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I'm looking to recycle a six year old case to build a newer computer. And I have a couple of questions.

1) I have an ATX motherboard in it now. How can I tell if I can put a microATX board in its place? How do I know the mounting posts will match up?

2) The power supply (430 W Antec) has a four pin cpu power connector. Can I use this if my new board has an eight pin cpu power plug? Or do I have to choose a board with a 4 pin plug?

1) It will probably fit. Have you been able to find the case's specs or documentation online?
2) It will probably work. The motherboards' online manuals are usually pretty specific about this scenario (e.g., which side to plug it into) because there are so many PSUs with 4 pin connections.

1) No, I ordered the computer from Cyberpower, Inc. about six years ago. I can't find any identifying labels on it. It 's your basic generic beige box. That's why I'm concerned. I don't even remember how prevalent microatx boards were six years ago. There doesn't appear to be any alternative mounting posts. Do the mounting holes in the microatx boards match up with the atx boards?

2) I thought the 4 pin cpu connector might work. I've noticed the included power supply in many of the antec cases still use 4 pin connectors.

1) I was never quite sure of this, but it according to Wikipedia, "microATX was explicitly designed to be backward-compatible with ATX. The mounting points of microATX motherboards are a subset of those used on full-size ATX boards, and the I/O panel is identical." Maybe since the source is Wikipedia, I still shouldn't be sure of it.
2) Double-check the manual once you've decided on a motherboard.

Are you comfortable that old case provides enough space and airflow for the new CPU and GPU (and their coolers)? Does it have exhaust fans besides the one on the PSU?

1) Gotta love Wikipedia. I would never have thought to look there. Thanks. The worse that could happen I suppose is that I'd have to send the board back. I was just trying to avoid that if possible.

2) I'll definitely do that.

The case has one side 80 mm fan, and two back 80 mm fans. With the cpu fan I should be good. I'm planning to put a Core i3 530 in it and use the integrated video so I'm not going to be generating a lot of heat. It's not going to be a gaming machine obviously.

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

I like your plan. Good luck.

(I didn't look at Wikipedia explicitly, it was one of the first suggestions from Google).

I just reused my original Sonata I. However I replaced the PS.

Specs from formfactors.org show that microATX has a pair of additional mounting holes (labeled R and S) right in front of the slots for expansion cards that aren't used for ATX boards. So, while a microATX board will fit into a tray made for a full ATX board without any problems, it would be insufficiently supported at those spots. Unless, of course, the case's motherboard tray has holes drilled for those spots and removable standoffs that you could use. There's also the chance that the system builder was being creative and left out some mounting holes and screws from the ATX specs, but hey, what are the odds of that?

That said, you shouldn't have any problem at all mounting a new motherboard into your old case. Since you aren't planning on installing a discrete GPU, then there shouldn't be much risk of you pressing too hard when installing a card (and physically damaging your board by accident).

For reference:
ATX motherboard specification (see pages 8-9)
microATX motherboard specification (see pages 9-10)

kizzmequik_74 wrote:

... Unless, of course, the case's motherboard tray has holes drilled for those spots and removable standoffs that you could use. ...

Pretty much every case I've dealt with for the past 10 years or so has had holes for both normal and micro-ATX, and moveable standoffs. The last case I can remember that didn't was a really old Gateway tower case which probably pre-dated the ATX standard by a couple of years.