S-Buddie PC Case at Maplins

dazberry

For all those low profile aluminium (or aluminium as the yanks would say ) case lovers, Maplins are selling a low profile aluminium case with media card reader for E105.

Personally I'm happy with my standard beige cases, but when I saw one I just had to buy it

FYI: 1x 5 1/4 bay, 2x 3 1/2 bays (1 hidden and 1 taken by the media card reader [removable]). Takes M-ATX boards and is low profile (so none of your standard cards will fit obviously). Only had to mod my network card as the m-atx board I have has most everything else on-board. USB, Firewire, microphone and earphone connectors on front. PSU is only 190w.

There's also a warning about the heatsink size suggesting 15mm clearance, I'm only getting about 8mm clearance but the CPU temp is the same as it was in the previous case - Duron 1.1 @ 41 degrees.

Well worth a look if you're into that sort of thing.

[Aside]
Also bought a really slim silver and blue keyboard there which is more like a laptop kb but with a numeric pad and some silly "internet" buttons but it matches really well. I've a silver and blue optical mouse too, so I reckon it will all make a nice set. Only need a silver LCD monitor now ;(

[Note]
I don't work for or am anyway connected to Maplins, so please don't take this as an advertisement. I had just gone in to buy some RJ45 connectors and left with a bit more than I'd bargined on

D.

Xithus

Yea I saw that a fews weeks back. Was tempted

phaxx

For anyone interested:



Very nice. Would like to see some pictures of the inside layout - dazberry, could you post one or two if you can?

What sort of interface does the media card reader use? USB?

Señor Juárez

it looks like one of those nice new cases that are appearing, suitable for in the living room type of thing...

i saw one in maplin a while ago, might have been that one. i remember thinking that it seemed very expensive for what it was.

dazberry

phaxx

I need to route out the 20 year old 640x480 digi camera, I'll do that Tuesday night if I can find it (I really have to catch up on some work stuff tonight - what am I doing here ).

The USB seemed to take everything AFAIK - smart media, memory stick, compack flash, secure digital cards. I got it up and running easily (Win2K), but then it disappeared and I just couldn't get it to work (and I tried on principle) - which wasn't a big loss because I've only a 2 (and 8mb - in the camera somewhere) smartmedia. The media drive is USB and connects directly to the motherboard. The front USB same - and both will share one USB connector on mobo (4 x 1 and ~5 x 1). But because due to legacy reasons my main development machine is NT4w/s no USB devices exist in my place of residence so I couldn't actually try the front port out.

I'd nothing to connect the firewire port too. There is a little insert to block the front for the firewire port (actually I got 2?) - but I left it open anyway.

The front mic and phono connector (Intel standard?) connected fine, but I haven't tested them either.

So I pulled it out, put in a zip (had to use a power splitter) - the zip was fcuked (had probs with it before - luckily I discovered the hole in the back to get the disk out), and stuck in a fdd.

[marclar]
It was E105/106 - need to check the receipt. I checked all this out yesterday, its UK£60 in the UK, so yes there is a fair premium on it when I worked out the currency and different VAT. But before I bought it I was in another shop looking at normal cases (none I liked for a normally beige person) from E70 to E90, so I suppose its all relative.

I'll post a couple of pics (subject to finding the camera tomorrow night).

D.

GRAHAM2002

reminds me of the 90's

Señor Juárez

some cases seem very expensive these days, saw an aluminium one in maplin in blanchardstown the otehr day. thought "oh that looks pretty nice, probably over a hundred though, not worth it". looked at the price tag, it was around 250 euro!!

dazberry

phaxx

Sorry Phaxx I can't find the shagging camera to take a couple of snaps. I can find the box, manuals, leads, CD etc., and not the bloody camera itself. Typical

Gavin

Originally posted by marclar
some cases seem very expensive these days, saw an aluminium one in maplin in blanchardstown the otehr day. thought "oh that looks pretty nice, probably over a hundred though, not worth it". looked at the price tag, it was around 250 euro!!

Do you know what it was ? I'm buying a coolermaster 610 micro atx box from komplett soon for 250 euro. If maplins have it for same price, I could save myself some mula. I wish they would sort out an irish website.

Gav