Antec Fusion 430

[Watson306]

Hi Guys,
I am new here - and I havent built a PC for maybe 10 years, but I got given a ASROCK FM2A75 Pro4+ atx board (which I mistakenly initially thought was a Micro atx board), and have been wanting to build a media server for some time, so started looking for a cheap HTPC case that wouldnt look out of place in the living room.
Unfortunately because of my initial mistake I purchased a used Antec Fusion 430 which is a big case but only holds a micro atx board.
So this is the dilema - do i mod the case and fit the ASROCK FM2A75 Pro4+ atx board which appears to be possible by removing an inner seperator (seperates the area where the motherboards sits and where the PSU is. This would then require a smaller (if there is such a thing) PSU or lift it up to the top of the case.

I was wondering if anyone had done this - I know its an old case which is why I am struggling to find anything.

Many Thanks in advance.

[EndlessWaves]

Smaller PSU shouldn't be a problem. You can get SFX, TFX and FlexATX PSUs pretty easily these days. Some SFX PSUs even come with an adapter for ATX mountings, which are also available from UK sources, although whether they'd hold the smaller PSU away from the motherboard I don't know.

[Watson306]

Smaller PSU shouldn't be a problem. You can get SFX, TFX and FlexATX PSUs pretty easily these days. Some SFX PSUs even come with an adapter for ATX mountings, which are also available from UK sources, although whether they'd hold the smaller PSU away from the motherboard I don't know.

So I have found an image online of how the Fusion 430 looks at the moment with the interior wall seperating both areas:
w w w.geek.com/xyzimages/stories/articlepics/ces2006_silANT/Fusion_O.jpg

The area on the top left of the image is where the PSU currently sites. So I will need to either remove that interior divider completely or just cut out a section at the bottom - but I am not sure what the best way to cut it if I should?
I did think that one way to make it look half tidy would to do it with holesaws, and then join them up with a jigsaw or hacksaw.
Any suggestions would be appreciated or if anyone has done similar?

[EndlessWaves]

Is it actually welded or soldered anywhere? If it's just joined together with pop rivets then you could consider drilling them out and the pieces might come apart nicely.

Looking some pictures up it appears they've actually mounted the PSU upside down on the bottom of the case so you may end up making your own mounting bracket/blanking plate. I'd probably mount the PSU on it's side with the intake facing the case

[scaryjim]

Personally I wouldn't bother with the hassle; I'd swap out either the case or the mobo for one that's compatible with the other. Stick the unused component on ebay and I'd expect you'll make back most of the difference (do it with the motherboard and you might find that you can actually make enough for it second hand to pay for a cheap FM2+ matx mobo outright).

The problem with your intended mod is that you'll also need to source and somehow fit motherboard standoffs to hold the mobo in place; you'll need to work out cable routing for the front panel connections, which may also be too short to extend right to the end of the case, etc.; and of course you'll lose access to three of the expansion slots. You'll also need to make sure all the cut edges are clean and don't risk shorting out any components on the underside of the motherboard, and you might destabilise the case: looking at some pictures it's a fairly substantial piece of metal that you're looking at removing.

All that said, if you're intent on making the modification it should work, and the images I can find strongly suggest that the plate in question is riveted in so you should be able to simply drill out the rivets and remove the plate without any cutting. I'd then suggest investing in a 1u (a.k.a FlexATX) power supply which you should be able to mount relatively easily with a small amount of drilling and cutting so it lies in the space ABOVE where the ATX PSU would go. This would leave additional space above the motherboard for air circulation, or even to fit low profile expansion cards with the backplates removed (not always a great idea, but can work for some types of card). The main thing I can't tell from online pictures is whether doing that will lose you the drive cage at the front, and if there's anything underneath the drive cage that might get in the way when you try to fit the mobo. I suppose it depends on whether you picked the case up cheap enough to write it off it the mod doesn't work ... my personal modding rule is don't cut anything you can't afford to throw away

[DanceswithUnix]

There us a reason for the wall you would have to cut out, to keep the motherboard and PSU in their own thermal zones to control fan noise. It works very well, I wouldn't want to mess that up tbh.

Better to just get a uATX motherboard, do the job right and end up with a nice whisper quiet system.

Mine has a Asus A88X FM2+ motherboard with a 65W A8-6500 in it. In the middle of summer I did have to turn the chassis fans up a little to the point I could hear the machine running, but usually if it wasn't for the flashing HDD led you wouldn't be able to tell.

[Watson306]

Any ideas guys?