Starhawk's *Second* Eco Mod: R3

Cable ties are on the way. Many thanks to the seller (you know who you are!). Unfortunately, the sound card I got doesn't have the connector I need (my fault for not checking first -- seller, if you're reading this, no worries). Talking with the fellow at the local computer shop revealed that I may not even need that CD Audio cable thingamadoober, after all. So the current plan on that is to only incorporate if I need to. In related news, I feel like an idiot for not checking first.

Progress has been made in other areas as well. The paint is dry on the pot lid and the wooden board. Took some pix, which are right here... ya'll know my photo skills are suck-all, right?

 
Okay, Monster Mash is amusing, and this worklog thread is, well, interesting. But I do have something great to report...

I did a test fit, and everything fits (motherboard excepted, see below) !!

The motherboard is at the local computer shop, getting capacitors replaced... hopefully I'll have it back on Friday, more hopefully in working order.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, it works! That said, it's a real doozy to take it apart and get it back together again -- so if something dies on this build at some point down the line, I do not envy the person who has to reverse-engineer my work. It's a really challenging jigsaw puzzle of hardware, but it fits and it should work once it's finally together.

But enough yammering. Have some pics!


Tell me what ya'll think.
 
It's done. It's over. I have finished, successfully so.



YAAAAAAAAAAY!! :D :D :D

I learned a few things while doing this, like how "measure twice, cut once" really does make sense and 'cut' down on mistakes and waste :eek: :eek: :rolleyes:

...along with "trust but verify". Someone at Axiomtech, the company that made the motherboard, had quite a laugh at my expense regarding the front panel header pinout. Especially considering it's completely wrong in the damn manual. I did figure it out, but damn.

Since I didn't have a "known good" PSU or mainboard, as I had neglected to test either one beforehand, I swapped the power supply out for a known good one -- 200W, courtesy of Dell. When it turned out to be a defective reference drawing and nothing else, I left the Dell PSU in there out of sheer convenience... getting this thing apart and back together is a real doozy.

Final Specifications:
Dell 200W PSU (from a Dimension 6400)
Axiomtech SBC86807 v2 mITX Motherboard
Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU (Socket 479)
1GB DDR SDRAM (PC2100 speed)
Maxtor 20GB HDD
Samsung 24x/8x/8x/8x CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive
OS is Wary Puppy 5.11 with a custom iconset and wallpaper stolen from DeviantArt.
Test rig includes a Dell PS/2 keyboard, Logitech USB mouse, and Samsung 510MP monitor.

Size comparisons (Fresca = grapefruit soda = ftw!) --


Detail shots of the top --


Screenshots (sorta) of the system running (desktop, OpenOffice.org Light, and Opera) --


As they say, "all's well that ends well", and this certainly did end well :cool:
Thanks for looking, watching, subscribing, and donating, all of you who did so!

Let me know what ya'll think...
 
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