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Originally Posted by shadowpr
Any Pics?
That must have been some build.
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Haha...sorry, no pics...didn't have a digital camera back then (1998).
The specs were pretty up to date for the time...a PII 400MHz Slot 1 CPU (not overclocked), a Shuttle Spacewalker 440BX motherboard, 235 watt Sparkle power supply, 128MB PC100 SDRAM, Matrox G100 video card, Soundblaster ISA sound card, US Robotics ISA modem, 6GB Fujitsu 5400 RPM HDD, CD-ROM drive (I think it was a 12X), TEAC floppy drive and Win95B. It was my second build and I had read somewhere how heat was a computer's enemy so I went nuts trying to fit in as many fans as I could so I could keep my computer from frying itself to death (haha...it didn't even run that hot).
I used two 3 fan 5.25" bay coolers, one intake fan on the lower front of the case, one 60mm exhaust fan (haha...that was the size of the fan port), I used thermal epoxy to attach those little aftermarket northbridge heatsinks with the tiny fan on the northbridge, southbridge, the soundcard audio chip and some big chip on the modem (not even sure what it was), the Matrox had a passive heatsink but I used screws to attach a 50mm fan to it, I suspended a 80mm fan diagonally (using fishing line) under the hard drive cage so that it would blow air up towards the CPU, I mounted a 80mm fan under the hard drive cage (with nylon zip ties) to blow on the Fujitsu HDD and another 80mm fan in the empty 5.25" drive bays to blow air at the PSU. I contemplated putting in a blow hole (it was something new at the time that I had read about on HardOCP) but didn't have a Dremel then. Side fans on the door didn't exist at the time so I didn't of doing that. I had a few other smaller fans (60mm, 50mm, 40mm) suspended here and there in the case so I wouldn't have any dead spots...haha...
The case was a 21" high Chenbro Value that had a one piece top that you slid off to expose the interior. It was a solid case and with all those fans inside it weighed a ton. I'm surprised the 235 watt Sparkle Power handled everything plus all those fans with any problems...haha...I had so many "Y" power cable adapters in it for all the fans that the wiring was an absolute mess but I felt sure the computer was being cooled properly.
After running it like that for maybe 2 months I got sick and tired of the noise and pulled all the fans out except the front intake and rear exhaust fans. That computer served my wife and I for almost 6 years (with various upgrades here and there).
In my current computers I just run one exhaust fan along with the power supply fan for my case cooling and find that's all I need.
Cricket