Comments on: What I’ve Been Doing

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:48:15 +0000

It is actually very simple, if the diagrams are well marked and big enough to read. Most connections are keyed so it is difficult to make a mistake. It just takes time.

I only need a screwdriver for the power supply and the motherboard, everything else was done without tools. You don’t have to spend the time I did routing cables, but I get a bit obsessive about that.

By: oldwhitelady

oldwhitelady — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:48:01 +0000

It looks like a lot of work, to me.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 03:15:49 +0000

In reply to Badtux.

I installed Windows today and everything seems to be working. I need to move stuff around so I can get within cable range of my router for the heavy downloading to come to update and add the software I use. I don’t really trust wireless for those operations.

Excise managed to knock a 21-inch CRT off a table and it was heavier and more stable than this mid-tower case. Fortunately that didn’t implode, but I assume that if they build it, he will knock it over.

The way the new monitor works, I can attach the XP machine via the VGA port and the new machine via HDMI and then just switch the inputs to use it for both machines. That saves a lot of desk space. The video card in the XP supports 1600 X 900, which is close enough.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 02:11:59 +0000

My case is heavy and wide enough that a cat knocking it over is not a problem, even with my 18 pounders. And I agree about the morons who design a case designed to have the power supply in the bottom, and ship a power supply pre-installed that clearly was designed to be installed at the top!

I don’t really need a fan at the top of my case, but installed one there for much the same reason. Not that it stops the occasional cat from parking there to get a butt blow-dry from time to time :).

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 22:05:39 +0000

The annoying part is that the power supply and case came as a package from the same manufacturer, so whoever chose them should have known that the power supply was going to be mounted at the bottom. I could build or buy an extension cable, but I am not planning on adding any cards at the moment, so I won’t bother. It’s just annoying in an otherwise well designed package.

I am leery of putting the power supply at the top as it would help the cats tip it over when they jump on top. I may add a fourth fan [not counting the fan in the power supply] to blow up to discourage somecat from sleeping on the top of the case.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 07:49:59 +0000

At least there are no ribbon cables to block airflow.

Heh. The biggest advantage of SATA, IMO :).

Your main problem is that the power supply you’re using was designed to be mounted to the right of the motherboard (as we’re looking at it here), but your case manufacturer chose to mount it to the left instead. I.e., the power supply is supposed to be mounted on the same side as the CPU, not on the other side. That appears to be an issue with a lot of computer cases nowadays which have moved the power supply for one reason or another (for gamer tower cases, usually so they can put massive fans at the top of the case), that’s one reason why I spec’ed a power supply at the top of my tower rather than at the bottom where a lot of the gamer type cases put it. Ended up with a slightly smaller fan at the top of my case becasue of that, but since I’m not overclocking and am using a relatively low-powered video card that tops out at a whole 36w power usage at full blast rather than one of those monsters that needs two 12v power connectors to power it, I don’t care — I still have way more airflow than I need.