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PROJECT LOG High Voltage. Small Case

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jameseboy

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Location
Livingston, Scotland
So as of ten minutes ago, i now have all the parts for my lan rig. Its nothing special. However, upgrades will happen in time.

Now the hardware going into it at the moment is:-
Gigabyte G41M-ES2H Motherboard
Either a Q8200 2.3ghz or a Q9550 2.8ghz
A ATI radeon hd 4850 512mb
4gb DDR2 800
2 x 250GB HDD's

And for the main part of this project.

this case.
sg01-v1.jpg
 
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Been VERY busy with uni work in the last week. (the joys that are sql and oracle databases) so not had a lot of time to get this started. however i did get a chance to test the motherboard i got. (purchased 2nd hand).

PB010002.jpg

I had no idea whether or not it worked, so i went into my box of goodies and pulled out all my socket 775 processors to test the board with. I also used a 1gb kingston ddr2 memory module.

PB010004.jpg
^ Pentium 4 D 925, C2Q Q8200 and C2Q Q9550^

So i plugged it all onto my test bench
PB010001.jpg
I used the P4 925 as it was my oldest processor. The board was 2nd hand and i didnt want to test my better processors on it then the board kill the chip.


Then booted it up. and.... nothing.
So i thought, damn, its a busted board.

I searched the model number online and found some interesting reading with the ram modules. Apparently this board is VERY picky about what ram it uses.

I looked through the recomended list and seen that some samsung ram was compatible.
Score. I have 8GB of samsung ram in my server.
So i whiped a stick out and used it on the board.

It booted no problem, so all my hardware is good to go.
 
Im planning to use it for lan partys, so yeah, itll be handy. Most of my mates live in flats, so its an absolute pain to drag my cm690 up the stairs, plus my monitor and other stuff. going to be picking up a cheapish 1440x900 20 inch monitor also for lanning.
 
Sorry this has taken so long, the weather in scotlands been rather poor as late (surprise)

Anyway, I removed the DVD cage as the first part of the mod, due to the fact that I wish to liquid cool this case at some point and need some space for a res/pump, and as part of the design, I want to cut a bullet hole effect window into the drive bays.

But i diverse.

Tonight I done a quick test fit of the hardware in the case and made sure everything was working.
PB080005.jpg
yes..... that is an ide dvd drive. Only getting used atm for installing os ect.

So yes, All hardware is fine. My HD4850 is being used in my server at the moment, but it will be getting removed this week once ive finnished my coursework for uni and being put into this rig.

PB080008.jpg
Linux Ubuntu.

Hopefully the weather will improve a bit by friday so i can start my modding on the exterior of the case. Cutting some grills and starting the window.


Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to paint acrylic? should i just give it a sand down then hit it with primer, paint ect??
 
So weather finally worked up a bit better.
Got the internal front panel painted. This was silver
PB090003.jpg

Also cut the grills out of the top panel. These will be replaced with yellow fan grills.
PB090001.jpg

PB090002.jpg

And sanded down the front panel. Now ready for primer and yellow paint.
PB090004.jpg

Going out later today to get myself some yellow and black paint for the case.
 
Been a while, unfortunatly not got a great deal done =[ however, even a little progress IS progress.

So I've gotten the front panel painted yellow now =]
PB240005.jpg

As well as feet and a few other minor parts of the case.
PB240007.jpg
PB240010.jpg

Personally I do think that this looks much better than the black/silver theme that was on it previously.
PB240011.jpg

Also, I finally got my HD4850 out my server and into this case (well, shell)
PB240014.jpg

And YES, that fan is balanced on a sata cable :L

PB240012.jpg
PB240015.jpg
PB240016.jpg

Im looking for a new cpu cooler, it needs to be a low profile one that will fit under the psu in this case.
Also, going to paint and rewire the psu, which will allow me to cut down the amount of spare cable thats on this psu, plan is to have literally, only just what i need and no additional cables on it.

As for the hard drives, im not putting that cage in when it comes around time to do the final build. Im going to mount the Hard Drives on standoffs, and use some 3mm acrylic to build a "shell" for either side of the drives which will allow me to mount 2 Hard drives much closer than they currently are.

Also the Cooler on my GPU is rather poor, and seen as this is going to be a tight case, i was wondering if anybody has any ideas on a good gpu cooler? its a reference ASUS hd4850 512mb card thats in it.
 
As is said," there hasn't been a project on time and under budget since before the pyramids" usually stated about government financed ones, certainly applies to me and mine.
Thanksgiving/Black Friday excess taking place here. Too many choices.

LOL, bought a "refurbished" Cooler Master 690 from USA Cooler Master Store B-Stock (sigh, 690 II Advanced at almost half price new for two day sale at newegg).
Project time.

Scored a refurbushed Hannspree 25 inch (24.6) monitor last week, less than $70, but blacks are not so dark, and resolution is not really 1080p.

Latest websurfer/netflix build (Asrock 880GM-LE, AMD Phenom II 545, 8 GB RAM, Corsair CX400, "refurbished" Samsung 1TB F3, Samsung CDVDRW, MSI N520GT video card, Case is a cheapskate, Rosewill Blackbone (improved 2 fan Xigmatek Asgard II).

Straightfoward and enjoyable after last case mod. Overclocked to 3.3, core unlock next.

Hope you are enjoying yourself as much as we enjoy watching.

How tall a cooler are you looking for?
 
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