Fitting the Power
Supply:
Purchasing a power supply that fits the case pays dividends here
as it's a straight fit and uses the original fixings. The only
change that was needed is to lengthen the ATX cable, fortunately
you can buy a 15cm extension cable which is long enough to connect
to the mother board connector with the case fully open. As it's
an Intel board you will also need to lengthen the separate 4
pin 12V power connector, while you can buy extensions for these
we
just
extended
the existing cable by inserting some extra length using in-line
barrel crimps. The stock PSU fan was a bit too noisy for us so
we swapped it for a low noise Akasa, the white lead hanging out
the back is the speed controller.
The
case fan:
We used the original case fan which draws air in from the case
rear and blows cold air over the motherboard and importantly
the graphics
card.
The bad news is that this is a 12V fan with an incompatible connector so you
have to cut this off and either make up a 4 pin Molex to connect
to the wiring loom or in our case look in the parts bin for
a spare lead and connect using barrel crimp connectors.
IDE
cables:
We used round IDE cables because they look so much better and
they can be routed much easier in such a complicated case as
this.
Optical
Drive:
We planned for this so this was a fairly straight forward fitment
using the original fixings although we did find it easier to
fix the IDE cable and power connector to the drive before pushing
the complete assembly into position.
Hard
Drive:
Again thanks to forward planning we were able to fit the hard
drive into it's original caddy and it's original position.
The cables should be fitted to the drive first before fixing
in position as the hinge can get in the way.
Power On/Reset Switch:
Warning - We used the original front panel (see manual) but even
though the original connector fits the ASRock motherboard
panel connections
don't be tempted to just plug it in as the pin outs do not
match up. You need to identify the power switch connections
and match these up to the pin outs on the mother board. We
also traced out the other connections to give us a reset
etc. but could not get the power led to light so ours maybe
dead.
With
the assembly complete it's was time to fire it up and see if
it works ok see part 5 for details next
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