New Age BeBox : Part 1 of 4.

This article is not about what motherboard or what graphic card to use but how to build a New Age BeBox. So what is a "New Age BeBox" you ask? A computer with the power to change the world! Well okay maybe not but at least it will scream "I’m A BeOS freak!"...

When Be Inc. came out with their original BeBox every geek on the planet was drooling. With Pulse Bars on the front, a GEEK port, and dual processors, what better computer could there be then a BeBox? Unfortunately, times changed, and Be Inc. moved away from the BeBox towards the PowerPC and x86 architectures. The original BeBox never made it into mass production, but a few lucky users have the privilege of owning such a beautiful piece of computer art and hardware, and this article hopes to bring back that same spirit to the rest of us.

Two things made the BeBox special and quite different from what everyone else was doing to their boxen; The Pulse Bars on the front of the case which indicated CPU usages, and the Geek port. You remember the Geek Port right? That special port is one that has a special place in the heart of every geek, with analog to digital converters and 37 pins of pure geek interface. So we know that our new age BeBox (NABB) needs to have both of these. They need not be exactly the same as this is a New Age BeBox so it will have a New Age Geek Port, and a New Age Pulse Bar system. The specs for both of these are under development and will be the topic of the next section of this multi-part article.

Before we get down to the good stuff you need a case to hold it all. A case is a very personal thing. What size? What color? What features? After a lot of looking around I found the perfect case for my needs. An Antec 1030B, this case is now discontinued but was such a popular design that other companies have clone it. The model is now beige and is marketed as a SOHO server case, what does that mean?

It means that it has easy access to all drive bays and it can be locked. The 3 ½" drive bay can be removed to install hard drives without you having to cram it into the case. The 5 ¼" drive bays use a rail system so installing a new cd-rom drive is quicker then Porshe’s 0 to 60 time. And to top it all off it has a quick release handle on the side access panel, 4 fans, and lockable side and front covers. As I said before, the choice of a case is personal but a few things to keep in mine, a good case has no sharp edge where you can cut yourself while you are working on it as we all know getting cut by your computer case is no fun. For the sake of this article series, I'm going to use the Antec 1030B as our example. It seems to work well.

We will start off with the simple changes to the case to make it more BeBox like. Beware that it will not be a perfect replicate of the original BeBox look but will have the same spirit! The case I picked was a nice jet black, different from that bland beige. One of the simplest mods that can be done is to get rid of those ugly run of the mill case leds and replace them with some new ones. On the Antec case I got lucky as the leds were socketed so no soldering was required in removing and replacing the leds.

So what colors do you pick for the new leds? Well blue and red of course. Changing the leds takes only a few minutes if they are socketed, if not just break out the soldering iron and change them the hard way. There is a nice walk-thru for replacing led's at Virtual Hideout.

So what leds do you get? Well that depends on your case. Most cases use 3mm leds (the Antec is no exception). The voltage rating of the leds needs to be about 2.5v. For the best results measure the voltage that goes to your leds so you can get an led that will give you maximum brightness. That was not too hard right? Well I hope not. Now that your case has that nice blue power led and red hard drive activity led, you're on your way to having a New Age BeBox.

If you have ever been in a room with a BeBox you will remember that they where quiet compared to today’s monster. So how can we reduce the noise level and make it even more cool? Well after some looking around I came across a very easy to install product, called a Baybus, and it lets you set your case fans to high, low, or off It has indicator leds that turn red, blue, clear, and is a must-have for users who leave their computer on all the time.

These are just some ideas of the base work that can be done on your case to make it look a little better then a plain case since from here on in its all new territory for mods. The Pulse Bar and the New Age Geek Port will be spec'd soon. This article was mainly to get you started on simple case mods which can enhance your case and make it the start of a true New Age BeBox.

Tune in next time when the real show begins and we start with the specs for the NAGP and NAPB.

-Alex "ZeroOverride" Harvey.