Installation

System Components Fujitsu-Siemens D1219A Motherboard SP Pro S Case Silent-PC Version 1 GHz Pentium III 384 MB PC133 SDRAM 13GB IBM 22GXP 7200 RPM Drive Mitsumi CDROM Mitsumi Floppy Sound Blaster Live! Value VisionTek Geforce2 GTS 32MB Diamond Supra Max Modem Windows 2000

Ok the system didn't really come with a paper manual because I received the system directly from SP. Being a wholesale manufacturer, they provide an online manual which the OEM reseller has the responsibility to include. The CD that came with the mainboard had the layout so I could connect everything correctly. SP's website also contains the manual for assembling the case. The best way to do this if you don't want to keep going online or only have one system is to print out the manuals yourself. The case is pretty much assembled when I got it. The only thing I needed to do was attach the sliding cover in the front bezel. I have heard reports of that being difficult but I found it to be rather simple. It was a little tough to slide at first but after sliding it up and down a couple times it was perfect.

Installation is a snap with the slide out motherboard tray. The tray uses built in stand-offs to hold the motherboard instead of the usual spacers you have to install for other motherboards. Other reviews have mentioned that it was difficult to screw in the motherboard using a regular hand-held screwdriver. I found it to be a little hard at first but you have to make sure they go in perfectly straight. It takes a little more force than your other cases but it's very secure. The case also comes with extra motherboard stand offs if your motherboard needs them. After the D1219A was securely in place I started installing my modem, sound card, and video. I decided not to disable the onboard components and see if any problems arouse. The PCI cards were easily installed thanks to the screw-less mechanism SP has employed here. After that I put in the processor and memory. I used a 1GHz PIII with Alpha Heatsink and the infamous Delta fan. This is one loud fan so let's see if the system can hold it down. By the way, SP recommends more silent fans for your processor but of course I wanted to be different.

Next was the case LEDs/switches. After referring to the printout I had from the CD, it was easy to get everything in the right place. On a site note, one of the LED connectors from the case was mislabeled as LAN LED. It was actually a message LED. It's not that critical I suppose since it's just another LED. Then I installed the hard drive. I used a 13 GB IBM 22GXP 7200 RPM drive as my test drive. The drive rack is positioned at the back of the case. This allows the hard drive to be cooled by the exhaust fan or the power supply fan. It's an innovative design and I'm surprised other cases don't use it. After that I moved on to the CDROMs and floppy drive. The case only has one floppy bay so if you have a zip drive, you'll only be able to use one drive at a time. The floppy and CDROM that came with my Silent-PC package was just your regular Mitsumi CDROM drive and floppy. The only difference is that they were colored to match the case color. So now that everything was installed let's see if it all works... So firing up the old machine I nearly freaked when I thought it didn't turn on. The reality is that the system was quiet enough to make me think it wasn't on at all. The motherboard detected my CPU correctly so I proceeded to install Windows 2000 Pro. The installation went without a hitch. The CD that came with the motherboard contained drivers for the video, audio, and LAN. I installed those first then moved on to the applications. I installed DeskView which came on the CD as well. I had to download SystemGuard from SP's website. Now that everything's up and running let's see how this system performs.

>> The Applications/Performance

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Article Navigation Introduction/The Company/What Is The Silent-PC? The Case The Motherboard Installation The Applications/Performance Is It Really Quiet?/Is It Cool? Pros & Cons/Conclusion

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