Question Moving into another tower - Anything to look out for?

[egderic]

I recently bought a Lenovo Thinkstation P520 from an office garage sale: It's a huge upgrade from my current PC in most ways: Way more RAM, CPU, and a better video card.
The only problem? I like my tower much better.

So I'm thinking of just moving the motherboard, CPU and RAM over. (I've already grabbed the video card)
I have an 850 Watt Power supply installed in my own tower.

Is there anything about this that might be unsafe to do? Anything I should look out for? I've built PC's before, but always from individual pieces I bought, not by moving the Mobo from a prebuilt tower over to another tower.

 

[lvt]

If the Lenovo motherboard fits your old tower and it has the same ATX connectors, it's safe to move.

 

[punkncat]

I would look closely at not only the mounting holes, but all the connectors, front panel headers and so forth to be sure everything is 'standard'. I have not personally dealt with a Lenovo swap, but am quite familiar with how difficult Dell and HP like to make this in some cases.

As a total aside, I would suggest taking a sticky note or index card (etc.) and write the complete model info from the Lenovo and stick it inside the door of your case after the swap if it can be done. This way, if you ever need some strange driver or support you know what it (was).

 

[geofelt]

The lenovo motherboard looks to me to be proprietary.
Is this your motherboard?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2252456571...3094004786&abcId=9300678&merchantid=584881430
The front panel connectors will not match up and it does not take a simple atx psu.
There are several models of P520 which may differ in configuration.

 

[egderic]

That motherboard looks different from the Lenovo I have, but now that I look at it, there is an issue with the power supply; It doesn't have the usual ATX connector.
It has some weird slot that the power supply descends into and locks in with a lever. The Power supply looks like it's meant for this Lenovo tower only, just the way it's shaped.

 

[lvt]

That motherboard looks different from the Lenovo I have, but now that I look at it, there is an issue with the power supply; It doesn't have the usual ATX connector.
It has some weird slot that the power supply descends into and locks in with a lever. The Power supply looks like it's meant for this Lenovo tower only, just the way it's shaped.

It seems that Lenovo doesn't want you to reuse their motherboard for your DIY project 😉

 

[Karadjgne]

Shape, locking, tabs are only important if a physical limitation. Such as trying to cram a ATX inside a mITX case. What most don't think of is that a psu fitment is rarely a real issue, as long as it fits inside the case, has power cord/switch access and has at least 1 screw to attach the cover to the frame, it's good.

Many of the TFX psus are proprietary in attachment and fitment, but that generally applies to an OEM swap, many times a longer or taller psu will physically fit just fine, just doesn't look exactly the same. Like bolting a 92mm fan to the grill instead of using the provided 120mm mount holes.

That said, it's the proprietary nature of the connectors on the motherboard that's often the block for case swaps. That applies to the front panel connectors, psu connectors and even in some cases, the fan header connectors.

 

[egderic]

Thanks for the help everyone, I think you just saved me a whole lot of trouble!