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Back to the PC build. The metal chute that goes from the rear fan to the CPU to help drive cooler outside air right to it is in place. It's adjustable, and unfortunately can be adjusted right into the fan blades, so I have to check it up front, lest the aluminum cut up my plastic fan blades, and jar the CPU assembly. The rats nest in the bottom bugs me, but I don't have a good solution at the moment.
SATA cables are a royal pain. They're like plastic box straps - very inflexible, and too long for my needs here. They have to connect the 3 500GB drives in the lower right metal enclosure to plugs about 4" away, but they're all over 1' long. All the thin red, white, and black wires go to fans. There's a 4th huge fan in a metal enclosure that screws to the back of the case inside, and covers most of that open space there - all of the space in front of the PCI slot area, effectively blocking access to them.
I've begun work in the case. It's been years since I've been in a nice, big case like this. I've had 2 Shuttles as my last 2 PCs, which are like large bagel toasters, and have a single 2-fold, 3-side shell that slides over the top, and both sides. Before those, I was on the bizarre SGI/NT 320, which only had 1 removable side, and was all curvy, and in the way. Before that, it was a PowerMac 6400 (IIRC), and I rarely went inside that one. It wasn't easy when I did, though. It was all a very tight fit, and even the panel was a massive fight to remove. I recall drilling something like 6 holes in the top, because nothing would allow me to pry the top off. It was pressure fit too tightly.
This case gives me options, though. I can remove the front, either side, and top, all separately, and very easily, with thumbscrews, and I have so much access. I can almost climb inside. And it's going to be necessary. Already there are wires coming in from all angles for LEDs, built-in USB/1394/audio jacks, and 4 case fans: top, back (CPU), front (HDDs), and one I removed that will be visible later, which blocks much of the open area in front of the PCI slots.
I can't say much bad about this one. It's totally this one in a different color, but it works for me. Part of it is that they lightened up the left monitor some, so it doesn't feel like an afterthought plopped in too thickly. It's my current desktop, for now, though I'm on one screen at the moment, until I track down what's going on with that triplehead thing.
That's the "Background" tab in the "Appearance Preferences" dialog, found under System->Preferences->Appearance in Ubuntu Gutsy (or just right-click on the desktop, and choose "Change Desktop Background" to get there). All my images I added to it are 3840x1024 (3 x 1280x1024). The background here is one of the defaults for Ubuntu - its characteristic brown/orange.
This is how much screen there is in relation to me. I'm pretty big, so it's not as impressive, but if we got one of those tiny Japanese women who model new technology at gadget shows, they'd look gigantic. They tricked me that way years ago when I bought a Dell Axim x50V handheld, and couldn't believe how tiny it was when I got it - about 75% as large as I'd expected.
What I like best about this image is that it comes with a night version.
I could see writing a cron job to blend the two through ImageMagick (or graphicsmagick), based on the time of day, and occasionally swap in the updated version through calls to gconf-editor, so the background would parallel real-world time, though I'd like a sunset version to give me the oranges of that time of day, which these images lack.
I could position these monitors at least 5" higher, but I'd have to use a hex wrench to loosen each arm from its desk-mount pole, lift its whole weight up manually, and hold it in place while locking it down again. If it was for something like a Halloween party, and I wanted displays to present disco lights, or party-themed visuals up at eye-height, it would be worth going through the effort, but for daily use, it's just too much hassle.