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#131
Well linne I set up an 8 laptop for a neighbour just the the day and I was surprised really it was not that hard it was to do that and I installed some word processing software and changed the security etc tec mind you I just had to fix it to look more like 7.
Personally and in spite of what I have said in the past if it were not for that awful first screen it seemed ok.
Oh and welcome back from me PP:)
Remember that gap I mentioned between the optical drive and the card reader (of course you do, I just reposted it)? Well, I picked up my new BD-ROM drive from my mail service yesterday, installed it today, and it's still got that stupid gap. What is it with LG and under-height faceplates on their optical drives? Before I cinched down the drive for keeps, I stuck a piece of double sided scotch tape on top of the card reader faceplate and stuck a thin scrap of the anti-static foam I had knocking about to the tape. That filled the gap up nicely and the foam isn't noticeable if you aren't looking for it.
Installation was a breeze...or so I thought until I tried to remove the front panel of the case (I should have known it was too easy). The LG faceplate is just a hair wider than the faceplates of the card reader and the 3.5" swap bay and catches on a tiny lip in the 5.25" bay opening in the case front panel. I had the Divil's own time getting the front panel off (it took about 15 minutes to get it off). I then wasted the next 45 minutes using a knife and nail file to trim down and taper the lip on the front panel and to taper the backside of the LG's faceplate near the corner that was catching so the front panel wouldn't get hung up. It's done now, thank God, and one can't see my surgery when the front panel is installed. I'm not bothering with pictures becasue I'm pretty sure everyone knows what an optical drive looks like.
I finally put the side panels on the case—I had been running it without the panels since I was too lazy to be taking them on and off—and have been fooling around with fan speed. With the front and side fans set to a barely noticeable drone and the exhaust fan at the back set to full speed (oddly enough, I can't hear the rear fan running full speed over the other fans), the CPU temps have been about the same as when the sides are off. I did a smoke test at a gap I couldn't seal up on the front panel and, when I got source of the smoke (a recently extinguished match) about a quarter of an inch from the gap, the case would suck in the smoke so the case was running negative pressure. If I turned the rear fan down all the way, the smoke wouldn't suck in but wouldn't blow out, either, suggesting I'm close to neutral pressure. The CPU doesn't seem to run much, if any, warmer with that fan turned down. It's hard to tell since the ambient and the CPU temps keep fluctuating. Core 5 is the hottest core on my CPU and it hasn't gone over 45°C when just surfing the net (ambient is 27°C). I'm just going to keep an eye on it to see what it does. I would rather increase the front and side fans' speed than raise the speed of the exhaust fan. I'll, probably will have to up the front and side fans' speed anyway to counter dust accumulation on the filters.
I still want to add a TV tuner or two but methinks I'll spend some time using the machine for a while before doing any more work on it.
Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 10 Apr 2013 at 19:16.
I have that same LG CD/DVD with M Disc support(wish I had gotten the BR model) and I didn't have a gap on the top/bottom, but when I locked it into the 5.25" bay, it shifted to one side and left a small gap on the left. Small piece of cardboard as a spacer fixed it. I feel your pain, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself and it literally irritated me to no end to see it offset like that.
Actually, no, it's not the fault of the case. The previous LG drive, other than that stupid gap at the bottom due to being under-height, fit just fine. I had no trouble removing the cover with the previous drive in place.
Both LG drives faceplates aren't as high as the faceplates on the card reader and the swap bay. The newer LG drive's faceplate is a tad wider than the faceplates on the previous LG drive, the card reader (actually, the 3.5" to 5.25" adapter), and the swap bay. The carder reader and swap bay face plates are identical in size.
I did a similar thing with my card reader, Only i chopped up 1 of the drive bay covers and a drive bay converter with a Dremmel. the face of the bay converter needed sanding down to size a fair bit to fit the mesh over it. I didn't quite get it straight though.
That's a good solution! I lucked up and my buddy had an adapter from an old Dell that works perfectly.