New build in a ~2000 Lian Li PC 60?

[Insomniator]

A coworker of mine has an ancient Lian Li case that appears to be a PC60 -- http://www.dansdata.com/pc60.htm

Its actually some old prebuilt Asus machine with a P4 in it I think. He wants to upgrade to a new setup for photo editing.

Now I know this a ridiculous case (no 120mm fans (!), USB 1.0 ports (!!), but hey its still a nice, clean looking, well made aluminum lian li. Is there anything inherently wrong with upgrading this to a modern PC? I know it will be loud but are there any ATX changes in the past 13 years? It'll be something like an i5 3450 or i7 3770, 16 or 32GB or ram and a basic video card, maybe even integrated.

Should I just tell him to spend 50 bucks on a modern case?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you're not cramming a modern midrange->high end GPU in there, then there's no reason to ditch the case. Pentium 4s had pretty high TDPs, a 3450 wouldn't exceed the thermals that case was designed to handle.

I'd just try to keep the video cards towards the low end of the spectrum (<150w)

For the front panel, you can drop something like this into a 3.5" bay and get all the up-to-date connectivity goodness.

I've got a "spare parts" rig that's an E6300 and a 6850. The case is an old Inwin with front/rear 80mm fans and not much else. Thermals are fine.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I use to have one of those. It was a hand me over and now houses a Q9650 stock. Gave it and a few other awesome parts along with it. Seasonic X 400 fanless, 8Gb low latency DDR2 800, Asus Maximus Mobo, SSD, it's a sweet little machine for everyday use.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

As long as you aren't over clocking and stuff I'm sure it'll be fine. The downside is that when he uses a USB drive, he'll get slower speeds.

A cheap case would be the Source 210

 

[mfenn]

The basic ATX spec hasn't changed in a while, so everything should fit. The USB 1.1 ports are obvious a problem, and it's going to be louder than a newer case because it uses 80mm fans. In the end, I guess it is up to your coworker to decide if those compromises are worth the savings.