Gallery of Computer Pics
 

Here are some pics of my various computers...

So just recently I decided to upgrade my motherboard, cpu and ram. (specs on my current systems page) Of course that meant moving my old motherboard and, cpu and ram out of my case and putting in the new parts. This involved a lot of moving things around and backing up data (ghosting) and then copying and such as I decided to re-install windows. Don't worry, I still had the same linux on my slave drive, it's just that windows doesn't seem to be able to handle being moved to a different motherboard very well, while linux is very versatile. Anyway, after getting all of this accomplished (in about an hour and a half) I realized that my hd led light was not working. This wasn't really a big deal, but it kinda bugged me. Plus I had been thinking of upgrading my power supply from 300W to something heftier. Well, my ideas got the better or me and I went out and bought a Chen-Ming case seen here. Obviously this involved me migrating everything from my main case to my new case. It took me about an hour total to do this, taking my time and including interruptions and breaks. Here are some of the pics from my latest project:

Here is the case just after I installed my Jetway motherboard, still had lots of work to do.

For speed purposes, I made the pics into thumbnails - click to see the full pic.

The case came with several fans: 2 in the power supply unit, 2 at the back and one attached to the side of the case. I replaced the one on the side panel with my thermal take blue illuminating fan so I had the generic black one as extra. I first just put in the front compartment at the bottom, but when I pulled out the casing where the hard drives went, I discovered something really interesting - another place for a fan! The Chen-Ming case uses a different method to install fans than conventional screws. It comes with brackets (the purple colored tabs around the fan in the pic) that just allow you to snap in your fans. It's very convenient. Anyway, I could have just put in the fan as normal, but I decided that I wanted to have the fan act as a cooling device for the hard drives. It sure beats those mini fans that come in hard drive cooler trays. So I pulled out the purple apparatus (I am still talking about computers, aren't I, lol) and installed the fan backwards. I took out the casing here so I could run the fan wire on the inside of the casing instead of trying to wire it around it. Doing things this way means there is air blowing on the hard drives, continually keeping them cool.

Side view - notice how the wire comes out where the hard drives are inserted. There is plenty of room there for it. There is even a little indent on the side below the lower row of screws where it can be secured if you like.

Everything is installed and functioning well. I need to work on getting the wires looking a little better though, That will just involve me picking something up to cover them. I don't want to use rounded ide cables cause they are not worth it in my opinion and plus I may be using serial ATA in the near future which have really small cables.

View from the front with the panel closed:

Panel open. One of the things I was really conscious of was making sure I got a case that had a front closing panel.

Overall impression - the Chen-Ming case is fantastic. It was worth every penny. It came with several fans and a 450W power supply as well. The only thing I would recommend to them is to include an instruction booklet on connecting the usb and firewire header cables at the front. It's hard to see but right on the front there is a little flap that can be opened under the floppy drive right where the slits begin in the middle. There is a small square that is in the middle of the slits that contains front usb and firewire. I managed to get them connected anyway, but a clear booklet included would have made things a little easier.

Here are some of my older pics

This is an old P166 box I got back from a friend that I had lent it to. Notice the hd on top of the case - it is a 1G from an old 486 that gutted out and am using as a second drive in the P166. I haven't figured out how to mount it yet as there is little space in a case like that and it's not worth the trouble of moving it to a tower.

Here is a view of the whole system, i'm listening to music through Shoutcast and using a usb ethernet card on it. It has pci slots for a nic, but I thought I could use a usb ethernet for tech work sometimes.

This is my main system. Notice the stack of cd-r's on the left of the stand. Also, for those with a keen eye, there is a screensaver on it that linux is running. Can you tell?

I got into doing some cosmetic things to my main system and decided to cut out the side panel and put in a neon tube and 80mm fan with a blue light. I wish it showed the inside better, but you get the idea.

This is my backup system. It has sentimental value because it contains the motherboard from the first computer I ever bought. I think that is absolutely the only thing that is left from that old system though, haha. I even moved it to that tower and then during my cosmetic phase, I decided to paint it. Ironically the only part of it I don't like it the top and that is what you see most from this pic. If you look closely you might be able to see the red alien head that I painted on the side. There is one on each side and the front floppy drive is painted also. I was going to put in red LED's in the front panel, but I never got around to it.

This one turned out a little better. This is my backup on the desk. This has had some many different os's and distros on it, it's crazy. At one time I had five distros on it at the same time! That was quite a learning experience. Right now it is running Red Hat 9 but I still have 15 G's left on that 30G drive so I will be adding another soon - more than likely SuSE 8.2 Pro.

This is my usb trackball for my backup system. I first tried a trackball about a year and a half ago and I have never looked back since. I don't mind generic optical mice but they can still skip. Although I don't do much gaming, trackballs are way better than anything else for it. I think they are smoother and move so much better than any other kind of mouse. This particular one is a logitech. I like it a lot, it is optical as well so it is really smooth. I still prefer my other trackballs which I have a pic of below.

For anyone who thinks it is cold in Canada (at least where I live in southern ontario) you have to be nuts! I have had my air conditioner on way before many people in the US. It get so hot and humid here it is totally unbearable. I know I probably shouldn't have it so close to my computer, but at least it will keep the cpu cool, right!? Haha

There they are! These things are some of my most prized possessions. I got them from a Canadian store called Radio Shack (website here). I'm not sure if they are in the US or anywhere else. Anyway, they had them on sale for $20 and they were originally $40. They were discontinued items. Well, since I was such a trackball fan, I scoured the Radio Shack stores all around me and managed to pick up 5! I even got one for $10 because the box had been opened. They are supposed to be a generic white/beige color, but I painted these ones. They make me hate using any other mouse.

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at my computer pics and such. I guess since I have taken pictures of my computers and even posted them, I can consider myself a true geek! I got mail yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!