PC: that damn case...

You know, every little while my opinion of AspireUSA drops a little bit more.

I held back on criticizing them on that knob that seems to not actually do anything (there's supposed to be a fan speed controller there). But all this time I just assumed it was because I have a fairly old power supply (about 250 watts maximum output)... maybe it's just not compatible with that knob...

But what really got me is that there was no manual in the case. Instead there was a CD that included a PDF file that I'd already read prior to buying the case (it's a free download on their web site the last time I checked). But unless you're a complete layman, nothing in the PDF guide is particularly important. Then again, it's just a PC case, there's nothing terribly different between this case and a million other cases out there when it comes to installig your parts inside. Presumeably, if you were able to get the pieces out of your old case, you'd just need to do everything in the reverse order to get stuff into the new one.

My other complaint at the time was that the temperature read out on the front was in Fahrenheit. Granted, it's not such a big deal. But being Canadian, I'm pretty used to thinking in Centigrade terms. To me, "30 degrees" is sweltering summer heat. When they say it's "40 degrees with the humidity," we call it a heatwave and are told to stay indoors - preferably with air conditioning on...
Well, out of the blue I decided to check on line if there was something, anything I could do about that. Turns out there's a rather simple procedure that is completely undocumented. All you do is remove 4 screws from the inside (hell, some guy posted that there were actually 6 screws somewhere) and pop out the entire front panel from the frame. You don't even need to pop out the whole thing. Just have it popped on one side - enough to see the digital module from the inside.

The switch is pretty obvious... it's a black switch on a white module. All you need something sturdy (like say a dinner knife) to poke in there and flip the switch to the opposite position. Then you stap the panel back into place, replace the screws you took out, and that's it!