Budget Build in an Old 'A Open' Case

[andrevautour]

Hello again all,

This time I am building a modest little system for a friend of the family who doesn't have a lot of money.

The build will consist entirely of spare parts we had around the basement from previous builds.

The case is a solid little steel case from a company called "A open" which doesn't seem to exist anymore, at least I couldn't find any results when I googled it earlier. My dad bought this case around 2000-2001 and it housed his second ever custom PC build. It has been modified a bit since then, fan grilles cut out and things like that, but it is still in fairly good shape, and it's solid as a rock.

The rest of the hardware will consist mainly of stuff from my old HP Pavilion a6228x from late 2006, along with some upgrades.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6 GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB
Graphics: XFX Radeon HD 4870
Optical Drive: Samsung DVDRW Drive


Even though this is a very dated system by today's standards, I still like the minimal clean look of the exterior of the case better than a lot of cases around these days. And the hardware is still fairly capable for many modern games at mid range detail settings.

Here are some pictures from my build process.




Empty case, front panel

DSCN1668 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


This case used to have a 80mm fan at the front, 2 at the rear, 2 at the sides near the front where the card drives are. In this build I am just using a single 80mm Vantec Stealth fan connected to the motherboard for automatic speed control.

IMG_1234 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1235 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


The built in fan mesh of the case was cut out for better airflow and replaced with wire grilles.

IMG_1236 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


For the main and only hard drive I used an old seagate 500gb

IMG_1237 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

This is the original memory that came with the HP system. I also have 4 sticks of 800mhz corsair xms2 stuff, but at least one of the sticks are bad so if i'm going to use it I can either use only 2gb of just these 2 sticks OR these two plus the 2 good corsair sticks.
I currently have these 2 sticks plus the 2 corsair sticks for 4gb total. I actually like the look of this stuff better. I never liked the huge heat sinks on the corsair stuff.


IMG_0061 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


This is the power suppply I wanted to use, a 500w ultra x2, but i forgot that it is actually dead, so i had to use a ultra x3 since that is the only power supply i have around right now.


IMG_0064 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0065 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_0063 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



Empty main chamber of the case

IMG_1238 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1239 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1240 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


There used to be another hard drive cage that would slide in underneath the optical bays and hold up to 3 hard drives, but I'm not sure where that went, it may still be around the house somewhere.

IMG_1241 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

Fitting the motherboard.

IMG_1242 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1243 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1244 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



Side panel hard drives fan grilles also cut out.

IMG_1245 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


Optical drive installed

IMG_1246 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


This is the old hd 4870 that I used to have in my own case in 2009

IMG_1247 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



Starting to get the hardware in place

IMG_1248 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




Working on getting the cables as neat as possible with the lack of any cable management


IMG_1249 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1251 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1252 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1253 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1254 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1255 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1256 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1260 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1261 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1262 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1263 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


We added an 80mm fan cutout in the side panel

IMG_1265 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


Powered on.

IMG_1267 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1269 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_0069 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[CPMFW]

cant you turn the hdd cage around so the cables go out the back of the mb tray? it might look cleaner

 

[andrevautour]

cant you turn the hdd cage around so the cables go out the back of the mb tray? it might look cleaner

there's not enough space for the hard drive to be mounted sideways, plus no real space behind the motherboard tray anyway. that would also include finding a way to re-mount the hdd cage. i'm not too worried about it in this case, i am pleased with how it turned out

 

[SavageCupcake]

Wow is all i can say. For a case with no cable management that looks brilliant

 

[andrevautour]

Wow is all i can say. For a case with no cable management that looks brilliant

Thanks!

 

[SavageCupcake]

tried it in an old acer case of mine to save on buying a new case but it was just horrible

 

[andrevautour]

tried it in an old acer case of mine to save on buying a new case but it was just horrible

yeah, this one is just for a friend of the family a super budget spare bits computer but i actually like the minimal clean look of the exterior of the case and it's a very well made case im happy with how it turned out

 

[rossi94]

Very nice retro built, reminds me at old times ..

 

[FlangeBBK]

Looks nice dude, still baffles me why ATi didn't put the label round the right way so you can actually read it.

 

[andrevautour]

Looks nice dude, still baffles me why ATi didn't put the label round the right way so you can actually read it.

Thanks!

Yeah I know what you mean. It just depends on the board though, this is another old cheap system I made for my sister awhile ago using a couple of 4890s by Sapphire and those ones do have the sticker the right way around

But like tom mentioned with that 7990 by Power color you still see upside down badges from time to time even on new cards.

 

[andrevautour]

Very nice retro built, reminds me at old times ..

Thanks! I actually like it a lot, its growing on me! I have a soft spot for retro PC stuff

 

[Ikoyian]

Thanks!

Yeah I know what you mean. It just depends on the board though, this is another old cheap system I made for my sister awhile ago using a couple of 4890s by Sapphire and those ones do have the sticker the right way around

But like tom mentioned with that 7990 by Power color you still see upside down badges from time to time even on new cards.

I presume that power supply was lying around and wasn't intended to actually go in there, I hope haha

 

[rossi94]

Very nice look and the Haf 932 was legendary but 1200 W REALLY?

 

[andrevautour]

yes the story of the ax1200 is earlier in this thread i believe but basically my dad bought it because it was on for a really attractive price and he picked it up just to have around for later. the original power supply for this was a tx850 and the plan was to use 3X or 4X 4890s because we have 4 of them around but the drivers didn't cooperate so i only ended up using two. also the performance of the 4890s isn't very good with newer games so when i get a 7950 or 7970 shortly my 6950 will probably be going in here

but yes i would rather put a tx750 or 850 in here myself.

 

[andrevautour]

It turned out that I must have just had the Corsair memory not seated properly, because when I put it in a second time just to make sure, it seemed to work fine.


IMG_1273 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1272 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


Benchmarking ;p

IMG_1270 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[rossi94]

Looks very nice .. love this retro style reminds me @ so cool times

 

[andrevautour]

Very nice look and the Haf 932 was legendary but 1200 W REALLY?

932 was really the first case i got that had cable management and good features for the time & watercooling support !

Looks very nice .. love this retro style reminds me @ so cool times

thanks! i like it too! if you like old/retro stuff keep your eye on the project logs and i will post a few of my really old builds in things like a sunbeam acrylic case, thermaltake tsunami dream and more.

 

[dalewakelin]

Looks nice, good job!

 

[andrevautour]

Looks nice, good job!

thanks! I have a soft spot for 'vintage' builds. i've been growing quite find of it for the could days i've had it on my floor here.

if you like hat sort of thing too, keep you eye on the project logs, because i will be posting some of my old builds from around the 2004-2007 period there starting probably later this evening

 

[dalewakelin]

thanks! I have a soft spot for 'vintage' builds. i've been growing quite find of it for the could days i've had it on my floor here.

if you like hat sort of thing too, keep you eye on the project logs, because i will be posting some of my old builds from around the 2004-2007 period there starting probably later this evening

Nice, ill keep an eye out