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From: Ben Myers on 9 Jan 2010 14:29
William R. Walsh wrote:
> I wish that I was geographically closer to where you are. (As it is,
> I'm in central Illinois.) If I were closer, I'd come to there and go
> over what you were planning to toss out--and probably take most of it!
>
> In anything that you have and are planning to get rid of, do you have
> an OptiPlex 170L with a factory installed floppy drive? I need the
> drive, cable, any bezels/trim and mounting hardware, which I haven't
> been able to find anywhere.
>
> I'd *gladly* pay $ for the part, your time, and cover all of the
> shipping costs if you do.
>
> William

IIRC, the Optiplex 170L shares the same basic chassis and mounting
hardware for the floppy drive as the Dimension 2300-and-newer systems
with the Mitac case. The floppy cable is a standard one-drive cable,
but somewhat short.

Are you also looking for the plastic front bezel for the 170L, in
addition to the floppy drive, cable and mounting bracket?

.... Ben Myers
From: Christopher Muto on 10 Jan 2010 02:00
William R. Walsh wrote:
> Hello all...
>
> (Where is Stew Lewis when you need him? -- and yes, that's a
> rhetorical question, mostly)
>
> There's a cheap Dell Dimension B110 around that's bothering me to
> purchase it. (Very cheap, since it has no installed hard disk.) I do
> have something in mind for which it could be used, so it wouldn't be
> an impulse or anything like that. But it looks to me that it is
> basically a clone of the Dimension 3000/OptiPlex 170L per the Dell
> product information.
>
> It also doesn't appear to have any SATA connectors onboard.
>
> So...what was the story with the DimB110? Was Dell just trying to use
> up a few leftover parts?
>
> William

i can't recall exactly what is different about the dimension 3000 and
the dimension b110 (aka dimension 1100) but i can tell you that i cloned
a disk from a dimension 3000 with windows xp fully installed (with
drivers and other application software) and it fires up without
complaint and works just fine in a dimension b110/1100. did this on a
dozen machine a couple of years ago and did not encounter any problems.
i seem to think that the b110 were the ones that shipped with no os
installed and a linux cd for the user to install.
From: Ben Myers on 10 Jan 2010 07:20
Christopher Muto wrote:
> William R. Walsh wrote:
>> Hello all...
>>
>> (Where is Stew Lewis when you need him? -- and yes, that's a
>> rhetorical question, mostly)
>>
>> There's a cheap Dell Dimension B110 around that's bothering me to
>> purchase it. (Very cheap, since it has no installed hard disk.) I do
>> have something in mind for which it could be used, so it wouldn't be
>> an impulse or anything like that. But it looks to me that it is
>> basically a clone of the Dimension 3000/OptiPlex 170L per the Dell
>> product information.
>>
>> It also doesn't appear to have any SATA connectors onboard.
>>
>> So...what was the story with the DimB110? Was Dell just trying to use
>> up a few leftover parts?
>>
>> William
>
> i can't recall exactly what is different about the dimension 3000 and
> the dimension b110 (aka dimension 1100) but i can tell you that i cloned
> a disk from a dimension 3000 with windows xp fully installed (with
> drivers and other application software) and it fires up without
> complaint and works just fine in a dimension b110/1100. did this on a
> dozen machine a couple of years ago and did not encounter any problems.
> i seem to think that the b110 were the ones that shipped with no os
> installed and a linux cd for the user to install.

Christopher,

A cloned hard drive would work between the two because they share the
Intel 865 chipset. Likewise, you could have used the same cloned hard
drive with a Dimension 4600, which is a far better board, but with the
same 865... Ben Myers
From: Christopher Muto on 10 Jan 2010 11:30
Ben Myers wrote:
> Christopher Muto wrote:
>> William R. Walsh wrote:
>>> Hello all...
>>>
>>> (Where is Stew Lewis when you need him? -- and yes, that's a
>>> rhetorical question, mostly)
>>>
>>> There's a cheap Dell Dimension B110 around that's bothering me to
>>> purchase it. (Very cheap, since it has no installed hard disk.) I do
>>> have something in mind for which it could be used, so it wouldn't be
>>> an impulse or anything like that. But it looks to me that it is
>>> basically a clone of the Dimension 3000/OptiPlex 170L per the Dell
>>> product information.
>>>
>>> It also doesn't appear to have any SATA connectors onboard.
>>>
>>> So...what was the story with the DimB110? Was Dell just trying to use
>>> up a few leftover parts?
>>>
>>> William
>>
>> i can't recall exactly what is different about the dimension 3000 and
>> the dimension b110 (aka dimension 1100) but i can tell you that i
>> cloned a disk from a dimension 3000 with windows xp fully installed
>> (with drivers and other application software) and it fires up without
>> complaint and works just fine in a dimension b110/1100. did this on a
>> dozen machine a couple of years ago and did not encounter any problems.
>> i seem to think that the b110 were the ones that shipped with no os
>> installed and a linux cd for the user to install.
>
> Christopher,
>
> A cloned hard drive would work between the two because they share the
> Intel 865 chipset. Likewise, you could have used the same cloned hard
> drive with a Dimension 4600, which is a far better board, but with the
> same 865... Ben Myers

the dimensions b110/1100/3000 were successors of the dimension 2400 that
was sold at the same time as the dimension 4600. the dimension 4600 is
a bit older and a bit different than either the dimension
b110/1100/3000. the 4600 is either a 865pe or 865g (they were produced
with two slightly different chipsets during the production run) had the
original intel extreme graphics integrated video. the dimension
b110/1100/3000 have the 865gv chipset, extreme graphics 2 integrated
video. though not radically different, a clone of a dimension 4600
would probably work but it would also probably then need the correct
video driver installed to work properly. the 4600 video had issues in
xp with windows opening minimized (among other things) when system
memory was low. i would not waste my time experimenting on that only to
find other potential issues with such a configuration. but the clone
between the b110/1100 and 3000 is a non event, it works perfectly.
From: Ben Myers on 10 Jan 2010 14:05
Christopher Muto wrote:
> Ben Myers wrote:
>> Christopher Muto wrote:
>>> William R. Walsh wrote:
>>>> Hello all...
>>>>
>>>> (Where is Stew Lewis when you need him? -- and yes, that's a
>>>> rhetorical question, mostly)
>>>>
>>>> There's a cheap Dell Dimension B110 around that's bothering me to
>>>> purchase it. (Very cheap, since it has no installed hard disk.) I do
>>>> have something in mind for which it could be used, so it wouldn't be
>>>> an impulse or anything like that. But it looks to me that it is
>>>> basically a clone of the Dimension 3000/OptiPlex 170L per the Dell
>>>> product information.
>>>>
>>>> It also doesn't appear to have any SATA connectors onboard.
>>>>
>>>> So...what was the story with the DimB110? Was Dell just trying to use
>>>> up a few leftover parts?
>>>>
>>>> William
>>>
>>> i can't recall exactly what is different about the dimension 3000 and
>>> the dimension b110 (aka dimension 1100) but i can tell you that i
>>> cloned a disk from a dimension 3000 with windows xp fully installed
>>> (with drivers and other application software) and it fires up without
>>> complaint and works just fine in a dimension b110/1100. did this on
>>> a dozen machine a couple of years ago and did not encounter any
>>> problems.
>>> i seem to think that the b110 were the ones that shipped with no os
>>> installed and a linux cd for the user to install.
>>
>> Christopher,
>>
>> A cloned hard drive would work between the two because they share the
>> Intel 865 chipset. Likewise, you could have used the same cloned hard
>> drive with a Dimension 4600, which is a far better board, but with the
>> same 865... Ben Myers
>
> the dimensions b110/1100/3000 were successors of the dimension 2400 that
> was sold at the same time as the dimension 4600. the dimension 4600 is
> a bit older and a bit different than either the dimension
> b110/1100/3000. the 4600 is either a 865pe or 865g (they were produced
> with two slightly different chipsets during the production run) had the
> original intel extreme graphics integrated video. the dimension
> b110/1100/3000 have the 865gv chipset, extreme graphics 2 integrated
> video. though not radically different, a clone of a dimension 4600
> would probably work but it would also probably then need the correct
> video driver installed to work properly. the 4600 video had issues in
> xp with windows opening minimized (among other things) when system
> memory was low. i would not waste my time experimenting on that only to
> find other potential issues with such a configuration. but the clone
> between the b110/1100 and 3000 is a non event, it works perfectly.

I've "experimented", replacing a failed 3000 motherboard with a 4600
motherboard. Successfully. Did similar a couple of months ago, taking
the hard drive from a dead 4700 system and booting it up without
problems in a Dimension 8400 chassis.

From the standpoint of Microsoft and Windows, one can move the hard
drive from one system to another or replace one motherboard with a
different model without incident (BSOD, failed activation, failed WGA)
as long as the motherboard chipset is in the same family, such as 865
(first example) or 915 (second example). As you say, it may then become
necessary to install a video driver or even another hardware driver or
two, or change the product key to match what is on the replacement
chassis. This even works between brands, as I took the hard drive from
an Intel 845 chipset Gateway notebook recently and dropped it into an
Inspiron 1100 without a whimper.

Because I keep an inventory of Dell gear here, I can offer affordable
replacements that are close enough to failed system. The 3000-to-4600
replacement was an upgrade from 2 memory slots to 4. Didn't need the
4600 SATA which the 3000 does not have.

I'm fairly sure that Intel stopped producing (or vastly curtailed) the
845 family of chipsets when the more capable 865 chipsets proved
successful. So then Dell needed a replacement for the very successful
low-end 2400, hence the B110, 1100, and 3000 based on the 865. Since
all these boards are Intel designs, Intel modified the 4600 design,
taking away SATA, AGP slot, and 2 memory sockets, and VOILA! You have
the B110, 1100, 3000, and Optiplex 170 motherboards to meet Dell's needs
for entry-level systems... Ben Myers
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