The SETIStar. It looks much better in real life because you can see the lights. I'm going to fix that wiring. (Isn't my room beautiful?)

The SetiStar

The computer runs! It runs! One would think it was now time for me to sit back and pat myself on the back. "Woot, Zak, woot and leet," I should say to myself "rejoice in your major modding skillage, for u have pwned." But no, I don't (usually) talk like that, and work on the computer is not finished. I can't run any games yet or connect to the internet, which is necessary for downloading SETI@Home. This is because my graphics card and LAN controller (what my computer uses to connect to our cable modem) do not have the proper drivers to operate with my motherboard. Normally I would download them from the internet, but that doesn't work, so I'll have to download the LAN driver from another computer, burn it onto a disk, and install it on my computer. Then I will be able to download the graphics driver from the internet.

The computer now has a name, the "SetiStar." I might change this in the future, but I like the way it sounds.

Where I Currently Stand

The computer should be up and running by Monday. When I finished assembling everything last week, I turned it on. Everyone was jumping up and down and screaming until I discovered that it would boot. The computer posted and let me play with the BIOS, but I got bored of raising and lowering fan speeds. I noticed that when I told it to go ahead and load windows, it told me that it didn't detect any IDE drives. IDE is an interface used for CD, DVD and hard drives. My strategy up to that point had been to use the main hard disk (20 gigabytes) from my old Dell, because it already had Windows and all my system files. This was necessary, as Windows can cost up to $300 retail. Most home builders start with a blank hard drive, then install the operating system and all their programs from scratch. Well, after consulting an expert at my motherboard's manufacturer, ASUS, I discovered that I would not be able to use my old disk. Something complicated about windows forbids it from transferring to a new computer even if it's on its original drive. This meant I needed a new operating system. I would NOT use Linux, and to my surprise, I found that Windows is available much less expensive than I had thought. I bought a copy of Windows XP Professional for $85 on eBay (I LOVE EBAY, I LOVE EBAY!). My plan now is to use the 200 gigabyte (for all of you who don't know, this is gargantuan) hard drive that I had been using as extra storage on my Dell. I'll copy all its files onto my father's external backup drive, then wipe the 200 gig clean. I'll put it in the new system and install windows from scratch, like most home builders. Then, once I have an operating system up, I will be able to copy settings and some files, including SETI@Home, from my old 20 gig main hard drive. Like I wrote above, most of this should be done by Monday.

The top half of my ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard. The gray thing towards the top is the processor in its socket. The black heatsink with the ASUS logo is cooling the Northbridge of my 925X Alderwood.

The Computer 2

Look down the page and you'll see my October plans for building the computer. Here I have the way it is actually turning out. Things have gone relatively according to plan.

Processor: LGA775 Pentium 4 550 3.4 gigahertz

Motherboard: ASUS P5AD2 Premium

System Memory (RAM): 1 gigabyte Kingston HyperX DDR2 4300 at 533 megahertz

Cooling: The CPU is cooled by an all copper Zalman s7000 flower heat sink with an adjustable fan in the middle. It looks refined AND cool. I used slightly too much Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound in between it and the CPU. The case has intake fans in the front over the hard drive bays and in the window over the CPU and an exhaust fan on the back. With the PSU's inner fan and the heatsink fan, this makes a total of five fans moving air around the case. wOOt!

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD2000 200 gigabyte, 7200 rpm. I will eventually be adding a 10,000 rpm (fast, fast fast) WD Raptor for the operating system and certain programs, like Unreal Tournament 2004. I'm up to suggestions as to whether I should RAID the two drives, and how. That last sentence is the first incidence I have seen of "RAID" becoming a verb.

Optical Drive: A cr**py CD R/W and DVD reader from Dell.

Floppy Drive: Who cares?

Case: Black Thermaltake Tsunami Dream with side window. I have waxed this case. Yes, automotive wax, like they put on Lincolns and Bentleys. I can see my reflection on the side.

Speakers: a 2.1 Tsunami system whose left speaker jack has recently stopped working. With 7.1 (seven surround sound satellite speakers and a sub-woofer) systems coming out, I think I could stand an upgrade.

Graphics Card: This is the one major component I am yet to buy. Right now I'm using an old PCI card (yes, and actual PCI graphics card) from my Dell just so I can see what's going on. I'm asking for a PCI-Express ATI Radeon x800 pro for my birthday on New Year's Eve. I don't want to pay the $450.

Power Supply: Thermaltake XP480 at 400 watts. This is decent and should run the x800. I got this PSU for only $20 with the case, so if I want a better one, I can resell it and actually MAKE money.

Monitor: 17 inch Gateway curved-screen CRT. I really don't know what I'm going to do about this.

I hooked up the case with UV black lights and blue UV reactive IDE and floppy cables and moles connectors to match the blue lights throughout the case. It looks beautiful, but I need to figure out how to turn off the blue visible light in the exhaust fan, because it is overbearing the black light and ruining the effect. Once the project is done, this machine will be great for gaming and some more distributed computing projects.

I went through Hell installing that blue thing. It's an adapter for my heatsink, which was built for a different kind of motherboard. The heatsink mounts in those two little screw holes.