Blimin 'eck, those cables!! Please sort them out!

I've always preferred higher clocked dual cores over quad cores when I cobble together a "I can't be arsed to retro" late XP build. I have an C2D e8600 3.1GHz with an Nvidia GTX645, and I haven't needed to overclock either the CPU or GPU for my XP gaming. it's also nice that it is basically silent. I'd be interested on how your CPU performs for late XP / Vista (basically 'disk based') gaming.

What a cool system you got there. If that was my computer, I would've spray painted the DVD-RW drive and 3.5" USB port bezels beige to match the case, but that's just me.

It's also neat to see the Gigabyte OEM logo on the system properties on the Windows XP partition (side note: I'm looking for an ASUS OEM logo).

perfectly acceptable cable management

nice machine. the Q9400 is a great candidate for overclocking.

Please be careful with that back I/O area.
Maybe build a cover out of plastic using a Dremel tool.
And at least file down the sharp edges.
I hate shape edge cases, Have cut myself may times with cheap cases. Not worth it.

I purchased an HP Media Center PC with Core-2-Dual for $30.
It does not have a hard-drive but that okay because I plan on putting an SSD in it an upgrading the CPU to Core-2-Quad.
It is loaded with components like your PC.

I must say that the combination of black + beige front panels + grey panel makes the case look eerily aesthetic.

And I love your cable management. Most of my cases look exactly like this. Cable management is one of the most over-rated things. It looks nice when everything is static, but every time you try adding something that wasn't originally there or replacing a faulty cable, all hell breaks loose.

Although I cannot understand why you need a DVD IDE drive. And that back panel is a nightmare, in terms of aesthetics, safety, dust - everything really. Can't you get a proper shield?

Congrats on a nice build!

KCompRoom2000 wrote:

It's also neat to see the Gigabyte OEM logo on the system properties on the Windows XP partition (side note: I'm looking for an ASUS OEM logo).

Most KMS/SLIC cracks will inject these for you. 🤣 But we only deal with legit software.

For the OEMLOGO, I always just install it manually. This guide shows you how to do it for free, legally.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista … -windows-vista/

And yeah, I just did a quick dremel job on the rear... it just had the cutouts for the original P4 Gateway motherboard ports so I cut around those. The edges aren't sharp actually and I filed them a bit. I left that DVD IDE drive in there to fill the 5.25" bay.