Its Alive! Pics!

[trav]

...My new system is awesome!!! :D

AMD Athlon 2600+ (running at 1.9GHz)
ASUS AV7400-MX
256MB RAM 3200
SunPex UFO-BX Case (350Watt power supply)
Gigabyte Radeon 9200SE
New copy of XP Pro



...this system runs pretty well, runs doom 3 really well! The case has a LCD on the front that shows you your systems uptime, your system heat, and if your fan is running correctly....

....one question, is 97degrees Farenhieht a good temp for this system?



Pictures

First off, the setup, it shows the hardwares boxes, Cenobyte is there over in the left:



The case, with nothing in it:


Cenobyte, unscrewing the I/O Panel that came with the case, so we can put the new panel in:


Cenobyte, holding the motherboard:


Me and Cenobyte, working on the PC:



The case, on:


Here, we can see the case display on and functioning....the top of the display sows the systems up time, the one under that shows the temperature in Celsius(which was 38 degrees at the time ;) ), in numbers, below that, we have a level meter of the temperature, below that we have a spinning fan, that tells you that the fan's running, then, below that, there is a cool hard drive icon, that "spins" as the drives are accessed, and a POWER indicator.

Because of the hard drive icon, the red drive light on the case doesnt work because you cant use two at the same time:


The case, at an angle:


I got stickers!:


After it was all done, we played some Quake 3 over the LAN, here's Cenobyte playing on his nice laptop:


And, some extras!:





Can anyone guess what that is?!




Give Up?



Doom 3....i took these screenshots, and i find they make good backgrounds, i usually get around 30-40FPS :)

[Bill]

Conratulationsm Trav.  You waited a long time.  Wear it in good health.
I'm sure everyone that contributed to your machine poast wants to see pictures.

[trav]

Oh they will! :) You can be sure of that!


Only problem is, i cant find ANYTHING on the web about SunPlex computer cases, the display on the front isnt working corectly and there are a whole bunch of different connectors and i have NO idea what they are, that come from the front of the case, like normal PWRSWTCH ones, but with different text...i dont know where they go on the mobo either...

EDIT also theres a big connector that "holds" these other connectors, ill take pics to help explain...

[Bill]

Did you try the obvious, like reading the instructions or the diagrams?  
"When all else fails, read the directions."

[trav]

Yes, they dont explain how to connect anything, very bad directions for the case. The motherboard manual is very good, but  it doesnt say anything about displays

[trav]

Also, the case is vibrating quite a bit and, with the side panels off, sometimes theres a loud buzzing (more vibrating?) noise. This is VERY annoying!

[Bill]

Trav,

Have you checked the case fan(s) mountings?  Also  the power supply and HD mounting?  There are only a few things that have  moving parts.  

Sometimes the display cables themselves are labelled, with very small markings.  

[pat]

Congrates Travis,
I?m sure you?ll get the wiring sorted out.
Who did you buy the case from? Perhaps they can help with some directions.

97 F is fine for cpu temp, if that's the cpu temp.
What's the system temp?

[trav]

now, with pictures! :)

[Chandler]

That is a pretty cool LCD panel  8)

The best way to stop vibrations would be to add some acoustic damping material onto the internal metal.

[trav]

is 350Watts enough to add a 6600GT or whatever that videocard is by nVidia?

[Chandler]

It should be.  Check the side of the PSU to see if it gives breakdown of what it can deliver on each voltage line however.

[Whizbang]

That really is a nice clean case.  I have never seen that one before.  The displays on the front tend to be powered by miniscule plugs that often need to have the female sockets pinched a bit to make good contact.  Otherwise, you may get a blinking display or errors in the temperature readouts.  As for case instructions, I did not know they ever had any.   ???  That is one of my pet peaves.   >:(

[Neon]

Congratulations, and nice pictures. :)

Ahanix and Thermaltake and some others are offering some of those cases with the LCD display with blue backlight. You are the first I know to get one - I will be interested to know how you like that feature and how well it holds up over time.

This has certainly been a long time coming. Enjoy it!

[trav]

Thanks guys! :)


Chandler - ill check the PSU later , thanks for the tip :)

WB - Thanks, i havent seen it before either, not even on the 'net, and i cant find anything about it on the net, but its nice :)
It does have case instructions, on how to use the display, but not how too hook it up. Luckilly, after some trial and error, i got it going :)

Neon - Thanks :) Really? Huh! Thats cool! I do like this feature, its pretty informative :)

[Buffalo2102]

Well done Trav, looks cool.

I see you've had the blub removed though.....

[trav]

Yeah, i convinced myself too because it got in the way of doing stuff and was always afraid it would break if i hit it on something....

[Mark H]

Must feel good to finally have a project completed with a "well done."

Congratulation Trav! Now go beat some creatures in Doom 3.

[trav]

It does! :) And i have!

Im stuck in  Alpha Labs Sector 2 though....i think its alpha labs, could be Delta Labs though.....


The one where you go tru the one door, then Alpha/Delta loads and theres that big laser thing?

[Carskick]

I'm very happy for you! I know how great it is to get a new system after being stuck with a slow system forever as I was a little over a year ago. I'm sure it's fast now, but once you upgrade that video card, it will be spectacular. I think that a 6600 series would be a great choice for your system, and there only about USD$200, probably CAN$250. Not a bad deal for their amount of power.

So start saving for that video card and extra RAM. At least you have the major parts updated, now upgrades from here on out will be a snap. (sorry for the pun)
Enjoy!

[trav]

hehe, thanks CarsKick :) It does feel good, but i still have to pay off that $120 my mom lent me ;) :(


Im very excited about upgrading my videocard, i may wait untill the 66' comes down in price...ill get more RAM though, hopefully soon! :)

[scuzzy]

Congratulations, and good job. I know what a good feeling it is to assemble your own computer. You'll never want to purchase a retail computer again. I hope it brings you lots of joy.

I noticed in one of the pics your buddy is using the laptop on the bed. This is a really bad idea. Laptops barely get enough air circulating under ideal conditions. Using a laptop while on top of something soft (such as bedspreads, pillows, etc) is inviting disaster.

Try setting the laptop on your lap for a few minutes, and you'll understand how much heat is being generated. Placing the laptop on a hard surface, without piles of paperwork covering the sides and back, is best.

[trav]

Thanks Scyzzy, yeah we noticed that....he lifted it up and i swear, if you wanted to, you could boil an egg on that thing! I warned him about that afterwards too ;)


Sadly......


I tripped over a speaker, and my chair went flying, and cracked the black part right above where the floppys go....oh well, no one will noice anyways, its not very apparent.

[trav]

now i want to build a small form factor PC! :P

[Carskick]

LOL.

I'd save money to upgrade the video card and stuff like that, not building another system just yet.

[trav]

hehe....yeah ;)

[Andrew S]

I  know i'm jumping in on this really really late, but i have one of those types of cases also. Not the same one you have, but the ones with all the extra fancy stuff and all the weird connectors.  those things dont come withy any decent directions!  it took me forever to figure those thigns out
but nice pc!

[trav]

Yeah? Howd you get it al working? Because, i still dont have the side-panel-audio working :(

[Chandler]

You probably don't want to connect up the front panel audio connectors.  On most motherboards it disables the back I/O output panel audio conenctors.

[trav]

uhhh................the CPU temp is 140F




is that a bit high?!?!