Rebuilding an old computer Into cheap Editing rig I currently have a HP Pavilion A1507 from 2007. I'm going to be taking out all the hardware and replacing it with new (apart from the hard-drive and case). These are the products: Asus M4A78LT-M AMD Phenom II X4 955 550W ATX Silent Crucial DDR3-1333 4GB CL9 Anything i should know before buying these products? From Ebuyer/Crucial I'm a bit worried about airflow, parts not working together and not buying a new HDD.. will this result in bottleneck? Budget: £230... (I'm 17)
Welcome to HWF! First off, all the parts are compatible with each other, so that's in the clear. The only issue i see happening is that you'll have problems installing the hardware due to size differences. Cases have whats called form factors which determine the size motherboard and power supply you can install in them, as well as large graphics cards. A normal, mid sized form factor is called "ATX", while a smaller form factor is called "MicroATX" or "MiniATX". I was searching for the form factor of your case but couldn't find anything. It looks like an ATX, but guessing will only harm you. What you need to do is make sure that the new motherboard, since it's a MicroATX, can be seated in your case. The case has to have stand off screws in the correct positions. These are stand off screws. These are the screws installed in your case, which allow you to seat the motherboard on them and lastly screw in some screws to tighten the motherboard in place. ATX and MicroATX boards have different screw positions. Take a look at this link. It shows you where your case needs to have screws for the installed motherboard. According to the picture, you need to have standoff screws in position B,C,F,H,J,L,M,R, and S. You don't have to remove the motherboard to check if you do. Instead, just remove the the right side panel of the case. The stand off screws are visible from there. So, if you've done this and it all checks out, your good to go buy that motherboard. I think you should be fine, but you're always better off checking it out. You don't want to stand clueless around your case, bumping your head against the wall because you can't install your freshly opened motherboard. The same goes for the power supply. Measure the power supply currently installed and post the measurements up here. I'll tell you if its a typical ATX or not. If it is, you can get the one you listed up top since it's listed as ATX.
