If you need to use UTF8 charset and want to convert your database charset to UTF8 here is a simple way to do it:

1. Make sure you backup your database (If your database is new no need to think about that)
2. Now open your notepad and Copy & Paste code below:

   [php]<?php
   // Database info

   $dbhost = "localhost";
   $dbuser = "db_user";
   $dbpass = "your_dbpass";
   $dbname = "your_dbname";

   //—————

   header("Content-type: text/plain");

   $dbconn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die( mysql_error() );
   $db = mysql_select_db($dbname) or die( mysql_error() );

   $sql = "SHOW TABLES";
   $result = mysql_query($sql) or die( mysql_error() );

   while ( $row = mysql_fetch_row($result) )
   {
   $table = mysql_real_escape_string($row[0]);
   $sql = "ALTER TABLE $table DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci, CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8";
   mysql_query($sql) or die( mysql_error() );
   print "$table changed to UTF-8.\n";
   }

   mysql_close($dbconn);
   ?>[/php]

3. Edit database username & password data in the code.
4. Save that file as convert2Utf8.php and upload to your site’s base/admin directory.
5. Browse that file using your browser (Eg. http://myserver.com/convert2Utf8.php)
6. Check for the results..

This simple php script converts all the tables to UTF8.

Cheers!