1200 or Butts!

[floatingtrem]

Introducing: 1200 or Butts!

 

I bought this case on a case modding forum (PimpRig.com) for 1$ + shipping roughly 15 years ago:

It's an AT! (even came with a keyboard with that giant connector...)

 

This was home to my primary rig throughout high school, running a Pentium 4 2.4C. I put a lot of work into it back in the day, but it has clearly seen better days. (It definitely served as home to some small creatures at one point.) I've kept it around all these years with the hopes of one day realizing some of the mods I once hoped to make, and the time has finally come to revisit my old friend.

The mice left it quite filthy, so first it's time to take it all apart and scrub the whole thing clean.

 

What in the heck is that?!

 

It's Silly Putty! ...apparently? I completely forgot about this one. I must have decided to use it to hold some posts in place. Those posts where annoying, but necessary because the corners lacked structural integrity (resulting in some cracking). Might have to to do something about that.

 

How about some more putty!  A decent helping of epoxy putty really helped firm up the corners. it feels nice and rigid when mounted, even without those pesky posts. And since I already have the putty out...

 

Might as well use it to mount some standoffs. Not the most elegant solution, but it felt like the right move. I already had holes drilled, but I used to use bolts with a stack of nuts to mount the motherboard, and it was a giant pain in the ass every time. Now it'll much be easier to fill with goodies! (Like that classic Noisetaker II.) Speaking of which:

 

Goodies! So what did I decide to power this guy with? A Pentium 2.4C of course! Why revisit this CPU of yesteryear? To pursue that elusive, legendary overclock that haunted my dreams or course! 3.6Ghz with a 1200Mhz FSB! Can it be done? I will find out, or die trying. I paired it with an Abit IC7-G, the board I always wanted and couldn't afford, and four 1GB sticks Corsair XMS DDR400. The IC7 should give me a decent first shot at 1200. The graphics card pictured is a GeForce 4 MX 440, a temporary card obtained to ensure the 7800GS I have is non-functional. A replacement is on the way! The heatsink is a Thermalright XP-90 I found brand new on Amazon (grabbed a Noctua while I was at it).

 

I thought cable routing would be a nightmare, but I remembered some old tricks. Without IDE, a build in this case has never felt so clean!

 

So what plans do I have in store? I need to fab a back panel, and do some general cleaning up. (That extra square corner where I chopped off the drive cage drives me nuts!) The front bezel needs some cracks filled, and the switch area patched and cleared for new power buttons. 

 

To get where I'm going, water cooling is going to be a must! So I'm hoping I will be able to track down a DangerDen TDX, chipset, and GPU cooler (an NV78, or modded NV68?). If anybody here knows where to find some old DD parts, please let me know!

 

For paint there is one thing I know for sure: beige and black, but paint will have to wait until spring. I was thinking about painting the chassis, but now that it's cleaned up a bit, the dingy corroded steel is is growing on me...

Is it just me, or does that 80mm bracket on the front just scream pump/res mount? Most of the bottom will have to go to make room for a radiator. (Gonna need new feet!) Squeezing a 360 in there will be tight, but I think it should fit.

Dusting this thing off has made me so happy, and made dragging it around for so long well worth it. There is just one destination: 1200 or butts!

 

 

P.S.

Since I'm digging up one relic, I thought I'd dig up another. Does anybody around here remember these shirts?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Very nice! Looking forward to see how this turns out in the future!

 

I personally would've turned it into a sleeper build(might do that with a couple cases from the Windows XP era I've got lying around)

[AT0MAC]

This is different, looking forward to see more of it. Its a special kind of scrapyard build, true LMG style

[floatingtrem]

I started fiddling with my CPU:

I'm obviously hitting some sort of wall here, as I'm having trouble getting anything past 250 (base FSB) to even POST at all.

I've probably just lost the silicon lottery with my $5 dollar CPU, as I have the same wall with both IC7-Gs at my disposal, but RAM may also be an issue.

I've got 2x256 sticks on the way (should give more OC headroom) and I grabbed a lot of 5 more processors. 

 

I did get the P4 3.0 that came with the second mobo up to 3.7Ghz... but it's a Prescott so: Booooring!

[floatingtrem]

I'm slowly amassing a pile of goodies. Updates soon.

 

[AT0MAC]

37 minutes ago, floatingtrem said:

I'm slowly amassing a pile of goodies. Updates soon.

I know the feeling... currently rebuilding my own rig too and this is as far as i am untill now.

 

 

fastest most expensive rig i have so far, but as of now just looks a mess until i get time to mod the actual case

[floatingtrem]

Hey look! Goodies! And this is just the cooling gear...

Radiators: When I realized I was being a little optimistic with fitting a 360 in the bottom, I decided one radiator just wasn't going to cut it. So I got three radiators. Hardware Labs Black Ice M160GTX, M184GTX, and an L Series 240. Unfortunately I was being a little optimistic about the 3rd radiator, and so the M184 will have to be used for something else. Aw shucks! 

 

Water Blocks: DANGER! DANGER! We've got a full Danger Den setup, a TDX CPU block, a pair of SLI Tyee GPU blocks, and a couple Maze 4 chipset blocks (which came all the way from Hungary!). The GPU blocks are made for Radeon X1800s, but I will be adapting one to an Nvidia FX 5900 (details on that later).

 

The pump/res is an Enermax NEOChanger 200ml, and I grabed some Noreprene black tubing that I think is what I'll use in the final build. Probably. I think. Oh, and I grabbed a silver coil. 

 

I marked out the cuts needed to make room for the radiators. 

 

and got to work with my Dremel!

 

Time for a test fit! Nice and snug, just the way I like it! Note the big rubber feet I picked up. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to mount the reservoir yet (contemplating making some custom U-bolts), so zip ties will have to do for now. 

 

The chipsets on 875P boards have silly retention clips instead of mounting holes, so I fashioned some mounting hardware from some fan clips. 

 

They work well enough for some testing, but I think I'll need to craft a more robust solution. 

 

As for that overclock... progress is being made. Slow tedious progress. 

[AT0MAC]

ahh sweet! I used to have danger den components in my very first water cooling build back in, ehh 2007 I think it was?

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/ncCbt6

it was actually my very first modded build too, it was terrible, but modding back then was not really a thing yet and so about watercooling, at least not here in Denmark.

 

I like what you do here, bringing back old memories in a way better looking way than I managed at the time