Case Question

Slippin Jimmy

Ok I am thinking of doing a little project in the new year. I am going to get one of thoses see through cases. I hope to get it from peats, if anyone knows where I can get one cheaper than €70, I would appriciate that.
My rig at the moment is a Packard Bell. Last night I opened up the case and it was filthy, so I am going to clean all the dust and parts. At the moment there is only on fan o the rig, is it possible to add more, where can I get these without going online?
You know the fan blade, I was also thinking of changing that to a coloured one, it should be simple enough. Would it be safe to run the computer with the case off for about 5 mins?
Thanks in advance.
Sean

DemonOfTheFall

Do you mean a case made entirely of acrylic plastic, like see through all over ? I don't think i've ever seen them for under €100 at any shops or online. Peats/Maplin/PC World all sell fans at reasonable rates.

You can't just change the blades of a fan really, it'd be much easier to actually entirely replace the fan.

It's perfectly safe to run the computer with the side of the case off, as long as no small animals jump in and you dont kick your graphics card or anything.

Slippin Jimmy

Thanks. I was thinking of also replacing my graphics card. I have the Packard Bell 5055 modell. Does anyone know where the graphics card is on this machine. I am new to all of this. I am also thinking of putting illumonous wires in it aswell, and comments or sugestions?

Cuddlesworth

You dont know where the graphics cards is but you want to strip out everything and install it in a new case?

In answer to your question its normally the card attached to your computer on the oppisite side of the case where you plug in your monitor.

Stephen

Beware, OEM's like packard bell are notorious for putting non-standard gear into their machines, so you may find it hard/impossible to mount the packard bell's motherboard/power supply in a standard atx case

duridian

If your system is the type of PB with the blue light around the power button and the rotating usb cover at the bottom of the front panel then I'd say there is a fair enough chance that it can be done. From what I have seen of them, most of that type of PB system (iMedia models) have fairly basic but standard parts (normal enough micro atx mobo, Fortron make their power supplies so they are normal enough too). Do not take this as a go ahead to start dismantling your pc. All I am saying is I reckon the conversion can be done - by a person with experience of pcs. If you plough ahead on your own, it could be a disaster waiting to happen. I don't mean to sound negative, but honestly from your posts so far, you don't sound like you are knowledgeable enough yet to go doing something like this on your own, and there are so many ways in which you may completely bork up your computer doing this.
Before you go investing money into this project, it would be a good idea for you to get somebody more familiar with the innards of computers to have a look at your present system and see how feasible it is to do the case conversion that you want. Most importantly ask them to check for motherboard mountings and power supply mounting screw positions. Other parts like drives are less likely to be non-standard. Surely you know of someone that's into building and modding pcs who could help?

Slippin Jimmy

Well actually I don't know anyone into PC modding, but I would like to give it a try. Does anyone know where I could get some decent tutorials on the net. I was looking at all of the parts last night and today, I took out the cd-rom, hard drive, ram and cooling fan, I put them all back in and it works grand. Surely making a few modifications won't be that hard. I would still like to go ahead and try this, but with what has been said I would like to look at a few tutorials on it first.

shanethemofo

quick google search found this:
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

Slippin Jimmy

shanethemofo wrote:

quick google search found this:
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

Thanks for this I will take a look. I am interested in doing something like this, I was just thinking maybe I might be able to get a job in a small computer shop, they might be able to point me in the right direction, I would not want to get paid for this. I am only 15 so it might be tricky. Anyone have any suggestions on where I could get some hands on experience.

DemonOfTheFall

Main thing to watch out for when you're handling all the parts is static. Get yourself one of those wristbands so that you can ground yourself while working with components. By handling them you might damage something, even if it's not immediately noticeable, especially your RAM.

Another one is to make sure if you take off the heatsink from your processor that you put it back on properly. Don't want to turn the PC back on and find it nuked.

Slippin Jimmy

What do you mean by wristband, is it the ones for the charity's or are we talking about special ones that are in the shops? I know it might seem a stupid question and it probably is.

shanethemofo

lol.... no its a wristband that stops static electricity from damagin ur parts... u can buy them in pc world. i'd say peats nd maplins do em as well. hehe im only 14 but i learned from the internet how do make a pc.... actually i learned from a maplins catalogue as well... they had a guide in the middle of it... dunno if dey still do em... ah memory's :P.... any way....

shanethemofo

something like this should do the job:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ANTI-STATIC-WRIST-BAND-EARTH-PLUG-KIT-ANTISTATIC_W0QQitemZ5844028704QQcategoryZ16145QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Slippin Jimmy

Ok so I have made up my mind what I am hopeing to do. That is to get another fan put into the computer, get a acrylic case, hopefully with a bit more time put in the wires that light up.Maybe when I have the first 3 things done, then I might upgrade my ram and my hard drive.
What advice would you give me on starting out on moding my computer?
Is there any other way of making a see through case?
I am only a beginner and I would appriciate any help that I can get.

DemonOfTheFall

Have a browse around a few dedicated forums such as www.hardforum.com and www.xtremesystems.org

Look in their boards dedicated to case modding and just lurk around reading all the threads. You'd be amazed how much you can learn.

duridian

Well I'm all for the idea of you learning to build pcs, all I meant by my earlier post is to take care (I'm sure you paid a good lump of money for the pc) and if you are unsure of something just ask someone, even asking here is a good step in the right direction.
The antistatic wristband is just a bit of elastic material that you wear like a bracelet. At one point in the band is a metal piece which is in contact with your skin. To this metal piece a wire is attached which is taken to an earthing point, usually this is the earth pin of a 3pin electrical mains plug. This is normally a special plug in which only the earth pin is made of metal, the live and the neutral pins are only plastic insulative material (so there is no danger of you electrocuting yourself )
The reason you should use such a wristband is that static electricity can build up on your body, from contact with various materials, without your realising it. If this electricity discharges into micro-circuitry, such as that found in pc components, it can damage some of the tiny components. If you want to see an example of static on your body, get a light plastic bag (the type you find in the fruit & veg section of most supermarkets is ideal for this). Rub the bag vigorously beteween the palms of your hands for a few seconds. Now notice how the bag is trying to "stick" to your hand when you try to drop it. This is because the rubbing caused static to build up on your hands. I think it is caused by electrons jumping from the bag to your skin or somesuch but the main thing to know is that this is bad for pc components if it comes into contact with them. Many other household things can cause similar static effects, another example is how the hairs on the back of your hand will sometimes stand up when brought near the screen of a tv (older CRT tvs with electron guns that is, not the newer LCD and plasma jobbies).
Here are two dealers who have Dublin stores
Peats
and Maplins
although they both seem to have the crocodile clips rather than the mains plug earthed type which I'd consider better.
That PC Mechanic tutorial linked by Shane looks like it could be good.
Since it is the most significant component, when it comes to the motherboard ensure that it has its mounting standoffs in the correct positions, and very important check that there are no unused or out of place standoff as these could short circuit the motherboard. (Standoffs are the little hexagonal, 1cm high fixings that keep the motherboard in place but also prevent it from touching any metal except at the mounting holes. The motherboard is screwed onto these at the mounting holes.)
I've highlighted in green the mounting holes of a typical micro-atx motherboard, which is most likely similar in size to that of the Packard Bell.

and just for comparison a typical full size atx motherboard, which as you can see has mostly the same mounting holes, just that due to it's larger size needs a few extra:

Just that I feel it is important to familiarise yourself with this layout as ATX/microATX is the most common type of board used. There is a newer BTX format but it is just something being pushed by Intel and Dell yet so don't worry about it as your PB is definitely not BTX.

masteroftherealm

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

Have a browse around a few dedicated forums such as www.hardforum.com and www.xtremesystems.org

Look in their boards dedicated to case modding and just lurk around reading all the threads. You'd be amazed how much you can learn.

Oh god dont sedn him to extreme sys, I went there bout 2years ago and havent left since now Im hoping to do irelands first liquid nitrogen cooling run in the new year!!
STAY AWAY from XS!!!! Itll suck you in!!

Slippin Jimmy

Thanks for the advice lads. I will have a look at the sites provided, the treads and the advice given. If you have anymore tips for me please post them here. One more thing, if I was going to take out the motherboard, would I have to take out them ram and all that before taking it out. I was thinking of getting a see through case, but they are expensive, does anyone know if I can use plexy glass instead as it might be cheaper. I just mainly want to take my time at this and have a bit of fun, and make my computer look good. Oh yeah, I am going to add in an extra fan over the Christmas to keep the machine cold. There is a slot where you plug in the cable to power the fan, I am sure there are more on the computer, but does it matter where which plug you plug it into?

duridian

It should usually be possible to remove the motherboard and refit it without removing the ram or the cpu/cpu cooler heatsink, just be careful not to touch the ramsticks with the screwdriver as ram is one of the more sensitive components in the pc and hence easy to damage. I would only remove the cpu heatsink if it was really big like one of these XP-120 monsters from Thermalright, and it was getting in the way when removing the mounting screws.
Incidentally I think you mentioned you removed the cpu cooler already. You'll probably get away with it, but by right you really should replace the thermal paste between the heatsink and the cpu when you do that. The best paste you can use is probably Arctic Silver 5, it is what most pc enthusiasts use. Although most modern thermal pastes are good. In Dublin a good source for pc cooling stuff is (www.hitide.ie whom I believe are in Clontarf, and they sell other handy bits 'n bobs as well. (They are probably gonna be closed for a few weeks over the Xmas though.)
One thing I would point out to watch out for in the cpu/cooling/paste related matters is that if you have a Socket A AMD Athlon XP/Duron or Sempron the area to which thermal paste should be applied is much smaller, than in the other major cpu types.
This is a typical Socket A cpu. It is only the small rectangular/square bit in the middle that needs paste as this is the core which generates the heat we are trying to remove with the cooler. Applying paste outside this area may even harm the cpu if you have used a metal based paste(and hence possibly conductive to electricity), so that is something to be aware of. Most of the other modern processors have a metal heatspreader on top of the core which takes up most of the surface of the processor top so this issue doesn't arise.
For example:
A typical Athlon64 cpu The different Socket models don't really look much different from this angle, so whether its a Socket 754/939/940 they all look pretty similar to this. Higher model Semprons also look like this.
A typical Socket 478 cpu, the most common type for Pentium 4/Celeron chips of the last few years and lastly
A typical Socket 775 the newer Intel Pentium/Celeron chips
Another thing about the Socket A chips is that they do not have a safeguard aginst a thermal disaster. By this I mean that if for example the cpu cooler were to fall off, or if the cooler was somehow misfitted so that it wasn't in proper contact with the cpu core, then the cpu would overheat and burn out. In the situation where the heatsink is completely absent the core dies within a fraction of a second as it has built up so much heat. The other types as mentioned above are capable of responding in such a situation by slowing down before they reach a critical temperature.
I mention these points about Socket A chips because a lot of those PAckard Bells like your one that I have seen myself came with either a Celeron or an Athlon XP cpu. If you have got an XP chip it's better to know these things in advance.