Cases with locks? Whats the purpose?

[Ric0h]

I noticed my alienware has a lock, I guess so that they won't turn it on without my permission? But whats the point of that?

I just dont get it someone explain to me.

This is ridiculous. Also, the 2 pins in my motherboard seem to be bent. Can I bend them the right way safely?

Last question, whats the purpose of the hdd lights and power lights, and the speaker. This is probably the first case I had that has them all, but whats the purpose? I always had cases with neither of that, and they worked just fine and never had a problem as to say "Dang I wish I had those lights flashing on and off.")

 

[aspire]

The lock is simply there to prevent people from screwing with it.

It originally came from the server environment where security plays a huge role.

Power light is so you know its on... HDD light serves no real purpose but it lets you know when it's being accessed. The case speaker is a holdover from a previous generation but now you see them included on the motherboard, or replaced by a diagnostic lcd display.

 

[Ric0h]

So the speaker is just old school now?
Nobody uses that anymore?

But wait you din't explained what it is used for, other than for previous generations.

So buying a case with all these functions is worthless for a normal home user?

 

[Yek]

Well no, not really.
The power light let's you know "everythings happening" and working in order.
Specifically mine tells me the state of my system, also. Indication when my system is in standby is given by a flashing light.

HD light tells you your HD is being accessed, useful as drives nowadays are extremely quiet.

Cheers,

~ Tkey

 

[Skeeg]

computer speaker, generally is to tell you that something is wrong and its going to blow up... i know this cuz mine beeped then blew up and never worked again.

 

[Poizen22]

computer speaker, generally is to tell you that something is wrong and its going to blow up... i know this cuz mine beeped then blew up and never worked again.

that sounds liek a bomb lol. usualy teh speaker will beep, in a certain order lettign you know what is wrogn think of it as a moarse code for computers, most high end otherb oards have lvd displays now, some are even external like the asus formula series.

 

[Ric0h]

ohhh! so thats what it was!!!

Lol, when I was moving stuff from my old case to my alienware case, while I was installing xp, I just heard that, and the desktop got turned off, but all fans were working. And later, I noticed it was the cpu heating up, forgot to apply thermal compound again.

Weird, Do all components have that beep sound? Also, one time, on a case that did not had a the speaker, I forgot to plug in the power for the 8800 GT GPU, and it started beeping too. So I am assuming lots of components have it now? (they are foolproof?)

Can I mod my case to have an LCD display instead of the speakers? (what is the LCD display called?) LCD for what?

 

[SirCyber]

as mentioned, the lights are useful for knowing what's going on. I know when my puter freezes by that little HDD light. if it's still blinking and doing stuff, I know my computer is just slow, not froze. speaker, yeah... I actually never used that. have worked on computers that did. now replaced with led's or lcd display. pwr led speaks for itself, yeah, that's kinda useless too. lastly, yes, if you are CAREFUL you can bend those mobo pins, but please key in on the careful part. if it snaps, well, unless you're good at soldering you're ****ed. don't bother with the speaker connector, good idea to have the hdd, and pwr led is kinda pointless but oh well. good luck!

***EDIT***
the speaker is now integrated into the board, and the lcd display is also on the boards now. no, hardware components are NOT foolproof, the beeping from the mobo is an indicator that something is wrong, nothing else has that to my knowledge.

 

[aspire]

ohhh! so thats what it was!!!

Lol, when I was moving stuff from my old case to my alienware case, while I was installing xp, I just heard that, and the desktop got turned off, but all fans were working. And later, I noticed it was the cpu heating up, forgot to apply thermal compound again.

Weird, Do all components have that beep sound? Also, one time, on a case that did not had a the speaker, I forgot to plug in the power for the 8800 GT GPU, and it started beeping too. So I am assuming lots of components have it now? (they are foolproof?)

Can I mod my case to have an LCD display instead of the speakers? (what is the LCD display called?) LCD for what?

You forgot thermal paste more than once.... -_-

No not all components, and not all are foolproof. Mobo's and GFX are about it. The speaker in the case is meant to be hooked up to the speaker header on your motherboard.

The LCD display I'm talking about is built into the motherboard and displays diagnostic codes. Which is basically what the speaker was originally for. You just had t listen and then decode what it meant. (I.E. Bad memory, or No hard drive, stuff like that.)

 

[Ric0h]

Thanks, Just one last question, I am thinking of buying new fans just because I dont trust 5 years old fans.

So my question is, The more flaps or whatever they have the better, and more quiet?
I think they are called turbine fans. or if they are like a submarine propeller?

Aerocool Turbine 2000 Black 120mm LED Fan (turbine)
Noctua NF-S12 120mm Fan (propeller type)

Can you guys rate this mouse really quick? This mouse sounds too good to be true.
Wolf King Trooper Laser Gaming Mouse - Black