Is installing a PSU in a case difficult?

mikeny

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I want to finally start building my first gaming computer system and I was curious about some cases. Is integrated PSU's bad? Are installing PSU's difficult?
I was looking at the spacious Aerocool Xtrm ENG 3t with the two huge 140mm and 250mm fans with no PSU, the Antec Performance One P150 with integrated PSU and the Sonata II with PSU.

Is it ok to leave out a floppy drive. I havent used one for a while? If I need something copied or saved, i do it on a cd-rw. I see many people have multiple hd's, Im just going to use one as well as one optical drive (DVD-RW). Any input would be most appreciated.
 

phreejak

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For the most part, most PSUs are relatively the same size and all pretty much follow the same standard for installation. It's not until you get into the more high powered PSUs (like some 750 watts and above) that size begins to vary. When you get into 850 and larger then the size of the case begins to be extremely selective.
 

mesarectifier

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Leave out the floppy drive as they are 100% useless

As far as installing a PSU goes...can you screw in up to 6 screws? It really is that simple. PSU upgrades are really only a case of affixing the unit to the case, connecting molex/SATA cables to the drives and plugging in 2 or 3 cables to the motherboard. And the good thing is that none of them can go in the wrong way!
 

Oldguy

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Generally one of the easier parts of a build. only gets difficult with some flimsy low end cases that might require a little cage bending to straighten the rails and some high end cases like the P180 mixed with a high output ps...might have to relocate a fan or fight the cable routing a bit. Check the clearances on the ps cage in relation to case fans or hdd cages and compare with the dimensions of your new ps.
 

darkstar782

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Leave out the floppy drive as they are 100% useless

Untill you come to install Windows XP on your RAID drive and realise its impossible without first installing it on a non-RAID system and creating a slipstreamed disk with the RAID drivers....

90% of the time my floppy drive is not connected, but I like to have one still.
 

loveamd

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Like they have all said, changing your power supply is pretty easy.

On my first built 7 years ago I was removing the old main 20 pin power cable and didn't know there was a little catch thingy to prevent it from falling off the board. I pulled and pulled until I had a closer look. I broke several leads.
My motherboard never worked after that. :oops:

Look before you yank!
 

void

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Leave out the floppy drive as they are 100% useless

Untill you come to install Windows XP on your RAID drive and realise its impossible without first installing it on a non-RAID system and creating a slipstreamed disk with the RAID drivers....

90% of the time my floppy drive is not connected, but I like to have one still.

I think you can use flash disk in such condition.
 

calyn

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Like everyone said, installing a PSU is one of the easiest things, especially if you have a larger sized case.

Like other say, leaving out a floppy drive you won't notice 99.9% of the time, but the remaining times you'll really miss it. It's only a few dollars anyway.
 

mesarectifier

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Yupyup, well I guess what I said was misleading (supposed to be an exaggeration not to be taken 100% seriously) so sorry on that count.

I was more than slightly irritated to have to look for a floppy drive around the house in order to install the RAID drivers from the floppy that came with the D975XBX recently. All of my recent BIOS flashes have been from Windows, though. Is that still not a standard feature of most boards now?
 

Omid

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Its about as difficult as changing a battery in a car! Depending on the space youve got in your case it can take anywhere between 3-10 minutes
 

mikeny

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Thanx for all your replies. The case I was looking at was the Antec P150 which has the PSU on top and to the rear. The other was the Aerocool with 2 super hug fans (one on the front and the other on the side). The Aerocool doesnt have a PSU, so I was wondering if PSU's are tough to install...the Aerocool looks cool and I like those two huge fans. The prices round out the same if I get either case (with the PSU that i buy for the Aerocool). I'm not doing RAID/Crossfire/SLI and Im not going to have 2 HD's and 2 optical drives. One HD and one DVD-RW suits me fine.

(Mesa no prob, I will prob get a floppy just in case)
 

GherkinPekul

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A floppy drive costs $8. It's cheap insurance.
On a cost to performance basis, I went with 1 sata HD and my system runs very well. I would suggest getting a dvd-rom drive. (1)They are cheap and it is a pain to have to copy your data onto the HD, burn your disk, and then delete the data. If you never copy disks, you might not need it.(2) The other reason I like 2 drives is so I can have 2 game disks in at once. (3) If one drive dies on you, you have another. That's my 2 cents.
 

adamb10

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Installing a PSU is the easist thing to do when building a rig.

As for the floppy drive, I keep one handy(may get a new one to match case) for a just in case moment.
 

Mondoman

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While we're all flippin' about floppies, a USB floppy drive can be had for around $20 if you're patient and watch sales. That way, you don't have to build a floppy into your rig, but just plug one in when you need it. You can also share a single USB floppy among a number of computers. I've had mine for the last 6 years and it's still hunkydory.
 

choknuti

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The main question here is does windows XP setup allow you to copy your raid drivers via F6 from a USB device? I do not know the answer to this one since I have a floppy but if it dosen't you are in for lot of trouble when reinstalling windows.

Has anybody tried it?

Also does vista support it?
 

darkstar782

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The main question here is does windows XP setup allow you to copy your raid drivers via F6 from a USB device? I do not know the answer to this one since I have a floppy but if it dosen't you are in for lot of trouble when reinstalling windows.

Has anybody tried it?

Also does vista support it?

NO IT WILL NOT

Windows XP will ONLY install text mode storage controller drivers from a FLOPPY. NO OTHER OPTION WILL WORK. NO USB FLASH DRIVES.

You can flash the BIOS etc with a flash drive, you just cant install storage controller drivers for XP setup.

The ONLY way to do it without a floppy drive is to create a slipstream XP CD with the drivers already on it. Alot of effort imho, and requires a working XP install.

Vista however, can get storage drivers from a CD or flash drive or another hdd.