Project: Citrus G5

Nope, all is well. Sata is what i wanted to begin with. Impreved speed and this HD has 16mb cache. Plus i needed the space. PVR functions for the sat card take up 1.5Gb/hr and would fill the little 30Gb drive in no time.

Plus, now i'll be able to use that 30Gb drive to get the 1800+ duron system in my closet going. Which btw will be my 4th computer :) That'll be my next mod i think, if all goes as planed, it'll be modeled after the concept case on the TBCS_TV website header. (yeah thats right! someone's got to make that frikin sweet case!!!)

Picture update!

I havent made much progress besides mounting the fans. A new problem has come up aswell, the sata connectors for the new drive stick out further then the IDE & molex ones do so i have to redrill holes a little further out and use stand off's to get the front of the drive above the little lip that i had it against. This should improve cooling aswell.

I also found out that the dvd rom drive im going to use is also a cd-rw which is a bonus allthough i probly wont burn anything on it.

Here is the areo cool fan mounted in its housing, the bare happauge win nova plus satellite card, the new WD Caviar 250Gb sata2 drive and the acoustic mat's which i'll use to cover the blemishes on the inside of the case.

Here are the new AC Ryan fans. I'm not terribly impressed with the UV lighting but through the orange plexi it looks awsome.

And lastly, the orange Bulgin 16mm switches, one dot and one circle.

I'm going to try and make the mounting plate for thies today. It has to be large enough to cover over the old switches and front panel connectors.

Thats all for now!

Looking better by the day, and I'm curious as to what your thoughts are going to be on the vandals.

Mounting plate is done!

I used a piece of aluminum that i had kicking around and marked out my design. I basicly just eye'd it up and took measurements to ensure it was straight. Then i did my rough cut with the dremel.

After the piece was cut and could lay flat on the case i took a rough estimate of the position of the switches. I would have like to install some usb ports here aswell but the length of cable on the usb ports is about 5" so it wouldnt even reach the front. Oh well... Here i am cutting the aluminum with a wood boaring bit (works like a charm). I used a 5/8 bit cause thats what size the switches are. It turned out that the holes were a **** hair too small so i had to file it out a bit. I am wearing a work glove because that aluminum gets damn hot while cutting and i dont have any clamps.

And here is the finished product! The holes are a fraction off center which i think actually looks good.

Next step is to epoxy the plate to the case and drill through the old power switch. Then wire up the switches.

nice work looking good hope to see more soon!!

Another step done.

I was going to drill more 5/8's hole in the case but the old switches and screw holes would have prevented the bulgin nuts from sitting flush.

So screw that noise! I just cut out a section big enough to fit the switches through but small enough that the plate will cover it all. I'll file this smooth and clean up the hole a little before i mount it.

Here is what it'll look like once i epoxy the panel into place.

Now im afraid i have to hack apart a perfectly good case and salvage the power/reset wires for the switches.

As allways, more updates as they occur!

... oh snap that sucks good luck looks good tho

Switches are all wired up!

Nice mounting of the switches mate, nice job.

This is probly my last post for today. I've epoxied the switches in place aswell as the new female power socket on the rear of the case. I would have taken pics but there is no point.

Well since i did all that i desided to work on the interior wiring. Luckly i had lots of zap straps for the little harness i made. I really lucked out as there seemed to be just enough length from all the diffrent wires to reach thier destination. I did make one small mistake but its more of an incovience then a problem. I didnt check which molex line i ran uptop and i ran the line with the floppy connector on it. I was thinking of just cutting it off but it could be usefull for future mods. My alternative is to either hide the floppy plug or redo the harness. Here is a pic, obviously im not done and most of the visable loose wires will be hidden under the mobo.

I had to add an extention sata adapter because the straight back design on the PSU line was hitting the back of the case. The fold down type is the only one that wouldnt make me remount the HDD.

[edit]
Ha ha! you can see the shaving cream lid i used to make the radious for the switch plate in the pic! lmfao