Help on PSU's

First off, I would like to say what a brilliant site you have here, and keep up the good work.

Now, I recently got a Compaq Presario for free (long story, will tell if there is an interest :)). I am a avid games player, I play Half Life 2 and mods alot, but recently I have been wanting to upgrade this system, I have already added 512 RAM. Now what I am needing is a new PSU and Graphics card.

I was looking up a few sites and decided I was going to go with a Connect3D X1900GT 256MB GDDR3 dual DVI VIVO 256bit PCI-E and to go with it a Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU SLI/CrossFire Certified - Black with UV reactive cables. All was hunky dorry, but I thought I would measure the dimensions of my PSU in the machine at the moment.

When I did, it seemed that the space for the PSU would be to small to fit the PSU in. This may have been an error I have made, but I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on whether this would even be possible or if I just calculated the dimensions wrong?

Thanks for reading

Daz.

/edit I noticed my mobo is a microATX, im guessing this means my case is smaller in some areas? Now im doubting the card ever fitting haha.

have you checked the dimensions of the PSU itself?

Well, with my measurements which may be a bit off, my current PSU is:

W=134
H=60
D=146

It seems most of the other PSU are:

W=150
H=86
D= 146

if your current PSU fits just right in your case, then i doubt the hiper will fit.
you will be better off buying a 30 dollar or 10 pound case and putting the PSU there.

Exactly, I just done a quick search up on the MicroATX cases, seems I can buy PSU’s for them, but the question is will I be able to find one to give me enough juice to actually run the system + PCI-E graphics card?

yeah for sure. around 400-450 should be enough for your card and if the psu doesnt include a new molex connector for the graphics card, the card should come with one.

You should be able to get a suitable mATX PSU but if I were you I would go ahead and upgrade to an ATX case (or at least an mATX that can hold an ATX PSU).

If I were you I’d go find a cheapy ATX case. Problem solved.