Guess what?

Yup.
Sprocket's moving again.
This time into a black Lian-li v2000.

Maybe her name should change to spLLocket now.

Naturally, the case will not be the only thing changing.
There will be some significant changes to the cooling loop also.

New radiator- Thermochill PA120.3
New blocks- D-tek CPU and GPU blocks and DangerDen Aquabay HDD blocks.
New fans- Aerocool 140mm turbines.

I'll probably have to fab a new reservoir also, but until I locate and mount the parts I can't really design it.

I'm hoping this will be Sprock's last 939 incarnation...in fact, this may be the last Sprocket.
When I upgrade to the AM2 platform, Sprocket will probably go bye-bye to finance the change and be replaced by her little brother, Ratchet.
I'll really miss her and will try to make this a great sendoff.

Pics of parts and progress shall follow.

aww the parting always hurts the most

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clocker

I'm hoping this will be Sprock's last 939 incarnation...in fact, this may be the last Sprocket.
When I upgrade to the AM2 platform, Sprocket will probably go bye-bye to finance the change and be replaced by her little brother, Ratchet.
I'll really miss her and will try to make this a great sendoff.

---

Sprocket was originally an Athlon XP 2600+ so if this s939 config is sitll sprocket then why wouldn't the new system be?:unsure:

Good question, Ross.
I'll consider it.

Initial impressions.

I am completely underwhelmed with the Lian-li v2000.:cry:
The legendary build quality that everybody raves about was apparently out of stock the day my v2000 was assembled.
Yeah, everything works and fits OK, but it does not exhibit the noticably better fit/finish I was lead to expect.

The exterior anodizing is nice and splotch free (which is hard to achieve on a large flat surface like a sidepanel) so I'll give them that.
The "one screw" sidepanel retention system is very clever and works well.
The wheels roll freely and the supplied hardware is of good quality.
But...

With the exception of the sidepanels, all of the rest of the chassis is made of surprisingly thin aluminum and does not have the rock solid stability I experienced with the Stacker. Granted, the TC01 is made of heavy guage steel (sidepanels excepted) and is stupidly overbuilt (unbelievable number of fasteners used, even on insignificant trim pieces), but the upside to that is incredible solidity, and the Lian-li feels (subjectively) flimsy and cheap in comparison.

Aesthetically, the LL is nicer- sleek and rounded where the CM kind of hulks and squats, but looks only go so far. Anyway, my Apple G5 case looks better and is way stronger than the LL to boot.

I was concerned, rightly so as it turns out, that the compartmentalization of the v2k would pose installation problems for the waterloop. Fitting the new triple radiator into the Stacker would have been fiddly but do-able with no case hacking at all.
Not so with the Lian-li...this is going to require a significant re-engineering of the whole interior. In fact, it looks like gutting the entire thing and only using the shell would be the simplest way to go.

Fortunately, I just acquired another of my favorite old school Gateway server cases, one of the very best I've seen so far, in fact.
Removable motherboard tray (ATX even), separate sidepanels (most have the u-shaped clamshell skin) and even modern flipper feet. Of course, it's made from super heavy guage steel and is beige.
And did I mention it was free?
Well it was.

I think I may put the Lian-li on a shelf and ponder it's fate while I build Sprocket into the Gateway.
I can probably sell the Lian-li at a (small) profit to someone who just wants to do a simple air-cooled install or I could turn it into a longer term project -but I was saving the G5 case for my "project time" and don't really need two major builds happening at the same time.
Alternatively, I may be able able to talk the buyer of the Stacker into getting the Lian-li instead.
Decisions, decisions.

At any rate I can see that I'll be the lone voice in "What case should I buy?" threads when I advise against Lian-li...I am completely unimpressed.

Progress continues.
Although the Lian-li is beginning to grow on me (I've been looking at all kinds of modded examples...some are very nice) I decided to keep Sprocket in the Stacker.
I also decided to lift my ban on major mods to the CM case and have proceeded to strip it completely and go semi-wild.
It's obvious upon disassembly why the Stacker is as solid as it is...the designers must have been paid by the fastener. The roof panel alone has 24 rivets holding it in place and the motherboard/backplane has almost thirty screws holding it together.
Naturally, everything had to come apart for paint although I opted to leave the front bay structure in place as I could reach everything I needed to and I was afraid of alignment problems if I took it apart.

Almost miraculously we had a stretch of warm weather so the painting went well and the satin black looks great (pats self on back).
Sunday, my next day off, I'll be able to fit some of the interior plexi panels (particularly the floor, which is much easier with the case in pieces) and reassemble most of the case. I'm still waiting on the mesh for the roof cutout and the front bay area, but that should arrive today, tomorrow at the latest.

The radiator is nearly complete- the fans are mounted and the sideplates are cut but not yet drilled for mounting.
This time round I'm using a Thermochill PA120.3 rad with three Aerocool 140mm fans...I wanted to fill the front bays as fully as possible and these were the largest fans that were suitable.
They are very quiet and the blue LEDs should look stunning behind the new mesh front...here's a teaser pic...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ni-140top1.jpg
And another...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../mini-side.jpg
There's no point in posting pics of random case pieces so I'll take more shots as assemby progresses and the case takes shape again.

As you were.

you have some of the best toys. i always enjoy seeing the progress, do keep us informed :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ApacNTS

you have some of the best toys. i always enjoy seeing the progress, do keep us informed :)

---

I enjoy it aswell its fun . Wish I had the money to experiment . :(

The chassis is assembled.
Almost.
The roof panel has yet to be finished, that's today's project.

Here are some (typically crappy) pics...
The frame stripped.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../mini-blk3.jpg
And with the motherboard tray installed...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../mini-blk1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../mini-blk2.jpg
The floor panel you see is actually black plexi with the protective sheet still in place, I'll remove this later as the assembly/construction progresses.

It was tricky getting everything to go back together properly.
The motherboard tray and the PSU cage interlock and there are 15 screws and 8 rivets that all have to be aligned during the reinstall. It took a lot of loosening and tweaking to get all 23 holes to line up, but ultimately I managed and the tray/backplane unit unscrews and installs easily.

Next comes the roof panel which will incorporate the biggest external modification.
Wish me luck.

Good luck!

looking good. cant wait for more! good luck.

Roof panel done, waiting for the silicon adhesive to cure.
Meanwhile, the radiator is mounted.
Here ya go...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ni-140back.jpg
That's from the inside, here is the front...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/mini-140.jpg
The gap at the bottom will allow passage for the USB/Firewire/switch wiring/
At least that's the plan.

Roof should be mountable after I watch the Steelers kick Indy's ass.:P

heh looks like steelers did just that. bears got theirs handed to them as well by the panthers. nice job on the project man. it just gets better every picture.

Bears lost.
Boo hoo.

Roof panel finished.
Yay!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/roof.jpg
I was afraid that I'd need to use screws to fasten the mesh to the opening but GOOP came through and the mesh panel is secure and flat.
Whew.
The hardest part is now finished.

Still left is polishing of the front aluminum trim and fabbing the front mesh bay cover (using the same material as the roof insert). Not at all sure yet how this will be held in place but something will come to me. I'd like to avoid visible fasteners if possible.

Now it's ice cream time.
Ta.

Today's project is to turn this pile of plastic...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/rezparts.jpg
...into the new reservoir.
The first version I made has worked just fine, but even as I was making it I could see ways to improve the design.
Specifically, the way the inlet/outlet barbs were mounted into the tube bothered me. Threading into a 1/8" wall tube is not terribly secure and I was forced to resort to copious amounts of GOOP to ensure stability and watertightness.
The new design will address this concern as well as a few others.
I'd like the rez and the pump to be mounted on a common base so they can be removed as a unit. I'm also going to change the drain plug configuration so water can be removed without disturbing the reservoir or moving the case.
All this will require more machining than the original design (and more parts/joints as well), but ultimately I think it'll be worth the effort.

I'm waiting for the new 74GB Raptor to arrive (all the way from Juneau, Alaska!) so I have some time to kill before Sprocket could be running anyway.
This time round the HDDs (the big Raptor and the trusty Seagate 120 SATA) will be watercooled also, so I won't be RAIDing the drives which prevents access to SMART info...I want to see the temps.
There's no room for a floppy drive anyway, so the F6 dance would have been a PITA as well.

It's gonna be a long day...

Edit:
Well, might be a shorter day than I thought.
I've been amassing so much watercooling gear that I completely forgot about a reservoir that I got last November.
A cute little unit, I was originally going to use it in the G5, but it became redundant when the Ehiem 1048 came with it's own dedicated rez, so it's just been sitting in it's box all this time.
I discovered it whilst searching for my stash of high-flow barbs and decided to put it to use.
All she needed was the barb holes retapped to fit the DangerDen fittings, an easy task as the reservoir's body is machined from Delrin, and a mounting bracket fabricated.
The unit is much smaller than what I was going to build so the visual impact will be much different. Actually, it's so small that it's more of a glorified t-line than a reservoir- I hope that filling/bleeding is as easy as my original version...time will tell.

This is great, now I can move on to the wiring-the last major project before reassembly can commence.
There will still be lots of fiddly little stuff to do, but I'm encouraged by the progress.

Today's update is brought to you by Blind Optimism, cause that's what it took to get me here this morning.
After fiddle-fucking around with the reservoir and the wiring I finally decided it was time to reinstall the roof panel.
This was @9pm last night.

Finished at one this morning.
:frusty:

Although there was no way for me to know ahead of time, I'm now convinced that CoolerMaster assembles this case from the roof down...exactly opposite from my approach.

There are 24 rivets holding the roof to the chassis and lining them up with the inner structure was a nightmare, especially the front bay panels. It would be impossible to explain without a detailed diagram so you'll have to trust me, but had the bottom of the bays been loose I probably could have done this in under an hour.
As it was, I had to machine five tapered pins and gradually lever the holes into alignment. Wooden blocks and clamps held things as I made my way around the front to the sides. All made even more difficult by the top plastic trim piece which couldn't be clamped, of course.
I made it though.

And here I thought cutting the roof insert was the hard part.

Anyways, progress should now be smoother.

Before installing the roof I wanted to put tubing on the radiator barbs because tightening the worm clamps was much simpler with top access...in fact, I'm not sure it could have been done afterwords. This is the only area I don't use zip ties as clamps for this very reason. Should there be a leak, fixing it would be very difficult.

Here's how Sprock looks this morning...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/rez1.jpg
The reservoir is the tiny black box towards the top of the baypanel.
The long dangling tube will feed the harddrive waterblocks but they can't be installed till the Raptor arrives.
Most of the wiring is finished, it's just not tied up yet.

Next big project will be the front bezel area.
Oh boy.

its taking shape pretty quick now. looks great. cant wait for the final rendition(well final for now, changes will always come)

Progress report.
About 85% done now, have remounted the rad three times trying to get the fans visually centered in the (as yet unmade) front bezel.
That solved, I moved on to finishing up the wiring and began to mount the waterblocks. The new Raptor finally arrived from Alaska and just this morning I was able to fit the Danger Den Aquabay and route the tubing to/from it.
Here's where she stands as of today...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/partial1.jpg
Straight on side shot.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/partial2.jpg
Tried to show the HDD block a little better but it's difficult...everything is black.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/partial3.jpg
From the back, looking into the bay area and the radiator.

Hope to get the loop finished and Sprocket up and running by next Monday.

Bye.

now if only you could make a video and put it with some good music 2006 would be a fantastic year! looking great. cant wait for the next installment. really clean wiring to man, inside is near perfection.

lookin reallllll nice keep up the good work clocker!

K then.
Full waterloop installed.
Same shot, one with flash and one without...)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../FULLLOOP2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../FULLLOOP1.jpg
I must admit that I'm conflicted. Although technically it's fine (ignoring for the moment the question of watercooling the HDDs), the install lacks the elegance I was trying to achieve. The tubing seems to drape all over the place and looks randomly routed.
I am also apprehensive about the utility of the tiny reservoir...it seems little more than a glorified t-line. I actually built another full size tube rez (much like the old one) and refined the construction details, but it ended up not fitting.
Imagine that, a case as large as the Stacker and I ran out of room!

Furthermore, this loop used almost the entire 10' of Tygon I had on hand (that stuff is wonderful tubing but brutally expensive), which is nearly double the length of the old system. Of course, this install has a taller rad and the HDD blocks, but even so, it seems excessive.
I could eliminate nearly 4' of tube by flipping the rad over and placing the barbs at the bottom (which I considered), but I was concerned about trapping air in the upper plenum and having difficulty bleeding it out. I may reconsider this decision...at the very least, try it out and see.
There is also no easy way to drain this loop, a feature I really wanted to incorporate.

My next day off is Sunday and I'm going to move on to the front bezel, an area that has it's own set of construction details to conquer.
I know what I want to achieve, I'm just not sure how to do it and I can't really afford to waste materials experimenting. Plexi doesn't bother me so much- it's cheap and available locally, but the mesh I'll be using was ordered in and cost $50 for two 19"x19" sheets. I've already used 1/4 of that doing the roofpanel and have plans for all of the rest, so screwing up is not an option.

Meanwhile I'll ponder how to alter the waterloop.

This is getting frustrating...I could just accept it the way it stands, fill her up with coolant and call it good. Sprocket would be up and running tonight if I did but I'm sure I'd end up regretting my haste and redoing it later anyway (like I've never done that before...).

*sigh*

Do it properly...you know you want to.

Is it just me, or does it look like the video card is flexing under the weight of the water block in the pic without the flash?

It's just you.

There is a stiffening brace that come stock with the XFX card but I had to remove it when the full coverage DangerDen waterblock was first installed.
I meant to dig it up and reinstall it...guess I'll do that before this is all finalized.
I'm pretty sure the card is not flexing but better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Edit:
You are definitely right, sArA...in fact, shortly after this morning's post I ripped most of the loop out and started afresh.
The rad is now flipped and fits better than ever (no real surprise there...it's been remounted three times already so I had a plethora of mounting holes to choose from), but of course a whole new set of little issues arise from the change. The fans will all have to be reinstalled to bring the wires over to the correct side (no real biggie, just tedious) and the inlet is about 3/4" too low to line up properly with the pump.
Not sure yet how this will be solved- the easy fix is a 90degree fitting, which I've so far managed to avoid but may end up being the lesser of many evils.
It also appears that adding a second radiator (A chrome BIX from a very early waterloop) might actually make things easier. Or neater, at any rate. I have it mounted but ran out of time before work (where I am now) to fully conceptualize how the routing might work. I'll fool around with it tonight.

Well, it looks like it's flexing a LOT...guess it must just be the angle/light/shadows playing tricks on me. :cry:

It has to be, Ross.
The flash shot was taken 2 seconds after the other and the card appears straight in that one.

I used a straight edge on the flash photo, the edge of the graphics card is a fair way from straight. I tried the same on the non-flash photo, and as far as I can tell that's the same (as I would have expected). I would have suggested lens distortion, but everything else (such as the edge of the PSU) seems right.

My opinion though is that the curvature is upwards in the area left of the support provided by the pci-e slot. If so, it is probably simply natural warping of the pcb and nothing to worry about.

Jeebus, I thought I was the anal compulsive one but it never occured to me to put a straight edge to the bloody pic.

I'll definitely put the edge support back on.

BTW Ross...it's not the weight of the block that warps the card, it's the mounting. The block weighs less than the copper Zalman GPU cooler I used at first.
There is a real balancing act to installing a waterblock....tight enough to resist tube torque and remain seated squarely on the chip(s), yet loose enough not to flex the PCB. It's not too bad on motherboards cause they are thicker- vid cards can be a bear.

Today's pr0n shots...
The new layout with the second (almost certainly unnecessary) rad in place and slightly rerouted tubing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/blue2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/blue1.jpg
And the obligatory incomprehensible night shot with LEDs...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/blue3.jpg
You'll note that the vid card stiffener is now in place and the motherboard fan has been moved a bit to better cover the PWM area.
Although the tubing has not been substantially redone, for some reason I like it better. Believe me, I tried every combination I could think of, but the bend radius is a very limiting factor and this ended up being the most acceptable solution.
Now to fit the pump and reservoir...

lookin great man

Boy, I must apologize for the massive brain fart I laid here yesterday.
Whew!

Allow me to explain.
Yesterday I said...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clocker

Although the tubing has not been substantially redone, for some reason I like it better. Believe me, I tried every combination I could think of, but the bend radius is a very limiting factor and this ended up being the most acceptable solution.

---

Sheesh, that still stinks.
While pondering the pics yesterday at work, I was troubled by the illogicality (is that even a word?) of the loop. The second, smaller rad really made no sense.
If there was going to be another radiator, the only intelligent place for it was right before the graphics card (the hottest component by far in the whole system), not just spliced into the loop willy-nilly for convenience sake.
Yesterday that didn't seem do-able because of bend limitations.

Then I realized my error...
I'm the one who mounted the rad with the barbs at the bottom and there was no reason they couldn't be at the top.
DOH!

This morning it took all of 30 minutes to redo the layout and achieve the ideal loop. Even shaved another 8" or so of tubing out of the system- that's a "good thing".
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../smartloop.jpg
The new,logical layout now goes:
rez>pump>triple rad>HDDs>CPU>northbridge>single rad>GPU>rez.
Much better.

This is not as easy as it looks, kids.
The closer to completion one gets, the more constraints/obstructions there are to deal with.
Even in a case as voluminous as the Stacker I'm going to have to finesse the pump/reservoir placement to fit the technical and aesthetic requirements. I'll figure it out eventually but it's been harder to get to this stage than I imagined.
Humorously, I planned on 10 days...2 weeks at the outside, to pull off this entire transformation.

For anyone planning on going to watercooling, a bit of advice....use Tygon 3603 tubing. Most of the bends necessary to fit the loop would simply not have been possible with cheap, Home Depot vinyl hose. Lesser products tend to easily crimp and flatten thus limiting your design choices drastically.
If you're going to go high flow, large bore, Tygon is the only tube to use IMO.

My next project (WHAT!!?? You're already planning another one? Why not finish this one first, you moron?) will be a small bore/passive system and most of the tube routing issues do not apply there.
Should be a relief.

What a weird day.
Spent several hours machining a new reservoir then decided not to use it.

Went back to the little guy I'd had mounted before, despite misgivings about it's ability to bleed the loop. Well founded fears as it turns out.

Here's today's beauty shot...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...er/redloop.jpg
This is after 2 hours of contortions convincing the air bubbles to come to the rez instead of hanging out with their buddies in obscure nooks and crannies.
Not easy and definitely no fun.

I think that subconsciously I was killing time with the rez instead of dealing with the front bezel, which I still haven't fully visualized. Can't decide whether or not I want to commit to having front USB/Firewire ports. Installing them properly will entail a lot of fiddly detail work and I'm just not in the mood.
Then again, I'm sure I'd appreciate them (especially the USB) if I did it.
It's really just a matter of flogging myself into starting.

Thankfully, DFI cleverly put On/Off/Reset buttons right on the motherboard so I can begin loading the OS without the front switchgear installed.
At least we'll get to see how the new, superduper cooling loop works...

Okay...this whole clusterfuck goes away tomorrow.
Not only do the aesthetics disappoint me but the loop is impossible to bleed.
The sound of air bubbles trapped in the big radiator is very distracting and this system needs to be as silent as possible.

In order to simplify things the HDD blocks go away as does the northbridge waterblock, leaving just the CPU and GPU in the loop.
The Thermochill 120.3 goes back to the casefloor and the pump mounts to the backplane in the stock 120mm fan hole.
I'm going to use the Lian-li HDD rack that I bought for the drives in the (soon to be) empty front bay.
Life will be much simpler.

Naturally, the entire case has to be disassembled and significantly rewired to accomplish this, but what the hey.

This might be a new record for me...a loop that was only in place for 24 hours.

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clocker

Okay...this whole clusterfuck goes away tomorrow.
Not only do the aesthetics disappoint me but the loop is impossible to bleed.
The sound of air bubbles trapped in the big radiator is very distracting and this system needs to be as silent as possible.
Naturally, the entire case has to be disassembled and significantly rewired to accomplish this, but what the hey.

This might be a new record for me...a loop that was only in place for 24 hours.

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

---

Bugger.....:dry:


That said, as always...with curiosity and incredulity I await the next installment of 'Clocker, Sprocket and their amazing comp-modding adventures'. :w00t: :lol: :lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clocker

...I was troubled by the illogicality (is that even a word?) of the loop...

---

Illogic suffices, sir.

The only area I can help with...sorry. :D

Thanks, Spock.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clocker

Thanks, Spock.

---

:)

Well, as usual, the best laid plans of mice and yada, yada, yada...

Moving the radiator to the casefloor was a wee bit more difficult than I'd planned on.
Oh, everything fit- I'd carefully measured and knew what had to be trimmed and where exactly the rad had to be placed, the problem was that I'd taken these measurements with everything in place and I couldn't assemble the damn thing.
The rad is mounted to the plexi sub-floor, a fairly close fitting piece.
In order to install this assembly the motherboard/backplane must be removed.
No prob, thunk I.
And it wasn't.

Till I tried to reinstall the motherboard tray and just couldn't do it.
Coolermaster, in their infinite wisdom, doesn't just slide this unit into place...on noes.
It levers and pivots and if you hold your mouth just right, finally lines up with it's fifteen mounting screws. By way of comparison, the entire front suspension (struts, steering, et al) of my Z is attached with 10 bolts.
I guess that CM was concerned that the motherboard might try to escape the case or something.

I tried every possible contortion imaginable (all the while risking my virgin paintjob) trying to get the damn thing installed.
Finally gave up and tried a whole new, less elegant solution.

Put studs into the casefloor panel (required making a whole new piece) and now the radiator is the last part installed.
A royal PITA to do but it worked.

Can't wait to see what the next major roadblock will be.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/floor3.jpg
Now there is another big decision to make...keep the northbridge waterblock or no?
It's inclusion makes the tube routing crankier (refer to earlier pics above) and almost certainly impacts the GPU temps, but nF4 northbridges tend to run hot and the block really did help.
Keeping it does mean running the vid card in PCI-e slot #2 though which causes a theoretical performance hit and also will cause crowding of the new X-Fi soundcard that arrives tomorrow.
Sigh.

On a happier note...I had decided to mount the HDDs in the Lian-li drive cage which was just sitting gathering dust. The brushed alloy front would look great in the Stacker and it has a 120mm fan for cooling, so what could be better?
Well, having the mounting holes line up with the Stacker drive bay would have been nice.
The LL bays have slotted screw mounts, so in a fit of whimsy they decided to use weird spacing...works perfectly with their case but not anyone else's.
Fortunately, I know how to drill and tap aluminum (imagine that!) so tthis issue was easily solved.

And finally...
Two days ago, after finally getting Sprocket up and running (remember that brief moment of triumph?), I had reinstalled Windows on the new 74GB Raptor.
Naturally, I neglected to first break the (old) RAID array, so the BIOS went limp trying to detect it.
Oh hell, think I, I'll just reset CMOS (say bye-bye to my hard won RAM settings), that'll solve the problem.
Which it did.
Windows goes in and all seems right with my world.

I wanted to install SP2 (which till now I've avoided cause it's so naggy) because Creative requires it for the X-Fi install (we're gonna see about that)...and that went well also. Till it ate my cursor.
Imagine that...Microsoft's Service Pack kills Microsoft's wireless mouse.
Quel surprise.
A PS2 mouse and a patch and all is good.
Ahhhh, almost.

When I reset CMOS it defaulted back to 1/1/2005 as the system date.
Normally I would have caught it but as you might imagine, I've been a bit frazzled.
So I changed it after I was in Windows.
Next time I booted the machine I was locked out- Windows thought I had exceeded the 30 day period to validate the OS and would I care to do so now?
NO!...I would NOT, thanking you very much.
I haven't been able to validate over the Internet for over a year...Sprocket has undergone so many changes that each validation requires the excruciating telephone procedure.
You know the one...you repeat your PID to a machine which inevitably responds that it can't help you and the entire process is repeated to a bored human being. Who gives you a new code to enter.
And there is a half hour of your life shot to hell.

So I get to do that after I conquer my hardware issues.

I'll be sure to post pics of me with an icepick in my eye...the best way of distracting myself from the agony of dealing with Microsoft.
We'll all share a good laugh.

Argh! Just use the Corp Edition and be done with it already. I know you want to stick with the idea of using your "official" version but why make it hard on yourself? If ever they bother you saying that you don't have a real Windows then just show them the real one.




I noticed a clue...

Quote:

---

By way of comparison, the entire front suspension (struts, steering, et al) of my Z is attached with 10 bolts.

---

;)

A clue to what?