PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: Adept on August 24, 2003, 20:21
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Inspired by The Chuckle Brothers' forays into the world of PC building (http://pc-pals.com/index.php?board=29;action=display;threadid=5837) (nice thread Tony and Simon!), I've decided to upgrade my system to something half decent.
My current spec is an Athlon 1.3GHz, 512MB PC2100 DDR, 40GB, 15GB and 30GB HDDs, Gainward GeForce 4 MX440 64MB "Golden Sample", Creative 5.1 sound card, RAID and Firewire.
A few things bother me about my current setup:-
- The beige case is boring, boring, boring :o
- The noise from the PC is deafening. I want to be able to leave the PC on all the time without upsetting the family
- The case does not have enough 3.5" carriers for all my HDDs - I'll be adding more later!
- the 1.3GHz CPU is a little slow for some of the apps I use (video editing). My present mobo will take up to Athlon XP2000+ but no more.
- I'd like extra USB ports (only 2 at present) and I'd like them front mounted
- a headphone socket on the front panel would be nice
- I fancy a change ;)
So I bought this case (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=43005) from Ebuyer @ £43.19. As you'll see from the photo, it is a brushed stainless steel case with a perspex cutout side panel. But the crowning glory are the two multicoloured bubble efect tubes at either side of the case, which cycle colour between red, blue, white, yellow and green ::)
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpc-pals.com%2Fadept%2FImage053a.jpg&hash=95efbf98b3a8c1f6e95921b3279041aa250d3662)
Definitely not boring ;) The case takes 4 5.25" devices and has 4 internal HDD bays and 2 x 3.5 floppy disk type bays. All the edges in the case are rolled - no bloody fingers!
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpc-pals.com%2Fadept%2FImage028a.jpg&hash=4df806256515826ce7db74e1705cbefd46e7a56f)
There are only two minor gripes with the case:-
- the drives have to be screwed into place - there are no quick release drive rails :(
- the supplied 350 watt PSU is a little noisy
My existing CD-ROM and CD-RW don't exactly go with the rest of the case, but EBuyer now have stock of these (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=43769) Coolermaster Universal Silver Bezels @ £7.96 each, so I have two on order, arriving Friday ;)
Since the Akasa CPU fan I had was incredibly noisy, I replaced it with one of these (http://www.coolermaster.com/retail/product_detail.asp?lang=eng&at=boutique&category_id=4&product_id=64) @ £11.11. The Coolermaster Aero 7 Lite is an excellent fan, rated for up to Athlon XP 3200+. It has a vertically mounted fan rather than the normal horizontally mounted one. This fan has been redesigned for quieter operation and using the supplied rheostat, you can trun down the speed of the fan to a level of noise and CPU temperature that suits you best. I have set mine for near silent operation which maintains a constant 53 degC temperature.
So I have the case sorted out - all I need now is a new motherboard, CPU and memory. I've been looking at this Epox 8RDA3G (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51427). Does anyone have any experience of this board (or for that matter any Epox board)? I'm probably going to get an AMD Atlon XP 2600+ CPU (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=43756) and a pair of Crucial PC2700 DDR (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=42151) memory chips to go with it. What do you think?
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Adept..looks good.. xtra usb ports in front ;D
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Dont you just hate these show offs and Hookie even has to have his usb memory stick showing too ::)
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Ah! But that's where I keep my knob Hookstar :o
You know the one for slowing down the processor fan ;) :D
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No Sandra .. thats my IR usb for the IR on the Phone for downloading pics.
;D
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Flaher git than I thought then Hookie :P
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No Sandra .. thats my IR usb for the IR on the Phone for downloading pics.
I'm thinking of getting a Bluetooth dongle for the very same purpose. Can't justify the £30 yet though :(
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Isnt your present dongle good enough for you and Lady Adept then ;)
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Im hoping to order This (http://www.ipkonfig.com/Reviews/Misc/Vantec-MultiFuncPanel/)on Tuesday..
The IR usb was only £14 and the 4 port USB was £10.
Hookstar
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Ooooh pretty :) I like the silver version.
2 questions - how much and where from ;)
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Looking good, Sean. ;) I have to admit, I do like the case! :D
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I have to admit, I do like the case! :D
The photo doesn't do it justice either. I'm going to have to totally rearrange my desk space so that I can show it off ::)
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That's the trouble isn't it? Most people's cases end up under the desk, which is a shame if it's a....
.... oh buggerrr, I've just dropped a pizza onnn my keyboard! :o :o :o
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That's a very nice case, Sean. It must have taken you absolutely ages to find one that matched Simon's sig. (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hogarth-hq.com%2Fsmileys%2Fplastered.gif&hash=3427def1effbb79466d318b7ebe287a58dbc8d3e)
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I thought the idea was to look at the monitor...not the case.... ???
Get one of these (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=48839&offset=0) Sean.... ;)
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Under £30 quid + carriage from www.overclockers.co.uk
Or here (http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/search.php?substring=nexus)
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Blimey, those TFTs have gone up a bit Cammy! I thought they were £299 last time we looked! :o
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Yes that was the first batch of 500....But they sold in no time... :o
Supply and demand comes to mind... ::)
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Would you believe, Cammy, that I'm one of those strange people that would prefer a CRT to an LCD?
No, I don't believe me either :( :shuddup:
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I've got 19" AOC pure flat CRT. I hate the sheer size of it, but it beats the pants off any TFT display -- at half the price, too! (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hogarth-hq.com%2Fsmileys%2Fthumbsup.gif&hash=dae5e63b0fca73d2faf61bde3668a0a64d111b37)
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You're absolutely right Rod. I used to have a cheapo (can't remember the brand) 19" CRT, which used to knock spots off all of the 17" and 18" TFTs that we used to sell.
Goodness only knows how good a quality 19" CRT would be :o
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I had a 17" ADI microwave ehh crt monitor.. :P..But i reckon this is better..mind you ..It was 6 years old.... :-\ so i was entitled to a change... :)
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Well I tried a Dabs 15" TFT way back, and compared to the two Dell [second hand ]17" Sony Trinition tubed CRT monitiors I have now, it was crap.
Of course me and Adept have had this disscusion about cheap TFT's before, viewing angles and all.
But I must admit, the space and power savings would be nice, but at the end of the day viewing pleasure is number one on my list.
By the way Adept.......nice case, bet it would look cool on top of the telly, instead of that lava lamp ;D
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Its orded, and will be here on Wednesday ;D I will let you know how well/easy it works.
Hookstar (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anchoredbygrace.com%2Fsmileys%2Fmgpaperbag.gif&hash=9410668e3e5b80f4c69ffbdbc117b07d683b0933)
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They tried to deliver today.. did "they" get out of bed to answer the freeking door did they Bo****x ::)
Having it delivered to my office tomorrow instead ;D
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Ok all done ;D took exactly 1 hour after I cleaned out the heat sinc and put some more artic silver in when puting the thermo couplings on the bottom of the heat sinc.. 4 leads and couplings later and fixed my HD lights as well.. some silly bugger put the leads they wrong way round ???<<<< me 8)and I can control the fan speed now.. its so quiet ;D
1 scare though after I booted up and the PC just sat there whirring away, but wasnt nothing to do with the new unit it was the Incd thingy (The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort1, did not respond within the timeout period).. came up with a ? against it after 5 mins, 2 reeboots later all clear and now running luverly ;D.
Hookstar
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Fair sized knob you have there Hooky my lad, has it been put out of bounds to Mrs Hook,or is she aloud to twiddle it ? ::)
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Tony ;D.. them days are gone mate..only CFF now.
C = Computers
F = Footie
F = Fishing
and the odd pint ;D or 3
And Mrs Hook is not allowed near any of my Stuff ;D she has her Kitchen to play with :P
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Ok..I'll drop the TFT thing..I can see i ain't gonna convince you... ???....But i can assure you that the quality of images i have had on it have been of the highest quality... ;) :P
Thats the same as my case hook... 8)
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Load of show offs :P
Thats a big one Cammy 8)
;)
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That looks really smart, Hook. :D
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Hmmm... I'm tempted Hookstar :P
One of those would look lovely alongside my new CoolerMaster alloy drive bezels :D
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Update ;D.. since I have been twiddling my knob :D turned the fan speed down to 2555 then up to 4350 max, temp rise/fall has been minimal only about 5c.
But the noise of the fan on the lower speed is very very quiet all I can hear now is the fan noise on the graphics card humming away.
Hookstar
PS The only trouble is now I have a firewire port that I can't connect up to.. hmmm spose I better go and search for a pci firewire card now 8)