It turned on! Holy sh*t!
August 14th, 2010So I got some parts from a friend that upgraded his computer to a new i7 processor. He gave me the old CPU, Motherboard, and RAM, and the busted power supply that we replaced in his computer in exchange for helping him out with the upgrade.
Well, I had a hard disk drive and a DVD-ROM lying around, not in use… so all I needed to do was get a power supply and find a case… easy right? Not really. I had one problem: I’m broke.
So I had to use… alternate methods:
Step 1: The power supply.
I had several other older power supplies lying around, plus the broken one from my friend’s old system… so I picked up a few of them and took them all apart.
A few hours later… I had a working power supply that met modern standards. (And one working one that meets the standards from like… 2004.)
Step 2: The case.
Well I had a case in the garage that wasn’t in use, so I pulled it out. First thing I notice: No standoffs for the motherboard. Well I wasn’t getting out of this one… so I had to go to the store and spend 5$ on standoffs. Freaking gay right?
Well I got home, screwed them in, and then I found out: These standoffs are too tall by about a millimeter! So what do I do? I punch out the back faceplate for the ports and just leave it off. Fuck that thing… it’s not really necessary assuming the board is grounded right and fastened securely… and no one sticks things in through the hole.
So I was hooking up the front audio jacks and realized: This isn’t a regulation plug! It’s just a bunch of individual pin plug things… so I have to look up a pin map for AC’97 audio connectors because the one in the motherboard map is wrong, or not specific enough rather… and then stick these tiny things onto each pin in the right configuration. Biggest pain in the rear ever.
To the maker of this case: We have standards for a reason people… use them.
Step 3: The SATA cable.
So I now have everything hooked up… oh wait… I don’t have a SATA cable… no problem I’ll use the spare that came with my other motherboard— wait… why is that box not where I left it? F$$%@$)@—
So after looking for 4 hours… I now have everything I need, and it’s all hooked up… I flip the switch, and it actually turns on and gets past the POST! I feel like freaking MacGyver.