The Build
I am finally getting around to writing up my thoughts on building this machine. I would say overall it went better than I expected but I did run into a few issues along the way.
My first comment is to go through all of your parts and make sure you have all of the cables, adapters and most recent drivers (don't be lazy, download them from the internet before you start.) Also I would read the manuals (yes I know who reads manuals) to make sure you understand how the mother board is laid out and where all of your connections are. I had the pleasure of not having a manual for my case so that made a few things more interesting but, more on that later.
The case that I chose is the Moneual MonCasa 902. This model has a built in ir sensor, 7" lcd, application controls and volume control all on the face plate. I chose this model over many of the other lcd panel cases because I liked the looks of the panel in the center of the case. The case also has very good air flow and is all aluminum. Very solid case and the finish was excellent. I found no blemishes or any other quality control issues.
<p>The first pic is the front of the case before I have started.<br />
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<p>As you can see from this pic the DVD-rom is mounted below the panel. With this type of layout you need to install it before the motherboard and other internals are mounted. This is where I had my main issue for the night. Once I installed the DVD-rom and installed the power wires and the sata cable I started to begin to mount the motherboard and noticed that there was not enough space for the DVD cables to be mounted in that configuration. I tried putting the board in and then hooking up the cables but the interface for the floppy was directly in the way. Fortunately after taking a break to think and try other configurations I found a power connector that was small enough to fit and if I use a sata cable with a 90 degree bend and run the cable under the board I was just able to fit everything properly.<br />
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<p>I next mounted the motherboard and spend about 15 minutes making sure I understood each case connection and planned my wire management. I installed the processor at this point as I felt I had the most room to maneuver and did not want to bend any of the pins. I started by bringing all the wires to the right side of the case and running them along the side of the mobo. I made the usb, audio, panel and 1394 connections.<br />
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<p>Next came the hard drive mounts, RAM and the power supply. The hd mounts also each have an 80 mm fan. I only connected the fan on the side where I mounted my hard drive.<br />
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<p>I finished making all my power connections, installed the video card and cleaned up all of my wires. I was a bit disappointed in that my cpu cooler came with a broken mount so I had to use the stock one. I have emailed Zalman to get a replacement but have not heard anything back yet. Here is the final layout of the internals. I am getting a PVR card and possible a new sound card depending on how I like the HDMI sound.<br />
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<p>So at this point I have been working for about 3hrs. which I fell is good as I have been taking my time and trying to do things only once. Even though it was 11 p.m. I decided to do all of my bios and OS installs as well. Surprisingly this went every well. Everything was good in the BIOS and believe it or not Vista ultimate installed in less that 30 minutes!<br />
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<p>So after Vista was up I was feeling all full of myself I went to bed thinking that I had done all the hard parts. Well I was wrong. I spent almost the entire day Saturday getting the touch screen drivers and the iMon software/hardware to work. I was really hoping I would be able to use the tablet PC functions of vista for the touch screen. This however would not work as the screen registered backwards (left was right, right was left) and I could not reconfigure it no matter what I tried. I finally did get a drive to work and I moved on the the ir sensor and panel buttons. This is where the manual for the case would have been handy. After an hour or so searching the net about the iMon software I found a schematic of their hardware installation guide. Now I see that what I thought was an extra wire for the mobo power was actually an adapter to send power to the front panel. Once I installed this everything work great.</p>
<p>The other big bummer was the software for the Pioneer Blu-ray drive. Apparently "some" computers have issues and do not recognize the drive as pioneer and will not install the software. So now I am waiting for Pioneer to send a new disk so I can watch Blu-ray movies.</p>
<p>All in all I have been quite pleased with the outcome. The unit is quiet and has been running very cool. The two rear fans hook directly to the power supply which does not allow me to control the speed. I am going to replace these with models that will attach directly to the mobo and I can use it to control the fan speeds. I watched Sin-city and it upscaled to 1080p and looked as good as my A2 upscaling to 1080i. Dolby Digital came through loud and clear but I want to really take my time and see if I can hear any difference between it and the A2. This weekend I will move my music and hopefully check out a Blu-ray disc. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments and sorry about the spelling in my earlier posts.
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I will also post updated pics of it when I get it in my rack. It really looks good with the MPS-1 due to the brushed aluminum on the sides of the front face plate.