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jedihobbit
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Central Virginia, USA
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 Posted: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:09:42 Post Subject: BluHaz reDux v2.0 Worklog |
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Currently I trying to work on three builds, two of which are “updates” with one more or less a “from scratch”. Two of these you may have already seen, DreamCatcher v2.0 and the newest Yoda’s SMN. However my first mATX attempt goes way back starting as simply BluHaz , then BluHaz reDuxand now BluHaz reDux v2.0. Now comes the “final” installment of the trilogy (hummmmmmmmm sounds like where my moniker comes from!)
Originally had planned on bringing DreamCatcher mobo/cpu assembly over to BHrDxv2 until had a fitting problem between the top fan and the hsf. Also starting thinking about heat issues as I would have an oc’ed Opty 170, oc’ed HD3870, and a Raptor in the build. So decided to make this the server and move the other stuff over to Yoda’s SMN build.
03/15/08
So we’re back to what we had along with the new stuff in Bold/Italics
CASE: akasa Blue Acrylic mATX
PSU: Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT 400W
MOBO: Biostar Tforce 6100-939
CPU: AMD A64 3700+ San Diego CCBWE 0549 WPMW
HSF: AMD Stock Opteron Cooler w/ Tt 80mm Smart Fan
GPU: On Board 6100
MEMORY: G.Skill F1-3200PHU2-1GBZX (2 x 512)
HDDs: Primary > WD740GB-00FLC0 Raptor
Secondary 1 > WD5000KS-00MNB0 400GB
Secondary 2 > WD5000KS-00MNB0 400GB
Before I continue there is something I need to clarify about BluHaz reDux, it is a “bling” case first and hardware second. Meaning if hardware has to be “compromised” to keep the aesthetics I’m after so be it.
As you can see I’ve really torn into it for trying to make things fit and look good.
 
First on the list was the PSU issue that I was working on earlier. Did all the taping and marking and fretting in preparing for the drill and cutting. Must of spent several hours laying everything out and was getting a little bit confused as to what was happening to the mounting hole location. Well DORH!! Had it taped on the inside but laying it out as if it were the outside. So off came the tape and I put it aside to think about it. Part of the issue is I really needed to see the PSU thru the acrylic, so………..
Laid the back plate on the PSU to position the holes and mark the cutout needed for the power switch and plug. It was good I decided to do it this way as I actually had to move the supply up a fraction to miss a tapped insert and allow for enough material between an old mounting hole and the new one. Turns out I lost one of the mounting holes on the bottom (figured that), but the case provides a standoff / rest that carries most of the weight.
So at 01:30 Saturday Morning I started the easy re-work…..
Didn’t bother with pictures as I was cutting, filing and drilling. Basically after I made the cutout I position the back and PSU to locate one hole. After that they were bolted together and “eyeballed” the other two hole locations. For the “wiggle room” factor I used the next largest drill bit over the original clearance holes. This part was actually fairly easy and came off without a hitch. For drilling I used a cordless that was low torque and it seemed to have no grab issues with the plastic. The first time I drilled some holes I used a standard electric drill, which grabbed and broke off a piece of acrylic where I was working. Luckily it was not in a “strategic” area!
Here is what it looks like “finished”
Before…….
After……..
If you look closely you’ll be able to see the cutout for the plug and switch…….
Now that this will be my “server” had to figure out where to put the other two HDDs as I’m leaving the 74GB Raptor “in place”. First and foremost the FDD had to go as one drive was to occupy that spot. I raise the Raptor’s location an inch so I wouldn't loose the fan controller as it moved up one slot. This required me to drill a couple of new mounting holes, which was no big deal. All the parts seemed to go into place without a hitch with the exception of a 5.25 bay 3 x fan / HDD cooler. This was left over from the aborted upgrade of the wife's original build called OZ1, and had decided to use it last week.
Course being a “bling” machine I couldn’t leave it as “out of the box”…….
  
The brackets that come with it was/is to be used to mount one of the HDD, but as I started mounting the HDD and fan bracket it became obvious it was meant for a deeper cage. However I think it's workable. So everything was in place, the two new HDDs, and repositioned fan controller and Raptor, then…………
Along about 04:00 it occurred to me to mount the side plate that holds the mobo to see if there would be any minor interference.
Then it was down hill……… with the hardware layout that took 3 hours to get in place, there was an issue. I had a choice of covering up one of two minor items on the mobo – my only two SATA ports or the CMOS jumper. Should have gone back and looked at the original worklog for BluHaz & remember why the first HDD and then the Raptor were canted. I think it was in the back of my mind that the Biostar layout was different enough from the Chaintech 7NIL-1 so it wouldn’t matter. Well I missed the IDE & FDD connectors unlike the 7NIL-1 but covered the other stuff. Also in flipping the PSU, the mobo power cables won't tuck away as nicely and may even get in the way of the other cable management. So much for engineering on the fly, you'd think I'd learn.
Lets see what was the reason to switch the builds again……… oh so I wouldn’t have to move the top fan and it would be an easy build I could finish in a day, that’s right.
By 05:30 think I may have re-engineered everything to fit, but it is all compromises (what’s new). Primary concern now is I will have two HDDs mounted at 45 degrees.
Eyes were heavy, too tired to think on it any more, and paint some HDD standoffs so off to bed for a short nap.
Late Afternoon 03/15/08 – Early Morning 03/16/08
Finally got the HDDs in place and started working on mounting the other hardware, etc. Here you can see the Raptor (Primary) at the top, a WD5000KS just below that, the fan controller, and under that is the second WD5000KS with the HDD 3 x fan cooler in front, and finally at the bottom is the Plextor 716A. The second picture shows where the first attempt to remount the Raptor occurred (empty hole) and then its final location.
 
One of my major concerns with the new HDDs was supporting the bottom one as I was only able to use the front holes in the mounting bracket. Then I tripped across two 3.5 acrylic bay covers I had, so……..
 
Had a delay in getting the Plextor optical drive mounted (slowed everything down for fitting). When I painted the drive I had to wait a week to put on the clear coat, and during that week the cover screws disappeared. It seems they are proprietary as nothing I had would fit. Eventually they “showed up” and was able to get it mounted. After getting the HDDs and drive bay stuff in place it was time to start getting BH rDx “put together”. With the added HDDs, a running led memory mod, and the new HDD cooler wiring layout became a major nightmare. The PSU cables are long and the lay out is kinda sorta wasted. When the Liberty series came out they were great as SATA drives were just starting to come along. So Enermax laid the cables out PSU plug > Molex > SATA > Molex > SATA, all in about 18”. Try hiding the extra crap in a SFF case! Anyway after much shoving and cramming everything seemed to be in place.
 
It is all there except for the e-SATA bracket and cable and the PCI SATA 2 port expansion card for the 2 WD 400GBs. Here is what it now looks like from the front and a closer look at the bays units.
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Little Bruin
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Joined: 07 Apr 2003
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jedihobbit
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Central Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:55:02 Post Subject: |
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Midmorning 03/16/08
So time to hook it up to power to see what might have come loose during the packing…….
Hooked everything up, checked connections, mobo power leds lit, and pushed the power button…….and pushed the power button…..AND PUSHED THE POWER BUTTON….. nothing. Spent 20 minutes looking and pushing to make sure everything necessary is plugged in. Then I happen to look closely at the front and………
 
The method of assembly for this case will require me to do a 50 – 70% disassembly to get to the part that needs repair. Oh well, kinda sorta wanted to revamp how the front cables ran anyway!
03/26/08
While I’m waiting on the repairs etc., thought I should again start thinking about how to set this unit up software wise. Yep back to me being “software challenged”.
As a reminder, this is what I plan on using the unit for….. a home unit for only 2 adults and 2 other desktops and 1 laptop. Along with the usual shared text files there would be ripped music, photos, and occasional video editing. Added to this unit’s duties would be to share two printers and a scanner with the other ‘puters.
Originally had planned on going RAID for redundancy and for the novelty, however if I use M$ Home Server that is out the window. Also it seems the general consensus is it would be a waste. Speaking of Home Server, at close to $200 its appeal is sinking fast. However it is my understanding that the latest version is what a NOOB like me should use. XP Home doesn’t have anything in it that would work? How hard is Linux? I believe someone also suggested FreeNAS.
Again, let me remind you I need something SIMPLE as I’m VERY software challenged. The other primary reason for this build was to justify building a third computer to the wife.
03/27/08
Late last night I finished up most of the assembly work with the idea of testing BHrDx this morning. The first mechanical issue I came across was the wiring for the speaker. Now that is one of the main things I don’t like about this case, speaker location. It is on the bottom with the back exposed to everything and needless to say with my heavy hands it is easily damaged. As a matter of fact I had to re-solder the red lead as it had be pulled off during the assembly when the power harness was damaged. Then as I was relaying out the cables last night for the final assembly I noticed the black lead had now been pulled off. So that had to be soldered before getting the rest of the stuff crammed in.
 
As you can see it is defiantly a tight fit and not the best in cable management!
Well I’ve had an interesting morning to evening with BHrDx v2.0!!! Thought all I was going to do was put it back together and start it up. Man I should know better by now!!
Got set up for an ambush early as the initial start up went like nothing else. Even managed to get the SATA expansion card software loaded as well as a Window update. After the reboot for the updates everything started sliding down hill. Any way here you have it “running” in the beginning.
The rear 60mm fan was not running but that didn’t affect anything so I just kept on trucking with the initial startup. After everything was running I investigated that and found out that I had a bad 3-pin extension cable, which was quickly replace after shutting down the system. However when I turned it back on I was greeted with
Actually I had been greeted by that earlier and had swapped out the DVD-R from IDE 0 to 1 to see if there was a header issue. And yes there would be a “Floppy Disk Fail” as there isn’t a floppy. Ended up having to go into bios and delete the A: drive. However never could get rid of the ref to the 80-pin cable.
Then at start up it would request a systems disk to boot from the optical drive, so go into bios and set the hdd as first boot. Nothing it would just hang. So set the optical back as first boot and tried with my OS cd in hopes to repair. No go as it went into a loop of “load OS” reboot “load OS” reboot……. Then I noticed at boot up I didn’t show the Raptor! As it turns out the SATA cable was knocked loose from the mobo header when I swapped out the 3-pin fan cable. Then it really went down hill.
Could not get the OS to do a repair so tried for a total re-load. Must have done that 5 times complete with reformatting and partitioning. Finally said screw it shut everything down and decided to take a shower, chill, and then try again. While I’m not the greatest troubleshooter, finally figured it out as everything is up and running. Took the two WD5000KSs and the SATA expansion card out of the loop before doing the formatting and load. Not sure why but with them “missing” everything loaded up. It is just that whatever was on the HDD is now gone and forgotten. Hooked the 2 drives and card back up and reloaded the controller software and haven’t had any issues.
Did end up with two other hardware failures though, one I will eventually have to fix and the other is a “hell with it”. It seems the sensor for the front mounted temp gage broke, and will need replacement when I can find another and have the desire. Until then case temp will show “Lo C”. I installed what I call a running led memory mod, which looks pretty cool under the “bling” area. However it seems on of the pushbuttons that changes pattern either is broken or the wiring is messed up. This leaves me with only one pattern, big deal.
And in closing for now I’ll leave with what that mod looks like and the variety with one of the units that still lets me.
Now just to figure what I want to do OS wise and how I want to partition & format the two 400GB HDDs.
04/06/08
While I’m still trying to figure out what to do software wise I did play a little with oc’ing before dropping everything to stock for the server thing. That can be found over at BluHaz reDux v2.0’s Last Hoo-Rah
Mechanically going to call it 90% finished as I have two or threes issues to be addressed, depending on what one what’s to call “necessary”
1. One running led memory mod switches is not letting me select the different patterns. Forget it, as it looks fine the way it is and it would require taking the case apart.
2. It appears the sensor has broken for the front mounted temp gage. Will have to check and see if I can find a new sensor and make sure the soldering for repair will not interfere with the resistance for the reading.
3. The front USB ports are not working. Hopefully that is an easy fix and will only require me to change board headers.
Here are three “shots in the dark”………
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jedihobbit
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Central Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:26:25 Post Subject: |
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Okay managed to get the front USB ports to work…..it helps when all the pins on the board header are covered by the plug! Jury still out about soldering on a new sensor for the temp gage, however here it sits in what will be its final home.
 
Now I need to seriously look into what OS I want/need to use for the server part. Also think this might be a good time to learn how to set up a dual boot system incase I go with MS & Linux. |
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anerky99
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Joined: 06 Apr 2009
Posts: 219
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:11:35 Post Subject: |
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Cool piece of kit  . May seem odd question but can you buy the perspex cases?? Or are they self milled/cut??
_________________
Coolermaster HAF 932 II Coolermaster Real Power M1000 II Gigabyte EX58-UD5 II i7 920 @ 3.2Ghz II Corsair H100 CPU Cooler II 24gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz II 2x MSI GTX 460 Hawk Talon Attack SLI II Corsair F240 SSD II 2x3Tb Seagate (RAID0) II 1Tb Seagate 7200.12 II 1.5Tb Seagate 7200.11 II Pinoneer BluRay Writer |
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jedihobbit
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Central Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:28:45 Post Subject: |
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Acrylic cases are available and I'll look up a few but it may be tomorrow before I can get back with any info.
_________________
As of 02/01/11
DreamCatcher AM3 >> (Down Again) >> SG01 Evo, MSI 785GM-E65, PII X4 955(AQ H2O Cooled), XFX GTX285(EK H2O Cooled), Seagate 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB, 2 x G.S. F3-12800CL7D-2GBPI, MODU82+ EMD525AWT, XP Home SP2
KestrelFlight >> (Under Construction) >> Zalman Z7+, MSI NF980-G65, PII X4 1055T, 2 x Galaxy 580GTXs, Zalman 32GB SSD, WD V'Raptor 300GB, 2 x WD 1 TB Blacks, G.S. F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD, Zalman ZM1000-HP Plus , Win7
Oz1a v2.0 >> XFX MDA72P7509 750a, PI X2 8870BE, 2 x XFX GTS250, WD 250GB, F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK, Tt TR2 600W, XP Pro SP3 |
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anerky99
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Posts: 219
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:12:50 Post Subject: |
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Cool, i wouldnt go out of your way to look for anything though, if you happen to know of any though let me know thanks . And again cool case
_________________
Coolermaster HAF 932 II Coolermaster Real Power M1000 II Gigabyte EX58-UD5 II i7 920 @ 3.2Ghz II Corsair H100 CPU Cooler II 24gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz II 2x MSI GTX 460 Hawk Talon Attack SLI II Corsair F240 SSD II 2x3Tb Seagate (RAID0) II 1Tb Seagate 7200.12 II 1.5Tb Seagate 7200.11 II Pinoneer BluRay Writer |
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Doctor Feelgood
Arrrrghh!
Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Posts: 20349
Location: New Jersey
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:25:12 Post Subject: |
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Little Bruin
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anerky99
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Joined: 06 Apr 2009
Posts: 219
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:33:03 Post Subject: |
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Coll ill have to have a look, thanks
_________________
Coolermaster HAF 932 II Coolermaster Real Power M1000 II Gigabyte EX58-UD5 II i7 920 @ 3.2Ghz II Corsair H100 CPU Cooler II 24gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz II 2x MSI GTX 460 Hawk Talon Attack SLI II Corsair F240 SSD II 2x3Tb Seagate (RAID0) II 1Tb Seagate 7200.12 II 1.5Tb Seagate 7200.11 II Pinoneer BluRay Writer |
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jedihobbit
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Central Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:01:08 Post Subject: |
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 Thks Jason that would have been one of the choices!
BTW this worklog is way out of date as the mobo assembly has been swapped (still a biostar 6100-939)! CHK sig...... 
_________________
As of 02/01/11
DreamCatcher AM3 >> (Down Again) >> SG01 Evo, MSI 785GM-E65, PII X4 955(AQ H2O Cooled), XFX GTX285(EK H2O Cooled), Seagate 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB, 2 x G.S. F3-12800CL7D-2GBPI, MODU82+ EMD525AWT, XP Home SP2
KestrelFlight >> (Under Construction) >> Zalman Z7+, MSI NF980-G65, PII X4 1055T, 2 x Galaxy 580GTXs, Zalman 32GB SSD, WD V'Raptor 300GB, 2 x WD 1 TB Blacks, G.S. F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD, Zalman ZM1000-HP Plus , Win7
Oz1a v2.0 >> XFX MDA72P7509 750a, PI X2 8870BE, 2 x XFX GTS250, WD 250GB, F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK, Tt TR2 600W, XP Pro SP3 |
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