BTX gaming build issues

[booman]

You might be right. The cool thing is that I can keep the LGA 775 CPU's and just purchase some cheaper LGA 775 cpus for the motherboard and some DDR2 for the RAM. I allready have Optical Drives and there is onboard video. So I could sell them as workstations for how much?
I'd really like to keep the 3.0 Ghz dual core processors.
But then I would have to fork out more money to build the rest.
Frustrating

[Samuknow]

That is what I thought it would look like from the other pics. That sux a little. Still may be a way to mod something in there.

[booman]

yeah, its hard to build with these conditions because I'm restrained to costs and power. I need to play games with these machines but they don't have the space or the power.
Maybe I should sell one of them as a workstation to fund the other machines. I'm planning to mod my Intel D955XCS board into a ATX case so I can make it into a full gaming machine.
I only need a video card for that one. The modding will take some time but I'm determined.
So maybe the money from selling one of the workstations will fund the gaming machine. But like I said, how much should I sell it for?
Aopen case: $60
Pentium Dual Core 3.0 Ghz 800fsb: $100
1 Gig Corsair DDR2 553 PC4200: $40
120 Gig Western Digital SATA hard-drive: $50
Sony DVD rom: $20
BTX heatsink & fan: $42
Windows XP Home OEM: $89

Thats roughly $400.00 with the operating system. I could sell it with Fedora 8 installed for $310.00

(Don't worry Daniel, I'll post all of this in the Buy/Trade forum when I decide to actually sell it. Right now I need advice)

[booman]

I'm going to take the "easy-way-out" by selling the BTX workstations to fund the BTX gaming machine. It will save time on having to mod an ATX case into a BTX case and I'll have my 4th computer for LAN games.
thanks for all your help everyone! I tried every angle on how to use these machines for gaming but honestly, the BTX is obsolete and these cases were not designed for gaming. I would spend way to much money to make them capable of playing games, but if I sell both of them I should get about $600 to purchase a BTX Mid Tower and a video card. Then I'll be set.

[MUff1N]

Yea, this is the best decision you could have made and the same one I would have made...
It's not the easy way out, just the smart thing to do!

[booman]

I've posted the BTX workstations on phoenix.craigslist.org

[booman]

Ironicly I still havn't sold the Aopen BTX computers yet. No one is interested in a brand new computer for $310, oh well.

What I ended up doing is purchasing the Aerocool CoolView BTX/ATX case that converts into a BTX case with a $20 kit.
It happend to be on sale newegg.com for $69 so I spent a total of about $100 on this tooless case. Its pretty awsome because I can still use it in the future as an ATX case. It has 10 external drive spaces, a built in fan controller with 3 thermal sensors, and plenty of room. It is much larger than in the pictures.
I ended up putting the D995XCS in there for my gaming case. Now all I need is a video card and I'm set. I even purchased Windows XP Home when it happend to be on sale with free shipping for $80.

[MUff1N]

Originally Posted by booman

I've purchased Alcohol but it only allows it to be installed on one computer.
I though of doing that but you know how large games are and if I have the whole game installed and the whole game on a virtual drive, thats a lot of Hard-Drive space.

I use modified start exes for all my games so that I don't have to ever use a DVD/CD to start any of my installed games.
There is nothing illegal about doing this either...

You can get those here for just about any game you can imagine...
PC Game Fixes & No-CD Patch Files- For PC Games- GameBurnWorld

Game Fixes are small patches which enable you to patch your game and play your game without the CD in the drive, these Game Fixes are called No-CD patches, the benefit of this is obvious, as you wont need to keep swapping the CD over every time you want to play a different game, it also allows you to place your original CD back in its cover and keep it safe from scratches and damage, and therefore backing up your CD. There are also Game Fixes which remove the movie or video clips from the game. You can also make a backup CD with the Game Fixes, this will allow you to keep a safe copy of your original game CD, and preventing damage to your original CD.

The easiest way to install these are by rightclicking the game's shortcut start exe, then click properties, then find target. What will be highlighted is what you will replace with the modified start exe.
Then all you have to do is just doubleclick your games shortcut start and the game starts right up!

[booman]

Yes, I've played with those short-cuts and .bat files for games & mods. specially with doom 3. I never put the CD in for playing Doom 3 because I have the short-cuts modified with commands. I didn't know you could do it with any game. I thought there was some kind of key on the CD being read to assure it in the drive.
Thanks for the link

[Azriel]

Originally Posted by booman

I've been searching the internet for slim DVD drives but I can't find an adapter to the regular motherboard IDE connection. You know how laptop drives have a different IDE/PATA connection? How would I connect that via USB or IDE on a regular motherboard?

This one connects slim drives to sata
YMIUSA - SATA Adapter for Slim DVD/CD ROM

Now, if you already have an IDE adapter board for it, just use a 2.5 HDD adapter to go from the laptop size IDE to standard.

[booman]

That one rocks! It also has the 4 pin power connector.
I've allready figured out my BTX problem with one of my computers but I still have one more with the slim Aopen case. So if I can't sell it I may try to use that idea to build it into a gaming case.
I happen to have a 7600 GT (thanks to Bonesaw) that doesn't need extra power. So all I need is the extra power supply and the slim DVD to modify it into a gaming case.