Moving mini-itx board to medium sized case

[VNU]

I have this little computer in my possession
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3882331

It was a college gift so i had little choice in the matter, knowing full well the case and mobo size would restrict me from doing much with it. But now i'm looking to make the conversion to a medium gaming rig before classes start up again.

only thing different from specs is i've added a low profile saphire HD 4550 for watching movies. But it can surprisingly max tf2/l4d2/mass effect 2/batman arkham.

At first i intended on moving all the pieces to a new mobo, but my brother has advised me that doing so will result in me having to purchase a new OS because OEM don't carry over and give some sort of error.

So now i intend on putting the tiny mini-itx in a medium sized case so i can fit a regular sized PSU in (as you can see in the specs, it's 160 watts stock). But another dilemma arose, the PSU mobo slot is some wierd fitting, seen here
http://www.************/p/3223467/hp-slimline-atx-power-supply

)rather than buying this adapter i feel i can splice the wires from the stock psu to create my own adapter of sorts for a regular sized fitting.) to power a 5570 or whatever low profile card i can find.

i've been searching far and wide for people who've put these small of boards in a medium sized case, and i've seen two threads on forums with short one word responses, normally not direct answers something like "it should" or "maybe"

Will my idea work?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Are you sure its a minit-ITX motherboard? As far as i know HP doesn't use them and i'm pretty sure they don't use any kind of proprietary power connector for there systems. your link relating to the PSU issue is broken. Sure the PSU may be small and non-standard but the connectors should all be standard.

Either way the fact of the matter is the holes don't line up and you have some modding to do. So whatever case you want to use you'll need to create new mounting holes in it to fit the board.

You will need a tap set size 6-32NC. This will give you the drill bit need to drill the holes and the tap need to put threading in those holes so you can screw in your motherboard standoffs.

I suggest screwing the motherboard onto the standoffs. Then use lipstick, wax pen or some other marker that is transferable on the bottom of the standoffs. Then all you have to do is place the board where you want it and give it a good press. This will mark the position of all the holes for you.

 

[VNU]

Are you sure its a minit-ITX motherboard? As far as i know HP doesn't use them and i'm pretty sure they don't use any kind of proprietary power connector for there systems. your link relating to the PSU issue is broken. Sure the PSU may be small and non-standard but the connectors should all be standard.

Either way the fact of the matter is the holes don't line up and you have some modding to do. So whatever case you want to use you'll need to create new mounting holes in it to fit the board.

You will need a tap set size 6-32NC. This will give you the drill bit need to drill the holes and the tap need to put threading in those holes so you can screw in your motherboard standoffs.

I suggest screwing the motherboard onto the standoffs. Then use lipstick, wax pen or some other marker that is transferable on the bottom of the standoffs. Then all you have to do is place the board where you want it and give it a good press. This will mark the position of all the holes for you.

according to the HP website it is mini ITX, if you go to mobo specifications on that page

heres the connector

http://www.directron.com/hp24mini.html?gsear=1

the 24 "mini" pins go to the slimline mobo. it may not be non-standard but i'm having a hell of a time finding PSU's that have that fitting, or even adapters to do such a thing.

 

[RebateMonger]

HP uses a unique power supply and power connector in their slimline PCs.

You might be better off selling the HP whole and building a new PC that better meets your requirements. For the $350 you can likely get on eBay, you can pretty much build a whole new PC.

 

[VNU]

I think i might just gamble it and buy a saphire 5570 and not upgrade anything else right now, according to the 5570 bench marks it only uses 174 watts with an i7, high end mobo and ssd drive, my PSU is only 160 watts but i don't have the dvd drive plugged in and the processor is limited to 65 watts as is, only 500gb hdd low rvv, no case fans or anything else besides my mouse and keyboard

it "should" work, but it's still a gamble...not the way i like doing it but i don't have the money to sink into it now

 

[mpilchfamily]

With a big enough case you can use the old PSU to power the motherboard and CPU. Then use a standard PSU to power the video card and other items.

 

[VNU]

With a big enough case you can use the old PSU to power the motherboard and CPU. Then use a standard PSU to power the video card and other items.

i can't think of any low profile cards that support the supplemental power, except the 9800


unless i'm mistaken in how this is down?

 

[mpilchfamily]

If the card you get doesn't need an additional power connector from the PSU then the stock PSU may be enough. The card can only get a max of 6A from the PCI-E slot. You'll be stressing it but its doable. Either way a second PSU can be used to power the drives and any other thing that don't get power from the motherboard to help ease the strain on the stock PSU.