Well, I’m back from Fry’s having decided against a new case. I came close to picking up two different cases, both mid-towers without power supplies, but the construction of them was just too flimsy. I wanted a nice and simple Antec case, nothing fancy, but apparently Antec doesn’t sell cases to retail chains without power supplies and even the lowest base model case was $90. That’s a bit too much to spend on a case with a power supply I simply don’t need. Not to mention that anything cheaper than $90 looked like it was designed by a color blind, creatively impaired 12 year old. “Dude, check it out, my case has fins, a front design that makes no sense AND blue neon!” I think not. What happened to the simple beige box?
At least it wasn’t a wasted trip. I did manage to find an ATX power switch I can use to test the system without a case.
So, I guess I’m going back to my original plan of painting my existing case. I stopped off at an auto parts store on the way home and got some Bondo, sandpaper and metallic blue paint. I’ve got some primer, clear coat and rubbing compound already from the last case I did. I think I’m getting quite good at painting these things. I’ve almost perfected the glossy, mirror finish.
What I plan to do next is benchmark my current system with a battery of tests so I’ll have something to compare it to once my build is complete. I’ll test this system, the new system with temporary graphics card (which will mostly compare CPU scores) and then again later with my final and more permanent card. Should be interesting from a testing stand point. So, that’s what I’ll be doing for the next few hours. After that I’ll make a quick post with the data (mostly so I don’t lose it), then I’ll start disassembling this rig and so I can start the sanding process. Hopefully by next weekend I’ll be back up and running with a newly painted case.
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