Rise of the triad, The 2014 Area 51

[AlienALX]

Have fun Buddy

Thanks dude. Recently my Pdoc (psychiatrist) changed my pills and has spread them out over the day. This means for the most part I am completely lazy and don't feel motivated to do anything. I'm beginning to settle in now and get used to it though, so hopefully I can stay motivated.

I'm looking forward to ordering the fans and gear I need. It will only take a day or two to complete the transformation but it should be well worth it..

 

[Tolemac]

Matey I suffer from "stress reactions" which is a mild personality disorder sometimes I have to take my Medication to sleep as I don't "switch off" so I do understand

 

[AlienALX]

Update. So whilst looking at the bionic fans I noticed this.



Hmm.. That looks kinda familiar ! I then realised that it was a rebranded one of these, that I used in restoring Mrs Alien's Alienware.



Here it is in action missing the rubber shroud (I used that elsewhere).



Want to know what's funny? Alphacool charge £12 each for their fans. I just got five of them (pics).





For £5 each. So basically I was going to pay £12 each for the bionics plus £5 each for the gaskets so £17 each. I paid £5.

That, my friends, is what you call a massive branding price hike.

 

[Mysterae]

Given the name of your build I think the flames are quite apt, like rising flames .

I've always liked this case design, quite curious in a good way.

It'll be interesting to see what you do with it.

 

[AlienALX]

Thanks.

I'm currently in talks with a very talented chap about actually doing some renders and getting custom grills made. I forgot that I had one of these left over from my purple rig though.



So I have ordered another and then will probably order two flame grills and do a mixture of skulls and flames.

 

[AlienALX]

I did some more today. OK, so if I follow the PSU I get a molex connector here for "ODD" whatever that means. Now this molex then splits and goes off to the other side of the case for what I assume to be the IO board. However, split molex are fugly so I decided to rewire the PSU when it arrives so there are two correctly sized molex runs. One for "ODD" and one for the IO board. Here is the first one here.



Note - I have already ordered a couple of male MOLEX connectors so that I can replace the white ones. So I took an old loom from a PSU and cut some wires with the connectors on. Removing them isn't possible.



Busted out the tools.



And solder.



And then.



Braid.



And fit the MOLEX connector.



OK so now when the PSU arrives I will simply take a SATA run and remove the wires and connect mine. That will give me a perfectly sized MOLEX run for the ODD.

So basically now I have to measure the existing split MOLEX and make a single MOLEX like this only much longer.

 

[barnsley]

I did some more today. OK, so if I follow the PSU I get a molex connector here for "ODD" whatever that means. Now this molex then splits and goes off to the other side of the case for what I assume to be the IO board. H

Wait,

ODD probably means Optical Disk Drive. Quite why they think anyone would seriously have a good ol' molex powered drive in this day and age is before me.

 

[Feronix]

I use a Molex > 4x Sata lead so I didn't need another cable in my ITX build but yeah other than that I don't see why any sort of HDD or DVD drive needs Molex at this point. Nice for them to include it for the one person that wants to though, I guess?

 

[AlienALX]

I have an optical drive fitted but this is not for that. That uses a standard SATA connector and there is one run coming through the other side so you can power up all the hard drives, optical ETC.

This ODD cable only has two wires. They could be 12v or 5v, not sure ... *goes off to check*

OK it's actually 5v. There are only two wires.. Either way whatever it is will need to be connected, even if it is for the optical drive because I do still use mine and wanted one..

Games are £5-£10 cheaper and sometimes even more if you buy the media itself, and I am a sucker for box art so I have a large collection of physical games.

I know that it's probably quicker to download a game (I'm on 72mb fibre) but it doesn't bother me

Edit. Once the PC is disconnected and off the desk I can trace it and see what it does but yeah, it will likely need to be connected as it is now

 

[AlienALX]

Got a post on OCUK. Apparently....

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-069-AK

So you guys could well have been right, it could well be something like that in there. As I said I have ordered a black connector for it and will likely braid the two wires coming out of it in blue. I've also ordered 15 ft of paracord, really didn't think I would need more as it's only a few cables I need to make/braid.

 

[AlienALX]

Update ! the postman has been, now I have a few parts.

 

[AlienALX]

I got all of the new cooling fitted.



It's a little noisier than before but nothing bad. It doesn't have that horrible whirr when the PC starts any more either which is nice. Apologies for using flash, it's a dark day here on the South Coast. The PSU has arrived and will likely be fitted tomorrow. I am going to make up the two custom cables tonight, then probably do the last one in the morning

 

[AlienALX]

Update. I made a huge booboo and snapped one of the pins inside the second 8 pin and it won't come out. Apparently these PSUs are close to impossible to remove pins from.

So project on hold for now.. I will get Shakmods to made the cables I need or worst comes to worst order a whole new set from Scan.

 

[AlienALX]

Power supply now fitted.



Next up - paint the PCI back plates and get another Fury...

 

[Davva2004]

Looks lush mate, really like these cases.

 

[AlienALX]

Thanks dude. Yeah it's looking so much better than it did before. Those nasty horrible white labels are a distant memory

 

[Tolemac]

Looking good in there mate

 

[Dicehunter]

That PSU makes the whole system look soooo much better, Now I want one ^_^

 

[AlienALX]

That PSU makes the whole system look soooo much better, Now I want one ^_^

I'm not finished yet. There's a final 120mm intake area but sadly Alienware didn't put the bracket in there so I'm thinking maybe make a plate and put a fan on then basically stick it down with double sided foam. It will be quite critical if I fit a second air card. Right now there's not enough intake to feed an air cooled GPU..

I want another Fury card.. My wife and I just chipped in for a new sofa with an arm chair so I can't afford to do that yet but next month is fair game.

Might get a really big SSD this month

 

[AlienALX]

Update ! things have gone quiet due to personal issues but that doesn't mean I'm not planning things

I wanted a largish PCIE SSD but they are expensive. The Intel 750 400gb is around £320 and I didn't really want to be paying that just to store my games on. So it's time to think out of the box a little.

I've ordered this and have it ghetto fitted to the PC ATM.



It's a 480gb. I have also ordered this (don't laugh !)



And plan to remove the end PCIE plate. This will give me the opportunity to drill holes through it and mount an acrylic board that will hold that lovely blue SSD. I will spray it all black (the whole board and PCI holder plate) then mount it in view in the PC. For that I will cut off a SATA run so there's only one connector on it, paint the cut wires black (you'll see I will get some photos) and then mount the SSD like that, into the computer.

I will then fit one of these (AKASA blue rounded)



So that should look rather nice. I am also going to tidy up the PCIE power cables and main 24 pin cable using these that I have ordered.



So more should start happening once the parts start to arrive