| Bob Slay UV Blue Acrylic ATX Case by
Mountain Mods:
Adding Components |
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Next up we needed to populate the case with our
components. |
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But first we had to resolve a problem. |
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Static. |
The empty case had high levels of static electricity.
So much so that we were fearful of mounting our
motherboard in the case.
Any time we approached the motherboard tray the hairs on
our arms would rise up. |
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We looked online and found some Novus plastic polish
that was supposed to reduce static electricity. |
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We also hooked up the case to our anti-static wrist
strap and plugged in the power supply. |
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Each day the static was less. After about 5 days
of leaving the case grounded there was no trace of
static electricity. |
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We applied our polish and set about adding components. |
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First we added in the Power Supply and our SATA II hard
disk. |
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The hard disk mounts to the bottom of the case. |
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By default only one 3.5 hard disk can be added back
there, but Mountain Mods offers an option of additional
drive retention panels to allow 3 drives to be secured. |
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The first drive would mount to the bottom of the case
and the additional drives would mount to rails that were
attached to the first drive. |
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Note that there is very little space between the end of
the HD and the left hand panel. Care should be
taken to chose Drive and Power connectors that are not
too thick. |
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We initially tried to use a SATA cable with a 90 degree
connector, but alas it would not fit, as the
connector pointed at the bottom of the case. |
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Next we added our 5.25 DVD burner and our 3.5 inch USB
front panel. |
The USB front panel is non-standard and the case
mounting holes did not fit its design. We
attached it with double sided tape.
This is not the fault of the Bob Slay case, rather it is
the non-standard mounting holes in our USB front panel
that are to blame. |
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We then added a second Hard Disk in a drive cooler and a
FrontX 5.25 Front panel
configured for 7 USB ports. |
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The additional 5.25 devices mount to retention brackets
that are secured to the bottom 5.25 device. |
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The Bob Slay case ships with drive retention panels to
support 2 total 5.25 devices. But by putting one
of the panels horizontal, and one vertical, we were able
to secure 3 total 5.25 components. |
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Since all 3 are attached together, it is important to
have a standard device mount to the bottom of the case. |
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Any devices with non-standard mounting would not fit in
the bottom drive bay. As such, we had to have our
DVD burner mounted on the bottom, which is non-optional.
Our other 2 devices have non-standard holes. |
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Here we can see how we affixed three 5.25 devices. |
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The bottom compartment is starting to fill with wires. |
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For a MotherBoard we chose the ECS NForce 570 SLIT-A
motherboard. It supports SLI (at 8X) and Core 2
Duo chips while allowing for 4 IDE devices. |
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Our video card is the NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS. We
do not believe a GTX would fit in the Bob Slay Case due
to its length. |
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| An interesting effect of having a
clear case is that looks suddenly become more important. |
| We found ourselves choosing
components not based on their specs, but based upon
their appearance. |
| We chose OCZ gold DDR2 PC-5400 memory
for our machine. |
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Here is an image of the nearly
complete machine.
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| Wiring on the bottom is quite a mess
while the top remains quite clean.
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| We shrink wrapped the button and LED
wires and ran them under the Motherboard tray to attach
from underneath.
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| Before adding in our components we
were quite worried about wires being able to reach all
the necessary parts. |
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Luckily our Power Supply had connectors of adequate
length, but some PSUs with short cables may not work in
the Bob Slay case. |
| The only cable that did not fit was a
specialty cable for our 3.5 inch front USB panel.
It needed to reach back up to the top of a PCI card and
was not close to being long enough. |
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| The height of the top compartment may
also be a limiting factor for those adding in large CPU
heat sinks. There is plenty of space for most, but
the very biggest may require additional modifications
from Mountain Mods in order to get them to fit. |
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Also note that the front fan comes right up to the edge
of the motherboard, so after-market CPU coolers may be
limited in width as well. |
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