Tag Mclaren.

Things now done.

PSU cover label has been laminated with 3M helicopter tape.
SSD fitted (look behind the DVD drive)
Antenna cable fitted.
Optical digital cable fitted and soldered. The white goo is liquid tape.
SATA cables fitted. Forgot to say, I got braided ones with my Z590 Aorus Tachyon. Nice.
HDMI cable fitted.
The molex spare connector has been stuck to the rear. That isn't just floating around.
Cable clips fitted. Power cables to the drives has been tidied, along with the digital coaxial cable.
PSU is now stuck down.

I *think* that is all of it, but I did have a marathon sesh so feel free to ogle the pic and see if you can spot anything else :D

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Still waiting on the board. Mate's car needs a fix for the MOT so he hasn't been down with it yet.

I broke one of the power button wires earlier. Annoying. I shall fix that tomorrow, but I really need a break now. Knackered.
 
Not much going to happen today. The board is going out tomorrow first class, so all I need to do later is fix the power button wire (one broke off). Might have a tidy tinker then, but what I do want is a better remote.

I tested the one I bought on Windows and Kodi in Windows. It works fine. The problem is I can not access the area where the hole is for the IR sensor. The drive covers it. I'm not about to start trying to make it work with the original sensor (if that is even possible) and one thing nagging me is "Will it work in Linux?". I doubt it.

What I had forgotten was modern remotes use 2.4ghz wireless for the signal. So I got this.

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It also works in Linux. It would also be very handy to have a keyboard there if I ever need to change the WIFI details and what not.
 
OK so I did something. I repaired the power button, then shortened the molex connector for the light box. Very tidy now. One thing I knew would be a pain was the huge RCA connector. The cable is also quite thick, so turning it 90' is a pain, and would need to go over the mobo. And so..

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OK so I didn't do an awful lot today, but what I did was very important. The first job of the day of course was to fix the broken power button wire. I know why it failed, too. The solder wire I have is so stupidly thin that it is almost impossible to tin anything properly. You end up having to shove about a foot of it onto the iron. I then found my 2mm, so that was awesome. I then cut off the molex run and shortened it down to one connector for the light box. Which was then tucked and tidied to make room at the front.

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The "half an EPS" needs to go too. I then got out the bottom panel. It had four of the feet you see at the back on. Not original. Thankfully when I bought one of my amps the guy who sold it to me sent me two spare feet. They are not original either, but are the original colours and made from the same stuff (sorbethane). So that was cool. I had to fit countersunk bolts to those, to stop it not going down flat.

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Two screws no longer fit, but I can "adjust" that later. I just wanted it fitted back on.

Last week I made up the power cable, to match all of the others in the system.

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So that was another job ticked off.
 
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I can't tell you where I got them from no. It's against forum policy to mention competitors. What I can tell you is it is an auction site, and they are called IEC connectors. You want the Rhodium plated ones.

Also, the cable itself is Lapp cable. AKA OLFLEX. It is completely shielded, and cheap. Highly rated among "No snakeoil no BS" audio fans. As I said before, I am not an audiophile. I don't believe my ears are any better than any other human but I can see the point in shielding power and having it look nice without taking my pants down and offering up my first born. There is another one. The power cable, like. I forget who made it. This video goes through it all. Oddly enough I got the same power conditioner Tarun recommends too.

www.youtube.com

My Top 5 Inexpensive Hifi Tweaks

Do you want to squeeze that last bit of performance out of your hifi system? These are my top 5 inexpensive tweaks that will hopefully improve the way your s...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

He also tells you which power cable I have, and the other one I forgot the name of.
 
Well as I said I don't do snake oil. However, that doesn't mean I don't like good quality products.

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I promised myself when I began many years ago I would do it properly. I did use Audioquest cables, but it was cheap. Like £3 a metre cheap.

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Again, it is "entry level" stuff but IMO it doesn't get much better.

I think one of the best scores was the JBLs. They were half price, so £499. They came with "free speaker cable" though. I wasn't aware that it cost almost as much as I spent on the speakers :D

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That's the beauty of audio. It drops in price fast. The Revel M105 up front were £699 on a clearance, way below the RRP. For a centre I got this.

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Again, Revel. That's a £800 unit. I paid £120 on Ebay. I have fitted that into the middle cupboard of the TV unit. Which reminds me. I still need to paint the horn body and finish that.
 
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Just a brief one for today. Obviously I am now waiting on more stuffs to arrive. But good news ! a friend of a friend over that way is coming over tomorrow, and will deliver the board etc for me. Orsum.

I did do a couple of tiny bits though. The first thing worrying me was the incredibly stiff HDMI cable. So I bought a specialty flexible one yesterday.

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Cost very little, but will make life much easier for sure. I then found an assortment of the correct type of screw in the scrap box from when I stripped it and then proceeded to cut them all down so they don't bow the acrylic floor. This took some doing, but after a bit of that and some drilling to make the missing ones go in it was done.

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BTW that misty crap all over it? bah. I didn't realise what that was until it refused to go away after the alchol I used to clean it had evaporated. It is paint. Silver over spray from when Mr Dingus got out 'is penz innit. So I will need to clean that about 4 times now, like the front, to get off every bit and stop it smearing. Thankfully there is none on the top (I hope !).

I also bought the cable that will connect it to the AV32. I realised last night that in my experiments I hacked up the only other digital cable I had lmao.

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Got a posh one, 'cause why not (well when I say posh I paid £25 for it, about the same as I spent on the other analogue ones).
 
I can’t open the ones my phone thinks are phone numbers lol.

I’m currently waiting for my buddy to arrive so not at PC.

404317536374

Are the cheap option.

225212702249

If you want to go extra posh.

The Chinese plugs are absolutely fine. In fact China are now leading the way tbh. There are numerous brands like Wilsenton and Sound Artist (remaking the Rogers LS35A etc) that are knocking it out of the park in China.

Remember, what you want is solid and quality, not snake oil.

As I said I like quality products that last and look nice. Anything more is for audiophiles tbh.

Yes the power cable sounds spot on. I did look that up last night and it’s what I used :)
 
So sound solution still to be done it is almost there. I thought I was going to have to redo the ATX connector to shorten it but it seems it was the perfect length.

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Set it up.

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One very quick installation later.

English DVD (Region 2?)

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US DVD (Region 1)

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Oooo really?

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*grin*

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Unfortunately there was a pretty big issue. I could not get the weather to work, and the add ons were all failing.

It seems that the USB NIC is not working properly. It shows, you can sign in etc but nothing actually comes in or out of it. Thankfully I did have a back up plan.

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It's not pretty, but it works.
 
I knew there was a reason why I wanted an Intel wifi card. I knew that USB was going to be suss.

Oh well, at least the fix was completely free.

Something very strange happened today. I was digging through old CDs I bought home from the USA with me. I came across one mixed by Tall Paul. I then remembered where it came from.... My brother bought a CD set in the late 90s, and when I moved to the USA he gave me his old car radio/CD for my car out there. In it was this CD. I have not heard it since 2001. So I ripped it, got it thumping away now.
 
They look fine, but there are only three sets for sale. If that is enough? you're good.

Remember the plugs won't do much. They will just be very solid and look very nice. The shielded power cable will definitely add, though.
 
piggin said:
Thank you for the advice
Would you say it's a good idea to go with what I have linked or go with a MK plug with a better plug for the equipment.
As for quality, I only need 3

Also apologies for derailing your thread
Click to expand...

Don't worry about that. I'm not a precious person, live and let live and all. I would go with the sets then. My plugs were like £3 each, as I wanted clear ones. But yeah, like I said so long as they are nice and solid it won't matter.

OK forgot to say. The board does not support PCIE booting. So the Optane was out, sadly. That is why it isn't in there. Which is probably for the best, given I needed the slot for the WIFI card. So earlier I designed this.

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And had the machine machine it for me.

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CapitalOne said:
Great job. I have to say builds like this are far more interesting. 10/10 :cool:
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Yeah it's funny but certain parts of this have been incredibly fun. Mostly the upcycling part of it. I've never been into that, but I can see why people do it now. Every part you save from the bin and reuse brings some pretty decent satisfaction.
 
Cenedd said:
Sorry, distracted and didn't get notified of updates.
Starting to look really coherent. Nice work!
Click to expand...

Thanks dude.

I don’t normally get the time to obsess over like, every wire. I have like a sanity limit on projects.

It’s pretty much all done now thankfully. Checked the tracking on the soundy bits and they’re all very much on their way.

I won’t have it fully finished for a couple of weeks as I am leaving on Tuesday, but that’s OK because I need to bring over one of the many enormous Tag boxes I’ve stashed in my walk in closet. I can then pack it to transport it home properly and safely.

Will set it up again over the weekend and basically rip all of the CDs here so I don’t have to lug them all home.
 
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