Budget Build in Windows 98 Case

[mully006]

Hello All,

 

After drooling over the builds here for a while I am finally doing one of my own.  I cannot afford to build a whole system so I am going to reuse the case from a Dell Dimension 4100, the HDD from my current Inspiron 530S, Core 2 Duo and the Gigabyte GT 640 I got last year. (I got the GT 640 b/c I was on a budget and I have cpu bottlenecks even with the GT 640).  The plan is to add a real GPU, CPU and case when I have money, next fall maybe.  I think I should be good on the z97 platform for a few years.

 

Parts 

NEW

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258  $69.99

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus $134.99

Cooler: Stock

RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB $79.99 - 8(promo)

SSD: Crucial MX100 256GB $109.99

PSU: Corsair CX600M $69.99 - 5(promo) - 20(rebate)

 

Total: $432.94

 

OLD

 

Case: Dell Dimension 4100

GPU: Gigabyte GT 640 Slim

HDD: Some HDD I don't remember, 500GB

CD Drive:  Whatever I have

 

Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the case when it was all together, here a photo from Google. 

http://www.pothasttechnologies.com/ebay/systems/images/Dell_Dimension_4100_P3-933_512M_40G_XPP_01.JPG

 

The parts are as follows,  I do not know model numbers, but if people want to know I can do a bit more research

 

Pentium 3

2x256MB ram

2x CD-Drive (I put a read/write drive in about 2004)

Floppy Drive

PSU 200W

Asus GPU

10/100 RJ45 Ethernet Card

RJ11 Phone Line Card

Audio Card

16GB HDD

 

 

Photos:

 

Sorry for the potato quality I took them on my phone (Moto G). I am working on finding a friend with a DSLR or a point and shoot I can borrow.  

 

Old Parts

 

New Parts (I already did a external build so the CPU and RAM are in the motherboard)

 

Chassis

I was actually able to strip every plastic piece off the steel base.  The 5.25in drive cage also comes out.  I was able to clean the 14 years of dust off of the parts by just putting them in the dishwasher.  Worked great, I just had to do a little touching up in some of the hard to reach corners.  

 

 

Whats Next?

 

Mod IO Cutout - current cutout is too small

Mod for Case Fans - The case is only set up for one fan to vent the CPU heat sink so I need to mod to add least two more.  I plan to overclock as far as possible on the stock cooler so more airflow will help.  If I cannot go to far on the stock cooler I'll get a 212 evo or something, I'll see how it goes first though.  

Paint/Anodize - I am thinking about painting the outside and/or anodizing the steal parts

Add Lighting - The vents in the front of the case would be perfect for some led lights

 

If any of you have any thoughts on colors/paint schemes or any tips/toughs on moding I'm all ears.  Thank for viewing and I'll post again when I have some mods done.  Hopefully this weekend.  

 

 

Edit

 

Update 1

[theKumba]

I think this in glossy black with blue/red lightning wouldn't look that bad. In my eyes it's just this light grey that makes cases look old.

[Sanya_Litvyak]

Good luck .. Looks like one heck of a job!

[martlart]

I moved my hardware into a 16 years old case just for fun a couple of months ago. I tried to make it look as close to stock as possible though, with only an enlarged fan hole visible in the rear. The rear fan hole was originally 80mm, but I opened it up to 120mm and also cut a 120mm hole in the front and cut a hole in the bottom of the front bezel for it to suck in air through.

 

You have to be careful with the cpu cooler height in older cases as they tend to be a bit narrow. Comparing the 5.25 bays distance from the edge to my case, it might even my narrower than mine. I ended up doing a custom waterloop with a 119mm wide discontinued (not 100% sure if it is discontinued) ek radiator, as that was the best cooling I could fit in it.

 

I'm not really sure if you should put any effort into making this case look any different as it'll probably just look bad anyway. I decided to keep mine stock and call it a sleeper pc lol.

[chilicheeseburger]

That actually sounds and looks very interesting.

However you can get cases that would be alright, none of the high end stuff but with everything you really need, for $50-$60..

[mully006]

That actually sounds and looks very interesting.

However you can get cases that would be alright, none of the high end stuff but with everything you really need, for $50-$60..

 

Ya I know, you can go even cheeper like $30 if you do not mind an annoying build.  But I am trying to minimize cost at all costs.  430 blew my budget by like $100 anyway.  I plan to upgrade the old stuff when I have a job.  Student right now so minimal income.  

[mully006]

I moved my hardware into a 16 years old case just for fun a couple of months ago. I tried to make it look as close to stock as possible though, with only an enlarged fan hole visible in the rear. The rear fan hole was originally 80mm, but I opened it up to 120mm and also cut a 120mm hole in the front and cut a hole in the bottom of the front bezel for it to suck in air through.

 

You have to be careful with the cpu cooler height in older cases as they tend to be a bit narrow. Comparing the 5.25 bays distance from the edge to my case, it might even my narrower than mine. I ended up doing a custom waterloop with a 119mm wide discontinued (not 100% sure if it is discontinued) ek radiator, as that was the best cooling I could fit in it.

 

I'm not really sure if you should put any effort into making this case look any different as it'll probably just look bad anyway. I decided to keep mine stock and call it a sleeper pc lol.

 

I measured the height off of the back panel and it was only like 150mm without a motherboard.  But it is ok because I am running the stock cooler for now.  

 

I have decided to leave the outside alone.  I am going to add some LED's to the venting on the front because the asymmetric glow will be interesting.  I was able to grab a 120mm fan from the tech duster at my school.  I have mounted that as a front intake and I am going to leave the rear exhaust and have the psu exhaust from inside the case.  I think this will be enough airflow but if not I'll add another.  

[chilicheeseburger]

Ya I know, you can go even cheeper like $30 if you do not mind an annoying build. But I am trying to minimize cost at all costs. 430 blew my budget by like $100 anyway. I plan to upgrade the old stuff when I have a job. Student right now so minimal income.

Oh okay I understand it then. Being on a tight budget always means improvising if you want to get the best for your money.

But I think you can do it.

[Young construct]

just watch the carpet with that motherboard better safe then sorry, but truly a nice build 

[mully006]

Update 1

 

The system is built and running well.  I have completed the mod to get the rear i/o to fit the motherboard.  In addition, I modded the front HDD mount to make room for a 120mm fan that I got from a tech dumpster.  I had to rewire the rear exhaust fan to get the pins to work, but that was no problem.  Overall the build went very smoothly.  Only took about an 45 min to get everything together.  I ran some stress test last night and today.  Memtest86 for two passes, OCCT and Linpack for an hour each.  I have good temps on all cores only 45C at full load.  I plan to overclock as far as possible on the stock cooler, push it to about 60C and call it good.  Without further ado here are some photos.  

 

 System Overview

 

Motherboard Closeup

-I wish now that I had gotten blue ram but what are go gonna do

 

 

Rear I/O Mod 

-I just had to expand the width by about 1/4in and the height by like 1/8in.  I used a pneumatic cutoff tool in the student shop at my school.

 

 

Front intake mod

-Here I just had to cut off the edge of the plastic that formed the old HDD cage. Very easy on the band saw.  A little filling and some screws and I was good to go.   The fan I have there is one of the industrial fans that are in the mass market computers.  I looked it up and it moves 120cfm at max, super loud though.  

 

Front Bezel

 

Side View

 

I am quite happy with the way it turned out.  I only have a little bit more to do. One problem that I ran into is that the front panel header have a custom connector on them.  So currently there are out of commission.  I plan to buy some headers off of amazon and then mod them to the originals.  It should not be a problem,  it is just annoying that I have to bridge the pins every time I want to start the computer.  I also plan to add lights to the front bezel.  I will put them around the vent in the front to get what I think will be a very cool effect when it is done.  I found some red led strips that connect to molex on amazon so they should be arriving in a few days. 

 

Stuff to Do

-Make 5.25in bay cover

-Mod front panel headers so they connect

-Make PCI slot covers

-Re-install floppy drive

-Add Lights

-Potentially a custom case badge

 

I will update when some more is done.  Should be a few days.

[KrisC123]

haha dude, this is awesome! being an older case pretty much stops thieves from wanting to steal it. It looks great and i think its a great idea! 

[mully006]

haha dude, this is awesome! being an older case pretty much stops thieves from wanting to steal it. It looks great and i think its a great idea! 

 

Thanks, I'm really happy with it so far.  Currently overclocking and at 4.4GHz and only 65-70C at 100% cpu. That's on the stock cooler too.

[DigitalHermit]

Interesting unit... I'd like to see the faces of the people when they see you play modern games on that thing... Be sure to pair it up with those 85Hz CRTs, old keyboards, and ball mice for the full retro-ish experience... Also, don't forget to use a win98-like theme in windows....

[JoshM]

Interesting unit... I'd like to see the faces of the people when they see you play modern games on that thing... Be sure to pair it up with those 85Hz CRTs, old keyboards, and ball mice for the full retro-ish experience... Also, don't forget to use a win98-like theme in windows....

That would be funny as, and seeing their faces when he launches bf4 or crysis 

[DigitalHermit]

That would be funny as, and seeing their faces when he launches bf4 or crysis 

 

But the real question is, "Can it run Minecraft at 480p?"

[ace2k8]

How are the temperatures and airflow looking in that mod.

[mully006]

How are the temperatures and airflow looking in that mod.

 

Temps are really good actually.  At stock I was getting around 25C at idle and around 45C at load.  Now with a 4.4GHz 1.3V overclock I see 25-28C at idle and 70C at load, 55C in games.  That is on a stock cooler as well.  The only drawback is that the intake fan I added is very loud.  I will play with the fan profile to work on that though.  

[raultherabbit]

Super cool build. I actually like that vivid blue and red combo for the mobo and ram.

[timsuss]

This old post has helped me with my sleeper PC. Thank you OP!