Current Status:
Before/After:
Complete, overclocked and entered in Mod Of The Month June 2014, got 2nd place!
Remaining budget: 3,43€
Index:
01 - Cutting the Panels (and myself)
02 - More cutting & test fit
03 - Messing up the front bezel
04 - Fixing things I broke and making the door panel
05 - Making a new power button cable
06 - Borrowing a soldering iron and a quick Change of plan
07 - I made some LED lighting!
08 - Ridiculous luck - the day I found an E8400
09 - Prepping for paint
10 - Package from Hanse12 & testing the E8400
11 - White paint done
12 - Prepping for black paint & 1st coat of black
13 - Door finished and looking good
14 - Paint finished, new CPU arrived
15 - A very busy day, AKA: how to kill your GPU
16 - Back to stock
17 - An offer I couldn't refuse (Richie2010's GPU cooler)
18 - GPU backplate, front mesh & case feet
19 - Front Panel done
20 - Carbon Fiber Vinyl
21 - Nominating myself for MOTM
22 - A package from Richie_2010
23 - Testing the (new) new GPU cooler
24 - Installing Windows (Boring)
25 - Assembly I - PSU
26 - Assembly II - MB
27 - Assembly III - HDD, GPU, LEDs and tidying up
28 - FINAL PICTURES
29 - Overclocking I
30 - Overclocking II
31 - Overclocking III
32 - Gaming Performance - AoE2, CS:GO and BF4
33 - Gaming Performance - Dirt3, Skyrim and Crysis 2
34 - MOTM Results and Thanks
The 20€ LAN PC
Hello OCN!
I decided to cobble together a second/LAN PC out of all the old parts I had laying around, then, stupidly, I donated most of those parts to my brother so he could build a PC for our parents (damn generosity
).
I was on ebay the other day bidding for things and being immediately out-bid for about an hour, until I was placing bids on things I didn't really want. I somehow won one of These items. Now I've got a MB, CPU and RAM on the way by post, I thought I'd mod a case together.
Here's what I bought on ebay for 14€(+6€ P&P):
Asus mATX MoBo Acer 946GZT-AM mATX MB
Pentium D @3GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 Core 2 Duo E6400 for 2,51€ (+3,80€ P&P)
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
Other stuff I bought:
Carbon fiber vynil from ebay 52x152cm for 3,75€(+2,50€P&P)
And what I've got collecting dust:
Kiss quiet 560W PSU
2.5" 80GB HDD Awaiting new HDD from the friend who broke my last one Turns out my friend didn't break it, it's being used now: 2.5" 80GB 5400RPM HDD
Inno3D 9800GT Green Edition
I'm not looking to run BF4 at 120FPS at 1440p, but rather CS:GO at 720p and AoE2 at 1080p, where anything above 30FPS would be a Bonus!
The only Thing left to get was a case. However I didn't want to waste Money on something that:
a) might not work and
b) might be rubbish even if it does work
Luckly my uni is throwing out a load of electro-junk, under about a ton of it was an old beige case. I grabbed it up and brought it home:
Someone's artwork on the side Panel
And another shot
Better shot of the front, the right side Panel was in suprisingly good shape
It's got a floppy drive and a DVD drive, weather either of them work is unknown for now. All the stuff for the front USB & headphone/mic Jacks is there, again, unknow if it works or not.
The power button, however, is missing its cables
but I think I can just knock up a new one... maybe.
It was full of water and dirt when I got it home and it made a total mess of the floor, but I got it cleaned up and stripped down and it Looks quite respectable now.
Chassis
Front Panel and left side Panel (notice the artwork is gone)
Some of the more useful bits I stipped out of the case
There was also an 80mm fan and a bunch of screws and MB risers and other Fittings and such which will probably be reused.
OK, now it's mod-o'clock:
The case is far too big. I don't Need any disk drives (just the 2.5"HDD but I can sit that ontop of the PSU) so I'd like to do a cut-and-shut job on this one, un-riveting the front, cutting the case down to size and then putting the front Panel back on.
Here's some pics to give you the idea:
This is the area I want to remove
Showing off my mad MS Paint SKILZZZ
I also want to flip the MB tray to get the PSU at the bottom. I'll have to wait for the parts to arrive before I can do anything else
The only Thing I really want is this case to remain beige!
What do you think? Any ideas for (low-cost) mods? Post a reply!
Before/After:
Complete, overclocked and entered in Mod Of The Month June 2014, got 2nd place!
Remaining budget: 3,43€
Index:
01 - Cutting the Panels (and myself)
02 - More cutting & test fit
03 - Messing up the front bezel
04 - Fixing things I broke and making the door panel
05 - Making a new power button cable
06 - Borrowing a soldering iron and a quick Change of plan
07 - I made some LED lighting!
08 - Ridiculous luck - the day I found an E8400
09 - Prepping for paint
10 - Package from Hanse12 & testing the E8400
11 - White paint done
12 - Prepping for black paint & 1st coat of black
13 - Door finished and looking good
14 - Paint finished, new CPU arrived
15 - A very busy day, AKA: how to kill your GPU
16 - Back to stock
17 - An offer I couldn't refuse (Richie2010's GPU cooler)
18 - GPU backplate, front mesh & case feet
19 - Front Panel done
20 - Carbon Fiber Vinyl
21 - Nominating myself for MOTM
22 - A package from Richie_2010
23 - Testing the (new) new GPU cooler
24 - Installing Windows (Boring)
25 - Assembly I - PSU
26 - Assembly II - MB
27 - Assembly III - HDD, GPU, LEDs and tidying up
28 - FINAL PICTURES
29 - Overclocking I
30 - Overclocking II
31 - Overclocking III
32 - Gaming Performance - AoE2, CS:GO and BF4
33 - Gaming Performance - Dirt3, Skyrim and Crysis 2
34 - MOTM Results and Thanks
The 20€ LAN PC
Hello OCN!
I decided to cobble together a second/LAN PC out of all the old parts I had laying around, then, stupidly, I donated most of those parts to my brother so he could build a PC for our parents (damn generosity
I was on ebay the other day bidding for things and being immediately out-bid for about an hour, until I was placing bids on things I didn't really want. I somehow won one of These items. Now I've got a MB, CPU and RAM on the way by post, I thought I'd mod a case together.
Here's what I bought on ebay for 14€(+6€ P&P):
Asus mATX MoBo Acer 946GZT-AM mATX MB
Pentium D @3GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 Core 2 Duo E6400 for 2,51€ (+3,80€ P&P)
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
Other stuff I bought:
Carbon fiber vynil from ebay 52x152cm for 3,75€(+2,50€P&P)
And what I've got collecting dust:
Kiss quiet 560W PSU
2.5" 80GB HDD Awaiting new HDD from the friend who broke my last one Turns out my friend didn't break it, it's being used now: 2.5" 80GB 5400RPM HDD
Inno3D 9800GT Green Edition
I'm not looking to run BF4 at 120FPS at 1440p, but rather CS:GO at 720p and AoE2 at 1080p, where anything above 30FPS would be a Bonus!
The only Thing left to get was a case. However I didn't want to waste Money on something that:
a) might not work and
b) might be rubbish even if it does work
Luckly my uni is throwing out a load of electro-junk, under about a ton of it was an old beige case. I grabbed it up and brought it home:
Someone's artwork on the side Panel
And another shot
Better shot of the front, the right side Panel was in suprisingly good shape
It's got a floppy drive and a DVD drive, weather either of them work is unknown for now. All the stuff for the front USB & headphone/mic Jacks is there, again, unknow if it works or not.
The power button, however, is missing its cables
It was full of water and dirt when I got it home and it made a total mess of the floor, but I got it cleaned up and stripped down and it Looks quite respectable now.
Chassis
Front Panel and left side Panel (notice the artwork is gone)
Some of the more useful bits I stipped out of the case
There was also an 80mm fan and a bunch of screws and MB risers and other Fittings and such which will probably be reused.
OK, now it's mod-o'clock:
The case is far too big. I don't Need any disk drives (just the 2.5"HDD but I can sit that ontop of the PSU) so I'd like to do a cut-and-shut job on this one, un-riveting the front, cutting the case down to size and then putting the front Panel back on.
Here's some pics to give you the idea:
This is the area I want to remove
Showing off my mad MS Paint SKILZZZ
I also want to flip the MB tray to get the PSU at the bottom. I'll have to wait for the parts to arrive before I can do anything else
What do you think? Any ideas for (low-cost) mods? Post a reply!