Swapping Power supplys -ATX- Change cases (any geeks?)

[Otraotaku]

I have an old computer case id like to switch out for but im worried about the case and the Power supply, do i purchase a new? use the same? what about the Drives do cases come with front drive plates/covers?

[Harry Potter]

If it's an old ATX case, it'll take pretty much any new standard power supply as well as MBs, providing the back plate can be removed (in most cases it can be)

If it's AT (like the kind that a Pentium1 166 runs on) then no, as the back of the case would also be quite different and wouldn't accomodate the backs of new motherboards.

[Otraotaku]

If it's an old ATX case, it'll take pretty much any new standard power supply as well as MBs, providing the back plate can be removed (in most cases it can be)

If it's AT (like the kind that a Pentium1 166 runs on) then no, as the back of the case would also be quite different and wouldn't accomodate the backs of new motherboards.

umm... so your saying you can swap any ATX case (w/ any power supply) and whats this about the back? and the drive plates? like on the CD drives (when they pop out)

[Harry Potter]

Here's some pichures. The AT is old style and ATX new style. The back plate (where all the plugs come out of) can be taken off and swapped with a different one, which is why you can use ATX cases from several years ago with modern day MBs and power supplies.

Edit: Most cases come with front drive panels but usually they're not interchangable.

[Otraotaku]

no imeant Changing from a newer case from an older one.

[pointdablame]

no imeant Changing from a newer case from an older one.

If both cases are ATX, then yes you can swap them.  If one is ATX and one is AT, then no you can't.  It's as simple as that.

[Otraotaku]

no imeant Changing from a newer case from an older one.

If both cases are ATX, then yes you can swap them.  If one is ATX and one is AT, then no you can't.  It's as simple as that.

so say you check a bit on ebay, sure theres tons of Cases, some of them say... 300w or 450w your saying it wouldnt matter either way? (even if the case comes with a mass amount of LED fans etc...

[Crazy Cooter]

The cd-drives are standard across the board.  It's just a 5-1/4" expansion bay.

The ATX vs. AT is a standard for the power supplys & motherboards.  "Newer" ones are ATX.  That standardized the plugs for the power supplies (there are intel & AMD ones now that are specific to the chipsets though).  The location of the USB, video, sound and all those other plugs on the back of your computer are in the same general location with ATX.  That means any ATX motherboard should fit in any ATX case.

The wattage of the power supply ie: 300W, 350W... 600W, etc.  is important depending on how much juice you need.  Some video cards grab like 100W.  If you're just adding LED's, don't worry.  They don't take much.  If you have 4 hard drives, 2 DVD drives, and a massive video card, then you need more wattage.

It used to be said that the old T-birds ~1Gig needed a 300W power supply.  If I were building a new computer right now, I'd grab at least a 400W.  I wouldn't pay more than $60 for a case either:
http://www.microcenter.com/
They have plenty of them for that price.

[shmokes]

You want a quality power supply.  If you're upgrading your internals, I'd highly recommend getting a new, quality power supply.  Decent ones can be had for $30-$50.  I once replaced the motherboard and processor in an old case and it would post, but hang just as the OS started loading.  It took me forever to figure out that it was the power supply (cos it seemed to work fine for the first 10 seconds or so).  I guess as more devices started coming on line and drawing power it was just crapping out.  The thing is, having a crappy power supply might get you all the way into Windows and work fine for 30 minutes, an hour, two hours.  But you'll often have random and frequent lockups or sudden stop errors/reboots that are incredibly frustrating and near impossible to track down because there's no rhyme or reason to when they happen.  One day you'll be fine all day, the next day your computer will spontaneously reboot fifteen times.

Don't skimp on the power supply.

[AtomSmasher]

Plus the most common hardware problem is a power supply going bad, and a bad power supply can damage other hardware.  As mentioned above a $30-50 should be fine.  As for the case, any case that says ATX will work for you, even if it has 100 fans, lots of leds, and a dancing bear that comes out to amuse you when your feeling blue, if it's ATX compatible then it will work.

[psik0tik]

 (any geeks?)    Don't most of us qualify for this prestigious title