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What obscure and cool parts or items do you have or use in/on/with your computer?

F

Fun Guy

Golden Member
As the title states, what rare, obscure and nifty parts or items do you use in/on/with your computer?

For example, someone just informed me about this cool thingy that allows you to put 4 easy-to-swap SSDs or 2.5" HDDs in one 5-1/4 external bay:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817986007

AHAB8B-A62790110000_4f863b0995a6d


I would take literally days of searching on NewEgg's website, and you still might not find anything useful.

Rather than do that, I thought we could put together our collective wisdom and experience here, for the benefit of all. :thumbsup:

So, what cool things do you have to go with/in your box? 🙂
 
It's not super new/flashy, but I have an NZXT Grid Fan Hub, and I really like it. Easy to install, can be placed out of the way like behind the motherboard try, and lets you tidily route case fan cables w/o cluttering up the motherboard.
 
My fan setup is a bit unusual. Four 140mm PWM fans (one being the CPU fan), all connected to a single cable that gets the PWM signal from the motherboard CPU fan header and power from the power supply. I'm probably in the <1% of enthusiast PC users doing this, everyone else is either using non-PWM case fans connected to the motherboard or a dedicated 3.5" / 5.25" fan controller.

And I've a huge edgeless mouse mat that clamps to the edge of the table.

That's it though, everything else is fairly standard.
 
Fun Guy said:
As the title states, what rare, obscure and nifty parts or items do you use in/on/with your computer?
Click to expand...

I don't know if it qualifies, but the Intel Ultimate-N 6300 in my desktop properly comes closest to being "unusual". Intel never made a desktop version, so mine uses an mPCIe-to-PCIe adaptor.

Other then the NZXT IU01 internal USB-hub I also have in the desktop, everything else is pretty standard stuff.
 
Insert_Nickname said:
I don't know if it qualifies, but the Intel Ultimate-N 6300 in my desktop properly comes closest to being "unusual". Intel never made a desktop version, so mine uses an mPCIe-to-PCIe adaptor.

Other then the NZXT IU01 internal USB-hub I also have in the desktop, everything else is pretty standard stuff.
Click to expand...
What do you use for your 3 antennas?
 
lehtv said:
My fan setup is a bit unusual. Four 140mm PWM fans (one being the CPU fan), all connected to a single cable that gets the PWM signal from the motherboard CPU fan header and power from the power supply. I'm probably in the <1% of enthusiast PC users doing this, everyone else is either using non-PWM case fans connected to the motherboard or a dedicated 3.5" / 5.25" fan controller.
Click to expand...

I use several PWM fans in my case, all controlled by the motherboard. Before seeing your reply, my first thought was: In recent years, the single nicest feature of my desktop computer has probably been the control of case fans directly through motherboard fan headers and software.

Mine would actually be:

I insist on have a manual volume control over audio on my system. No fiddlefucking around with finding software volume controls when I need to adjust volume or mute something instantly. Schiit Audio's SYS passive preamp does the job nicely. My computer's audio system consists of a simple power amp and a pair of unpowered speakers. The SYS sits between the computer and power amp, on top of my desk.

sys_main.jpg
 
Resurrecting this thread because I am finally building my machine. Anyone with unusual and/or especially effective add-ons to your PC, please post them here!!
 
lehtv said:
My fan setup is a bit unusual. Four 140mm PWM fans (one being the CPU fan), all connected to a single cable that gets the PWM signal from the motherboard CPU fan header and power from the power supply. I'm probably in the <1% of enthusiast PC users doing this, everyone else is either using non-PWM case fans connected to the motherboard or a dedicated 3.5" / 5.25" fan controller.

And I've a huge edgeless mouse mat that clamps to the edge of the table.

That's it though, everything else is fairly standard.
Click to expand...

I do something similar with my radiator fans. I have six 140mm PWM fans plugged into a Swiftech splitter plugged into my CPU1 header, and seven 120mm fans plugged into another splitter going to CPU2. The idea is that I can use separate profiles for the two different styles of fans to keep noise consistent, without overloading the board. Those Swiftech splitters are great for the price you pay.
 
lehtv said:
I would love to have one of those for my headphones. I used to have a Logitech G710+ keyboard which had a nice volume wheel that did the job, but few other keyboards have a volume wheel.
Click to expand...

I moved my tower awhile ago and was getting sick of dealing with headphone issues. I didn't want a fixed extension because I wanted the system to detect if headphones were there or not, and I didn't want to have a long cord in the way snaking under my desk.

I just ended up buying a nifty amplifier from Parts Express.

It was a bit of a downgrade in the amplifier powering my speakers but it's so much more usable. It sits right beside my monitor and takes in the line in from the computer and powers the speaker. If you plug in headphones, it cuts the amplifier output. I haven't ripped my cans off my head when the cord gets caught on the arm of my chair since I got it.
 
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