Kids Computer

[Ironcat]

As some of you may know, I recently got ahold of an old Gateway computer for the kids. A 433C which was apparently a 433 Mhz Celeron with a 10Gb HDD and 128 Mb of RAM. I know, I know... but it was free... :)

So anyway, I was asking around in the forums for help in deciding to upgrade or gut it or whatever, and last night my daughters said, "Hey Daddy, why don't you make us one of your special computers and it can go on your cool website (TBCS) and our computer will be famous!"

So... here we go...

I didn't know I was going to be making a worklog so I don't have any before pics... deal with it.

My 11 year old asked if she could paint the front, and of course I said yes (after all it's their computer). I asked if she knew how to clean and prep it for painting and she said yes...

This is what came back in the house with her later...

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/01-Face.jpg

it turns out her "cleaning" was spraying it down with a hose and spray painting it while wet.

Here's the front without the faceplate... her paint job was actually an improvement!

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/02-Front.jpg

... and here's a shot of what I am dealing with on the inside.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/03-Insides.jpg

This is the HDD mounted flush with the roof above the CD-Rom

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/04-Top.jpg

This is the dinky power supply and mobo-mess inside

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/05-Bottom.jpg

Which leads out the back to this...

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/06-Back.jpg

[Ironcat]

Obviously I am going to need a new motherboard and internals... I doubt they could even play Myst on a 433 Celeron...

I found this on my shelf of modding goodies.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/07-NewMobo.jpg

It's an Intel E210882 Desktop Board and while it isn't great, it's the only board I have on my shelf that will fit in this case.

It's for a P4 and it actually has a processor in it, but I don't know where I got it and can't read anything on it to tell what speed it is.
Integrated graphics and sound mean less I have to buy to get it going.

The board has a FSB of 800, it will hold 2Gb of RAM and it has a couple of PCI slots... I guess it will have to do.

[Ironcat]

I made the 11 and 12 year old each clean and sand one side of the case before school, they will prime and paint it later today.

Kenzie's side...

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/Picture006-1.jpg

Katie's side...

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/_ironcat_/Picture005.jpg

[psychowit]

Ha awsm thats a nice little family project :D

[b4i7]

sounds like you have a couple of mod daughters:up:

its always nice to have family projects like that

[XcOM]

yea, the FAMOUS modding kiddies!

[Drum Thumper]

Moving along nicely. Is the front panel going to stay as is?

[simon275]

Gotta love child labour who needs a power sander just get two kids and some sand paper. JK!

Nice one mate good to see a family project and getting your kids involved with computers at a young age is great to see. Fill it up with educational software and have them doing maths a year ahead of there current level in no time.

[Ironcat]

Moving along nicely. Is the front panel going to stay as is?
I don't know. The girls can't decide if they want it to stay nice and flat for sticking barbie stickers on or if they want a blowhole fan in front... (can you guess where I am leaning?) Likewise, one wants a plexi side window (I don't know why, there's nothing special in there) and the other wants a nice flat side panel for stickers and whatnot.

Snag #1 : My kids can't prime for crap. They picked a white primer because they are thinking the case is gonna be pastel pink, but we just use rattle cans and I guess they didn't shake it well enough or something, I have blobs, dots, and orange peel and who knows what else. I guess tomorrow they will be sanding again.

Snag #2 : I gutted the inside for switching the mobo out and it turns out that there is no fancy tin snap on piece for the back of the mobo, the case actually has holes cut in the steel directly in line with all the ports and plugs on this mobo. Guess I am going to get to use my dremel...

Snag #3 : While gutting it, I took a minute to read the side label on the power supply... It was only 90 friggin watts! The good news is that I have 4 or 5 old (and not so old) power supplies laying around, everything from a big old 200 to an Antec True Power 480, but the case is actually formed with an angle that was the perfect size for the itty bitty 90... so none of my PSU's will fit... should I just chop another wedge with the dremel or what?

* Pictures tomorrow *

[Eclecticos]

Snag #1 : My kids can't prime for crap.

Loooool. . . you better get them some masks for sanding.

[Tech-Daddy]

For the PSU, I am thankful that you did not plug in your mobo to that PSU. Gateway PSU's will usually have a proprietary pinout on their ATX connections. (power where a ground is, ground where a power is... you get my drift...). I smoked a motherboard to one of those once a few years back... not a happy camper.

There are small PSU's manufactured if you are needing one to fit without chopping, but it will be more expense to you to maintain that formfactor. If you have a generic PSU that you trust, and it will fit (taking into account CPU placement and the heat sink you plan on putting on it, then go for it.

But be sure to plan out what is going where, and you have an accurate picture of what all will be inside. Also take into account optical drives and how far they stick out *with* the power molex and the IDE cable and make sure your replacement PSU is not going to knock those outta whack.

If you are going to use an old school P4, those are heaters/toasters. Your heatsink will need to be of decent quality, and you will need airflow. I'm thinking you need to make an executive decision on that blowhole! ;)

Congrats on getting your girls into modding their machine! Great project, and I will be watching this! Very interested!

-=TD

[chaksq]

Cool idea having your kids help you build something for them. I have one of those computers sitting around somewhere. My parents were still using it until a few months ago.
I hope to set up mine as an audio jukebox as it doesn't make much noise.

The power supply is a SFX form factor unit so keep that in mind when looking for a replacement.

Edit: The processor is a celeron, not sure what speed.

[The Black Pumpkin]

I have had two old Gateways (had two, got rid of one) that had P2's. The power supply from the lesser one works great to test low power requiring mobos. Just tested a friend's sister's computer with it this afternoon, it's own psu is dead.

So their not all proprietary.