Hi all,

Got these two resonably old PC's. There both pentuim 3 but one is 600Mhz speed and the other is 750Mhz so slightly faster. The 600Mhz PC is a Packard Bell Pulsar 600 ATX tower unit. The other PC is totally home made (Non- branded). The Packard Bell case is nicer than the other one plus the Packard Bell PC has a newer type power supply where it shuts XP down auto instead of saying "It is now safe to turn of your computer" (I assume it is the type of power supply that makes that happen? Please correct me if Im wrong) Basically I just want to swap the motherboard from the home made PC into the Packard Bell. I have actually just bought a 160Gb 7200rpm hard disk and a 5 port USB2 PCI card to inside the Packard Bell.

I haven't had a chance to look inside the home made one yet but its ATX size. Should I just be able to do a straight swap?? Will all the connections be in the same places as in a the Parkard Bell so I know where to connect thing back or will it be trial and error as there is no manaul for this motherboard? The homemade PC is fully operational so there should be no need to mess with any dip switches or anything like that?

Damien

It's possible that the Packard Bell has a proprietary PSU that wouldn't work with the non branded mobo. I'm not wure but it could either be the PSU or the mobo that causes you to have to manually shut off the computer.

If they're both Pentium 3s (and have the same socket), then you shouldn't need to swap the motherboards, just the CPUs.

That is true Jesse_hz,
it is actuall both the power supply and the motherboard that enables automatic shutdown. It's the ATX power supply and the ATX compatible motherboard the does this

So it probably would be better all round just to swap the CPU. I think their both socket 7? I know the packard bell motherboard is anyway. I never though of that. Would just be as simple as moving it from one motherboard to another or would I have to move the fan with it?? Will the PC automatically recognise it? Do I have to take anti-static procautions?

Damien

Just the CPU; PC will recognize it; I'd discharge yourself before moving the CPU

With that in mind. Can I buy a much better processor for the PC? Will there be a limit to what the motherboard can take?? If so how can I find that out? It would be good if I could just stick P4 or something on it..

Damien

Yes you could buy a better CPU for it, but you would be restricted to CPUs that were socket 370 based (which I believe is what P3s use). You wouldn't be able to put a P4 or similar in it since they use a different socket type than the one you have on your motherboard.