Project: Passion

[Liquid_Scope_99]

cant wait to see this one progress good start man .

[Mach]

Nice idea and great start

Here's an idea. Where is the power LED routed? What about routing the power led to a heart shaped piece of acrylic that surrounds the power button? You could add one of these to make the power LED pulse or fade in/fade out.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/40...ontroller.html

[Datech]

Nice idea and great start

Here's an idea. Where is the power LED routed? What about routing the power led to a heart shaped piece of acrylic that surrounds the power button? You could add one of these to make the power LED pulse or fade in/fade out.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/40...ontroller.html

That's pretty sweet man, I'll keep that in mind. I couldn't figure out an easy way to remove the power button area from the top of the case, so it might not be an option. We'll see though, thanks.

[DonT-FeaR]

/\ good idea man... i love that window.

[gramatton]

Damn, fiance looked over my shoulder while I was reading this and wondered why I hadn't done anything like this....

Well, looks good man, I really like the theme, can't wait to see it finished.

+rep for originality

[Datech]

WoohoO! I got the new components in today, so my computer is about to go under the knife for the sake of Passion. Hopefully my next post will contain bragging rights picutes of my new parts and new system, complete with Vista x64 Ultimate (perks of being an IT manager), new mobo, new PSU, and new HDD.

Wish me luck!

[DonT-FeaR]

good luck lol nice

[Datech]

K, so after wrestling with food poisoning over the weekend I finally got my computer back to where I want it to be. The new parts work fine and I'll probably write a review on the P5Q Pro if someone hasn't already.

As promised (no one really asked for em, I'm just a giving kind of guy ) here are the pics of my new parts, and the parts that are going into Passion. I somehow managed to run out of screws while I was putting my computer back together, so I don't have enough to install the PSU, HDD, and mobo into the case I have yet, so this post is more about my computer than it is about the mod, heh. The cooling kit, CCFL kit, sleeving kit, and plexiglass should all arrive tomorrow though, so I should have pics up of the finished mod (minus the components I have yet to buy) after Thanksgiving. That will be the real meat of this mod, and after that I'll just throw in updates on the upcoming CPU, RAM, monitor, and keyboard purchases to round out the system. And, of course, Girlfriend's reaction come Christmas.

The new mobo:

One of the cool little things not shown in this pic is that the IO panel is actually padded. I've never seen that on any other mobo or IO panel, and its really nice because it allows a snug fit of both the panel and the mobo inside the case. You also don't have to worry about anything pressing too hard against something else inside it.

Shiny box for the Rosewill 750W PSU

The PSU is completely reflective, so a direct pic is kinda useless. It has two 80mm fans with Blue LEDs, but they aren't terribly strong and are easily overpowered in my green monster of a case, heh. I'll probably go with a modular design for my next +650W PSU, because as you can see this thing has a ton of cables. I'm only using one of the four 12V rails, and one out of two SATA and one out of two Molex power cables at the moment, so I kinda just shoved the rest into the spare drive bay.

Honestly though, this is the first Rosewill product I have any respect for, which is saying a lot considering how many POS products I've purchased from Rosewill (about 6). This PSU came with a great user manual that outlined every connector and its purpose, which you can see in this pic. It also had other goodies that most +650W PSUs should/probably do have, such as a 4 pin ATX AND 8 pin EPS mobo connector, as well as a 20+4 main connector for both types of mobos. It also came with a 6 to 8 pin PCI-E adapter (950W version comes with 8 pin connectors stock, no adapter required). I have to say its much better than the little Antec 430W I was using. You can see my gfx card and my heatsink all put back together here.

500GB HDD, to start my movie collection.

Everything placed and ready, kinda. That's my cable TV/FM radio/S-Video/input recorder card on the bottom there with the 9600's fanless heat sink behind it. The TV card worked awesome in XP, but the Vista 64 drivers aren't working so hot right now.

All wired up and ready to go!

Purring (6x80mm + 2x120mm fans) and glowing like a little radioactive kitty.

After I switched the RAM slots the new system hit BIOS with no problem, and I installed Vista Ultimate x64 no problem. I'm actually loving this new system, and I can't wait til I can grab new RAM (mobo can take DDR2-1200, I have 667) and a new CPU.

So, from the aftermath of Datech's Smilodon (Raidmax's weird case name, not mine) arises the first glimpse of Passion's heart, mind, and muscle:

One perfectly good Asus P5N-SLI

And a very capable Antec 430W PSU.

That's all for now folks. Hopefully this time next week I'll be bragging about my leet Dremel skills, maybe not... We'll just wait and see.

Oh, and always remember: When using speakers that are THX certified, make sure all the stupid 'Environment enhancements' are disabled at your audio drivers....

[DonT-FeaR]

looking good

[KiLLERMAN21]

Nice gear there. Now go mod.