Upgrade Part I

Last Saturday - I finally took out all my parts and decided to do the upgrade to the HTPC box. Everything went pretty much as expected with a couple of exceptions. First the new equipment: Asus P5E-VM HDMI Micro-ATX motherboard. From the packaging to the contents this is a well built, well stocked motherboard. In these pictures you can see that it is quality built with lots-o-extras (click on photos for highres).

The CPU is what you would expect in a Retail box. Unfortunately my old heatsink & 92mm fan would not work with this. It's a shame as the old one is much more quiet due to the larger fan size. I will say that I like how easy it is to drop an LGA 775 CPU onto a motherboard. Things sure have changed for the better (can u say easy!).

Now remember I said everything went fine with a couple of exceptions. Exception Number 1 - Not really a problem unless you count not having a power supply. Having not built a system in a while and having many other things going on I kind of over looked the fact that motherboard power connections have updated the specs to 2.0 ATX. Which is to say it is a 20+4 (24 pin) connection now. So when I went to go plug in my old PSU it was one of those "hey this can't be right" kind of moments. After a few expletives "#*&!" and a quick search on the net it turns out you can use a 20-pin on a 24-pin as long as you connect starting with the correct pin numbers. They also make 20-pin to 24-pin adapters. Now it turns out that when I last replaced the PSU I didn't go with a very powerful unit (only 260 watts). I'm sure this was to keep heat and my electric bill down.  Not remembering that the PSU was so low I thought I better check the recommended minimum watts (this was an Oh Shit! moment) as it was 400 watts.  Now I'm in a bit of a spot here as Saturday is quickly drawing to a close, my hockey team was playing at 7:00 and I have parts everywhere and no home theatre. All I can say is thank goodness for "Best Buy".  Some quick checking for availability and a few mouse clicks later the wife and I are speeding off for the in store pick-up.  I picked up a new Thermaltake 450 watt modular unit.  It would of been much cheaper buying it from Newegg or another on-line site but when you gotta have it...the morale being do thorough research.

To be continued...