Sprocket's New Home

[j2k4]

Originally posted by lynx@30 April 2004 - 03:52

F*uckin' Anti-spam

Ah.

Things are becoming clearer:

Eff-splat-uck is a sarcastic comment on the rules regarding profanity on the board?

[clocker]

You catch on quickly for a Yooper, j2.

[j2k4]

Originally posted by clocker@30 April 2004 - 08:09
You catch on quickly for a Yooper, j2.

It is due to a certain thickness brought on by the low ambient temperature here.

[clocker]

Okay...finally.
It's amazing how much work goes into so little apparent change.
It seems like I've done huge amounts of stuff, but I guess most of it was detail type work, so Sprocket doesn't look hugely different.

Let's see here...oh yeah, now I remember.
New Northbridge HS and fan (note the ATI fan...)
Southbridge got a Zalman HS and a 40mm fan.
The new Radeon 9600XT got a Zalman HS also.
The Zalman CPU HS got a new high flow (51cfm) Sunon 92mm fan.

The wiring is still kinda a mess, but I'm slowly getting a handle on it...there's just so much of it. With 8 fans and 4 temp sensors to route I struggle to keep the mess under control. I have so far resisted the urge to hack into the Antec PSU wiring, but I can tell that it's almost inevitable...life would be so much simpler if the wiring was the correct length and not so bloody long.
Now, the money shot...

Here is where most of the real work occurred.
Starting at the bottom...
The bottom fan opening was extensively cut away ( there used to be a rail up the center where the indicator lights and switches were. Cutting this out was made more difficult because the edges were beveled and I had to match the angle on the new areas. I also had to extensively mod the inner plastic panels, all this to accomodate the 120mm fan which is now sandwiched between the front bezel and the inner front casewall.
The center of the bezel was painted black so that the whole front looks more unified.
In the floppy bay opening I made and mounted an aluminum panel to hold the new On switch. I found this switch at my favorite surplus store ($.89&#33 and I love it.
It has some serious heft and even my chubby fingers are dwarfed by it's diameter.
I hate the stock switches that most manufacturers use...they feel cheesy and are too small.
At the top are the control panels.
The Aerogate II at the very top is a new addition. It can contol four fans, display their rpm and also has four separate temp sensors.
I removed the stock plexi faceplate and painted the back black.
I also 86ed the 40mm HDD cooler fan on the left ( my HDD is on the casefloor...)and made a little filler panel behind the grill and placed the HDD indicator LED there.
Right below is a four fan rheobus panel also with blue backlighting.

So, has it been worth it?
Well....
-exterior case temp-22c
-Hdd-22c
-CPU socket-22c
-motherboard-24c
-CPU diode-32c (idle)
-PSU (top) -34c
-case interior- 24c
- RAM & Southbridge- 24c
-video card- 34c

CPU diode temp after 2 hours Folding is 37c.

All fans are running at the minimum settings, so I have lots of headroom when summer really kicks in ( it's SNOWING here again &#33.

Still some detail work to do, but yeah, I'm happy and think it's been worth the hassle so far.

.

[Virtualbody1234]

Snowing?

Very nice.

Does the front 120mm fan have a grill to protect your fingers? I can't see that too well.

[clocker]

No, no grill.
I'm mulling over options ( probably going to make one...)

Till then I would recommend simply not sticking your hand in there..

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by clocker@1 May 2004 - 05:44
Till then I would recommend simply not sticking your hand in there..

Oh that was close.

I was just about to feel there because I couldn't see it too well.

Thanks for the warning.

[clocker]

It's a Darwinian safety feature.
I may leave it like this...

[kaiweiler]

wow clocker, I'm impressed...
You turned that case into somethin really nice looking! I must say it wasn't to much to look at before, but now it's really quite nice! I like it a lot
aren't those small 40mm and 60mm and smaller fans like that really loud though? I didn't think you'd want a couple of those in there, I'd rather just make an adapter and use quieter 80mm ones...
good work though! looks great

[clocker]

Thanks K.
The smaller fans are running on 5v and are virtually silent.
Actually they are more for looks than anything.
I suspect that their utility is marginal...although now that I can monitor any temp I want, I suppose I could do a test and see.

The front bezel is stil not totally finished...more cosmetic improvements to come.