So, while messing around in the case, I did what is easily the
worst thing I've done to a PC: I overstressed and pulled-out one of
the wires in the power supply. Unfortunately, that's one of the
three cables that is hard-wired to the power supply, so I couldn't
simply order/fine a new cable. I spent about 2 hours trying to
repair it in a way that would make me comfortable using the PC, but
no dice.
I had tried too hard to conceal this huge cable, and had flexed
the connector too much. A few of the pins have doubled-up wires,
with one large main one, and a smaller rider. This was one of those
pairs, with two yellow wires.
I've never fried memory or CPU, so this is the most expensive
screw up since I started building PCs. I was bummed for a bit, but
then I thought "cool, I get to go component shopping again!" :)
So, I went down to MicroCenter and picked up a slightly better
power supply. This one has a higher efficiency rating, is slightly
smaller, and has 100% modular cables. Despite being from the same
manufacturer, the cables aren't compatible, so I had to redo all
the power in the case. On the plus side, this supply has two 8pin
motherboard power supply cables; the Gigabyte UD9 supports both for
extreme overclocking. I doubt I really need both, but since they
were there, I installed them.
The shot above is the final PC build. The blue cables at the top
are blue extensions for the two 8 pin motherboard power connectors.
The large black main motherboard power cable is not as concealed as
it was before, but at least this way it won't have too much bending
stress.
I liked the blue logo on the old power supply better, but I
can't have everything.
While in there, I added the blue extension at the bottom left.
That's for the huge fan in the door. Plugging it back into the
tight space under the sound card and above the power supply was a
bit of a pain in the butt.
Now I need to go back and redo my overclocking. When the PC kept
shutting down at odd times, I thought it was the overclock
settings, not a loose wire :)
The first picture above is the PC powered up and the case
closed. The second is a no-flash shot through the window looking
down on the CPU and memory. My PCs are usually in places where I
can't see them, but I do like the blue glow :)
This is still the cleanest/best build I've done to date. Not
sure which was more expensive: this or my first 486 (those were
EXPENSIVE at the time), but I'm really happy with the build.
I do think, it about a year when I need to clean the water
cooling system, I may switch over to black tubing rather than the
couple types I have in there now. TBD.
