Thermaltake CircleFire: Mid-2000s PC VU Meters
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Krzysztof
I definitely like the idea of a VU meters add-on to stick into one of my empty DVD drive slots, but this fart gun in the middle would clearly need to be amputated and a pass through soldered in. I have somehow never seen a PC with this sort of audio accessory panel stuck in the front. I could even 3d print something like this but with a standard front panel audio connector and usb ports. They do have to come out somewhere anyways and my case has physically broken front USB ports so I'll have to replace them at some point but the new PCB probably won't fit in the old bracket.
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I definitely like the idea of a VU meters add-on to stick into one of my empty DVD drive slots, but this fart gun in the middle would clearly need to be amputated and a pass through soldered in. I have somehow never seen a PC with this sort of audio accessory panel stuck in the front. I could even 3d print something like this but with a standard front panel audio connector and usb ports. They do have to come out somewhere anyways and my case has physically broken front USB ports so I'll have to replace them at some point but the new PCB probably won't fit in the old bracket.
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Eric
I like the aesthetic of it. Shame it sounds bad, and is a flawed idea. It at least lets a PC have an internal speaker the way, say, Apple's towers have always had. The problem with that is, of course, that no one would opt to use a crappy internal speaker in a Mac tower when they can use external speakers or headphones. It would make a little more sense in a desktop form factor, where the speaker would be right in front of you, but having the sound coming out of a tower to the side on or below your desk is just a terrible idea.
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I like the aesthetic of it. Shame it sounds bad, and is a flawed idea. It at least lets a PC have an internal speaker the way, say, Apple's towers have always had. The problem with that is, of course, that no one would opt to use a crappy internal speaker in a Mac tower when they can use external speakers or headphones. It would make a little more sense in a desktop form factor, where the speaker would be right in front of you, but having the sound coming out of a tower to the side on or below your desk is just a terrible idea.
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ElectronicPleasure
03: 07 I'll guess why.
I bet the PCB was ment to be a PCI slot with the 5 1/4 being a breakout box, but something happened. Some one screwed up and made it and enclosed unit in production with a backing plate made too and was not needed. So rather than make a specific plate with a 3. 5mm female connector to male that then attachies to the drive bay they just went -Screw it, Just use the back plates we have- rather than make new ones upping the production cost VASTLY.
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03: 07 I'll guess why.
I bet the PCB was ment to be a PCI slot with the 5 1/4 being a breakout box, but something happened. Some one screwed up and made it and enclosed unit in production with a backing plate made too and was not needed. So rather than make a specific plate with a 3. 5mm female connector to male that then attachies to the drive bay they just went -Screw it, Just use the back plates we have- rather than make new ones upping the production cost VASTLY.
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--
you could set up the stereo mix cloned audio source and have everything go through the meters and your regular DAC or digital speakers. In order to do this you may have to hard disable the speaker on the unit as there will be a delay. And of course this doesnt fix the issue with the meters themselves being shit, it just gives you a way to enjoy them at all for their novelty.
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you could set up the stereo mix cloned audio source and have everything go through the meters and your regular DAC or digital speakers. In order to do this you may have to hard disable the speaker on the unit as there will be a delay. And of course this doesnt fix the issue with the meters themselves being shit, it just gives you a way to enjoy them at all for their novelty.
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Mikiness
A 0. 25uF polarized capacitor on each of those metres inputs inside (with a variable resistor) would definitely reduce the response time of the needles, providing an overall output visual.
It would also prevent it from pegging so soon, but I doubt with the lack of quality and accuracy, I'm not sure if I would take the 30 minutes to do that.
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A 0. 25uF polarized capacitor on each of those metres inputs inside (with a variable resistor) would definitely reduce the response time of the needles, providing an overall output visual.
It would also prevent it from pegging so soon, but I doubt with the lack of quality and accuracy, I'm not sure if I would take the 30 minutes to do that.
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wildcardNS
The bracket fits because whatever supplier they got the parts through made this thing as a PCI card. They sourced other parts and threw it in a 5. 25 bay instead. They probably only include the bracket because it was cheaper to ship to customers than to deal with discarding it themselves. This is peak Thermaltake; peak 2000s computing.
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The bracket fits because whatever supplier they got the parts through made this thing as a PCI card. They sourced other parts and threw it in a 5. 25 bay instead. They probably only include the bracket because it was cheaper to ship to customers than to deal with discarding it themselves. This is peak Thermaltake; peak 2000s computing.
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Hazy
Secret, its actually a mono signal. thats why L db only shows an input signal at rest. R will only be used when the sound is being bussed out from the L. Its a fake stereo signal. Also, the one speaker is tied into the same mono bus. If an audio device claims to be stereo but only has one speaker. beware. hahaha. These were great times.
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Secret, its actually a mono signal. thats why L db only shows an input signal at rest. R will only be used when the sound is being bussed out from the L. Its a fake stereo signal. Also, the one speaker is tied into the same mono bus. If an audio device claims to be stereo but only has one speaker. beware. hahaha. These were great times.
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Traugott
0: 59 Isn't that the cigarette lighter, top row in the middle? And it says -expending your PC life-? EXPENDING? I mean, -expanding- wouldn't make much sense either, how should a cigarette lighter expand the life of your PC. But how on earth is -expending your PC life- supposed to be a selling point?
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0: 59 Isn't that the cigarette lighter, top row in the middle? And it says -expending your PC life-? EXPENDING? I mean, -expanding- wouldn't make much sense either, how should a cigarette lighter expand the life of your PC. But how on earth is -expending your PC life- supposed to be a selling point?
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mstary1
loving LGR, it has inspired to break out the old PC beige boxes in the garage roof. Mostly old Pentiums but identified a PII, Cyrix 6x86 and a unknown box yet with turbo button
and led numbers which might get a wood grain make over like the one on here. Cheer LGR, keep up the good work.
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loving LGR, it has inspired to break out the old PC beige boxes in the garage roof. Mostly old Pentiums but identified a PII, Cyrix 6x86 and a unknown box yet with turbo button
and led numbers which might get a wood grain make over like the one on here. Cheer LGR, keep up the good work.
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--GameHacKeR--
Good sign the speaker has a simple cable to remove, and you could buy one of those cheap spliter plugs to get you your port back on your sound card allowing you to keep the circlefire connected while using good speakers: D it'd also look better without on the flames on the front
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Good sign the speaker has a simple cable to remove, and you could buy one of those cheap spliter plugs to get you your port back on your sound card allowing you to keep the circlefire connected while using good speakers: D it'd also look better without on the flames on the front
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