Deep Thought

Cable Management

2009-03-07T19:53:00.012Z

I accept no responsibility for blown up PSUs and motherboards if you follow these tips.
Time do do something about the PSU cables. I decided to braid them in white. On reflection, I wish I'd had chose black. Oh well.

I guess the warranty's void now!

I needed to remove the pins from the 24, 4, and 8 pin motherboard connectors, you can buy a specialist tool to do this, which costs about £5.00.... or you can use a staple, bent appropriately.

Push the staple down into the plug so that the ends of the staple are either side of the connector. The staple is in the top left connector.

This will compress the barbs holding the connector in, you can then just pull the connector out of the back of the plug, you can see the barbs on either side of the connector.

Remember to number the cables as you take them out.

Slide the cable braid over the cable. I also wrap double sided tape around the braid so that the braid won't pull out of the heatshrink (you can just see it in this pic).

Slide over the heatshrink

And use a heat-gun, or your girlfriends hairdryer to shrink it on.

Remember to renumber the cables as you work. All that's left is to reassemble the plug, remember to prise the barbs open a little before you insert the connector.

Trial Fitting

2009-03-07T19:28:00.007Z

I thought I'd try the motherboard & PSU to see if they needed any adjustment before finally screwing them down.
Motherboard

PSU
Rear Panel Insert

Everything fitted exactly as it should, the motherboard mounting holes and the power supply fittings supplied with the case lined up perfectly. I wonder if a cheaper case would be as good.

(Yes, I know the PSU is upside down!)

Deep Thought - Enclosure

2009-02-15T12:36:00.007Z

Lian Li V1010. I fell in love with this case about a year ago. The case is compartmentalized for heat management, the high heat components (Mobo, expansion cards) sit at the top, and the low heat components (PSU, HDDs) sit at the bottom.

PSU and drive bays.Top panel connections cleverly hidden under a flap.
Modular design, mobo tray slides out.

More hardware mounting than you can shake a stick at.
More info at http://www.lian-li.com

Deep Thought - Power Supply

2009-02-14T16:05:00.001Z

Cooler Master 850 watt powerhouse.I got this because it has enough power for everything I'm going to plug into it, and the build quality is exceptional.

You even get a little pack with the extra cables in...

...which plug in here.

More info at http://www.coolermaster.com.

Deep Thought - Motherboard

2009-02-14T15:00:00.002Z

The MicroStar DKA790GX

Oooh, it's like Christmas!!

Some heavy duty north / southbridge cooling. Interesting heatpipe design, shame it's gotta go so I can fit the watercooling.

Heatpipe removed showing AMD 790GX chipset.

I need to find a water block to replace the heatpipe. For this chip:

and this one:
Enough connections on the back?

More info at http://www.msi.com.tw/.

Deep Thought - CPU

2009-02-14T14:38:00.001Z

Hardware - CPU

I've never used AMD processors before, so time to find out if the new Phenom X4 is as good as the I7. The 125 watt black series.

Pretty good quality, I thought. The core (or cores):

More info at http://www.amd.com.