XPS 710 Remaster

My first plan was to remove as many parts as possible to find out what the case actually looks like and what needs to be done to be able to fit modern computer parts in it.

There were tons of components in it as you can see on the picture, also consider that the case is almost 60x60cm so the pile is even bigger than it looks.

When Dell designed the first XPS cases they decided to go with the BTX standard as it was seen as superior to ATX, partly because of improved airflow. BTX is not only a different size than ATX but it's also "upside down", BTX I/O ports are where the ATX PCI-E slots are and vice versa. I had to remove as much as I could of the PCI-E slots to make room for the motherboard I/O plate.

Unfortunately the ATX screw holes and the BTX screw holes were not aligned in any way, so I had to remove some of the distances? (distanser) with a dremel, seen in red. The yellow ones are the BTX distances that I didn't have to remove and the green circles are where I had to drill holes myself for my ATX motherboard to fit.

The case has many sharp edges inside and I cut myself tens of times on it while working in it. Watch out!

After a lot of work on the backside and a lot of drilling/dremeling on the motherboard plate I successfully fit my ATX motherboard and components on it. The PSU slot is standard ATX, no problems there.

When it comes to the front panel it was easy to connect the USB ports to the motherboard, but I couldn't find a way to make the headphone/microphone slots or the power button work so I unplugged them with the plan of not using them. This is what the front looks like with the power button removed, unfortunately the slot for the power button is part of the case and has to be dremeled away.

Power button slot removed with a dremel and gone is also the Intel and Windows Vista stickers+holder.

I cut out parts of the backside and just glued them to the front, maybe the glue is visible on the picture but in real life it's barely noticeable.

The hardest part of all of this (at least for someone like me who isn't good at electronics) was to figure out how to get the front LEDs to light up. I couldn't get the connectors to work so I ended up just disconnecting as much as possible until I just had these cables (x2) left. After looking online and trying a decent amount myself I found out how to connect them individually:

Red cable = + (connect directly to PWR LED +)
Brown cable = Ground (not used)
White cable = Red LED (connect with 470 Ohm resistor to PWR LED -)
or
Blue cable = Blue LED (connect with 330 Ohm resistor to PWR LED -)
or
Green cable = Green LED (connect with 330 Ohm resistor to PWR LED -)

You can also combine the white, blue and green cable in order to get more colors. Personally I liked the blue LED the best so I only connected the red cable (to PWR LED +) and the blue cable (to PWR LED -) (the blue cable with 2x 330 Ohm resistors, one for each blue cable).

Without using resistors the current and/or voltage will be too strong for these LED lights and burn them out, my motherboard (and most motherboards) give 5V from the PWR LED slots, so I would use 330 Ohm resistors for the Blue/Green LED and 470 Ohm resistors for the Red LED (White cable) to not overload the LEDs. There was a time before I added the resistors where the LEDs blew out temporarily but thankfully wasn't ruined permanently.

I bought these resistors from Kjell&Company and just wired the wires around each other and it works fine (though the best solution is probably to use a soldering iron/lödpenna). Don't skip resistors if you are going to use the LEDs, after doing all this work on the case it would be a shame to ruin the LED lights (though buying separate ones and connecting them instead is also an option).

This is how the backside ended up looking, I ended up not using the plastic cover here as I would have had to change it a lot (also nobody sees the back anyway except you I guess). One advantage over normal ATX cases is being able to fit case fans where the PCI-E ports would be on an ATX case, creating better airflow for the graphics card. You should be able to fit a 180mm fan between the GPU and the PSU if you removed some of the middle "shelf" but I thought it was a better and more simple solution to instead fit 2x80mm fans above the GPU. During this computer build I upgraded my graphics card from a 6600XT to a 6950XT, the extra support from the 2x92mm fans below the GPU is really appreciated when you got a heavier card.

The case is way too big for a normal ATX setup and there's a lot of empty space. It is possible to remove more of the internal stuff like the DVD slots or the middle shelf, but the middle part is needed for the door to close properly and I prefer the stability over the extra space.

Pretty clean end result. At one point I considered removing the "DELL" logo but I ended up keeping it.

I think the glossy black version of the 710/720 cases looks even better but the silver one is more discrete, at least for my home.

Evening mode

Night mode