Project│Red Nineteen :: Custom PC, Readers' Drives - 23/10/06

It's mentioned three or four times

 

im sorry tho have overlooked that fact...

 

looks quite cool so far

 

Bondo/bog/mud/whatever hardening is a chemical reaction between the filler and the hardener. Once it's mixed in it will go off, how quickly determined by the ratio of filler/hardener. Putting it in a container won't keep it.

The best thing to do is make small batches and then make another batch when you run out. You'll actually find you get a better finish too as you aren't trying to fill holes with product that is starting to harden and goes crumbly as you try to force it into holes.

 

I had that happen! As mentioned, when I first started applying it I spent too long and it ended up like mouldy bread or porridge, which doesn't fill gaps that well.

 

Tomorrow my Athlon64 AM2 4000+ (1mb cache) should be arriving! Hoping to order the motherboard and memory before the end of next week.

 

Very Nice

 

Very cool. I like how you bondo'd the front plexi to the front bezel, so there are no lines. Looks very clean. Keep it up!

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 23 - 30th June 2006

The last log for this month - I'll see you all next month!


^ From the spare piece of acrylic, I cut-out a false-floor. Here it is being test-fitted with the fan cable going underneath too.


^ Here's a shot from the back. Hopefully it will clear the motherboard easily enough - not sure whether to have it fully see-through, or frost it...


^ You may remember the original HDD shelf I made and how badly it ended up. So I cut a second...


^ I also cut a piece of acrylic to fill the spare PCI slots. This could still end up as a fan...


^ HDD mount MKI didn't prove successful, so for MKII I decided to use self-adhesive pads, cut-to-size.


^ The SpinPoint in position...


^ And mounted in place. The shelf is a fraction of a mm too big, so that it wedges in and doesn't move about.


^ The pads aren't noticable unless you peer around the drive-cage. It should allow for some form of vibration dampening too? Don't worry about the drive getting damaged, it is firmly attached to the shelf, which can only be moved by tilting it upwards.


^ The new Foxconn nForce 590 SLi board, along with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro.


^ And the AMD AM2 4000+ X2 (2 x 1mb L2 Cache), OEM version arrived too.

Next week is Payday, so I'll purchase some Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC6400 (2gb), CAS 4-4-4-12, which should work well with the SLi memory benefits of the board and the AM2 4000. Then it's just a case of painting everything, sorting out the electrics, putting it altogether and overclocking/benchmarking the thing...

Expect another update within a week hopefully.

 

wow...very expensive hardware :d you'll shake the baby

 

Not really. In fact this is ending up a mid-range budget system. I'll do a full costing at the end of the project (as I think it'll be over £1k), but here's a rough idea:

£195 - CPU
£135 - Motherboard
£50 - HDD
£14 - HSF
£70 - PSU
£200 - Memory
= £664.

The mods are coming it at about £150 so far, paint will take it up to £200 probably...

 

there are usually screw holes in the bottom of the HDD to attach from below - probably a better solution, beacause when the case gets hot the glue on the sticky tape will probably soften - and you drive will fall over (plus it looks better)

 

Good point - never even considered that. I'll see how the tape holds up (or doesn't) for a few days, then I'll look at re-drilling the shelf and getting some screws to fit.

I tried it before, but completely messed up the alignment of the holes and the supplied screws are way too short to go through the acrylic shelf.

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 24 - 5th July 2006

Finally I had some spare time to try out all the new hardware, most of which has been sitting here for a few weeks...


^ I purchased some paint for the project, as it was from Halfords, I couldn't find a Ferrari red as I don't think Ferrari owners would take their car anywhere near. So I ended up with some Nissan Red 526, some clear lacquer, grey primer and gloss black.


^ Here's the Athlon 64 X2 4000 in situe, on the Foxconn nForce 590 SLi board. The stepping is CCBXF - anyone know if it's good or not? I suppose the only way to really know, is try it myself...


^ With the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 mounted. I've added on some pretty blue arrows, as I'm not sure if it should look like that. The base of the cooler is smaller than the CPU and it overlaps on one side more than the other. I tried re-seating it 5 times, but it ended up like this each go. Any Arctic Cooler owners have the same problem? Will it matter?


^ Once I had connected everything up, I turned it all on expecting it to POST. Everything powered up, but the monitor wouldn't get a signal. Thinking the 7800gt wasn't working, I tried a VGA cable instead of the DVI. Still nothing. After 10 minutes of trouble-shooting, I realised that the motherboard lights weren't coming on. Then I spotted the extra ATX power connector! Plugged it in and I got a picture and it POSTed.


^ A shot of the board from above. The LED display to the right shows any error codes and seems to spaz out when first turned on - which is kinda cool. I didn't realise how huge the CPU HSF would be...


^ A shot of the first run. It recognised both sticks as Dual Channel straight off, though the timings are set at 5-5-5-18, 800 MHz when first used. Enabling SLi memory in the BIOS put these to the 4-4-4-12 800MHz as packaged.


^ The temperatures were pretty decent. Bear in mind that it was baking indoors yesterday, probably around 24'c - so the CPU @ 26'c is very good. The board temperature was a bit high, but I think this is partly due to being passively cooled. The case fans should lower it quite a bit once installed.


^ All laid out on the dining room table.


^ Bit-tech said that the memory slots were close to the CPU socket, but there's just enough clearence for the fan!


^ Another pretty-arrow-diagram. Can anyone who has used an Arctic Cooler Freezer 64 say if the angle of the brackets is healthy? If you look closely, the left-side bracket is at an angle, whereas the right one is vertical. It all seems stable though and the temps are very good. It may just be me panicking.


^ Finally, a shot of the GPU - Leadtek 7800gt. The stock cooler is stupidly loud, so I'm glad I've got an Accelero X1 waiting to be fitted to it. This rig WILL be quiet and everything is pretty much silent, apart from the 7800gt.

This weekend I'll be painting the whole case and finishing off about 6 areas of the mod. Expect another log or two over the weekend!

 

OOHHH shiney new hardware!!

Looking good, cant wait for the painted case. Just a quick question what size fan is the AC HSF using? and how quiet is it?

 

I think its 80mm, and it is very quiet apparently.

 

Any chance of a ferrari case badge or similar?

 

If the temperatures of the processor with the Arctic Freezer is fine on a hot day, I wouldn't go messing around to find another one. The temperature of 26 is fine for that processor.

Can't wait to see that red paint being used!!!

 

Just measured it and it is a 92mm fan. It's suspended on rubber, which makes it nice and quiet. I've replaced the 7800gt fan with the Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 tonight and it is whisper quiet now. In fact, the CPU HSF (Freezer 64) is the loudest thing running, but that's not saying much - everything is practically silent now.

My fiancee said the exact same thing. I'll get her to source one on ebay.

It has been around 22'c this afternoon, but I'm guessing it will be up to 30'c once inside the case and in situe. Which should allow for a lot of o/c headroom. I'm looking forward to the red paint too, hopefully the whole of the insides will be red.

It is quiet, but I was expecting it to be quieter - I've enabled cool n' quiet in the BIOS, but do I need some form of software application/driver for Windows once it is up and running?

 

Nope none, maybe speedfan if you want to control the fan speed. By the way, look here-

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sea...ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

Good luck with the mod!