After the phone call and the refunds and the walk and that post yesterday, I took a little break, kinda read a little of LotR...I'm still on the same chapter, actually...and then I rearranged the livingroom a bit. I'll probably take some pictures of that when I'm really done....

Anyway....

I finally got around to putting together the new tower at around 7pm my time -- meaning, I'd finally cleared out enough room, and all that.

Also, I took pictures of the process. This is going to be a harsh-for-dialup post, I think....

I kinda forgot about taking pictures until after I got the motherboard put in, so anyone reading this is missing that exciting step.

These were the little bits and screws that came with the case. It's really not what I'm used to....

I guess it's a good thing I have a this whole box full of little screws and stuff, isn't it?

That's one of those wind-up flashlights. It's really useful for trying to read the little markings all over the board, and for just trying to see what you're doing in general....

Here's where I've started hooking up all those annoying cables that make the computer work with the case -- the power, the reset, the little lights and the two side USB ports. Luckily, I've actually still got the book for this old thing.

Even more lucky, the USB thing is just one big chunk and not a bunch of little pieces like my other tower....

And there's the [really cheap] RAM.

...I should really clean that heatsink.

A dirty heatsink is no match for...this half-empty can of air that I bought at Sam's Club more than a year ago!

...all better. Except for that little bit that's bent. But it's clean now....

Since the fan looked a lot like the heatsink, only worse, I just went ahead and bought a new one.

Now...for the plugging in. Isn't this exciting?

That little extra thing that's hanging off is pretty much useless on this board. I think those extra four make it so that this power supply is compatible with certain Intel boards, or something, but it unhooks itself from the other twenty quite nicely. My other new power supply had that, too.

I've seen a lot of complaints about power supplys with the 24s instead of the 20s. I think these people might want to have a closer look and see if they actually slide apart....

...and in goes the old DVD burner, facing early retirement...or, really, a demotion to 'DVD Player'.

I used to have an actual DVD ROM, but I think I put it into someone else's computer....

Coming out of retirement for this very important job of 'holding the OS so I can watch MST3K on my TV' is the old Maxtor 27gb harddrive.

This thing spent a few years under the seat in Gremlin's car. Tough little drive....

I don't know why, but I decided to start screwing things in a little early....

A round IDE cable that I bought from the nearby computer store just for this project. I was informed that 'they don't carry such oudated technology' because 'they only used SATA drives'. Uh huh. Whatever.

I was also given careful instructions on which end attaches to the board, and where the 'master' and 'slave' went.

I wouldn't know, after all. I'm a girl. I need the little papers on the cable to tell me that the blue end goes into the board....

I took this picture in an attempt to be lazy. It didn't work. I couldn't tell what the jumper settings were from the picture, because the faint little etchings on the back of the drive didn't actually show up....

I had to move stuff, because the cable wouldn't reach....

...there. That's better.

Of course, they also need to be plugged into the power supply, don't they?

This is the monitor I'll be using to get the thing up and running.

And this is the back of the case, and me wondering where the hell the video card is. I forgot....

There we go....

Here's an old keyboard. It's kinda yucky.

My old optical mouse. It's slightly less yucky. And the Metal Gear Solid game guide is pretending to be all important as a mousepad....

Everything's all hooked up...I think....

Except...I forgot to turn the monitor on.

Yay. Something happened!

...one hour later....

I'm finally getting Windows XP to install.

I'd forgotten a few essential things about getting things to work. I had to reformat the drive using my USB/IDE cable over on my now-working tower, and I had to dig out my old CD ROM [I think it's just that, not a RW or anything]. And I had to spend a few hours fighting with the computer, trying to get everything set up just so with the cables and the jumper switches and everything....

Nevermind. I guess it's a burner.

This is the inside of the side of the case that isn't on the tower. That big black thing is actually kinda neat. It lets the CPU fan suck air in from outside the case.

This is another fan I have. I'm putting it on this little card thing so I can point it at the videocard, since the fan on that thing seems to have died. It's kinda old, and stuff. I'm actually kinda surprised I managed to get this far without finding out something was broken.

...another hour later.

Installing Windows is boring and sucky. And to be rewarded with this...ih.

There's that fan. The red is actually rather nice....

Everything's all put together now.

Just sorta...tying things up to keep them out of the way.

I was wrong. NOW everything's all put together.

I got rid of the flash so I could get a picture of what the fan looked like through the case. It's not really obnoxious or anything....

And, hey, I got the front USB ports to work. Not the lights, though. I'm never very good at that.

The next morning...VICTORY! After I discovered that the onboard network thing actually worked on this motherboard [the last time I used it, it seemed broken], I was able to fully update windows, get the various drivers I needed, and get the tower to the point where I could plug it into the TV.

Then I went to sleep.

This morning, I dug out [from behind the TV] the SVideo cable and the headphone-jack-to-whatever-they're-called-things-on-the-back-of-the-DV D-surround-sound-thing, plugged it all in...and ran into a couple of problems.

First, when I finally got stuff to show up on the TV, it was all black and white...which was my fault, I guess, because the SVideo cable wasn't fully plugged in.

Then I had no sound. I guess the video driver installation didn't quite take, or something.

But now...it works.

And not only does it work, but it works. Before, I could never get that whole Windows startup thing to show up on the TV. Now, I actually get to sit there and watch the stuff that comes before it. And the TV is the only thing that's hooked up.

Yay.

...now I can watch all these MST3Ks on my TV....

What? It's not technically illegal. They did say to keep circulating the tapes....

Edit: Right after I got done with this, I found an email in my inbox from the MST3K InfoClub about This SomethingAwful.com Article. It has to do with MST3K, and how other networks would 'fix' it if they were to 'bring it back'. Funny, as always...but beware the screenshot from Mitchell....

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