There’s something terribly nice about a box full of stuff 🙂 Scan got the parts to me right on time so Thursday night was to be assembly night, with the goal of getting to a working POST by the end. So out came the boxcutter and I started unpacking…
There are component parts in here somewhere...
So here are all the components, less the CPU which is hiding off to one side, just out of shot:
Components unwrapped...
Looking at the case first of all (nice solid construction on this…):
Case from front
Main compartment
Fans in main compartment
The assembly went relatively smoothly, though it did take a few hours, mainly because I wasn’t really pushing myself. The PSU went in first, then the DVD drive and the hard drive, then the motherboard pillars went in and then the motherboard, then the graphics card, then some swearing, out came the graphics card and the hard drive was moved two bays down so the graphics card didn’t poke it, then the graphics card went in, then more swearing, the motherboard came off its pillars so I could pull it back an inch to fit the I/O facia panel, then back goes the motherboard and in goes the CPU and then I assemble the CPU heatsink/cooler assembly and lots of swearing and poking later, it’s latched onto the mounting lugs. I’m rather paranoid about those lugs not being sufficient in a tower configuration – some tiewrapping is due there I think just in case. After all this, it was wiring time.
The less said about wiring time, the better, but put it this way:
Wiring. Why'd it have to be Wiring?
Eventually, everything was where I wanted it, with everything plugged in, screwed on, clipped, latched, tiewrapped, twisted, pushed, poked, pulled, prodded, bent and scrunched as appropriate.
Final Assembly
Final Assembly
Final Assembly
Final Assembly
It won’t be winning any build awards for neatness, but it’s in, it’s secure, and it’s tidy enough. So now, the moment of truth… the power button…
Congratulations, your €680 machine did not explode.
Okay, so there was a bit more in the way of light and noise than that 😀
Lights and fans and wind, oh my!
And it even POSTed cleanly on the first try!
Successful POST complete!
And after all that, it was 0100h, so I shutdown and went to bed. And tonight Igor, tonight we install! Because what hit the stores today and what did just get a copy of into my grubby little paws?
😀
So now that you’re up and running you may also be interested in Supreme Commander 2… it’s considered to be a “spiritual sequel” (same lead game designer, different company) to Total Annihilation. There’s a pretty comprehensive demo of it available on Steam.
Sounds pretty good to me Thomas…
…except that today’s Amazon Delivery Day – The Orange Box, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, Medal of Honor and Just Cause 2 all just showed up at my desk this afternoon 😀
But Supreme Commander just went on the list as well 😀
Holy crap… you’ll have post-traumatic stress disorder by the end of April!! 😀
I’d be happy with just Traumatic Stress….
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