Hey guys, wow, i miss this place liking the new layout! havnt been on here for a month or so! OK, so heres my problem, or more a question of interest. Im buying this case: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134828 and it has an LCD display at the front that i believe is used to show the temp and fan options etc. I wondered if it was possible to somehow connect it to my pc so that i coudl display other things on it. music etc. or custom text. is that possible? i just was talking to a friend at seemed a possible thing, but i have no clue! Thanks alot. Ben
Can I be a bit cheeky and recommend you don't get that case? The 25cm fan on the side looks impressive, but actually the cooling performance of that case will be dire because the other fans in it are tiny.
You used to be able to get little LCD displays that plug into the COM port of your pc - you see a lot of plugins for WinAmp to get these to display track info etc... A quick search on google images found: http://www.mirrorbow.com/indexnocat.htm
I use a Pertelian X2040 for this purpose, works quite well. Not quite as convincing as the display on the Logitech keyboards, but if you don't want a massive keyboard, it's a nice flexible solution, plus you can write your own plugins if you're so inclined.
thank you all for the replies, however 1st off, i have sadly brought this case! and i wont be able to take it back! hopefully it will be ok, i have a fan and exhaust that i will be installing in it anyway. and second, i wasnt actually asking where to get an LCD, the case has a built in one, right at the front (as you can see on the picture, it is used to display temperatures and fan speeds etc.) i wanted to know if i could connect that to my actual pc to disply music etc, thanks alot. Ben
I own a case with an LCD panel in it used explicitly for showing the temperatures of probes you can stick around the case. It is a self-enclosed system, and has nothing to do with the OS, hence why it works even if your PC hasn't booted yet. The display on the front of that PC seems a glorified version of same, there is nothing on there that looks like it needs communication with the PC. The only way you could do this is if the display was USB powered (it probably won't be, it'll probably need a molex instead). That also probably isn't a full LCD panel, it may only be able to display what it displays now. Even if you get past all those hurdles, you'd need to rewrite the firmware yourself, build your own drivers, and so on and so forth. If you want an LCD display for showing music and such like, you need to mount a device that was built for that purpose into the case.
oh right, thanks alot, great answer btw, pretty much explained everything i needed to know! Thanks, Ben
