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Getting the System Ready
Getting the motherboard set up
Now, I can go ahead and mount the motherboard and start getting set up. I went ahead and installed the motherboard, CPU, memory, and one of the PCI cards. I started to close the chassis just to make sure that everything was cool, and that's when I noticed a small problem. Two separate points on the motherboard were hitting inside the chassis, preventing it from opening.
Those memory slots are going to be a problem
The 2nd and 3rd memory slots stood a bit too tall, and were hitting the CD-ROM bay. Also, a capacitor adjacent to the memory slots had the same problem. The solution? More modifications! My plan was to remove the capacitor from the motherboard and remount it in an out-of-the-way location, using some wires as extension leads.
Unfortunately, I had kids afoot while I was working on this part. Thankfully, they didn't make my crappy soldering job any worse, but what DID happen was still a setback. I took off the wrong capacitor! I ended up having to remount it, and then desolder and reconnect the new capacitor. I also took some time with an X-Acto knife to shave off the tops of the memory slots. You could say that it's a bad thing since now I can't add any more memory, but that memory would've been blocked too, so it's no matter. The photos I had of this were rather poor, so I've left them out. I do have a picture showing the modifications done, though.
The relocated capacitor and the shaved memory slots
Now that this problem was out of the way, I naturally had a new problem to deal with. After testing the case closure, I found I couldn't open it again! All the effort I put into setting up this equipment, and now I couldn't even get to it! After a bit of fiddling, I finally managed to get the case back open, and I discovered the problem.
>> Minor Setbacks
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