Old tower case?

[justpoet]

Perhaps a stupid question, as it has been AGES since I built a PC, but the recent budget gaming pc got me thinking about replacing some guts.

 

Besides the shiny finish, rgb, glass door, tool-less mounting, and radiator mount locations in new cases….

 

Is there any real reason I can't use an old boring beige tower (I doubt anything but an optical drive might be worth saving from it) for a newer build?  Not even sure what the case is anymore, since I built it so long ago, but it is a full ATX mid tower case from back when the Pentium 2 was brand new (though it is AMD inside).  LOL  I'm thinking the only real challenge would be making sure any cooling fits correctly, and having to use screws.  Is that an incorrect assumption?

[Slottr]

As long as it has the same layout for mounting an ATX/MATX/ board then theres no problem. Just it might not have as good of a cooling solution as a modern chassis may have.

[Eastman51]

If its ATX then mounting a board would be easy. 3.5" drives would also be easy, if you want an SSD (2.5") 2.5"-3.5" adapters would work. Fans might be tricky to mount (if the screw threads are different, or are not 120mm/140mm).

[Stefan Payne]

4 hours ago, justpoet said:

Is there any real reason I can't use an old boring beige tower (I doubt anything but an optical drive might be worth saving from it) for a newer build?  Not even sure what the case is anymore, since I built it so long ago, but it is a full ATX mid tower case from back when the Pentium 2 was brand new (though it is AMD inside).

"Only" Airflow because they used only 1x80mm on the back, if you're lucky maybe another one in the front, some quality of life stuff (front USB, Audio and stuff), need for Adaptors to fit 2,5" Drives, not beeing able to use modern Graphics cards because its not designed to fit cards according to the old specifications (315mm) and decent (modern) CPU Heatsinks...

So a Noctua NH-D14 or other higher end coolers won't fit in most older cases, you might get something like an NH-D9L or eventually NH-C14 inside...

 

And PSU mounted on top.

 

Besides that?
Not much...

 

 

PS: Pics of the case??

[justpoet]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

...

And PSU mounted on top.

...

PS: Pics of the case??

Definitely PSU on top, though…why is that actually BAD vs just something to be considered for location?

 

I'll have to go dig out the case and try to grab a picture for you later.

[Stefan Payne]

2 minutes ago, justpoet said:

Definitely PSU on top, though…why is that actually BAD vs just something to be considered for location?

simple:
PSU on buttom sucks in fresh, cold air.

PSU on top sucks in the preheated air from the CPU. And in an old Case with modern shit, you might have huge Heatsink on the CPU, wich blocks the intake of the PSU a bit and the PSU has to suck in the preheated air from Graphics cards, wich gets pushed through the CPU Heatsink and then through the PSU...

Wich is why some people think that you need 50°C - back in the day with PSU on top, it might have been needed. with modern 

2 minutes ago, justpoet said:

I'll have to go dig out the case and try to grab a picture for you later.

That would be very helpful!

With the old cases, they are made for older stuff. Depending on what you have it can be awesome (yes, there were some good cases even at the time) or rather useless as well...

[justpoet]

Unfortunately, it appears as if somebody decided to recycle the old system on me while I wasn't looking, so this unfortunately no longer matters.  Thanks to those that commented for the info though!