Building t3h c0mp

[Gallstaff]

Yeh but dont you think the blue glow has been overdone?

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by Gallstaff@Aug 7, 2003 @ 06:52 PM

Yeh but dont you think the blue glow has been overdone?

blue glow is classic when done in moderation

I'm not much for cases that are "different" -- I don't like tackiness

your tastes may be different

 

[Alexvrb]

I like my lightsabers red. But yellow can be nifty too.

 

[Gallstaff]

OOO show I need to see :lol:

 

[Alexvrb]

Just rent Knights of the Old Republic and you'll see. Oooh, pretty lightsabers....

Anyway, one cool thing to do *if you are going to watercool* is to add UV dye to the coolant. Very cool, and if you don't want to look overdone, then leave the rest of your system pretty much unlit. That way its just the ultra cool glowing tubing snaking through your system.

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/

Edit: Click on the different ones to see what they look like when lit up by UV light!

 

[Curtis]

Well if anyone cares, here is a few pictures of what I've done to my system. It isn't complete and it's not highly original, but I've done everything myself and I like it. 🙂

Sorry 56k users (I'm one of them too!) - there is about 300K of images here. Night-time shots will follow shortly. 😀

Yes...the heat pipe is overkill of the graphics card - GF2MX400, 32mb - but I'll reuse it when I get something a little better. 😀

 

[Gallstaff]

What's with the shots of nights is that part of your comp? :lol:

 

[Curtis]

Nights is there to show the finish of the case - I just though it might be relevant to use a Saturn game to do this. 🙂

 

[racketboy]

I like how your color scheme actually looks good while using standard beige drives 🙂

Makes it easier to hunt down cheaper parts 🙂

 

[mal]

Curtis, where did you get the cooling stuff?

 

[Gallstaff]

Yeah and what are you system specs?

 

[Curtis]

Ok, the cooling gear (and the cold cathodes) and the rounded cables) came from PC Case gear. These guys are great and have a decent range of products for a reasonable price (for Aussies, that is 🙂 )

The system specs are rather depressing actually. First the good stuff:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

Athlon 2500+

Zalman zm80a heatpipe cooler.

That's about it. 🙁

256Mb "nothing special" DDR400/PC3200 ram

1x 3.2 Gig HD

1x 1.2 Gig HD

GeForce2MX400, 32mb

Onboard Audio (which I'm not terribly happy with).

Yes...that is a total of 4(!) Gigs of HD space. That'll be the next thing I upgrade, but I'm not sure if I should spend a bit of extra cash on a SATA drive...

 

[Curtis]

Originally posted by racketboy@Aug 10, 2003 @ 09:16 AM

I like how your color scheme actually looks good while using standard beige drives 🙂

Makes it easier to hunt down cheaper parts 🙂

You're not wrong. 🙂

I'm thinking about painting the remaining beige bits silver, but I'm also thinking that's too much like hard work. I'm not quite sure how to finish of the front - should I go with a perspex window, or just put the drivebay covers back on?

 

[racketboy]

I wouldn't go for SATA yet

better bang for the buck with good ole IDE

 

[IceDigger]

My Case

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

HAHAHAHA! I was talking to galstaff about this a few days ago....that's the case I am going to buy this fall when I build a comp....cept I am getting the red version of it. That's a badass case huh?

 

[Alexvrb]

Originally posted by Curtis@Aug 10, 2003 @ 01:49 AM

I'm thinking about painting the remaining beige bits silver, but I'm also thinking that's too much like hard work. I'm not quite sure how to finish of the front - should I go with a perspex window, or just put the drivebay covers back on?

Paint the bay covers, or maybe dont, and put them back on. Unless you plan on doing something to make the view nice from that angle, which with cables dangling can be hard to do. Maybe if you were relying on UV light instead of visible light, you could use UV-reactive cables.

As for SATA vs parallel ATA, there isn't a ton of difference. It allows for a higher max transfer, but most drives can't even reach sustained speeds of 100MB/sec yet. If you're looking for speed, a Raptor 36GB 10K SATA drive might fit the bill, unless you want to go for a RAID solution. For storage, it doesn't matter what the interface is, one advantage of SATA is that each cable is master, no slave to share with. Around $100 gets a 120GB 7.2K UATA drive. About $20 more gets you an equivalent 120GB SATA drive, so it isnt worth it unless you plan on using your parallel ATA connectors up with something else. Maybe you could do both, get a fast Raptor drive and a large, slower UATA drive for storage. Or once again, just build a RAID array, I don't know if your board supports RAID and for what connection, or if you'd have to buy a RAID card. Its all up to you and how much you want to spend.

 

[Curtis]

Ok then. 🙂

The board supports RAID 0 and 1 on the SATA channels, of which there are two. I may just go with the PATA solution for now. Can't be bothered with this RAID nonsense, nor the Raptor which I hear screams like a banshee - I'm not a pro video editing studio. 😀

 

[Alexvrb]

Well, a cheap 120GB 7.2K PATA drive would certainly do quite well for a while. Later on you could pick up a pair of SATA drives and run a RAID 0 array, with the 120GB for backup or whatever.

As for the Zalman cooler, its not really all that future-proof. There's no guarantee it'll work with the next gen GPUs. But if absolutely want passive, its the best. I guess it depends what you plan to buy down the road.