Well...I decided to finally pay attention to my seriously anorexic 350 watt power supply and throw a few bucks on one that can provide the juice Im looking for since Ive been tweaking this off the shelf HP system for the last year.
Thanks to tigerdirects gluttonous rebate deals...it actually makes more sense to buy a case AND a power supply. Ok...so I can deal with dissassembly...but when they throw a gamer case with a green UV reactive plexi side panel and a mirror finish 500watt powersupply...now it has to look pretty..as well as function. I went out and picked up the cold cathod UV lights and UV reactive round cable sets...oh yea...Ill have a total of 5 fans running now, so I also needed a fan controller lest I fill the room up with the best impression of a Black Hawk chopper this side of Iraq.
Has anyone created a gamer case before? Let me know about any creative things youve done. Id love to incorporate little tricks and widgets that add to the eye candy.
Re: Gamer Case Mods
Thanks to tigerdirects gluttonous rebate deals...it actually makes more sense to buy a case AND a power supply. Ok...so I can deal with dissassembly...but when they throw a gamer case with a green UV reactive plexi side panel and a mirror finish 500watt powersupply...now it has to look pretty..as well as function. I went out and picked up the cold cathod UV lights and UV reactive round cable sets...oh yea...Ill have a total of 5 fans running now, so I also needed a fan controller lest I fill the room up with the best impression of a Black Hawk chopper this side of Iraq.
Has anyone created a gamer case before? Let me know about any creative things youve done. Id love to incorporate little tricks and widgets that add to the eye candy.
I haven't so much "created" a gamer case as found one that I like. Cainan is using his, I never actually bought mine (no cash yet) so I'm living vicariously through his Antec Sonata. It's rather quiet, and all black, with a lockable front panel to keep little fingers out of trouble.
Also, if you want to go the route of extra lights and such, you can't get there without a SmartBlue power supply from Antec...
f00
Re:Gamer Case Mods
OK...so after a few more hours of dis-assembly / re-assembly than I really wanted to spend..its together and runing and looks pretty damn cool.
Im having some problems with intermittent shutdown though..havent been able to figure out why. I have a hunch it may have something to do with the round power supply and drive cables. Ribbon cables, although flat and rather wind resistent are a helluva lot more flexible than the round cables are. Im going to have to spend more time on cable routing but bending these things is alot like sewing with the cable they use to keep the Golden Gate Bridge up.
I also learned just how sensitive a P4 is to a heat sink without a fan. Sheesh!! For some reason...HP in their infinite wisdom and profit margin driven designs, uses a case mounted fan with a plenum mounted directly over the CPU heatsink as opposed to just mounting a damn CPU fan.
Before I buttoned the thing up. I decided to run it without the side panel ( which has the 80mm fan and plenum in this new case ) to see how it operated while "tweaking"...shut down in about 4 minutes!
So now....there are 2 fans in the power supply, 1 in the Vid Card, 1 directly over the CPU, 1 in the Harddrive bay, and 1 in the back of the case...if I counted right...thats 6. According to my trusty fan drive controller, the CPU heatsink is 81.8 degrees f, and the HDD bay is 72.3f
Fans
No wonder it's so damn windy driving over the Golden Gate!
Re:Gamer Case Mods
Sweet, where are the pics?