Board and Case

[Helixxxer]

Alrighty, so I'm upgrading my hp pavilion a220n from an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ to an AMD 64 3400. I realize I need a new motherboard, and I've decided to get a socket 939 (mostly because it has four slots for ram instead of only two, so I can keep my old and add more). Anyway, my question is will I have problems fitting the new board into my current case. The case came standard with this pavilion model, and I checked hp's site for product specifications but it says nothing about case size or screws. (By the way, the current board is an nForce 2 from ASUS)I'm kind of new to upgrading and stuff, could anyone tell me if there's a possibility of fitting problems, or if all board sizes and cases are generic? If no one knows, I'll just call up tech support, but I have a bad feeling that they make these so you can't upgrade easily and instead have to buy a whole new one from them. I've already upgraded my vid card and ram and I've had no problems so far. Any help would be appreciated!!! Thanks much.

 

[AMD 0wn4g3]

ok first im almost positive ur old ram will not work, i had a pavillion and it came with pc133 ram (so ancient) but anyways u need to check 2 make sure the pins will fit in the new board

the asus motherboard (if buying from newegg or tigerdirect) will say the board dimensions. now im not sure about the max board size for pavillions, im guessing 10in x 8in, prolly wrong, some one can correct me but hp towers arent made to be upgraded (trust me) even some hp towers that come new OEM only come with 2 available 5.25 bays, both of which are full

i suggest trashing the case, pavillions r cheap as hell anyways go to newegg and pick out a shiney new case, nice and cheap and some very sturdy 4 the price. dont buy the case 4 the psu, they suck.

as for the MB asus is great, so is SOME MSI's, ABIT, and Megabyte has some nice ones. and that 4 gig ram upgrade i believe is only for PC3200, if u want PC4200 sticks i think the support is only 3 GB, also im not so sure about the NF2 with the asus mb, im pretty sure the one ur looking at the chipset is K8T800Pro + VT8237, thats just a guess, but i think ur gunna wanna go 4 a board that has the nF3 250 or nF3 Ultra until the nF4 comes out.

and the case issue again, most cases are generic mb support, they will say form factory or mb supported, ATX, miniATX, ATX extended, flexATX, and then it will say max mb size or however they word it, i know the 1 im getting (inless i change my mind is the ASPIRE Turbo Case Blue http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-144-018&depa=1 basically because of the large side window and 5 5.25 drive bays and hd shelves and removeable mb tray...SLICK!! lol but if u look at the bottom of that page it says "Motherboard Compatibility: ATX-Up to 12"W x 13"L" so there ya go any more questions post or email me

 

[Helixxxer]

Awesome. Thank you very much. Also, I realized that I actually need a socket 754 instead so I'll probly go with this nice ASUS i found on newegg (which, yes, i do use for almost everything). I didn't realize changing the mb is like getting a whole new pc. damn.

 

[AMD 0wn4g3]

yes most definatly, its the most integral part of an upgrade, u need to find the right one for ur memory, cpu, gpu, OC capabilites, size, form factor, im most likely going to go with the asus sli deluxe when it comes out, then when it drops in price lol, u can use two pci-e video cards, but u can view my other thread on AMD SLI's to see my dilema in that....but yea no prob man anytime