Switching in a new PSU

[William Grissam]

So I have an HP Pavilion a1600n computer case that I'm gutting for my first build. It has a 300W power supply that I want to replace with an FSP 450W PSU, but I'm unsure of the FSP will fit. I've searched everywhere I could to find a definitive yes or no answer and to find the deminsions of the currently installed psu for a comparrison but its tocno avail. Any insight on this?

 

[azaran]

Hard to say since HP doesn't list the dimensions. Best thing you could do is open the case and physical measure the size of your PSU and see whats what. Also since yours is a Media Center system, make sure it doesn't have any proprietary power cabling going to any front bays on the case.

 

[azaran]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00749157&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3245022#N94

This it?

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00714578

Form factor; micro ATX.
Any retail atx power supply will fit, or I will eat my Dongle.

They use industry standard cases where possible to save money;you will see the same case on other manufactures systems with minor differences.

Having had my hands in far more HP media centers than I'd ever like, I would not bet the farm on retail ATX PSU's fitting. HP/Compaq adore using smaller than standard PSU's in their cases. If it was a Dell I'd say they'd be fine, but HP is a crap shoot.

 

[azaran]

Oh good, they list the actual dimensions. Cool, then yes a normal ATX will fit in there. Yeah the basic 300watt crap HP throws in there is never enough for good upgrades. Now ya just gotta hope the rest of the case can fit the new build up. Good luck!

 

[William Grissam]

Thanks guys! Not sure if this is the time or place to ask this, but is the $100 difference between the G3250 and i5-4440 worth it? I was originally gonna use the G3250 but then realized after I ordered and received my motherboard that it was only compatible with Intel CPUs and then decided to see what my upgrade choices would be. It supports Haswell and some Haswell refresh CPUs I believe.

 

[azaran]

What motherboard did you get? The G3250 is a Haswell dual core CPU socket 1150 so it should work on your board. Regardless, if you have the cash to spend, the i5 will beat the hell out of the G3250 stock. Even an i3 beats out the G3250.

 

[William Grissam]

I have an MSI H81M-P33. The GPU im gonna be getting is the R7 260X if that makes any difference! And the G3250 will work with it, but most other Intel CPUs need a bios update before they're compatible and I've no way to do that since this is a completely new build and I've no spare CPU.

 

[azaran]

The G3250 is listed on the motherboards specs as a compatible CPU, so you should be fine.
http://us.msi.com/support/mb/H81MP33.html#support-cpu