Journal Entry: Why you shouldn't force things in a SFF case

[rampy]

pictures to come later today... tada! there's the pics...

I have an Antec Aria micro-atx case which I jammed a huge Zalman flowering heat sink into, but in order to have a place to put the fan, had to reconfigure the drive cage to mount the hard drive vertically on the opposite side of the cpu/heatsink (which is cool to have that option).

The whole drive bay locks in and swings down into place and the power plug was being stopped by the PVR250 PCI card so the drive cage wouldn't close/seat... instead of taking out the pvr250 and the smaller/more compact pci wireless card adjacent to the pvr250 and swapping their positions... I flexed the pvr250 slightly and slid the drive cage down...  it got caught on some drive cables that were bunched up (these cases don't leave much room to spare), so I had to back it off,  and then once I tidied the cables, try and do my flex around technique one more time.

Long story short, enter metal fatique... and a knocked a surface mount capacitor C59 off my pvr250 card!     

Pictures to come soon... but thought i'd share my cautionary tale... be gentle and careful in those tight, cramped Small form factor cases!  I'll be able to solder a replacement capacitor on there, and hopefully it will still work (voided warranty be damned!) ...

rampy

EDIT-> you can see, although it's from the oppposite side the hard drive cage and how it swings down... and hopefully you can see the line of capacitors that is missing one and just has two solder pads where that cap is supposed to be...

[valiamarkais]

Man oh man...

Yup, sounds as if the warranty is already damned...

My condolences on the death of your PVR-250. 

-VA

[rampy]

Man oh man...

Yup, sounds as if the warranty is already damned...

My condolences on the death of your PVR-250. 

-VA

oh it's not dead yet! (I feel like going for a walk...) but it is intensive care, awaiting a capacitor replacement.

I've got to pick up or order a "10 microfarad 16 v electrolytic cap" gonna try to put a non-surface mount cap on there... as there seems to be enough of a solder pad to pull it off (no pun intended).

rampy

[kai]

Can't wait to see the picture!

Can we see the picture of the inside case and how tight everthing fits?

[rampy]

Can't wait to see the picture!

Can we see the picture of the inside case and how tight everthing fits?

That sounds like a p0rn request...lol

I was playing back some photo folders via beyond media showing my wife how it was pretty cool slideshow... and it was like... picture of our dog, pic of dog, pic of dog, computer part, computer part, close up of computer part, close up of my hand with screwdriver taking apart a computer part... etc...

I meant to do an Antec Aria review... and then a Zalman heatsink review... and in any case took copious amounts of pictures... when I get home I'll upload some pics...

rampy

[valiamarkais]

oh it's not dead yet! (I feel like going for a walk...) but it is intensive care, awaiting a capacitor replacement.

Ok, my bad...

My condolences on the severe injury placed upon your PVR-250. 

-VA

[rampy]

More pics... just cause...

1. zalman heat sink that barely fits (and whose fan didn't really fit... I'll have  a separate journal entry/write up about that fiasco) the powersupply jutts out over the cpu a little bit...

2. resting the drive cage on top of the system while working on it...

3.  side view

4.  side view other side... in between the diamond 550 card and the wireless card is where the pvr250 was...

rampy

[valiamarkais]

I don't know man (in my best Randy voice)...

That's a very tight fit.  I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable trying to cram that much stuff in that small of a space (especially since it costs mucho dinaro).

-VA

[rampy]

heh, you aren't kidding... I soldered a replacement radio shack capacitor to C59 spot.  and re-arranged the cards (putting the pvr250 on the outside/furthest slot).  Everything *barely* fit and I did have to flex the pvr250 a tiny bit again (although this time the drive passes the back of the card so there's no capacitor to knock off!)

In anycase, long story short... it works! at some point i'll post a pic of my horrendous soldering job =)

rampy

[sojourner753]

After reading this thread I don't feel so bad about a damaged AMD processor and broken cpu locking arm.  I'm not alone anymore.   

[rampy]

After reading this thread I don't feel so bad about a damaged AMD processor and broken cpu locking arm.  I'm not alone anymore.   

heh, misery loves company... The thing is I *know* better, but it just shows if you're impatient or in a rush and dont take your time and/or use too much force bad things ^(tm) can happen to good people ... er... hardware.

rampy

[ejk]

Heh.

Those Arias are a PITA to get stuff to fit just right.

Glad you're up and running again.

[rampy]

Here's the promised pic, so you can make fun of my solder job (although cut me some slack, you aren't supposed to solder a regular capacitor on a surface mount pad...)   

Seems to be working, and no smoke yet =) 

rampy

[valiamarkais]

Heh...  No worries, you didn't see my solder job.  It's a piece of work 

Well, as long as it works for you.

-VA