Reusing an old HP Compaq dc7600 tower

"Nibby" (nibby68) 02/22/2018 at 18:00 • Filed to: None

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Gutted an HP Compaq dc7600 mid tower. Standard ATX layout. Front panel was standard as well! Even the power and HD LEDs work.

Rosewill Glacier 700W Modular power supply
Gigabyte Z170HD3P motherboard
Intel i7 6700K
Zalman cooler
Arctic F9 rear fan
32GB RAM Samsung 950 Pro 256GB M.2 SSD Seagate 2TB 7200RPM hard drive DVD/RW drive 5.25" USB 3.0 front panel with 3.5/2.5 bay NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060 6GB video card

So the original power supply is slightly larger than standard ATX but the screw holes aligned fine for the first part. Addon cards do not require a screwdriver for installation.

Side view of the interior

Hid the hard drive in there since the SATA power connector was jutting out and preventing the case from properly closing.

Roomy!

Side panel. The black frame is removable so I spray painted it black to make it look much better.

Other side. Missing one of the rubber feet.

Before spray painting

In action!

Front panel USB 2.0 + audio jacks work fine

Specs + temps

TFSIVTEC drivesavolvo > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 18:04

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Stealth machines are my favorite!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 18:11

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Nice - I’ve got an older Core 2 Quad mobo/proc/RAM I have laying around that I need to find a case for to use as a Home Theatre PC...

Nibby > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 02/22/2018 at 18:12

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Sweet! Is the board mATX or ATX?

Nibby > TFSIVTEC drivesavolvo 02/22/2018 at 18:12

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Thanks

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 18:18

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ATX. Came out of my brother’s recent Core i7 system case when he upgraded. :)

Don’t think I have any systems with mATX boards actually! Bro and I both have Core i7 Win10 systems and then said aforementioned motherboard/RAM/CPU from his old system. We both have Win7/Win8 era laptops running Linux Mint 18.3 MATE, and I also have MY old desktop (Core 2 Duo) that I run Mint 18.3 on as well as a spare machine...all the desktops are ATX. My Core 2 Duo system is using the very early-2000s-PC-modding-scene-LEDs-and-caselights-everywhere case ‘iCute’ brand case (no joke, that’s the brand, LOL) I’ve had since 2004. :P

lone_liberal > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 18:37

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It looks a lot like the 8200Elite that’s sitting under my desk right now. God, I hope they free up some budget for me to get a new box soon. I’m the damn IT guy!

Nibby > lone_liberal 02/22/2018 at 19:43

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Still is quite usable... Does it have an SSD

Nibby > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 02/22/2018 at 19:44

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Find an old Dell dimension XPS case

lone_liberal > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 19:48

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Nope, there’s no way they’d spring for that. In fact I just replaced the HDD because the original was giving an imminent failure warning and I was lucky to get a 7200RPM unit approved. It’s got an i7-2600 and 16GB of RAM so it’s serviceable but it really chugs when I’m doing testing with hyper-v or have multiple remote desktop sessions going.

Nibby > lone_liberal 02/22/2018 at 20:25

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Probably needs more RAM

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > Nibby 02/22/2018 at 20:53

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What do you do with all these sleeper computers? Do you have a killer byte coin mining operation?

Nibby > DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time 02/22/2018 at 21:31

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Shit posting + video editing and some game design, Photoshop

Mercedes Streeter > Nibby 02/26/2018 at 13:28

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Do you have any of these types of old prebuilt cases laying around? I just inherited a free dual socket server board that uses ATX screws. I want to make it into a sleeper.

Also, do you have any suggestions for old computers that use ATX stuff?

Nibby > Mercedes Streeter 02/26/2018 at 14:08

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I don’t at the moment, but those late 90s white Dell towers are pretty easy and can accommodate larger mobos. Might have to do some metal cutting to fit in a power supply but other than that and removing the blocked pin on the front panel connector with a needle, should be easy. They’re pretty narrow so measure the heatsink.

Mercedes Streeter > Nibby 02/26/2018 at 14:10

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Aw yeah. That’s what I need! Thanks! Off to go find a 90s Dell!

Nibby > Mercedes Streeter 02/26/2018 at 14:20

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search ebay for dimension XPS, dimension 4100

Mercedes Streeter > Nibby 02/26/2018 at 16:46

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As a giggle, I lowballed a Dimension 4100 on eBay...and the guy accepted it. Alrighty then! :D Thanks again!

Nibby > Mercedes Streeter 02/26/2018 at 17:48

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Sweet! Which one did you get? Price?

Mercedes Streeter > Nibby 02/26/2018 at 18:00

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/332143638518

Needs a little cleaning but all the parts I need are all there. Total cost was something like $50. Shipping cost more than the item itself!

Nibby > Mercedes Streeter 02/26/2018 at 21:31

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Good stuff. I’ve bought from that seller before. Use an air compressor to blow out the insides. Replace the rear fan with a 90mm one cause the original is noisy