Home-Built PC Project
In November 2000, I decided to build myself a new PC. I had some experience replacing components on my existing PC, but never designing one from scratch. This page will show what I built and how I did it. My goal was a fast system with ample storage and future expandability options. Many of the parts I used were purchased at a local computer show and some were used from the old PC. The PC is not yet finished, but here's what I've got so far:
Inwin Q500 full-tower case
Powerman 300W power supply
Abit KT7-RAID motherboard w/onboard HPT370 ATA/100 Raid Controller
AMD 'Thunderbird' 900Mhz processor (running at 1050Mhz)
(2) 128Mb sticks and (1) 256Mb stick of Micron PC133 SDRAM (512Mb total)
(2) Maxtor 7200rpm 30gig hard drives
Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A CD-RW Drive
Creative Labs 5X DVD Drive
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro video/capture card (borrowed from old system)
(2) Network cards, one Kingston, one Netgear
Generic sound card (for now)
Windows 2000 Professional operating system
Lots of fans (see pics below)
I've got this PC connected to my DSL line and the second NIC is used to share the internet connection with my old PC. I was amazed at how easy it is to overclock this processor when you've got the Abit motherboard. The multiplier lock on the processor can be removed with a lead pencil (email me if you need specific info on this), then you just turn up the multiplier in the BIOS. Mine is totally stable at 1000Mhz and marginal at 1050Mhz. These results were achieved without much tweaking and with the retail AMD heatsink/fan. An aftermarket cooler would probably help quite a bit.
Here are a few pics of the case after the fan openings have been cut. There are openings for 3 fans (1x120mm & 2x80mm) in the front and 2 fans (1x120mm & 1x80mm) in the rear, plus the power supply fan.
In these pics you can see that I significantly enlarged the vent holes at the bottom of the front panel. In addition, I added vent holes on both sides of the front panel. This was the only way I could find to allow the front fans to breathe without cutting a big hole in front of the fans.
Here, you can see (1) 120mm and (2) 80mm fans installed in the front of the case. These are intake fans and have grilles on the inside and aluminum dust filters on the outside. The 120mm fan is a Panasonic 69cfm unit which only produces 30dba of noise.
I also installed (1) 120mm and (1) 80mm fans in the back of the case to compliment the 80mm fan in the power supply. These are exhaust fans and have grilles on both sides. The 120mm fan above the power supply is a Panasonic 103cfm unit. This fan can produce a lot of noise, but I have a solution for that (more later)...
Here you can see the bay bus that I installed. There are four switches and LEDs. Each switch has three positions: Off (LED is off), 12V (LED is red), and variable voltage (LED is green). I set the variable voltage to around 7V. This is an excellent way to reduce noise when massive airflow isn't necessary.
More pics soon...
