Dell Proprietary Parts (PSUs, Motherboards, Cases, etc)

Dell ditches its proprietary stance

As you may or may not know, for many years Dell has been using proprietary parts in its systems. Why is this a bad thing you may ask? Well if you are looking to replace a power supply urgently but discover that you can only use a Dell provided power supply and have to wait a week for it to be shipped and pay hundreds of dollars ( instead of a less than a hundred for a suitable equivalent ) then you may begin to the issue.

This is frustration I myself have hit numerous times but when I delved a little deeper it soon became apparent that my experience was far from the worst.

It seems that in one incarnation of Dell's ATX power supplies they decided to rewire the ATX power connector, making the voltage levels different to the standard but keeping the same physical connector. This resulted in many people who upgraded or replaced their power frying their motherboards - mmmmm - crispy chips.

I must admit that I'm amazed that this practice was allowed to continue as long as it did when it seems to me that the Monopolies and Mergers Commission should have come down on them like a ton of bricks.  It'd be like Ford fitting all their cars with wheels that only accepted tyres purchased from them but only telling you after you've bough the car.

Of course Dell defended their stance by saying that their engineers found the current standards lacking - all I can say to that is take it up with the group responsible for that standard and suggest a new revision!

Some useful Links

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=339053

http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=008800.php