It gets covered up at night, as the lights keep me awake; I can shut off the LEDs in the top 200mm fan, so I do, and leave about 1/3 of it uncovered:

And a bonus photo of Dodecapede that I didn’t know I had:

Ahh, as far as updates. Sweet, blissful updates. Right.

Well, I got a big, mean heatsink to replace my rather inadequate Volcano 11…

…complete with a custom-made fan grille of screen-door guard mesh and two 120mm high-speed Deltas at 7v (one 25mm, one 38mm).

Then I got a big, mean case. (Pictures are forthcoming.)

I’ve also got a big, not-so-mean P4 system in Critter’s old case now:

It’s a 3.2 Prescott, one of the later revisions (so it’s capable of 64-bit operation), an Abit GD8 (weird friggin’ board, it’ll get a post of its own eventually), an AOpen PCI-Express x16 6600/256MB, 2x512MB of Corsair VS PC3200, and a 40-gig WD I had around. The case (Ultra Aluminus) and PSU (Enermax 420w) are reused from Critter; the rest (save for the hard drive) was given to me by a good friend (thanks, Tim) who originally named it Dodecapede.

So Dodecapede it remains.

It’ll eat your soul.

Hardware:

- AMD Athlon 3500+ (traded for a 17″ CRT)
- Foxconn N570SM2AA-8EKRS2H ($45 AR)
- Cooler Master “650w” (read: Seventeam 550w) ($40 AR)
- VisionTek Radeon x1950Pro/256MB ($66 AR)
- 2x1GB OCZ Platinum PC6400 ($38 AR)
- Western Digital 250GB/7200/16MB SATA II
- Maxtop case (free w/ Celeron 300 system)
- Pioneer DVD-ROM (temporary, until I move the DVD burner out of Critter)
- 80mm Tt Smartfan exhaust (stuck at full tilt), 92mm 67cfm Delta intake

It’s been able to tackle everything I’ve thrown at it, so I’m quite pleased. Equally pleasing, in my opinion, is the rather sinister bloodstain on the opposite side.

I’ll leave that one up to your imagination.

Regardless, it’s Update Time.

The speakers I mentioned before… well, they sound like they’re rotting. So that’s out.

I have a set of GE speakers from a ten-year-old stereo hooked up now, and am actively on the hunt for something better - or a proper receiver.

As opposed to what, you ask?

This.

A Kenwood cassette deck, a Hewlett-Packard SCSI CD-ROM drive, a 200w Enlight AT PSU, and a cassette adapter.

Unfortunately, it’s currently out of service (aside from audiocassettes) because the adapter died, and I can’t find my backup.

Oh, well.

My speakers are, of course, always near my computer. But they don’t like music as much as I do. Being an ordinary inexpensive 2.1 setup (two weedy satellites and a “subwoofer”), they shares many common issues with the rest of their class - namely satellites that can’t manage any midrange whatsoever, and therefore outsource that job to the subwoofer - which is fine, as it gives the sub something to do other than failing miserably at playing true low bass. That is, once I forced midrange upon it by making a mountain out of NVMixer’s equalizer. This misplaced midrange has the slightly unfortunate side effect of making the subwoofer clearly locatable by ear, but isn’t a huge deal in itself.

In short, with both quality and quantity notably absent, and the subwoofer waving a Here I Am Playing You Some Nice Fuzzy Midrange flag, listening to music (aside from punk rock, of course) is hardly an inspiring experience.

So I had an opportunity open to me to spend a lot of money. Naturally, I didn’t.

Instead, I dragged two speakers from my basement. Aside from having several species of small furry dust animals gathered together on them, and a pretty good scratch on one, they were in good shape, and had standard RCA jacks on the back.

Unfortunately, as of yet, I’ve been unable to properly utilize these speakers. The closest I’ve come has been hooking them up through the headphone jack of a cheap 2.0 set of Yamaha PC speakers; this got sound out of one speaker at a time, possibly, but not necessarily, because of the mono cable I was using. However, I’ve only got one stereo cable, and the bloody Yamaha refuses to shut up when it’s used. It’s also entirely possible that my 3.5mm (1/8″) TRS to RCA cable is borked somehow.

If I have any luck, I’ll update this. Hopefully I’ll get somewhere tomorrow… err today.

The computer in question? 333 MHz of RAW POWAR. Old-school AMD ‘powar’, to be precise.

Well, OK, that’s not completely fair. It started as a 200, with a pitiful little heatsink and fan to match. (Well, sort of - see below.)

This simply Would Not Do, if only because a larger heatsink would make me feel more manly.

So I went looking for something appropriate for the occasion. I spotted a Mendocino Celeron, with its stock (well, stock for eMachines built in early 2000, at least) heatsink still attached.

Yeah, that would do nicely.

So I transplanted the cute little fan from the original 200’s heatsink onto this considerably beefier unit. Which looked rather like the smaller sink, except, y’know, larger. About twice the height, for what that’s worth.

Then I went to put in the 333. Looking over the board, I realized something.

This board was too old.

It didn’t support the lower voltage (2.2v) or higher multiplier (5x) that the 333 needed. Neither did the equally old MSI board on my wall.

(Oughta teach me to do my research in the first place.)

At this point, the Biostar M5ATD the CPU came from in the first place was looking pretty good.

Except for one thing.

Unlike their newer ATX (and microATX, and FlexATX, and upside-down-case BTX, and whatever-the-flavor-of-the-month-is-ATX) brethren, list of onboard devices on AT motherboards was generally summed up as:

1. One 5-pin DIN connector for an AT keyboard.

However, Biostar (in conjunction with whoever built the case that the Biostar board in question came out of) decided to break with tradition a bit. They added a PS/2 port for a mouse right next to the keyboard port. The case I was moving it into, naturally, did not have this cutout.

However, in true Ghetto Modding spirit, the problem was quickly solved with a few basic tools, more specifically vicegrips, an unusually short hacksaw with a standard 10″ blade jutting out past the end (so I can more easily stick it where it doesn’t belong), and profanity. Once it had been established that I knew the case’s undistinguished parentage in detail, a slightly crude hole was fashioned in both the chassis and the pop-out surround for the keyboard port.

I then managed to connect the, um, connectors for the buttons, knobs, lights, and what-have-you on the front panel properly, plugged in the RAM (two spare 64 MB modules, one of PC133, one of PC100, or perhaps PC66, I didn’t bother to find out) and AT PSU plug, stuck in the video card, and fired ‘er up. We had liftoff.

Then, the next hurdle: the CD-ROM drive. It was an old “18x” Acer unit that was remarkably proficient at reproducing a strangled cat’s death cry every time its tray was opened. Unfortunately, at first glance, it wasn’t good for much else - its name came up as a nice row of apostrophes on the boot screen. Or maybe they were backticks. This, of course, screamed “DEAD DRIVE, YOU MORON“. Or maybe it was “DEAD CABLE”. Either one.

So I swapped in a Samsung SCR-3232.

Or rather, a “WAOSWNG WCW-7272″. Backticks omitted.

Evidently the drive hadn’t been the problem.

So I reseated the cable.

Aha! All better. I stuck in Puppy Linux. It worked. There was much rejoicing. (Yaaaaaaaay.)

I haven’t gotten any further with it, since I’m debating on how to best save my settings, I was in New York this past weekend, and the Shuttle board’s got me otherwise occupied. Eventually, I’ll do some more work on this, and you’ll see some updates. Really.

PC 1:

Current name: Critter (Spiddal?)
24/7 clock: 202x11, 1.575v
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ LV, AQYHA stepping (Barton core)
Motherboard: EPoX 8RDA3I Pro (nForce2), stock BIOS (for now)
RAM: 1x512 Samsung TCB3, 2x256 Micron 5-BG, 2.5-3-3-11
Video: ATi/Sapphire Radeon x1600Pro at stock, fan and plastic shroud removed, PCI-slot-mounted 92mm Delta underneath (slightly neater nowadays)
HDD: 160GB/8MB/7200RPM WD1600JB
Optical: LG DVD+RW, Lite-On combo
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 420w
Case: Ultra Aluminus (silver)
Extra fans: 1x120mm/90-something CFM Delta, exhaust, ex-HP NetServer three-wire (only using two)
 OS: Windows XP Professional SP1

 PC 2: (Not usually on)

Current Name: None (Harrada?)
Clock: 12x167, 1.6v (stock is 12x166, but it’s over 2 GHz this way)
AMD Sempron 2800+, KDYHA stepping (Thorton core)
Motherboard: Biostar M7VIG-400 (KM266Pro), stock BIOS
RAM: 2x512 PNY CL3 PC3200, "Bravo" chips
Video: Sapphire Radeon 9250 with 50mm Socket7 CPU fan, stock
HDD: 10 GB Maxtor 7200RPM (Boot drive), 60GB Maxtor 5400RPM (Possibly failing storage drive), 80GB Seagate 7200RPM (when I RMA it)
Optical: Pioneer DVD-ROM
Floppy: Epson SD-800 Combo
PSU: Channel Well 300-350w (CompUSA 400w), all Teapo caps, fan replaced with 80mm Delta Quietek
Case: Gateway full tower, beige, circa ‘96
Extra fans: 1x92mm 67cfm Delta, intake, ex-HP NetServer; 2x80mm 37cfm Deltas, exhaust, ex-HP Pavilion 87x0C series
OS: Windows XP Professional

PC 3:

Current Name: None (’The T-Bird’ works for now) (Bloodgrass?)
Clock: 7.5x133, 1.75v (stock)
CPU: AMD Thunderbird 1000 (given to me by pimpinaman)
Motherboard: PCChips M810LR, stock (crap) BIOS
RAM: 2x128 Micron, one PC133, one PC100, at 133
Video: Abit Siluro T200 (GeForce2 MX200 w/TV-Out)
HDD: Maxtor 30GB/2MB/5400RPM (Win2000), Fujitsu 6.4GB (FC2)
Optical: Samsung DVD-ROM, HP grey front
PSU: Wintech 250w, fan replaced with ~35cfm 80mm Adda
Case: Black 4U rackmount circa ‘97, modded to ATX
Extra fans: None (yet)
OS: Windows 2000 Professional SP3 (need to update to SP4)

PC 4:

Current Name: None, Aurora (the PPro)
Clock: 3.5x66, 3.3v?
CPU: Intel Pentium Pro 200/256k
Motherboard: Intel Aurora
RAM: 2x32MB EDO, 66 MHz
Video: ATi Mach64 PCI
HDD: Seagate 4.3GB
Optical: Toshiba CD-ROM
PSU: Delta 185w "short-ATX" if in desktop case, Astec or Fortron 200w/92mm if in standard tower
Case: Modified Hyundai AT desktop (eventually), Micron ClientPro 2x5.25" midtower (for now)
Extra fans: 1x80mm (in Micron)
OS: Windows 2000 Professional SP3

PC 5:

Current Name: A500, ‘the 850′
Clock: 8.5x100(200), 1.7v
CPU: AMD Athlon 850 (Pluto core), Slot A
Motherboard: Asus K7M, HP BIOS, one missing RAM slot
RAM: ?? (which is why it’s not running)
Video: Asus TNT2 Vanta 16MB
HDD: 6.4 GB Fujitsu (temporarily in the Tbird)
Optical: CD-ROM (forget the make), red faceplate
PSU: 200w Fortron 92mm
Case: Red-painted InWin A500 from my first computer (P2-266/48MB)
Extra fans: 1x92mm intake
OS: Fedora Core 2

Macs

Mac 1:

Current Name: None (the iMac), original Bondi Blue Rev.B
Clock: 3.5x66
CPU: PowerPC 750 (G3/233)
RAM: 96 MB (160 MB if the Toshiba 128 works in it)
Video: ATi Rage Pro 6MB
HDD: 4 GB IDE
Optical: Laptop-style tray-load CD-ROM
PSU: 200w
Case: Original Bondi Blue iMac, 15" CRT (1024x768)
Fans: 92mm internal
IrDA: 4 Mbps
OS: Mac OS 9.0

Mac 2:

Current Name: None (the Power Mac), Power Macintosh 7600/132
Clock: 132 MHz
CPU: PowerPC 604/132
RAM: 80 MB
Video: Original, w/ Mac to VGA video adapter
HDD: 1.2 GB Quantum SCSI
Optical: AppleCD 8X SCSI CD-ROM
PSU: 150w Delta
Case: Brown cardboard box
Fans: No extra fans
OS: Mac OS 8.6

Mac 3:

Current Name: None (the Quadra), Quadra 610
Clock: 25 MHz
CPU: 25 MHz 68040
RAM: 28 MB (my only computer with more megabytes of RAM than megahertz of CPU speed!)
Video: Original
HDD: 230MB Quantum SCSI
Optical: AppleCD SCSI CD-ROM
PSU: 86w Astec
Case: Original "pizza-box"
Fans: No extra fans
OS: Mac OS 7.6

Which is, I suppose, OK. But certainly less than thrilling. 

*grumble* 

This is where I’ll be boring the sA+ crew, and whoever else is readin’ this, with details of what I’m doing with my various computers. And, possibly, other things as well.

We’ll see.

–Sam 

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