After considering building a PC into the desk for the last few years, I've finally decided to go ahead with it.
Using a various spare parts which were gathering dust, I rigged together a makeshift system to see what can be done, what will fit and how much handiwork will be needed.
The current spec is very mundane and somewhat limited by the 250w PSU.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ 3.0GHz
MSI K9A2 CF-F (modified BIOS to take Phenom/Phenom II)
2Gb OZC XTC 2 Platinum DDR2 @ 800MHz
512Mb HD 3870 Sapphire 'XT'
160Gb Hitachi SATA II hard drive
Xilence heatsink
Basic Logitech keyboard & mouse
Generic old speakers and 15" Dell monitor (1024 x 768 FTW!!!)
I have a second 3870 XT here and another 2Gb OCZ Ram, but it wont POST with these added and the PSU starts to whine, even the extra 2Gb Ram is too much for the PSU! Most of these components were all part of my previous main rig and worked flawlessly for years. Except the PSU that came from a cheap 'off the shelf' BenQ system and the monitor and speakers which were discarded from the office.
If all goes well, then the PSU will be upgraded along with the hard drive, monitor and speakers. The CPU heatsink will also be replaced with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 if there is enough space inside the 'case'.
If the general result is ok, I will look into an i5 build and make a suitable LAN party system. Then this lot will become an HTPC.
The current setup:
The case to be:
Any thoughts, advice, comments and criticism welcome
Edited by Ricwin - 7/23/12 at 4:52pm
Using a various spare parts which were gathering dust, I rigged together a makeshift system to see what can be done, what will fit and how much handiwork will be needed.
The current spec is very mundane and somewhat limited by the 250w PSU.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ 3.0GHz
MSI K9A2 CF-F (modified BIOS to take Phenom/Phenom II)
2Gb OZC XTC 2 Platinum DDR2 @ 800MHz
512Mb HD 3870 Sapphire 'XT'
160Gb Hitachi SATA II hard drive
Xilence heatsink
Basic Logitech keyboard & mouse
Generic old speakers and 15" Dell monitor (1024 x 768 FTW!!!)
I have a second 3870 XT here and another 2Gb OCZ Ram, but it wont POST with these added and the PSU starts to whine, even the extra 2Gb Ram is too much for the PSU! Most of these components were all part of my previous main rig and worked flawlessly for years. Except the PSU that came from a cheap 'off the shelf' BenQ system and the monitor and speakers which were discarded from the office.
If all goes well, then the PSU will be upgraded along with the hard drive, monitor and speakers. The CPU heatsink will also be replaced with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 if there is enough space inside the 'case'.
If the general result is ok, I will look into an i5 build and make a suitable LAN party system. Then this lot will become an HTPC.
The current setup:
The case to be:
Any thoughts, advice, comments and criticism welcome
Edited by Ricwin - 7/23/12 at 4:52pm
RIC-PC
(16 items) |
The Movie Box
(13 items) |
| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athlon X2 7450 | PB WMCP78M nForce 720a | Sapphire HD 3650 | Generic Samsung based memory |
| Hard Drive | Optical Drive | Cooling | OS |
| Western Digital Cavier Green | Liteon DVD-RW | Generic CPU cooler | Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit |
| Monitor | Keyboard | Power | Case |
| Neon 37" 1080p HD TV | Logitech Cordless Desktop E100 | Generic 250w slimline PSU | Packard Bell imedia SFF case |
| Mouse | |||
| Logitech Cordless Desktop E100 | |||
| View all | |||
|
RIC-PC
(16 items) |
The Movie Box
(13 items) |
| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athlon X2 7450 | PB WMCP78M nForce 720a | Sapphire HD 3650 | Generic Samsung based memory |
| Hard Drive | Optical Drive | Cooling | OS |
| Western Digital Cavier Green | Liteon DVD-RW | Generic CPU cooler | Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit |
| Monitor | Keyboard | Power | Case |
| Neon 37" 1080p HD TV | Logitech Cordless Desktop E100 | Generic 250w slimline PSU | Packard Bell imedia SFF case |
| Mouse | |||
| Logitech Cordless Desktop E100 | |||
| View all | |||
