This is the most ambitious system I've worked on to date. The
requirement was to build a media server system, something that could be
used to store and playback personal DVDs. There was already some
software written for this theoretical system.. it just needed the
hardware, and a lot of it:
Here's the inside of the case with the motherboard tray removed. You can
see in this picture a parallel cable running from the front LCD to the
back of the case. This effectively uses up an expansion slot.
The
SilenX power supply
fit perfectly. That giant mass of cables would eventually be a problem.
Here's the case with the motherboard installed. That parallel cable is
going to be a pain. Maybe I should move it down to the last expansion
slot (which would have been a sensible place for it in the first
place).
Here's the motherboard with the CPU, RAM, fans, jumpers, and power plugged in.
The video card went in without a problem, the motherboard came with a
little spacer to fit an AGP card comfortably.
With the video card in it's time to make a quick boot check to make sure the
CPU and RAM are OK. Luckily the ATI All-in-Wonder card came with a converter
to hook it up to a monitor (it has RGB, svideo, and digital outs).;
Here's where things went downhill a bit.. the case has two exposed
3.5" bays. I need to fit a SATA drive in one of them. Unfortunately,
the drive won't fit with the faceplate it. I tried a few different
things but nothing would fit correctly. There has to be some way to
hide a hard drive in that spot?
If you squint, you can see in this picture that the face plate is too narrow
to slide the drive in. Even if it did fit the screw holes don't line up.
So I had someone who's better with metalworking tools make a quick
modification. He trimmed a good inch off the sides of the faceplate and
added new screw holes. Now the SATA drives fit like they're supposed to.
I don't know why
SilverStone
didn't make it this way to begin with.
With a couple of drives in it was time to install Windows XP Media
Center 2005. Here's a screenshot of why I don't personally use Windows
XP.
The last part I was waiting for finally came in. It was a little kit
from
SilverStone
to fit a 3.5" device in the other 5.25" bay. This was done so
everything that needs to be accessible is behind the same door (see the
case screenshots farther down)
At this point the case was running dangerously low on space. Well, there
was lots of empty space in a couple of spots but not useful ones. From
this shot you can see that the SATA drives were getting in the way of
the power connection to the motherboard.
I really didn't think I'd find a way to get this mass of cables back
into the case.
From the top you can really see the cable chaos. I shouldn't complain,
this wasn't too rough to clean up.
About a dozen twist ties later and the inside was organized. I don't
really like that bundle of power cables towards the bottom but there
weren't any other options.
Either my digital camera is cheap, or I take bad pictures, or both but
this picture doesn't do the case any justice.
This part also looks much better than the picture reflects.
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