"Simon" wrote in message
...
I am in the process of building my first two machines at the same time. I
am
planning to build afresh but reuse an two old cases and PSU's.

Good plan.

I have found
that my ATX AOpen AMD motherboards I purcahsed (to go with the AMD 2500
and
2600 processors I got) dont physically fit the cases, and one of the PSU's
doesnt fit into the motherbaord connector either (wrong connector at the
end)
Am I doing something wrong as the cases I am reusing are not that old
(around
late 1999) didnt think building of motherbaords would change so much in
that
time. And do I just need an adapter for the PSU or is it a bin job.

Your old PSU is probably AT instead of the new ATX standard. You can buy a
special wire that will adapt it (e.g.
http://www.trianglecables.com/attoatxpowco.html) but you'll probably
want/need a bigger PSU for the AMD chips.

As for the cases, they may be propriatary but chances are they are ATX and
the motherboard should fit. Does everything match up at the back of the
case?


By the way can someone clear this up.....why are some PSU's a different
wattage
to others. I want to run the usual plus two hard drives and a DVD ROM I
wouldnt
need an uprated PSU for this surely.

More stuff = more power. AMD chips need more power than the old Celerons
and things like hard drives eat up the juice. I'd recommend making sure you
have 300+W or else you could get freezing under games when everything is
sucking power at once.

Also with themral compuind do you only get
enough appliacation in the syringes for one CPU/Heatsink or will I be able
to
squeeze two out of it.

You only need a VERY small amount of compound on the CPU die. Just make
sure it's very lightly coated (not white). I've never finished off a tube
of compound after applying it to about 5 CPUs.


Many Thanks for everyones help

No prob :-)

--Mitchua