My (Hopefully) Last Upgrade

Okay, so yesterday I decided to continue my wire management project and cut up the ribbon cables that go to my drives. This took another 3 hours, but it went by really quick. I guess that means I had fun. I am such a nerd! Anyways, the looms are all laid out nicely, and I'm almost positive it will have an improvement on the airflow inside the case. So now that's finished, and I'm thinking of doing other things to make my pooter look and work better. I was just checking out some custom case sites and really like the plexiglass window and neon light setup. Badass. And maybe add a couple more fans near the CPU area. I opened up my case after it had been on for only a couple hours to check out the voltage regulators and had to remove the CPUs. To my surprise they were too hot to the touch. Even with a big-ass heat sink and fan.

Why was I checking out the voltage regulators? Because I was looking up Deja.com to see if it was possible to use Coppermine CPUs on my year-and-a-half old motherboard. And it is possible if my board has a certain type of voltage regulator. And it does. Which means I can push this mobo to the limit and now I have plans to install a pair of matched Pentium 3 700MHz Coppermines. That should rock. Supermicro rocks for making a solid and upgradable mobo. I'm happy with my performance now, with my P2 400s, so I figure the 700s should last me for at least a few more years. Right now they're selling for around $220, so I'll see if I can hold out until they go down to around $160. Another reason why I'll go with the P3s instead of waiting for the Pentium 4s is that I read an article on Slashdot that said that the P4s are going to need a new mobo, case and power supply. Which is pretty bogus on their part. I can see AMD kicking some ass down the line...