Hello pcApexers. This is a continuation of a mod on a customer's rig from the thread: http://forums.pcapex.com/case_moddin...ement_job.html

It's not really a project since it just took one night to complete the mods.

The customer (my co-worker) needed a complete upgrade of the PSU, mobo, CPU, and RAM after his PSU died and took the cheap eMachines mobo with it. As a bonus for so much work, I modded his PC for him. He really enjoys looking at my Antec super lanboy case at work with a window and UV lights, so I thought I'd surprise him.

The replacement parts for his PC...

• Seasonic S12 330W PSU
• Asus P5P800-VM mini-ATX LGA775 with Intel 865G chipset
• Intel Pentium D 805 dual core 2.66GHz, 2x 1MB L2
• OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB dual channel kit, DDR-400

Mod components...

• Lucite Tuf high-impact acrylic sheet 8x10, 3/32" thick (.093) non-yellowing
• package of black automotive door-trim
• automotive double-sided mounting adhesive
• Logisys cold-cathode UV kit
• ClearNeon UV paint (Blue)

I already had all of the mod components on hand, so it didn't cost me anything, and I'll be making plenty on the labor already on this PC's invoice. The only thing I needed to supply was some man-hours doing the mod.

Here's the UV paint I have that I will also be using in my PVR project...



My first task was to mount the UV switch since he didn't need it powered up all the time. I wanted to mount this in a very stock-looking location so as to keep the eMachine front free of switches other than the power button. The pull-up panel that hides the fron USB and audio connectors was perfect.

I removed the housing and discovered there was already extra area set aside for additional front connectors. Sweet, that just made mounting the switch super easy. I removed the switch from the PCI slot mounting bracket that Logisys includes, then ran the cables through the front housing cable guide. I used a nylon wire tie to secure the cable so that pulling on it from the back wouldn't stress the switches' soldered points.

I then cut out a rectangular area for the switch, drilled holes for the switch's screws, mounted it, and painted the screws black to match. The switch almost looks as if it was sold with the system now.



I then instaleld all of the new hardware and ran some stress testing.

Now it's time to pull out my dremel and make a rectangle cut-out on the side panel. My dremel skills improved a bit since starting on my first mod almost a month ago, so it didn't take me long to cut four straight lines. I sanded off the edges with a foam sanding block, but didn't fine sand them because the trim will be installed regardless.



Moving along, I measured and cut the door trim to add to the edges so that they completely overlap. I cut each end at a 45 degree angle (by eye, not protractor) so that each side meets the next. These cuts are visually less distracting than straight cuts because they don't break the straight lines of each side. I missed the angle a little on the bottom right corner, but it's not distracting enough to remove and re-cut.



Next, I cut the automotive tape to match each side, then cut that 3/4" tape in half, lengthwise. This attaches directly to the door trim. Doing so helps keep the door trim in place (even though the trim has its own adhesive inside its groove). Also, the automotive tapes adheres stronger to plastic than metal.


continued...

The system pre-mod (that's so ugly)...



I needed to do some cable management as well since we installed a new PSU. In this super tiny mini tower, cable management is a pain in the arse...



The completed side window. I removed all of the ugly eMachines stock stickers (the PC is of a different spec now anyways), and added the Intel and Asus sticker so the customer remembers what CPU and mobo is installed.



I applied UV paint to various mobo components, the top of the RAM modules, the CPU fan housing, the very tips of the northbridge heatsink, and the edge of the PCI card at the bottom. You can barely tell a difference because the UV paint is essentially a non-conductive clear coat when no UV light is present. In the pic, you may only notice the UV paint on the top of the RAM modules because its reflecting light a slightly different angles (looks a little like a clear glaze)...



I got a good glow from just one UV light, mounted right below the window, against the bottom of the case...

good job man Rep for doing the mods for free

great job man window looks very clean with that added trim great job.

Thanks for the comments guys!

I hope my co-worker likes it because he'll have to invested over $55 for the PSU and $250 for the new mobo/cpu/ram (plus shipping), $100-150 for my work, and now, of all things, he'll need to buy Windows XP Home because he existing install is hosed.

eMachines gives its customers a set of "restore" CD-ROMs, which is really nothing more than a ghost image of a preinstalled Windows. Pretty lame. I guess they expect their users to completely wipe their HDDs and start over if they have problems. Tip: DISCOURAGE people from buying cheap pre-built systems unless they come with a Linux distro -- these eMachines become expensive rather than a value PC if your O/S gets hosed and you want to save your files.

I'd ghost his HDD and copy back the info with a spare HDD of mine, but even then, the eMachines image probably won't be happy on its new hardware. So he's off to spend $89 for an OEM copy of Windows XP Home SP-2 so I can reinstall the O/S with a new set of core files.

Unfortunately, this is not the sort of user who'd benefit from running Linux unless it is Xandros or something with a GUI like Windows. But then again, Xandros is $89 for the delux edition. He could probably run ubuntu, which is free, but I know he won't be happy with it.

Too bad I can't install gentoo on his PC and give him a system admin crash course in 2 hours, lol.

While the emachine os isn't "happy" with a couple of minutes and a mobo driver disk all can be fixed. Make sure you brush up on what you can and can't say to the windows people while activating (Microsoft has stupid liscencing, new mobo=new comp, OEM liscence doesn't cover a new computer) and be sure to say NOTHING untill the computer voice gives up on trying to get you to say "yes or no" and patches you through to a real person.

Hey cipher, did you try Twizted's registry mod? It might be a long shot, but there is still a chance that it could work. Also nice job on the mod.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sn0wMan Hey cipher, did you try Twizted's registry mod? It might be a long shot, but there is still a chance that it could work. Also nice job on the mod.

Thanks for the comments and the link to twizted's reg hack! I never heard of that, so it's great to know.

It would be nice if I could boot the O/S into debug or safemode with command line, but it won't even get that far -- some file(s) must really be hosed. If I could get to debug mode, I could do the reg hack and try it. I can't boot to a DOS floppy because of the NTFS partition, and I don't want to spend time using a Linux disk to boot just to try the reg hack because chances are, the files are still hosed.

This co-worker of mine already ordered Windows XP, so I'll just wait for that.

In the future, I'm not going to do any O/S troubleshooting/work on an eMachines PC unless the user has a retail or OEM copy of the same Windows version on hand. Micro$oft's licensing is forcing me to recommend a Linux distro such as Xandros to Windows users looking for a clean O/S install.

Nice work! Get OSX to run on it!

hey cipher..whats a good linux distro to start off with...i've been using windows for a while and i think i can get a hang of linux eventually...any suggestions...

wugaroo, there's a great site that reviews the Linux-only distros (and FreeBSD) as are released:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=reviews

It's really your choice, because there isn't necessarily a "best" distro since they each have something unique to offer. I'd read those reviews and make a decision for yourself.

The top 5 distros in my opinion are:

Slackware: One of the oldest distros and most loved by us geeks. But us geeks love tweaky things that make us appear more geeky. This distro has very poor documentation, and all of the configuration is command line (ie: in config files). However, it is one of the more stable and secure distros, comparable to the stability of FreeBSD (server-oriented O/S).

Debian: One of the largest, best supported distros, but also one of the more older, slower moving distros along with Slackware. It's almost the defacto of Linux, since so many other distros are now branching off from Debian.

Xandros: Easily the most Windows-like distro of Linux. All configuration is done in GUI (ie: within desktop windows, much like Windows itself). Good support and nice CNR (click-and-run) software library. Unfortunately, Xandros is a commercial Linux distro, so it's $89 or $99 for the deluxe version which includes an emulator to run Windows applications. However, unlike Windows, the license is per person, not per PC, so you can install your copy on all of the PCs you use!

Suse: I'm not a big fan of it since it has a tainted history, but now that it is free and open-source for good, it's a fairly mature distro with a very interface. It's a solid, reliable distro with plenty of support and updates, but there's nothing in my opinion that makes it stand out much among the crowd.

ubuntu: This is the new kid on the block (pronounced O-BOON-TOO) that's quite unique. It's absolutely free and the group will even snail mail you an actualy copy of the O/S and Live CD for free if you visit their site and ask for it. It's spiffy looking out of the box, so to speak, and has a rather revolutionary community that welcomes newbies (even noobs!) with open arms. I don't know much about it, as I've only tried installing it once.

Also...

I really like gentoo for a specific reason: source distro. This means you compile the entire O/S code and any packages you want for your specific PC. Doing so gives you a huge performance advantage over other distros which are binaries compiled on someone else's PC. Unfortunately, installs can take a couple of days since every single file is compiled locally. However, gentoo is a bit buggy and tweaky here and there, so it's not the most stable distro out there. Sorcerer is another source distro, but I really dislike the whole mentality and direction of that project. Yeah, like I want to "cast" my software to install it, and "dispell" it to uninstall... lame. Some geeks like it, but they're the type we other geeks usually beat-up back in high-school.

Red Hat was quite popular for a long time, and a pioneer in making Linux a true alternative to Windows. People could purchase it at retail outlets, get technical support, and all for far cheaper than Windows. Now they're pushing Fedora, which is thankfully a community project as opposed to their Red Hat Enterprise Linux.


I hope that helps a bit

Damn cipher, you're starting to make me want to break out and install one!!

Oh, the many flavors of Linux are appealing. Who wants to pay for Microsoft stuff with crap licensing when you can get a better performing and more stable O/S? Unfortunately may be 70% of the computer users out there.

I'm stuck with Windows on my work PC because I need to run Microsoft Visual Studio, .NET, SQL Server, etc. for development. I'm sure those apps would be flaky at best in emulation mode on a Linux O/S. On my home PC I also run Photoshop (because I don't like Gimp's UI), and Adobe After Effects for video special effects editing which you can only run on Windows.

So I'm hosed there. At least my new PVR system can run Linux, and MythTV requires it. So I get my little bit of Microsoft-hating fun after all.

Quote: Originally Posted by cipher_nemo I really like gentoo for a specific reason: source distro. This means you compile the entire O/S code and any packages you want for your specific PC. Doing so gives you a huge performance advantage over other distros which are binaries compiled on someone else's PC.

Sadly this is why most people use Gentoo nowadays because they think they are really getting some great performance increase. It's actually negligable at best. I was a diehard Gentoo user back in 2001 and 2002, but now everyone is using it because they think it is OMG fast0rz, sorry to dispell the myth but that's really a bunch of BS. And the prime reason Gentoo was created to give more flexibility by using source packages and allowing easy ways to include or disclude certain pieces of suppot on each package you compile, it had nothing to do with --omg-optimize Cflags....

Try Arch Linux, it's primarily binary based but if you feel like being a ricer you can recompile your whole system with all the --omg-optimize buggy GCC cflag optimizations you want. It's just as fast as Gentoo using binaries if not faster, and is actually more bleeding ede.

Quote: Originally Posted by EvilClown Sadly this is why most people use Gentoo nowadays because they think they are really getting some great performance increase. It's actually negligable at best.

A binary that was compiled on an Intel 386-16 CPU will run slower than a binary compiled on an Intel Core 2 Duo if that binary is now running on the Core 2 Duo, correct? There is a performance difference, because these two cpus have different architectures and compiling on your own architecture is faster than using a binary file compiled on another architecture. Still, if a project's team member compiles on an AMD Athlon XP, and you're running an Athlon XP, there isn't much point in wasting time compiling on your PC unless you want to make changes to the source yourself.

There is a difference, and it is significant under the right conditions.

A good example of this is ubuntu. Many of its files are compiled to run on a 386 architecture. It's not making full use of the newer architecture of an AMD or Intel CPU. You have to compile theses files yourself if you want to speed up your ubuntu install.

Of coruse there are disadvantages to running a source distro. Install time is often in days on average-processing-power PCs, and doing an update to the O/S may take a whole night.

A gentoo install may not be any faster than a Debian install if the target architecture is the same, so for gentoo users, its nice to know what are the target architectures for binaries of other Linux distros to see if gentoo is worth your time. Also, a source distro may be the only worthwhile path to take for odd-ball architectures that would otherwise have binaries that target x86 and AMD only. Example: VIA mini ITX systems.

Quote: Originally Posted by EvilClown I was a diehard Gentoo user back in 2001 and 2002, but now everyone is using it because they think it is OMG fast0rz, sorry to dispell the myth but that's really a bunch of BS. And the prime reason Gentoo was created to give more flexibility by using source packages and allowing easy ways to include or disclude certain pieces of suppot on each package you compile, it had nothing to do with --omg-optimize Cflags....

That's your opinion. It sounds like you'd like to join the geek-jealous-bash-on-gentoo-users-club (http://funroll-loops.org/). Yes, there are gentoo users who think their system is 1337 because they don't use binaries, and most of them have a lot of pride in something they don't understand.

I like gentoo, but not as the O/S for my main desktop PC, because I won't notice any possible performance increase, and I won't enjoy running my PC overnight to update. Still, it's a viable option in specific circumstances.

Quote: Originally Posted by EvilClown Try Arch Linux, it's primarily binary based but if you feel like being a ricer you can recompile your whole system with all the --omg-optimize buggy GCC cflag optimizations you want. It's just as fast as Gentoo using binaries if not faster, and is actually more bleeding ede.

No, I don't need a stripped-down Linux for anything. Wow, you went all off on my post as if I worship gentoo or something. Notice I didn't put it in my top-5 list of distros. I simply mentioned it. I think you're taking that whole gentoo ricer thing too far. Yeah, I laugh to myself when I see a '94 Honda Civic with a huge whale wing, but everyone has their own taste, even if it's bad taste.

The gentoo distro isn't for everyone, and gentoo developers don't push the whole it's omg roxorz fastzorz mentality. The distro is there for people who like to customize their Linux to their own PC and their own uses.

Quote: Originally Posted by Daniel Robbins, Previous Chief Architect of gentoo The goal of Gentoo is to strive to create near-ideal tools. Tools that can accommodate the needs of many different users all with divergent goals. Don't you love it when you find a tool that does exactly what you want to do? Doesn't it feel great? Our mission is to give that sensation to as many people as possible.

Here's a good article about using someone else's binaries vs. compiling your own:
http://searchopensource.techtarget.c...171130,00.html

Some of your points are valid, others really aren't. All I'm going to say is go look at some UNIXBench numbers or something comparing source vs binary, the performance increase is negligable. Ever take a Athlon 64 or a Intel 64 bit cpu and run a 32 bit distro then try a 64 bit distro? Not much of a increase in noticeable performance there either...

I'm not going to argue with you about it...