Case Advice

nc6000

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice on where to buy a computer case online for delivery in the Dublin area. I've a HP D530 Small Form Factor for which I've just bought a dual port 512MB AGP graphics card. I'm running Vista and want to use the Aero desktop across the two 17" LCD screens I currently have.

The graphics card is a full size card but the chassis will only take a low profile graphics card. Which of course I only discovered/noticed after receiving the card.

I'm thinking of buying a new casing and moving all the components over to it so I can use the full size graphics card. The motherboard is a uATX (micro ATX).

Has anyone any advice or thoughts on this? Can anyone recommend a good case to purchase?

Thanks!

DanGerMus

do you know how much you want to spend. i'd say go into PCworld or peats or maplins to get an idea of what you want. other than that try the usuals like dabs.ie or komplett.ie both fine reasonably priced sites. but it can be difficult to find the right size and it's hard to tell online. As its uATX most cases shouldnt have any problem fitting your board unless HP have different hole spacings but if it says uATX on the PC you should be safe. Also your power supply might not fit properly in a tower so you might have to buy a new one. But it's easy to buy a case with a PSU. €50-100 inc postage will get you a good case for what you need. i'll have a look and get back to you.
i got one of these for my gf's pc it does the job PSU is quiet too. It was a bit bigger than i thought and with a uATX mobo theres a lot of room left. But it was very easy to install and comes with very handy clip on drive rails.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=303550
one con though is the usb slots are on the bottom right hand side of the case and so now are impossible to access.

nc6000

Thanks for the reply happy gandalf. I followed the link to the case you recommended, it looks good. The only thing I'm not sure about is the 350Watt Power Supply with that case. According to the technical specification manual with the D530 SFF, it only uses 185 Watts. If I put the board into the new case will the differences in wattage be a problem?

From looking at the attached image, it appears that the port layout on th back is different to the D530. Can the port layout plate be removed from the new case and will the port plate from the D530 come out with the motherboard?

DanGerMus

1 the PSU wattage isnt't a problem it's more than you need. That doesnt mean it'll fry your pc it just means that this is the max safe output of the PSU. The PSU will only supply what it is asked for no matter how big it is.
2 the backplate on all cases is removable. assuming that your hp doesnt have a funny one. and they are standard demensions, only the layouts change. so as long as the one on your hp comes out it will slip into the new case. All you have to do is press the raised edges on the outside of the case and it clicks out. You'll figure it out when you try it trust me ,easy. worst comes to worst you could go without a backplate and that wouldn't be the end of the world. but i dont think tht'll happen.

LOL... i just checked out the pcs' spec and realised my family is using one of these as a home pc. i'll take a look at it tonight to see about the back plate. it could be a funny one.
is this your case just so i'm sure...?

http://www.inticleanbidet.com/ebay30/HP%20D530%202.JPG

Also what GFX card have you bought and where?

nc6000

Hi there,

That's the one OK, the low profile AGP slot in the middle is the one causing the problem. Probably should have checked beforehand.

I bought a Sapphire X1650 PRO on dabs.ie, the card and two DVI cables only set me back €160 delivered which I thought was quite good.

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?QuickLinx=4DNP

I think I'll go ahead and order the case you recommended and maybe a longer IDE cable or two. I've a second hard-drive which I might put into the new case and might even convert my external DVD burner to an internal one.

Do you reckon the back plate will fit?

Thanks for your help on this one.

DanGerMus

well i reckon it looks to be the same size but might have to be attached in a different way to normal. Id say wing it cos no matter what case you buy you'll have the same hole for a backplate anyway. and as i sed before you'll get away without one.

nc6000

I think I'll just go for it. I'll let you know how I get on.

nc6000

I received the new case from Komplett today and moved everything over. The mobo fitted perfectly and all is working fine, I'm posting this using the upgraded PC.

The only problem now is that the onboard sound isn't working for either CD audio or standard WIndows sounds.

Any ideas what this might be?

BTW The new card now gives me a Windows Aero rating of 5.9! It's pretty cool.....

DanGerMus

hey good to hear it's mostly good. There is no reason your sound shouldnt work fine. all you did was change the case. just check all connections are in properly in the correct holes. make sure your speakers are powered if they require an external source. check your sound settings and make sure you have nothing muted. if that fails try updating your drivers. maybe there is a compatability issue with your new GFX card but i doubt it. update all your drivers and see what happens then.

nc6000

I've checked all of that and can't see anything that could be causing the problem, drivers updated etc and nothing is muted. The only thing I can think of is that this was caused be disconnecting from the speaker that was part of the old case. Maybe there is an incomplete circuit, missing cable or an open switch affecting the sound card. It was working fine before changing cases, I had my external speakers plugged into the onboard port. I might just get myself a cheap PCI sound card and throw that in.

Another problem that cropped up is after power-on, looks like the D530 had some sort of signal cable going to the chassis fan which isn't with the new case. It comes up with an error saying no chassis fan detected.

I also decided to convert my external DVD burner to an internal, that's working fine along side the standard DVD drive and I threw in a second 80GB HD I had lying around.

Other than that it's great.

2 x 17" LCDs running Aero looks the biz and my Windows Experience Score is up to 3.5 from 1.0 after changing the card! My 2.4Ghz P4 is letting the side down. The new GFX card gets a score of 5.9.

Thanks for the advice happygandalf !!

DanGerMus

maybe try whipping the fan and old speaker out of the old case. and hook it up to the new.You should make a note of all wires and make sure they're all hooked up the same as before. dont see why it ud make a difference but just try and make it so you havent actually changed anything in the build. at least then you'll know for sure that something might have happened during build. narrow things down a little. cheap card will sort you out but it's nice to know whats wrong before you go spending money on something you might not need.