OK, I think it's time for me to share what I am doing with my supposedly Linux PC. Currently, it has 2 operating systems; Linux Mint 18 and Windows Vista, because I am that nasty. The purpose of this 'build' is it transfer all of the components from the old case that has seen better days with a smashed front bezel, side panels that doesn't close properly and missing few parts necessary, such as the PSU bracket. I see this as an opportunity to switch to a much newer case.
Initially, I was going to get the Sillverstone Raven 3 RV03 case for some differences in styling amongst my 2 other custom made PCs. But when I placed a bid on Silverstone's other case - the Kublai KL05-W - for a max bid of $44, I wasn't expecting to win at the lower final price of $24. Case looked pretty much brand new when I had a chance to inspect it closer. Below are my shots of the case:
Hard drive rail mounts do feel flexible, but at least it has more flex than the ones from my Corsair 900D so that I can easily place 3.5" hard drives into it.
With the case now out of the way, it's time to tear down the existing Linux rig. Taking a last look at this setup before the case goes to retirement and then scrap.
As you can see, this case was never made with cable management in mind, being the case from the 2000s.
OK, tearing it down. First thing I would remove is the massive XFX Radeon HD 5970 card that takes up the entire room
Now you can clearly see that the case was never made with cable management in mind. Also note that all of the PCI expansion slots are exposed. And if you're wondering, yep, the 3rd PCIe X16 slot's retention clip had broke off from the previous owner.
Next thing I did was removing the PSU to get rid off the power leads, as the PSU (Corsair CX600) is not modular. And as soon as I have disconnected the leads from each connector on the components...
PSU in
PSU out
During this stage, I almost fell over from tripping up on bits of the old case and used the centre between my fingernail and finger for preventing the fall
#pcmr, guaranteed to cause serious injury or death.
But I progressed onto remove any remaining data cables so that I can began sliding out the motherboard tray of the old case; yes, removable motherboard trays, not really a thing nowadays. To get it removed, there are 4 of these holding the tray onto the case
I removed all of them, and this left me with an empty case
Dat dust though, could be corrosion but wasn't betting on that. I continued to remove all the drives and even the fans for use with the new setup.
And while I was salvaging thumbscrews, I didn't noticed this but hey guys, the hard drive cage is removable on the old case!
But anyway, it and the rest of the case will be scrapped
I went back on removing the I/O shield, one of the 2 fans and the motherboard from the motherboard tray. But before I do anything else, I sought this as an opportunity to replace the dead CMOS battery.
And here's the new one
The dead one was a pain to remove until I wedged an object underneath the battery to pop it out.
Oh, before I move on, the hard drive was not meant to be there; my intention of the converter bay is for something else that will be explained later
And moving on, I mounted 2 of the 120mm fans from the old case into the new one to act as exhausting air from the case
Next, I installed the I/O shield and placed the motherboard into the case. The standoffs were at their correct position by default, or at least that's how I saw them when I bought it off form the previous owner.
After the motherboard inside the new case...
Plenty of room inside the case for this board... for now.
When I went ahead and try to measure out the card inside the case to see where it'll end, this happened:
Yeah, it won't go in unless I sacrifice one of the hard drive cages. So I opted one for the top. To remove the cages, they are each held in my 2 thumbscrews located at the right side of the case
And once I slipped the card in to test it out, it finally fits, with the elimination of one hard drive cage.
I then began cabling up the data connections, the front panel connections, which leaves me with, cabling up the PSU. Not the next job done IMO but at least it's more neat and adequate than the old one.
In this picture, I has trouble accessing to the 8 pin EPS connector that is buried right inside the case. Reaching to it was quite tricky, so I had to remove the exhaust fan on the left in order to get access to that damn connector. However, that still didn't worked, so I removed the top cover of the case and finally I connected the lead to it.
I struggled with cable managing, but it's at least what I can do, to have everything working
The back is ditto
So after spending minutes assembling things into the new case, here's the result
Not bad IMO, but the cable could be done better.
And a shot of it running
Finally, the front, taken just now
Notice the drive converter, yeah, that is the intended purpose. Floppies all the way!
In summary: at least everything is now inside the new case. I wouldn't call this new on tough but having a lot of headroom at the top for radiator provisioning just makes this case a great start towards watercooling. It has dust filters placed at every appropriate intakes, they are so easy to remove for washing and do stay on well. Downside is the lack of room behind the motherboard tray for cable management, that the right side panel pops out just a tiny bit. Also, when I handled the removable top cover and both of the side panels, this suggests me this isn't the strongest and sturdiest case I have right now, but at $24, there is no sense into arguing over it.
I will be intending to use this as a mixture of a Linux PC and a PC that runs older version of Windows. I just hope to get my hands on 2x cheap SSDs, 256GB is preferred. And most importantly, I will be updating this log once I actually get it a case that I was planing to get it for; explained what that case is at the beginning BTW.
Disclaimer: System is having issues that I have yet to squash.