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January 22nd, 2005 11:00

Motherboard front panel pins

Alright heres my dilemna:

Recently i upgraded all my computer parts to a new motherboard, new case, new cooling, new RAM, more HDs. So as a consequence of this, ive got a perfectly good Dell mobo sittin around, and its got Intel i875 chipset, which isnt too shabby. Anyways I want to turn all my surplus components into a budget box/server box, and i have one last problem left:

I want to put the old motherboard into a non-Dell case.

The front panel connector for the Dell Dimension 8300 mobo. Dell seems to use some proprietary connector to connect the motherboard to the mini greenboard on the front panel that controls power on/off, restart, power on LED, 2x USB, stereo out. If i can merely find out what each pin on the connector controls, i can attach the front connector for a new case pin by pin in a similiar way to how youd connect a 3rd party mobo to a case (you look to see what each pin is specified as).

Anyways i looked through the Dimension 8300 specs and could find any info to help me. Does anyone know i can figure out what pins do what, or where i can find documentation?

76 Posts

January 22nd, 2005 12:00

Try this link for a 16 pin front panel connector to your dell mb.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d850gb/sb/cs-013238.htm#8

The ground wire is usually black, better yet just go with you new case instructions as the wires are labeled on my Antec case :)

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11 Posts

January 22nd, 2005 12:00

Curiouser and curiouser... yes that intel pic is the standard connector for front panel, which isnt on the Dell motherboard, BUT it is on the small green board thats at the fron tof the Dell case. i can probably rig the switches on the new case to connect to the green board and then connect the green board through the bigger proprietary connector to the dell mobo. Itll eliminate front audio and USB, but thats no biggy. I should be able to somehow rig this together. I think if worst comes to worst i can test out every pin to see if it works for power switch and so on.

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11 Posts

January 22nd, 2005 13:00

Yeah, the small circuit board at the front panel where the USB ports are has the standard 16 pin connector that goes to the on/off switch, but this little circuit board leads to the motherboard on a different connector that incorporates the USB ports and is 34 pin (at least to my reckoning, i hate counting those tiny pins). Which is odd, because since this connector incorporates the USB but not audio, it would only really need to have about 24 pins (the original 16 plus 4 per USB connector), thus leaving alot of extra pins that im not sure what they do.

76 Posts

January 22nd, 2005 13:00

Looked at your MB front panel connection here; http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8300/sm/techov.htm#1102196
and it is not clear enough to see. Looks like you have a 10 pin front panel & 10 pin USB connected. It is not safe to experiement connecting your USB unless you know what each pin is.

Maybe you can id your MB connection at this intel site, will take a bit of trial & error looking. Look under MB on the left side as this link shows USB 10 pin connection.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-009048.htm

Message Edited by jswartz1 on 01-22-2005 09:37 AM

76 Posts

January 22nd, 2005 13:00

Hmmm, you have a 20 pin connector on you mb or maybe a 10 pin?

Message Edited by jswartz1 on 01-22-2005 09:18 AM

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11 Posts

January 23rd, 2005 01:00

Yeah that thought had always occurred to me. Theres no practical reason to replace the case, but other cases have better ventilation and more space (plus just about anything looks better than those ugly grey Dell cases).

274 Posts

January 23rd, 2005 01:00

If you bought a new case why not just reuse the Dell case that came with the mobo.
 
It should be OK I guess. Sounds like you replaced everything else.
 
Just my $0.02.

12 Posts

June 8th, 2014 18:00

You seem to know what I need. I just printed the manual for the D850GB mb. Unlike DELL INTEL marked the 16 pin J9D2 front switch panel. There are TWO pins used for HDD LED. RESET LED, PWR SWITCH, RESET SWITCH. Clearly marked. There are 3 or 4 pins for a small connector on the board called CMR? I think. I would think this would not be needed for typical operation. The question is, does this board use a front panel switch BOARD(assembly) like its DELL counterpart,? Or can I use 2 2wire momentary switches and 2 2 wire leds connected to the appropriate pins on J9D1? Unlike DELL the missing pin is in a different position, Therefore if there was a switch board it would have the matching connector. I also do not know what vendors or what models of desktops used this board as INTEL made it, NOT proprietary. This is the closest INTEL mobo that is basically the same as the DELL 4H665 from the OPTIPLEX GX400. Same chipset, memory, ect. Only difference is the cpu fan attaches to the heat sink and the connector is different. Any info advice specfic to this mobo is welcome. [ADMIN NOTE: Email ID removed per TOU policy]. Feel free to re post this elseware.

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46K Posts

June 8th, 2014 20:00

This thread has been locked due to it's age, if you have a similar issue, please use the 'New post' feature at the top of this page and start a new thread.

Bev.    

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