Re: Power Supply Requirements For P4C800-E Deluxe and HD3850

My 3870s fit in my case - barely - and I had to remove the hard drives that
were behind them. They are indeed big and a pain in the butt because of
their size. My solution was mount the hard drives in the upper bays where
the CD drives go. I have a half dozen brackets that were made for doing
exactly that. However - I'm not sure how readily available these brackets
are anymore. I have also left hard drives unmounted and let them sit on a
cloth on the bottom of the case. I left them there for a long time and it
worked fine - just don't turn the case on it's side while running



"Tom" <> wrote in message
news:. com...
>
> You wrote in news:. com thusly:
>
>> I have a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard and plan to upgrade the GFX card
>> to a AGP HD3850,
>
> [...]
>
> Thank you Kyle and Paul for your replies. I've had to put this project
> on hold do to illness. I think I can get back to it.
>
> It sounds like from both replies that the power supply should be strong
> enough or I'll quickly know it's not.
>
> My other concern about the HD3850 is how long the PCB is and what it
> will hit when installed. I've read a lot of reviews from people
> complaining about the length of the card, but at no time do they mention
> the PCBs actual size. This is also true for the HD3850 manufactures for
> some odd reason. After spending a considerable amount of time, I finally
> know the size of the PCB. As it turns out it is 9 inches by 5 inches and
> that's a problem.
>
> To start with, this is what my Antec case looks like inside:
>
> .-----------------------------------.
> | | Power | _______1___| \
> |F| Supply | _______2___| \____ 5 1/4" Bays
> |_|__________| _______3___| /
> | _______4___| /
> |-----------------------------------|
> |---------------------. ____5___| \
> | | P4C800-E Deluxe | ____6___| >---- 3 1/2" Upper Cage
> |F| | ____7___| /
> |_| | ____8_| | \
> | | ======= <--- AGP | ____9_|F| >---- 3 1/2" Lower Cage
> |F| ======= | ___10_|_| /
> |_| ======= | _|
> |---------------------' | |
> | |F|
> | |_|
> `-----------------------------------'
>
> 1 = DVD Drive
> 2 = Empty
> 3 = DVD Drive
> 4 = SATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> 5 = 3 1/2 Floppy
> 6 = SATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> 7 = PATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> 8 = PATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> 9 = PATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> 10 = PATA Hard Drive (320GB)
> F = 80mm Fan
>
> As you can see above, the AGP port is directly aligned with hard drive
> #9 and so the hard drive has to me moved in order to get the HD3850 to
> fit.
>
> I could remove the fan in front of the lower cage, slide hard drives #8,
> #9 and #10 forward. Then attach the fan to the empty side porthole on
> the door of the case. This might give me enough room for the HD3850.
>
> I could take hard drives #4 and #6 (both SATA) out of the case and
> replace it with a mobile rack (such as a SATA ICY DOCK) where hard drive
> #4 currently sits. However, I do have concerns about using a mobile
> rack. Should I be and if not, any recommendations on which one?
>
> I could take the same hard drives (#4 and #6) and replace them with a
> larger hard drive where hard drive #4 currently sits. But I can't find
> any info on just how large of a hard drive can be attached to the SATA
> ports on the P4C800-E Deluxe with WinXP Pro SP2. I'm thinking of a 1TB
> SATA hard drive. However, then I have two 320GB hard drives collecting
> dust.
>
> Using external enclosures is kind-of out of the question as I already
> have two PATA 500GB hard drives in two USB external enclosures.
>
> I hardly got any sleep last night thinking about this. I'm stuck and not
> sure what to do about this. And I haven't even gotten the HD3850 yet.
>
> Sorry for the delay and thank you.
>
> --
>
> Tom
>

Zoot wrote:
> My 3870s fit in my case - barely - and I had to remove the hard drives that
> were behind them. They are indeed big and a pain in the butt because of
> their size. My solution was mount the hard drives in the upper bays where
> the CD drives go. I have a half dozen brackets that were made for doing
> exactly that. However - I'm not sure how readily available these brackets
> are anymore. I have also left hard drives unmounted and let them sit on a
> cloth on the bottom of the case. I left them there for a long time and it
> worked fine - just don't turn the case on it's side while running
>

You can still find the steel U-shaped adapters for 3.5" to 5.25" bays.

I got my supply of them, from the days when a retail packaged disk
drive include a pair of these in every box.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811993004

They're installed using the slides that come with the case.

slider-bracket-disk-bracket-slider
3.5"

HTH,
Paul