I worked at Dell here in Germany some time ago. One thing I learned about Dell, is that they are the biggest cheats when it comes to quality, bargains and delivery costs. They buy the cheapest power supplys the OEM market has to offer. When I worked for them, as sales broker for medium companies, the most reported defective parts were power supplys and laptop displays. Their bargains are laughable, they offer things like free memory when the same memory was a standard component a month before. Dell pays $4, to UPS, for every package they ship regardless of the size and weight, they turn around and bill the customer $99 for delivery of one package, at a profit of $95. If there is money saved in a PC you order from Dell, it will be lost through the shipping costs.
Quote: HardwareGuys.com
"Dell used non-standard motherboards and power supplies, apparently from September 1998 until April 2002. Although Dell power supplies and motherboards produced during that period use what appear to be standard ATX power connectors, the pinouts are different.
On Dell systems made during that period, replacing a Dell power supply with a standard ATX power supply destroys the motherboard and/or power supply as soon as you apply power to the system. Similarly, upgrading the motherboard in a Dell system with a standard ATX motherboard while continuing to use the standard Dell power supply destroys the motherboard and/or power supply as soon as you apply power to the system.
If you have a recent Dell desktop system, be very careful about upgrading it or replacing the motherboard or power supply. If you need a replacement power supply and are certain that your Dell system uses the hacked version of the ATX power connector, you can buy a replacement Dell-specific power supply from PC Power & Cooling. Rather than do that, though, we recommend you replace the power supply and motherboard together, using industry-standard components."
