Got my little junk tower mostly cleaned up. Almost set up just the way I want it.

It was a simple thing, definitely not thorough, though. I took out every single electric component from the case, every light, every button, every port, nothing left behind.

I then took it to the bathtub and just hosed everything down. There were a lot more dust bunnies than I thought there would be.

It did leave a little bit of dust just slightly layered over everything, though I will get it cleaned up properly at some point.

There's also a concerning amount of rust all over this thing. Looks like being kept in a basement for a few years isn't really the best thing. I've gotta figure out what to do about that soon.

Now I just gotta clean all the components. All the wires, all the plugs, all the drives are covered in dust. It's no big deal, I'm just putting it off out of laziness lol.

I did notice one of the front USB ports have been completely thrashed, the only thing left of it being the mangled contacts. Oh well, should be easy enough to find a replacement port and replace it.

There are a couple upgrades I've thought about putting into this machine. An obvious one would be an SSD. While mechanical hard drives are fun and nostalgic and all, I'll take speed and convenience over nostalgia.

I've also been thinking of putting in a SATA or IDE drive to SD Card adapter. While the machine can't boot from USB drives, it can still boot from other drives, so maybe I can start writing boot drives to SD cards instead of DVDs and CDs all the time. Might get one of those front panel ones as well, for extra convenience.

Speaking of DVDs, I've been thinking of swapping out the DVD drive for something a bit newer. It functions just fine, but it gives off this terrible grinding noise when it's really busy. I took it apart in hopes to figure out what was wrong with it, but it's mostly fine, with the exception of the motor that spins the disc. Sounds like some metal beads got loose in there. I might put in a blu-ray drive or something, if not another DVD drive.

I would also like to get a floppy drive into this thing. I know floppies are a thing of the past, and I did say I'd prefer modern convenience over retro nostalgia, I'd prefer to have the ability to read any media I need to. I do have some family photos stuck on some floppies lol. Not very future proof.

I will admit it is mostly just because I'm stubborn and refuse to move on from the past lol.

The machine doesn't really have a floppy connector on the motherboard though, so I might just get a USB one. Maybe I can put the thing in a regular floppy drive shell and just hook it up to one of the internal USB plugs lol.

I also need to get a graphics card for this thing. I do have one, and it works just fine, but it doesn't have functioning audio. It's not a big deal, none of my monitors have speakers anyway, and I can just get a cheap set of external speakers.

It doesn't really need audio anyway, the only practical use I have in mind for it is for an electronic workshop PC, maybe just a toy to mess around with every now and again.

Maybe I can get one of those magnifying cameras and use the machine for that, I dunno. Maybe I'm trying too hard to make it practical.