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New to modding/building..

V

Vizz3r

n00b
Joined
Apr 13, 2004
Messages
8
Hi guys. Lovely mods you have here. I've been reading up on a lot of things.

Recently I attended LANarchy, a local LAN party with 30+ people. I -thought- my computer would at least somewhat fend for itself.. but alas. I saw myself drooling over AMAZING mods. And I thought LED's and fan's were cool, and I had never even done -THOSE-. But what I saw just amazed me. So.. I'm trying to get into this whole mod thing. In fact, I'm going to start learning more about computers in general. I've learned the basics of computing, and webpages are a breeze. But hardware has always stumped me, and I'm going to start working with it now.

This weekend, I'm following www.casemodgods.com tutorial (i think it was there) on how to cut out a window on the side of my case. My case is relatively small in size, but in specs, it mostly holds its ground. I'm upgrading from a GeForce 2 to a Radeon 9600, also, and probably ordering that tomorrow.

The problem lies within modding, and general knowledge of the inside of a computer, itself. I -believe- I can cut out the case, but I have yet to find a detailed tutorial on how to install a fan and hook up LED lights. I want to learn the basics of modding first, and hopefully learn the basics of a computer while I'm at it. Then I'll move on to more advanced stuff, as I hope to build my own computer during the summer.

Any helpful hints for a first-timer? I see many tutorials on all sorts of things, but I can't find a "first-time modding" tutorial, or something even remotely helping a person who's never done things like this before. I'm very afraid I'll destroy my computer.

Also, a few questions have been plaguing my mind, and I can't seem to find any answers.

1. - Where do I hook the fan up (as in, where does it plug into, for power)?
2. - Do I have to unplug the multicolored cables to put the wire splits on them? [whatever they are]
3. - If so, is there a basic way of knowing where these go back?
4. - My current fan is slowing down every few seconds, then speeding back up. This causes a humming sound that is rather annoying. Any ideas as to what I can do?
5. - I can only get one side of my case off. It's an HP Pavilion 761c. I've seen them modded before, I believe, but I can't seem to get ANY of the rest of the case off. Is there something I'm missing here?
6. - What's the easiest way to paint a computer?
7. - For LED lights, do I have to order them, or will regular LED lights at Radioshack work? And if they will, where could I possibly hook them up?

Thanks for reading, if you did. If you can't help, that's okay. But if you can, I'd REALLY appreciate it. Thanks again.

Sorry this was such a long post.

- Adam
 
It's good that you're trying to learn stuff and get into modding, but right off the bat you kind of have to let your fears of wrecking your system go... sure, you should be very cautious when doing something that could mess up your hardware, but you'll never learn anything without a little risk involved. And I don't care how many tutorials someone reads on the internet, the way you learn is by trial and error. Things will get broken, and mistakes will be made.

That being said, let me try and answer your questions....

1. Power hook ups are done through molex connectors, either 3-pin or 4-pin. 3-pin molexes are found on your motherboard; it's the type of connector that's on the fan for your CPU (most likely.) 4-pin molexes are the big ugly looking ones that plug into hard drives, optical drives, etc. They have a 12v line, a 5v line, and two grounds, but if you're just buying a fan and plugging it into your PSU, you don't have to worry too much about that. Just use the connector that's already on your fan.

2. Hmmm... by multicolored cables I assume you mean the cables that attach to your molex connectors and come from your power supply. Not entirely sure what you mean by wire splits... they do make molex splitters, and hooking these up is straightfoward. Male connector goes into female connector and presto.

3. Not entirely sure what you mean by this... but basically, anything in your computer that you want to have power has to have a molex plugged into it.

4. Replacing the fan would likely solve your problem. If not, you may be in need of a power supply upgrade to something with a higher wattage.

5. The other panels are probably riveted on. You'd have to drill out the rivets if you wanted to get the other metal panels off. The front bezel should either be screwed or clipped on; if not, it's probably riveted, in which case you'd have to drill those out too.

6. Take off all the panels, sand it down, primer, sand, primer, sand, color, sand, color, sand, color, sand, clearcoat, clearcoat. There are bunches of guides out there, and a couple threads kicking around in the Cool Cases forum about painting.

7. All LEDs are basically the same, whether you get them from Rat Shack or online. I don't really want to type out all that is required to hook up LEDs to your computer, but there is a thread around here somewhere (Cool Cases forum as well, I think) concerning hooking up LEDs.
 
I think I might have used some of the wrong terminology. Thanks for being supportive though, and helping me out as much as you could. I understand that I won't do it all right the first time, or for many times after that, I'm sure. But I'm only 16, and money comes scarcely.


Firstly, I didn't mean "wire splits", I suppose. I meant the sort of 'wrapper' that goes around the wires, to make them 'rounded'. I've seen these on many wires, and I've heard you can buy them that way. I'd rather just make mine, and hopefully they turn out decently.

Thanks for the help with the fan.

And yes; I searched around and found clips that keep the front of the case on.

Another question. To hook up fan's, LED's, etc., do I need to take the other side off as well? The side connected to the motherboard? All I'm able to do right now is take the plastic piece off of the front, and one side of my computer.

That's a lot of work for just painting it.. I believe I read somewhere (perhaps TechTV), that for metal, all that was required was primer and paint. I'm really not good at painting things, either, so I'm not sure "primer" is even the correct word. I've heard that for plastic, all that's required is sanding, and a few other steps. Do I really need to sand, paint, sand, paint, etc.?

Thanks again. I really appreciate the help.
 
Originally posted by Vizz3r

Another question. To hook up fan's, LED's, etc., do I need to take the other side off as well? The side connected to the motherboard? All I'm able to do right now is take the plastic piece off of the front, and one side of my computer.

That's a lot of work for just painting it.. I believe I read somewhere (perhaps TechTV), that for metal, all that was required was primer and paint. I'm really not good at painting things, either, so I'm not sure "primer" is even the correct word. I've heard that for plastic, all that's required is sanding, and a few other steps. Do I really need to sand, paint, sand, paint, etc.?

Thanks again. I really appreciate the help.
Click to expand...
as for hooking up fans and LEDs, all you need is a place to mount them and a free Molex connector to plug them into...I can't imagine you'll need to take off the other side of the case.

As for painting...well, do you want it to look good? You'll want to do more than sand/prime/paint. I probably wouldn't go as far as waddles, I'd probably do sand/prime/sand/paint/sand/clearcoat. Then again, I'm not a perfectionist;)

More painting cycles would make it look better.
 
Okay. Thank you! I've never had to paint anything besides pictures, really, so I don't know about sanding. But I'll have my father helping me with this project, so perhaps he'll know exactly what to do. Thanks again.

For painting, though, I'd like to get the other side off.. You know? I'd like to get the -whole- thing painted. :]
 
sounds to me like your best bet is to go read this. i know that reading stuff is a painus in the anus but it is well worth it. you will learn a ton from that link. just look for the topic you want, click, read, and learn. **IT'S THE BEST WAY TO DO SOMETHING THE RIGHT WAY THE FIRST TIME** ;) welcome to the world of modding.... and good luck :D
 
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