I ended up buying it last night. $299 but got the added bonus of a floppy
drive (though not sure I will ever use it?), and they took out the generic
256MB DDR memory bank and put in a Kingston 512MB DDR bank w/ lifetime
warranty. I found out later that the free memory upgrade was supposed to be
on purchases of $399 or more, but either the guy didn't know or didn't care
(I didn't realize until later), and gave it to me. Just to make sure things
were working I did a quick ubuntu install last night, and will probably do
FC3 or FC4test3 if I have more time today. One thing I did notice was no
sound with the ubuntu so that may take some looking into (I do have the
soundcard from the previous one if I need it).
> how exactly does one "shorten" a PC case
The "shortening" of the older system's case was a q&d thing which I
wouldn't recommend if you like anything about the case :). This one needed
to fit inside the cabinet of a desk (had ventilation). The outer plastic
came off, then I used a cobalt bit I had to hollow out the pop rivets that
connected the "roof" to the sides and back of the case. From there it was
pliers to bend the sides and back of the case until it weakened to break
off. The case was made in such a way that the power supply rested on a shelf
of sorts in the middle, low enough that it didn't get in the way. The walls
of the case were flimsy enough that it was very easy to bend the sides, and
not too much effort for the back of the frame. The top had been mostly empty
space for internal 5.25" drives. I thought I might have to deal with jagged
edges, but they ended up with a bit of a curl and weren't a problem. I
connected the LED's back to the front of the frame and called it done.
Again, I didn't care about the case at this point, I just wanted it to fit
as cheaply as possible ;).
I started looking at newegg first, but this was fast and local with 1 year
labor/parts warranty and I could see I wasn't missing anything and in the
end just seemed a bargain.
Thanks all,
~ Daniel
On 5/26/05, Mavrick <icebergwaltz@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/25/05, Daniel Jarboe <daniel.jarboe@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for the feedback Eben. The system it is replacing was originally
> > purchased in 1996, and is a bit of a frankenstein. I'm much more of a
> > software guy than a hardware guy and to be honest I wasn't sure if the
> new
> > components would all fit together the same with the old pieces/case.
> >
> > Just a quick rundown, the original power-supply blew up a few years ago,
> and
> > I got an equivalent used for $2 on ebay which has held up since so far.
> > Also dead is the original cpu fan and cdrom, and lately it's been taking
> > weird and unpredictable i/o errors on different optical devices and
> > hard-drives that no amount of juggling master/slave and using different
> ata
> > ribbon cables has been able to remedy. The case has been, well,
> "shortened"
> > in order to fit into a tight space. I plan to scavenge what I can from
> it
> > (soundcard, 10/100 ethernet cards, etc), but it's time for a replacement
> :).
> >
> > After a day or two of looking around this place seems to be fairly
> > competitive with net-only stores (though their quote to upgrade from
> 256MB
> > to 512MB is priced too high, they are offering it for free as of 4 days
> ago
> > if you ask for it
> > http://forums.isorm.com/viewtopic.php?t=4). I was just
> > checking to make sure that nobody knew of any much better deals or
> places or
> > had any reasons to avoid these guys. I do value the warranty and it
> being
> > local, and it seems competitively priced. Thanks for your help and
> > suggestions!
> >
> > ~ Daniel
> >
>
> Daniel,
>
> Just wondering, but I am a curious fellow. Sans large power tools or
> perhaps the Jaws of Life, how exactly does one "shorten" a PC case.
> Inquiring minds want to know!
>
> Good luck on the hunt for a new system. I would recommend buying the
> parts on line (newegg.com <http://newegg.com> is good) and putting them
> together myself,
> but you stated that you weren't a hardware guy (I can respect that)
> and I like tinkering with that stuff. Trust your instinct and you
> probably won't go wrong.
>
> Eric
>
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