Design

This is Big Baby. She is a good computer. But see how all those cables are exposed? That is because there are no hiding spots in this case. One of the things I want to do with the new case is make these cables disappear.

This is the new case. See how those cables in the middle seem to be coming from nowhere? That is because the back part of the case has a removable panel, behind the motherboard, where I can cram those ugly cables.

Here is the other side of the case. You see how the panel comes off, revealing about a 3/8" gap between the panel and the frame where the motherboard will mount? This gives me options to hide cables.

Above are the three fans that come installed in the case.  The clear one on the front is probably going to have to go because it lights up blue, and Big Baby is already lit up blue, so we gotta do something different. There are a total of nine fan locations in this case. There were ten, but since I replaced the window-less side panel (2 fans) with the window (1 fan) I am down to nine.
I'm not sure what color lighting I am going to go with yet.

Above: This case comes with a slot on top to hot swap an esata hard drive. I couldn't care less about this feature. What I wanted up top was like this:

 A nice rugged handle to carry this thing around with. This is from the Storm Scout, also a Coolermaster case. But the CM 690 II Advanced that I decided on has more room to fit huge graphics cards, so it seemed like a smart trade off.

I gotta figure out where these lights are going to go.

First Post!

So I'm building a new PC and I thought I'd share the process with anyone who cares. Right now my particular interests are making sure that it can run the most demanding modern games at full blast settings. I also want to have the option of running games in 3D. I have already figured out many of the components that I want to use to build this PC, but I am starting with just the case so that I can do some brainstorming on where to put lighting and such. I am not in any particular hurry to get everything finished, mainly because I already have a PC that is nice and will run most games, but also because there are a couple games on the horizon I want to have this computer ready for that are still a ways off. Anyways, I got the case a week or so ago. It is a Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced. The case comes stock with a window-less side. So I ordered a replacement side panel from CM that does have a window. That just came in, so now I need to figure out my lighting and fan situation.

 Above and below is the stock CM 690 II Advanced left panel

 Above is the replacement panel for the case so we can eventually see all of the goodies inside. Below is the panel installed into the case.

For now I am calling this thing 'Skynet Alpha'. Eventually I'll change it to something a little less pretentious. Like my other PC I call 'Big Baby".