The goal – build a very decent computer for about $600 Canadian.

Previous link(s):

http://www.filearchivehaven.com/2011/03/09/new-computer-in-the-works/

http://www.filearchivehaven.com/2011/03/13/new-computer-in-the-works-part-2/

When the first shipment was ordered from Xeoxide – we received one beat up case.  After emailing them photos the damage, the immediately sent out a replacement.  In addition, we ordered the first drive and it has arrived from NewEgg.

Received Parts List:

Xoxide

– 1x R2 Toast Green Case [$34.99]

– 1x 650W Green PSU [$39.99]

– 2x Neon Green Fans [$9.98]

NewEgg

– 1x 1TB 7500RPM Segate Drive (Secondary) [$50]

Total: ~134.96

So, now we have our first parts for assembly!

Unboxing

Everything looks great.  The PSU did not come with screws, but we will worry about that when we get there.

Open Case

So, we certainly have a lot of room in here!  To get the Optical drive in, later on, we will need to pop off the front plate and apply a ‘fix’ of sorts to the drive.  But that’s for the next day.

Components Added

So, we can’t go terribly far.  And most of these will need to come back out when we put in the motherboard.  But for a first-fit test, everything sits well.  We have 3x 80 fan ports, not 2x.  So, we placed the black fan on the bottom for now — with the two green ones on the back.  Once we begin assembly, we will decide how many to keep.

The hard drives mount to the front and it only mounts two.  But that is what we expected on purchasing the case.

The PSU did not fully sit flush, but it is within a millimeter.

 

Speaker

This brought me back a memory, and reminded me to make one more modification!

Back in the ‘old days’ me and my best friend (at the time) used to ‘write’ a lot of music on computer.  To do this, we used something called ModEdit (freeware MOD maker) and audio samples.  The drawback?  Well, no one really had sound cards back then, just PC speakers.  And you couldn’t hear much on them!

So, we started to rework the speakers on the motherboards.  See, those two cables can be replaced with speaker wire – which can then be run to a stereo or speaker set.  This is pre-Windows days, right in when Adlib became the audio card.  ModEdit would allow you to play a WAV or full audio sample directly on a PC speaker.  And we could leverage this through an audio device this way.

It is amazing the quality of sound you can get out of the PC speaker.  After that, we moved onto Impulse Tracker (which also could be routed to a PC speaker — mind you we had sound cards by then) and eventually into real software like Cakewalk, Cubase and eventually I moved (digitally speaking) to Skale Tracker and Rebirth.

Ironically, I still have tons of these songs — I’ll post them up for free one day for everyone.

-l