im thinking about modding an OLD gateway case my mom discarded a while back, but ran into a problem. the hookups for the power button, front lights, and the such are all made specifically for a gateway board. is there a way to alter them, change them etc.? this may be a noob question... lol. Thanks in advance

Yes, infact a Gateway mod is entirely possible, as I have demonstarated here....

http://gallery.pcapex.com/showphoto....cat=500&page=1

Worklog:

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=15649

Use wire cutters on the bracket, cut it off, and solder on standard connectors and heatshrink the connections. Looks decent and you get to keep the original mounting bracket for your LED's, buttons, etc.

Quote: Originally Posted by ChaoticEuphoria im thinking about modding an OLD gateway case my mom discarded a while back, but ran into a problem. the hookups for the power button, front lights, and the such are all made specifically for a gateway board. is there a way to alter them, change them etc.? this may be a noob question... lol. Thanks in advance

If you still have the mobo that came with it, look at the header that it plugs into. Typically there will be text labels next to the pins on the mobo for each plug (HDD activity, Power switch, etc.).
I modded one in an HP Vectra case (very carefully) with an Xacto knife to seperate the one long plug into 3 different ones.

Godfoot : Thanks for the heads up, but sadly theres no labels (that woulda made it MUCH easier)

j-dogg : Thanks and nice mod, but I didn't see anything on there bout the mobo. Was your connectors FROM the case all one plug? and if so how did you fit those on the mobo? Mine is all the cords in one, but since I doubt my other motherboard will have that exact arrangement, how can i change it all?

You could always just trace the different wires from the LEDs and switches and cut those apart in pairs (or 4 for the speaker) like I did, the HP mobo didn't have the text either.

Why not just make your own plugs and wires?

I ran into something similar a few months back. I wanted to swap the mobo in my wife's Dell into another case. Wouldn't you know it, proprietary headers in the old case... My buddy told me (and showed me) that what you need to do is one at a time, test the plugs until you find the power switch one, then the LEDs (power and HD), then the reset. He showed me this on one of his machines, and swore that once you find the power switch, leave the machine on while you search for the other ones. Call me paranoid, I'd rather not do it that way. I'd rather take just a little longer by powering down then switching pins that possibly fry something in the process... I likes me money, I likes it very much...

i had a problem similar to yours Grandpa recently. if it was like that I could handle it fairly well, but I guess what I should be asking, and Godfoot is probably getting anooyed at this point (lol). Since all the wires are encased in a plastic black ....i guess you would call it casing.....to keep em all together and in order, ho do i separate em or get em out of it?

Nah, not really annoyed, but I did hint at how I did it.
I took an Xacto knife and carefully cut into each side in a sawing motion as deep as possible where the different sections of the plug are for each set of wires, then carefully do the same on the ends until you can snap each section off by hand. I wish I had taken pics of what I had done now, but hindsight is 20/20.
Or you could also make your own as already suggested.

Ahhh....now I understand. While I seem to be getting a few responses, I'll ask the other question on my mind. What would be the possibility and/or danger(s) of putting a refrigeration system from a minifridge in my computer? Thanks a ton for all the advice and help. I'm heading to bed, but I shall return tomorrow to see your responses.

Quote: Originally Posted by ChaoticEuphoria What would be the possibility and/or danger(s) of putting a refrigeration system from a minifridge in my computer?

Not practical due to the condensation that would be produced.
Unless you are a mad scientist like Zennzzo.

Quote: Originally Posted by ChaoticEuphoria Ahhh....now I understand. While I seem to be getting a few responses, I'll ask the other question on my mind. What would be the possibility and/or danger(s) of putting a refrigeration system from a minifridge in my computer? Thanks a ton for all the advice and help. I'm heading to bed, but I shall return tomorrow to see your responses.

Ive been thinking of a practical way to do this myself, and like Godfoot stated the condensation would be a killer. One of my solutions is to fabricate a gigantic case and run the cooling unit and a dehumidifier unit in one half and vent the cool air into the mobo chamber and have the dehumidifier pull back into the refridgeration unit at the other end somwhere, not at all practical.

My other solution involves turning a standard cooler into a case by partitioning it in about the size needed for all of the computer components and again fabricating an aluminum housing for them, than insulating it with some polystyrene. Hopefully the cold air would build up enough inside to keep the case cool, again not practical.

My third and final solution would be to go buy or fabricate(would still have to buy the blocks) a liquid cooling set up and have the refridgeration unit set up cooling a housing that contained the radiator for the LC. More practical but still probably more work than its worth, and kind of expensive.

Just a disclaimer to you or anyone else that thinks they may want to try these ideas out:

I AM A MODDING NOOB, AND HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH REFRIDGERATION! ALL OF THE SCENARIOS ABOVE ARE MERELY HYPOTHETICAL REFRIDGERATED COOLING SOLUTIONS AND HAVE NOT BEEN TESTED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

With that out of the way maybe you could come up with a modified version of one of them, if so let me know how it works.

Oh well, so much for that idea...

Do you guys find that fans are efficient enough for your mods? II'm on a fairly low budget and as much as I'd like to go watercooling, I'm afraid I don't have the money to put into it. How much of a difference does it make?

If you're not looking to overclock, stay with air cooling. You can plunk down a fraction of what you'd be looking at for a full wc setup, and still get a better air solution than what you have (a couple degrees or more of better cooling). Keep in mind that having a Tornado fan on a CPU within a case with crappy airflow or one with poor heat dissipation will not do much for your cooling. Perhaps you could look at spaces in the chassis where you can cut/drill/whatever to install fans to improve the airflow.

If you want to overclock, you will probably get better results with watercooling. If you're on a tight budget like mine, you can do kinda what I did, do your homework to figure out what gets you more bang for your buck, and buy your parts a little at a time. Breaking it down over a period of a few months won't break the bank. You can also check out other forums with trading post sub-forums, that oughta help defray the cost a bit more...

Hope that helps you out, and good luck!

(Waits for friend to come pick him up and take him ACE so he can buy an exacto knife to try Godfoot's advice)

lol. Yeah, thanks Grandpa for the advice. I plan on putting many holes in it for airflow and many fans. Watercooling is just a little too far out of my price range. I made some sketches of ideas today after a couple of tests, but I don't have em scanned so I can't post em. Oh well. My plans will be revealed as time goes on. I need Christmas to come faster so I can have some "financial aid" so to speak.

Quote: Originally Posted by godfoot Not practical due to the condensation that would be produced.

Condensation is fairly easy to deal with. THe problem with using a mini-bar fridge is that it's designed to cool stuff, and keep it cool, NOT to continually cool an active heat source. It just doesn't have the pony-power to do that.

Quote: Originally Posted by pimp joose Condensation is fairly easy to deal with. THe problem with using a mini-bar fridge is that it's designed to cool stuff, and keep it cool, NOT to continually cool an active heat source. It just doesn't have the pony-power to do that.

To overcome this couldnt you mount the thermostat on or near your cpus heatsink? This would make the condensor run almost continously, but would probably burn up the unit eventually.

Quote: Originally Posted by GrandpaNoob72 If you're not looking to overclock, stay with air cooling. You can plunk down a fraction of what you'd be looking at for a full wc setup, and still get a better air solution than what you have (a couple degrees or more of better cooling). Keep in mind that having a Tornado fan on a CPU within a case with crappy airflow or one with poor heat dissipation will not do much for your cooling. Perhaps you could look at spaces in the chassis where you can cut/drill/whatever to install fans to improve the airflow. If you want to overclock, you will probably get better results with watercooling. If you're on a tight budget like mine, you can do kinda what I did, do your homework to figure out what gets you more bang for your buck, and buy your parts a little at a time. Breaking it down over a period of a few months won't break the bank. You can also check out other forums with trading post sub-forums, that oughta help defray the cost a bit more...

You can get some nice overclocks with aircooling if you plan it right. Get the right parts, plan your airflow thoughtfully, make sure nothing impedes the airflow inside the case, make sure you don't fall into the all-too-popular trap of just adding 15 fans, thinking you're doing a great job of cooling but just causing a huge turbulent mess inside.

IMO, the most important factors in overclocking with aircooling are:

-Getting a damn good CPU HSF unit; don't plan a nice ventilation system then skimp on a middle-of-the-road HSF

-Buy good RAM modules that can overclock well beyond stock FSB settings

-Clean and logical airflow plan inside the case; remember, the cooler air is always lower, and warm air rises

-Ducting if you have the tools and ingenuity

With a P4 1.6A Northwood CPU, I got a stable 2.45 GHz max. overclock with some clean airflow, ducting, and a nice copper heatsink and fast-blowing fan (it was a bit loud though).

Yes, you can get some nice OCs on air, I was just suggesting that he could get a better air cooling solution for less than he would spend on a complete watercooled setup...