I always recommend Dell to small businesses and consumer referrals. Very competitive price, decent quality, decent service, and pretty good long-term BIOS and driver support. So I was appalled when I almost fried a computer last week due to Dell's intentional negligence of good engineering practices. Starting in late 1998, Dell rejected the ATX power supply specification in favor of its own -- but used the exact same pinouts. So when replacing a server case to make room for a hot-swap SCSI enclosure (having it sitting on top with a SCSI ribbon cable and power cables going into an open case was a bit low-end), I planned to use the new power supply (for proper mounting). The auxiliary connector was keyed differently but could have easily fit with a little force -- fortunately I did a google search instead which quickly points you to jewels like this warning of power supply or motherboard destruction.
There's two solutions, an aftermarket pseudo-ATX power supply from PC Power and Cooling or adapter cables. I bought an adapter cable here but haven't installed it yet. Apparently they've stopped the shameful practice. It should have at least been clearly labelled as non-standard on all connectors. Techies and upgraders beware.
Comments