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This has been in some ways the most satisfying and yet more frustrating projects I've done. It's satisfying because it's clearly the most beautiful PC I've made, but it was hard sledding getting there. Most of my projects (where I'm not starting with an old PC already built) use a micro-ATX motherboard. Reasonably small, but takes a full Pentium 4 processor and has an AGP slot for a good video card. I was aware of mini-ITX motherboards, but those took special processors that topped out at 1 GHz. However, when I did some searching, I found the VIA EPIA P4 ITX, a mni-itx motherboard that took a Pentium 4 processor. And it fit. It had 6 USB connectors (4 on the motherboard), and a PCI slot. Unfortunately, no AGP slot so I was dependent on the motherboard's video card. I also needed a small powersupply, fortunately CaseOutlet.com had power supplies designed for Micro-ATX cases. I added 512 MB of RAM, a DVD+-R drive, 120 GB Hard Disk, and put it together as described here. I installed Windows XP Home for the machine. Things were assembled as described, and in early testing, it all worked well. But, when the case was closed and I used it for a while with the neon lights on, I experienced serious heat problems, to the point where the computer was shutting down. I took the easy way out, I replaced the Pentium 4 with a 1.8 GHz Celeron, and moved more wires out of the path between the fans. With an average load, even with the lights on, the heat is manageable. Motherboard is 41C, processor is 42C. However, when I installed the Folding@Home client, which works the processor at near max, things heated up greatly. Motherboard temperature got up to 59C, processor 63C. My plan for the Wurlitzer PC has always been as a media player machine, with some web surfing. So, I think this is liveable. This is clearly the coolest computer I've ever owned. Not speaking literally, that is. |
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