replace them with standard ones, those are pretty cheap on amazon.
The PSU looks like a standard ATX one so you can replace it with ease.

Usually Dell power buttons are not standard so you have to figure out what are the correct cables. In my case there were 5 wires, Black and Yellow were positive and negative for the power on/off button and blue orange and red were the carrier for led power lights. I don't know what those colours carry because I didn't use the led lights of the button

My only concern with your build is the front panel, I can't see how it works but it looks like it has it's own dedicated power cable coming from the PSU and that could be an issue if you don't find any reference online for the pin layout
 

[Raptor_Fawr]

I just noticed that the PSUappears to be a 1000W one so you don't need to replace it, you might just need to buy adapters such as this: https://www.amazon.com/Female-Supply-Motherboard-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001F2EF2G (it's the first one I found googling it doesn't look a very good quality product tho) and this https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-6in-Pin-Power-Adapter/dp/B002O21XHQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=molex+to+8+pin&qid=1587749716&s=electronics&sr=1-1 (you can find again better versions of it)

The only real issue of your case if you plan to make it a high end rig is that you need a short graphic card since you don't have a lot of space there. The XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II suggested by Avocheeseado might be too big for your rig, but everything else is a good suggestion. Especially the Ryzen, I've made some computers with Ryzens recently and I would totally buy again, it's simply the best choice for the price.

[Rocketdog2112]

On 4/24/2020 at 8:21 AM, TristanMH said:

 

Alright thanks for the answer. Guess I'm better to start from scratch.

The 730/730X uses an ATX motherboard, not a BTX.

The Dell XPS 700, 710 and 720 series desktops used the BTX motherboard.

[Rocketdog2112]

On 4/23/2020 at 7:45 PM, thrasher_565 said:

only btx mb will fit in there and even that i bet the mouthing hols wound line up so your going to need an mb tray...

 

The 730/730X uses an ATX motherboard, not a BTX.

 

The Dell XPS 700, 710 and 720 series desktops used the BTX motherboard

[Jedigesus]

Did you figure this all out @TristanMH. I am in the same boat with my absolute unit of an XPS 730.