"Sleeper PC"

[wolfmcbeard]

So I've got two old pc towers that I know will fit m-atx mobo's.
I decided I wanted to make a sleeper build but I'm not sure what case to use...
the HP dx5150mt (what I’m currently using)
or
the Dell Dimension 1100

Any suggestions?

[comicsansms]

Use the dell. 

[Space Reptile]

as classic as the dell is and looks 

the HP looks better and has better ventilation , looks like it can fit an intake fan wich will help alot w/ modern parts 

[wolfmcbeard]

6 minutes ago, Space Reptile said:

as classic as the dell is and looks 

the HP looks better and has better ventilation , looks like it can fit an intake fan wich will help alot w/ modern parts 

I was leaning towards the HP as well, all I’ve got to do Is pull the legacy speaker out and BAM!!! front intake fan.
The issue with the Dell is where the hard drive is mounted, leaves no room for front ventilation.

[Space Reptile]

photos would be helpful (interior) 

[wolfmcbeard]

ok, give me a minute....

[wolfmcbeard]

[Space Reptile]

i would just ziptie an 120mm in place in the HP , where the speaker was , i did that w/ an Acer aspire and it worked phenomally

it pulled in some air from inside the case and outside the case , making the air circulate and preventing heat building up in the top of the case (wich can be bad for powersupplies)

[Vamprie]

Here is my sleeper if you want some inspiration  

[wolfmcbeard]

Nice, I have already done some case modding for USB 3.0 and non-proprietary audio jacks...and I got rid of the green thing, it kept me from putting the side panel on.

[Vamprie]

On 2016-10-03 at 2:57 AM, Matt Hawkins said:

Nice, I have already done some case modding for USB 3.0 and non-proprietary audio jacks...and I got rid of the green thing, it kept me from putting the side panel on.

How do you secure your drives without the green ting? 

[wolfmcbeard]

2 hours ago, Vamprie said:

How do you secure your drives without the green ting? 

just put some washers on the screws.

[Dreymex]

Hey 

On 10/3/2016 at 8:57 AM, wolfmcbeard said:

Nice, I have already done some case modding for USB 3.0 and non-proprietary audio jacks...and I got rid of the green thing, it kept me from putting the side panel on.

Dude how did you mod it?

 

Also wanna start a build using the same HP case as well.

 

The power button and the legacy USB and audio jacks are issues I've had with my build atm.

[wolfmcbeard]

I forgot about this thread to be honest, I still have the case, but due to a multitude of financial issues, I haven't done anything with this build since the last post.
That said I do want to finish it since it's currently a footrest under desk at the moment...

As for what I did to it, I gutted the whole case.
The front usb is a pair of usb3 with what I assume is a standard connector, same as the front audio ports.
The usb3s came from a long since dead small form factor Acer OEM.
The audio ports came from the HP.
The plastic bit from the power button, power LED, and hard drive activity LED, was removed but the metal connector bits from inside the plastic plug that connects to the motherboard are still there, a bit more finicky to plug in, but so long as you know what two wires do what, you'll be fine.

For the front usb/audio, I'd say be careful with plugging in things from OEM boxes since some may be proprietary to a specific line of pre built systems so do good research first.

[Dreymex]

On 6/4/2019 at 5:35 PM, wolfmcbeard said:

I forgot about this thread to be honest, I still have the case, but due to a multitude of financial issues, I haven't done anything with this build since the last post.
That said I do want to finish it since it's currently a footrest under desk at the moment...

As for what I did to it, I gutted the whole case.
The front usb is a pair of usb3 with what I assume is a standard connector, same as the front audio ports.
The usb3s came from a long since dead small form factor Acer OEM.
The audio ports came from the HP.
The plastic bit from the power button, power LED, and hard drive activity LED, was removed but the metal connector bits from inside the plastic plug that connects to the motherboard are still there, a bit more finicky to plug in, but so long as you know what two wires do what, you'll be fine.

For the front usb/audio, I'd say be careful with plugging in things from OEM boxes since some may be proprietary to a specific line of pre built systems so do good research first.

Yo dude, did my research, basically the hub and jacks are not proprietary, just a normal usb 2.0 hub but the jacks are AC97 based so that does cause a hiccup to connect to motherboard but it just need to configure in software so that's good.

 

Changed the button and the LEDs with newer ones cause mine sucked, and it's much more compatible with newer boards.

 

Now time to wait for Ryzen 3rd Gen to come out and I'm fitting mATX X570 in this.

[wolfmcbeard]

2 hours ago, Dreymex said:

Yo dude, did my research, basically the hub and jacks are not proprietary, just a normal usb 2.0 hub but the jacks are AC97 based so that does cause a hiccup to connect to motherboard but it just need to configure in software so that's good.

Ok cool, I mentioned the proprietary connectors thing due to my old Dell Optiplex 780 tower using some kind of nonstandard connection that resembled an eIDE type thing so I'm always over cautious about stuff like that.

2 hours ago, Dreymex said:

Changed the button and the LEDs with newer ones cause mine sucked, and it's much more compatible with newer boards.

Definitely a better choice, the switch that comes attached to the tower is meh at best, and the green/orange bi-color led is dated.

2 hours ago, Dreymex said:

Now time to wait for Ryzen 3rd Gen to come out and I'm fitting mATX X470 in this.

Seems fitting, my dx5150 was an Athlon64 system, so I might take this as an idea when I can work on this project again...

[Dreymex]

Guys, I've made the sleeper PC with the HP DX5150.

 

Made the inside spray painted with Flat Black and maintained the exterior to look old as much as possible.

 

Currently using Ryzen 5 3600 with stock cooler and will be placing 1060 for the time being until I've gotten the budget for RX 5700 and new cooler (the card in there is Quadro K2000 picked up from old server as test GPU card).

 

Maybe I'll add single LED strip to make it black and white inside cause i don't prefer RGB that much with this setup.

[SiCkHiTrEg]

On 10/2/2016 at 6:27 AM, Vamprie said:

Here is my sleeper if you want some inspiration  

I love it.  Looks dope.