P4 heat issue and front side sound port issue

[SirNuke]

I am repairing a referbished gateway e-3600 (p4 1.8ghz, 256mb). It appears the power supply is dying, so I am attempted to replace the case (old case uses odd power supply size, real standard does not fit). However, there is two issues with the new case. One is the specs given to me were not totally correct (height wise). With the correct ones, the power supply fits right over the cpu. The fan+heatsink come less than 1/3 inches away from it. This leads me to my first quesiton... Do p4s produce enough heat to cause this an issue? I may be able to reattach the power supply to the bottom (the mb has only 3 pcis, no isas), but it appears the heatsink still gets a fair bit of air flow (its perminate home is not in a desk). I have not tried booting up in the new case, and I do not believe there is a hardware moniter in the bios.

Alright, second question. The pins for the connectors (front usb, sound, power switch...) on the mb are not labeled (beyond front usb, front sound, front panel). Using the old case, I found the location of the power led and power switch, and the front usb appears to be standard, but I would like to use the front sound and all of the leds and switches. If I misplace anything (reset switch, front usb, sound...) and attempted to use it, is there any chance of hardware damage of any kind?

Thanks in advance
SirNuke (first 1014)

 

[paparazi]

This type of side mounted PSU was fairly common a couple of years back, although not particularly good for cooling they didn't cause too many issues with relatively cool P4 1.8's or similar.
Your CPU temps would be improved with a modern style (PSU mounted above and higher in the case alternately with your older side mounted type "TWIN FAN" power supplies are particularly effective, drawing off heat directly from the CPU heatsink.
It really depends on if the Gateway is using standard ATX form factor components or if they are proprietory Gateway, a local PC build shop may be able to determine this for you.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[SirNuke]

The mb is 'standard' atx (the ports are kind of weird. but I just remove the port cover.). The p4 is in a intel equivilent of the socket 7 (I don't build/repair many intels). Due to the orginal user or the referbishers, the fan does not want to come off, so I cannot easily replace it. I have not tried booting up with the new case (I did place it in the case).

SirNuke (first 1014)