Wife's Despair - Finished!! 19 June 2006

Fear not my friend....there is a black mesh grill and front panel to go on yet. Those hideous lights will become merely a glow behind the panel.

 

A little update today.
Made the decision to tear down my everyday rig as I needed some parts from it.
Therefore I had to get this one up and running even though it is nowhere near complete.

A few taster pics to keep you going...more modding soon!

Leak testing....threw a UV tube or two in there so it would look interesting for you



I won't bore you with photos of me installing memory and hard drives...I'm sure you have all seen that before.

It's alive!!! Booted first time...I was suprised as some of the soldering on the switches was very dubious.



Installing XP Pro. Apparently it has "An exciting new look"!



I'll post some more pics soon. Spent most of the day reinstalling etc.
FYI XP Pro now requires just under 100 critical and recommended updates not including SP2.
I'd really hate to be on dial-up!

Thanks to the 'powers that be' of Bit-Tech.net for deeming my project worthy of a space on the Modding front page.
I tried to explain to my wife the true meaning of this honour, however she just sighed and shook her head.

Keep the comments and suggestions coming.

 

women.....

 

oh its looking nice.

 

well done on the front page

 

LOL...It's the same with my wife. She just don't get it.

"What? You're gonna tear it apart again.....But you just finished it!?"
I've tried to explain that its a on-going process, that never really ends.

 

I daren't tell her I'm already planning the next project

 

actually in theory nothing is never finished. it's just at a stage when you dont want to work at it more and thinks it's good enough

 

Its time to reveal the colour choice!

Bearing in mind the title of this project I was kind enough to let my wife choose the outside colour.
Not sure myself but she says it matches the decor. I'll let you all decide if you like it as I have no taste at all.

Panels painted and curing in the sun. The cat was under strict orders not to walk over them.



What me? Walk over your nice fresh paint?



Only one is going to need repainting...and that was my fault. I managed to drop the spraycan on it when I was shaking it.
How stupid do I feel? (no need to answer)

Floppy bay and bezel painted. I don't need a floppy as such but the bay will be used to attach my Matrix Orbital VFD as there is no way to attach it in the normal manner.
The Dell server used odd drive bays that use plastic clip-in rails. I have one set for my DVDRW but even if I find another set the screw holes won't match with the VFD.
I'm going to have to get creative



Shopping time! Why did Hiper make a lovely blue PSU, sleeve the wires in blue, have a blue LED fan fitted.....and then put red molexes on the ends???
Will change these for the blue ones pictured. Note red one for comparision. Also note slightly obsessive arrangement!
Araldite adhesive to attach mesh to front panel (always handy to have some anyway) and Fanmate to control the one fan that won't be controlled from the VFD.
Also purchased nifty gas powered mini soldering iron. Hopefully this will make life a little easier. My current iron is really too big for fiddly work.



Thats all for today...possibly a small update tomorrow.
All comments and suggestions welcome (all comments on paint colour should be addressed to Mrs Steelyglint)

 

Maybe it's because I like blue, but - that's a nice colour you (well, the Mrs) chose. Should compliment the black well.

 

BTW: I use Araldite too and it's very strong, but the 90 seconds written on the packaging does not match my experience. It least take a few hours to really set.

BTT: I love those cube-shaped-cases anyway. Plenty of room and really good to fit in the hardware nicely. Can't wait to see some updates

 

what technique did you use for painting?

Spray / air?

sanding grit ect...

great job though...

 

A lot of spray cans, P1000 between coats.

Not perfect by any means but I'm pretty happy. Installing plexi for windows today...and trying not to mark the paint

 

Brilliant Great work, keep it coming... Motivates me to get off my ass n work on mine..

Great guide for case painting here

 

A few small jobs today...but modding had to wait until I'd fixed a workmates PC.
A nasty Packard Bell circa 2001 running Win ME

This cursed machine refused to boot and eventually only a full restore got it running again. Thankfully the original hidden partition was still there.
This was the inside...how do people allow there stuff to get to this state?



Best have a bit of a clear up before the 'real' work starts.



So today I repainted the panels from a couple of days ago....managed not to drop anything on them this time
Cut and drilled the plexi for one side, and attached it to the finished panel with 4mm countersunk bolts. I may swap these out....but I quite like the shinyness!



The other side panel's paint is still soft so will have to wait until another day.
Couldn't wait to see the effect so....





Starting to tidy some of the wiring (loads more to do). Moved the control panel for the pump from the back panel to under the drive cage somewhat out of sight. Much less run of wiring too.



Need to do some serious sorting of the mainboard area. I think I will paint the USB/DLED box black and sleeve the loom black also.



Thats going to be for another day though.

Until then....keep the comments coming.

 

If you want to make that usb header look super pimp, slowly, using a hobby knife, cut off about 2mm of the insolation, then pull the rest off. Bling bling chrome.

 

Very nice steelyglint. Tasty work there

 

the box rules

really nice what you did with this box.

we also have three of these crappy machines in our stock.
first thing when I saw it was: A LOT OF SPACE FOR MODDING.

I really like what you did with it. You showed that it has really much potential for modding.
perhaps I'm taking the same case.

EVIL GREETINGS FROM GERMANY

 

nice mod, although I'm not fond of large cases........ thats one heck of a mod....... great job on the resv looks awsome keep modding, looking foward to your next update

 

Hmm...free shinyness...always a good thing

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement...keeps me motivated for sure.