Those of you who are unfamiliar with the term Ghetto Tech or Ghetto Technology may be a little confused right now. Well let me explain. Ghetto Tech is essentially the process of using cheaply found or readily available materials around one’s own house to implement a certain level of technology use, normally performed with more expensive gadgetry. For example, a popularly known application, The Ghetto Headset, is a cell-phone attached to one’s head via a large rubber band or strap of some sort. With that in mind, I shall be walking you through a recent project of mine of rescuing a soon-to-die personal desktop computer with the application of such Ghetto Technology.
Trouble Brewing… It’s Feeling Warm In Here…
The problem in question that needed to be resolved was with a particular Dell 4600C given to me by a friend I once knew, and had since suffered some various problems. Not only is the 4600C listed in some of the Worst Computers of All Time lists for a well known power supply failure after a year’s time, but it was also approaching 8+ years old. What had begun to happen at this point was a massive hard drive failure that bricked the original HDD, while both the Power Supply and CPU fans having crapped out, thus causing to massive, almost instantaneous overheating issues that were forcing the shutdown of the PC, not to mention shortening it’s already aged lifespan.
No, I’m Not Buying Your Crap Proprietary Replacement Parts
Now this computer was manufactured during the hey-day of proprietary modules being used for the big name PC assemblers like Dell, who would make a large portion of their funds by selling customers ridiculously overpriced replacement parts that only Dell would sell. This scheme has always been one to piss me off, considering there is no reason for them to make you use only their devices considering they are never any better, in-fact often cheap and under-performing. My idea was firm, I would not be purchasing their crap to work with this PC, either I save it myself with the parts I have available or it goes in the bin.
Replacing the HDD
This was actually the easiest part, not really requiring much in the way of Ghetto Tech replacements. Although Dell used a slimmer model of HDD, I was able to find that removing the green mountings and reattaching them to a new regular HDD was sufficient to allow its insertion into the bay and still close as long as the cables were organized out of the way.
Next, the CPU Fan
Here’s where the Ghetto Tec comes into play. Now the only fan I had to replace the Dell brand one was a basic AMD CPU fan with heat sink. In order to fit it on the special heat sink and fan mountings the Dimension used, I had to take a piece of clippers and carefully cut away portions of plastic around the processor to allow the AMD one to sit nicely on top. Now given the Dimension I had was the type that can lay on its side, so that the motherboard is sitting horizontally instead of held up vertically in relation to gravity, the fan and sink were just fine without any clips or attachments as long as care was taken not to move the desktop itself too vigorously while also always keeping it laying on its side.
Finding a Way to Cool the Power Supply
Now unfortunately, replacing a dead fan on a PSU is much harder, given that opening the PSU can potentially cause serious injury or even death if you were to accidentally discharge a capacitor, thus electrocuting yourself. Given the risk, I wasn’t about to replace the fans. Instead to continue the theme of Ghetto Tech, I took another spare heat sink and propped it up against the metal casing of the PSU. Using one of the pieces of metal used to block up unused expansion slots in the rear of a computer case, I propped the heat sink up with one side of the metal piece and the other side, bent and inserted into the CPU heat sink as to keep the PSU heat sink firmly against the metal body. Some unused heat transfer paste was on the heat sink as well, which is a definite help in making it effective.
Still Needs More Suck
The final piece of work inside the case was the addition of a second fan. The original Dell CPU fan was specifically designed with a cap that fit over it that directed air out of the back of the case, however I did not have one to fit the AMD fan that was now just pushing air up and not necessarily out the rear vents. Luckily I had a spare PCI fan lying around to use.
In order to fit the PCI fan into the case, which did not have normal sized expansion slots or bays that would fit one in the typical sense, I had to once again get creative. What I did here was use clippers once again to cut away parts of the rear grill of the case in order to fit the metal ends of the PCI fan through some newly cut slots, then bending the metal around the grill to hold it in place. Helping keep it propped up was also the same bit of metal that was stuck between the two heat sinks added earlier.
The Coup De Grace, Ghetto Water-Cooling
This was my proudest moment and first implementation of any type of water cooling into a PC before. I’ve never had the funds for a legit water cooling system but I have a thorough understanding behind the process by which it functions. Essentially the idea is to use water to move heat away from the CPU or other high-heat areas of the PC to another portion where the water can release its heat energy away from the vital portions of the computer.
Now my application modifies the typical set up, however still retains the same concept behind it. What I did in this case was take two aluminum tins that were actually old Yu-Gi-Oh card containers and filled them about 1/3rd up with tap water. I put the lids on and affixed some tape around the edges to prevent some of the water vapor from leaving. These two tins were then placed underneath the computer case which was then sat atop the tins. With this application, the two tins would draw the heat away from the underside of the case itself which would then heat up the water, evaporating it only to condense inside the tin and fall back down into the tray below. Thus you have a crude yet surprisingly effective, ghetto water cooling system. The fix was performed over a year and a half ago, and the PC still dutifully runs and works as a back-up video conversion and encoding platform to his day.