That is very cool!

keropi wrote:

jaqie wrote:

[...]

Also, I think it's called mid tower, not midi tower. 😀

nope... "mid" is new-age stuff (how do you call a mini one? min tower? 🤣), midi is the proper term.

Might be a regional/cultural thing perhaps? All those links had the .gr TLD.

I've heard of "midi" used as a kind of "play name" for medium. For example, my local cinema had mini, midi, maxi, and mega size Cokes and popcorn boxes.

So I suppose in reality they're interchangeable, and you can use them as you prefer.

I always thought it stood for miniature, midsize, and fullsize as a subtype of tower case type. Perhaps "midi" moniker means medium in some other language, or perhaps people in the early days of tower computers heard mid and thought they heard another popular computer term at the time, midi, leading to a popular misconception? Just thinking out loud here.

that's a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet build. 😁

Midi describes a size of beer glass in Australia too, in some states. Now there's something you didn't need to know.

Bring back the beige I say! Just leave the fire retardant out of the plastic this time please.

@Malik

It is nice to see people bringing beige back in style. Do you have a matching beige LCD to go with the case? One day, I hope beige cases/LCDs will come back in style. Of the 8 erected desktop computers I have at home, not one is black. At home, I don't use anything newer than a PIII - for anything. I also only use white LCDs, mice, keyboards, scanners, etc. I am somewhat ashamed that my duplexing network printer (from 2005) is sliver/grey, but at least it has NT4 drivers and isn't black. Anyway, a few comments on your setup.

Did you use paint thinner to remove the black paint from the metal parts of the case? Or did you paint straight over the old black paint? I haven't done this type of modification before, but my first instinct would be to use paint thinner, or some other means to remove the black from all metal pieces, then spray on the white.

You mentioned you added resistors to your fan connectors to quiet the fans down. This is a good inexpensive way to drop the RPM of fans. Depending on how much voltage you want the resistor to drop, you'll need to size your resistor's wattage according to how much heat it needs to dissipate. For some connector mods I did in the past, 1/4-watt and sometimes 1/2-watt resistors weren't sufficient. Although the resistors may work temporarily, they will eventually overheat and breakdown. 1-watt resistors are usually a safe bet for this job, but it ultimately depends on how much voltage you are dropping and how much current is being delivered.

What wattage resistors are you using and how many watts did you calculate are needed for your particular voltage/current drop? When you find the correct resistance for a resistor (which slows the fan down to your liking), you’ll want to measure the real current and voltage when the fan is on to ensure that the resistor is sized right (wattage). It is also important to keep in mind that fan impedance’s are different for different RPM fans, so, say a 35 ohm resistor which works well for one type of fan, it may be too much/little for another fan (with a different impedance).

Nice build you have there. Just something about a BX board and a pair of V2's. 😊

badmofo wrote:

Midi describes a size of beer glass in Australia too,

Schooner, thanks! 😜

Unfortunately I do not have a beige LCD. Using this system attached to my main LCD TV (silver).

Yes, I should have used a thinner to remove the black original coating first...but was a bit lazy... sprayed a 3-coat layer of the beige instead.

The resistors I bought is this : http://www.ebay.com.my/itm/110646438873.

All seem to work fine with all the fans I have. I only have the single, same brand of fans - Cooler Master - including the 140mm fan.

The resistors come in a pack of 10's. I'm also using these for my Athlon II X3 450 build. Both systems are equally quiet. Never thought I could really suppress the noise that much. It's amazing and cool.

Currently, if the Hardware Monitor for Win9x utility can be trusted, (which can be downloaded at AOpen website), the CPU temp. is running at 30°C after 30mins of running.

(My Athlon II runs at 37-39°C at any time. Using a Corsair heatsink for that with additional two fans on top beneath the "roof" of the casing.)

Nice case look, you got convert the modern case to old and vintage style case with modern features which not available prior 21st century (like front panel USB, front fan mesh, and more).

BTW, where you got the Pentium II and 3dfx stickers for case?

northernosprey02 wrote:

BTW, where you got the Pentium II and 3dfx stickers for case?

Got both from ebay. I think I got the Pentium II CPU from a UK seller. The stickers are from a German seller. He has all the vintage stickers, but sorry can't remember the name of the seller.

I remember that BIOS fondly as my PII/III system originally was built with a AX6B+ (your board plus built on Adaptec AIC-7880 UW-SCSI). I wish I could find another one since it has four RAM slots and one extra ISA slot unlike the more common AX6BC. The BIOS on those AOpen boards was pretty neat, it supported Suspend-to-Disk/Hibernate. It also had a battery free mode that saved CMOS settings to an EEPROM.

Malik wrote:

The PSU was an "extra" and unused - chose it because it has the -5v rail, even though it's a modern 500W PSU.

What PSU is it? I had a hard time searching for a new modern PSU with a -5v rail, could find only a noisy server-type Emacs one:

badmofo wrote:

Midi describes a size of beer glass in Australia too, in some states. Now there's something you didn't need to know.

Bring back the beige I say! Just leave the fire retardant out of the plastic this time please.

Ah, beer glasses. I always kinda wondered how 20 oz became a pint in countries that speak British English. I shouldn't really talk, though, because my set of "pint" glasses are 22 oz. 😜

bristlehog wrote:

Malik wrote:

The PSU was an "extra" and unused - chose it because it has the -5v rail, even though it's a modern 500W PSU.

What PSU is it? I had a hard time searching for a new modern PSU with a -5v rail, could find only a noisy server-type Emacs one:

You can modify a modern ATX supply to add the -5v rail. The bigger issue with the newer supplies is that they don't supply as much power over the +5v rail as older boards require. Power requirements have shifted to the +12v rail over the years.