Long time no see. Upgrade time.

[Cenedd]

That’s also why I refuse to go with hard tubing.

Go glass to really make life difficult for yourself! AMHIK

and rip my hands to ribbons to connect the molex connector into the PSU. It was a grade A nightmare.

It's no fun if you have easy access to plug stuff in....shroud it some more to make it harder

Given the amount of work you've put into that and the fact that all the 12V power goes down one wire from the PSU to all the Molex's.....you don't want someone pointing out that you could have used one single Molex socket and just spliced the wires together if they weren't all common'd after the PCIE plug anyway....so I'll definitely not point that out

Looking good though. I reckon your choice of purple coolant will go nicely with that carpet too

 

[ALXAndy]

Go glass to really make life difficult for yourself! AMHIK


It's no fun if you have easy access to plug stuff in....shroud it some more to make it harder

Given the amount of work you've put into that and the fact that all the 12V power goes down one wire from the PSU to all the Molex's.....you don't want someone pointing out that you could have used one single Molex socket and just spliced the wires together if they weren't all common'd after the PCIE plug anyway....so I'll definitely not point that out

Looking good though. I reckon your choice of purple coolant will go nicely with that carpet too

They were too thick.

They’re from my Platimax 1550w.

Problem was I didn’t have a molex. At all. So I may as well use the three I had no choice but to put in there.

Talking of the Platimax. That’s how my spare. Going to completely rewire it when I get back.

 

[ALXAndy]

It was a nightmare.

The cable for the USB came. I then spent 5 hours trying to get the LCD screen to work. It would not. Long story short these fans IMO are too needy. They need a 6 pin PCIE power, which is ludicrous, and then need to be plugged directly into a USB header. All of that for a screen. Was it worth it? somewhat. I had to remove the GPU *again* which really peed me off. I then used the USB converter on the Aquacomputer LT thing, which tbh doesn't need touching any way as I set it all up the last time it was used.

With that the interior is now finished.

Video there.

 

[Cenedd]

Needs to be light blue. It'll look like electricity shorting out then - especially the PCIE cabling. Go change your coolant!

 

[ALXAndy]

Dude the coolant changes colours. Seriously, it does. It's nuts.

It will look more blue when the side panel goes on. It's dark AF.

For now you can bugger orf. I am literally tidying and packing for a holiday I leave for on Sunday morning ffs. This was all supposed to be done by Weds

 

[ALXAndy]

BTW you are only telling me to change it to blue because you are worried the boy will see it and make you do his like that

 

[Cenedd]

No, just that if blue, it'll look like crackling lightning running over everything - even cooler than it is now. And no; his RGB, his choice. I'm just pleased if he can remember to turn it off before he leaves the house *facepalm*

 

[novalis]

Ah man I had the same issue with my Lian Li fans. I have 10 of them and they would not work being plugged into any USB hub, took me a while to figure that out

 

[Jay85]

It was a nightmare.

The cable for the USB came. I then spent 5 hours trying to get the LCD screen to work. It would not. Long story short these fans IMO are too needy. They need a 6 pin PCIE power, which is ludicrous, and then need to be plugged directly into a USB header. All of that for a screen. Was it worth it? somewhat. I had to remove the GPU *again* which really peed me off. I then used the USB converter on the Aquacomputer LT thing, which tbh doesn't need touching any way as I set it all up the last time it was used.

With that the interior is now finished.

Video there.

This is one thing i don't miss with ATX builds, the absolute snake pit of cables!

I honestly don't know how i could put up with this again, it's literally a nightmare as you've said.

The final build looks awesome man, good freaking job!

 

[ALXAndy]

I’m back. Had a amazing holiday including a bowel loosening experience in a Lotus 7.

The wood arrived. The carbon has not. It said it had shipped but the tracking did nothing, and eventually it said cancelled

Then today I got an email showing it had indeed been shipped but not until yesterday.

None of this matters of course because I’ve not been here any way. What I did do was order some 2mm acrylic to contact adhesive the wood to as it is wood and thus not terribly flat.

Work on all of this shall begin soon. I’m stuck here til Weds, but it will be game on after that.

 

[ALXAndy]

Grr. Got it set up, plugged the keyboard in and it spazzed. Started bombing type. This is a barely used Keychron with custom keys and caps. It's dead. I forgot that I had a bottle of vape liquid explode in my face and all over it. I cleaned it as best I could, and this was months ago, so I thought it was OK. It was not ffs.

I am loathe to spend one more penny on keyboards. As such, and because I hate the smaller ones, I dug out my old Hunstman Elite. I got this on blowout for £80 about 7 years ago, and it never let me down. It was however worn hard on the keys (very shiny). So I stripped it.

Making sure to keep the stabilizers. I then cleaned it, and got out the wrist pad. Which had gone rotten on the leatherette (as it does) and was peeling leaving black bits everywhere, as it does. Headphone pads do this too. So I peeled it.

I could have just bought a pad, but this one is RGB. And is rather nice. I got this to go on it.

Why tan? well, I bought these key caps.

To top it all off my mouse also died on the same day. I know, you couldn't make it up. The RGB leds died ages ago but that didn't bother me, but I realised neither click was working. I *think* I have gotten around it before with lots of faffing with drivers etc, but I merely cba as it too is 7 years old now and has already been repaired twice with new buttons. So I bought this. £39.99

Side quests ffs.

 

[Cenedd]

There's a YT channel I watch where he literally displays the count of such side projects. The ones that get me are when they start nesting. No, not like a bird, like a side-project of a side-project for a side-project. I feel your pain....nothing seems to work properly lately!

 

[ALXAndy]

I think the valid lesson was don't spend £80 on a mouse and over £100 on a keyboard because they will die any way. Thankfully I bought 12 bottles of 3m spray contact adhesive for a project then found out it was not suitable so yeah, I have a lifetime supply lmao. Have done a lot of recovering old BMX seats so it shouldn't pose too much of a problem sorting that wrist pad out.

 

[Cenedd]

I dunno, I think it depends on the keyboard...and luck! I'm still typing this on my K70. Just looked it up and it was 10 years old in July just gone. Also managed to spill my beer in it once....which was a joy to clean out.
Mice I'm with you on though...if the onboard batter doesn't die, it's the switches....or if all else fails the rubbery surface slowly turns to glue.

 

[ALXAndy]

Well I never even used the battery. I did not even realise it was cordless when I got it. I have a bungee, so screw them apples. I don't rate any of these chinese boards though. The keychron etc. They are poo. Just not made very well at all. That Hunstman was the first Razer product I bought that actually lasted and is made beautifully.

The new mouse is also Razer btw. Viper 8k or something. The best mouse I have used in years ironically is also Razer. My Viper mini. That has been relegated to use with the NUC though.

It is hard to believe what hides in that bag tbh. A 12700H with a 16gb Arc A770 with 3tb storage, 64gb RAM, a keyboard, mouse, two external drives etc etc.

Other than the LAN night we had when I was away though they played PUBG every night and I could not. So I got this when I got back too.

 

[Cenedd]

Portable monitor? Interestingly they don't make any of those....according to the "Portable" section of their .co.uk website. If it had touchscreen as well, I'd go for one - dead useful for plugging into a mobile (using Dex with DisplayPort over USB-C) while you're away. Plex for access to all the home movies, live/recorded TV (antenna at home). VPN back to home if you're abroad and want access to iPlayer etc. Only thing missing on my Asus is the touchscreen (a mouse is less than convenient if you're trying to watch TV in bed!) and the speakers - surely got to be better than the tiny mobile phone speaker.

 

[ALXAndy]

It was cheap tbh. £69.99. Has speakers so that was great. Not touch screen though. I guess they are just harvesting laptop screens. 60hz, 1080p IPS. I have wanted one for ages now. Mostly for testing etc. If I ever need a head on my NAS for anything (I will soon as I am putting in lots of SSDs) I can use it there too without faffing around unplugging the PC from the monitor.

Pretty sure they will do touch screen ones also. Probably a chunk more cash, mind. But yeah, what was the point in having a completely mobile rig if I have no monitor for it.

 

[ALXAndy]

ffs can I just get a break?

Keys don't fit. The bodies are too thick to fit over the stabilizer bars. The space bar also does not line up properly. Thanks Razer.. /rolls eyes. Thought it might be the tiger keys but nope, my Doubleshot Miami do the same thing.

£19.99 directly from Patriot. If my keys fit I will take that as a win.

 

[ALXAndy]

Keyboard done.

My carbon is on UK shores too. About bleeding time !

 

[ALXAndy]

Another side quest haha.

1tb SATA SSDs have finally come back down in price. So I bought 12. Not sure if you all remember SrVr, ,my Freenas, but yeah...

It was really annoying because Cenedd gave me a few 120gb Samsungs and SSDs came down to around the same as now then. So I removed all of the small drives from the server leaving the two 3.5" in there, but by the time I got paid Covid kicked in and SSD prices rocketed. So I have never filled up the 12 hot swap bays in the front.

So, before I continue on with the desk project I need to fix the server. This will involve fitting said 12 drives (a lot of screws !) but also the fans in said bays are knackered.

They have a 40mm fan loaded in the middle. RN they sound like they are rubbing bad, which makes a noise similar to when the wheel bearings go in your car. It's loud too ! So I got these.