mobo and case compatability

T

towly

New Member
i pm'ed geoff about this, but i have another question and he isnt on right now so...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135153

i have a compaq case, i know from sandrasisoftware that the mobo type is a atx microtower, my cpu is an amd xp 2400+. I know that the cpu will work on that mobo, but my question now is, will that mobo fit inside my case? Again the case is made for a atx microtower, my case has 1 agp slot and 3 pci slots openings, that mobo has 1 agp/ 3 pci slots, the only difference between the mobo on my compaq right now and that mobo is the printer/mouse/keyboard/etc, connecters but if you look at this pic ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI... SiS 741GX Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail ) you see that it comes with a different cover for all those things, and i know in the compaq case it has a cover for those same things that you can remove.

So will that mobo fit my compaq case? Everything looks to be the same with the mobo that is in my comp right now. I need to know so I can order it on monday and hopefully bring it to my friend to have him install that mobo and reinstall all the components.
 
Dude, you dont want that mobo... (2 slots for DDR 333? why? Old ram will still be compatable with new slots, ex. DDR 233 can run it DDR 400 "standard" slots) but it should fit, post a link to the case; most ATX cases are compatable with Micro too.
 
ex. DDR 233 can run it DDR 400 "standard" slots)
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DDR 266?

http://www.cebit.pl/images/compaqpresario7000t.jpg

basically thats what the case looks like.
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If your tower is a microATX tower a microATX board is what you need. So it looks like it would fit, unless compaq put some wierd ass mounting spots for the mobo (which they prolly did). Exact measurements of the case would be key though, get those and you can see if the board will fit right.
 
That motherboard is horrible, ECS is a horrible make for (especially so) K7 boards and SiS is an especially poor chipset maker.

So will that mobo fit my compaq case?
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Physically it might (depending on what you meant with your wording). But whether or not the screwholes line up... cant tell ya.. Compaq, being an OEM, does things wierd

im thinking about getting that one, its only a 10 dollars difference, and it has 400/333, so thats all ill ever use.
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ASrock is an equally crummy company and again, still the SiS chipset
 
I had the opportunity of converting IBM and Compaq computers to other motherboards and this is not easy. Around 50% of the screwholes align and to make things worse, some of the mounting backplate for the motherboard has a protruding metal spacer which fits with the original OEM motherboard and not with the new one. I had to cut these off with a rotary tool with a cutting disc and drill new holes to adapt it with the new motherboard.

Second, the power supply for OEMs are mounted on the side of the case and not at the top. There is a possibility of the tall capacitors hitting the power supply, you will have to measure this capacitors.

Third OEM power supplies are particularly low, I've seen them with only 200 watts - this could be a factor if you plan to use power hungry video cards and processors on the new board.

Sure the new motherboard will fit - but to mount it and make it work will be a different story.

If you plan to push through with it, then be prepared to modify the case. Be ready with a drill and rotary tool with cutting disc.
 
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i decided to drop the idea of sticking with the compaq case. I wanted to get a 400w+ psu, but the 400w+ psu for a microtower case was like 80 bucks, but i found a case for 40 bucks that came with a 420w psu, and 2 80mm fans.

this is definately the last time i buy an oem computer, why pay up the ass when you can build a nice computer for under 1000 bucks
 
well i just tried to connect my 1 gb stick that i bought to my compaq mobo, and it said when booting up memory size error. What does that mean, im assuming it means that the mobo wont support a 1 gb stick.

i just want to make sure there isnt something wrong with the stick of ram i bought.
 
What does that mean, im assuming it means that the mobo wont support a 1 gb stick.
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i just want to make sure there isnt something wrong with the stick of ram i bought.
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Could be either of those issues. If you can run MemTest you can rule out the latter
 
found this quote while searching google.

"Looks like you were right - that error means that the CMOS setting does not match memory."

so appartently the comp doesnt detect the ram size, id change it, but there's no point now that im updating my mobo.

also does anyone know how longs it takes to get stuff from newegg.

update: well i tried to change the info in the CMOS but it didnt update the amount of ram. Does the necessarily mean that the ram is bad, or is there something im doing wrong? I went into the bios and did "save settings and exit" but nothing.
 
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Remember that you are using comparibly old technology and it may not recognize the large memory. Glad to see the you changed your mind on the usable components, you are much better off going with new case, psu and mobo. Found a good one for you at newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130473 should be about same price range and a much better board.
I order from newegg a lot and shipping is fast and processing is fast but it all depends on where you live.
 
That board should be ok. Remember a socket A will not allow running ddr like the newer 754 and 939 boards. You may still have a problem with the bios not recognizing the full 1 gig of ram.
 
That board should be ok. Remember a socket A will not allow running ddr like the newer 754 and 939 boards. You may still have a problem with the bios not recognizing the full 1 gig of ram.
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My K7S5A is one of the worst Socket A mobo's there is and it runs DDR fine.
 
so did i **** myself over by buying this board or should i be okay. The only problem i heard with this board was that it has problem with sata harddisks, and i have a pata harddisk. I mean im building a mid-level pc, I went economy on the case and looked for a medium price for a mobo (60 dollars was medium to me, compared to 40 dollar mobo and 80 dollar mobo's) so that I could get a kick ass vid card, cpu and fan. I hope by now they fixed most of the problems on it.

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This is a solid motherboard for the intermediate user. It's almost the exact same as it's big brother (deluxe model) save for a couple of features. The X model only has the one ethernet port nor does it include Soundstorm. The realtek sound does just fine though. Also this board doesn't support DUAL CHANNEL memory settings so if that's what you want, look elsewhere. All in all, this board is stable and a workhorse. Great performance for the money. Barton 2500+, 1 gig of Kingston ddr400, Radeon 9700.
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so apparently someone is running a gig of ram w/ no problems.
 
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