New or old hardware?

Also, its probabily an issue with incorrect driver instllation, you just need drivers, not some app thatll <LOOK MA, I AM SWEARING> windows over by corrupting part of the network stack.

Old hardware. It seems NetGear is useless, their config app doesn't load properly at startup, making it useless. I tried some 3rd party drivers, but they froze and destroyed my Windows install. It could have been related to my heatsink being lifted off the CPU, so I'm going to try again (the heatsink would fit, but it now collides with the power cables for my hard drives),

OK, it's now started working. I installed the NetGear drivers, but they didn't work. I then unistalled the NetGear software. Then I went in device manager, and the adaptor was there (as the correct name), but with a warning triangle. I tell it to uninstall the drivers, and it does...

... then it goes and installs itself again automatically and proceeds to work.

Now all I need is my freaking WEP key.

Did you manage to get this working OK? Do you have any photos of the build?

I have it working now (infact I'm posting from it). I do have photos, but I won't upload them yet.

RAGE

Well I'm switching my wireless with my dad's to fix the driver problem (hopefully), but now I have more problems.

My extra HDDs block the fan, so it can't go all the way into where it's meant to, but I did push it that far once, without noticing. THis has loosened the tension on the cooler, and it is possibly not contacting properly now. This meant that while trying to play CSS today, the temps went to 100+ according to coretemp (and the CPU was running x6, not x9). I will reseat it tomorrow, and hope it hasn't fried the CPU. There may be other things causing contact problems too.

I also need to find a way of moving the HDDs back, or will end up with them out of case.

As for the front, I haven't done much more on that. I'm going to do another primer coat tomorrow, then paint during the week.

Update;

No Vista 64 drivers available for my dad's wireless card, getting a new one (£14 from PCWorld) that does have drivers.

I found what was causing the temperature errors, 2 of the push pins holding the heatsink down had come out when it was pushed up against the cables. This, of course, meant virtually no contact. I don't think I caused any damage (fingers crossed). The temperatures now hold about 30C idle (after reseating the fan).

I am remounting the secondary hard drives backwards. They are not meant to go this way, and there isn't much space, but right angled cables do fit. I haven't got any right angled data cables, so I have gone for the homemade option.

Oh yeah, epic quad posting time (no-one is replying )!

Anyway, another miniupdate;

Computer technical;

The CPU is still running stong, only 45C after some good TF2ing. Might try an overclock soon, aiming for 333x9 (3.2GHz) but getting it to 400x9 would be amazing, though unlikely. It seems to drop to 1.6GHz a lot (x6 instead of x9), I think that's the power saving/heat reducing thing, right? Temps and clock speeds are according to CoreTemp.

GPU is idling at 76C, which is about right for a HD4870, I think. It's got fairly good airflow, though I may try and move the PCIE power cables to block the front fan less.

I have got a new wireless card and it (just) works. It seems to lose internet but not network occassionally. We will see how it goes.

I have sucessfully remounted my hard drives so they face the opposite direction, which means everything now fits in properly (even if it is a bit tight in there). Homemade right angled SATA cables are working

The only test I've given it so far is an evening of TF2. It ran at an average of 100-120FPS (80 low, 200 high, but I couldn't make out the cl_showfps 1 numbers very easily because they changed so much) with everything maxed out (including AA/AF) at 1600x1200. A very pleasing result, I think. Expect more results soon, and maybe more benchmarks coming soon.

General building;

I have done a second coat of primer on the front now, and will sand/paint tomorrow. Hopefully it will only need one coat of paint, but we will see. I have also cut out the new DVD front and the mesh for the fans.

Everything except the new front is in place, and all the cables are tidied pretty well (considering the cramped conditions). Some cables could be positioned better, and the PCIE and ATX cables might be moved a bit.

Oh, and the red cathodes are a bit pale (aka pink), so I'm going to take a marker pen to them to darken them up.

Sorry for the lack of proper updates, I will aim to get a big one for the past 5 days up tomorrow evening, Wednesday at the latest. As I say, I've got very little left to do, so if I update tomorrow, the update after would be tiny, but this one will be epic.

Try cl_showfps 2 for an average

Ah, thanks, I will try that later.

I have decided that you won't get an update until I finish it. It will be a massive update, showing construction of the computer, more modifications, the painting of the front etc etc. I should be done tomorrow if the paint job is alright.

arent you frikken finished yet?!?!?!

This topic desperately needs pictures

Sorry people, I've been having real problems getting the front to fit correctly. I'm hoping I will be able to get it done properly today (got some new, longer bolts). You will get pictures when it's done. And you will get a lot of them

IT IS FINISHED!

Log tomorrow, of epic proportions, lol.

So here it is, the final update!

This update is so big that I will split it into 5 sections;

Delivery
Building
Front finalisation
Finishing touches
Final pics


Delivery

Gallery link.

There was a van;


It came bearing boxed gifts;


Inside the box were all these wonderful things (excluding the motherboard);


I also salvaged a fan controller from my old comp;


And I had a look inside the PSU and GPU boxes. Check the above link for all the pics, including individual pics of all the items.



Building

Gallery link.

An empty case awaited filling;


Starting with the fans (2 in at front, 1 out at back);


This is quite a nice inclusion by DFI, a plug for the front header stuff, so you can plug them in ready then as one into the mobo;


Motherboard on the mobo tray, with the PCI blanker in the unused slot;


Processor in place, RAM being installed;


GPU installed;


Test fitting, notice the location of the CPU socket, it's way to close to the front for the Freezer7 to fit;


This meant more had to be removed (even more was removed after this, aswell);


I even had to mod the fan (notice the lack of guards on the right hand side and the bottom left corner. The bottom left corner had more removed later, this was because it was in the way of the NB heatsink on the motherboard);


I cleaned the base of the cooler and covered it in MX2;


And then I installed it (not knowing it still didn't fit and would have to be refitted later [twice, one for case occlusion, once because the HDD got in the way and pushed it out the holes]);


This is what gets in the way, the motor housing collides with the bar, which had a small square removed later;


I then fitted the new HDD and the old fan controller, plus a bunch of cables. You can also see the square I was on about a second ago if you look at the fan;


I used the space under the CD drive to store most of the cables;


Here's a little something special. I drilled two holes in the PCI backing plate and installed two switches, one locking push switch for the lights and one momentary push switch for rest;


I then fitted the PSU;


Followed by arranging all the wires correctly and installing the DVD drive. Note the orientation of the right hand side HDDs, their cables push the heatsink back, which cuased the temperature problems I had in a previous post;


Sides on for a test fit;


As just mentioned, the HDDs blocked the fan, so they had to be turned round. This meant I needed right angled SATA cables, but I couldn't find any suitable ones...
... so I made my own! (Well, my dad did this while I was sorting out other stuff)
If you're wondering how to do this, all you need is a clamp and a heat gun (like a hair drier, just a lot hotter). Put the end in the clamp, heat it up and bend. Make sure you bend it the right way, though, as SATA cables are notched, I needed my notch on the outside of the corner.


This is what they look like fitted. You can probably see how little space there is for cables (which makes them hard to get in and out, which I had to do far too many times). You can also see a cathode in place;


And here's the inside from the left. The cathode is tiewrapped to the metal bar, and you can see the new wireless card aswell, and (part of) my magasine collection. Sorry for the flash washout;


Again, check the gallery link for more pics.


Front finalisation

Gallery link.

The DVD cover cut out and sanded;


The fan covering mesh (I gut holes in this for the bolts, but don't have a picture of that);


Front and DVD drive cover after primer;


DVD drive cover after paint;


Front inside after paint (paint was applied in multiple coats, check the gallery for more images, I beleive this was the penultimate coat and I don't have a final coat pic, but it could be a trick of the light);


Front outside after paint (again, gallery for other coats);


Once dried it came out as a slightly gloss coat, with a bit of a matt look, which I really like (and doesn't pick up many fingerprints, unlike the case side panels). There are a couple more pictures of various coat states in the gallery.


Finishing touches

Gallery link.

I found the red cold cathodes were kind of... pink. I wasn't going to stand for this, so I attacked them with red marker pen;


A finished cathode next to a clean cathode;


And a light colour comparison (for some reason this came out orange, which they don't look). The coloured one is the top one;
[img]http://www.techious.com/gallery/d/753-3/DSCF1030.JPG[img]

And then we have them both coloured in;


Quite a success, they give a nice deep red glow now. Might nead another layer at some point, but it's quite good as it is.

The DVD drive also needed preparing, so I took the front off (sorry for the quality of some of the following pictures, my photography "skills" lapsed quite badly);


I then took the bottom off and used a multimeter to determine the functionality of the front switch. The front switch consists of 4 contacts in a grey rectangle in the bottom right of this picture. Using the resistance setting on the multimeter and measuring between each of the contacts when the switch is and isn't pressed, I could determine which ones needed connecting to my new switch;


I then soldered on the new wires (this pic is terrible, I took loads of pictures of this bit and none of them came out particulary well. I'm not taking it apart again to take another picture, though, it's really hard to get in and out);


Once that was done I put the base back on and wired up the new switch when it was in place (was a screw switch, so no soldering needed). There are a couple more pics of various stages in the gallery.


Final pics

Just a few notes before we go onto the final pictures. I did not get any pictures of putting the front on because it was quite hard to get it on, and took a couple of attempts (including moving bolt holes on the case with a needle file).

• 8 bolts hold the front on, and they are the oens around the edge, for flathead screwdrivers (the crosshead bolts I had were too short).
• The top 2 bolts are spaced with bits of plastic tube and washers, the rest are spaced by the fans and mesh.
• The middle bolts are just attached to the fans (and mesh).
• The front (well, side) ports are held in with lots of double sided foam tape and parcel tape, and are a bit lose (don't really know what to do about that, might push some blutac in from behind to hold it in place better.
• The DVD drive cover is held on with teh double sided foam tape. The switches on the right are for power (top) and DVD eject (bottom).
• The sides do go on, but can get jammed because of the closeness of the front panel.
• Some of the paint has been chipped, but this is mostly unotaceable and the finishing is overall pretty nice.
• When the fans are on, you can see "through" them because they are spinning. This gives quite a cool (unintended) Window effect, which I quite like.
• Overall, I am very happy with the results and I am far more pleased with this comp than any of my previous comps, dispite the teething problems.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this log, and feel free to give me your comments or ask questions! I may try some overclocking during the week, and post the results up, along with some benchmarks, but I don't garuntee anything.

ONTO THE PICS!

Gallery link.

Inside;






Outside;





As per usual, a few more pics can be found in the gallery.

That is rediculously compact! That is amazing!

I was thinking, how IS he gonna fit it all in.

Even with 3 fans and stuff isn't it seriously hot?

Thanks Aaron.

Kyhas: Everything fitted with great difficulty, as evidenced by the HDDs and CPU cooler. As for heat, it runs pretty cool. It still has more fans than your average 1-in, 1-out case, and these fans have more direct airflow than most cases (which means less turbulence and better airflow). I would imagine it has better cooling than a standard case, but slightly worse than an extreme case (such as Aarons) because of the cramped considitions around the CPU cooler (otherwise I would say it's on par or possibly even better).

o.O
wow, very nice.

Just ramped up the FSB to 333Mhz (with x9 giving me 3GHz full clock) and set the RAM to 800Mhz 4-4-4-15 (as it should be). Didn't change any voltages, so it's probably running a bit low atm (RAM is rated for 2.1V and is at 1.9V), so I'll run a Prime95 test, also keep an eye on temps

Edit:

That was an instant failure with P95, so I reloaded the old CMOS (this mobo rules, 4 different backup CMOS) and am now trying 333MHz FSB with 1.27V VTT (from 1.21V, didn't work at that voltage). I'm leaving the RAM alone for now.

OK, I've given up on OCing for now, just did a stress test on standard and more core temps ranged from 50-60C, so it might be an idea not to OC this one.

Oh, and for the lolz;

Huh?

Copying data over a network by any chance skillers? That my friend is the result of IE7.

Actually, try to drag a file out of a .zip to the desktop.

I already posted that pic on the forum

I knew there was a thread for that, but I couldn't find it.