April Mods bring May LAN Parties

[wtf8269]

I've been wanting to do this mod to my case since the day I got it, but I never had the balls to do it. Well I grew some and did it. As some of you might know I took the hard drive rack out and the mounts for it shortly after getting my case. Well I knew that looked cooler but the case looked too crowded with both the rack in and the regular 3.5" bay cage. So I thought I could take the cage out, but since the drive covers are mounted into the cage, that would result in me having no drive bay covers. So I came up with an idea to cut the 3.5" cage down, but I thought it was too risky. I finally did it and I'm so pleased with the results. I hope you think the same.

I also added in an 80gb WD IDE drive I had laying around that used to be in my CS:S server that I sold awhile ago. I'll be doing a couple of other things too in the next week or so. I have a dvd-rw drive that I'll be putting in along with the dvd-rom drive that I already have. That will involve more ghosting. Also, with my dad giving his old PC to my half-brother, they will be coming up to visit for Easter and they don't know about it. He would like to have Windows on that PC before they get here. That means he needs to order a hard drive. So it's possible he may take my 80gb and I'll end up with a 80-160gb SATA drive. I told him what I had was fine, but I won't complain if I got a better drive. Also, I'll probably be ordering silver or black IDE and SATA cables. I haven't decided yet, but I need a 36" IDE in order to run two removable disk drives.

 

[zekrahminator]

...that is SUCH a good looking case. Post it in the case gallery with specs and everything . Do you notice any performance increase or does it just plain kick ass?

 

[wtf8269]

It is in the case gallery, just not with these mods. Thanks though man.

I'm looking at ordering some sleeving kits too and hoping to improve some of the wiring as well. That CPU fan wire has always bugged me, so that's on the top of the list.

 

[zekrahminator]

hahahahah sleeving kits won't do anything about that CPU fan cable, a 3-pin extension cable will (so you can hide the extra long cable instead of stretch the extra short one). Otherwise everything looks tidy. Happy Gaming!

 

[wtf8269]

Oh, I know. That cable is actually a good 2-3ft long with the adapter I'm running on it for my fan controller. The sleeving kits are for some of the power/fan connections. Such as the ones going to the hard drives.

Here are the items I'm planning on ordering:
4x SATA Cables
1x 36" Dual Device IDE Cable. Long to reach behind mobo and connect to two drives.
1x 12" Single Device IDE Cable. Short because the 80gb is so close.
1x 5ft of 3/4" Black Sleeving. For power cables.
1x 5ft of 1/4" Black Sleeving. For fan/misc cables.
4x 80mm Fan Washer/Silencer. To stop the vibrations in my side panel when my smart fans are turned up.
1x Dual 12" Blue Cathode Kit. One will be run on the bottom of the case, the other mounted towards the front.

Only two things I may not get are the fan washers and the cathodes. Suggestions?

 

[wtf8269]

All parts ordered. Hopefully they'll make it here before the weekend.

 

[zekrahminator]

if its annoying you that much, get the washers, and if you have a side window, get the cathodes. If you're going on a case mod shopping spree, then go ahead and get all that . You might want to get yourself an Accelero X2 while you're at it...just a suggestion though. If you're happy, then no need to switch anything up.

 

[wtf8269]

I don't think I want an Accelero because from the reviews I've read it didn't seem to improve cooling performance at all, it was just quieter. That Evercool cooler just reviewed looks pretty nice though. As mentioned in the review it looks like a 4 heatpipe version may come out. So I'm going to wait to see if one does. ATITool crashes when I try to overclock my card though anyway so I'm fine with the cooler I have.

 

[FLY3R]

Tight, i like it, good work!! yeah thats a nice rig.

 

[wtf8269]

Thanks man.

Bad news though, parts won't be here until Tuesday. Not very good because I was hoping to have a LAN party next tuesday night. (Spring break starts for me after school tomorrow.)

 

[zekrahminator]

I need to have/find more lanparties lol. Until then, I guess I'll have to stick to hosting internet tourneys

 

[wtf8269]

Yeah, I'd love to go to some larger ones. It's usually just my friends and I. About 5-6 people including myself.

 

[zekrahminator]

I need to find more friends with computers before those friends can come over . I usually host full halo servers though...10 people max

 

[Solaris17]

i Lan at school since we have rents w/ unstable job times and such EX: im not alowed to have ppl over cause my rents think ill party while the kids i Lan with are young and their parents need to know me....so we grab our systems we bring disks and we come to school after hours ask the comp apps teacher the day before if we can use his room then we just put our rigs on the table and jack into the schools network share a game or 2 and bam we game/geek out for like 4 hrs b4 the teacher splits or were asked to leave.

 

[DR.Death]

Ha I wish there were LAN parties were I am from but most of my friends are so spared out that it is a pane to get every one to gather to do something

 

[OOTay]

Dood most of my friends dont even know how game on a pc... i have at most 3 people in my whole town who know how to game on a pc. Lan Partys Are Small in my Town.

 

[zekrahminator]

we should all just get together sometime and have a huge lanparty

 

[wtf8269]

I'm game, I don't know how far I'll be allowed to drive though.

 

[DR.Death]

That would be nice except I live in cape Breton Nova Scotia and it is about a days drive to the border and then to wear ever I am going

 

[wtf8269]

OOoooooohh more good news!!

My dad and I are getting these LCD screens. But I asked my dad if I could sell my current monitor to pay the difference and get this monitor, but he's kind of iffy about that because he was hoping to get my monitor and run duals with one of those ViewSonic LCDs. It's a win win situation but the Samsung would be sweeter. I should have one of them by this time next week or so. *Happy dance*

 

[zekrahminator]

lol you're getting me in the upgrade spirit...namely an FX5500 for Darth Flatulence and that Evercool Turbo2 for my X850XT

 

[wtf8269]

It's a good feeling isn't it? Then you about want to rip something apart while waiting for it to ship.

By the way two 20.1" Samsung LCDs have been ordered.

 

[wtf8269]

LCDs will be here Tuesday, which as I've already said is when my stuff from SVC.com is coming. So my next update will be tuesday then. Probably later that night or maybe Wednesday depending on how long I take with my wiring and cleaning up everything.

 

[OOTay]

wow thanks for pointin that SVC.com out although i think i just might have seen that place before, they have some nice prices.

 

[zekrahminator]

alright, common sense had a conversation with my idea to upgrade everthing, and I've decided on a 6200 for Darth Flatulence when I have enough money. I'll hold off on replacing the X850XT's cooler until my birthday (and then I'll ask for ATIsilencer5 )