This is the new case. I feel like I have a knack for finding good, quality, attractive cases, for a reasonable price. This case is no exception. It only cost $28, but it's quite sturdy, has tons of internal drive bays, and is relatively roomy -- but not too huge on the outside. It's also got two front USB ports and audio ports, and room for three 80mm case fans. Not too shabby. I love the look of this case!
Another view of the new case. Note the side air grill -- on the inside, there's actually a removable air duct (rather than a fan). I've played around with the duct, but it seems like it would hurt overall air flow more than anything else, so I took it out. I could put a fan there if I wanted.
A view inside the case before installing anything. Note the leads from the front panel, and the included power supply. It's not too shabby -- 420 Watts. However, I generally don't like freebie power supplies (which this really is since the case only cost $28). A power supply is an important part of a computer, and it's not worth it to try and cheap out on one...
...so my plan from the beginning was to use a 400W silent CoolMax power supply that used to be in Fozzie until I upgraded. It's pretty good -- high quality, stable, and extremely quiet. It served Fozzie quite well over the years. Next to it on the table is an adapter that allows this 20-pin power supply to plug into a 24-pin motherboard. For some reason, I had this adapter just laying around in my spare parts box. While Clementine was indeed initially built with this PSU, in the end I swapped it out, as you'll read about later on.
A shot of the motherboard. This board is an Asus M2N. There are more extravagant versions of this board (M2N-SLI, M2N-E, etc...), but for the most part, those go overboard for a non-gaming machine. This board is actually quite good and has lots of good features, as you'd expect from Asus. I've had good experiences with Asus boards (as have most system builders, I expect), so I mostly default to looking just at Asus boards.
A view of the motherboard with the CPU now installed. This CPU is an Athlon 64 X2 4600+. The coolest thing about this CPU is that it's dual-core -- basically, two CPUs in one, so two instructions can be processed at the same time. There are lots of dual core chips on the market, but after doing lots of research into performance versus price, I found this chip to be the best value overall. Only $120, but it has performace that rivals processors that are much more expensive. Much like the case, this CPU was great find for the money. Amazing performance, low price. I like it.
The motherboard again, now with the heatsink installed over the CPU. It's sad, but once this heatsink is installed, you'll likely never see that nice CPU again. This heatsink was particularly hard to get on for some reason -- it required an amazing amount of force pushing down to get it to "click". But once on, it never comes off.
The case again, now with the freebie power supply removed. Who needs it.
The motherboard, now securely installed in the case. This is the step of system building that is easiest to forget how to do. The case comes with a bag full of different types of screws, no manual, and you're expected to remember which ones are used for screwing the motherboard into place. Once you remember how they go, it's smooth sailing.
I've now installed the silent CoolMax power supply in the case, and plugged it into the motherboard. Also, the video card has been installed. This is an EVGA 7300GT video card -- the same as is in Fozzie. As I said above, 3D rendering is not a priority with this computer, but this is actually a pretty good-performing card at a reasonable price. It's also PCI-Express, since this is my first PCI-Express system. PCI-Express is the successor to AGP -- a new, faster way to connect video cards to computers. As with the PSU, it was eventually decided not to use this particular card -- but you'll hear more about that later. At this point in the build process, the card is being used.
Another view of inside the case at this point.
Since the last picture, I installed memory (1GB of DDR2 667 Kingston RAM), and attached the 15" Samsung LCD monitor, and a keyboard. The system boots! This is the first point where you can actually boot the computer, so it's also the scariest moment in system building. Up to this point, you can't turn the computer on, so there's no way to test each component individually. If there was a problem at this point, it could easily be the PSU, motherboard, CPU, video card, or memory -- but who knows which one? Luckily, Clementine booted fine. Obviously, there's no operating system (or even hard drives!), but you can boot into BIOS just fine.
Now I've installed the first of two hard drives -- a 160GB Seagate SATA hard drive.
Now, the second hard drive has been installed, an 80GB Seagate SATA hard drive, and a Plextor DVD burner. Obviously, I like Seagate hard drives. I've had better experiences with Seagate drives than with any other manfacturer -- they just seem to hold up better. And they come with a 5-year warranty. My plan is for this second 80GB drive to be dedicated to user data. The 160GB drive will be split into two 80GB partitions. One will be devoted to the operating system and applications, and the other partition will be a backup partition for the data drive. The Plextor drive is the first part being carried over from the old computer -- but, it's only been in the older computer for a short while.
A momentus occasion in the building of a new system -- Windows is being installed. This shows that the system is, on the whole, working pretty well together. You can clearly see the Plextor DVD burner here. Note that the mouse you see is actually the mouse that goes with my laptop, and neither it nor the keyboard are intended to be a part of Clementine.
This looks pretty much the same as the last picture, but it's symbolic more than anything. This is Clementine, powered down, with Windows successfully installed, at the end of the first day of work. My goal was to get an OS installed and booting, and I achieved it. Time for bed!
The second day of building, the goal here is to move all of the data off of the old computer (on the left) to the new computer (on the right). They're networked together on a private network through my faithful D-Link router (in the lower right). This is the fastest way to move data these days. You can see the air duct on the side case panel in the upper right corner. This process was complicated by the fact that I only really had one mouse, keyboard, and monitor, and no KVM switch. So, I had to keep manually switching the devices between the two computers in order to move everything over.
A close up of the old and new computer. Note that the drive bays in the old computer are empty -- both the DVD burner and DVD-ROM drives have been removed (although only the burner has been installed in Clementine at this time).
This is the final configuration inside Clementine at the end of the second day. Notice that there is now a DVD-ROM drive installed below the DVD burner, and a wireless networking card in the bottom PCI slot.
But, it didn't end here. Well, the pictures do for the most part, but not the "refinement" process. While inital building was done on May 4th, there were so many new parts, that I continued to tweak Clemenetine through May 18th.
First of all, I discovered that this EVGA 7300GT card had an extremely loud fan. And since this computer doesn't need very high-end video capabilities, it doesn't make sense to suffer through loud noise just for the video card. So, I went onto NewEgg, and found some cards that were fanless (i.e., they use a passive heatsink). I settled on the EVGA 7100GS. It's not as powerful as the 7300GT, but it's still better than integrated graphics, capable of playing most 3D games if needed, and, most importantly, is silent. Really nice. I like it so much I'm going to look into fanless video cards for all of my future builds as well. They do make powerful fanless cards, they just cost more than ones with fans. This 7100GS was at the right price point for this build.
Secondly, I discovered that, while the 400W power supply was enough to power the computer 99% of the time, it didn't supply enough power for a peak power condition -- DVD burning. Clementine would shut down whenever a burn was started. Oops. So, I ordered an Antec TruePower Trio 550W power supply, and that seems to be perfect for this computer (probably overkill if anything). This is the same PSU I have in Fozzie, and I'm a big fan. Expensive, maybe, but worth it.
Third, I added a Logitech wireless desktop set -- the LX710 set. Same as in Fozzie, great set. Mouse feels almost like a wired mouse (it uses a laser), and a similarly great, high-quality feeling keyboard. And no huge receiver, just a small USB dongle.
Lastly, heat scares me a little bit, so I added a silent Enermax case fan, with Enlobal (really, magnetic) bearings. It really is silent! It seems to move enough air, temperatures (CPU, motherboard, and video card) dropped several degrees each once it was installed. Makes me feel better, especially when hot days start coming.
This picture shows a final view inside, emphasizing the final changes mentioned above (power supply, video card, and fan).
So, that's it. May 3rd - May 18th, and we have build a brand new, great quality, reasonably priced computer. I'm glad it was a success, and it was a fun process as well. I hope you found this image commentary informative and/or interesting! For more detailed specs on this computer, visit my dedicated Clementine page.