Btx to atx conversion: Dell XPS BTX to ATX Conversion :D

8 мая, 2023

Reddit — Dive into anything

Here’s my Dell XPS 720 upgrade/rebuild. I know this is many years behind a lot of the BTX to ATX mod-builds that have been done and posted online. Some date back to 2014 I think.

Anyway, I’ve currently got 7 Dell XPS 730/730X cases that I’ve upgraded and rebuilt, and they are all still working and can run fine today. I’ve got a couple with EVGA Z370’s, one with an EVGA X99, one with an EVGA X79 mobo. They are still pretty fast, and all have SSD’s for their main drive. All run Windows 10.

Around 4 or 5 years ago, I found someone with an XPS 720 system that was completely unchanged and the case was/is almost perfect. I bought it with the intention of doing the entire BTX to ATX mod on it, which I have done. Tearing apart the case and cutting out the rear panel to make it able to handle a modern ATX gaming mobo was kinda stressful. I am no expert or even a basic welder/solderer. Not good at it whatsoever. So I tried to get it done by a local shop, but nobody would take on the project since the metals are not the same. Seems aluminum and steel aren’t compatible with each other. So it was Gorilla Epoxy to the rescue.

The back panel was replaced with a new slot/mobo panel from Lian Li. Black, power-coated aluminum. I was able to graft it into the cutout I had done in the back panel metal screen, and the epoxy worked great. I then rebuilt the slotted plastic back cover, and it looks good IMHO, but the back isn’t really seen ever.

Most rebuilds I’ve seen have done a lot of work to put in a different tray, or standoffs to support a modern motherboard. Unfortunately, most of these guys didn’t realize a 730x motherboard tray will slide right into the 720. The EVGA X299 Mobo I chose is wider than the original 730x mobo (EATX), so I had to cut off the back lip of the tray. However, even though it is really tight in there, I can slide that tray/mobo in and out now and it locks down very well into the case.

To make the most of the Dell lighting and fan control work with a modern mobo, I’m still using a 730x master control board. Its mounted in own tray like a 730X and connects to all the RGB lights, the power switch, front interface board, and back to the mobo. I had to re-pin the front RGB LED’s as they are not the same wiring as the 730x. All the other RGB lights are from a 730x so nothing had to be changed.

Probably the biggest challenge other than the case modding was the front headphone jack. The front interface board has been well documented by several people before me, and the best one listed the issues he had. Following his post, I validated his pinouts and got the same results. Basically, it won’t work. The mic will work, but with a rear mic jack already present on the mobo, I don’t and won’t ever use the front one. The headphone jack would not work properly. So, I took a modern PC case that has a mic/headphone jack panel (board) and grafted it onto the Dell front panel board so the headphone jack would line up with the original hole in the case panel. Works like a charm. I also ripped out the 1394 port and grafted a USB 3 port onto the board which connects back to the mobo header for USB 3. I also was able to splice the original 28-pin cable into the mobo to show the disk activity light on the front panel. None of the other five lights were needed for me. 4 of them are Dell diagnostic lights (useless without the original mobo) and the 5th is network, which I could care less about on the front panel.

The other big challenge was the power button. It is its own assembly under the lower front panel. It has its own daughter board that connects back to the master control board. I knew I would never figure out how to re-wire the 720 board to work with a modern mobo, but the 730x power button board does on its own. So, I decided to figure out how to mount the 730x button board to the 720 switch. I had to line up the push button so it would hit the actual power button on the 730x board. It took a bit of southern engineering, but I was able to epoxy two thin plastic strips across the back of the button casing and then screw the 730X button board into those strips so the power button works just like the original. I was not a fan of the way several other builders had done their power button setups. I don’t think any of them used the original. Also, many of them didn’t figure out the LED’s so I saw some put toggle switches right in the front and destroy part of the front panel. I was not going to do that no matter what. If I’m going to spend all this time and effort on this conversion, I want the case to look like it should.

The Corsair H80i V2 has been cut open and grafted with the original Dell TEC (Thermal Electric Cooler) in between the radiator and pump.

Here’s my build list:

· Dell XPS 720 Case.

· EVGA X299 FTW K

· Dell XPS 730X Master Control Board

· Dell XPS MCB and MoBo board trays. The mobo tray has had the back lip removed, and retaining slots extended. This allows everything to bolt in like it should and use most of the original screw holes provided from Dell.

· EVGA 1050 Gold Power Supply

· EVGA 3090 Ti FTW

· NZXT USB internal hub

· Intel Core i9-10900X

· 32GB G. Skill Trident Z RGB PC4-28800 RAM (4X8GB)

· WD Black 4TB Performance Hard drives (2 configured for RAID 1)

· WD Black 500GB NVMe internal gaming SSD.

· ASUS USB BlueTooth receiver

· LG Blu-Ray burner

· Samsung Super DVD Writer

· Corsair H80i V2 CPU Cooler/Radiator

· Dell XPS 730X TEC (Thermal Electric Cooler)

· Windows 11 Pro

Converting BTX case to ATX?

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