Random musings on the important things in life, for example computers and UT football.
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Name: VW
Hometown:
Somewhere in Texas
Occupation:
Systems Analyst
Please sign my Guestbook!
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Thursday, March 13, 2003
Vic Kombat
For any Mac users who happen to be reading this, there's a great shareware game that was something of a "cult classic" many years ago. In fact, for several months it was the #1 most downloaded Mac game at CNET.com, and even made it into magazine reviews around the world as far away as Japan. Oh, and you might recognize the main character in the game, since it's me :-).
Download Vic Kombat
Unfortunately I can't say I had much of a role in the development of the game, those honors went to my friend Jim who did all the design and coding. I was just the "model". We did all the "photography" for the game in one afternoon with one of the original B&W Quickcams. Jim then added some Photoshop effects and created the game in C using completely custom developed code.
If you do try to install and play, you might have to jump through a few hoops if you're running a newer system. I don't know a thing about Macs, but considering the game is about 7-8 years old I assume it will run too fast on current processors. If you do try it out, be sure to drop me a line here: Guestbook
8:10 AM
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Tuesday, March 11, 2003
CASE MODS PART 2
Before getting into my case mods any further, first a little background on my particular case. The past four PC's I've built have all used the the Enlight 7237, which for several years was one of the most popular cases (if not THE most popular) for do-it-yourself PC builders. It's pretty much your "standard" mid-tower ATX case with lots of drive bays, two 80 mm fan mounts, removable side panels, screwless face plate, etc. Newer versions like the 7247 use the same basic design but have slight differences like front-mounted USB ports.
My overall goals for my mods were threefold:
1) Better air filtration
Most pre-built PC's have no air filtration whatsoever and basically act as dust traps. I've seen PC's where the dust buildup was so thick, you could practically tear the dust off and make a sweater out of it. That's bad enough for your PC's components since the dust acts as an insulator and traps heat, but it's killer for cooling fans since it can clog up their bearings and stop them from spinning altogether. Once that happens to your power supply fan or CPU fan, you're looking at total system failure and a possible fire hazard.
At the very least, I always recommend putting SOME kind of filter over your PC's intake fan. Used fabric softener sheets work great, and I've heard pantyhose is also good. Then just replace or wash them every few months. Of couse, even with a filtered intake you will still have dust problems due to another flaw in most PC designs: negative internal pressure.
With the typical configuration of the power supply exhaust fan, an 80mm exhaust fan, and a 80mm intake fan, you have more air being blown out than you have being sucked in, since you have two exhuasts vs one intake. And many PC's don't even have an intake fan, so that ratio is two to ZERO. That difference has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the various cracks in your case, where unfiltered air is constantly getting sucked into your system. I've noticed one big "crack" is the floppy drive slot. In many PC's, if you lift up your floppy cover and look "inside" your floppy drive, you can see all the dust that has accumulated, mainly due to negative internal pressure.
2) More cooling capability
Two low-speed 80mm fans is fine for most systems, but I wanted enough headroom for future upgrades since computer parts, especially CPU's and grahics cards, are getting hotter and hotter all the time. I also wanted to fully utilize the performance capabilities of my current hardware through overclocking.
3) Noise reduction
Achieving a virtually silent system is easy just by using low-speed fans, or removing fans altogether. But the real challenge is to get a well-cooled, well-filtered system while still keeping noise levels to a minimum.
The Mods
My first mod was to enlarge the airholes in the front panel to allow for more unrestricted airflow. As you can see in the pic, they were originally little more than pinpricks. By using a Dremel tool to drill out each hole, I increased the "area" of the holes by about 10X while still maintaining a "factory built" appearance.
(Sorry about the links; since Tripod doesn't allow linking to pics, you'll have to copy and paste the URL's... I'll try to find a different host for the pics so I can link directly to them).
http://vicwang.tripod.com/DSCF0001.JPG
Next I used wire cutters to cut away the front grille covering the intake. Although it's not in the pic, I also removed the grill covering the exhaust. Grills provide a little extra safety if you have kids or pets, but otherwise they just restrict airflow and add noise. Of course they're also important to prevent the filter from getting sucked into the fan, but as you will see I found another way to solve that problem.
http://vicwang.tripod.com/before.jpg
I then used the nibbler tool to remove enough metal to accomodate a 120mm fan, and drilled one screwhole (the upper-left one in the next pic) to attach the fan. By sheer coincidence, the bottom-right hole lined up perfectly, so there was no need for additional holes. I also used rubber washer to help dampen vibration. Note that the fan in the pic is actually a 120mm Enermax that I bought from Fry's, not the Panaflo I would eventually end up using.
http://vicwang.tripod.com/after.jpg
That mod worked great, but a few things about it were a little bothersome. First was the fact that the gold grill was somewhat elevated, and not flush with the hole. This allowed air to seep in around the edges of the filter and made it virtually impossible to make sure all incoming air was filtered. And then there was also the fact that it looked like crap.
To fix both problems, I removed the fan grill, found a nice sized piece of cardstock, and used the grill as a stencil to cut a perfectly sized hole. I then used sewing thread to form a makeshift "grill" to prevent the filter from getting sucked in (the suction would be the only thing actually holding the filter on). Unfortunately there was a little too much slack in the threads, so I used rolled-up bundles of electrical tape to tighten them up.
And finally, here's the results:
Without filter: http://vicwang.tripod.com/DSCF0002.JPG
With filter: http://vicwang.tripod.com/DSCF0003.JPG
Well that's enough for now. I'll add more details later of subsequent mods, which included replacing my heatsink/fan, replacing the power supply and exhaust fan, adding the Paxmate, adding the rheobus, and sealing off the rest of the case with tape. BTW, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an email at vwang@eprod.com
1:20 PM
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Sunday, March 09, 2003
CASE MODS - PART 1
OK, as promised, here's the specs of my home computer and a recap of the mods I've done so far. (If you were hoping for an explaination of the origins of "Rubberface", that will have to wait!).
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2100+
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe (nForce 2)
Memory: 512 megs Kinsgton PC2700 DDR SDRAM
Graphics Card: Geforce 4 TI4200 (Gainward Golden Sample)
Hard Drive: 30 gig IBM Deskstar 75GXP
Optical Drive: Pioneer 10X DVD-ROM
Power Supply: 350 watt Enermax Whispersys
Case: Enlight 7237 Mid Tower
For cooling purposes, I have a Thermalright AX-7 heatsink (MONSTER heatsink... still one of the best available) with high-speed 80mm Panaflo fan mounted on it. Then another medium-speed 80mm Panaflo for the exhaust, and an ultra-high speed 120mm Panaflo for the front-mounted intake.
For anyone unfamiliar with Panaflos, they're regarded as one of the best "quiet" fans on the market. Very low-friction (the ball bearings float suspended on a layer of oil, hence the term "liquid ball bearings") and they're perfectly balanced, so they create virtually no vibration. Of course, "quiet" is a relative term when they're moving the sheer quantities of air these suckers are moving :-).
For that reason, I have all three Panaflos hooked up to a rheobus mounted on the front of my case in one of the floppy drive bays. If you're wondering what exactly a "rheobus" is, it's also known as a fan controller. It lets you control the speed of each fan independently, anywhere from 60% to 100% of its rated speed. So far I couldn't be happier with it. It lets me tone down my fans to virtually silent levels, or crank them up for those 3D-gaming marathons. In fact I'll probably do a separate writeup on it, since it's such a cool ittle piece of hardware. Here's a link to the one I bought: Rheobus
To further minimize noise and vibration, I added some Akasa Paxmate to the inside of my case. It's basically a rubbery foam that comes in pre-cut panels that you stick on the inside of your case. There's much better materials available in the $40-80 range (Dynamat, Acoustipack, etc) but $11 for enough Paxmate to treat a medium-sized case is pretty hard to beat :-) Paxmate
For the two or three of you out there who are familiar with my computer's case, the Enlight 7237, you may be wondering "How the hell are you using a 120mm intake fan when there's only room for an 80mm???" Well I'm very glad you asked.
First I cut away the "grill" covering the fan intake with some wire cutters. I then used a handy little device called a "nibbler tool" (about $8 at Radio Shack) to "nibble" away at the metal around the fan hole, and enlarged it just enough to accomodate a 120mm fan. I then used my Dremel tool to drill a screw hole so I could mount the fan. Then.... well, the next few steps are rather hard to describe, but suffice to say that I ended up with a perfect fully-filtered 120mm intake in about 2 hours of work. In fact I was quite surprised that it worked perfectly while only needing to drill one screw hole (and even that wasn't entirely necessary... although I wanted to make sure it was mounted on there pretty tight). I'll be sure to do a detailed writeup with photos when I get the chance.
Well that's enough for now. In the meantime, here's some excellent reading material before my next installment. It's a great little site run by a guy who knows an incredible amount about custom PC modifications and computers in general. It's also where I've gotten the most inspiration for the various mods I've done: 7volts.com
2:02 AM
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Hello Everyone
To be honest, I haven't really given much thought to what I'll do with this thing. Knowing myself I'll probably mostly go on never ending rants about computers and football (UT football, specifically) since those are two of my main interests in life.
First a bit about myself. I was born and grew up in Austin, Texas, attended UT Austin where I got a degree in MIS, and now I'm residing in Houston, where I'm working as a Systems Analyst for an energy company, just around the corner from my apartment.
In my spare time I enjoy tinkering endlessly with my PC's, doing various custom mods and upgrades. I'll be sure to post specs and pics when I get the chance. I also religiously follow UT football, keeping up with them on a daily basis and watching game tapes constantly throughout the offseason.
Anyway, that's enough about me for now. More details to follow! (feel free to check out my Tripod homepage HERE. It's been a few years since I've updated it though).
1:12 AM
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