Computer Case / Mother board Question.

[Null]

i was thinking of buying a new case for my computer.


question is.

is there a set standard on computer cases that 'most' will fit the plugs correctly?


i mean if i put my mother board on a new case. is it likely that the plugs, (usb, ps/2 and other plugs) will line up with the holes on the back of the computer case correctly?

or is this something that you have to search around for a case that would fit?

[manasecret]

That plate that allows all the plugs of the motherboard to stick through should just pop right out. If you push on the long side of the plate closest to the motherboard from the outside of the computer, then it should fairly easily come out. Though if the motherboard is still in the case then the plate probably won't pop out very easily.

Then you can take that plate and put it in any other case.

Though, if your computer is manufactured by like Dell or some company, I don't know if they have plates like that in their cases, but I would bet they do.

db

[sdtPikachu]

Yeah, so long as you have a standard mobo with standard ports on the back, it'll fit in any ATX case. I did this with my OEM box before I built myself my new comp.

IF it's a board with weird connectors on the back (but still occupying the same amount of space) then all you need is to buy or make a new ATX plate to fit in your case.

If it's an OEM mobo with custom connectors which don't fit the ATX spec, you'll have to do a bit of involuntary modding to get them to be usable.

manasecret - most cases come with an ATX plate anyway, and new mobos will also come with an ATX plate deisgned specifically for that mobo... I mean, crikey, take a gander at the rear ports on the back of an Abit AT7 MAX2... THAT needs it's own special ATX plate.

(In case you don't know, it comes with the standard 2 PS2's, 6 USB, firewire, RJ45, SPDIF and five sound ports. I want one)

[Null]

Well the one i have now is a dell......

only thing really left from the original dell i got is the motherboard. i've added / changed pretty much the rest of the system.


Now reason i want a new case is...
1, this case is like plastic. i want an Aluminum one.

2, this thing for holding in the cards, has this plastic green bar that clips down where you would nomally put screws to hold the cards in. and its supposed to hold them there with no screws for easy changing............. Well wtf do i need easy changing for? im not changing a card every hour. and the damn thing dont even work right. almost every time i plug my monitor back into the back after doing something. the card slips loose, and i have to go back and resnap that damn green thing again. im afraid one of these times its going to damage my gfx card. I would much prefer having a screw in there where i KNOW its held in solid.

3, my usb ports on the front are under a flap pointing down. since i have my case on the floor. they're damn hard plug something in quickly.



I dont want to go overboard with a new case. something that looks nice at a decent price. cuz lets face it. all its going to do is sit there.

http://www.pcpartsxpress.com/images/atop-l_826bkw.jpg

i was thinking about one like that little guy there.

im hoping i could just switch everything with no prob.


and if the case comes with a power supply. would i be better to use my own or the new one or would it really matter?

And im not worried about a window on the case. altho they do look nice. but Wouldnt a light inside the case make it hotter inside??? is there a switch for the light if one were to be put in? cuz i could see it maybe being usefull to put a light on inside if i was putting it on display or wanting to look at something inside. but defently wouldnt want it always on.


Anywho....... any tips for me? any problems you see with me switching cases? Much info would be nice. :)

[manasecret]

Originally posted by sdtPikachu
manasecret - most cases come with an ATX plate anyway, and new mobos will also come with an ATX plate deisgned specifically for that mobo... I mean, crikey, take a gander at the rear ports on the back of an Abit AT7 MAX2... THAT needs it's own special ATX plate.

(In case you don't know, it comes with the standard 2 PS2's, 6 USB, firewire, RJ45, SPDIF and five sound ports. I want one)

I didn't know if there was a standard plate or not. I've built a couple computers in the past 6 months (because the first got stolen! :mad: *shakes fist at thief*), and both the mobos needed their own plates which was included with each.

The one I have now, an Asus something or other that allows 32-bit RDRAM, has four or eight USB, three sound ports, and then the regulars. The last one I had, which was an Intel, had a RJ45, which I wish I had on this one. And I wish I had firewire .... :mad: *shakes fist at Asus*

Anyway, in any case, Null shouldn't have any problems.

db

[Cyrax9]

Null, most MoBio's come with there "own" Plae for the back of a case, meaning if you buy a MoBo, and Buy a case and the EM Sheild doesn't match up, the bottom of the MoBO box should ahve the "correct" Sheild. I'm looking at www.Directron.com for a case ona Machine I'm going to build (Dual-Boot Linux and Windows ME, I paid for a non-reundable copy I might as well use it), the cases at Directron are the same "SDragon" cases ALienware uses, as well as the new "Matrix" Model and some other cases like the one you showed us.

If you like sharp "Black" cases, try these toher sites as well, they usually have some modding equipment and cases, as well as the "Standard" style of cases, the websites are:

www.Directron.com (I'm looking here A LOT), and...

www.HardDrive.com (These guys will "color" youer faceplates to match colored cases, so if you want a Bright Green case with a Bright Green DVD-ROM Drive this is the place, tnbhey also have standard-style cases wit window mods like the ne you've shown me and some without a window, as for heat, a few Cold Cathode Tubes should fix that problem if pika is correct)

[Null]

well no. what i had wanted to do was take every thing out of my dell and put it in a new case.

therefor not buying a new motherboard and not having a back panel thing to come with it.

But doesnt matter now. something happened to that motherboard.

had to buy a new one :D prolly coulda fixed it with a little sodering, but hey, i felt like upgrading.

and im done with it now anyway. new case. nice new motherboard. new DDR ram instead of my old SD, and it runs faster. and cooler too actually. :)

but please please PLEASE do me a favor. burn windows ME. (no i dont mean burn a copy, i mean litteratly BURN that pos. :P id rather have win3.1 over that.)

thanks for the info tho. just um. a week too late. hehe

[Cyrax9]

Originally posted by Null
well no. what i had wanted to do was take every thing out of my dell and put it in a new case.

therefor not buying a new motherboard and not having a back panel thing to come with it.

But doesnt matter now. something happened to that motherboard.

had to buy a new one :D prolly coulda fixed it with a little sodering, but hey, i felt like upgrading.

and im done with it now anyway. new case. nice new motherboard. new DDR ram instead of my old SD, and it runs faster. and cooler too actually. :)

but please please PLEASE do me a favor. burn windows ME. (no i dont mean burn a copy, i mean litteratly BURN that pos. :P id rather have win3.1 over that.)

thanks for the info tho. just um. a week too late. hehe

I'd "burn" any Windows OS made after 3x, excpet I'd have nothign to play my DOS games on ;) , as for which one I'd seriously like to "burn" and I don't mean a CD either, that'd have to be XP, even without the XP OS, my M$ Office XP program needed an SP 1 upgrade, and I hate having to update software, even if it is free, never had that problem with Office 2000. I'd actually Side-Grade to Win2k before doing anythign with XP (even PC MAgazine says WIn2K is better than XP home) but as far as Windoze goes, why bother destroying a $250.0 dollar program, after I get used to inux, the Windoze ME Recovery CD will mkae a very nice "Coaster" for my drink. Seriously, ahve you ever bought a pack of Maxell CD-R's? Half of them are about as useful as the AOL Cd's that you get in the mail :mad: , I'd like to mail a few of them back to Steve Case and send a few to Bill Gates as well, I have plenty of AOL CD's the software is nowhere near in danger of being extinct (sarcasm)

[Null]

XP and 2000 are VERY closely related.

XP written from the 2k code.

thoes are the 2 best windows.

What games are you playing tho? i've yet to find one not to work with XP. you just run em in Compatibility Mode. and they'll work on XP...... I've yet to find any games that work on winME tho. crashes before you can get the game going. :D

[sdtPikachu]

XP and 2000 are practically the same thing.

When MS saw OSX, they cacked themselves and slapped a "prettier" GUI on top of Win2k, added a few more device drivers and some tweaks to the networking and mem management oh yeah, and PRODUCT ACTIVATION) extra annoying mollycodling which I can't turn off, and lo and behold WinXP was born.

If you look, you'll see that Win2k is really NT 5.0, and XP is NT 5.1. But I know I'm not alone thinking XP is a downgrade.

[manasecret]

I never used Win2k so I'm no authority, but I always heard that Win2k had trouble playing games made for Win9x because they just weren't compatible.

With XP for me, I've had no problems playing any games (and I've gotten a lot over the years). Not to mention XP crashes far far less than Win 98 did for me, and everything seems to work just perfectly.

Compared to Win2k I don't know how good or bad XP is, but I have no complaints whatsoever.

Even product activation wasn't as evil as everyone says it is. When I had to build a new computer when my other one got stolen and used the same WinXP disc, all I had to was call them up and there were no problems whatsoever. I even asked the lady if it would be problem, and she said that it wouldn't matter, it's just that everytime you install XP after the first time you can't do it through the internet, you have to call them up.

I know of the horror stories of product activation where if you change up the hardware in your computer too much then Windows gets mad, but if all you have to do is call them up, what's the big deal?

... Enough ranting.

db

[sdtPikachu]

Even product activation wasn't as evil as everyone says it is

To (almost) quote Benjamin Franklin;

Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither and will lose both.

It's what's known as a slippery slope, manasecret. If they told you now that they weren't going to let you do X - such as they're doing with the introduction of Digital Rights Manglement - you'd tell them where to stick it. But if they do it gradually, you'll be lucky if anyone even notices. Already there are even people that believe DRM is good for them, the customer. Victims of FUD and all the usual marketing claptrap.

The big deal for me is I want to OWN the software I use. I don't want to have to go begging to some corporation every time I upgrade bits of kit, something I do an awful lot. I don't want to be told I'm not allowed to use such-and-such a thing any more, and I don't want to be told it's "illegal" to rip CD's to ogg vorbis (or MP3+ to you). My computer should be just that; I should be lord and master of all within it, and frankly the way MS is going, in three years time they're going to be telling you exactly what you can and can't do with it. So I've weaned myself off the crack now, so I no longer have to suck at MS's teat for ever more. Neither do I condone supporting a (legally proven) monopoly and stifling free trade and innovation, but then that's another rant.

I'll give you the thing with Win2k being crap at games though. There's some old ones I can't run under Windows any more (I have to use Linux, quelle suprise). But all "compatibility mode" does is include a load of old libs from the 9x tree. There's no reason these couldn't have been included with Win2k, onlt MS thought that ME was for that, since 2k is solely aimed at corporates.

Both versions of XP are essentially identical, so this wasn't an issue any more.

[manasecret]

Yeah, I like that quote. But in this case I'm not giving up any freedom; yes, I'm compromising (perhaps for cheaper products in the future), but until they're actually telling me how to use my computer and what files I can or can't have, I don't have any problem with what they do.

Even the whole Palladium scare is a joke. If Microsoft gets so far that they control everything that I do on a PC then I just stop buying their products. I move to a Mac, that simple.

MS isn't going to be allowed to control the whole PC universe and the internet and be able to control and see all the files that people have, that's just asinine. It would be too obvious of a monopoly and there would be too many people complaining to the government about it. The other monopoly suit was pretty much over IE and Netscape as far as I knew and MS just barely won; when MS is controlling all PC's, all software, the things people can do and have on their PC, and the friggin' internet you don't think the American government will be all over them?

Let's say they do end up controlling the whole internet, you can't resort to a Mac or anything else, and the government doesn't care; at this day of doom we would just live without it. The whole human race for thousands of years has done fantastically without the internet, and we could do just fine without it.

Or even better, with such a dilemna we would be forced to develop something new and better. It would make us stronger, it would be our war. It's a war already started with Linux and open-source programs; with what would be such a huge science-fiction type enemy, can you imagine what this war would turn into and the force that would be mustered against the enemy?

I'd fight that war. :cool:

But stay down to earth and you'll know none of that will happen.

They aren't controlling anything I'm doing right now, so I have no beef with MS especially since their OS has finally improved instead of getting worse. Product activation protects the producst they make; MS may be a huge corporation but there are still people behind it and these people and their corporation have rights. It may not help me as a customer but it sure isn't hurting anything I'm doing, and it's allowing them to protect their work.

But as soon as they are not letting me use my PC as I wish, I'm right behind you. That is actually taking away my freedom, and I'll have none of that.

db

[sdtPikachu]

I could lay another quote on you:

"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."

But I think you get the picture on where I stand now :)

MS already have a monopoly on almost every corner of the desktop market, and the US government has done sod all to protect the interests of the consumers and other businesses. The way things are going, in three years it'll be impossible to buy a piece of hardware (or maybe even software) that doesn't have DRM embedded in it - you only need to witness some of the power the RIAA and MPAA have over the american government to see where things are going. The american government seems to think that if X is good for business Y, then X is good for America.

Sorry, but I'm getting out while I still can. :p

[Cyrax9]

I'm with you Pika! I'm BUILDING a new PC for the Sole Purpose of not paying a DIME (not sure what the amount in GBP is) to Micro$haft for an OS on it! I'm installing a *free* copy of Windows ME o help me "lose' M$ and use as a back-up OS which is "free" because I bought it thinking I'd needx it and it was non-refundable, so I'm stuck with oit, maybe I'll wuipe it form the PC entirely someday, but not yet.

As far as DRM and CPRM go, we always have hackers, and in a Sci-Fi ending they may actually save usform the Fourth Reich and his lastest efforts to control the world.

I want MY SOFTWARE to belong to ME! The smartest thing Billy boy didwas anme an os Windows ME because it belongs to ME, and even if it SUCKS it's MINE!

I also like howhe cals it "MY Computer" and "MY Documents" I think he ment "Bills COmputer" and "BILLS Documents", in other words, I'm joining the Linux revolution.

I have an anology for you.

This is the battle of the Alamo, Bill gates is General Custer, and M$ is the Calvery, we're the angry Mexicans about to kick Custer's @$$, I think that p[ictures clear enough, I'm spreading the Anti_palladium word as much as I can but I need more suport, more sites with "Simplifed" terms to use for those who think theyu are safe, and I need people toi UNDERSTAND they're going to have a rpoblem before it's too late. Why is it the terroirsts didn't do us a favor and sabatoge M$ PC's? I'll tell you why, they would have helped us then reather than harmed us!

I will not stand idly by and support a LEGAL MONOPOLY which is, for any other company ILLEGAL, and until M$ becomes a world government I will not support their sofware and I will shun them like the plague!

[manasecret]

Originally posted by Cyrax9
I have an anology for you.

This is the battle of the Alamo, Bill gates is General Custer, and M$ is the Calvery, we're the angry Mexicans about to kick Custer's @$$, I think that p[ictures clear enough, I'm spreading the Anti_palladium word as much as I can but I need more suport, more sites with "Simplifed" terms to use for those who think theyu are safe, and I need people toi UNDERSTAND they're going to have a rpoblem before it's too late. Why is it the terroirsts didn't do us a favor and sabatoge M$ PC's? I'll tell you why, they would have helped us then reather than harmed us!


You do know that after the Alamo the Mexicans eventually lost to the Texans, right?