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Cool1Net6
01-21-2007, 05:13 AM
Project Pioneer: Stage 1 (January 2007)
Over the summer of 2006, around the time I signed up to TBCS, I spent my free time getting into the world of modding. My old case was cramped, didn't cool well, and was a boring beige box. To fix these faults, I purchased a cheap, new case and started doing simple modifications to enhance its appearance and functionality. After a few months of use, I decided to post pictures of my progress thus far. This is by far not as good as some of the other mods I see on here, but I tried very hard to do the best I could with what I had.

I still have a lot of plans for the future but I wanted to get a general opinion of my progress now. If you see it, please excuse the dust.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x949.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x950.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x952.jpg

I leave my computer on 24/7. Because this case lights up, I tinted the side window so I could sleep at night. I also put a black mesh filter over the side 80mm fan to help reduce light more and it helps with dust. The color RED was chosen because it is a dim color by nature and doesn't look as bright as BLUE at night, plus everyone seems to be doing BLUE nowadays. I have a few ideas for opening up the face and top of the case to help with air flow more, but that is for the future. I am satisfied with its performance at the moment.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x953.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x954.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x955.jpg

The insides are nothing special. An AMD AthlonXP 2800+ mated with 512MB DDR RAM helps me do everyday tasks like watching television and Microsoft Office, and a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro EZ with 128MB for light gaming. The motherboard is an ECS, which it wouldnt be had I known more about motherboards before I bought it. It has 2 IDE channels, 2 internal SATA ports, built in megabit ethernet, AGP 8x, and 3 PCI slots. To expand on the motherboad, a Megabit NIC and USB2.0 card were added, and this is all powered by a 400-watt power supply.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x956.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x959.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x960.jpg

I wanted a cool yet quiet case, so there are 2 120mm fans on the front and back of the case, as well as a 120mm adjustable fan on the PSU. The CPU fan was redicuously loud, so an 80mm fan plus 70-80mm adapter was added to the stock heatsink. The graphics card has its own fan, and 2 45mm fans as well as 4 60mm fans help to cool some of the hard drives.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x957.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x966.jpg

Even though the CPU, RAM, and graphics card is less than amazing, I do have a terrabyte of storage available. The hard drives are as follow:

80GB Western Digital IDE
120GB Seagate IDE
200GB Maxtor IDE
250GB Seagate SATA
400GB Samsung SATA

The motherboard only has 2 SATA ports, so I have reached the maximum capacity of hard drives without a PCI RAID card or USB external enclosures. My Sony 16x DVD+-RW Burner will help to alleviate any future problems.

You also may have noticed the hard drive coolers. This is because after the addition of the 400GB Samsung SATA, all of my hard drive temperatures rose by 4 degrees and one even got as hot as my CPU (40 celsius). The coolers were given to me by a friend to help cool the drives, even if not that effectively. I also staggered a drive to help with airflow. My system drive (C:) sits inside the Hot Swappable rack you see near the top of the case. It is always the coolest drive.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x963.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x962.jpg

The green thing you keep seeing in the lower right corner is a wireless XBOX controller adapter. It plugs into the internal USB port on the USB2 card, and lets me play games like Need For Speed Carbon, Madden 2007, and all those 16-bit console games with ease.

I also tried my absolute best at cable management. I've seen some cases on here where I see no wires and I really think I can still do a better job on my cables, but I am not sure where. Everything doesn't move and the cables at the back are flat against the case.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x969.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x970.jpg

I know I didnt do much in terms of modding. This is far from a Crimson Sky or a HP Res 3, but to compensate I tried to make everything as clean and minimalistic as I could.

So thats my mod. I would love to hear feedback from all of you on what I could change, maybe ideas for future additions and changes, constructive criticisms, etc. Thank you for viewing this thread. 8)

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/StepForwarD/x972.jpg

EDIT: This is my 100th post!

-Cool-

Link to original thread (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6127)