I was on ebay some 2 months ago and saw a board that wowed me. It was an older board but still a powerful one. From what I saw in reviews it had rated really highly. The only problem I had was justifying the costs of shelfing my almost 8 year old computer that had never given one problem in all its time. The next day a power transformer down the road blew. The resulting power surge ripped through my surge surpressor like tissue paper. The AGP Video card on my 7 year old system litterally exploaded into pieces with parts of capacitors stuck through the air flow cover of the card, 1 cd burner croaked as well. A few days after repairing what I could of the system. I lost the power supply on my secondary computer along with the die hard duron and motherboard that was so faithful so many years in that system... Two days later the built in sound died in my primary system died and it made the choice for me. I began Project Pheonix! I believed she could live again. From her burned out hulk and remains I knew I could bring life once more! I ordered the motherboard and 2 opterons to add to it and began gutting out the hulk of my secondary computer. It took nearly 2 months to aquire all the parts to this point but life flows once more in the Pheonix. So now the system is as follows: Motherboard: Asus K8N-DRE (non-scsi) Processors: 2 Dual Core Opteron 275 (OSP275 model with a 69watt thermal signature and also changable voltage/multiplier) Memory: 4 x 1gb DDR PC2700 ECC Registered (divided 2 per CPU) Video: MSI nVidia GeForce 8400GS PCIe x16 (Until Tuesday then it will be an eVGA GeForce GT220) Audio: Sound Blaster X-FI Extream Music SB460 PS: Currently the old CompUSA 640watt that as u can see in the picture took a beating from the powersurge. It's a bit toasted around the top. Still works surprisingly and tested stable. I have a OCZ 500watt modular stealth in route that should be here Tuesday. Drives: 2 x 200gb Maxtors (one for games and virtual computers, other for storage), 1 x 80gb Seagate used as my Windows Primary and altered from IDE to Sata, 1 DL DVD multi recorder. The case, a 9 year old and over abused thing. Amazingly still loving me after all I put it through! Now, you asked for pictures. Here they are. Above is the over view of the temporary setup. You can see the two 120mm fans stacked above the CPUs to assist with cooling until the new heatsinks arrive around Friday. You can also see the 3.5 drive bay turned sideways to allow for JUST enough space for the CPU heatsinks. I can just slide a piece of paper in between the heatsinks and the drive bay. A glove with no wiggle room! Next we have a close up inside the 5.25 drive bay showing the modification needed to allow for this e-ATX board to fit into this aging ATX case. About a piece of paper breath between 1 capacitor and the bay. I will probibly go back in and nibble some out to give extra breathing room for this. The removed section of the drive bay. So you see it wasn't just a small part taken off. Added a 40mm fan (could have used 50mm I think) to the Northbridge due to it would get so hot it would burn you. Not to mention periodic freezes. I modified the face of the tower to include USB ports, Audio, Line in, Microphone, and FireWire (FireWire not connected) And lastly, we have our aging tower standing proud still. Sporting its new audio and usb ports, tri-fan intake where once a drive bay had been, a third hard drive behind the blank pannel, and a DVD-DL multi drive to crown the top. On the side access pannel covering the access to the board I am preparing to drill holes for a 120mm fan to mount and add air into the case. I have thought of taking a square out with my drumel and replacing it with acrylic but decided that I've done enough and don't want to keep fixing something that's working.... I will post more as the remaining parts come in along with system stats and performance once she is fully operational. Right now, she is pushing critical thermal levels due to incorrect heatsinks having been ordered. (Do your research people and don't simply believe all you read on one or two sites!) A side note for those who think you can not do this kind of thing. I have been diagnosed with Lupus. It has been eating at my joints, muscular system, and nervis system. So far there isn't anything that has helped other than to take the edge of pain away. It took me nearly a week to do all of the moding and building. Five years ago, this would have been done in hours. My hands shake (enough to have gotten cut several times on the sharp metal edges). I have difficulties holding onto tools sometimes. I have extream dificulties lifting anything over 10 pounds. Getting the picture here? If someone in my condition can do this, ANYONE can do this if they think they can. Simply work at it and don't stop until it is what you want or you are satisfied with the work! UPDATED Written plan of events are as follows: Blue is finished Red is delayed Black is in progress Finish fan mount to side of case (almost finished) Continue applying bulk of filler to fill areas not requiring dissasembly Finish aquiring needed hardware (New Hard Drive in transet.) Finish aquiring paint (need resources first) Aquire Pheonix sticker for front of case (Still haven't found one to really look good) De-construct case Finish filling, sanding, and shapping fill points Smooth cut metal edges to prevent further injuries Thurally clean case and prep for painting Apply red paint and allow to cure completely Apply Pheonix Sticker Apply White low gloss paint (stain resistant, scratch resistant), remove pheonix sticker then allow to cure completely Apply black accent paint and allow to cure completely re-assemble components back into case Test and use
Finally, the eVGA video card has arrived along with the new power supply to replace the toasted 650watt. Experimenting with some new 40mm fans I received today as well to see if they work better than the other one on the Northbridge. The new heatsinks are still in route. ETA Friday. (likely arrival, Monday) Will be wiring up the front audio/mic jacks tomorrow if time permits along with finishing the modification to the side of the case to add the 120mm fan on the pannel.
hay cool guy i envy you on the dual CPU set up but you should invest in a can of rattle paint and give her a face lift you know a little lipstick and mascara will go a long way to reviving it from the look of it the case is fine (not many dent or holes) it could just use a new coat of paint white would be cool glossy white to be exact to wipe away the smudges and scars before you do that i would suggest some bondo to fill in some holes and 'wrinkles' that show her age inject some botox, apply make-up and pucker up
That actually sounds like a great idea! level out the area where I've added the audio jacks and usb. Smooth over the face where the sticker indent is located. A little bondo to tighten up that plate that doesn't fit tight anymore... For colors, the white for the main body sounds great. Keep the drive black. Make the blank plate black along with the tri-fan. In the grooves of the face, accent them with black. But what to do with that unused floppy drive port... hmmm
have fun! maybe another change paint the side panel red then get i sticker made in the shape of a phoenix put that over the red, then spray the whole pannel glossy white then carefully peel off the sticker and VOILA!! a phoenix for everyone to gawk at you could maybe take some black from an airbrush and give it some edges but its up to you it would be fine without the edges it would just be an icon instead of an image
Begun testing on a filler putty called Magnum plastic repair. So far looks promising as it is carvable and sandable. Will take some time but it can be done.
Thanks. Thought it was fitting as it is rising out of the ashes of my burned out secondary system to become my new primary. I'll try to get some pictures up of the test as well as showing the new video card and power supply. The thing is half fan, half power! OCZ knows how to build a power supply!
filler putty, bondo, fiberglass filler same differance in terms of usage on a PC case unless you are expecting your pc to take one heck of a beating then you really wont need fiberglass filler but if its sand-able, its do-able
Reshaping the case has been put on a temporary hold until a new hard drive arrives. One of my primary hard drives has failled. Most of the information was recovered however over 25% of the drive has corrupted. Low level format of the drive removed the corruption however after hard testing, sectors began to fail again. Primary 200gb drive is not reliable. A newer Seagate 500gb drive has been ordered to replace the failed drive along with the aging 80gb and second 200gb drive. Second 200gb drive will be used as a storage drive and 80gb drive will be used for backup purposes. Both have shown no sign of their age under stress testing with their manufacturer diagnostic programs. I'm not much of a fan of Seagates, however the price was right for $26.
Odd quirks in the motherboard architecture have been creaping up into the OS. Misreading of the sensory winbond chip to confusing of the controler chipset. Manually setting these seem to help. Monitoring programs that do not allow for manual settings don't seem to work properly except for CoreTemp. CPUid/HWMonitor works but misreads the Sensor chip as a different sensor chip however it identifies the chipset and sensor chip correctly. CPUid is aware of this issue and last messge was about 'aquiring a test sample' to determine what the issue is caused from. So far I have not found any software that will allow for the adjustment of the multiplyer or voltages of the CPUs. All programs seem to not allow for this. In addition, the 'Cool-n-Quiet' feature in the bios that allows Windows to clock down the voltage and CPU multiplier like a laptop does not seem to function. Trying to find the issue with that also.
your hardware can always evolve through the mod you should keep going on the body work what would be better then to have a finished case to put any hardware into
haha, agreed! However, I'm going to hold off so I only take everything out just once. It's not easy to get it all in and out due to how cramped the screw points are. lol That's the REAL reason behind waiting until the remaining parts come. The test was successful, but need to use the computer still for a few days. I will however apply more of the filler to the front, just won't smooth it or anything of that sort until I can takethe face completely off the case. I DO need to remove the added audio ports in order to level their mount point out and fill in the uneven cuts to smooth it. I figure, once I start that point, 1 week of down time while I work, smooth, paint, and dry. Written plan of events are as follows: Finish fan mount to side of case (almost finished) Continue applying bulk of filler to fill areas not requiring dissasembly Finish aquiring needed hardware Finish aquiring paint (need resources first) Aquire Pheonix sticker for front of case (Still haven't found one to really look good) De-construct case Finish filling, sanding, and shapping fill points Smooth cut metal edges to prevent further injuries Thurally clean case and prep for painting Apply red paint and allow to cure completely Apply Pheonix Sticker Apply White low gloss paint (stain resistant, scratch resistant), remove pheonix sticker then allow to cure completely Apply black accent paint and allow to cure completely re-assemble components back into case Test and use This is the work so far. This is the test to fill the gaps and areas that are unwanted. Next need to fill the left side and the bottom. Once I reach disassimbly, then fill in the gaps and smooth the areas around the audio ports. In addition, working on the fan mount for the side pannel of the case. Here is the work so far. I can only do so much per day due to my hands give out frequently and it is painful to grip the drill as tight as I need. A 120mm fan will mount here, just above the CPUs.
Even though I was tired I tried to push through to finishing the last bit of the 120mm fan port on the case pannel... unfortunatly my grip slipped on the drill in one of the last couple holes and it popped through an adjacent hole making an ugly gash.... Thinking now on how to make the upset into a feature... At least at this point, all holes for the fan port is finished. This will place a single 120mm fan directly above the 2 CPU heatsinks.
Might work... but not much for it to hold on to in order to stay. Something bumps against it the filler will likely break off. hmmm.
A new adventure in my system has developed. I've found the problem with the 'Cool-n-Quiet' feature with the processors and why it hasn't been engaging. Code: Log Name: System Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power Date: 8/16/2010 7:54:46 AM Event ID: 6 Task Category: (6) Level: Error Keywords: User: SYSTEM Computer: Memory-Alpha Description: Some processor performance power management features have been disabled due to a known firmware problem. Check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware. Contacting ASUS and seeing if there is a solution or work around for this issue.
Glad you found a solution. Back to the hole, I'm new to all this but I heard fiberglass reinforced body filler is good for these things. But buying a new product is that, buying (spendng money) to fix a small thing like that. Maybe it is worth trying to find something else to do with it. Sorry I couldn't help more, I'm new to all this. But I'll try keep an open mind and see what can be done with it!!
