So it took me a while but with the new baby done any day I wanted to take my time and do it right Thanks to all of you who answered my mostly dumb questions. For those of you that don't know here is my HW:
Antec 900 case
Evga 8800GT 512
E8400 Wolfdale 3.0 Ghz
Enzotech Extreme X CPU cooler
GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1000
Corsiar 620w Modular PSU
Dominator Ram cooler
Scyth S flex 1200 rpm fans
OK so we start with the original config pretty much rushed due to a complaining wife and screaming kids.
And so I have to take everything apart so I can clean out all the dust and start fresh
AH she's naked!
Installed the ram Gskil looks soooo nice
Now I am all excited to install the Extreme X CPU cooler but Ihave two issuse looking at it
The thing is HUGE!
and this copper plate on the underside of my MoBo Hmmmm
Well looks like that plate is in the way...
I guess I could get some longer screws but it's like 2am and that wouldn't be right. So I decide to pull a Clocker and remove the plate all together.
I had to replace the screws on the Northbridge because they were screwed directly into this plate. Some more pics of it:
So with this copper monstrosity gone it fits wonderfully but still IT'S HUGE!
Talk about close
A soda can as a reference on the size
OK so I got it in installed the Vid card and got it back into the case no sweat
I installed the Dominator ram cooler and it was awfully close to the Vid card as Clocker said it would be but it did fit!
I even decided to add a Esata port onto my case, it was a PCI slot cover type that I cut and took apart to install.
I marked it out using the pci cover as a template
I then used my dremmel tool to cut out the plastic and used some slightly longer screws to account for the thickness of the plastic and...
I also had to cut a hole in the metal part of the case to accept the housing of the ESATA and 4 pin power connector
IMO it came out pretty good if I would have done some better planning it would be better but hey it works and looks decent enough.
Finally I made up a plug to power hard drives and sleeved the whole thing nicely
.
Now I can use my USB to IDE/SATA/PATA cable without the clunky power supply it came with
Finished...
or so I thought!
OK so booted right away fresh XP install and I was fine until, I heard a whining what the hell is that I searched the whole righ and couldn't find it for shit. Finnally I saw it was the Ram cooler was pushing on the Video card I thought it was fine but as usual Clocker was right and it pushes the card ever so slightly and causes it to make an odd noise so out came the Ram cooler and I am going to RMA is asap
All in all it went pretty well and It will stay this way for some months as I said the baby is due any day now so there will be no time for playing around Thanks again everyone.
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