Help! I will go into excessive detail here in the hope that someone can tell me what I am missing here. Note that I have not yet reached the point of plugging this thing in.
I am building a machine for my 12 year old stepson. Here are the parts I think are relevant to my problem:
Logisys Phantom Case (silver w/ large acrylic window)NO OWNER'S MANUAL THAT I CAN FIND)
Ultra 500w Power Supply (titanium green)
DFI LAN Party NF-II Ultra B
The mobo headers, the mobo cables and the PS cables are all UV reactive. I am not sure if the case lighting includes a UV source or not. If it does not, I will add a cold cathode somewhere.
I've been working very hard at putting this together methodically and have been paying close attention to cable management in both the selection and construction process. The mobo and PS cables co-ordinate well and I've been able to tuck the excess out of the way fairly nicely. The Ultra PS, of course, means I use only the cables I need, with no extra wires or molex connectors hanging around.
The case wiring has been more of a challenge. A zillion ugly wires come out of the front of the case. I've managed to conceal much of the mess in the HD cage, and to string much of the rest along the bottom of the case where they should not be visible. I think I have all of the speaker and other special LED wires (power, reset, etc) connected to the LANParty in the right places. That leaves me needing power for case lights and fans in three places:
1. Front bezel with the huge 'glowing' blue eyes;
2. Rear 120 mm fan; and
3. Side door with an LED fan in the center and an LED (UV?) in each corner of the acrylic window.
All of these things together can't consume very many watts, so I've decided to daisy chain them from a single power cable that I have strung into the HD case at the bottom front of the box. A simple two pin male wire connector comes out of the front bezel and is connected to a 2-hole female connector which in turn comes out of a male/female molex pair. I connected the Utra cable to the male half of the molex pair and presumably took care of the power needs of the front of the box. I then ran the rest of that molex set along the bottom of the box where it met up with a similar molex pair (sans two pin connector) coming from the rear fan (it runs down the back of the box and then along the bottom). That gives me power to the rear fan and leaves the molex connector I need for the side door as well.
So far so good, and when I tell you the side door fan has a molex pair just like on the rear fan as well you might conclude my problem is solved. Ahh, but I left one thing out... the four LEDs have a wire that runs around the outside of the window, and terminates with a female two pin connector. Now, obviously, this machine can still work, or explode, regardless of whether those four LEDs are powered. But it just bugs me to be this close to putting the door back on and not to have a power source for this one final place.
Is there anyone out there who owns this case and did not have this problem? If so, please tell me what I am missing here.
The alternative would seem to be an adaptor. A molex to two pin adaptor could run to the remaining molex from the window fan, and I suspect I can route it all around the outside so I do not have more than the current one wire pair to the fan visible through the window.
The mobo has a couple of three pin connectors in useful places which are designated for chassis fans. Is there any harm in using a three to two pin adaptor on one of those? It won't draw much juice at all, but will it bug the mobo which is expecting fan there if it does not detect same? The two pin from the lights will not connect directly to the three pin on the board. I tried.
Finally, assuming I do go the adaptor route, where do I get them? This seems like a singularly stupid thing to mail order. Is my local RatShack likely to have this? I live in DC.
Sorry for the magnum opus.
Thanks,
Phil
I am building a machine for my 12 year old stepson. Here are the parts I think are relevant to my problem:
Logisys Phantom Case (silver w/ large acrylic window)NO OWNER'S MANUAL THAT I CAN FIND)
Ultra 500w Power Supply (titanium green)
DFI LAN Party NF-II Ultra B
The mobo headers, the mobo cables and the PS cables are all UV reactive. I am not sure if the case lighting includes a UV source or not. If it does not, I will add a cold cathode somewhere.
I've been working very hard at putting this together methodically and have been paying close attention to cable management in both the selection and construction process. The mobo and PS cables co-ordinate well and I've been able to tuck the excess out of the way fairly nicely. The Ultra PS, of course, means I use only the cables I need, with no extra wires or molex connectors hanging around.
The case wiring has been more of a challenge. A zillion ugly wires come out of the front of the case. I've managed to conceal much of the mess in the HD cage, and to string much of the rest along the bottom of the case where they should not be visible. I think I have all of the speaker and other special LED wires (power, reset, etc) connected to the LANParty in the right places. That leaves me needing power for case lights and fans in three places:
1. Front bezel with the huge 'glowing' blue eyes;
2. Rear 120 mm fan; and
3. Side door with an LED fan in the center and an LED (UV?) in each corner of the acrylic window.
All of these things together can't consume very many watts, so I've decided to daisy chain them from a single power cable that I have strung into the HD case at the bottom front of the box. A simple two pin male wire connector comes out of the front bezel and is connected to a 2-hole female connector which in turn comes out of a male/female molex pair. I connected the Utra cable to the male half of the molex pair and presumably took care of the power needs of the front of the box. I then ran the rest of that molex set along the bottom of the box where it met up with a similar molex pair (sans two pin connector) coming from the rear fan (it runs down the back of the box and then along the bottom). That gives me power to the rear fan and leaves the molex connector I need for the side door as well.
So far so good, and when I tell you the side door fan has a molex pair just like on the rear fan as well you might conclude my problem is solved. Ahh, but I left one thing out... the four LEDs have a wire that runs around the outside of the window, and terminates with a female two pin connector. Now, obviously, this machine can still work, or explode, regardless of whether those four LEDs are powered. But it just bugs me to be this close to putting the door back on and not to have a power source for this one final place.
Is there anyone out there who owns this case and did not have this problem? If so, please tell me what I am missing here.
The alternative would seem to be an adaptor. A molex to two pin adaptor could run to the remaining molex from the window fan, and I suspect I can route it all around the outside so I do not have more than the current one wire pair to the fan visible through the window.
The mobo has a couple of three pin connectors in useful places which are designated for chassis fans. Is there any harm in using a three to two pin adaptor on one of those? It won't draw much juice at all, but will it bug the mobo which is expecting fan there if it does not detect same? The two pin from the lights will not connect directly to the three pin on the board. I tried.
Finally, assuming I do go the adaptor route, where do I get them? This seems like a singularly stupid thing to mail order. Is my local RatShack likely to have this? I live in DC.
Sorry for the magnum opus.
Thanks,
Phil
