9 yr old Compaq pc case

[Pghpooh]

HI
Dumb question for a slow night here.
I have a old (9 years old) Compaq computer that I kept around as a spare for my kids and others who would need it. It has Windows ME o/s on it! LOL
Anyway,,, is it possible to remove the motherboard and replace it with a micro atx or standard atx motherboard??
I can?t remember what size the existing board it and can open the case and measure it.
My thought is the screw openings on a new board might not match up with the mounting holes on the case.
I know the p/s will need to be changed.
More so it is just the challenge of doing something different and reusing a case that would be normally thrown away.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Quiksilver]

As long as the motherboard currently in the case is ATX or m-ATX.

 

[coxmaster]

You could just drill your own holes as per the ATX standard size...

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
I'll open the case and measure the old board. I found the web site that has all the specs for computer manufactures and there is a picture of the screw holes for motherboards.
I'll use that to try to eyeball screw hole placement and then go from there.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Quiksilver]

No need to eyeball it.
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/atx.htm

 

[Jessica69]

Also examine how the front panel connections are made, such as the power/reset buttons, USB/audio, etc. I was looking at an older Dell Optiplex case and its motherboard.....was going to pull the mATX board out of the Dell case and put it into a "standard" mATX case. The front connector was a ribbon cable on the Dell, though, and while I may have been able to connect the new case's front panel connectors to the mb, it was odd.

Also, the mb in the Dell case, and this is what killed the move, had a longer than standard I/O back plane......much wider. So wide, in fact, that the audio outputs would have been showing through the first PCI slot cover in the new mATX case. Of course, this doesn't include the fact that no screw mounting holes in the Dell mb lined up with the new mATX case I was going to use (an InWin mATX case.....standard mATX layout.)

Could be tricky but possible to do it your way......to move the Compaq's guts out into another case, which you're not doing, thankfully, that might be darned hard.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I had a Compaq with a P3 1Ghz in it, shipped with WinME but had stickers on the front claiming WinXP Home compatibility. It appears to be a standard micro-ATX mobo inside.

So you could get lucky, it might already be micro-ATX.

 

[jdkick]

It may or may not work. When I built my current machine last year I was planning to mount it in a Yeong Yang cube case in which I had previously mounted several different ATX boards over the years. With my P5K-E, the rear ports did not line up properly - the board was sitting too low in chassis. I had to use some brass washers as spacers to raise the standoffs, even after picking up taller standoffs from a local computer shop.