Should I change my case?

[9lives]

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intel said :

Q: Do Pentium 4 processors use the same chassis and power supplies as Pentium III processors?
A: No. Chassis that specifically support the Pentium 4 processor include base plates with four additional mounting locations, four additional standoffs, four additional mounting screws, more robust thermal management and an ATX 12V-power supply. The mechanical support structure mounts into the four additional mounting locations using the four additional standoffs provided with the chassis. Contact your chassis and power supply vendors for specific models that support the Pentium 4 processor. The ATX 12V power supply has an additional 2x2-power connector required on all Pentium 4 platforms.
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I am currently using AMD Thunder Bird 1 GHZ with Asus A7v133 mother board. i am goint to upgrade with Asus P4P800 and Pentium 4 CPu . Do I need to change my case?? I don't know if mine is ATX or not. Can I just change the power suppply??

Thanks.

 

[beatle]

I don't know what they mean by "base plate" unless that's their term for motherboard tray. I also wonder if by "more robust thermal management" they mean "has a fan in the rear of the case." An ATX motherboard is an ATX motherboard. With the exception of the 4 pin plug used for P4s (and most AMDs now also) there aren't any differences. It's very likely you're using an ATX PSU already. Make sure you have the 4 pin plug on it (it will be square, unlike any other power connectors). If you do, you're ready for the P4.

 

[Slogun]

I recently installed a new P4 mobo into my 2 year old Lian_Li case which was formerly housing my Athlon 1.4 GHZ Thunderbird.

The mounting holes were a non issue. The power supply was fine. And the case had enough ventilation.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Your case is most likely an ATX case as the board you're using now is an ATX board, so the P4P800 should most likely fit. And in case you're curious, you'll get a new I/O bracket (where the keyboard, rear USB, COM ports are) with the new motherboard.

As others have mentioned, unless your power supply has the extra 4 pin cable, you may need to replace your power supply.

If you don't want to replace your power supply and it has enough juice to power the P4 and the rest of your components, some P4 motherboards are able to use a regular 4 pin molex (the ones that go to your CD/hard drives). I'm not sure which recent boards support that though.

 

[RalfHutter]

This stuff:

four additional standoffs, four additional mounting screws, more robust thermal management . The mechanical support structure mounts into the four additional mounting locations using the four additional standoffs provided with the chassis.

...is referring to the heavier heatsink of the P4's. On the newer mobo trays you'll see a pattern of 4 holes centered around the CPU socket. These are intended to be used to bolt the Intel heatsink ("more robust thermal management") through the mobo and onto the tray itself so the weight of the heatsink ("more robust thermal management") isn't being supported by the board itself but by the tray.

In actual practice I've never seen this done, nor have I seen any heatsink, either factory or aftermarket, that's designed to work this way. All P4 heatsinks are designed to attach directly to the mobo itself, whether it's by using the existing Intel retention bracket fitted to every P4 mobo, or one of the "bolt onto the mobo" types of heatsinks like the Thermalright SLK9xx series. So basically Intel included that provision in it's spec but apparently never actually implemented it.

You should be perfectly fine using your existing case as long as you have a P4 compliant PSU that includes the auxillary 12V connecter.

 

[optimistic]

If you don't have the 4pin plug, you can get a molex to 4pin converter.