Kids Computer

[Tech-Daddy]

For the PSU, I am thankful that you did not plug in your mobo to that PSU. Gateway PSU's will usually have a proprietary pinout on their ATX connections. (power where a ground is, ground where a power is... you get my drift...). I smoked a motherboard to one of those once a few years back... not a happy camper.

There are small PSU's manufactured if you are needing one to fit without chopping, but it will be more expense to you to maintain that formfactor. If you have a generic PSU that you trust, and it will fit (taking into account CPU placement and the heat sink you plan on putting on it, then go for it.

But be sure to plan out what is going where, and you have an accurate picture of what all will be inside. Also take into account optical drives and how far they stick out *with* the power molex and the IDE cable and make sure your replacement PSU is not going to knock those outta whack.

If you are going to use an old school P4, those are heaters/toasters. Your heatsink will need to be of decent quality, and you will need airflow. I'm thinking you need to make an executive decision on that blowhole!

Congrats on getting your girls into modding their machine! Great project, and I will be watching this! Very interested!

-=TD

[chaksq]

Cool idea having your kids help you build something for them. I have one of those computers sitting around somewhere. My parents were still using it until a few months ago.
I hope to set up mine as an audio jukebox as it doesn't make much noise.

The power supply is a SFX form factor unit so keep that in mind when looking for a replacement.

Edit: The processor is a celeron, not sure what speed.

[The Black Pumpkin]

I have had two old Gateways (had two, got rid of one) that had P2's. The power supply from the lesser one works great to test low power requiring mobos. Just tested a friend's sister's computer with it this afternoon, it's own psu is dead.

So their not all proprietary.