Wow, this has been dormant for quite a while. It's been a busy few months, but exams are finally done, other than a single candidate presenting their masters thesis in a week. First time I've been on the other side of that particular situation, but at least the thesis is right in my wheelhouse. Onto the topic, I guess I forgot to mention here that I got a working riser cable - ADT-link, off AliExpress, and relatively affordable. The length is perfect.
This is the item I got, R33SF (straight PCIe slot), 50mm. Not the complete absence of ADT-link branding in the listing - I think they dislike others selling their wares on AE when they have their own store or some such. Anyhow, it's genuine, great quality, and works perfectly.
Installed:
Anyhow, the reason I came back to this thread: I finally had a free Saturday, and got around to hacking holes in the side panel of the Optiplex. Given how nervous I was of mucking this up, and my relative lack of experience with a rotary tool, I'm pretty happy with the results. I went somewhat overcomplicated on the design, but I felt that I had to to somehow preserve the sleeper look - the biggest hole was already there, so I had to make a pattern integrating that. I could just have enlarged the hole and added a wire grill, but that would look terrible. This doesn't. Still going to need to file down the edges and round off the corners of the holes, and then anything shiny will get the black sharpie treatment before I slap some black PVC mesh inside of the holes.
Once I have the edges filed off I'll post a pic showing the panel mounted. The GPU is definitely not going to be starved for air. Any tips on how to mount the PVC mesh would be welcome - I'm thinking either glue (secure, but messy and makes cleaning difficult) or magnets inside of the side panel (clean and removable, but far less secure, which could mean the mesh being drawn into the GPU fan). Any ideas?
This is the item I got, R33SF (straight PCIe slot), 50mm. Not the complete absence of ADT-link branding in the listing - I think they dislike others selling their wares on AE when they have their own store or some such. Anyhow, it's genuine, great quality, and works perfectly.
Installed:
Anyhow, the reason I came back to this thread: I finally had a free Saturday, and got around to hacking holes in the side panel of the Optiplex. Given how nervous I was of mucking this up, and my relative lack of experience with a rotary tool, I'm pretty happy with the results. I went somewhat overcomplicated on the design, but I felt that I had to to somehow preserve the sleeper look - the biggest hole was already there, so I had to make a pattern integrating that. I could just have enlarged the hole and added a wire grill, but that would look terrible. This doesn't. Still going to need to file down the edges and round off the corners of the holes, and then anything shiny will get the black sharpie treatment before I slap some black PVC mesh inside of the holes.
Once I have the edges filed off I'll post a pic showing the panel mounted. The GPU is definitely not going to be starved for air. Any tips on how to mount the PVC mesh would be welcome - I'm thinking either glue (secure, but messy and makes cleaning difficult) or magnets inside of the side panel (clean and removable, but far less secure, which could mean the mesh being drawn into the GPU fan). Any ideas?