Chappy's Latest Adventures!

[Chappy]

Hi Folks

Sorry I've been offline for awhile, I had a little MoBo issue.....Darn thing BROKE!!

Yep...broke, split...as in Cracked! Was reseating some RAM after doing a little cable management and hadn't even pushed hard enough to make the end clips snap into place, and the damn board cracked around the memory socket base......ppphhhzzzzatttTTTTT!!! blink....poof...off went the monitor and not to be on again until yesterday.

Well, I wasn't gonna put up with that so off to my lil sisters place to use her machine and get ahold of HP. No prob, they'll ship a new one but I had a little "special" request, I wanted an Upgrade. I'm now rebuilding my computer to what I wanted in the first place, so this HP is fast becoming a "custom box" and after next Monday, it won't even be an HP anymore, and I'll have some HP parts for sale on Ebay. Speaking of Ebay..have I found some SMOKIN DEALS this last 2 weeks, and now my puter is big time custom and fast.

First tho, a little history of Why this has all come about, and then you see my new parts...

Well, I bought that BFG Nvidia 8800GTS OC 320MB card from RubberDucky, for $300, it goes for $469 plus Tax up here so I saved about $200. But then I had to ask myself just What can I do that can put this card to work, other than some movies and some video/photo editing, but that's barely making the card breathe hard..so I had to think what I could do to make the card kick a$$ like it's built to. I'm not a gamer, but....Flight Sim!! Yah, I'm a real pilot and I LOVE aircraft, so MS Flight Sim X here I come!

K, I get FSX SP1 but it sucks using a keyboard to try and fly a 737 or an F-14 Tomcat, so I need a joystick. I looked around town and determined that Saitek makes some of the best sticks around but they're pricey. So onto the WWW I go and some time later, I end up at Saitek's Yahoo store where I see a small word in one corner..."Refurbished Items" (ok...2 words).."Click". They say that 95% of returned items are not faulty, it was faulty installation instead, but these products are all Refurbished & tested to work 100%, and are they ever CHEAP! Their $217 best dual stick/throttle set with LCD display was $64, so I was going to get that when I saw something else...their top Racing Wheel and Pedal set, usually worth $160, for $35! Umm, so I ended up getting their top quality single joystick, Cyborg Evo Force with Force Feedback servo motor's normally $135 for $29, and the R440 Race Wheel and Pedals set for $39...Free Shipping! That's $295 worth of high quality accessories for $64...nice. Now I need a good Car Race game for Vista, not easy to find right now.

So anyway, somehow I end up on Ebay.ca for the first time ever and I stumble across a guy who has 30 of the exact same monitor I've been drooling over for 6 months now, the HP w2207 LCD with BrightView. They're worth almost $500 here and these are selling for around $300, brand new and full Warranty. They bought them for an HP sponsored software show, set up by professionals, never handled by the public, used 40 hrs...I joined and put in my first ever EBAY bid. The first one I lost by $5 but the guy writes me an email and offers me one for $285 CAD (my bid) plus $26 shipping....uhhh ..OK! I now have the best 22" LCD made and if you don't believe me, go to a store and look at all the 22"rs together and tell me the HP w2207 doesn't blow the others out of the water. You can't because it does, there is THAT much of a difference...it's Incredible!!

So on we go. I like Ebay now, so I'm surfing around for a few hours and I come across some RAM. Not just any RAM either, Crucial Ballistix Tracer, 2G kits (2x1G)...for $89 a kit. 3 kits left and it's the fastest my "New" board can take. I do some checking and it's about HALF of what I can get it here for...so I buy 2 sets of 2G's for $210 CAD shipped. Saved me $185 from the best I could find here. Well, this new RAM has blue LED's around the base and a special circuit on the bus that runs colored LED's along the spine of the stick, that shows what the memory is doing, (read/write/etc)....and I'm gonna put that into a closed HP box?? No way...off to find a new Case I go. Long story short...I end up buying an NZXT Lexa Classic case, shipped for $145 CAD. I read 13 reviews on this case and every single one rated it among the top 3 cases they ever tested, and probably the most Beautiful case they ever tested...I agree completely. Usually goes for $235 CAD, I saved $90 by searching around.

So..This is my new box..(and toys) Chappy's been a "Busy Boy"

NZXT Lexa Classic Case - Reg $245 - Paid $145 shipped (have a look at the review link, great pictures on the next pages)

4G's Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 PC2 6400 - Reg over $400 CAD - paid $210 shipped

BFG Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB - Reg $500 (about) - paid $300

HP w2207 22" LCD Monitor - Reg $493 - paid $327 CAD shipped (now running 2 LCD monitors, 22" HP and 20" Acer)

Another Ergotronic Neo Flex Articulating LCD Monitor arm - Reg $127 (in Canada) - $75 shipped

Enermax Noise Taker II 600W PSU (bought to run Video Card) Reg $160 - paid $135 shipped

Saitek Cyborg Evo Force Joystick - Reg $135 - paid $29

Saitek R440 Wheel (Force Feedback) and Pedals - Reg $160 - paid $35

New Asus P5LP-LE socket LG775 MB with Intel 965 chipset - $00 (replacement upgrade from HP)

That's $2220 worth of stuff for $1256...not bad, not bad at all! Saved around $1000 and hopefully I can sell about $400 worth of my other stuff.

These are the things moving into the new case from the HP:

Hauppage HVR 1600 Phantom Dual HD output TV card

RealTek 8.1 digital audio

830GB's HDD (3 x 250G SATA @ 7200RPM, 1 x 80G ATA @ 5400RPM)

HP 802.11b/g Wireless Network Adapter

Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection

2 DVD Burners, 1 with LightScribe

Floppy Drive

I'll be taking all the other good parts out of this HP, like the memory card/stick readers and some front audio & s-video ports and assorted other stuff, and modding it all into the new Lexa case too. I have to decide on some UV cable sleeving but I can't decide if I should use Red UV sleeving to offset all the Blue I have, or Green UV sleeving? What do you guy's think? I'm leaning to Red & Blue myself, I think that would look cool.

Now all I need is to upgrade from the Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, to either the E6700, or E6820, but they're sure selling cheap on Ebay right now. I also have allot of HP stuff I'm going to sell now too, to try and offset some of the costs, but man...did I ever SAVE a bundle by shopping around and just being at the right place at the right time...for once. Some of these deals were 1 time only things, so I got lucky on some of this. My new case arrives tomorrow so I'll be offline for awhile while I build that...I can't wait, I'll have to post some pix after it's all done, including my new visual screen area of around 42 inches.... I like that! I can have multiple things on either screen now, but it's a Loooooong way to mover the cursor from the bottom left corner of the HP monitor all the way to the top right corner of the Acer, but I don't mind

I AM SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE -

The case arrived last Friday and I built on Saturday night. Fired it up first time Sunday morning and all is Perfect! It's even better looking in real life than any picture I've seen and the temperature monitors are working properly. It has CPU, HDD and System temp monitors, and some folks have had difficulty getting them placed properly and reading properly but I guess I did things well cause mine is working great! CPU is at 30C in this case, HDD's at 26C, and my System temp is actually on my chipset heatsink and hovers around 40C (which is fine).

I will have to get some pictures for sure soon and post them here and in theMod section, it's gorgeous but I have to clean off the desk and find a spot front & center for it now. It's too good looking to be stuck under the desk now...LOL!!

[hitest]

Welcome home, Dave!! We've missed you!!

Your new unit is a real killer PC, very sweet indeed!

[Dan72]

TL;DR but welcome back chappy

[martymas]

god chappy why so long between posts

we missed you

marty

[robroy]

Sweet system Dave

I will have to go look at the HP monitor, my 19" HP that I bought used 4 years ago just died. Using a 15" flatscreen (sons) right now but it seems tiny afer the 19"

[TymeKyller]

Howdy Chappy..... ......lol...

Wow that is some bad luck, although you now have a sweet pc!!!

How are things going my friend?

Glad to see you around still and all the other great people that have come together to form an awesome online community!!

Take Care "hoser"....lol..hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Tyme

[JSKY]

Good to hear all is well. Sounds like you built a great rig there. Now next time you need to replace the Ram... Give Liz a call. She's becoming quite the computer geek nowdays.

[Chappy]

Thx Folks! (and fellow Hoser!!)

Actually JSKY, my new RAM has yet to arrive so I still have that to do. There'll be a bit of apprehension for sure as I push that in..I'll be relieved when the clips snap into place before the MoBo snaps out of place! Even tho they say you shouldn't, I think I'll Help the clips snap in this time, just to be sure. Also, the new MB has more standoffs around the RAM modules so it should be stiffer and more support this time.

Family is sure growing up there TK! Congrats old friend!!

I just ordered a Zalman 9700 CPU cooler also and I'm going to make some custom SATAII, IDE and Floppy cables. I'm going to take some round clear PVC copper (or maybe silver) mesh IDE and Floppy cables and wrap a Red EL Wire (ElectroLuminescent) in a spiral around them, so the case will have a Blue & Red theme. Then I'll take some SATAII cables (maybe green UV or clear also) and also wrap a red spiral around them. I think that would look cool.

I've been toying with the idea of changing all the PSU connectors into UV reactive ones and doing a UV sleeving around all the PSU cable runs to really clean things up in there. I can cut the PSU cables to custom lengths if I really wanted to go overboard, but I'm a bit apprehensive about that one. I don't want to cut all the cable runs down and then in a few years, change some things and find my PSU cables don't fit with anything anymore...EEKKK! I'll do a sleeving and shrinkwrap on them still just to clean it up more, but I'm not sure how I'll hide the unused cable runs yet. I should've gone modular..in fact I thought I did but after I ordered this PSU I realized it Wasn't the modular one...oh well.

I tell ya tho...the more I look at my new case, the more I LOVE IT! It's just a gorgeous case and I'll recommend an NZXT Case to Anyone! Great cases and if you have ANY problem, a simple email gets you a new part at NO charge! Most places make you pay the shipping for replacement parts...not NZXT, they pay for everything and it's really easy to get a new part. My window came with a few scratches in it, and one email later I have a new one on it's way!!

That's Customer Service the way it SHOULD be!

[rv56]

Not sure if you were at the last game or not......it was great, but really hot....lol.

If you weren't....looks like you were busy having fun building Frankenstein !!!!

Looking like a great system you'll have Chappy....

Take care...

[Steamhead]

zoom zoom zoom huh?

[Chappy]

Hey RV!!

Actually I had a chance to go to the game but was a bit under the weather that day and I decided that the heat would not do me very good, so I watched it at home.

Were you guys in town for the game?? (and you didn't call if you were.....)

Once I found that deal on the monitor on Ebay, I went looking around at some other stuff and I just couldn't pass on what I found, so I figured "To Heck with it"!! If I'm gonna replace a MoBo, I'm gonna rebuild the entire rig even tho it's only 5 months old! It's "close" to what I would've built so with a few upgrades I now have a decent custom rig, and it's gonna get even better soon

I'm gonna lose some money overall but the deals I found beat anything I could get here and I'll have a few good parts I can sell to help offset things. Plus I should get at least 4 more builds out of this case, so as tech advances I'll just do it part by part from now on as needed. I should get at least 6 years outof this stuff as is now, so in the long run it'll pay off.

[Pete_C]

Hi Dave.

That is what you get with those cheap three ply boards, cracks.

I thought your sister was in Arizona and you were in Canada. That sure is a long way to go to use a computer; they must be rare up there.

Sounds like you have a real nice build now.

Marsh was talking about trying to get in touch with you. I'll tell him you are back .

Edited August 12, 2007 by Pete_C

[Chappy]

Hi Guys

Just an update

My new RAM arrived on Monday and you won't believe how apprehensive I was about something as simple as installing 4 sticks of RAM!!

I think it took me about 4 hours just to work up the guts to get started....can you blame me after my last episode concerning RAM?? Prolly not eh...well everything went very smoothly. After all..it should, it's only RAM for gawds sake, but I know that my last board was defective to begin with, starting right with the RAM sockets themselves. The sockets on this board were ultra easy to get the clips to snap into place, whereas the last board took considerable force to get the modules into the sockets.

I was certain that I'd have to remove that 8800 GTS card because the clips were almost right against it, probably only 1/8 of an inch away, but I was able to work it in without removing it and a small flat blade screwdriver helped to close those ones up without removing the card, so that was good news. I still have to take it all apart again anyways, when the new CPU cooler and my custom cables and sleeving arrive. The cooler requires a new backplate on the MB (of course), so everything's gotta come out again soon...more opportunity for things to go wrong eh.. I'm very careful and gentle when doing this stuff but it seems I have the worst luck sometimes, but I don't expect any issues.

My replacement case window came yesterday too (some scratches on the original) but they didn't just send the plexiglass window...they sent me an entire new door!! So I put the new door on the right side and in a stroke of genius, I put the other door on the other side of the case...I now have a double door-sided case with windows on both sides! Looks cool and I may do a little lighting thingy on that side now too (later) or do a custom applique on the back of the MoBo tray. Lordy...I think I've turned into a case modder...once you get started tho, it's hard to stop and it's not really all that expensive either.

I went with chrome cable sleeving since the case front is chrome and the window side has chrome accents. The IDE and floppy cables are round, clear PVC with a silver (chrome I guess) mesh sleeving and I'm doing a spiral wrap with red EL wire on those. The SataII cables are translucent blue and I'm grouping the 3 of them together and doing a red EL spiral wrap on those too. They'll be like a cable harness where the ends just come out where needed to hook up and the rest continue on to the next device, I think that'll clean it up and look cool.

All the PSU cabling will be chrome sleeved with blue shrink wrap at the ends, so all the cabling has a chrome theme to it, with the interface cables having red EL wire spirals on them.

I'll have to get some pictures posted when it's all done, I think it's gonna be a knock-down, kick A$$ lookin case!! Too bad I'm about the only one who ever sees it tho...(LOL)

Pete - Hey bud! No, my lil sister lives a half block away in my old house! I don't have any family in Arizona, but In Colorado and New Mexico I have some cousins-n-stuff.

I believe they were bad sockets and a defective board now, they're both Asus boards and not a generic brand so the quality is there, but every now and then you can get a weak spot or two in a board like that. Usually you'd never know about them because you either don't mess around with things or it's in a spot where it'll never get any pressure put on it, but it just happened to be in a bad spot this time. I talked with an Asus tech and he said you could find weak spots in almost any board made, but it's rare that it'll break like that. Mine cracked right near a standoff/screw hole so that was probably why it broke. Plus the socket was awfully tight too...never had one that tight before, so it was just the right combination of things in the wrong place for me.

I'll email Marsh today, I haven't spoke to him for awhile. You too man...we haven't talked in some time either, and I haven't heard from Preston for Ages! The old crew has kinda gone off in different directions these days I guess. Not like the ol days when we ran TTV like a team...gawd, those were good days!