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CES Report - Section 13:
8/7/2004 to 9/22/2004

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9-22-2004> A few days ago, I was doing a routine check of the links to the items on CES's shopping list. When I checked Directron, the Samsung slimline CD-RW DVD drive I had my eye on for months was sold out. Also, the link to the slimline floppy drive was gone; I got a Page Not Found error when I used my bookmark to the page. However, I found another slim floppy drive on the site for $24.50, 51 cents more than the old one. When I searched Directron for another DVD drive, I found another one from Samsung for $76.99, the same price as the other one. However, I took a closer look at the new drive as I typed out this paragraph, and I noticed that it's 24x10x24x8, as opposed to the now sold out drive which was 24x24x24x8. But I also found yet another CD-RW DVD drive, this one from Toshiba, which is 24x24x24x8, but only $73.99, three bucks less than the sold out Samsung drive.

> The new slimline floppy drive costs 51 cents more than the old one.

$785.72 total budget + $0.51 more spent = $786.23 total budget

> The Toshiba Slimline CDRW/DVD drive costs three dollars less than the now sold out Samsung drive.

$786.23 total budget - $3.00 less spent = $783.23 total budget

Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
1 eight pack of 4-40" x 1" bolts from the Home Depot - $0.90
Money spent so far - $261.77

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $165.00
1 Intel Celeron D 2.8Ghz 478-pin processor - $113.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Toshiba Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $73.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $24.50
1 Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm Sleeve Case Fan - $5.99
1 PW-200 external power supply - $45.00
1 glow-in-the-dark Linux Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.21
Sales tax for NewEgg items - $8.76
Money left to spend - $521.46

Total cost of CES - $783.23

> It's almost 12:30AM, and a little over ten minutes ago, I put the first of four coats of the Minwax Polycrylic on the left top hatch cut-out I've been using as my test panel. I took the panel down to the back yard and did a test spray of the Polycrylic, aiming it away from the panel. I was a little worried when the stuff came out white instead of clear. I then put a thin coat on the panel, and when I did, the spray became clearer as soon as it hit the aluminum. I will put a second coat on in about 45 minutes.

> I have to finish all four coats of the Polycrylic before 7AM. My parents are leaving for Florida for a week, and they're taking the digital camera with them. If I want to take the incremental pictures of me applying the four coats of Polycrylic, I'll have to do it today, or wait another week. Otherwise, I'll just have to apply the acrylic without the incremental pics.

> It's almost 5PM, and I've finished applying all four coats of Polycrylic to my test panel. When I tried scratching off the test pattern with my fingernail, a tiny bit scratched off, but the spray still proved better than the acrylic. The panel ended up with a gritty texture in both look and feel, so I'll count that as a strike against the Polycrylic. However, the Polycrylic is not out of this yet. I'm going to apply one final very thick coat later today, and if it doesn't scratch off, I'll use it on my side panels and angle irons. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to use the nail polish instead. I've noticed that the Polycrylic doesn't smell as strong as the acrylic, and the smell doesn't stick to my hands after I wash them. So maybe I'll apply the final coat closer to the deck.

9-10-2004> Yestderday, I went to the Home Depot and picked up a can of water-based Minwax Polycrylic. I don't know if it's supposed to be polyurathane of acrylic, or a mixture of the two, but as long as it protects CES's side panels and 4" angle irons, and doesn't scratch off, it will be good enough for me. The can cost almost eight bucks, so this damn well better work. If not, I can return the spray within the 90 days allowed by the Home Depot.

> Just after ten this morning, I retrieved one of my top hatch scrap panels, scraped off some of the acrylic with my fingernail, and drew two small test patterns; one in Shaprie permanent markers, and the other in Pigma Microns. I intended to apply four coats of the Polycrylic as instructed, because I had a lot of places to go today, including Crate and Barrel, which is just across the parking lot from the Home Depot. If the Polycrylic couldn't provide adequate protection for my test patterns, I would take the spray back to the Depot, and get something else. However, my plans changed, and I never did get to spraying the Polycrylic onto my test panel. I'll see if I can get that done tommorow, if my schedule allows.

9-4-2004> About a week ago, I was talking to JD over the phone, and I was telling him what kind of CPU and motherboard I was getting for CES. JD said that in addition to the motherboard's socket type, the motherboard's front side bus was also an important factor when deciding what kind of processor to buy. So I went to ituner.com where I plan to buy the Via Epia P4 ITX motherboard. The motherboard appearantly supported a front side bus of between 400 and 533Mhz , so I then went to NewEgg.com to look for any 3Ghz Pentium 4 processors to see if any of them had a FSB that the motherboard supported. All of those chips had an 800Mhz FSB, too fast for the P4 ITX. The fastest P4 processors I could find that were compatible with the P4 ITX were 2.8Ghz chips, so hopefully 3Ghz chips with a 400 - 533Mhz FSB will be available by the time I'm ready to upgrade CES.

> Three days ago, I went an auto body parts store near the Moto Photo in Ridgewood. I asked the guy behind the counter if the store carried any poyurathane. He said it didn't, but he recommended I go to the Home Depot and see if they had any. Since I had already been to the Home Depot, and they didn't seem to have any either, I guess that's not an option either. However, my brother Peter called last night, and I told him that I couldn't find the polyurethane at the auto body parts store. He suggested that I went to the wrong kind of store, and that certain car restoration shops sold paint and protective products, including polyurethane. He also suggested that I look in the yellow pages to see if any such stores exist near my area. I'll get right on to that as soon as I get a chance.

> I was looking through the items on my shopping list just now, and noticed that both the P4 Mini-ITX motherboard and the PW-200V power supply at idot.com are cheaper than they are at ituner.com. The P4 motherboard costs $185 at ituner, while it only costs $165 at idot.

$776.67 total budget - $20.00 less spent = $756.67 total budget

> The PW200 power supply costs $49.95 at ituner, but only $45.00 at idot.

$756.67 total budget - $4.95 less spent = $751.72 total budget

> I have long decided to set aside $15 in my budget for a possible shipping and handling charge that idot may have, which means that I can spend up to $785 for CES's parts. With my budget now at $751.72, I can spend $33.28 more on my processor. Since the 2.4Ghz Celeron D processor I'm buying costs $79.00, this means I can now spend $112.28 for a better processor. The Celeron D 2.8Ghz processor at NewEgg costs $113, but since I've given myself so much breathing room between not factoring in the price drop of the RAM and the $15 S&H cushion, I guess I can upgrade processors for now. Processors are not as erratic in price as RAM modules are, and price changes tend to be lower prices rather than higher ones.

$751.72 total budget + $34.00 more spent for Celeron D 2.8 GHx processor = $785.72 total budget

Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
1 eight pack of 4-40" x 1" bolts from the Home Depot - $0.90
Money spent so far - $261.77

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $165.00
1 Intel Celeron D 2.8Ghz 478-pin processor - $113.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Samsung Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $76.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $23.99
1 Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm Sleeve Case Fan - $5.99
1 PW-200 external power supply - $45.00
1 glow-in-the-dark Linux Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.21
Sales tax for NewEgg items - $8.76
Money left to spend - $523.95

Total cost of CES - $785.72

8-25-2004> Over the past several days, I've been seeking advice from my brother Peter over the phone about what kind of protective coat to give CES's side panels. The first time I called him on Saturday, he asked me to e-mail a picture of the panels, so I sent him an older one, taken before the green down arrow on the left panel was colored in. When I called Peter again two days later, he suggested that I should have used some kind of base coating before I started painting the panels. But since it was already too late for that, he suggested that I try spraying on some polyurethane, although he could not guarantee success. In fact, he said that without a base coat, any coating I try with likely scratch off. Peter said that auto body shops carry polyurethane, and I should see if there was one by my house. My mother said that there may be an auto body shop near the Moto Photo near Paramus Park Mall, so I'll try to get there the next time I get a chance. But if the polyurethane fails, I may still fall back on my plan to coat my panels and 4" angle irons with nail polish.

8-20-2004> I headed off to the Home Depot today in order to pick up some longer bolts to hold my fans and cold cathode grills to the back and bottom panels of CES's chassis. In order to assist me find what I needed, I brought along a bag of tiny bolts and nuts that came with one of my fan grills. After a bit of searching, I found an eight pack of 4-40 x 1" bolts with matching nuts. These bolts were slightly longer than the ones for the fan grill, but I suspected that they still wouldn't be long enough to fit through the holes of the grills, then through the holes in the chassis, then trough the fans, but I could not find anything longer that was 4-40" or thinner. I tested a nut from the grill on a 4-40" bolt, but the bolt was just a bit too wide for the nut, though not by much. Seeing that the 4-40" bolts were not much wider than the ones I brought, I figured that they would still fit through the bolt holes of the fan and grills. The pack of bolts cost 90 cents, and after my purchase, I headed for the Maxima to wait for my parents. But before I could get far, two men from the store stopped me, and said that somebody saw me stuff a bag of bolts in my pocket. I explained to them that the bolts were something I brought in for comparison purposes, and they let me go.

$775.77 total budget + $0.90 for 1 eight pack of 4-40" x 1" bolts = $776.67 total budget

Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
1 eight pack of 4-40" x 1" bolts from the Home Depot - $0.90
Money spent so far - $261.77

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $185.00
1 Intel Celeron D 2.4Ghz 478-pin processor - $79.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Samsung Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $76.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $23.99
1 Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm Sleeve Case Fan - $5.99
1 PW-200 external power supply - $49.95
1 glow-in-the-dark Linux Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.21
Sales tax for NewEgg items - $8.76
Money left to spend - $514.90

Total cost of CES - $776.67

> After I got back home, I tested the bolts to see if they were the right size for CES's fan and grills. I took a bolt out of the package through a hole that someone had already punched in the bag, and brought one fan and one grill down to the kitchen. First, I needed to see if the bolt would fit through the bolt holes of both the fan and the grill. Since the holes on the grill were slightly narrower than the holes on the fan, I tried to fit the bolt through one of the grill's holes. The bolt fit without a problem. I then put one of the fan's bolt holes over the bolt, to see if the bolt would go through both components and stick out the other side. The bolt was too short to show through, and I figured that I'd return the bolts to the store in the hopes of someday finding something longer.

> It was then that I noticed that the fan grill's bolt holes were long and porturuding from the grill. I figured that if I could cut the holes down, I could fit the bolts through the holes, and still have room for the 1/16" back and bottom panels. My plan now is to put away the bolts I bought, cut the grill's holes down as far as I can, and then test the grill's own bolts to see if they're long enough to fit through the modified grills and the fans. If the bolts are long enough, I can return the bolts to the Home Depot and get my 90 cents back, taking it back out of the budget.

8-14-2004> I did another check of the items on Directron and NewEgg, and found that the both the pqi and Viking 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM sticks are now a few dollars less than they were since the last time I adjusted my budget. They were both $79, but the Viking RAM has been reduced to $73, while the pqi RAM has been reduced to $74. However, I'm not going to factor this price difference into the budget until I actually order one of the RAM sticks. The price of RAM changes constantly, and as far as I know, the RAM could raise in price and never come down to where they are now again. The prices in my budget's current shopping list serve as the maximum price I'm willing to pay for each item, and if I push the price of something down too low, and then the item becomes unavailable or has a price increase, it may become very difficult to get another of the same item that is less than the maximum I set.

> Another thing I was considering today was how certain items should be mounted on the front panel. Using my trusty ruler, I figured that I had a 100 x 80mm area to mount such items, an area between the LEDs and switches on the left edge, and the drives on the right side. The USB and PS/2 faceplate will be an 80 x 35mm section of a classic NES controller, where the B and A button holes will house the keyboard and mouse PS/2 ports, and the Select and Start button holes will house two USB ports. This faceplate will not include the left-side D-pad. The front panel will also have a faceplate which will include the switches for the two cold cathode fan grills, plus room for more should I need to add more switches. I have also discovered that even with all this stuff on the front panel, there is still room for a 40mm LED fan. I will include such a fan with my Directron order if I can afford it on both my financial and weight budgets. It's still not too late to take the two-LED 80mm case fan instead of the Linux Case Badge as my free Directron item.

> However, none of this stuff will be mounted on the front panel itself. The 100 x 80mm section will consist of the two faceplates and the fan mounted directly to the chassis. Large holes in the front panel will allow it to fit around the faceplates and fan, and make them look like they are part of the panel. Because the faceplates and fan will be separate from each other and the front panel, I can replace an individual unit if I want to switch to a fan with more LEDs, or add a new decoration to CES which would require me to add a new switch to the front panel.

8-10-2004> Just after midnight this morning, I was checking out some case mods on mini-itx.com, when I saw an ad banner for the external power supplies at ituner and clicked on it. When I did that, I found that there was a new type of micro power supply called the PW-200V. It looks very similiar to the PW-60A I was planning to get, but the major difference between the two is that the PW-60A provides over 100 watts of power to the motherboard, while the PW-200V provides over 200 watts. When I first switched to the P4 ITX as CES's new motherboard, I wasn't sure if the PW-60A would support it. But the page for the PW-200V specifically mentioned P4 motherboards, so I decided to switch to it as my new power supply. The page also said that the PW-200V supported processors with clock speeds of up to 3.0Ghz, so I've decided to buy a 3Ghz Celeron D processor for my post-project upgrade, assuming such chips exist by the time I'm ready for that upgrade. Since the PW-200V is exactly the same price as the PW-60A I was going to get, this switch was have no effect on my project's budget.

8-9-2004> Two days ago, I picked out the Celeron 2.4Ghz processor on NewEgg.com to use with my VIA EPIA P4 motherboard. This morning however, I switched to a Celeron D processor of the same clock speed. The Celeron D costs a little more, however both the Level 1 and 2 caches are twice as large as the caches on their standard Celeron counterparts. The standard Celeron costs $68, while the Celeron D I'm now getting is eleven bucks more, costing $79. Even though I'm spending more money, I should still finish the project with around $10 to spare, depending on the taxes and/or shipping and handling charges at ituner.

$764.77 total budget + $11.00 more spent = $775.77 total budget

Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
Money spent so far - $260.87

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $185.00
1 Intel Celeron D 2.4Ghz 478-pin processor - $79.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Samsung Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $76.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $23.99
1 Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm Sleeve Case Fan - $5.99
1 PW-60A external power supply - $49.95
1 glow-in-the-dark Linux Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.21
Sales tax for NewEgg items - $8.76
Money left to spend - $514.90

Total cost of CES - $775.77

> The Celeron D 2.4Ghz processor is the best processor on NewEgg that I can currently afford. However, this won't necessarily be the case when the time comes to order the Celeron and the RAM. I've found that the longer I wait to order an item online, the less the item costs by the time I can afford it. If I set aside $15 in my budget for a possible tax and/or S&H charge at ituner, I can currently spend up to around $90 on a processor. When I'm ready to make my order, maybe about a month or so from now, the better processors may drop below $90, allowing CES's initial build to be more powerful.

> I just visited the NewEgg site, and now the pqi 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM I was originally planning to buy has been restocked. But that doesn't matter now, since the Viking brand of RAM is already in my budget for the exact same price. But I'll keep tabs on both of them to see if one of them drops in price, or becomes unavalable.

8-8-2004> As for now, I have seven real actual items between three online shops remaining on my shopping list. I figured that the best way to order these items is to order from the shops in a particular order. First I'm going to order the VIA EPIA P4 ITX motherboard and the PW-60A external power supply from ituner. The specs on the P4 motherboard did not mention what size fan it supports, so I'm going to first order the motherboard and measure the fan mounts so I can know what size fan to buy from Directron.

> Speaking of Directron, I am now only getting three items from the site; the fan, the slim floppy drive, and the slim DVD drive. I can take off some cash of all three items in my budget, because both drives have gone down in price, and the fan I'm now planning to get is cheaper. The slim floppy drive that once cost $26.99 is now $23.99, and the Samsung slimline DVD drive that was $81.99 is now $76.99. Judging by the picture of the P4 motherboard, the fan is most likely 80mm, so I'm switching to a green Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm fan, which costs only $5.99, rather than the $9.99 40mm fan I was going to get for the VIA EPIA V10000A motherboard. When I checked the shipping and handling prices of the three items, it turned out to be $7.21. Now let's break down these price differences in turn...

> The slimline floppy drive was $26.99, but now costs $23.99. This saves me three bucks.

$767.98 total budget - $3.00 less spent = $764.98 total budget

> The Samsung slimline DVD drive was $81.99, but now costs $76.99. This lowers the cash I'm spending by five more dollars.

$764.98 total budget - $5.00 less spent = $759.98 total budget

> The Flexiglow 80mm fan costs $5.99, as opposed to the Directron 40mm fan which costs $9.99. This shaves four more dollars off of my budget

$759.98 total budget - $4.00 less spent = $755.98 total budget

> The UPS Ground Residential shipping and handling charge for the three Directron items was $7.18, but now it's been raised by three cents to $7.21.

$755.98 total budget + $0.03 more spent = $756.01 total budget

> As for the free case badge that comes with Directron orders of $100 or more, I've decided to switch from a Bart Simpson badge to one of a glow-in-the-dark Linux penguin. It's still just one penny, so this should make no difference in the budget. For orders exceeding $59, Directron was offering a free Asaka 8cm Crystal Blue Case Fan w/ Flashing LED Lights & Speed Control, which came with either blue or green LEDs. I could have taken the other fan off the budget and gotten the free one instead, but the LED I'm already getting has four LEDs while the free fan has only two.

> After the three Directron items are ordered, I will buy the last two items on my shopping list, which are both items I'll be getting from NewEgg.com. They are the Celeron processor and the DDR RAM, both of which tend to change in price and availability often. By the time I'm ready to order them, all of the shipping and handling charges will be behind me, and I won't have to compensate for them anymore. I will order the fastest Celeron chip that I can afford with the remaining cash in my budget, hopefully 2.6 Ghz or faster. At this point, I won't have to worry about not being able to afford anything else for my build, since they'll all be out of the way.

> It's just before 10:30PM, and I just found out that the 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM stick I was planning to order from NewEgg has sold out since this morning. However, I found another RAM stick of the same type from Viking Components on NewEgg, and it also costs $78. Therefore, CES's budget remains at $756.01.

> I just logged into my NewEgg account to check what kind of tax I'll have to pay on the two items I'm getting from there. The sales tax is $8.76, and since I'm buying two different kinds of items, I'm factoring the tax into the budget as a separate item, rather than just adding it to the cost of an item.

$756.01 total budget + $8.76 for sales tax for NewEgg items = $764.77 total budget



Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
Money spent so far - $260.87

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $185.00
1 Intel Celeron 2.4Ghz 478-pin processor - $68.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Samsung Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $76.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $23.99
1 Flexiglow Quad LED 8cm Sleeve Case Fan - $5.99
1 PW-60A external power supply - $49.95
1 glow-in-the-dark Linux Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.21
Sales tax for NewEgg items - $8.76
Money left to spend - $503.90

Total cost of CES - $764.77





8-7-2004> I was shopping online some more today in search of a cheaper Via Epia P4 Mini-ITX motherboard, Celeron processor, and PC2100 DDR RAM. After searching both NewEgg and TigerDirect.com, I found a Celeron chip and a 512MB RAM stick on NewEgg that was cheaper than the ones at Xtreme Computer Systems. The processor I found was the same type of Celeron as the one at Xtreme; a 2.4Ghz 478-pin chip, but one that cost $68 instead of $76.99. This meant $8.99 less that I had to spend on CES.

$784.72 total budget - $8.99 less spent = $775.73 total budget

> The RAM stick I found on NewEgg was a similiar 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM DIMM that was on Xtreme, but at a cost of $78 instead of $85.75. I could then take another $7.75 off my budget.

$775.73 total budget - $7.75 less spent = $767.98 total budget



Items bought so far...
2-WIRE JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com - $7.00
Assorted LEDs from Radio Shack - $2.64
CES's 12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com - $61.00
3 6" x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com - $12.00
2 hard drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com - $17.00
2 80mm Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com - $21.00
2 brass concave knobs from the Home Depot - $2.11
1 pair of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com - $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
Money spent so far - $260.87

Current shopping list...
1 Via Epia P4 ITX Motherboard - $185.00
1 Intel Celeron 2.4Ghz 478-pin processor - $68.00
1 512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM - $78.00
1 Samsung Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $81.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline Floppy drive - $26.99
1 Directron Tri-Lighted 40mm Case Fan - $9.99
1 PW-60A external power supply - $49.95
1 Bart Simpson Case Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.18
Money left to spend - $507.11

Total cost of CES - $767.98



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_Report | Section 13