Moving parts to a new case (Motherboard Concerns)

[KittenPoker]

Hey guys, i'm not sure if this is in the appropriate section as i've just joined. From what i can see it is, though.

Anyway I recently invested in a tower after having a Netbook *shudder* for the past few months.

I'd like to use the tower as my gaming system (after finally accepting the PC master race) but at the moment it only has a horrible 430 GT card with 1gb DDR3 VRAM. Not exactly the best premise to want to start PC gaming...

Anyway, After looking inside my machine and finding it has a... Micro ATX? motherboard (not too good on motherboards)
An ASUS P8H61-MX to be exact. It appears that the case also has an irremovable PSU (which, is at 300w) Which pretty much renders this case as obsolete in terms of heavy expansion (large graphics cards etc. They probably wouldnt even fit.)

Anyway, i'm planning to buy this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/270605-cm-storm-enforcer-case-with-coolermaster-650w-gx-psu-sgc-1000-kwa-650w

I feel i'd be fine fitting the wires back into the correct slots, and removing the components etc. My only concerns lie with the motherboard. Or more specifically, the... back plate? (?) of the motherboard. The part thats latched into the current case. How would i remove this? as far as i can tell it seems pretty sturdily embedded.

Sorry for the long winded post, I feel knowing more about the system rather than less would be the lesser of two evils...

 

[o1die]

I've never seen a case where you couldn't remove the power supply. Most are held in place by four screws. My hp case required me to press one portion of the ps to pop the unit out of a bracket after removing the holding screws. If you've never replaced a board before, I suggest you post a picture or model number of your case, or list the oem number if it's hp, dell, etc. I'll bet you can replace the ps with one of the standard size units much easier than transferring all your parts to the other case. You will also have the issue of which case connectors go where on the new case. Many oem boards have a one piece case connector with unmarked leads; some aren't even available on a schematic diagram, such as emachines. Good luck.

 

[KittenPoker]

Sorry really late reply here!

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg137/scaled.php?server=137&filename=imag0038kh.jpg&res=landing

Turns out the PSU can be removed... I was looking inside the case for the screws to dismount the PSU, i always figured those things wouldnt be held in by just 4 screws on the outside due to their weight... Obviously im mis-informed

Regardless. to me the case's lack of a large HDD cage seems to give me enough clearance for a longer graphics card?

However the non-stock CPU fan worries me...

I'm tempted to stick with this case and get a corsair 500w and a 550ti card, and maybe add a fan to the front and back in the slots provided. Would this be viable?

Complete noob to computers as you've probably picked up on...

 

[o1die]

You're not overclocking or changing the cpu, so leave the cpu fan alone. The corsair and 550ti should work; measure the clearance from the pci-e slot cover to the hardrive cage to see if the 550ti will fit; if not, they're plenty of smaller cards that will give you good performance.

 

[KittenPoker]

Without sounding too naive, judging by the current card's positioning it seems as though the 550ti would fit easily under the current small 2 slot cage.

Am i wrong in thinking this?

 

[o1die]

Here's newegg's most affordable 550ti made by msi (open box). Looks like it should fit in your tower case. The corsair power supply should also fit.