 |
|
 |
|
| |
| |
| Place the monitor on the
panel and make sure your holes line up and that
the top is pointing to the top. If it dosent...
you're screwed. Mount the controls at this point
also. If you want them on the side of the case
start the mod to make the holes. Or do what I
did: mount it to the monitor its self. |
| |
| Carefully thread the screws.
I had to use nuts to insure the screws I used
would not pull out of the steel frame. One other
note here is to be careful not to over tighten
the screws as it can cause the soft aluminum to
cave in. |
| |
| Finally, mount it to the case to test for
fit. I ended up taking and running a very fine
bead of black silicone around the edge as I had
some light gaps that were noticeable. I would
recommend running the system with a thermostat
to monitor the system's temp before you really
button up this project as the monitor and cable
obstruct airflow. Also, given that the monitor
is another heat source in the case, great care
must be taken to not fry your system. (Funny,
that gives me an idea.... the aluminum case skillet,
now that could be fun. Breakfast as you compute.
I smell a new project... mmmmm project...)
Any who... if you have heat issues, adding fans
is your most likely candidate for taking care
of it. If your case doesn't allow that... get
a case that does.
|
|
|
Harnessing the wire monster.
With this mod there are a couple challenges. Getting
wires where I want to go and airflow not being obstructed
by mountains of cables. Neither of these are to
hard to take care of. A few supplies will make life
real easy. Tin snips, zip-ties, and some good case
fans.
Now I didn't have time to get some custom cables
made. On the LCD I chose, the VGA cable actually
detaches from the monitor, this allows me to get
a shorter cable made. Now this is not always the
case with LCD monitors, and on the cheaper monitors
is almost never the case. So I have assumed that
you will be having some extra cable to wrangle.
Now why is it important to get it in a manageable
state instead of leaving it flopping around in your
case? Simply put, something flopping around in your
case is always bad (e.g. loose cables, fans or hamsters).
|
|
|
| Most motherboards, and more commonly in the higher
end motherboard, they use the electrolytic capacitors
all over the board. And while this usually is a
sign of a quality board, it is an achilles heal
as well. It doesn't take much force to damage one
of these components, and they usually stand about
¾ of an inch off the board. Having something with
the heft of a monitor cable hiting one of these
capacitors is a trip to the IT department waiting
to happen. For this reason I feel that zip-ties
are a geek's best friend. Secondly, unmanaged cables
can actually obstruct air flow in the case either
directly by jamming or stalling a fan, or by diminishing
the ability of the air to circulate in the case.
The LCD we have mounted into the case does also
put out a fair bit of heat, so I would recommend
some good thermaltake fans to insure you have enough
airflow to vent that out. As it is close to your
CPU, bus and ram, take special note to clearances
and air flow volume to prevent tragedy. |
|
|
| Now we are going to be cheating on this project
to get it out to you all sooner than later. I will
be keeping the original power supply intact, and
using adhesive Velcro to mount it to the back of
the case. I have removed 2 of the PCI slot covers
and cut the structural peace between them near the
case screws. By slightly bending it into the case
you should be able to pass the power cable and video
cable into the case. Pull the slack into the case
and use zip-ties for cable management. If you pulled
the structural peace of the case inside when you
put one of the PCI slot covers back and screw it,
in it will be very hard to see that you even had
to cut it at all to get it into the case. |
|
|
| Finally, on our monitor, as with most, we have
the control set. I could have cut some holes in
the case to allow it to mount to the case, but as
it is, it just works. And it automatically fits
the screen each time it's powered up. It really
wasn't an issue, and I just left it in the case.
With other monitors this can be an issue, but you
can easily make the holes you need with your handy
dremel tool.
So there you have it. Not too hard now was it.
|
|
help
support inventgeek.com
|
|
|
